AWARENESS OF HEAVENLY MYSTERIES


FRIDAY, TWENTY SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

1 Cor 4:1-5; Ps 37:3-6,27-28,39-40; Lk 5:33-39

Stewards of Divine Mysteries

The devil succeeds in perpetrating his scam on us because of our lack of attention to the word of God. We also continue to live in sin and self-delusion for the same reason. We break free from the spell of evil and sin, built on self-delusion, when we come to self-awareness. So, we have stated that the spiritual journey commences with introspection in the light of God’s word. Peter’s encounter with Jesus Christ in yesterday’s Gospel demonstrates this for us. At the instance of the miraculous catch of fish, he realised God’s presence with them. We recall that the miracle was preceded by Christ’s proclamation of the word of God to the people. The miracle of the catch of fish confirmed the word that he heard from Jesus Christ. He fell at the feet of Jesus, confessing his sinfulness. We cannot presume that this experience was exclusively Peter’s; others must have felt the same, for they left everything and followed him. An encounter with God that will make us keep his presence with us or become aware of our sinfulness and unworthiness for his communion is necessary to initiate our interior walk with God. This awareness would grow as we progress into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. It will also decline if we lose the awareness of the divine.

The conversion experience makes us keepers of the divine mysteries, for it grants us access to God’s presence, where there is fullness of redemption or joy, according to Ps 16:11. In this sense, Saint Paul calls Christians stewards of divine mysteries. “People must think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God. What is expected of stewards is that each one should be found worthy of his trust.” The Father’s love for us caused him to entrust us with the heavenly mysteries in Jesus Christ; for the Son of Man is the embodiment of our heavenly treasures and blessings. If we understand the depth of these mysteries or the blessings, we will never divert our minds and hearts from Jesus Christ. A pity our mortal minds and hearts cannot completely comprehend the heavenly or spiritual riches in Christ Jesus. The evil one knows how we are prone to external things; therefore, he attacks us with distractions from creatures, using our sinful selves as his main object of distraction. So, Paul makes it a point of duty to present himself to God in conscience constantly. “Not that it makes the slightest difference to me whether you, or indeed any human tribunal, find me worthy or not. True, my conscience does not reproach me at all, but that does not prove that I am acquitted: the Lord alone is my judge.” If we live constantly in his presence, we will not be afraid of his judgement on the last day.

As stewards of divine mysteries in Jesus Christ, we must live in accordance with the mysteries God has entrusted to us. The fasting of the Pharisees and the scribes on one hand, and that of the disciples of John, on the other, is faulted in relation to the presence of the Son of Man. The fast of the Pharisees originates from their rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. The fast of the disciples of John the Baptist missed the mark because they were not attentive to John’s testimony to the Son of Man. Those who were attentive, like Andrew and Philip, followed Jesus Christ and would not let him out of their sight. None of us can please God without attending to the Son of Man. Our Lord’s response to the question asked by the Pharisees and scribes about the conduct of his disciples to fast confirms this. “Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come, the time for the bridegroom to be taken away from them; that will be the time when they will fast.” The time the bridegroom is taken away from us is when we let the evil one lure us away from the presence of Jesus Christ; we stop attending to the mysteries of our faith in pursuit of passing amusements and pleasures of this world. We must fast and pray on this realisation to break the hold of sin and evil on us. “Then turn away from evil and do good and you shall have a home for ever.”

Let us pray: God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, you may nurture in us what is good and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. 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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