by Fr N. Vilakati
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For the umpteenth time, may we please “Look to the Heavens”
One of the greatest tragedies of our times, knowingly and unknowingly has been playing a God. Do we actually confess this? Yes or no? Well the answer is always in the palm of our hands. We have become so pre-occupied with our earthly gains, and sometimes of our intellectual abilities. We tend to focus at the me, as the end product of all, and putting the real God aside. We become masters of our destinies and cast aside the idea of God. Probably it is time we stepped into the black night. We do self-emptiness, the kenosis so we could find out who we are, and that we cannot be God. For the God that we have is only One, and He is in Heaven. Probably this would be a great time we give Him all the praise He deserves. The One who mesmerises us by the hum of whirling galaxies, and the orderliness of the universe, surely He deserves His place of honour.
This being the fourteenth Sunday in ordinary time, indeed we need the words of our Lord; “Blessed are you, Father, Lord, of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom”. What could be these mysteries? What is in the mind and heart of God? We cannot find this anywhere than when Jesus thanks the Father in heaven for revealing to us, His followers the wisdom and knowledge of God. Jesus’ prayer tell us about God and our relationship with Him. First, it tells us that God is both Father and Lord of the earth as well as heaven. He is both the creator and author of all that he has made, the first origin of everything. His authority, wisdom, and gracious care extends to every living thing, and His boundless love and goodness is directed to the welfare of each person made in His image and likeness. He is the source of all human life. That is why all fatherhood and motherhood are ultimately derived from him.
As we gaze upon the heavens this Sunday, may we realise that the greatest wisdom we could accumulate, is to know that pride is the root of sin. Jesus’ today’s shows us that the “wisdom of the world” is intellectual pride, coldness of heart, and stubbornness of will to shut out God and His wise rule and fatherly care for our personal lives. Pride is the root of all vice and evil and the strongest influence propelling us to sin against God and to do wrong to our neighbour. Sinful pride first vanquishes the heart, making it cold and indifferent towards God. Pride keeps us from the love and knowledge of God. It makes us ignorant and blind to the wisdom of God by closing the mind to God’s truth and wisdom for our lives. Simplicity and lowliness of heart is the point of departure, for in it we can grow in wisdom and maturity by willing to be taught and formed in how to live wisely and to distinguish between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
Hence also today we are called to know God personally, for He is a Father who reveals Himself to little ones. Jesus identified Himself as person reaching out to those in the peripheries. And so it would be wise as we gaze upon heaven, not to look further away but through the person of Jesus who is the perfect revelation of God because He has been with the Father before all creation and time existed. Through Jesus we have access to God the Father, for He and the Father are united in an inseparable bond of love and unity. In our informed wisdom today, let not Jesus lament again like He did when He saw Corazon, Bethsaida , Tire and Sidon who were stubborn despite that Jesus had done good things to those very villagers. They continued , with their apostacy, although the Lord had revealed His good upon them. Humility seem to have deserted them; thus Wisdom was of no trace to them.
May we embrace the sweet yoke of Jesus. This yoke is a great image of the greatest expression of our submission to God. His yoke is easy and well-fitting so to live the heavenly way of life and happiness. It is a burden that is so light for it has everlasting happiness. It frees us from sin and guilt, liberating us from the burden of guilt and from the oppression of sinful habits and hurtful desires. It makes us express well what St Paul in the second reading says: “We are in the Spirit, of the one who raised Christ from the dead”. We can rise from our spiritual death by focusing on Him only, without any distraction, whatsoever. We can rejoice heartily to Him, in a meek and humble way like Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It was a sign of humbleness, riding a donkey, but spiritually so uplifted for simplicity raises us to the highest honour. May we unequivocal shout out loud, as the Psalm of today calls us: “I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God”. We do so for we have made a conscious decision, we are gazing to God as we “Look to the heavens”.
Amen.