KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST FOR COMMUNION

SUNDAY, TWENTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Isa 22:19-23; Ps 138:1-3,6,8; Rom 11:33-36; Mt 16:13-20

Our United Desire for the Communion

The Church’s opening prayer for today’s Eucharistic celebration is a plea to God to grant us the desire for communion with him, which he has promised us. This is important because the desire for the life of God enables us to obey his commandments; as we noted previously in our reflections, knowledge and obedience to the Commandments of God introduce us to communion with God. Knowledge of the Commandments and our obedience to them conform our lives here on earth to the divine life. The Commandments are God’s self-revelation to us, his creatures. They constitute an invitation and open door for everyone to enter the communion of the Triune God. So, the revelation of the Commandments to Israel placed them on a pedestal higher than all the Gentile nations. Saint Paul lamented this privilege Israel received from God, but wasted, in the readings of two Sundays ago. The reason for their oversight was simply a lack of desire for the divine communion that God invited them through the revelation of the Law and the Prophets. Our Lord underscored this lack of interest and their subsequent rejection in his parable of the wedding banquet.

Because the Israelites lacked the necessary desire, they overlooked the presence of Jesus Christ, the awaited Messiah, who came to establish the eternal communion in the ratification of our covenant with God. It follows, therefore, that the most essential thing for us to enter into eternal communion is a strong desire to be with God. The possession of this desire, which is the gift the Church prays for today, opens us to receive the knowledge of God’s Commandments and subsequently, Jesus Christ, the true knowledge of the Father. We must commence by ridding ourselves of our desire for creatures. The love and desire for creatures impede our desire to be with God, as illustrated in our Lord’s parable on the marriage banquet. Those who were invited excused themselves due to their various personal engagements with creatures. The same reason disqualified Shebna, the master of the palace in the first reading from Isaiah. “I dismiss you from your office, I remove you from your post, and the same day I call on my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I invest him with your robe, gird him with your sash, entrust him with your authority; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.” The fault of Shebna is that he ran the palace for his own gains, not for God, to fulfil his holy will for the people of Judah. The House of Judah belongs to God, not Shebna’s personal possession. Hence, desiring his own and not God’s benefits made him unfit for the position.

Similarly, we must understand that our lives are divine projects entrusted to us. We do not belong to ourselves, but to God. As we have noted previously, our mortal lives are invitations to divine communion and not to live as we desire. God, who gave us our mortal life as an invitation to eternal communion with him, does not leave us in the dark as to the way to eternal life and communion; he reveals his will at every juncture of our life’s journey. If we are awake and desirous of attending the eternal banquet, his messengers are situated at every junction to direct us on our way. The book of Proverbs 9:1-3 reveals that wisdom calls out at every junction and high place, directing all to the banquet of life. Saint Paul reveals the wisdom to be God’s divine plan of salvation for all who believe. “How rich are the depths of God—how deep his wisdom and knowledge—and how impossible to penetrate his motives or understand his methods! Who could ever know the mind of the Lord? Who could ever be his counsellor? Who could ever give him anything or lend him anything? All that exists comes from him; all is by him and for him.” If everything we have is from him, then we must live to give him glory and praise.

To come to this knowledge is to have found the Eternal Wisdom, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is the Eternal Word, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is the knowledge of the Father that assumed our human nature to reveal the Father to us. To know him, therefore, is to have found the way to eternal communion with the Triune God. In fact, the communion starts with our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Thus, to ensure that his disciples have the right knowledge and proper desire to walk his way and live his life, he put the question of his identity to them. “‘But you, he said, ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said, ‘the Son of the living God.’” Divine revelation comes to those who seek knowledge and understanding. Peter always desired to see the Messiah. So, when his brother Andrew informed him that he had encountered the Messiah, he was eager to meet Christ. We must seek, ask, and knock as the Lord urged us to do, to find, receive, and have the door of heavenly life and communion opened to us. The Father's willingness to grant our worthy desires is guaranteed by the Son’s coming in our nature. The knowledge of Jesus Christ is not only the way; it is the truth and eternal life. All who desire the knowledge of Christ are built into the kingdom of heaven. The psalmist sings of God’s faithfulness: “I thank you for your faithfulness and love, which excel all we ever knew of you. On the day I called, you answered; you increased the strength of my soul.”

Let us pray: O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found. 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.