OUR UNWORTHINES TO HOUSE GOD

SATURDAY, TWELVETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Lamentations 2:2,10-14,18-19; Ps 74:1-7,20-21; Mt 8:5-17

Expression of Faith in Desolation

Many souls think they are free to choose or not to choose God. Such an understanding of freedom or choice is really deceptive. When we think deeply about our situation as creatures of God, we will understand that there is really no real choice for each one of us. The evil one, the father of lies, deceives us by making us believe that there is a choice to be made. The only real choice is our decision to do God's will. The other option is to die. Many venture into darkness and death because they are deceived, like Adam and Eve, into believing that disobedience to God’s word is an alternative path. If it is a path, it leads to nowhere, for death is a cessation to partake in life. God is our life and our truth; to abandon God for any other creature is to know death. The knowledge or experience of death is horrible for a soul made to contain God. It is to lose the essence of our souls. Those who set their hearts on creatures commence their knowledge of death here on earth, when the objects of their love start failing, as they would of necessity fail. When we put our life and hearts on creatures: wealth, riches, fame, power, etc., they will gradually fade away as they are meant to fade; only the will of God lasts, and those who live to do the will of God endure forever with the will of God.

As we have previously reflected, the children of Israel entered the Promised Land of Canaan and became distracted by the material affluence that comes with a stable life and occupation. They lost their focus on God and on the demands of His communion with them. This caused them not to enter the eternal rest of God. Since our lives and what we possess are stabilised only by our faith in God and experience of His divine presence, their seemingly stable life and occupation fell apart when God’s presence and glory receded from them. They knew death when God, who is life, receded from the communion. Lamentations are about their experience of the awakening of death following the false choices they made. “The Lord has pitilessly destroyed all the homes of Jacob; in his displeasure, he has shattered the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has thrown to the ground, he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers.” The destruction and death that followed the recession of God’s presence and glory are attributed to God because His presence is the foundation and stability of these external realities. We heard the words of our Lord through the week on this: that hearing and doing his words is the building of our lives on a solid rock, which forestalls our destruction and death in times of gales, storms, and floods.  

When we fall under the dominion of darkness and death due to our choices away from the will of God, we must never despair, but turn from our evil ways and to God who is infinitely merciful. He has authority over life and death, for both awake at His command. The Incarnation of His Son is a definite entrance of God into our nature. His divine presence remains in our land and within our nature for those who believe and live by His words. The centurion, who came to Jesus at Capernaum, believed and reaped a harvest of life from his presence. “The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this.” God is pleased when we express faith in his presence and in his word. We must never allow the evil one to deceive us into thinking we have options or alternatives to living and doing the will of the Father. If we believe, we will never see death. “Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death, and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.”

Let us pray: Grant, O Lord, that we may always revere and love your holy name, for you never deprive of your guidance those you set firm on the foundation of your love. 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.