20/08/2024

Our possessors of great wealth, our manipulators of matter and of natural biology,  our advocates of fornication are all condemned today in the first readings and we too for we are also beneficiaries of wealth, science and birth control even though we are not promulgators of the same.

We have to face up to the fact that IAMIAM in the first two readings of today's mass reveals himself to be Justice untempered by Mercy. Those who become swollen with pride. Those who have no time for God. Those who attribute their success in this World to themselves. Those who treat their positions in this world as their own divine-right, all the slaves of Mammon are  univocally condemned by God, speaking through the mouth of his Prophet Ezekiel.

The responsorial taken from Deuteronomy also reveals the seriousness with which we should listen to God's revelation of himself for we also know that God does not change even though there is a difference in emphasis in the words of his prophets.

"But I say to you". I hear this short sentence every time that Jesus clarifies himself as the final  word of God's revelation of himself, IAMIAMFatherSonHolySpirit speaks as the one God and tells us that we do not have to go away sad as did the rich young man.

Today I enjoy a standard of living that is higher than those enjoyed by the rich of previous eras. The poor are still with us but there are billions of us who although not rich can meet all our own material needs and still have a surplus that we can share with the poor. I do not have perfect health but I am not crippled by disease.  I am, however, aware that I am far from the moral perfection that has to be the following of Christ.

Jesus, the incarnate Word, lives to reveal in his life on Earth the perfection image/example of how to become in this world the being that we have been created to be; how to do God's will on earth. 

Even the rich, however, are given a chance to make it through the eye of the needle for Calvary has given a superabundance of Mercy to the whole world. Our Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always seeking us out and even on our death beds we can make the perfect atonement that may have saved Judas as he crashed to his self-inflicted death by act of despair.

Dear Lord, you know that I am always afraid that my sins will bring me to the pain of permanent death that is the reward of sin. Let me find in the final instruction given to Mary and John the living church of Love that never fails to keep true to you, FatherSonHolySpirit. Let me not be too afraid and be sincerely attentive to your example for living and worship in my secret room without regard for how others view me. I know that I am not alone except for when corrupted by sin. May my soul and those of all other sinners on Earth be comforted by theunceasing prayer for Mercy for us and the Holy Souls in Purgatory raised by Mary and all the saints.