THE MYSTERY OF GOD PRESENCE

SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Gen 18: 1-10; Ps 15:2-5; Col 1:24-28; Lk 10:38-42

Remaining with Jesus Christ

God is presence, and everyone who worships him must enter the presence that God is and offers to us. We understand creation as God’s offer of existence to creatures. By creation, he brings things into existence and sustains them in being. By the same creative word, he offers us the opportunity to enter his presence and share his life. Abraham is a good example of one who received the word of God and entered into the presence of God by believing the word. By following the word of God to leave his family and familiar environment, God created a new environment, outlook, and vision for him. All the promises made to Abraham were contained in the word God spoke to him. They were present to his eyes of faith, waiting for the proper time for their manifestation in his life and lineage. The new reality God created for Abraham is a God centred reality. Abraham’s faith made his world and life revolve around God, who separated him from his familiar people and engagements, to dedicate him to his divine plan for humanity. God is almighty and the absorbing reality; to be in relationship with God is to be consecrated. God himself is the sacrifice or consecration to himself and all his creatures. By sacrifice, here we mean dedicated, true, and unchanging. What God gave Abraham in his word as a promise finds its fulfilment in the incarnation of the Word. Jesus Christ is the mystery of God’s presence as a gift to us.

The understanding underscored above formed the background for the story of Abraham and the angels he received as visitors. Abraham’s attentiveness to God’s presence and divine will prompted his reception of the angels. For one who has built all his life expectations and dreams on the word of God is eager not to fail or sin against God. “The Lord appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near the ground.” The promptitude to perceive the closeness of divine presence is the fruit of friendship with the word of God. He developed a sixth sense for the presence of God by constant meditation and contemplation of the truth of the word of God he received. If Abraham was able to develop such a spiritual awareness and attentiveness to the word of God, we should be able to achieve it through the gift of the Son of Man. The word of God is not just spoken to us, but is now visible to us in our nature. Abraham entertained God through entertaining visitors; we are now able to receive God as our brother living among us. The mystery that God committed to Abraham in a hidden form, he has now revealed as the Son of Man. Paul understood himself to be the servant of the same mystery as Abraham. “I became the servant of the Church when God made me responsible for delivering God’s message to you, the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his saints."

The mystery is the same then and now; given to Abraham in figures, but now given to God’s people in the Sacrament of the Son of Man. “The mystery is Christ among you, your hope of glory: this is the Christ we proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone and instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ.” If Jesus Christ is the hope of glory, then we ought to make our whole life revolve around him and towards him. We must get ourselves so acquainted with Christ that we see him in everybody and all things. He is the Sacrament of God’s presence and communication of his life to us. As Abraham sacrificed himself to realise the will of God, so we must sacrifice ourselves for Christ to be present to all as the knowledge of God’s blessings to all peoples and nations.

The Gospel tells us of the reception of Jesus Christ in the house of Mary and Martha. They both received the Lord, but in different ways. Martha received the Lord into their home by attending to his physical needs. Mary, on the other hand, received the Lord by opening her heart to his words. Since the manner of Mary’s reception is more in keeping with the purpose of the incarnation of the Word, the Lord praised her above Martha. “Jesus came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself?’” The Lord enlightened Martha on what is necessary in our relationship with God; it is to listen and open our hearts to the word of God. Meditation and contemplation of the word of God should come first and lead us to activity; we must never abandon contemplation of the word of God for activity. The former is the beginning of the heavenly life here on earth.

Let us pray: Show favour, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands. 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.