Mystics of the Mountain Top: 16th Week of the Liturgical Year, July 17-23

"Mystics of the Mountain Top"
Sixteenth Week of the Liturgical Year, July 17-23, 2011
Exodus, chapters 14-24; Matthew, chapters 12-13.

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Ministry is for divine life in the Church what feeding, healing and teaching are for human life on earth. This week’s Reflections show us God’s reflections on ministry and how they are expressed in the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass.

Sunday: All Christian ministry is founded on the renunciation of power. Jesus came to “serve and give his life” in mercy and love.

Monday-Tuesday: In Jesus God’s glory was revealed, not through the defeat and destruction of his enemies, but through his defeat and victory at their hands: his life-giving death on the cross followed by resurrection. In the Church, Jesus is glorified when we make his resurrection visible. To minister is to “glorify God in your body” by giving physical expression to the divine life of the risen Jesus in you. That divine life reveals itself, not through human power (and never through violence), but through acts that express divine faith, hope and love.

Wednesday: Through the “ministry of expression” we give Jesus to each other as the “daily bread” he taught us to pray for. This bread is Jesus himself, the Bread and joy of the “wedding banquet of the Lamb” in heaven. Since Jesus is the Word made flesh, we do this by “giving flesh” to his words in two ways: in our own words, and in our actions. To do this, we must know his words; so all Christian ministry is a “ministry of the word.” That is why the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass is always preceded by the Liturgy of the Word.

Thursday: In the readings at Mass we do not just listen to words; we encounter God, who is present and speaking to us. This is an encounter with the mystery of God’s Being, Truth and Goodness. For us to truly “hear” him and “see” what he is revealing, we have to rise above the particled atmosphere of human space, where we see light only as variously reflected off of creatures, and enter the undistorted atmosphere of outer space, where there is nothing but pure Light and utter darkness. This is mysticism. And all experience it, in different degrees, who make the effort to “meet God halfway” by “going up to the mountain” as Moses did. Since all won’t do the reading and reflecting this involves, ministers must be “mystics of the mountain top” who go up to see and come down to speak.

Friday-Saturday: Ministers who neglect to be mystics only teach God’s laws; not the God whose mind and heart are revealed in them. They offer rules without revelation. In the Mass we celebrate the New Covenant based, not just on the guidance of the Law, but on the gift of Life. When the host is lifted up, we see ourselves in it, “in Christ,” offering ourselves with him, in him and through him to let Jesus minister with us, in us and through us. With him, we give “our flesh for the life of the world.”