19th Sunday OT - Fr. Leo
Today’s gospel echo’s the teaching in last weeks gospel. Jesus is the bread of life that feeds our souls. Love that comes from the heart is nourished in celebrating the unconditional love of Christ who died and rose for us, and is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us. As we commune with God in the Eucharist, we come to share in his divinity. Yes, we become God, Christ incarnate in us making us one with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
In our prayer, as we digest the word we feed upon, we also become aware of the challenge to be faithful to the love within us. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, is very practical in how we are to live in love. To be compassionate and forgiving as God forgives us in Christ, we are to remove all bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, reviling and malice from our hearts. Our communing with God also calls us to commune in love with one another. We can not love God and despise our neighbor.
The Spiritual life not only calls us to the top of the mountain to pray with Christ, we are also to enter into the dark valley and bring the light of Christ there in our relationships with those around us, and indeed all humanity and all creation as well.
It is ok for us to admit that we feel bitterness, fury, anger and malice. We can’t become more loving unless we recognize those stirrings in ourselves. And when we do, we don’t have to look at them as bad. Feelings are not bad, they are good. They teach us and call us to reflect on what is underneath our feelings. It is there without judgement, that we can discover what needs healing in our hearts and choose different ways to respond to what triggers us.
It is ok to be human. God made us human and wants to raise us up to share in his divinity. This is why we commune with Christ, that God may dwell in us and we in God, with God’s love being what stirs our hearts and finds expression in our love for all.
May the Holy Spirit dwell in us and may God’s gift of himself through Christ raise us, that we too may exude the glorious divine love of He who loves us! Amen.