Never Forget

Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2014 A

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you.  Isaiah 49:15

Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy…Therefore do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.  1 Corinthians 4:1-2,5

Piety

Our piety is how we hold ourselves before God.  God’s love for us is how he holds us in existence.  His love antedates our existence.  Psalm 139 tells us that he loved us before we were born.  Our existence is that love of God.  He loved us so much that we are free not to love God back.  Our love is our freely returning to the example of Christ.  Our piety is what we have discovered in loving God back.  Our love is the free gift of ourselves back to God.  Because we are created in the image and the likeness of Christ, we love by making ourselves over in the likeness of Christ.  We give to Christ our hearts and he gives us his Heart.  Even as Christ is the perfection of God’s love for us, our following the example of Christ in putting on his mindset and heart takes the form of our becoming a real Christ to each other.

Study

We study how God loves us.  He loves us so much that he wants to be one of us.  How we want to be like Christ is the call of his love on our hearts.  Christ is our way and our truth and our life.  The Sacrament of the Present Moment means God does not waste tomorrow’s graces on today.  I call that the Principle of Divine Economy.  It does not make any sense to worry about the day we do not have any graces for until that day arrives.  We learn to live in the present moment because God is the Lord of the Eternal now.  Only now touches what God has in store for us in our future.  From our “nows,” we learn to trust that God will take care of our future in his good time.

Action

We cannot serve two Masters.  We serve Christ when we reach out to the needy person on our road.  What we do for the person in need we see is what we do for Christ.  He identifies with all our needs.  When we get outside of ourselves and do our best for the person we see, we are reaching the Christ of the Mystical Body.  We become the Mystical Body of Christ in all our efforts to make a better world.