This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
How sweet was Jesus’ mission, and yet how sour.
We know from Scripture that in His humanity He experienced a deep, scraping, visceral frustration when those He was trying to save obstinately refused to understand His mission. It is the same sort of willful, obstinate rejection, cloaked as misunderstanding and ignorance, that He receives from many in the world today.
In the modern world, just as in today’s Gospel passage, people instrumentalize sacred things on the altar of greed. They even convince themselves that they are doing the Lord’s work when their only real objective is to build wealth and status.
In the first reading, the scroll–which in other passages we see is the scroll with seven seals on it, that only the Lamb can open–represents God’s providential plan for humanity. It is sweet on the tongue, but sour to the stomach.
God’s plan is the absolute ultimate drama. On the one hand, it involves every sumptuous, overflowing gift of happiness that man in his created nature is fashioned to receive. But for the complete fulfillment of this happiness, man is free, and able to choose to turn away from these ultimate goods to gain lesser goods–like the moneychangers in the temple in today’s gospel.
The combination of man’s destiny of happiness and his freedom is sweet, oh so sweet, so sweet indeed that it is the stuff that his Creator dreams of, even in His own infinite state of completeness.
But man very often uses his freedom to choose to turn away from the heights to which God has called him, for the more comfortable lows of sin. And this is sour. So sour that the invulnerable God wound up shedding blood to reopen the door to salvation from this fate. But man still needs to walk through, and many do not.
Still–and here we can only use our imagination, which falls far short, as St. Paul says (cf. 1 Cor. 2:9)–still, the exalted fulfillment to which those who choose God is so glorious, that God did not shy away from creating human freedom, despite the losses that would be incurred.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus, today and every day, for the gift never to be separated from Him; and He will answer this request, and see your heavenly destiny secured. But also contemplate all those who obstinately use their freedom to turn away from God, or more precisely, from the exalted destiny for which He created them, with all the detachment that this destiny involves. Like a general with his King, plan with Jesus what prayers and offerings you will make to Him to enable Him to push through the doors of their obstinacy and attract them irresistibly with His grace to the higher choice.
Follow the Author on Twitter:Follow @mvhaywilliams
