OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION SHOW FAITH


MONDAY, ELEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

2 Cor 6:1-10; Ps 98:1-4; Mt 5:38-42

Our Faith Shines in Obedience and Submission

Our reflection throughout the week will deepen our meditation on the Trinity, the three Persons of the Godhead. Since our original fall has weakened our natural capacity to know God in creation and through the events of our daily lives, our profession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Only Begotten Son of God in our human nature furnishes us a spiritual faculty and adequate grace to see God and discern his holy will in our daily lives. The Church asks for the grace for us to form a habit of following the will of the Father in all things. The needed grace comes to us through following the unction of the Holy Spirit, as he reveals the will of the Father in the daily course of our lives. Jesus Christ makes the grace abundant as part of the spiritual nutrients we receive from eating our daily bread, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, and the reality of his real presence with us. So, if we realise the real presence of the Lord with us through the Holy Spirit, we have the grace to follow the will of the Father that the Son reveals.

The challenge is to be in the Holy Spirit and live in communion with him. Since he shows us the Lamb of God at the right hand of the Father, we stay with him when we keep our focus on the mysteries of the Son of Man. Saint Paul considers the role of the Christian preachers as working with the Holy Spirit to help people keep their gaze on the Son of Man. “As his fellow workers, we beg you once again not to neglect the grace of God that you have received. For he says: At the favourable time, I have listened to you; on the day of salvation, I came to your help. Well, now is the favourable time; this is the day of salvation.” The grace of God for our salvation is available at every moment, in every situation in which we find ourselves. God is present, and his grace is superabundant for our salvation. If this is not evident to us, it is because we are using a different interpretative framework to understand the events and situations of our lives. We are to use the interpretative framework of the Holy Spirit and his coworkers, the real Christian preachers. Paul witnesses using the spiritual framework of interpretation coming from the Lamb of God in his own life and preaching. “We do nothing that people might object to, so as not to bring discredit on our function as God’s servants. Instead, we prove we are servants of God by great fortitude in times of suffering: in times of hardship and distress; when we are flogged, or sent to prison, or mobbed; labouring, sleepless, starving.”

We must note that the Holy Spirit furnishes this framework of spiritual interpretation, and all who are his coworkers or witnesses of the Gospel of the Lamb of God demonstrate it for us. So, what proves to us that they are true witnesses of the Gospel of the Lamb are not only the trials but also their blameless and pure life, which indicates the presence of the Holy Spirit. “We prove we are God’s servants by our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness; by a spirit of holiness, by a love free from affectation; by the word of truth and by the power of God; by being armed with the weapons of righteousness in the right and in the left, prepared for honour or disgrace, for blame or praise.” We understood our spiritual life as Jesus Christ living in each of us based on the interpretative framework. We can sustain the life of Jesus we now live as Christians only through the help of the Holy Spirit. The Lord’s sermon on the mount contains this practical lesson. “You have learnt how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if a man takes you to law and would have your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” The Lamb of God lays out the pattern of his life on earth for us so that we may walk the path and enter into the glory of the Father, which is his inheritance. The Spirit and the grace to walk this path are made superabundant by his real presence with us always.

Let us pray: O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you, mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord 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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