FAITH REVEALS HIDDEN THINGS


 SATURDAY, FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gen 49:29-33, 50:15-26; Ps 105:1-4,6-7; Mt 10:24-33

The Revelation of what is Hidden

The chief of the hidden things is God, the Trinity of divine Persons. The mystery of God is the main object of our act of faith, which is our cooperation with the sacred gift of faith. The immediate object of our act of faith is the Son of Man. We believe that he is the Son of God in human nature; through him, we believe in the Father, whom he reveals to us. Our acceptance of these truths enkindles the flame of love for the Son and the Father, which is indicative of the presence of the Person of the Holy Spirit within us. The Trinity is the chief mystery of our faith in God, and the source of every other mystery hidden from human knowledge. Faith supports us during our journey here on earth because it penetrates the cloud of divine mysteries through the light which the word of God sheds on our spirits. The word of God achieves this because the word is spirit and life. The word of God communicates life and light to our spirits, which came to be through our profession of faith in the word. Because the realities the word communicates to us are spiritually present but not concretely realised, God also gives us hope to help us live meaningfully the temporal life, while looking forward to the full manifestation of what the word of God has already called into existence spiritually.

These theological gifts are foundational and essential to our spiritual life. Because they are supernatural gifts, they go beyond our mortal life. The capacity of these theological virtues to extend to supernatural realities and hinge our lives on them explains the indomitable strength of the sheep against the wolves of hell. These theological virtues are the support of the words of Jacob and Joseph as they gave up their mortal lives. “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me near my fathers, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave in the field at Machpelah, opposite Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial-plot.” We see the same hope in Joseph as he died. “‘I am about to die; but God will be sure to remember you kindly and take you back from this country to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ And Joseph made Israel’s sons swear an oath, ‘When God remembers you with kindness, be sure to take my bones from here.’” Jacob and Joseph expressed hope in God to fulfil his word to Abraham. Other men did not see the realities but the faith of Abraham and his children in the word of God, and their hope in the power of God to give existence by his word, made the realities spiritually present.

God did not promise material blessings alone to Abraham, but mainly spiritual blessings. The chief of these spiritual blessings is the inheritance of God. The fulfilment of the main blessing had already commenced by the word of God that Abraham received. Because the word of God is God, Abraham already received God in his word as the sacrament of the reality that would be concrete at the incarnation of the Word of God. The spiritual and final fulfilment will be when all the faithful enter the mystery of God through his Word, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The fulfilment commenced through faith in Jesus Christ and our spiritual journey into his mysteries. The Son of Man is leading us into the complete spiritual mysteries of God. “Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.” What God revealed to faith is what we hear in the dark, and what the Holy Spirit inspires in us is what God whispered to us. To proclaim in the daylight is to let faith guide every activity of our senses in daily living. To proclaim from the housetop is to let the Holy Spirit inspire our words and teachings. The practice of these injunctions gives us the wisdom of the serpent and the innocence of doves.

Let us pray: O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. 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. Amen. 

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