The Role, Wisdom and Personal Knowledge of God
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - 27th August, 2017
Is 22: 19-23; Rom 11: 33-36; Mt 16: 13-20
Is 22: 19-23; Rom 11: 33-36; Mt 16: 13-20
Look around the world today - what do you observe in all fields? There are nations threatening each other to prove who is superior to whom. There are corporates clashing with each other to claim the topmost slot in the economic world. There are factions and groups in the name of religion and ethnicity and race, making of humanity a worthless value to uphold. There are those in the garb of god-men fending their own nests and exploiting every one else for it. There are politicians who pose to be liberators of the masses while they are hand in glove with every agency that goes diametrically opposed to the common mass. What is all these manipulation about? What are they trying to prove to themselves and to the world? With this as background let us approach the Word today.
One image that dominates today's liturgy of the word is the image of the Key...every person, every entity, every nation, every society, every corporate wants to be a key entity in its field. That is what we saw in the entire list of examples we just enumerated. But, in truth, becoming conscious of one's mission and situating it within God's plan is the real secret behind being key persons in the eyes of the Lord. Every prophet, we see in the Old Testament, is enamoured by the love of the Lord and surrenders totally to the Spirit shining as a key person within the believing community. I have observed in persons within some of our Christian communities that I have served, a similar urge to be key persons! Our tasks of being part of the Parish Pastoral Council, the cooperators to the animating nucleus of the Parish at the zonal or the division levels, are some key roles that people aspire for today. The call is be key persons, yes; but not unto our own glory but unto the Reign that the Lord wants us to build here on earth.
One image that dominates today's liturgy of the word is the image of the Key...every person, every entity, every nation, every society, every corporate wants to be a key entity in its field. That is what we saw in the entire list of examples we just enumerated. But, in truth, becoming conscious of one's mission and situating it within God's plan is the real secret behind being key persons in the eyes of the Lord. Every prophet, we see in the Old Testament, is enamoured by the love of the Lord and surrenders totally to the Spirit shining as a key person within the believing community. I have observed in persons within some of our Christian communities that I have served, a similar urge to be key persons! Our tasks of being part of the Parish Pastoral Council, the cooperators to the animating nucleus of the Parish at the zonal or the division levels, are some key roles that people aspire for today. The call is be key persons, yes; but not unto our own glory but unto the Reign that the Lord wants us to build here on earth.
To be a key person is to realise your GOD GIVEN ROLE:
Being key persons unto the kingdom would mean, we understand our key role from the perspective of God. At times politics enters the religious ambit and shatters every bit of truth that can exist. Lack of focus and confusion of meanings are the outcomes of such an influx and personal integrity is left at stake. The Lord reminds us in the first reading that it is the Lord who robes one with or strips one of authority.
To be a key person is to be GUIDED BY WISDOM:
Wisdom is not merely knowing; it is knowing that one knows and knowing what is to be known at a particular point of time. It is, more than capacity, a grace! A key person unto the Kingdom should be equipped with wisdom much more than anything. To make the right decisions at the right time and to make the right changes at the right time towards an authentic growth towards being true people of the Reign, the key persons, if not all, should be guided by wisdom.
To be a key person is to have PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD:
The Gospel today gives us the ultimate criterion to be key persons unto the kingdom: it is to know God, on a personal basis. To have encountered God, experienced God, tasted God, felt the concrete presence of God is one of the fundamental criteria to play any key role in a community of faith, a community of people of God. Mere borrowed experiences and brainwashed theories cannot make one an authentic key player within the community of the Reign.
Each of us can turn to be a key person unto the Kingdom, if we realise the God given role that we have, be guided by Wisdom and yearn for a personal knowledge of God in our lives. The more key persons there are, the more the Reign can be established on earth.