In our first two readings we were given an appreciation of
the essential character of Mother Church, for she -- and we who are in her and
of her -- are, according to St. Paul:
A new
creation.
In the Gospel reading we then heard of the Lord sending out
seventy-two others, disciples who had learned to delight in their proximity and
communion with Jesus, and the strength it afforded them:
He sent (them) ahead of Him
in pairs to every town and place He Himself intended to visit.
Their instructions were both simple and firm: first of all,
they were being sent in His name, they were not beggars;
moreover, they had a clear message to proclaim, they were not to be pleaders
or cajolers:
Whatever town you enter and
they welcome you, eat what is set before you, cure the sick in it and say to
them, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’
As you can see Jesus wanted His disciples to be single-minded
and sincere: they were not to seek money, but neither should they be
embarrassed about accepting whatever the house or town could offer by way of
food and drink, for "the labourer deserves his payment". Jesus likewise desired that they should be humble,
but in no way lacking confidence in their mission: for their message was
from the Lord, not from their own imagination or fancy. In His name they were to announce a
fact, namely that "The Kingdom of God is at hand for you", and to
those willing to listen to their message they were to bestow a gift from the
Lord: 'Peace to this household.'
Whoever listens to you
listens to Me. Whoever rejects you rejects Me. And whoever rejects Me rejects
the one who sent Me.”
You can imagine how thrilled the disciples must have been
when their mission proved to be a great success; however, notice what Jesus
said in response to their enthusiasm:
Do not rejoice because the
spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in
heaven.
Now that is what St. Paul had in mind when, as you heard,
he wrote:
May I never boast except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified
to me, and I to the world.
St. Paul loved to teach his converts that belief in Jesus,
together with baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, makes us members of the Body of Christ. He believed this so firmly, and understood it
so concretely, that he could then go on to say that, having become members of
His Body, therefore we too, in Him, have been crucified with Him:
Through the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
Let us just try to understand what this meant for
Paul. In his contemplation of this union
between Christ and the believer, Paul -- absorbed in divine truth and filled
with an overwhelming desire to respond to and co-operate with the Father’s calling -- had been
led to recognize that:
In Christ Jesus neither does circumcision
mean anything nor does uncircumcision, but only a NEW CREATION.
No earthly pride, be it Greek, Roman, or even Jewish, nothing
whatsoever that depends on us in any way, could save us from the destructive
power of sin; only the totally gratuitous gift of God’s Spirit in response to
Jesus’ self-sacrificing love on Calvary could bring us salvation.
Paul had been granted the insight that, -- through the
power of Christ’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension -- we, who as
baptized believers have become members of His Body, are a new creation. Paul tells us that if one
must boast, one should boast about what the Lord Jesus has done for us on the
Cross, in His Resurrection, and by the gift of His Spirit. Circumcision means nothing: that is, personal
pride in one’s own holiness gained by legalistic observance of a written Law,
and national pride in the exclusiveness of one’s birth; all that means
nothing Paul says. Uncircumcision
too means nothing: the Greeks' boasting in their superior wisdom, the Romans'
vaunting of their worldly power, all such things too, ultimately, mean
nothing. For a Christian there
can be only one cause for boasting: what Christ has done for us and for
all who -- whatever their race, culture, or natural abilities -- are being led
to believe in Him as Lord and to obey His Spirit; a boasting centred not on
self, but on God's goodness, in “our Lord Jesus Christ”, through the Gift of His
Spirit:
There are diversities of
gifts, but the same Spirit who works all in all; (for) one and the same Spirit
works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
(1 Corinthians 12: 6, 11)
He, the Spirit of Glory, alone can ensure that our names
"are written in heaven".
Therefore, People of God, we are encouraged today, by the
prophet Isaiah, to rejoice in Mother Church: the Church Our Lord continually
sustains, promotes, and protects through the working of His Spirit, so that, as
He originally willed and enduringly intends, we may ever be able to drink
deeply of, and find delight in, the abundance He gives her.
We are encouraged to rejoice in such a way over Mother
Church because, as Isaiah foretold, it is in her and through her that:
The Lord’s power shall be
known to His servants.
This most sublime fulfilment is offered us today when, in response to His command, we have come together on His Sabbath Day -- in memory of Him and in the name of all creation -- to offer worship, praise and honour, glory and thanks, to God our Father for His great goodness to us. On this sublime day we are drawn by the Spirit to share in the heavenly and eternal liturgy being celebrated by our High Priest and Saviour before the Father: a celebration where the whole of obedient creation is united by the Holy Spirit of God under the leadership of the God-man Jesus Christ: here where He does indeed come to us in Communion, but above all, He draws us, by His Gift of the Spirit, ever more and more with Himself towards the Father; He fills us, inspires and enflames us, ever more and more, with that Love which makes Him one with the Father, that Triune Fire of eternal Love which is the glory and very Being of God the Almighty and which can – O wonder of wonders!! -- be shared by us in Jesus as life everlasting; communion, both total and fulfilling; joy, ever fresh and at peace.
