Deacon Tom Anthony

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 97

Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a

One day Elisha came to Shunem,
where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her.
Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.
So she said to her husband, “I know that Elisha is a holy man of God.
Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof
and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp,
so that when he comes to us he can stay there.”
Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.
Later Elisha asked, “Can something be done for her?”
His servant Gehazi answered, “Yes!
She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years.”
Elisha said, “Call her.”
When the woman had been called and stood at the door,
Elisha promised, “This time next year
you will be fondling a baby son.”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19

R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever,
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever;”
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
You are the splendor of their strength,
and by your favor our horn is exalted.
For to the LORD belongs our shield,
and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Reading 2 Rom 6:3-4, 8-11

Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Alleluia 1 Pt 2:9

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation;
announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

 

 

Gospel Mt 10:37-42

Jesus said to his apostles:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
"Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

Proper conduct does have its rewards. This is one of the benefits of living with Jesus Christ and making Him central in our lives. When we do good things then, as a direct result, good things will happen to us spiritually, mentally, and physically. Our spirituality and relationship with Jesus Christ will be enriched. Our wisdom will be increased. Our body will be treated like the temple that it should be. These statements are not being made as an incentive but more as a fact that displays the virtues of the Christian Life and what happens when these things are instituted. There is a transformative experience that happen which changes one’s perspective of everything. This experience has the potential to be so powerful that even obstacles and challenges in our lives can be changed into a positive experience.

Even though these things are mentioned as a direct result as our proper conduct the reason for doing them cannot be because of the expectation of being rewarded with this good things. We should not conduct ourselves for the reason of reward but because there is an understanding that it is the right thing to do. If we truly believe that Sacred Scripture is the Word of God and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God then what is said should be listened to attentively and an attempt of adherence should be made out of love and reverence. Those believing this also should be ecstatic with the opportunity to develop a relationship with the one who created them. Whatever stems from this conduct becomes a state of being that is strived for with the hope of achieving it because, as our God has pointed out, it is good to do this and whatever is good produces more good which makes us experience good. The word reward then takes on a different meaning than what society has defined it as previously.

The interaction between the Prophet Elisha and a woman of influence in Shunem demonstrates this proper conduct. She welcomed Elisha into her home and actually prepared a permanent room for him whenever he came through the area. She and her husband became benefactors for Elisha and assisted him so that he could concentrate on his prophetic office. There was no expectation of reward. There was no expectation of receiving something in return. It was something that they wanted to do out of proper conduct and what they had learned through the practice of their faith and their relationship with God. It was Elisha who wanted to do something for the woman and her husband in return for their kindness. If he had done nothing there would have been no disappointment because their intentions were pure and they were no seeking anything in return. Elisha, acting in much the same way, sought to give them something out of love and not out of reward, It was a mutual exchange of kindness grounded in a beautiful relationship with God. The words of Jesus Christ are emphasized through these actions:

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Putting the words of Sacred Scripture and the Words of God into action causes the relationship between God and us to be expanded outward to other people where it becomes a shared experience. There is a wonderful feeling that becomes present within us when we do these things. That is the presence of the Holy Spirit unrestricted by our own selfish thoughts or motives. That is why doing good and doing the right thing feels so good: it is the presence of God’s Love. We don’t have to want that feeling or seek to have it. It just comes when we are on the right track and are doing the right thing. Doing the right thing allows us to clear away the clutter between us and God that has forced a great divide. God didn’t want it that way. It was us who did it. When we focus on the words of God these things are then removed and it is only us and God. That is our reward but a reward that shouldn’t be expected in return for our actions.
The Apostle Paul speaks of looking at ourselves being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus. Living for God means listening to God. It also means basing the way we live our lives and our decision-making process on what  God wants us to do and putting it ahead of what we want.. Helping us on the way is Jesus Christ. Living in Christ Jesus means He is in us and we are in Him. As Jesus reminds us,

“Remain in me and I will in you.”

This is outlining a process and serves also as counsel. Staying with Jesus by listening to what He says about relationship as well as our conduct will produce a particular result. We will be with Him and He will be with us. What a beautiful guarantee we receive from Jesus Christ. When we concentrate on our own self-improvement and our own conduct based on what Jesus wants, because He is our God, good things will abound. These good things are just a product of us doing good. In the end, as Christians, do we want to do good and be good?  The obvious answer to that question would be yes. Jesus Christ wants us to do good and be good for our own benefit and for our own salvation. He tells us how to be good and how to be achieve our maximum potential. We have a blueprint ready-made to bring us to our highest potential in our lives. Coming from our God is reason enough to want to follow it.

