Monday, 19th week in Ordinary time
August 13, 2018: Ezek 1:2-5,24-28; Mt 17: 22-27
We belong to a God who is mighty, grandiose and magnificent. And because we belong to this God we too are mighty and magnificent. And this magnificence loses its true colour if it is detached from its origin, that is God. It dissipates into arrogance or pride and degrades humanity. As long as it is strongly linked to the Lord, it is ready to put up with sacrifices, sufferings, unjust treatments, and so on.
As St. Paul would put it, "the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" (Rom 8:18). We will learn this only when we begin to see everything from the perspective of God and that is what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel.
Jesus shows us an example of looking at everything in life, absolutely everything in life, from the perspective of God. Even a question of paying taxes leads Jesus to reflect on the fact that we are sons and daughters of God, that we are free by virtue of our participation in the Divine Nature of God!
The capacity of Jesus to move from the ordinary things of the daily life to a reflection on our relationship with God, is something amazing and something that we need to practice ourselves too. Let us at the end of this day, look back and see how many God-talks we were inspired to, all along this day. That would be possible only if we decided to live our life conscious of our magnificence, that is the God-perspective of our lives!