Focus on Ministry
by Fr. David M. Knight
July 19, 2024
Friday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Lectionary 393
Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8/Mt 12:1-8
Isaiah 38:1-22: In spite of its awesome power and military superiority, Assyria was unable to take Jerusalem. The Greek historian Herodotus records the destruction of Sennacherib’s army. This “was probably due to bubonic plague, but the sacred author attributes it to its ultimate cause: God through his angel.” (See Notes, New American Bible Revised Edition. See Tuesday, Week Twelve: 2Kings 19:9-36.)
God present in things and acting through them is the only “ultimate cause” or explanation of anything we see happening. It is God present and active in the coffee that gives it its taste. God present and active in the planets that gives them existence and motion. We only exist because God is present and active in us, continuing to breathe out his creative word: “Let it beeeee...” Paul found awareness of this in the words of the Greek poet he quoted to the philosophers in Athens: “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:22-29.)
The mystery of Christianity is that in those who receive the divine life of God through Baptism, God is not just present as Creator, giving existence and “concurring” in all the operations proper to our human nature. God is also in us as indwelling Father, Son and Spirit, doing his “divine thing” in and through our human thoughts, desires and actions. We experience this in the divinely empowered acts of faith, hope and love:
By faith we share in God’s own divine, infinite act of knowing the Father as only God the Son can know him (Matthew 5:25-27).
Our hope is a confident expectation of righteousness, salvation, resurrection, eternal life, sharing the glory of God; and that Christ will be exalted in our bodies. See Acts 23:6; 24:15; Titus 1:2 & 3:7; Romans 5:2; Galatians 5:5; 1Thessalonians 5:8; Philippians 1:20.)
This hope is: in our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, it is Christ in us, the hope of glory; a new birth through Christ’s resurrection; poured into our hearts through the Spirit; a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul; promised by the gospel; accompanied by confidence and pride; through which we approach God. (See 1Thessalonians 1:3; Colossians 1:23, 27; Romans 5:5, 15:4, 12; 13; Ephesians 1:12; 1Peter 1:3; Hebrews 3:6; 6:18-20; 7:19.)
It is hope in God’s promise for both the present life and the life to come; the promise of the Holy Spirit; of life in Christ Jesus, that was made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants; a promise that depends on faith; through which we escape from the corruption that is in the world and become participants of the divine nature; the promise of new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home; where God will be our father, and we his sons and daughters. (See 1Timothy 4:8; 2Timothy 1:1; Galatians 3:14; Acts 1:4-5; 2:33; Luke 1:55; Romans 4:16; 2Peter 1:4; 3:13; 2Corinthians 6:17-18.
This is beyond anything Hezekiah experienced or dreamed of.)
Matthew 12:1-8 invites us to think about the “something greater” that we find in him and, by grace, in ourselves.
Initiative: Be focused on mystery. Get in touch with your faith, hope and love.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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