The Saving Power of God
Wednesday:
Thirteenth Week of the Year: June 29, 2016
Year II:
Amos 5:14-24; Psalm 50:7-17; Matthew
8:28-34
The Responsorial
Psalm tells us it is what we do in our lives, not what we say in our
religious ceremonies, that gives us the experience of being one with God: “To the upright I will show the saving power
of God” (Psalm 50).
Amos 5:
14-24 calls
us to make a conscious and conscientious connection between what we say and do:
being conscious of what we are saying
when we pray; being conscientious
about living out what we express to God in worship.
There should be no distinction between our religion and our spirituality. “Religion” (inauthentic) can be a “system” or
structure of beliefs and practices that do not really engage our conscious mind
and heart in deep, personal response to God. We can just affirm what we are
taught to believe without thinking about it very much. We can take part in
religious ceremonies, saying the words, doing the actions, without being alert
that we are speaking to God or communicating with him person-to-person. Even
the priest presiding at Mass can read the words of the prayers without
consciously and personally addressing God as present. Teresa of Avila says that
if we are not conscious of who we are when we speak to God, and to whom we are
speaking, it is not prayer at all, “no matter how much the lips move.” All true
prayer is conscious, person-to-person interaction with God present and
listening.
The “ministry of light” consists in giving conscious
expression to the divine life of God within us: letting our faith, hope and
love “take flesh” in words and actions that become increasingly consistent with
each other. We listen to our words to live them out in action. We look at our
actions to see if they verify our words. This is both the expression and the
experience of God’s presence in us: “To
the upright I will show the saving power of God.”
Not everyone is comfortable being aware of God’s
power, even when it is being used to bring about the triumph of his love. In Matthew 8: 28-34, when the citizens of
Gadara realized that Jesus had
divine power, they “implored him to leave the neighborhood.” Maybe they were
afraid they might lose more pigs! More likely, they were just afraid of the
unknown. They wanted to just keep living on ground level, without delving into
what might be above or below them. They were not interested in mystery nor open
to it. Are we like them? Or do we trust absolutely that the unknown of the
depths and heights of all being are in the hand of God?
The “ministry of light” opens our eyes and
others’ to what is most real and least visible: God’s power, presence and
action within us. When we let God express himself in and through our physical
words and actions “we show the saving
power of God.”
Initiative:
Give God’s life: Be a “priest in the Priest.” Express mystery in consistent words and
actions.
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