22nd Sunday Ordinary Time (B) 1 September 2024 Life to the full
Jesus said once: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14,6).
And He also said: I am the Bread of life (Jn 6,35).
He does not say: I have life, but I am life. God is life, and there is no trace of death or decay in Him. He does not grow old or tired; He does not wear out with time. He is beyond time and has no beginning or end.
Out of this great abundance God came among us that we might have life and have it to the full (Jn 10,10). He invites us to Him at every possible chance and draw life from Him.
We draw life from Him through prayer and sacraments, and living a good life – spiritually and morally good.
We do have a beginning, at conception, but no end. Our souls are immortal and cannot die. What we call death is when the body stops functioning and the soul leaves the body.
We then live on in the soul; we are aware of what is happening.
We will live on in the soul until the Last Day, when the bodies of all the dead will rise again. If we are saved our bodies will be glorious and reunited with our souls from that time on.
We can become more alive through making progress in the spiritual life. When Jesus said, ‘life to the full’ He meant spiritual life. Physical life decays but spiritual life can get better and better.
Finally when all sin and imperfection have been cleared away we are ready for the glory of heavenly life.
We see that God is solicitous for the spiritual progress of each person. He is not remote, as many think, but right in our midst, guiding and correcting us in various ways.
He wants us to participate intelligently in all His workings with us. He arranges matters such that we can help bring each other to a greater degree of life. We do this by sharing in His creation of new life (children), then by evangelism, catechesis, and trying to retrieve the lost.
Can we measure how alive we are? It is what is inside us that tells.
It might be fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride and folly (today’s Gospel Mk 7, 21-22) OR love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5, 22-23).
We can decide what we have inside us by going to the source of all goodness and life, and drawing the good qualities from there.
We can pray these things for others too, and it will benefit us and them when we do that.
On Fathers Day we think of those who have brought us to life, physically and spiritually.
Fathers are meant to continue their role through instructing the child into the right ways.
There comes a time when our fathers grow weak and they need our support as once we needed theirs.
We are grateful for what they did for us; now we do something for them.
For the fathers who have died we make special prayer, drawing from the infinite depths of the Sacred Heart to forgive their sins and lead them to final glory.
Thus we help them to attain life in all its fulness.
God can impart life, and create and re-create. In spite of how it sometimes looks, life is much stronger than death, and all traces of death will be removed from us.
May the Lord of life, bring us to our eternal home.
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