“God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living”. God did not make death nor evil, but they are all too present in our daily lives. To the point that many people state that they do not believe in God because death and evil are so present in our world.
“Enter through the narrow gate.” To the proud man, everything that contradicts him seems narrow: love, humility, truth, holiness. God is too narrow, too restrictive, too different from me. The further away I perceive myself from God, the narrower this gate seems – so narrow that it seems almost closed.
If you look at the recessional hymn for today’s Mass, it’s a kind of commentary on the readings. It’s addressed to God the Father, and the second verse reads: “By your Son the wide creation / Rose where chaos held its sway; / By the Spirit, God Almighty / Swept eternal night away. / Son, the Father’s love revealing”. The Creator of the sea is the only one who can say to it, as he does in the book of Job: “I set limits for [the sea]...and said: Thus far shall you come but no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stilled!”
Recently in my reading I came across something that stayed with me: “Renunciation is not giving up the good things of this life but accepting that they go away.” In this view, renunciation is not about willpower but acceptance and surrender. The monk, who is characterized by renunciation, comes to be seen not as a spiritual athlete, but under the aspect of mourning.
Prayer was an essential part of Jesus’ ministry. It was where he entered into contact with his identity – his relationship with the Father – finding nourishment, meaning and peace for his ministry and life. And the main characteristic of Jesus’ prayer, the one which stood out the most, was the fact that it was incarnate. Jesus was a living prayer and he conveyed salvation, peace and meaning to all those who entered into contact with him.
In the Gospels Jesus is often addressed as “Rabbi” or “Teacher” because he took many opportunities to teach, often in parables to the crowds, and great crowd sat that, and often giving instructions to His disciples in private as today’s Gospel reports. A question arises: What was behind all this teaching about the Kingdom? I believe His purpose, His motive can be summed up in two words, “I thirst.”
In the Rule of St Benedict, there is an entire chapter entitled “Restraint of Speech”. It begins, “Let us follow the Prophet’s counsel: ‘I said, I have resolved to keep watch over my ways that I may never sin with my tongue. I have put a guard on my mouth. I was silent’”. St Benedict comments: “Here the Prophet indicates that there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence”.
I find it interesting that during the course of the year we only have one feast that celebrates a particular body part of Christ. We do not have a feast of the Sacred Fist of Jesus, to celebrate his power or justice. We do not have a feast of the Sacred Brain of Jesus, to celebrate his intellect or his wisdom or the fact that he knows everything. No, the feast of the Sacred Heart is unique, and it tells us a lot about God and how he wants to be perceived in our relationship with him.
“Take it, this is my body”. “Do this in memory of me”. Brothers and sisters, we are celebrating today the feast of the Body and Blood of Christi – Jesus’ biggest gift to humankind, just before his Passion and Death. In fact, Jesus gave to us not only one body. According to the Fathers of the Church, Jesus gave us three bodies: 1) his physical body, incarnated in Mary’s womb from the Holy Spirit; 2) his sacramental body, the Eucharist, that we celebrate in a special manner today; 3) and his mystical body, the Church, composed of all those who were baptized in his death and resurrection.