Saturday, August 23, 2014

But Who Do You Say that I Am?


By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace: “I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station.  Isaiah 22:19

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!  Romans 11:33

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Matthew 16:15

Piety
Our piety is one of the ways we say who Christ is in our lives.  We say Christ is our life by the goodness of our lives.  There are pious moments when we show our love by our reverence, attention and devotion.  These moments flow over to the ways we do the secular things in our lives.  The totality of the focus of our hearts is the best of our piety because thus we are treating the people of our lives as reflections of the God who merits all our attention.  Our love of God challenges us to find Christ in the last, the lowest and the least persons of our lives.  God created everything good.  The right use of creatures proclaims Christ in whom we are.  We by our use of creatures with care and attention to what is right make Christ visible by who we are.  Our destiny is Christ and all the ways our piety keeps Christ close to us are the works of salvation and the good news that Christ has come to share with us.  Piety in each other is the good news of salvation calling forth the best of us. 

Study 
By our study we realize that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Each moment of our lives is filled with God’s love for us manifest in creation and in the reality of the ongoing of our lives.  We would not live if God did not keep us in existence.  The victory of Christ centers the throne of Christ.  The cross is his victory.  On the wood of the cross we were given our salvation.  In the embrace of Christ from his cross all that would separate us from the victory of Christ loses its meaning.  Nothing is worth more than his embrace of our sinfulness as he gives us his life for forgiveness and rebirths us in the love of his Father.  God is not only in our world; he is also the meaning of our lives and gives meaning to all that we do when we live in his name and spread the good news of salvation.  For many the road of God’s wisdom is impassable.  To us who are called, the cross is the exquisite wisdom of God revealing his love for us. 

Action 
The best action of our lives will be the climbing of the cross of Christ to look at our world through his eyes.  The value of what we suffer is immeasurable in the likeness to Christ it brings.  Our suffering can be the key to unlock the mystery of God’s love when we offer our suffering in the name of Christ.  We need to say with our work that we are the presence of Christ for those we serve.  We need to meet the needs of others with the love of Christ who gives his all for each of us.  We need to be like to Christ who offers his sufferings for us.  The Cross is the wisdom of Christ.  We do our best to make a world more just and special by living the love of Christ for each other.  Our sufferings offered in the name of Christ can make the world amazed at how the Christians love one another.  Let us bring our world back to Christ.  Then nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ.  We will be his love.  

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