Deacon Tom Anthony

Today we are reminded afresh by Jesus in the Gospel just what the cost of discipleship truly is. When He tells us that those who love father or mother, son or daughter more than Him are not worthy of Him, He is not telling us not to love our parents or our children. Contrary to what some people may erroneously think, the Gospel does not negate the Ten Commandments or the other parts of God’s ancient Law, it truly does fulfill those things. Hence, we can honestly say that Jesus was not saying, for example, that children should simply ignore the wishes of their parents in the name of the Gospel. Jesus was making very clear, however, that if we are going to truly live out the message of the Gospel and we are going to truly live what is rightly called a Gospel life, then it is inevitable that this Gospel way of living is going to come into conflict with the world and the ways of the world, and for many of us that might include otherwise unwanted unpleasantness or tension between ourselves and family members or friends, even our own parents or siblings.

Why would the Gospel cause that kind of conflict? After all, the last three Popes have affirmed to us-each in his own different way-that to live a Gospel life is to live a joyful life. Why, then, would a joyful life be “such a big deal?” Because God’s way of cleansing us and bringing us new life in and through Jesus Christ is more than a mere lifestyle choice. If we are going to truly follow Jesus Christ, what is being asked of each and every disciple of Christ-and hopefully that includes everyone here-is nothing less than a total commitment to Jesus. Most traditional Catholic Biblical commentators are in agreement that when Jesus uses the phrase “he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it,” He is literally telling the Apostles that those people who would choose to save their own mortal lives rather than sacrificing them for the sake of Christ will lose their soul for eternity, while those willing to see their lives sacrificed for the sake of Christ and the Gospel will gain eternal life.

What Jesus is telling His Apostles here, and what He tells us in this passage, is that he asks nothing less than total commitment from anyone who would be His disciple. He repeats it in more than one place in the Gospels, because in the Gospel of Luke Jesus goes so far as to say that we cannot be His disciple at all if we put our family or our own lives (and by this He means all of our worldly concerns) before Christ (Luke 14:26). In the time of Christ people were concerned with the labors of daily life which, by our modern standards today, would have truly been taxing to most people, and Jesus is telling His followers not to be as concerned with the things of this world, with the necessary drudgeries of life, as they are with being His disciple.

In our age of rapid communication and modern technology, our lives are supposed to be much easier, but we know that today’s way of living has its own drudgeries and its own concerns and traps, as it were, many of which can take our minds, hearts, and souls away from the things which are truly important. Christ’s call to discipleship, and to a life of complete submission to Him still rings just as true and just as real as it did when he said the words of the Gospel two millennia ago.

We hear a great deal of talk in modern American culture, and especially in our part of the United States, about people having a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” We absolutely believe that our God is real and He is personal, but that is not a phrase which appears anywhere in Sacred Scripture. Instead, this is the discussion we get from Jesus, one where He tells us that following Him could cause conflict even with those who are the dearest and closest to us. If you want an example of someone who is truly living out what Jesus has spoken of, try talking to or befriending a convert who is embracing the Catholic faith despite serious and heated opposition from close members of their own family, people they have to deal with every day. Such people want to honor their parents and other close family, but they know that they cannot give those closest to them what they want, which is to abandon their Catholic faith. The fidelity of such people should be an example to us of exactly what Jesus means in the Gospel today.

Many of the Christians of the Near East understand Jesus’ message all too well. They are often persecuted by people on both sides of the traditional Jewish/Arab divide in that part of the world, and so great is the pressure on the Faith there that in the part of the world where our faith began it is in great danger of being wiped out, but the Christians of the Near East continue to live out Christ’s call for total commitment.

“Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Jesus’ message of total commitment to Him is not exactly one we hear often in our modern culture. Far too many people are totally committed to their own advancement, their own enrichment, or their own pleasure. Even among many Catholics, there is often an attitude which says “I have been to Mass this week, I have done what I needed to do,” or “I’ve been to Confession, I can check that off my list.” Perhaps the worst example of this is the mentality that exists in some circles that “after Confirmation, you are ‘done.’” No one should ever be “done” with Jesus Christ.

