THE MYSTERY OF GOD OUR FATHER

SUNDAY, NINTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Kings 19:9,11-13; Ps 85:9-14; Rom 9:1-5; Mt 14:22-33

Our Consciousness of the Father

We hold the revelation of God as our Father as the very core and centre of the whole Gospel revelation from Jesus Christ as our Saviour. This is in total harmony with the divine identity of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. We believe and confess the fact that the Son of God took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man for our salvation. His purpose in becoming man and dwelling among us is to reveal the will of the Father to us; for the knowledge of the Father’s will is our salvation. At the same time, the salvation of man lies in believing in the identity and life of the Son of Man, who is the Son of God, but now dwelling in human nature. Hence, we say that the mysteries of Christ are the mysteries of our salvation. The two are not different, but have the same contents. The knowledge of the Father is the Son of God; as we confess in our Creed that he is God from God and Light from Light. The same Son of God took flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and became man for our salvation. Subsequently, the revelation of the Son of God as the Son of Man is the revelation of God the Father and the Father as our Father also. Our Lord presented this truth to the apostles when he said to Philip in Jn 14:9, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” This, indeed, is the core of the mysteries of Jesus Christ.

So, everything Jesus said and did reveals God, and Him as our Father. This mystery was not revealed before Jesus Christ because: Firstly, only the Son can really reveal God as the Father. Secondly, human nature would not be able to receive such a deep revelation without a new beginning in spirit, for the Father is the Father of spirits. So, without receiving a new spiritual life, man could not receive the revelation of God as Father. Though it is true that every aspect of God’s revelation to the people of Israel, as foreshadowing the Church of Jesus Christ, has the imprint of God’s fatherly compassion and love, it is never overtly expressed. They experienced various terrifying events and afflictions because they sinned against God, but God’s compassion and love were never absent in these events. The experience of Prophet Elijah on Horeb illustrates this for us. He experienced various destructive forces that preceded the coming of God in a gentle wind. “There came a mighty wind, so strong it tore the mountains and shattered the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there came the sound of a gentle breeze. And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” At the sound of the gentle and refreshing breeze, Elijah dared to go out to meet God, who comes with so much gentility.

The cause of our blindness to such a fatherly God is our sins and refusal to repent. By our refusal to repent from our sins, we open the gate or door to the justice of God alone. We invite the retribution of God when we lack remorse for our many offences against God. Without acknowledgement and repentance from sins committed against God, His love and compassion cannot come into us. This is what kept Israel, as the people of God, from enjoying the forgiveness of sins and redemption amply provided by the Incarnation of the Son of God. Saint Paul speaks harrowingly of this and the pains this situation causes him. “What I want to say now is no pretence; I say it in union with Christ—it is the truth—my conscience in union with the Holy Spirit assures me of it too. What I want to say is this: my sorrow is so great, my mental anguish so endless, I would willingly be condemned and be cut off from Christ if it could help my brothers of Israel, my own flesh and blood.” Paul’s experience of God’s infinite love and mercy drove him to utter those words. They are rather expressions of astonishment and pain at the blindness of Israel to God’s fatherly love and providence.

His anguish and what he expressed paint him perfectly in the image and likeness of the Son of God. The same pain and uneasiness made the Son of God abandon his divine state and take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to save his brothers and sisters. Paul sings of this wonder of love in Philippians 2:6-8. So, it is the same Spirit that animated the Son of God to become the Son of Man that animated Saint Paul to wish to suffer for his own brothers and sisters in the passage. As Man, the Lord Jesus Christ cared and provided for his brothers and sisters, thereby revealing to them the fatherly care and providence of God. The Gospel passage gives a snapshot of his divine powers and how he puts that to the service of his brothers and sisters. “Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he would send the crowds away. After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, while the boat, by now far out on the lake, was battling with a heavy sea, for there was a head-wind. In the fourth watch of the night he went towards them, walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified. ‘It is a ghost’ they said, and cried out in fear.” This demonstration of his power over natural forces proved his divinity to the apostles; for they said: “Truly, you are the Son of God.” The Son of God made his divinity available for our salvation. His work for our salvation reveals God as our Father.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. 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.