THE SON OF MAN HAS NOWHERE TO LAY HIS HEAD


MONDAY, THIRTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gen 18: 16-33; Ps 103:1-4,8-11; Mt 8:18-22

Sheltering the Word through Faith

The building of the Church of God belongs to the Blessed Trinity, for the Church is the Church of God, who is the Trinity of Persons. The Father is the One who proposes the foundation of the Church within each of us and among us by sending or revealing His Word to us, collectively and individually. We saw this in the passage of the Gospel we read yesterday. When Saint Peter answered the question Jesus Christ asked about his identity, the Lord informed him that the Father revealed it to him. Now, the word of God is not received without the Holy Spirit, for the word is spirit and life. That we receive the Holy Spirit alongside the word is shown by the correct confession of faith by Peter. As Saint Paul asserted, no one can say Jesus Christ is Lord without the Holy Spirit. The reception of the word of God commences a new spiritual life in us, which is by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual life is the word of God or Jesus Christ within us. Our confession of the word as our own, in words and deeds, demonstrates a new foundation for the indwelling of God within and among us. The declaration of Jesus Christ to build on this rock or foundation proves our conviction in this regard. The declaration is true for Peter and for all who receive and confess the word of God in faith.

The understanding above grounds the interaction between God and Abraham about Sodom in today’s passage. Abraham believed and kept the word of God; God was already building him into the house of God ipso facto. Thus, the Spirit directed him by instinct to receive and entertain the angels of God. The action in conformity with the mind of God confirmed the promise God made to him about a son to inherit him. God interacted with him both interiorly and through the angels, as the passage reveals. God revealed the mission of the angels to Abraham through interior interaction with him. “Now the Lord had wondered, ‘Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do, seeing that Abraham will become a great nation with all the nations of the earth blessing themselves by him? For I have singled him out to command his sons and his household after him to maintain the way of the Lord by just and upright living. In this way, the Lord will carry out for Abraham what he has promised him.’” The purpose of God for making us to be a dwelling place for himself is for the establishment of the interior interaction between God, the Trinity, and man. God reveals his will to us who contain or house his word. We interactively receive the will of God and communicate it to others. The will of God is the blessing that the nations are to receive through Abraham. The reference is ultimately to the Eternal Word that would come through his family.

The interior interaction between God and Abraham illustrates the vocation of each faithful and all the faithful as the Church and the house of God. Our faith enables us to receive God's will interactively every day. In other words, Jesus Christ visits us daily to reinforce his life in us and communicate it to others through us. The Lord builds his Church in us through this frequent visitation and interaction. “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.” Our understanding underscores the spiritual meaning of the Eucharist. The Eucharistic celebration is our gathering to interactively understand the will of God, for us and others, as he reveals it to us through the events of the day. We are attentive to the Eucharistic celebration as the master key that unlocks every one of our experiences, giving us to understand the will of the Father for us. The absence of this attention to the coming of the Lord is the cause of his complaint in the Gospel. “One of the scribes then came up and said to him, ‘Master, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’” The Son of Man dwells in each heart that is ready to receive the will of the Father communicated daily to us through the events he wills and permits in our lives. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his Godhead due our unbelief. Let us use the Eucharistic mystery and celebration as a framework to understand the will of God for us daily.

Let us pray: O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. 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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