In our first reading today from the Prophet Jeremiah we have presented before us a very clear and understandable [and in this particular day in age, humorous] image of the closeness that God had established with his chosen people – the image of being as close to them as a man's set of boxer shorts are to the man! One cannot make a clearer point than that! God is as intimate with his people as his under garments are to the man!
And yet, in what he tells Jeremiah to do with a new pair of boxers he makes another very sad point: after burying the shorts in the cleft of a rock [at God's command] and retrieving them all rotted out, God says that the relationship that the people have created with him is likewise rotted out and good for nothing: they refused to obey his words, and they continued to walk in the stubbornness of their hearts – and follow strange [pagan] gods, and serve and adore them.
Our God is a jealous God – and so he is not pleased with this new, rotted condition at all. And so he sends Jeremiah to warn the people to change their ways or pay the consequences.
The gospel passage tells of what a healthy and fruitful relationship with God can be like – especially in its manifestation as a community of believers in God's love, God's will and God's ways. This is the Kingdom of Heaven. And it is foreshadowed by the community of believers which is the Church. This Kingdom, this Church can be likened to the mustard seed – a very tiny seed - which grows into a very large bush (almost a tree) where everyone is welcome to come home and nest in its branches and find shelter, rest and food for spiritual nourishment. This Kingdom and Church is also like yeast which a woman mixes in with wheat flour until the whole batch becomes leavend (permeated with the yeast and grows in size). The Kingdom and the Church – the community of believers and the proclaimers of God's will and way – are to permeate families, friendships, workplaces, play places – the whole society, the whole world – with the Gospel message of salvation which comes from magnificent death and resurrection of Jesus!
And so this day we have a choice: we can be and promote those who have a rotted out relationship with God and others; or we can be and promote a wonderful relationship filled with the fruits and graces that can come only from the Holy Spirit – as he builds the community of faith, the kingdom of heaven, the Holy Catholic Church into what he wants it to be: THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD FOREVER WITH HIS PEOPLE! a loaf that is filled with the very life of God himself; and the plant that is large enough for all of the birds of the sky to come and dwell in its branches forever!
The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
No comments:
Post a Comment