AN ALTAR TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE   

Acts 17:15,22-18:1; Ps 148:1-2,11-14; Jn 16:12-15

Dwelling In God without Knowledge

The risen Lord is always with us without our knowledge. In fact, he is with all men and women of goodwill, even when they do not know him yet, as we have posited in the previous reflections. Indeed, he is with all human persons, for we are all made in the image of God. The image of God we bear is essentially the risen Lord, notwithstanding the disfigurement of that image by our sins. The image of God in each of us is the way or path that God built in us to lead us back to Himself, who is our God and the last End. According to our Lord Jesus Christ, no one comes to the Son unless the Father draws him. The desire of the Father to draw all men to the Son is already evident in the fact that He created us in the image of His Son. The choice of the first parents and subsequently our choices to live in sin, is our decision not to walk on the path leading us to God and communion with him. Hence, the neglect of our God-given rationality is our choice to stray from the path that leads us to God. Every sin we commit is a choice of a lower good in place of a nobler and more enriching good. Many morally good people were transformed by their consistent decision to turn away from what does not satisfy the soul of man, but only the flesh; they became better people by placing higher goods above lower goods and choosing them always, whenever they understood them to be better. This is how they became a person of goodwill.

Saint Paul noticed this quality among the Athenians. Walking round the city and among them, he felt their religious favour, which he expressed when speaking to the gathering of the Areopagus. “Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters, because I noticed, as I strolled round admiring your sacred monuments, that you had an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. Well, the God whom I proclaim is in fact the one whom you already worship without knowing it.” Saint Paul testifies here that the diligent thinking of the Athenians has led them to walk on the path to God without their knowing it. Our intelligence, following the order and harmony in the created order and goods, is able to understand and posit the existence of a Supreme Good or Being. As the Athenians did, many of us have an altar dedicated to the Unknown God. No one can offer true or proper sacrifice at this dedicated altar without encountering the Son of Man. The emptiness of the altar is the way God draws us to Jesus Christ. All have this altar dedicated, but nonfunctional within them, except for those willing to follow the Son of Man, our faithful High Priest, to enter and worship at this altar. The Father sent his Son in our human flesh to bring us to worship knowingly and personally at the heavenly altar. The resurrection of our Lord proves he has entered communion with God on our behalf.

The Son of Man opened a living way or path through his humanity to guide us through the spiritual path to God the Father. Through his life, death, and resurrection, the altar to An Unknown God is now the altar to our personal God and Father. The Son of Man has revealed the Father to us, the knowledge of whom he received in his humanity. Thus, we hear him say: “I still have many things to say to you, but they would be too much for you now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come.” The willingness of the Father to see us walking the path leading back to his communion is expressed most in the Incarnation of the Son, but again, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, after he had renewed the path through the Incarnation of his Son. The Holy Spirit gives us new (spiritual) life, enabling us to walk the spiritual path; he also accompanies us personally along the path, feeding us with the bread of heaven until we come to the Father. This is what the Lord means. “He will glorify me, since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine.” So, the humanity of Jesus Christ is not only the way, but also the altar of truth, and the banquet of life. Let us therefore praise the Lord with the Psalmist. “Let them praise the name of the Lord for he alone is exalted. The splendour of his name reaches beyond heaven and earth.”

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, O Lord, that, as we celebrate in mystery the solemnities of your Son’s Resurrection, so, too, we may be worthy to rejoice at his coming with all the Saints. 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.