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From Archbishop Donoghue
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Mass for Young Adults |
Readings of the day, in the Lectionary, #432 Dear Friends in Christ, This evening we have heard some of the deepest words contained in all of the New Testament, and they are deep because they reach into the depths, not only of our human natures, but into the depths of the great mystery we cannot comprehend, the mystery of God’s own being. And I think the point of what St. Paul says, is that we are not to try to strenuously to understand the nature of God, but instead, learn to trust His nature to work in us. In the first place, we have been taught from our childhood that we are made in the image of God, and we have been made to understand that in some fashion, that which is best in our nature, is a reflection, even if pale, a reflection of something in God Himself. And in the second place, this belief answers a question that many find mysterious, and may in fact reject - how does goodness, how does a knowledge of what is right and wrong, seem to be in us without any input having placed it there? Machines, we know, are only useful if they have been designed to do a job - programs on the computer only work if they have been programmed with the right data - and it is also true that many of the conventions we observe, especially as we grow older, and mature in experience, come to us from experience, from observation, or from the good counsel of other people. But there are certain knowledges - or perhaps a better word would be certain “knowings” - things that are present in the most unsophisticated humans as well as the most mannered - certain awarenesses that come to us from the moment when we first realize that we can choose - certain innate feelings that tell us, this is right, this is wrong, this is to be avoided, and this is to be sought. Our Faith has always insisted that much of what we call good, or moral, is written upon the human heart by the hand of God, and in classic philosophy and theology, all goodness and order is supported by what is traditionally called, the natural law. And it is this law which St. Paul tries to explain, when he speaks of those gifts expressible not by human design, but only in the words of the spirit. The gifts of knowing that it is wrong to take another’s life, that it is wrong to take what is not ours, that it is wrong to speak what is not true, that it is wrong to call on God’s name unless we have a serious purpose in mind. When St. Paul says that the natural man cannot know these things, but that the spiritual man can, he is expressing the fundamental need that men and women must answer if they are to be better than animals - for animals take what they want, and they kill what threatens them, and they have no way of knowing what is true and false, but only of what pleases them or causes them pain. The fact that we look above these basic instincts, that we know there is more, and the fact that we can admit these differences in human nature, and open ourselves to an enlightenment that comes from above, and raises us up, is the meaning of St. Paul’s profound words, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” In Baptism, in Confirmation, in the cleansing of the Sacrament of Penance, and the restoration and strengthening of the Eucharist, Christ’s mind and Spirit, the Lord’s mind and Spirit, enter into us, and we are able to see, to respect, and to use the deepest gifts that God has given us - reason, compassion, discernment, spiritual intuition, and authority, that authority which is born in grace, and which expresses itself in charity, in love. This is the meaning of the Gospel, when in His Divine Sonship, the Lord exhibits these gifts in perfection, casting out the evil which possesses the man in the synagogue, not with violence, not with black magic, not with psycho-babble, but with the simple pure force of His own authority, and that power which none can resist. As the evangelist remarks: They were spellbound…for his words had authority. In this world, in this society, in this culture, there are many who deny the natural law, who deny the reflection of God within themselves, and who revel in those things which bring us down to the level of animals, and cast aside all which would make us angels. And so, it becomes even more important, that we learn to feed our souls on those gifts which God has placed in us, and that we meet the world, not with revulsion or with anger, but with patience and with an authority like that of Christ, unyielding and firm, but firm upon the foundation of love, as we move through the world God has given us for our lifetime, and as we encounter the many souls who God leads across our path as we walk towards our own end. May the Holy Spirit, who knows us better than we can know ourselves, who knows us from the depths of God’s being, grant us but a part of those gifts that Christ had in perfection - reason, compassion, forbearance, charity -so that like Him, with His mind and heart, we may disperse all evil spirits before us, and in the words of the Psalm, “lift up all who are falling, and raising up all who are bowed down.” This we ask, in the name of Jesus Christ, who has bound us in His spell, and who frees us from ourselves. Amen. + |