+ The readings today are quite timely: and
they ought not be glossed over or changed in intent to suit ourselves and our
need to tread calm and peaceful waters. Sometimes the waters are rough, and the
sea shows itself an angry master – and not for nothing. In the first reading
God is so fed up with the wickedness pouring forth from the hearts and actions
of God’s newly formed creations that he appears very angry and is plotting to
wipe out from the face of the earth all these vile creatures who have turned
away from him.
But a few were found favorable
to him and he contrived a way to save them, and the animals he created for his
pleasure and so Noah was to build an ark and load it with a remnant of a
civilization. And sure enough the waters of the great flood came upon the earth,
and all were destroyed except for those who were in the boat!
We must not kid ourselves: God
permits evil to thrive for so long – as a rather dramatic test of obedience,
loyalty and trust: but then he is free to do what he would do to correct the
situation. Looking into the signs of the times, it is very clear that evil and
evil intent in the hearts of men, and what is worth, those who idly stand by
and watch it happen and do nothing, permeates all levels of society, sadly enough,
the very hierarchical structure of the Church itself: threatening to be the
cause of another catastrophe of epic proportions to mete out God’s justice.
All we have to hang onto is “the
boat” “the ark” “the bark of Peter” – even though it may appear to be fraught
with both good and evils of all kinds: we must remember that Jesus told us that
the wheat and the weeds must grow together until the Last Day: that appears to
be more and more a Day when God is very upset, and those who reject him and his
will and his ways will be dismissed from eternal happiness, but those who hang
in there sitting in the lifeboats on deck will be pampered, loved and transported
safely to the shores of heaven to begin a completely fantastic kind of
existence that can’t even be dreamed of accurately and properly now.
In the gospel passage Jesus is
upset with his disciples in the boat who are so slow to grasp what he is trying
to teach them: sometimes you have to read between the lines to get the real
message: he is telling them that the “12” left over baskets of food after the
multiplication of loaves, and the “7” – means something: the 12 represent they themselves
the apostles and their successors who would be given the awesome responsibility
of feeding the whole world of the Body and Blood and Spirit of the Lord Jesus:
feeding the Lambs and the Sheep; the 7 represents the 7 Sacraments by which
they would distribute the superabundance of God’s own graces and blessings: so
that:
the flock will have all it
needs to stay in the boat, and not be swept away in the raging river of the
world, that will pass into a regrettable end.
The Lord will bless his people
with peace, and joy and love – but only those who know about it, want it, and
ask for it!
Amen.
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