WINNING THE BATTLE OF LIFE

 

MONDAY, THIRTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Apo 1:1-4,2:1-5; Ps 1:1-4,6; Lk 18:35-43

Winning the Victory in the Battle of Life

St. John the Evangelist’s vision recorded in the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse is of things that are yet to happen. He said this in the introduction. “This is the revelation given by God to Jesus Christ so that he could tell his servants about the things which are now to take place very soon.” As an apocalyptic vision, the things seen and heard are about future events but not of a specific time, for they are of the general time frame. The particular time frame is understood and explained in the general time frame. Thus, the visions are true for every specific time in the future. The revelations are from God the Father, for he is the origin of all things. His divine will governs all events: past, present, and future. The Father gave them to Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who redeemed the world by his assumption of human nature, life, death, and resurrection; by sacrificing his life, he has received the rulership of the heavens and the earth. The Father, who granted him the kingship of all his creation, reveals and runs everything through him. We who are called through the Gospel and made the profession of faith in his name receive the knowledge of the will of the Father through him. The revelations have meaning for each of us in our individual lives. They are of the general time frame but applicable to each person’s life and time frame.

The Father directs everything that happens in our lives by his holy will. Whatever the Father has given and permitted passes through the hands of Jesus Christ to reach us, his servants and members. We must understand the authority of God in events of our lives to worship and praise him fittingly. “Happy the man who reads this prophecy, and happy those who listen to him, if they treasure all that it says because the Time is close.” This ahistorical ‘Time’ is close to every person who hears or reads the prophecy in a specific time and explains the events therein. The messages John received from the Lord for the seven churches of Asia are for all the believers in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ, who worship God in truth and the spirit. The message comes from the One who holds the seven stars in his right hand and lives surrounded by the seven golden lamp stands. These images indicate the righteous or virtuous One, who has mastery of the seven capital virtues by his sinless life as man, and the truthful One, who received the fullness of the revelation of divine truth and the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit. By these qualifications, he rules all creation and has the authority to judge our individual lives. Since he lives among the seven golden lampstands, which symbolise the seven churches on which the fire of the Gospel burns through the Holy Spirit within us and in the Church, he knows our deepest part through the same Holy Spirit. “I know all about you: how hard you work and how much you put up with.”

So, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, lives within and with each of us and in the Church. As the word of God, he searches every one of our depths, reaching where the soul and spirit are divided, joints and marrow, to judge the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. By this incisive and penetrating gaze, the Lord saw the need of the blind Bartimaeus, who sat begging by the side of the road as the Lord was about to enter Jericho. He understood the personal battle the poor blind beggar was fighting and the opposition against him on his way to the sight he desired. He judged when to answer his call and grant his petition. “So he called out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.’ The people in front scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he shouted all the louder, ‘Son of David, have pity on me.’ Jesus stopped and ordered them to bring the man to him.” Armed with the revelation and the knowledge that Jesus lives with us, we must make every attempt to be aware of his presence and live with him by discerning his will for us. The Psalmist calls those who can do this happy. “Happy indeed is the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked; nor lingers in the way of sinners nor sits in the company of scorners, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who ponders his law day and night.” We grow in his love each day as we continue our meditation and contemplation of his truth; it is the path to victory in our battle of life.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to grow accustomed to your ever abiding presence, that we may learn to consecrate our daily thoughts, words, and actions to the Father’s holy will you reveal to us daily through your word and Spirit.