4th Sunday after Easter 2.5.10 Why God created us.
The Epistle speaks of the goodness of God and how only what is good comes from His hands. If we can enter God’s mind a little way, we might see why He created this universe, and us (the human race) in particular.
He likes to create; He takes delight in His handiwork. He creates this beautiful universe. It would all be beautiful but for the fact that two of His created works can reject Him... angels and humans (the only beings endowed with free will).
But then this gives Him a greater challenge. If He can win over spiritual beings who have the power to reject Him - but choose to accept Him - then His joy is all the greater.
If we do respond we give Him that joy. All of us gathered here, we want to obey Him, to do His will.
We do not always act according to our beliefs or our best intentions. We say the Act of contrition and promise not to sin again. We mean it as far as we can.
We want to give Him what He wants to receive. He wants us to be good; we want to be good. The only way we can do this is to call on His help; that He will strengthen our will to stay faithful to Him.
Other creatures have no choice - they have to obey Him. A rock, for example, always obeys. Just sits there. A rock would not go down and get drunk and assault people etc.
People, by contrast, will constantly do all sorts of things: fight, stab, get angry, commit adultery... and even the more restrained ones can hate and be jealous and worldly and have false gods.
Whether obvious or subtle sinners we don’t give God the rate of return to which He is entitled.
It is a constant struggle for us to be good at all times. It gives Him pleasure if we obey, because the obedience we offer is a voluntary offering, a sacrifice. This is what makes it acceptable to Him.
I could choose my own way, make my own gods, my own commandments. Instead I come before Him and kneel before Him and submit to His will.
It will be also the greatest pleasure for us. The reason we do not submit fully is that we do not entirely trust that His way is best. So we partially obey Him and partially keep a few things up our sleeve. Can we go that extra bit in trust?
How can it be happier for me to submit everything to Him? One, because He is more likely to bless me and hear my prayers if I do that; and two, it is good for me because I am finding my true self, my true location, like a fish in water.
My greatest happiness is to be immersed in God.
When we come to Mass we do a lot of kneeling down. Rare these days. Why do we kneel?
We are expressing with our bodies what ought to be in our minds and souls, that we are willing to give ourselves over to Him.
And we recognize that our sin causes all the trouble; it is the only thing that spoils the beauty of the universe.
And all the healing in the world is caused by repentance. When we get back on the right wavelength we are beginning to be healed.
‘I will not sin again’ becomes more than just a vague formula, and becomes a reality. I am going to deepen each day my grasp of my desire to serve Him
This is the acceptable fruit, the return on His investment. This is why He created us.
No comments:
Post a Comment