THE DEAD WILL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON

Wednesday, Fourth week of Lent/2024

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke,OP

Theme: The Dead will hear the Voice of the Son of Man

Jesus Christ is our Day of Salvation and our favourable time. As John the Evangelist wrote, God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son for the salvation of the world. The enormity of God's love in sending his Son to us is difficult for humans to believe. The love and humility of the Eternal Word in assuming human nature is also very embarrassing for human nature to comprehend. The incarnation of the Son of God is the declaration of the day of salvation for all people as Isaiah prophesied. It is the day God extended his divine help to those in prison and abandoned. “I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ On every roadway they will graze, and each bare height shall be their pasture.” The coming of the Son of God in human flesh is so powerful a revelation of God that pushed darkness away. The ignorant and those enslaved in sin and darkness will be freed from their chains and walk in the newness of life as they understand the will of God for them. They shall walk in broad daylight and pasture on bare heights due to the illumination that the humanity of Jesus will bring to bear on every human condition and suffering. To believe in the incarnation of the Son of God is to break into light of the knowledge of God’s love for us. 

Though this love of God is everywhere manifest throughout salvation history, the coming of the Son in human flesh has shed a powerful light on the will of God governing all things. The light shone on the human condition is so powerful that those who felt abandoned and far removed from God’s plan have understood God’s loving will for them. Thus, Jerusalem or Zion is now made present everywhere by God’s extended covenant with all people. “I have formed you and appointed you as a covenant of the people.” This outburst of God’s infinite love in the incarnation of his Son has trivialized the choice of Israel and Jerusalem as the Temple of God. This consolation and love of God given to all people constitute a difficulty for the Jews as given in the gospel. “Jesus said to the Jews, ‘My Father goes on working, and so do I.’ But that only made them even more intent on killing him, because, not content with breaking the sabbath, he spoke of God as his own Father, and so made himself God’s equal.” Like the Jews who listened to the Lord with discomfort and disbelief, we rarely believe the words of Jesus Christ. We do not outrightly reject and quarrel with what he said, but we do nothing with his words. We do not let his words light up our lives and thoughts by thinking through the implications of the Gospel for our lives and situations. Our minds must eat of his words, our hearts set on fire with what we have eaten and digested, and our will set resolute on doing what we have understood and come to love. This is the only way to love God with all our mind, heart, and strength. Then, we will work in communion with the Father and the Son.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to believe and eat of your word, that we may enter into the fullness of the joy of salvation.    

 

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