15/09/2024

Today's Gospel contains another of Jesus' "buts". He first asks for a summary of how the world sees him. To do that today would be a lifetime's work, a summary of all that has ever been written about God and our relationship with IAMIAM; an Old Testament and a New together with all the other commentaries that have ever been made about IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT. 

Our God is only one BEING and I too am only one being. Jesus asks me the same question, directly to my face; he in the Palestine of the Romans and I at my desk two thousand years later. He does not want  me to condense the wisdom of the ages in my being. He trusts every human being to be able to face this direct question throughout our lives.

He knows me in the same way that I know my family. He has a wondrous Love for me and every other person that has ever lived, is living or will in the future but I have to filter through a mind that has often been cluttered and lost in the tangle that is it, my body and soul; a sometime sinful mess out of which I am being pulled by "Amazing Grace".

My body is surviving largely as the result of the wonders of man-made science which has unravelled many of the mysteries of bodily life. My mind is a human intelligence that is able to inform and seek out Truth. My soul is pure spirit that unifies the "I" of my being; it is the gift by which God shows to us all that he is FatherSonHolySpirit, the Creator, the Guide, the Saviour of us all.

We all have to respond directly to "Who do you say I am?". Parroting "Lord, Lord", the Lord's Prayer, the Creed is not enough. Our lives are all "events" in time. Our "event" has to respond to the "Jesus event" that is the "timelessness" of Eternity entering into creation as "True man and True God". 

It is the very Nature of mankind to know, love and serve, and we can turn this into temporal reality by joining in Peter's answer to his Lord and ours. "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God." 

The Nature of God is totally knowing, loving, and serving by revealing his purpose to mere children. He is, indeed, the Ever-greater but there is nothing imaginary about his creation and his Love for all. He is revealed on the Cross and is boundless, everlasting and his Grace can be accessed by our deeds, our way of life for he came to save not to condemn.

Dear Lord, help me to truly avoid error in my thoughts. Help me to remain in your grace. Help me to avoid sin in my thoughts words and deeds. Let me be the being You created me to become. You know how I feel unguilty about my words today to you. Let me continue to be conscious of my being always within your consciousness as an individual sinner who can strive to do your will for him. May my prayers join those of Mary, Angels and all the Saints in the Unity that is your Mystical Body on Earth, Heaven and Purgatory, the human unity that thrives in the Mercy that you poured over all creation and which, as in this morning's readings, you ask us all to acknowledge and prove by our actions.