13/09/2024

The way of life preached to his world by St Paul is the same way of life that has been preached to every generation of us since his times. 

The World has indeed changed since then, but the Word is still our guide and standard by which we should judge ourselves. God never changes. We, however,  who look for the Word to find our Way, Truth and Life are unique beings both in our individual self-awareness and in our shared humanity.

Each of us is created out of nothing, (what a "gobstopper" is that), to be the summit of created matter on the one hand, and image and likeness of our creator on the other. We are created with wisdom proportionate to our needs and the life of Jesus, true man and true God, as our template of the "Good" that our creator sees in all his creation.

St Paul had been abruptly been dragged into apostolic friendship with the Resurrection, the Jesus whose followers he had seen as enemies of IAMIAM. The plank had been ripped out of his eyes, blinding him in the process, to become the enlightened, dedicated to sharing enlightenment with all his world. He was now  totally dedicated to becoming the "winner" that FatherSonHolySpirit, wants us all to be.

The Eastern part of the Roman Empire was still strong at the time of St John Chrysostom's birth, and although his contemporary Julian attempted to revive Hellenistic Paganism, Christianity was the "Established Church" of the Empire. 

I cannot agree that there was nothing that was flawed about the "Church" as she was three hundred years after her foundation. There were many individuals who ran in the same personal race as did St Paul but there was now an increasingly human organisation that was characterised by a hierarchy that was more concerned about maintaining its place in this world  and had become, in fact, a ruler amongst other rulers.

Today we can understand that we are dissatisfied with our churches for good reasons, but the Body of Christ, the New Holy Family, the Church of Love "Mother behold thy son, son behold thy mother" will remain until the end of time even though "My kingdom is not of this world" has been long forgotten.

Dear Lord, let the eyes of my soul remain open throughout the rest of today and let me not be overwhelmed by my struggles with technology. Let me become one with the psalmist's sparrows and  swallows hiding from predators in the temple that with your help I can build within my own being. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints open for us all the floodgates of your mercy to overwhelm our closeness to sin and to confirm the merit of the sufferings of the Holy Souls which is as nothing to your total awareness of all the sins of myself and my fellows in the infinity of your being exposed to all the world on Calvary. Lord forgive me for my sins. Amen