Holy Wisdom Church
April 22, 2018
Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Jewish Supreme court and yet we have no hint that he spoke even one word in Jesus’ favor or intervened in any way on His behalf. While Joseph is the man who gave Jesus a tomb when he was dead, it seems he was silent when he was alive. (For us too, do we provide flowers for our loved one’s graves and keep our praises for them until they have passed into the next life?) How soon Jesus’ words came true that when he was lifted up from the earth he would draw all to himself. The centurion and then Joseph who, no doubt, had been present when he died would risk their reputations (by) of doing and saying what is right.
The religious leaders understood that Jesus had indicated he would rise from the dead, so they stationed guards at the tomb and sealed the stone so that his disciples would not steal the body away and claim he had risen. His own disciples did not understand that he would rise from the dead. They were dubious and slow to believe even when Mary Magdalen told them she had seen the risen Christ. The women too, who went to the tomb to carry out the mourning rites, were afraid to carry that news to the men because of their own incredulity.
Are we any better? How often we hear that God loves us and loved us first but we are so slow to believe it. Doubts can assail us too, even now. Reflect on how the news when it finally was believed by the disciples changed them from frightened for their lives and hiding behind locked doors, to people with radiant joy and now flaming with courage.
Jesus is not just an historical figure but a living presence. We can know a great deal about Jesus which is good but our true aim is to know God, which enables us to love God and then all who God loves. Jesus made clear to Peter that he was forgiven for denying him by the angel saying to the women, tell His disciples and Peter - especially.
Coming to know Jesus enabled all the disciples, men and women, to create a united group, the early church. The early Christians knew they could not meet life with only their own strength. They always appealed to God before they went out to others. There was an intense feeling of responsibility for each other. Wonderful things can happen when people come together. God’s Spirit moves upon his worshipping people enabling them to reverently see that the whole earth is the temple of the living God. The riches of Christ are inexhaustible and every day was counted wasted if they did not go more deeply into the wisdom and grace of God. The joy and happiness derived from the acceptance of Christ’s good news made their beliefs attractive to many. Scripture says thousands came to believe.
Only when we see ourselves, humans, as part of creation, rather than as the crown of creation, will we ever be able to come anywhere close to really grasping the greatness of God and God’s gifts to us. Only then will we begin to understand that we are all meant to come to fullness of life together—plants, animals, planet, and humans in one great reciprocal circle of a common creation. Until we do, all of us will go on living life with spiritual blinders on. Like John speaks of in the first reading today, we will think and claim that we know God but our actions will not so clearly manifest that we do.
John speaks of the commandment to love in a way that is both new and old: Old, in the sense of having known the first two commandments to love God above all and the neighbor as the self. New, in the sense of a completely new standard – to love as Jesus showed us how to love: Love that reaches out to the sinner, to the Gentile, to the whole world. Glory be to Jesus Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment