WE ARE INTENT ON PLEASING THE LORD


SUNDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Ezek 17:22-24; Ps 92:2-3,13-16; 2 Cor 5:6-10; Mk 3:20-35

Exiled or at Home, we are intent on pleasing the Lord

Just as God promised through the prophet Ezekiel to plant a shoot on the high mountain of Israel which he will make grow into a big and noble ceder. “From the top of the cedar, from the highest branch, I will take a shoot and plant it myself on a very high mountain. I will plant it on the high mountain of Israel.” From which cedar is the shoot coming? If we are to correlate this prophecy with the one of the shoot of Jesse of Isaiah the prophet, then we will arrive at the cedar that God himself caused to grow in the house of Jesse, from which he plugged a shoot which is the humanity of our Lord Jesus. The promise to plant it on the high mountain of Israel then translates to the Law and the Prophet which form the high mountain of Israel as a place of God's self-revelation. Just as a high mountain offers a privileged position to see clearly and understand far-distant things, the same way the Law and the Prophets offer a privileged locus to understand the revelation of God and his will for us men. Thus, the humanity of Jesus Christ is plugged from the root or stock of Jesse and is planted on the high mountain of the Law and the Prophets to offer us God's complete self-communication and revelation suited for man's salvation. It is a noble cedar because it contains the revelation of God and, therefore, the heavenly nourishment that we need to be saved. “Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every winged creature rest in the shade of its branches.”

This is the home our human nature aspires to, where we will live in communion with God our Father and Creator. The foundation of this eternal and glorious home was laid in the giving of the Law and the Prophet, for these formed the foundation on which the Incarnation of the Eternal Word was established. The faithfulness of Abraham and the patriarchs all through David to the word of God was the growth of the first cedar, from which God plugged a shoot he planted on the high mountain of Israel. St. Paul confirms the identity of the aforesaid mystical cedar planted by God on the high mountain of Israel. We all long to fly to this high mountain of Israel, the mystical cedar that God has planted, which would be our eternal home. If all the birds are to live beneath this mystical cedar forever, then we must understand the mystical nature of the mountain and the cedar. The birds mentioned here represent souls who desire their fulfilment in God; hence, by the wings of their desire can fly to the high mountain of Israel and to the cedar that God has planted to be our eternal home. Of this desire which forms our wings with which to fly, St. Paul writes: “We are always full of confidence when we remember that to live in the body means to be exiled from the Lord, going as we do by faith and not by sight—we are full of confidence, I say, and actually want to be exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord.” The wings are spiritual because desires are spiritual.

They are to carry us to the mystical mountain of Israel and to the mystical cedar which is our eternal home because the desire is born of God and not for anything created. Though the wings are grown here on earth, the cause of their growth is not earthly or material. Those whose desires are caused and nurtured by earthly or temporary goods are earthbound and unable to fly to the mystical mountain of Israel. They will not be able to make their home beneath the mystical cedar. They are birds of the night who are not able to come to the mystical mountain because there is no night on the mystical mountain. It is of this mystical mountain and cedar that our Lord teaches when he talks about the kingdom of God. In the first parable, he reveals and confirms the prophecy of Ezekiel on God being the one who planted the cedar and caused its growth and maturity. In the second parable, he explains how the desire for the mystical mountain of Israel and the mystical cedar grows in faithful souls where it is planted. “It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.”

Because the high mountain of Israel and the luxurious cedar are mystical realities, the desire for them in a soul and their reality are the same. Thus, St. Paul affirms there is no difference whether we are at home or exiled from the Lord. “Whether we are living in the body or exiled from it, we are intent on pleasing him.” Our love for the Lord, whether realised in beatific vision or existing now in desire, must guide all our thoughts, words, and actions. This is the only way to live with him and in him.  

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to grow the wings of our desire by constant meditation on your word and contemplation of the mysteries of our Lord, that we may be enabled to live in constant communion with the Lord on the holy mountain and be pleasing to him in all things. 

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