Thursday, June 20, 2013

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 23, 2013: You have clothed yourselves with Christ...

You have clothed yourselves with Christ... 
What does it mean to be saved?

In this Sunday’s readings, the prophet Zechariah foretells God’s intervention on behalf of the people of Israel.  After years of exile, he says, God will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition; it will be a fountain to purify them from all that stands between themselves and God.  Relationship will be restored; access to God will be reestablished through God’s saving action in their lives.

The psalmist understands the need for this fountain of God’s grace:  for you… my soul thirsts, he cries (Psalm 63).  And since prayer itself is a means of access and connection with God, the psalmist’s petition in the temple is also a promise to glorify and bless God, knowing that he is intimately upheld by God’s right hand.  Revived by God’s kindness and help, the psalmist has been delivered, restored to right relationship, enjoying the intimacy of closeness with God once again.

Jesus’ coming satisfies this desire for God’s saving presence in ways the people of Israel could not begin to imagine.  In Luke's GospelJesus, the Christ of God, has a hard message for his disciples:  If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  How do we do this?  By allowing Christ to dwell in us.  By entering into full relationship with him.  By answering the question Who do you say that I am? with an effort to understand what it means if our lives are joined to him and his to ours, fully.  You have clothed yourself in Christ, Paul tells the Galatians.  If we are clothed in Christ, if Jesus truly dwells in us, then that relationship is transformative of our very essence.  Because then, we may become conduits of God’s saving power, points of access, the fountain of grace that the world so desperately needs… 

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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