KNOWING THE LOVE OF GOD IN THE MORNING

SATURDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eccl 11:9-12:8; Ps 90:3-6,12-14,17; Lk 9:43-45

In the morning, let us know your Love

In today’s passage, the Preacher advises the youth to be mindful of God as they enjoy their youthful years. Knowing how difficult it is to think of God in our youthful years, the Preacher gives us this advice to save us from regrets and sorrows later in our advanced age. This advice is important and necessary because of the attractions of the youthful age. The strong desire to explore what life has in store for the human spirit, to experience everything that appeals to the senses, and to give free rein to budding emotions and sexuality. These are the words of Qoheleth. “Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days. Follow the promptings of your heart and the desires of your eyes. But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgment.” Hence, it is a gain to acquire wisdom from the very beginning, to help you order your steps away from sin and evil yoke which is not easily broken; or the imprisonment of natural delights and goods which chain the soul when illicitly or inordinately desired. As Proverb 9:10-11 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and understanding the knowledge of the Holy One, the advice of the Preacher is wholesome for the young. Having God in mind as early in our life as possible will make our life memorable. What we do in our youth will make our old age a blessed one or a sorrowful one.

It is wonderful advice to enjoy one’s youth, but with God always in our minds and hearts. If God is removed from the enjoyment of youth, no matter how wonderful we experienced the time, the vanity of it would hit us like a thunderbolt in old age. “Cast worry from your heart, shield your flesh from pain. Yet youth, the age of dark hair, is vanity. And remember your creator in the days of your youth, before evil days come and the years approach when you say, ‘These give me no pleasure’, before sun and light and moon and stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.” The days of old age are called evil here in the sense that they are days for paying back our excesses according to the right reason. The justice of God would demand from each of us to pay back what we owe the Master, through thoughts, words, and actions that did not give him glory. This is what our Lord himself informed us in Mt 12:36 when he said that we shall all give account for every empty word spoken. When we grow old, sinful habits we formed during our youthful days keep us restless and sleepless, which take their toll on the body. Old age is the time of judgment and repayment of what we owe God. If we have so much to pay back due to the life we have lived away from God, death becomes a dreaded moment and event. It is to overcome the difficulty of our last moment that we always ask Mary our mother to pray for us at the hour of death.

But if we have lived with heavenly wisdom and focused our attention on God during our years of youth, we will have nothing to pay back for we would have lived under the protective arms of the Lord. This is the pattern of life our Lord taught us as we see in the gospel. He lived his life with his passion always in view. He urged his disciples and all of us to do the same. “At a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: “The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men.”” Youthful days are a time of admiration of natural life the Lord has made, the Lord advises us to have his passion which he underwent for us in mind as we admire and enjoy life. As with his disciple, it would certainly not make much meaning then, but with time, as we advance in age, it will blossom into a full day in the mystery of Christ. The Christian life is a journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ. To live in the company of Jesus Christ and constantly meditate on his life, death, and resurrection is to walk in the full light of the eternal Dawn. In this eternal Morning, the Lord makes us know his love and keeps us rejoicing, even when the light of the natural day is fading, and darkness is descending on our senses. “In the morning, fill us with your love; we shall exult and rejoice all our days.”

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to habituate ourselves in your divine presence, that your divine favour may always be upon us, so that walking constantly with the light of your word, the works of our hands may be replete with success and blessed eternity ours in Christ.