THE SAVING PRESENCE

SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE, DOCTOR

Col 1:1-8; Ps 52:10-11; Lk 4:38-44

Recognising the Presence of the Word

There is a very important background for our safe travel through time or our temporal existence. God created us and placed us in a universe of material things that he created from nothing, but by his eternal Word. The background that is supposed to inform our interaction with the created universe is the fact that they are created. The existence and operations of everything in the universe point to this fact, for each is ordered to the common good or a purpose beyond it. The elementary knowledge is a sign or indicator of the presence of the Creator within the universe. But our self-preoccupation distorts our perception and interaction with the universe of God. The preoccupation with self and the difficulty of detachment from self are consequences of original sin. Through his subtle temptation, the evil one deceived our first parents to use self to block the free entrance of God into our minds and hearts. A desire to be like God without God is to plant our ego in the place of God. Since this was done in obedience to the evil one, the self is subordinated to him. When we remove our ego from the centre, we discover that the universe is on a course defined by the word of God, which is different from our selfish desires.

Peter and the other apostles discovered this truth in a new way as they followed the Son of Man about. Everything serves the will of the Father and obeys his word. The fever troubling Peter’s mother-in-law was dismissed, so that she may attend to the presence of Jesus Christ. “Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to do something for her. Learning over her he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to wait on them.” All the problems we suffer in life have one root cause, which is our lack of attention to the word of God. The universe is designed to bring us to this attention, which we have understood as the necessary condition to invest our present life, and the path to eternal life. When this attention is lacking, our souls become fertile ground for the seed of evil and sin. The Lord permits all manner of trials, difficulties, sickness, and pains to bring us to this desired attention. We see this in the Gospel. “At sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hands on each, he cured them. Devils too came out of many people, howling, ‘You are the Son of God.’ But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.” The demons knew he was the Christ, that is, the Anointed One, which is the meaning of the ‘Son of God’ here. They do not know his Godhead, for that is hidden from them.

The demons were not revealing anything extraordinary, but the knowledge any reasonable person obtains by paying attention to the word of God and its operations in the universe. By observing the effect of the life and words of the Son of Man, they easily understood the presence of the word of God in him. We can have this knowledge by paying attention to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Paul lauded the Colossians for giving their attention to the Gospel preached to them by Epaphras. “We have never failed to remember you in our prayers and to give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all the saints because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven.” Pope Saint Gregory was a man who truly understood the providential care and presence of God in the Church and in the universe, and he designated himself as ‘servant of the servants of God.’ He was born into an aristocratic family in Rome, where he grew and served as the Prefect of the City of Rome. He founded a monastery there and others in Sicily. He became a monk. He was ordained a deacon and sent to Constantinople as an envoy. He was elected Pope on 3 September 590. He reformed the Church’s estates and devoted the surplus to the poor and prisoners. He struggled to maintain the Church’s stability as the Roman Empire was declining. He wrote extensively on pastoral care, spirituality, and morals. May his prayers assist us to attend Christ’s presence with us.

Let us pray: O God, who care for your people with gentleness and rule them in love, through the intercession of Pope Saint Gregory, endow, we pray, with a spirit of wisdom those to whom you have given authority to govern, that the flourishing of a holy flock may become the eternal joy of the shepherds. 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.