FRIDAY, TWENTY FIFTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Eccl 3: 1-11 Ps 144: 1-4 Lk 9: 18-22
PARTICIPATION IN DIVINE IDENTITY
We humans grow gradually in time. There is nothing that can happen overnight in the historic realm. Our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth is but normal and a gradual happening in time. When one grows beyond nature’s laws, we call it abnormality and such cases require medical or psychological treatment. The first reading of today speaks extensively about how everything in life happens in the realm of time. There is time for everything, and by chance if one goes to mutate things outside the usual time sequence of nature then one may end up ruin everything.
Having said that about the realm of time and history, something quite distinct happens when one enters the realm of prayer and contemplation, where one is able to experience the bond of love between the divine heart and the human. Here the human person enters the sphere of the spiritual or mystical and experiences things beyond time and season. This is what we call the transforming effect of prayer and contemplation.
The Gospel of today speaks of one such experience of St. Peter. To begin with, Jesus spends the entire night in prayer with deep intimacy with the Father where he experiences his divine identity and oneness with the Father being the Son of God. At the same time Jesus wanted to see whether his close disciples who prepared for the same divine intimacy could understand his divine identity. Thus, he asks Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” It is heartening to see when Peter answers Jesus rightly, saying that He was the Christ Son of the living God. Jesus immediately declares that flesh and blood has not revealed this to him but His heavenly Father, because he too was able to enter the realm of the spiritual. In other words, it is the grace of the Holy Spirit alone that can help us transcend time and history and make us understand who truly Jesus is on one hand and what our true identity is as the disciples of Jesus.
Response: Blest be the Lord, my rock
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