“Here” Is
“Hereafter”
Twenty-Ninth Week of Year II Monday October 17
The Responsorial Verse reminds us of who we are: “The Lord made us, we belong to him” (Psalm 100).
In
Ephesians 2: 1-10 Paul teaches the
mystery of our identity. God: 1. “co-vivified
us with Christ by grace” (the “favor” of sharing in God’s own divine life);
2. “co-raised us up with him” and 3. “co-seated us with him in the heavens in
Christ Jesus.” 1
Are we “seated with Christ in heaven” now, or is
this only where we will be after we die?
We
must constantly remind ourselves that God sees all time, from beginning to end,
as present in one eternal “now.” If we were raised “with and in Christ” when
Jesus died two thousand years ago and on the day of our Baptism (one and the
same moment with God), then God sees us as being “co-seated with him in the heavens” — with and in Christ now —
where he is.
Jesus
is reigning in heaven, “at the right hand of the Father.” And Jesus is
continuing to minister on earth in us who “with and in him” are his living body
in the world. In and through us, the stewards
of his kingship, Jesus who in God’s time already reigns in heaven is
working in our time to establish his Kingdom throughout the world. Jesus is
present in time and in eternity. In God’s eyes so are we — with and in him.
This
is the mystery of our being. We are not just human creatures of God. “We are
what he has made us [by grace],
created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” If, in our time,
we persevere in living the divine life he gave us, then “in the ages to come”
God will manifest in us “the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness
to us in Christ Jesus.” This gives richer meaning to the Responsorial Verse: “The Lord
made us, we belong to him.”
In
Luke 12: 13-21 Jesus reminds us to
see the present always in the light of the future; to live in time and in
eternity simultaneously. Life, he tells us, “does not consist in the abundance
of possessions." Life is stewardship.
We own nothing; everything belongs to
God. We simply manage everything we
have control over for the short time we are alive. Then we will give an account
of our stewardship to God.
If
we forget this, we are as foolish as the man who said to his “soul,” his
deepest self, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat,
drink, be merry.” Then he died that night. The truth is, “The Lord made us, we belong to him.” And so does everything that
appears to belong to us!
St. Paul uses
the expression “in Christ” or its equivalent 164 times. And 29 times he uses
the prefix syn- in Greek (“co-” in
English), even coining words, to express our union with and in Christ as members
of his body.
Initiative: Be
Christ’s steward. Live in time and in eternity at once.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your comments!