In the first reading we see how God’s people sinned having made for themselves a false, lifeless idol to worship even after the many signs he had shown them in Egypt.
At times, we too make false gods of wealth, power, honour and pleasure. Sometimes, in their extreme forms, and at other times we can betray God for less than as little as thirty pieces of silver. Yet even if we assert that we personally do not make for ourselves other gods, how many times can we likely forget everything that the Lord has done for us, like the Israelites?
The world seemingly having escaped the horrors of the pandemic seems to be on its way to normal living once again. Are we grateful? Or have we forgotten already? We who are still here were spared, like the children of God in Egypt, and brought out from a dire situation. Nevertheless, like the Israelites, who were being led through the desert by the one and only God and in their human nature chose to worship something that was not him--a likeness of a beast that eats grass, how often have we traded in the living God for something just as frivolous? Like Judas, we are offered a crown that never perishes, yet we choose a crown of silver coins that quickly falls apart like our wearied and grieving spirits. Yet, God lifts us up in his mercy, if we but turn back to him. In this, we must follow Peter's example, and not the despair of Judas. We need to reflect.
What is it that we truly worship in our lives?
Let us make sure that it is God, and not ourselves, our own needs, and our own ideas of God. Let us worship him as he has revealed himself to us.
In today’s gospel, we see the two natures in Christ, and the new Moses, coming to the forefront. Jesus’ words show us how objective truth comes from and belongs primarily to God.
Even him, who is the truth and the way and the life, in his human nature said,
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
In other words, the insights he gives and the judgement he pronounces are perfect because they are rooted, not in his own will, but in the will of his Almighty Father who had sent him into the world so that through him the world may be saved.
This needs to be our lifelong work: to do not our own will, but that of the Father. And it is a challenge for us all, because in order to do his will we will often need to detach ourselves from our own desires and commit to a lifelong journey, but first, we need to recognise our sinfulness.
Saint Francis of Assisi once said: “I have been all things unholy. If God can work through me, he can work through anyone.” If Saint Francis was right, then there’s hope for me, hope for you, hope for all of us. Yet that hope begins and is sustained by the recognition of our sins, because even when it comes to prayer, which will be the greatest weapon in our arsenal to be able to combat our own wills and live God’s will instead, prayer needs to be coming from a good place, a clean heart, as much as is possible for us.
This is captured beautifully in Saint Paul’s second letter to Saint Timothy when he says,
“I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.” 2 Tim 1:3
And it is expressed clearly and concisely by Saint Barnabas in this way,
“Thou shalt confess thy sins. Thou shalt not betake thyself to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light.”
The essence of the entire discourse in today’s gospel is Jesus’ plea with those who did not want to accept the wonderful gift God was sending them in His Son—the gift that sanctifies us and makes us clean, to change their lives .
"I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else comes in his own name you will accept him. How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that comes from the one God?"
Jesus wants us to be good and pure and praiseworthy, but in the Father's eyes! His desire is to change our hearts from stone cold, into hearts of flesh that know how to love properly. Hearts that are free. Jesus said to the apostles at the Last Supper; “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” John 15:3. A lot of people rejected that Word. And we run the risk of doing the same, if as Christians we do not remain vigilant over our faith journey long-term. As Moses was given such a difficult time by the Israelites in the desert, so too, the new Moses, Jesus also is challenged and grieved by the hardness of heart of the people he came to redeem. He shows us miracles and amazing things, but still, we have often chosen the darkness over that light.
As Moses pleaded on behalf of the people in the first reading, so too on Calvary, the new Moses pleads with the Father and the clemency in response to those prayers has been applied since then and will continue to be graciously offered to us until the last day.
For us who boast of Christ crucified and are privileged to call ourselves his followers, through our prayers and our lives, we too become secondary intercessors on behalf of God’s people.
In fact, this is one of the things our Protestant brothers and sisters have a bit of difficulty accepting or understanding, or maybe they haven’t considered it fully. They object to asking the intercession of the saints on account of Jesus being the one mediator between God and man. What they don’t realise is that when Paul speaks of that mediation he is saying that all mediation with God naturally has to go through Jesus. It’s not a matter of eliminating Jesus, so as to replace him with another mediator. Jesus remains the mediator for all time until the end of the world, but he has made of us secondary collaborators in that mediation whenever people ask us to pray for them, for example. When that happens, we are becoming mediators, but in a secondary sense because we pray in and through Christ. So too with the saints. When we pray for their intercession, we in no way violate the one and unique mediation of Christ. This also applied to the apostles when Jesus sent them out to heal, and when he sent them out to forgive sins. Only God could do both the latter, yet he allowed mere mortal beings to do those things in a secondary sense through his power, by praying over the apostles and making them his ambassadors.
How wonderful and magnificent are God’s ways, that he considers human beings worthy of being collaborators in the grace he imparts upon the world! May we have the courage to trust the men and women God sends in his name and who come to us on his behalf, for in receiving them, we receive Jesus himself and in receiving Jesus, we receive the One who sent Him. Remember this next time a person mocks or challenges you for going to confession to a validly ordained Roman Catholic Priest. Yes, he is a man like all others, except he has been chosen, prayed over, given a charism (a gift meant to benefit others), and when you humble yourself, through Jesus acting through that priest by applying the merits of his agonising passion on the cross, you receive the remission of your sins. Let's thank God for all those whom the Lord has given us to help us on our spiritual path to Heaven.
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