In saying this, let me be very clear that I don’t diminish weekly Mass attendance in the least, nor do I mean to diminish anyone’s commitment to the Sacrament of Penance which, for the sake of our Souls, I pray is a regularity for each and every one of us, and not merely the Church’s yearly minimum. We are called to live a sacramental life…but that is really the entire point. Living a sacramental life is not merely about “going through the motions” of receiving the Sacraments. If we think that is what it means to live the Gospel through a sacramental life, we have missed the whole reason Christ gave us the Sacraments in the first place. The Church has consistently taught us that the Sacraments are outward and visible signs instituted by Christ to confer Grace upon those who receive them, but the Sacraments are a two-way proposition. When we receive the Sacraments, in order to receive the sanctifying Graces Christ has for us in them, we have to be open to receiving those Graces, and we can be open to sanctifying Grace by being committed to Jesus Christ in the way in which he is asking us according to the Gospel.
The ultimate reward for this kind of complete embrace of Jesus Christ and His message is that we will spend eternity in Heaven sharing in the Divine Life with Him. Living a committed Gospel life may be a daily struggle for many of us, but one way that we can know that we are on the right path is that for all of the difficulties Jesus warned would come our way when we choose the Gospel, and when we choose Christ, He also said “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (cf. Matt. 11:30) Jesus wants us to follow Him most of all because we love Him…and if we love Him, living a Gospel life won’t seem very burdensome at all.

My sisters and brothers in the Lord,
“What is my relationship with my family of origin?  How do I relate to my parents, my sisters, my brothers and to my extended family?  How do I relate to friends?  How do I relate to those in authority over me?”  These are the challenges from the readings this week.
We begin with the first reading, from the Second Book of Kings.  This is such a wonderful reading!  We see the concern of the Prophet for this woman who has no son.  The Prophet, like many religious leaders, is able to benefit from the love and care of those who are relatively well off.  Now it is a question of how to thank such people.  Most of us would not thinking of promising a baby!  On the other hand, the Prophets have more resources than we do!  We also know that later, when this baby is a young man, he dies unexpectedly and the woman turns again to the Prophet.  The gifts of Prophets and of God Himself are not always without suffering!
The second reading is from the Letter to the Romans.  Here we find a strong theology for ourselves.  If we have died in Christ, then we must embrace that death so that we can live in Christ.  We must become dead to sin.  That is so easy to say or to state, yet the reality implies for us and for all who seek the Lord that we must enter the spiritual combat and remain in combat all the days of our lives.  The life of Jesus is a wonderful gift and yet always comes with the condition of death to sin in ourselves.  We are invited to embrace the struggle against sin each day so that we can live more and more in the Lord.
The Gospel, today from Saint Matthew, brings the first two readings together.  We must love God more than anything or anyone.  We must love Christ more than our parents, our sisters, our brothers, our children—more than anyone.  This statement never implies not loving our parents, sisters, brothers, children, etc., but simply tells us that God is more important.
If we are looking for our own life, we shall lose that life.  It we are seeking the life of Jesus, we shall have our own life.  It is only in giving up our lives that we are given life.  This is one of the great challenges of following Jesus.  The more we deny ourselves, the more life of Jesus we have.  Again the strong reminder:  when we deny ourselves, we are doing this out of love and not out of any other motive.  If we judge others, then we condemn ourselves.  If we seek simply what the Lord asks of us today and every day, we are blessed—over and over and over.
May we seek the face of the Lord and respond to His love!  May we accept the gifts of the Lord and know that in those gifts there is also hardship.  May we die to ourselves in the very best way, but loving God first and always.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip

From the first book of Samuel
17:57-18:9, 20-30
Saul’s jealousy of David

When David returned from slaying the Philistine, Abner took him and presented him to Saul. David was still holding the Philistine’s head. Saul then asked him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David replied, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

[By the time David finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan had become as fond of David as if his life depended on him; he loved him as he loved himself. Saul laid claim to David that day and did not allow him to return to his father’s house. And Jonathan entered into a bond with David, because he loved him as himself. Jonathan divested himself of the mantle he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his military dress, and his sword, his bow and his belt. David then carried out successfully every mission on which Saul sent him. So Saul put him in charge of his soldiers, and this was agreeable to the whole army, even to Saul’s own officers.]

At the approach of Saul and David (on David’s return after slaying the Philistine), women came out from each of the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums. The women played and sang:

“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.”

Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: “They give David ten thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship.” [And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David.]

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, and it was reported to Saul, who was pleased at this, for he thought, “I will offer her to him to become a snare for him, so that the Philistines may strike him.” [Thus for the second time Saul said to David, “You shall become my son-in-law today.”] Saul then ordered his servants to speak to David privately and to say: “The king is fond of you, and all his officers love you. You should become the king’s son-in-law.” But when Saul’s servants mentioned this to David, he said: “Do you think it easy to become the king’s son-in-law? I am poor and insignificant.”

When his servants reported to him the nature of David’s answer, Saul commanded them to say this to David: “The king desires no other price for the bride than the foreskins of one hundred Philistines, that he may thus take vengeance on his enemies.” Saul intended in this way to bring about David’s death through the Philistines. When the servants reported this offer to David, he was pleased with the prospect of becoming the king’s son-in-law. [Before the year was up,] David made preparations and sallied forth with his men and slew two hundred Philistines. He brought back their foreskins and counted them out before the king, that he might thus become the king’s son-in-law. So Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.

