4th Sunday after Pentecost 28.6.20 Imperative words
In the Sacred Scriptures God speaks many words to us. We
find a certain forcefulness about His words, which is not surprising given His
position of absolute authority over us.
He does not ask our opinion first before He says something.
He puts it very plainly before us.
Take the Commandments: Thou shalt not kill/steal/commit
adultery etc. Or His operational instructions, as in today’s Gospel: Cast
out into the deep and let down your nets…
Then there are more comforting statements, such as Come to Me all you labour and I will give
you rest (Mt 11,28-30)…Or Your sins are forgiven (mt 9,5)… Enter into
the kingdom prepared … (Mt 25,34)
God knows what He is about; He does not need to search for
words, or hesitate.
His word does not return to Him empty (Is 55,11).
We can take comfort that we are in the hands of One who is
so much in command of the situation. He
has all power over heaven and earth (Mt 28, 18-20)
All his words to us are meant for our good, whether they
seem strict or gentle. If He is strict it is so that we will grasp the
importance of the topic.
If He speaks we must listen. We cannot dismiss His words, or
relegate them to lesser status.
Many have ignored His commands, and what a price we have all
paid for that. All the trouble in the world stems from human resistance to the
word of God.
Then as regards the gentler words - we have ignored them
too.
He has offered Mercy to us, chance after chance to come
right with Him, and we refuse to believe He can forgive us, or will forgive, or
has the power to transform us to something better.
So people see the harshness of the world, caused by their
own sin, and refuse to come into union with their God, which is all they have
to do to fix all that is wrong.
Swords would be turned in ploughshares and peace would
prevail if enough people responded to Our Lord’s words.
There is always the temptation to doubt. God does not waste
words. If He says to do something we should do it.
If He says Do X and Y will follow, then we must do X not
doubting the result.
Here again there is much resistance. We say, how could that
happen? It is against the laws of science.
Well, science tells us only what normally happens; it has no
authority of its own to decide what can or cannot happen.
God can make the waters part, literally and figuratively.
The same in today’s Gospel; put out your nets. There have
been no fish apparent; But, try it anyway, and there is a huge catch.
It cannot happen, but it does! This is a familiar story with
God.
If more people had more faith there would undoubtedly be
more miracles. Clearly the faith dimension is symbolised in this miracle of the
fish.
It does not look like there are many people lining up to
become Christian, but do what Our Lord tells us, and we will catch a lot of
them anyway.
Miracles aside, even in the ordinary course of things we
would have a much happier world if we obeyed the Lord’s commands (stricter
statements) and accepted His mercy (gentler statements), when we have fallen.
The more seriously we take His word the more closely united
with Him we will become; and that leads to great happiness. Whatever
difficulties we still encounter will be more than covered by having the Lord of
all creation right there with us.
He is freeing us from our doubt. He wants us to believe in
Him to the point that without hesitation we will do whatever He tells us.
Do whatever He tells you, as Our Lady said. And another
miracle followed.
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