GOD'S LIGHT IN US


MONDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Ezra 1:1-6; Ps 126; Lk 8:16-18

Moving with Inspiration from God

Among various things that can motivate us to action, love ranks the highest. The beloved lives in the lover and moves him by the strong chains of love. Based on this, God commanded us to love him with all our minds, hearts, and wills. We easily accomplish onerous tasks for the sake of love. But we cannot love what or whom we do not know, and to the extent we know someone, to that extent we love him or her. Similarly, our love for God is measured by our knowledge of him. God sends his word to us that we may know him and subsequently love him. Without encountering the word of God, we cannot love him or accomplish his will. So, the appearance of the Eternal Word of God among us as a man demonstrates God’s desire to call us back to himself from our straying path. By coming into our human nature, God has lit a fire of love among us. The fire is to enlighten us and to inflame our hearts with love for God. By the life and activities of the Son of Man on earth, we come to encounter and know God. Considering the greatness of God, his almighty power, no one is exempt from receiving the Gospel message and embracing it as the only way to eternal life, which is in God.

The same revelation of God to Cyrus, the king of Persia, set him on his feet to carry out God’s command. His eagerness to obey the command of God was not born of love, but of fear of the awesome name and deeds of God. His knowledge was an imperfect knowledge of God, but it was enough to drive him to carry out God’s bidding. The knowledge, though imperfect, was a spirit in him, making him realise the plan of God for his people. “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord that was spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom: ‘Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah.”’” God, in his infinite power, can command and compel anyone to do anything he wills at any time. But such a manner of moving is not proper to rational natures. God created rational beings in his image and wants them to be like him, moving themselves to achieve the will of God for them. Slaves are moved by fear by their masters, but God created us not to be slaves, but his children, who are moved by love to serve and worship him. Thus, God lit a fire of love for us in the humanity of his Son, and not a fire of fear.

God commanded and compelled Cyrus, the king of Persia, to build him a temple in Jerusalem. But he calls us in love, through his only Begotten Son, to build him a temple in our hearts. God wants to live in our hearts as a loving Father, and not as a fearsome God. Our Lord speaks about the fire of love God lit in our hearts through his Son’s incarnation. “No one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or to put it under a bed. No, he puts it on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.” God has lit the fire of love within us through the life, passion, and death of his Son, Jesus Christ. By that fire of love, he summons us to build a temple for him within us and without. By letting the fire of love, the Holy Spirit, which he has given us, direct our lives and activities, we will make other hearts be on fire with the love of God. The fire burns secretly in us, but its heat and illumination must be felt everywhere by people. We must yield to the promptings of the Holy Spirit for all to hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. We should let what we hear inspire us and define our lives, so that what we hear may not be our condemnation. “So take care how you hear; for anyone who has will be given more; from anyone who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.”

Let us pray: O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbour, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. 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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