The book of Deuteronomy begins with a couple of questions today: “Did anything so great ever happened before? Was it ever heard of?” We should change the punctuation marks after these sentences; not questions, as much as statements of fact and wonder. They should end with multiple exclamation points, for they express wonder and amazement. “Did anything so great ever happen before !!! Was it ever heard of !!!” The exclamation points continue, “Did any god venture to go and take a nation for (him)self !!!” Not questions, but ecstatic declarations of faith.
What kind of God do we have? One who stirs up exclamation points in our memories and feelings. Wow! How’s that for a summary definition of our God? “Wow!”
The Ten Commandments and how the people are to respond to them, will not appear until the next chapter in Deuteronomy. The people first need to be reminded that God was gracious to them and will continue to be faithful. “This is why you must now know and fix in your hearts that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below and that there is no other.” In a word, “Wow!” Now we are ready to hear how we are to respond to our gracious God. Thus, the Commandments will not merely be a list of restrictions, but a joyful response to our God who has noted us and is our protector, guide and strength. Our God has not been a silent observer, but has spoken from “the midst of fire” and we have heard and are ready to respond.
In Romans we are encouraged to turn with confidence to God because the Spirit reassures us that we are God’s beloved children. Today is the feast of relationship — our relationship with God and God’s with us. It is a unique relationship. Paul tells the Romans that they are not slaves groveling for mercy and a hearing, but are children. The empires of Greece and Rome were based on an economy of slavery. Imagine the good news people, who were so accustomed to being slaves or surrounded by slaves, heard in Paul’s proclamation that we are not slaves, but adopted children of God. How can we be assured of this, especially when we may not feel in such close relationship to God? That reassurance is the work of the Spirit. “The Spirit’s very self bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God….” Listen to the Spirit’s voice within, assuring us, “You are a beloved child of God.”
Today we do not celebrate a doctrine, but the heart of our faith: in Christ we have a special relationship with God, we are children of God and so “joint heirs with Christ.” We don’t have to fear an impersonal and distant God, because God is our “Abba,” the parent who has come to our rescue and adopted us. Paul’s reminder of our special standing in God’s eyes deserves another, “Wow!”
In our world so much of who we are is dependent on nation and family of origin, economic and educational achievement. Those with the most are well known and esteemed; those without are just part of the masses. But Paul tells us that we have our identity as a gift from God — whatever our origins or achievement. We are children of God, made so by God in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. As God’s children we are stirred by the Spirit to live out our identity: to see others through God’s eyes, as our brothers and sisters.
Paul calls our attention to our brothers and sisters in the Christian community. We belong to the household of God and are moved to care for one another, not as subservient slaves who follow orders, but as “children of adoption.” So, we serve not in fear, or under compulsion, but as God’s children secure in our status before God. Paul assures us that as God’s children we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” As heirs we look forward to an inheritance we don’t yet have. That hope can be a strength for us as we endure present sufferings.
In their time the disciples experienced conflicts among themselves as their ministry spread beyond their original Jewish circle into the Gentile world. We continue to face that challenge as we reach out to include diverse cultures and their expressions of faith and liturgical practices. Why go through the trouble and adaptations such outreach demands? Because Jesus’ last instruction in Matthew’s Gospel was to “make disciples of all nations.” This charge means an openness and an outreach “without borders.” There is no one group in the world who are “first class disciples.” There should be no racial, gender, age or economic distinctions. All are to be recipients of the disciples’ baptizing and instructing and all welcomed into full participation in the Christian community.
How will the disciples know when their teaching “takes” in those who hear it? The prime requisite at this stage isn’t doctrinal information, but moral behavior. Those who are baptized and taught by the disciples practice what Jesus commanded his disciples: to love God and show that love by loving neighbor. What we profess in our creed today isn’t just a doctrinal profession, but an affirmation of the God who is our source and towards whom our whole life is oriented.
In today’s gospel, St. Matthew takes us back to Galilee where the first disciples heard their call. The scene takes place on a mountain as did other important biblical events. In Matthew’s Gospel mountains were the places for Jesus’ sermon, his Transfiguration and now his final appearance.
The story sounds like another resurrection appearance. Jesus appears to the disciples; they realize it is he and worship him — “but they doubted.” Then Christ declares his authority and charges his disciples to: “… make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Baptism was the way those who did not have first-hand experience of Jesus would encounter Christ and be brought into the believing community. The baptismal confession underlines the Trinitarian belief of the early church. After baptizing the disciples are charged to teach. Conversion and baptism are important, but not the only steps in the process. Teaching must follow so that new members will come to a deeper understanding of what God has done in their lives. The gospel of Matthew ends with Jesus’ promise to be with his disciples, “until the end of the ages.”
TRINITY– The Best Friend
At the centre of our Christian faith in a Triune God there is an essential affirmation. God is not a fearsome or impenetrable being, selfishly
locked upon himself. Christians believe that the ultimate reality that gives substance and meaning to everything is Love.
Jesus never wrote a treatise on God himself. We never found him teaching the simple farming people of Galilee a doctrine about God. For Jesus, God was not a concept, a beautiful idea or a sublime theory. God was, simply, humanity’s best friend.
Scripture experts have never questioned something that appears clearly in the gospels. The people who listened to Jesus speak about God and those who saw Him acting in his name always felt God’s presence as Good News. Whatever Jesus said about God was always good and new. Whatever He told them and made them feel and experience became the best news they had ever heard about God. Why?
