Tuesday of 34th week in course
November 25, 2008
The Word of God today is grim to anyone who doesn’t believe in the providence of God. To understand what the Lord is saying to us, here, today, we have to remind ourselves of God’s intention for us. That’s particularly important because Revelations talks here about “the wrath of God.”
God made us for Himself, not because He needs us, but because His love is infinite. It’s like a huge waterfall in flood season, overflowing the Trinitarian essence into creation. He wants us to be with Him forever, full of divine life, totally happy. But from the beginning we have rebelled against that loving plan. Over and over we chose our own will instead of His, and so His wrath–which is the other side of His love–has operated in us. We can’t expect to reject His love and His will without some consequence. We lash out against the One who cannot change and our hatred and fear bounce off and hit us. We refuse to see our weakness and need. We keep injuring ourselves. They are personal hurts and injuries to our community. God doesn’t have to punish us; we do it to ourselves through our prideful refusal to do His will.
In the fullness of time He made one more perfect woman, and Mary said “yes” to God perfectly. She acknowledged her weakness, and He filled it with Himself. She, and her Son, Jesus, became the models of perfect, loving obedience. Now we, too, baptized into Christ, are challenged to acknowledge our weakness and wretchedness. When we do, God turns on the firehose of His divine grace. We experience it and are filled with it when we come here and hear the word of God and receive the Word of God in the sacrament of Love.
This empowers us to do the works of Christ, because we are filled with the Spirit of Christ. This enables us to get to the position where we want what God wants more than anything else. That is the secret to holiness, and to living as a real family–serving others and giving thanks every moment for the gift of God, His divine Son.
