GOD'S GIFT OF SPIRITUAL ATTENTION

SUNDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Sirach 3:19-21,30-31; Ps 68; Heb 12:18-19,22-24; Lk 14:1,7-14

Minding God’s Plant in Us

God gives us everything that is of value, for from him comes everything we possess, our mortal life not excluded. The mortal life we received from God is the greatest gift and potential we have within the material creation, for it is the very possibility of every other thing we become or possess. Thus, it is the greatest responsibility of each of us to understand our mortal life and how to utilise it for the greatest profit. We need God to achieve these two objectives necessary for attaining the purpose of life. The purpose of life is to attain the life of God or eternal life. The first and important lesson we must learn is to grasp and internalise the fact that this life is limited and short. This lesson seems obvious and easy because nature makes it evident to us each day as we observe the death of many lives. But it is not as easy and within our reach as it seems, for we need the grace of God to grasp it fully. Thus, Psalm 90 prays to God to teach us how short our lives are, so that we may gain wisdom. If we cannot grasp this simple and commonplace lesson nature teaches every day, is it the meaning of life or its purpose we can grasp unaided? The truth is that we cannot understand life, nor the purpose or meaning, without the grace of God. A simple reflection on life and its mysteries ought to bring us to our knees before the Creator of all things.

The absence of this reflection in us keeps us haughty and distracted from travelling the path of truth and life. The ignorance of the meaning of life causes the seed of death to sprout in our souls. Sirach captures this: “There is no cure for the proud man’s malady, since an evil growth has taken root in him.” Through ignorance of what life is essentially, the evil one plants death, which is his presence in a soul. But when we pay attention to the mysteries of life, nature points us in the right direction to enduring life. Our life on earth is a parable, which the sensible reflect to acquire wisdom. “The heart of a sensible man will reflect on parables; an attentive ear is the sage’s dream.” Nature teaches many things to the observant, for it is the operation of the eternal Word received in each thing. In this sense, the scriptures hold that each thing of nature contains the seed of life and no death, for the existence and operation of each thing is governed by the word of God. Nature teaches us humility, for each thing of nature operates in such a way as to point to the creator of all things and not to itself. For what each offers us is received from the Creator, and they serve his purpose in their operations and death. Their actions are in accord with the advice of Sirach to us. “My son, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver. The greater you are, the more you should behave humbly, and then you will find favour with the Lord; for great though the power of the Lord is, he accepts the homage of the humble.” He accepts the humble because his life is planted in them.

The word of God is planted in the humble through their daily reflection on the parable of life. With open minds, we understand the meaning of life and receive the implantation of everlasting life when we observe and listen to nature. Unlike the scribes and Pharisees, who observed the Son of Man with closed minds and bias. “On a sabbath day Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees, and they watched him closely.” Given their attention, he taught them the lesson they could not learned from nature because of their self-absorption and lack of attention, in a parable. “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. A more distinguished person than you may have been invited, and the person who invited you both may come and say, ‘Give up your place to this man.’ And then, to your embarrassment, you would have to go and take the lowest place.” Our mortal life is an invitation to the wedding feast of the Son of Man. How are we living our mortal life? Are we aware of the invitation and the One inviting us?

We cannot make the wedding feast through any means within our possession. The One who invites us will also bring us to the wedding feast if we are ready to attend to him and trade our present life for the everlasting one. The author of Hebrews writes about the spiritual attention that defines our journey to God. “What you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven.” We come to the heavenly Jerusalem by an inner attention to the Word of God, who is our way, truth, and life. By paying spiritual attention to him, we come to God. The spiritual attention is the gift we receive with faith in the word of God, with which we attend to God. “You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s.” God invites us to the festival by the gift of mortal life, gives us the means or vehicle to attend by the gift of faith and the spirit by which we attend, not by travelling, but by attention. “The just shall rejoice at the presence of God, they shall exult and dance for joy.” Let us make every effort to be numbered among the wedding attendants by safeguarding the plant of God within us.

Let us pray: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. 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.