KNOWLEDGE OF GOD'S HOLY WILL


WEDNESDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Ezra 9:5-9; Tob 13:2,4,6-8; Lk 9:1-6

Preaching the Will of God

It is difficult to understand or comprehend God's plan and his work within and without. God is the mystery of holiness, for only he understands what holiness entails. Thus, the divine will defines what is holy. Everything he created proclaims his holiness knowingly or unknowingly. Our wretched selves, in our sinfulness, would still proclaim the holiness of God. Since sin is our disobedience to the will of God, the punishment that follows our sins proclaims the holiness of God to us. Thus, in our pain and isolation from the holy communion of God and creation, doing his will, we realise how sinful we have acted by going against his will and are thereby compelled to confess his justice and holiness of his will. The situations and conditions that bring us into harmony with the whole of creation in proclamation of God’s holiness outline the path of our redemption and adoption into God’s household or family. A refusal to accept our wretchedness and confess our sins is a refusal to proclaim the holiness of God. Job ventured that path and was overwhelmed by the revelation of God’s almighty power and infinite knowledge. He repented and confessed his foolhardiness in attempting to assert his own righteousness before God, intending to impute injustice to God’s will.  

The priest, Ezra, describes the overwhelming feeling of shame when he discovered that his people’s sins against God were the cause of their enslavement and pitiable state. “At the evening sacrifice I, Ezra, came out of my stupor and failing on my knees, with my garment and cloak torn, I stretched out my hands to the Lord my God, and said: ‘My God, I am ashamed, I blush to lift my face to you, my God. For our crimes have increased, until they are higher than our heads, and our sin has piled up to heaven.’” It was by the mercy and grace of God that he was enabled to understand the immensity of their sins and to repent and confess them. Our wretchedness is such that we cannot know our sin unless God reveals it to us. God reveals our sins to us, that we may repent and confess them. Ezra, the high priest, acknowledged the sins of the people of Israel and made a confession to God, asking for God’s forgiveness, while thanking him for the restoration granted to the remnant of the people of Israel. He acknowledged God’s act of kindness in making the kings of Persia rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem. God punishes us in order to bring us back to life in communion with him. His mercy is eternal as the Psalmist proclaims. “God punishes, he also has mercy, he leads men to the depths of the grave, he restores men from the great destruction. No man can escape his hand.”

By the same word with which he chastises us, he also heals us. The Word of God became one of us that he may redeem us from our sins and evil. He redeems and sends us out to proclaim the salvation of God to all. The sacrifice with which he redeemed us, he also shares with us as he sends us to proclaim the salvation of God. We share his mission with him through the Holy Spirit. “Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” The Holy Spirit he shares with us is for the accomplishment of the holy will of God. Listening and following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we become one with God and exercise his authority. Hence, within the mission to proclaim salvation is also the purification of the preachers, that we may more and more truly proclaim the will of the Father in words and deeds. It is the journey into the mystery of Jesus, who alone knows the Father and reveals him to us. It is what is symbolically given in the rebuilding of the Temple of God in Jerusalem and its rededication to the worship of God. God is rebuilding each of us into his temple, where we will offer him acceptable sacrifices. We pray for the grace to be docile in his hand.

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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