13/08/2024

Ezekiel's acceptance of the Word of God is total. He has a hunger to know that he is doing the "will of God" and consumes the scroll with delight. It is "as sweet as honey" even though it does contain "lamentations, wailings and moanings". The "Word of God" is always "Good News" especially when it reveals our ""secret" sinfulness. We cannot live lives targeted on holiness, the righteousness on Earth that is pleasing to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, without following the "road-map" that is revealed in the scriptures.

The Psalmist is also overcome by the joy that is his when he receives grace and recognises that he is secure in the Love that comes from God. He needs nothing more than to bathe in the delight that it is to be known by, and to know God.

Long after Ezekiel and the Psalmist, the Incarnate Word, the sweet delight known by both of them, walks in the Holy Land. He is "true man" amongst his fellows. He is the "only begotten" Son who has first, as do we all, lived known only to his mother and after the Nativity in the obscurity of Nazareth. He has come because the "Chosen People" have not lived up to the Love lavished on them by the Father.

I can see in my own life the same pattern of devotion followed by backsliding that is displayed by the chosen people in the Old Testament. This is displeasing to God. We know that God is far greater than any human emotion that may sway us. We have to bow before him but he has created us as responsible beings who can implement from within his creation the Loving Will that is the origin of the "Big Bang" that still reverberates throughout the Universe and he knows when his will is not followed.

The twelve named "New Chosen Ones" who are going to be called "Friends" by the Son of God have accepted God's call for what it is but are all too human and the "What's in it for me " of human self-hood has to continually be put down. 

Poor Judas fails completely,  it is the will of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that the our sins can only be washed away by the "Blood of the Lamb" but Peter and the others who were lost to sight of during the trial of Jesus were renewed by the Resurrection.

Today the worldliness of the disciples is evident. Jesus, our relationship with God is always about freedom of will, does not tell them point blank that before possible rank therein, we have to think about how to enter "The Kingdom".

The great irony of the Church founded on St Peter is that it is she that has become the model for all worldly institutions. She was the very first institution with a management structure and the original model of all "Mission Statements". 

Jesus, however, during his trial, stated that "My Kingdom is not of this world" and in today's Gospel tells us that to enter his Kingdom we have to become totally devoted to "Our Father" who is the Loving Mercy that can find and forgive all sinners, with the total devotion of a little child not with any managerial competence.

Dear Lord, you know all my sins and that I am as penitent as I have ever been. I know that I am a disappointment to my self when I sin, Let me become more aware of the actual pain you endured as you prepared for your" time" in the garden and carrying the cross. Clear out the rubbish from my memory and let me welcome the cleansing of my soul that comes with forgiveness. May my prayers join those of Mary and all the saints that all sinners can be open to the Loving Mercy that is the being of the Kingdom. Amen.