THE FATHER'S GIFT OF SPIRITUAL LIFE


MONDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

 1 Pet 1:3-9; Ps 111:1-2,5-6,9-10; Mk 10:17-27

The Father gave us a New Birth by raising Christ

The first reading this week is drawn from the first letter of St. Peter. He commenced with a profound thanksgiving to the Father for giving us a spiritual birth by raising Jesus Christ from death. Hence, Peter presented the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ as the principle of our new spiritual birth. We affirm the truth of this position based on the fact that the death of Jesus Christ brought the process of atonement of the sins of humanity to a successful end. With the sacrifice for the atonement of our sins completed, the resurrection marked the conferment of divine life on our human nature. Though the assumption of our human nature by the Eternal Word of God initiated this, the merit was yet to reach us, who share in human nature but are still under the bondage of sin and death. In other words, God could not confer his life on slaves to sin. The Eternal Son of God came in our human nature to purchase us back or set us free from demonic bondage to be able to receive what the Father was ready to offer to us. The Father gives the new spiritual birth to those who believe in Jesus Christ. “Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of time.”

The gift of divine life that only the Father can give to humanity was what the young man in the gospel desired from our Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him, and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The young man had a unique character, for he knew where to find the answer to the question that was bothering his mind. The fact that the question of eternal life was bothering his mind was another indication of his natural endowments. Another indicator of his uniqueness is the fact that his desire for eternal life was not just on mere questions or theoretical level; he had done a lot to arrange his life to inherit eternal life, for he answered Jesus’ suggestion to him to go keep the commandments: “Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.” This answer endeared him to the Lord, who now looked steadily at him to discover his capacity for spiritual perfection and nudged him to go for it. “There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The young man had done everything well on the human level. What is needed was for him to do the only thing necessary to receive the gift that the Father had already given to him in Jesus Christ; that is, to believe in Jesus Christ as the eternal life from the Father. 

Our Lord used the opportunity of his departure due to lack of faith to explain that man cannot merit eternal life by his effort; he must receive it as a gift. No one can merit eternal or spiritual life by his effort as a slave. The Son must set us free before we are admitted into the eternal life of God. “In that case’ they said to one another, ‘who can be saved?’ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’” Apart from faith in Jesus Christ which is necessary for the reception of the new spiritual birth, we must also persevere in our hope for the final realisation of what God has promised us, for which the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us is the guarantee. Our transformation from slavery to freedom of children of God takes a process of purification which is ordered and guided by God himself. It is the process of following Jesus Christ to relive his mysteries in ourselves. It is the same instruction Jesus gave the young man in the gospel that he gave to Peter; he is now giving us. If we are sure of the end to which our faith is leading us, then let us sell everything we own and give to the poor and follow Jesus Christ in faith. St. Augustine of Canterbury did that to achieve the evangelisation of Britain.   

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to understand the inestimable worth of the new life you have given us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ your Son, that we may abandon everything of less value in order to secure it for eternity.

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