GROWING IN THE MYSTERIES OF CHRIST

WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

1 Pet 1:18-25; Ps 145:12-15,19-20; Mk 10:32-45

The new birth from the eternal word of God

The first reading has another aspect of the greatness of our Christian life. The fact that we were ransomed from slavery to sin and evil by the precious Blood of the Lamb of God. The Lamb was the great promise that God made to the patriarchs long ago, but now revealed for our redemption and salvation. “Who, though known since before the world was made, has been revealed only in our time, the end of the ages, for your sake.” The Lamb was known before the world was made. By this, we are to understand that the Lamb, as known by God, has his existence in the Godhead, and was revealed to the angels even before the world was made. We also understand from this statement that God’s wonderful plan for man was never an afterthought but from eternity. In the Godhead, the Eternal Word is known to have assumed human nature, for what God knows is eternal in existence but made physically manifest in due time when the appointed time came. The appointed time is the privileged time of revelation of grace for the salvation of all who believe in the word of God. What makes our time a privileged time is that we have witnessed the revelation of the Lamb and his blood that has ransomed us from our bondage to evil and sin. We are called to believe and live out this truth now physically manifest to us.

We receive a new spiritual birth by believing the revealed truth; and living obediently in harmony with the Holy Spirit who nurses this new life in us, we attain the glory of the children of God. Since the cause of a thing’s generation is also the cause of its growth and development, the word of God which is the seed of our spiritual life, must also be used to grow and develop the spiritual life we have received. St. Peter states this truth as follows: “You have been obedient to the truth and purified your souls until you can love like brothers, in sincerity;” that is, listening and doing the word of God has purified us and caused our growth in spiritual life. That the word of God is the cause of our new birth he affirmed in these words: “Your new birth was not from any mortal seed but from the everlasting word of the living and eternal God.” Our new birth and growth in spiritual life is part of the divine plan for us before time began.

The part we are to play in the wonderful plan of God is to believe in God and in the One He sent for our salvation. Because we do not pay sufficient attention to the word of God, we pray wrongly and suffer undue anxiety about what the Father had planned before the world came to be for us. We see this lack of attention to the word of God in the gospel where Jesus was revealing his impending passion and death to his disciples, but they were not paying attention. Subsequently, two of his apostles, the sons of Zebedee, made a wrong prayer. “They said to him, ‘Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus said to them.” Indeed, they did not know what they were asking for they were not paying attention to the word of God. We must daily pay attention to the word of God that reveals the mystery of Jesus Christ so that we may understand and duly prepare ourselves for the journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. This is the meaning of our baptism and what it symbolised. “Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I must drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I must be baptised you shall be baptised, but as for seats at my right hand and left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those whom they have been allotted.’” The glory to be revealed is beyond our imagination, it will be known only when we come to the Father in heaven.  

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to eat of your word and Sacrament daily, that we may live out the mystery of rebirth here on earth and come to the fullness of its glory in heaven.