BIRTH AND DEATH BEYOND OUR CONTROL

FRIDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eccles 3:1-11; Ps 144:1-4; Lk 9:18-22

Knowing the Christ of God

We have a very short time to live on earth. But the shortness of our mortal life is not the original plan of God but a consequence of the original fall of our first parents and our sins. The Scriptures testify that death is a consequence of sin. God made us to be like him; to share his communion in eternity. God's original intention for us was not abrogated but is now a matter of choice. Our temporal life is a time given to us to choose to be with God and work for its realisation with the grace he provides for us in Jesus Christ. Though death is a consequence of our sins, God offers us eternal life in his Son, Jesus Christ. The grace to understand the opportunity our mortal life offers us and use it is not a common grace from God. The difficulty surrounding our coming to wisdom and salvation is not God’s doing, but due to the multiplication of sins and darkness. Both in creation and in the Church of Jesus Christ, God has laid out structures to guide us to salvation in Jesus Christ. These structures are not evident to a sensual and sinful person.

The whole creation calls us to order and regularity and not to disorganised living. Yesterday, the Preacher noted the cyclic, orderly way creatures come and go. He underscores the lesson we must draw from order in creation. “There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.” The two are the same and key to a higher wisdom that regularity and order offer. Observance of regularity is the first stage of wisdom, which leads to knowledge of creatures and their natures. The different natures of creatures and their operations offer us a pedestal for a deeper understanding and wisdom. If there is a time for planting and a time for uprooting what has been planted, as we decide in the case of the works of our hands, then who decides the time for our birth and death that is outside our determination? There must be a higher being who plants and uproots us according to his will and determination. Such a one decides our reward or gain in life, as Qohelet concluded. “What does man gain for the efforts that he makes? I contemplate the task that God gives mankind to labour at. All that he does is apt for its time.” If there is time for all our works, there is also time for divine work with us and in us.

Subsequently, to know that we are God’s vineyard, that he planted us for a purpose, makes us seek to know how to please him in all we do. If we do all our work for our good purpose known to us, God must have planted us for a good purpose, which we must know and cooperate with him to achieve. Therefore, the Psalmist praises God’s providence over us. “Lord, what is man that you care for him, mortal man, that you keep him in mind; man, who is merely a breath whose life fades like a passing shadow?” God, in his goodness, has not kept his divine will hidden from us, but has revealed it clearly in Christ. Hence, Our Lord directed the question of his identity to his disciples to ensure they understand the gift God has given them in his Son. “‘Who do the crowds say I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; others Elijah; and others say one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ It was Peter who spoke up. ‘The Christ of God’ he said.” Knowledge of Jesus Christ is central to our understanding of the whole creation and the seemingly chaotic processes of men’s lives and activities. He gives us clarity on the reason for our birth and death, the reward or gain for all of our engagements here on earth. What does Christ of God mean to us? May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our mind, so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.

Let us pray: O God, who founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbour, grant that, by keeping your precepts, we may merit to attain eternal life. 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.