In this Sunday’s second reading from Paul’s Letter to the
Colossians, Paul speaks about a mystery, a
mystery that has been hidden for ages is now manifested to God’s Holy
Ones. The mystery is this: Christ
is in you[1].
Usually when we use the word mystery, we think of a
story that has an ending we try to solve before we get to the last page of the
book or last five minutes of the movie.
When the Church uses the term mystery,
it goes much deeper. For the Church a mystery is a truth that is
incomprehensible to the reason and knowable only through divine revelation. The
Early Church referred to the sacraments as the mysteries. When adults are about to come into the
faith they are anointed with the Oil of Catechumens so they may have the
strength and the grace to be open to Mystery. The main events of the action of
Jesus Christ in our world is called the Mystery of Faith. At the most solemn
time in the Mass, after the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood of Christ,
we are called upon to proclaim the Mystery of Faith, and we respond something
similar to: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” Well,
this Sunday, St. Paul, therefore reminds the Colossians and us that we have
received Mystery, the Mystery that Christ is in us.
Sadly when it comes to this Mystery many people, and
many times we ourselves, are clueless. We go about our day, so busily engaged
in doing this and that we overlook the purpose for our actions, we overlook the
reason for our being, we forget about the presence of Christ. Like Martha in
the Gospel we are concerned with doing instead of being. Martha was busy doing
this and that in her valiant efforts to prepare for Jesus. Mary, her sister,
was concerned with being, with being with Jesus.
A number of years ago, someone came up with a great
idea as a guide for making decisions.
The idea was WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? Even people still wear wristbands
with WWJD to remind them to choose the course of action that Jesus would
choose. I think that is wonderful.
But I want to propose an even better guide. Instead of focusing on Jesus
out there somewhere, focus in on the presence of the Lord right here, right
now, in your lives, in that of your family and others, in the Church, in the
world. This is the mystery that St. Paul is speaking about. Jesus Christ is here. When we are
attuned to the presence of the Lord, we will force ourselves to consider if a
particular action or inaction will strengthen or weaken the Divine Presence.
For example, some times people will say, “Well, the
Church says this or that, regarding some situation or other, but I
disagree.” Well, it is not a
matter of what the Church says, it is a matter of the presence of Christ. It is not merely a matter that the
Church says it is wrong to get drunk, let’s go beyond: it is a matter of
considering what this action is doing to the presence of Jesus in our lives. A
wise young priest once said to me, “A good way to judge whether an action is
moral or not is to ask yourself whether or not you can pray better after the
action.” Interesting. And true. If
after a course of action, we find prayer difficult, then we have probably have
driven the Lord out of our lives, or at least we have diminished His presence.
My brother, my sister, we need to pray. We harbor, we
treasure the presence of Christ within each of us, within our homes and in our
community. We need to make time
every day to recognize this presence within us. We need to pray.
We need to stop and hear the Lord in the silence. We cannot allow the many concerns of
our lives to hide the only thing that matters, the presence of Jesus–His
presence within us, His presence in those we love, His presence in those who
reach out to us. We cannot allow
anything to dull this presence, His Presence.
When we make the time to be in His presence, when we
join Mary of Bethany in just enjoying the Lord in our lives, we will find
ourselves walking a road less traveled, a road of serenity in the middle of
hectic activity. When we choose to
nurture the presence of the Lord within us, we, like Mary, will be choosing the
better part ■
[1] Sunday 21st
July, 2013, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Readings: Genesis 18:1-10. The
just will live in the presence of the Lord - Ps 14(15):2-5. Colossians
1:24-28. Luke 10:38-42 [St Lawrence of Brindisi].