First of all, they learned that God belongs to all, not only to those that were, at the time, allowed to enter the Temple. God’s presence was not
found in sacred places and did not belong only to some religions. God was not the property of those few who could afford and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. According to Jesus, “God makes the sun rise upon the good and the bad.” God does not discriminate or exclude anyone. God welcomes everyone to trust in Him: “Whenever you pray, say, “Father!”
As they listened to Jesus, people realized that God belonged not only to those who had merited special favours. Before anyone else, Jesus listened to those who asked forgiveness for their sins. As Jesus always preached, God is looking out for the lost ones. He is a true friend of the sinners and those in need of compassion. He kept saying, “I have come to seek and save those who are lost.”
People also realized that God does not belong only to the wise and the learned. Jesus thanked his Father because he had revealed those things to the little ones, while they remained hidden to the wise. God has little problem making himself understood by the simple folk, unlike the wise who claim to know everything.
Ultimately, however, it was the living Jesus, in God’s name, who came to heal the sick, to free those possessed by evil spirits, cure the lepers, and offer forgiveness to sinners and prostitutes, that finally convinced people that God was the best friend of humanity: He only wants the best for us and he is against anything that can harm us. Jesus’ disciples and followers never questioned that the Incarnate God, revealed in Jesus, is Love and only Love for all of us.
TRINITY – “God’s Love in Man’s Life”
There are three things that are vital to Christians’ understanding of God: Holy, Love and Grace. Nowhere in the New Testament is the doctrine of the Trinity carefully explained. But we find the testimony of many people whose lives had been touched by God. They had seen Him at work, and they had witnessed His power. And when they tried to talk about it, they could not tell the full story without saying, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
The “mystery” of the Holy Trinity has to be studied or understood as a reality to be experienced. St. Paul, in his second Corinthians, pronounces this blessing upon his friends: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship that is ours in the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In this statement are three key words that describe our relationship with God, and each one is tied to a “person” of the Trinity. Our greatest need is not so much to resolve a mystery, but to experience what those three words convey.
Paul speaks first of GRACE. This word basically means unmerited favour. Everything we have and are and hope to be fits into this category of unmerited favour. Any good thing in our lives is rooted in and grows out of the grace of God. Through the double miracle of conception and birth, God gave us the gift of life. Paul asks this question, in his first letter to the Corinthians: “What have you got that was not given to you?” The most absurd boast in all the world is that of the so-called “self-made man”. Life itself is a gift, and so are the air we breath and the water we drink.
Next, Paul speaks of LOVE of God. All the graces we have received and the grace of Christ go back to its source – the love of God. All the graces received through the saving work of Jesus go back to the loving Father who has never stopped loving us, sinners though we may be.
There are, of course, other problems such as injustice and suffering, and we wonder how to reconcile those things with the idea of a loving God. There is no way we can ever conclusively and finally prove the love of God. It’s an exercise in futility. Love cannot be proven. It’s just there. We can rest in the confidence that the Power behind God’s universe is not an impersonal fate, but a loving God.
Finally, Paul speaks of FELLOWSHIP that is ours in the Spirit. This refers to the way we experience the love of God – fellowship with Him and with other people. There are times when we sense God’s presence in a one-on-one relationship. He Himself told us, “enter into your closet and pray to your Father in secret.” But to know God, we have to become deeply involved with people.
“Love” is a word with a thousand different meanings, and we need to understand what the New Testament means by the claim that “God is Love.” We must remember that God so loved the world that “he gave His only Son.”
God cannot be defined in human language. As people of faith, we do the best we can to describe our experience of God, knowing that all such descriptions will be inadequate. Our human language attempts to express the inexpressible: life, love and fellowship.
A CHRISTIAN BEFORE GOD
It is not always simple for a Christian to relate oneself in a concrete manner to a God whom we confessed to be the mystery of the Holy Trinity. On the other hand, the current religious crisis is inviting us, more than ever, to a personal, healthy and gratifying relationship with God. Jesus, the mystery of God, made flesh in the Prophet of Galilee, is the best starting point to bring back our Christian faith.
How can we relate to the Father? Jesus teaches us two basic attitudes. First of all, we must trust Him completely. God is good and he loves us unconditionally. He only wants our own good. We can trust Him without any fear, suspicion, condition or strategy. Life becomes a way of trusting in his Love as the ultimate mystery of everything.
Secondly, we must be completely docile to God. It is good being attentive to the will of the Father, because He only wants the best for all of us. There will never be a better way to live for us. This is the ultimate motivation in life for anyone who believes in God our Father.
How can we live with God made flesh in the Son? First of all, we must be followers of Jesus: we must know Him, believe in Him, really understand Him and learn to follow in his steps. We must look at life the way he looked at things; we must treat people the way he treated them and spread the message of goodness and freedom as he always did. We must live to make life more humane. This is the way God chose to become human. There is no other way for a Christian to live life to the fullest.
Secondly, we must collaborate in God’s project the way Jesus put it in practice following his Father’s will. We can never remain passive. Those who
cry, God tries to make them smile, and those who are hungry He will try to feed. We must try to change things so that everyone can live in peace. The project that Jesus called the Kingdom of God is the meaning, the way and the
goal that we must also aim at – the ultimate mystery that God had proposed to make our human lives attainable.
What does it mean to be inspired by the Holy Spirit? First of all, that we are inspired by his Love. Jesus’ life and actions clearly proved that that everything must be motivated by love. Nothing else matters. Love is the spirit that gives meaning, truth and hope to our very existence. Only love can deliver us from all other failures, errors and miseries.
Finally, everyone who lives “anointed by the Spirit of God” will find himself specially appointed to proclaim the Good News to the poor. His life will be able to give freedom to the prisoners, show light to the blind and bring comfort and joy to the forsaken