Saul thus came to recognize that the Lord was with David; besides, his own daughter Michal loved David. Therefore Saul feared David all the more [and was his enemy ever after].

[The Philistine chiefs continued to make forays, but each time they took the field, David was more successful against them than any other of Saul’s officers, and as a result acquired great fame.]

RESPONSORY Psalm 56:2, 4, 14

Have pity on me, O God, for men trample upon me; all day long they persecute me with their constant attacks.
— I place my trust in you.

For you have rescued my soul from death and you have kept my feet from stumbling.
— I place my trust in you.

Second reading
From a treatise on Christian Perfection by Saint Gregory of Nyssa, bishop.
Christ should be manifest in our whole life

The life of the Christian has three distinguishing aspects: deeds, words and thought. Thought comes first, then words, since our words express openly the interior conclusions of the mind. Finally, after thoughts and words, comes action, for our deeds carry out what the mind has conceived. So when one of these results in our acting or speaking or thinking, we must make sure that all our thoughts, words and deeds are controlled by the divine ideal, the revelation of Christ. For then our thoughts, words and deeds will not fall short of the nobility of their implications.

What then must we do, we who have been found worthy of the name of Christ? Each of us must examine his thoughts, words and deeds, to see whether they are directed toward Christ or are turned away from him. This examination is carried out in various ways. Our deeds or our thoughts or our words are not in harmony with Christ if they issue from passion. They then bear the mark of the enemy who smears the pearl of the heart with the slime of passion, dimming and even destroying the luster of the precious stone.

On the other hand, if they are free from and untainted by every passionate inclination, they are directed toward Christ, the author and source of peace. He is like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts in your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained.

For the purity of Christ and the purity that is manifest in our hearts are identical. Christ’s purity, however, is the fountainhead; ours has its source in him and flows out of him. Our life is stamped with the beauty of his thought. The inner and the outer man are harmonized in a kind of music. The mind of Christ is the controlling influence that inspires us to moderation and goodness in our behavior. As I see it, Christian perfection consists in this: sharing the titles which express the meaning of Christ’s name, we bring out this meaning in our minds, our prayers and our way of life.

From the book of the prophet Jeremiah
1:4-10, 17-19
The call of the prophet

The word of the Lord came to me thus:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
“Ah, Lord God!” I said,
“I know not how to speak; I am too young.”
But the Lord answered me,
Say not, “I am too young.”
To whomever I send you, you shall go;
whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Have no fear before them,
because I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.
Then the Lord extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying,
See, I place my words in your mouth!
This day I set you
over nations and over kingdoms,
To root up and to tear down,
to destroy and to demolish,
to build and to plant.
But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Be not crushed on their account,
as though I would leave you crushed before them;
For it is I this day
who have made you a fortified city,
A pillar of iron, a wall of brass,
against the whole land:
Against Judah’s kings and princes,
against its priests and people.
They will fight against you, but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.
RESPONSORY Jeremiah 1:5, 9, 10
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I consecrated you,
— and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
I have placed my words in your mouth; I have set you over nations and over kingdoms.
— And I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Second reading
From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop
The voice of one crying in the wilderness

The Church observes the birth of John as a hallowed event. We have no such commemoration for any other fathers; but it is significant that we celebrate the birthdays of John and Jesus. This day cannot be passed by. And even if my explanation does not match the dignity of the feast, you may still meditate on it with great depth and profit.
John was born of a woman too old for childbirth; Christ was born of a youthful virgin. The news of John’s birth was met with incredulity, and his father was struck dumb. Christ’s birth was believed, and he was conceived through faith.
Such is the topic, as I have presented it, for our inquiry and discussion. But as I said before, if I lack either the time or the ability to study the implications of so profound a mystery, he who speaks within you even when I am not here will teach you better; it is he whom you contemplate with devotion, whom you have welcomed into your hearts, whose temples you have become.
John, then, appears as the boundary between the two testaments, the old and the new. That he is a sort of boundary, the Lord himself bears witness, when he speaks of the law and the prophets up until John the Baptist. Thus he represents times past and is the herald of the new era to come. As a representative of the past, he is born of aged parents; as a herald of the new era, he is declared to be a prophet while still in his mother’s womb. For when yet unborn, he leapt in his mother’s womb at the arrival of blessed Mary. In that womb he had already been designated a prophet, even before he was born; it was revealed that he was to be Christ’s precursor, before they saw one another. These are divine happenings, going beyond the limits of our human frailty. Eventually he is born, he receives his name, his father’s tongue is loosened. See how these events reflect reality.
Zechariah is silent and loses his voice until John, the precursor of the Lord, is born and restores his voice. The silence of Zechariah is nothing but the age of prophecy lying hidden, obscured, as it were, and concealed before the preaching of Christ. At John’s arrival Zechariah’s voice is released, and it becomes clear at the coming of the one who was foretold. The release of Zechariah’s voice at the birth of John is a parallel to the rending of the veil at Christ’s crucifixion. If John were announcing his own coming, Zechariah’s lips would not have been opened. The tongue is loosened because a voice is born. For when John was preaching the Lord’s coming he was asked: Who are you? And he replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. The voice is John, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John was a voice that lasted only for a time; Christ, the Word in the beginning, is eternal.

