GATHERING WITHOUT GOD


FRIDAY, SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gen 11:1-9; Ps 33:10-15; Mk 8:34-9:1

God as the Only Goal of Man

The sacred author proceeds next to the cause of many languages, cultures, and peoples. The reason he presents to us is in accord with the intention of God for making man, namely, to be in perpetual communion with God. The project God started in the Garden of Eden but was truncated by man’s disobedience to divine will. We chose to exercise the free will God gave us by choosing to walk the path of knowledge of good and evil. But, as we have seen, our freedom is not absolute; we are not to do whatever we want but to freely choose to do the will of God. Thus, the basis for our continuing freedom of will is to continually choose, without reservation, the absolute freedom we call God. We can exercise our freedom only in the company of God and communion with him. Anything outside of this is to enter the path of slavery to evil, darkness, and death. Every good that comes to us is from God, and only in union with him, we rightly conceive the good that is adequate to us and bring it to fruition in our lives. As we mentioned yesterday, this is the purpose of the covenants God establishes with us.

Given this background, we understand why God stopped the project of men to build a tower that would reach heaven. The success of a self-conceived project would bluster our arrogant wills and cause us to wander farther away from God. For the good and salvation of men, God stopped it by confusing their language. “‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do.  Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.’" The single language and communion among men are desirable things we must achieve in God. Without God, the forces of darkness hijack these good things and use them to lead us deeper into slavery and darkness. Hence, God caused their language and communication to fail. “The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town.” The Psalmist praises the purposes of the Lord, which must stand for our good and salvation. “He frustrates the designs of the nations, he defeats the plans of the peoples. His own designs shall stand for ever, the plans of his heart from age to age.” We are to make all our plans prayerfully in union with God so that he may bless and bring them to fruition.

The Son of man teaches us how to live and please the Father in our life of pilgrimage on earth. He calls us to dedicate our whole life to doing the will of God as the only path leading to our eternal happiness and communion with God. Since the Son embodies the Father’s will in his humanity, We must focus on him daily. We must individually and collectively model our lives on him. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Since God is the life of man, obedience to his will makes for our flourishing, and to walk away from the divine will is eternal misery and death for man. There is no material gain or good, communal or social, that is preferable to our doing the will of God. Away from God, every good loses its value and purpose, for they are all made to serve his divine purpose. Thus, our Lord asks: “What gain, then, is it for a man to win the whole world and ruin his life? And indeed what can a man offer in exchange for his life?” The goal of communing with Jesus Christ must be the standard with which we judge the value of every endeavour. He gave us the Holy Spirit to foster this communion.

Let us pray: O God, teach us to understand the noble goal of our existence here on earth, to dwell with you forever, that we may model our desires and life on Jesus Christ our Lord, and be fashioned by your grace into a dwelling pleasing to you. Through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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