SEEKING THE ULTIMATE GOOD


MONDAY, FOURTENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME

Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22; Ps 145:2-9; Mt 9:18-26

Our Rediscovery of God

As human beings, we are born with an innate desire for God, which ought to mature with time. In creating the material universe, God fashioned everything he made to be the means of our rising to our ultimate Good, who is God. He created everything good. The goodness of each creature is a share in the ultimate goodness of God. The same way our wills rise to the Supreme Good from desiring and using the limited or proportionate goods of creatures, our intellects also rise from the knowledge of creatures to the knowledge of the Eternal Truth that is God. As we noted yesterday, these two faculties are spiritual in their intent and operations. The evil one used the created good to lure man’s mind and heart away from seeking God. The inordinate desire for creatures causes sin within us. To win the hearts of men back to the end for which they were created, God decided to present himself in a visible form to men and women. Beholding the infinite compassion and love of God visibly displayed for us, we are attracted to believe in the God we cannot see with our senses. The ability to penetrate the visible presentations to the divine presence is a gift from God to the humble, meek, and lowly. These possess the revelation of God in the mysteries of faith. The Son of Man praised the Father in yesterday’s Gospel for revealing these mysteries to mere children.

We must always pray for the grace to see God in the mysteries we celebrate, so that we may have communion with Him. To bring us to seek him in spirit and truth, the Father sometimes causes the external or created goods to fail us. God promises to do this in the prophecy of Hosea. “I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart. There she will respond to me as she did when she was young, as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.” When the comfort and consolation of material or limited goods fail us, the emptiness that our souls feel forces us to turn to God in prayer. The experience of our emptiness and nothingness humbles our souls, prompting us to seek God. Since he is the cause of our troubles, God will reveal himself when we seek him. The rediscovery of God’s faithful love helps us to entrust our whole being to him as our only hope and salvation. This discovery starts our souls on a journey of betrothal to the Eternal Word of God. “When that day comes—it is the Lord who speaks—she will call me, ‘My husband’, no longer will she call me, ‘My Baal.’ I will betroth you to myself forever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love.” This process is what God commenced objectively in the Incarnation of the Son.

In sending His Only Begotten Son as Man, God has invited each of us to an intimate and spiritual communion. His appearance and proclamation of the Gospel among us is a revelation of God’s infinite love and compassion for us, his sinful creatures. The readiness of the Son of God to attend to our every need is seen in the Gospel. To the official who lost a daughter, the Son of Man was willing to restore the little girl to life. The woman suffering from a haemorrhage for twelve years received healing graces from the Lord. He consoled her when she was healed. “Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, ‘Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health.’ And from that moment the woman was well again.” We learn from both episodes that no one is turned away who has faith in God and waits patiently for him. Because faith is a gift from God to us, the expression of it already implies that God is beckoning us to come to him. If we believe, then God has revealed himself to us. The Son of Man blessed and praised his Father for revealing the mystery of his presence and grace to us. We join with the psalmist to praise God’s infinite goodness. “I will bless you day after day and praise your name forever. The Lord is great, highly to be praised, his greatness cannot be measured.”

Let us pray: O God, who in the abasement of your Son have raised up a fallen world, fill your faithful with holy joy, for on those you have rescued from slavery to sin you bestow eternal gladness. 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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