From the first book of Samuel
21:2-10; 22:1-5
The flight of David

David went to Ahimelech, the priest of Nob, who came trembling to meet him and asked, “Why are you alone? Is there no one with you?” David answered the priest: “The king gave me a commission and told me to let no one know anything about the business on which he sent me or the commission he gave me. For that reason I have arranged a meeting place with my men. Now what have you on hand? Give me five loaves, or whatever you can find.” But the priest replied to David, “I have no ordinary bread on hand, only holy bread; if the men have abstained from women, you may eat some of that.” David answered the priest: “We have indeed been segregated from women as on previous occasions. Whenever I go on a journey, all the young men are consecrated — even for a secular journey. All the more so today, when they are consecrated at arms!” So the priest gave him holy bread, for no other bread was on hand except the showbread which had been removed from the Lord’S presence and replaced by fresh bread when it was taken away. One of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; his name was Doeg the Edomite, and he was Saul’s chief henchman.
David then asked Ahimelech: “Do you have a spear or a sword on hand? I brought along neither my sword nor my weapons, because the king’s business was urgent.” The priest replied: “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Vale of the Terebinth, is here wrapped in a mantle behind an ephod. If you wish to take that, take it; there is no sword here except that one.” David said: “There is none to match it. Give it to me!”
David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his family heard about it, they came down to him there. He was joined by all those who were in difficulties or in debt, or who were embittered, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab and said to the king of Moab, “Let my father and mother stay with you, until I learn what God will do for me.” He left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him as long as David remained in the refuge.
But the prophet Gad said to David: “Do not remain in the refuge. Leave, and go to the land of Judah.” And so David left and went to the forest of Hereth.
RESPONSORY Romans 7:6; Mark 2:25,26
We have been set free from the law; we are dead to that which held us bound.
— Now we serve in the new way of the spirit and not under the old bondage of the written law.
Have you not read what David did when he was hungry? How he went into the house of God and ate the consecrated bread?
— Now we serve in the new way of the spirit and not under the old bondage of the written law.

Second reading
From a homily by Saint Gregory of Nyssa, bishop
God is like an inaccessible rock

Consider the feelings of a man who looks down into the depths of the sea from the top of a mountain. This is similar to my own experience when the voice of the Lord from on high, as from a mountaintop, reached the unfathomable depths of my intellect. Along the seacoast, you may often see mountains facing the sea. It is as though they had been sliced in two, with a sheer drop from top to bottom. At the top a projection forms a ledge overhanging the depths below. If a man were to look down from that ledge, he would be overcome by dizziness. In this same way my soul grows dizzy when it hears the great voice of the Lord saying: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
The vision of God is offered to those who have purified their hearts. Yet, no man has seen God at any time. These are the words of the great Saint John and they are confirmed by Saint Paul’s lofty thought, in the words: God is he whom no one has seen or can see. He is that smooth, steep and sheer rock, on which the mind can find no secure resting place to get a grip or lift ourselves up. In the view of Moses, he is inaccessible. In spite of every effort, our minds cannot approach him. We are cut off by the words: No man can see God and live. And yet, to see God is eternal life. But John, Paul and Moses, pillars of our faith, all testify that it is impossible to see God. Look at the dizziness that affects the soul drawn to contemplating the depths of these statements. If God is life, then he who does not see God does not see life. Yet God cannot be seen; the apostles and prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have testified to this. Into what straits is man’s hope driven!
Yet God does raise and sustain our flagging hopes. He rescued Peter from drowning and made the sea into a firm surface beneath his feet. He does the same for us; the hands of the Word of God are stretched out to us when we are out of our depth, buffeted and lost in speculation. Grasped firmly in his hands, we shall be without fear: Blessed are the pure of heart, he says, for they shall see God.