Monday of the Thrity-first Week of Ordinary Time

posted in: Homilies, Ordinary Time | 0

Today’s readings

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!

How often would we like to figure out what’s going on in God’s mind? Wouldn’t it be great to just be able to see the big picture as God sees it so that we can always do the right thing? But that’s just the point. The meaning of everything isn’t ours to know. God gives us what we need in order to follow him. If we would just open up our hearts and minds we could see what we need to see in order to be good disciples. But often we forget the grace we have been given and ignore what’s right in front of us in order to see what we want to see.

For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?

I often wonder if we really could see the whole big picture if we were more obedient to God’s will. Maybe it’s our disobedience, and not God, that keeps us from seeing everything as it truly is.

When it comes down to it, though, God is God and we are not. That is what St. Paul has been trying to tell us these past couple of weeks as we’ve been reading from his letter to the Romans. We have been disobedient and cannot be obedient apart from God’s grace. Thanks be to God, he has poured out his grace and mercy upon us. We cannot see what God wants us to see apart from God’s grace. Thanks be to God, he gives us his vision when we ask for it and are disposed to receive it.

We cannot give anything to God that he has not already given us. Our desire to thank him is itself a gift from God – it says that in today’s preface to the Eucharistic Prayer. God made us for relationship with him. We are called to be obedient to God’s grace and mercy that we might be able to see ourselves, others, and the whole world as it really is, and to know God’s plan for our lives. The Psalmist certainly received what he asked for today, and we can too: Lord, in your great love, answer me.