4th Sunday The fullness of Jesus Christ

 


One of our challenges when it comes to Jesus Christ, to our Faith and to our discipleship comes from our vision. Not literally how we see with our eyes, but how expansive we see with our minds and hearts. How much of the whole do we experience.


We can isolate Jesus to a Gospel passage, a pericope, and get too focussed on that event, and do not see or understand the connection to a bigger plan. Or we see Jesus in one way, but do not see the whole.


A possible sign in our lives of this is when we only call upon Jesus as we need something: getting good grades; when we or someone we love is sick; job. Not that this is bad, but if this is our only approach to Jesus, then we are losing out on so much more.


Or another, we approach Jesus as a moral law giver: we use him to determine how bad we are, or others; and we put too much energy into judgment. There is so much more to Jesus.


Consider today’s passage: Jesus deals with unclean spirits, and he teaches with authority. 


We as Catholic-Christians take in the whole picture; of Jesus, of all of Sacred Scripture, and of our Tradition. 


God created and creates still all in Harmony. When we go into the Genesis stories of creation, explore them and contemplate them, we can see this aspect. God created with Harmony and God intends harmony; we humans were created to be in Harmony with God, with each other and with the world around us.


God is harmony, a meaning of the Trinity. God is three and one, a community, a relationship of perfect love.


God desires that all have and live in this same harmony. God acts in creation to make real the divine Harmony and to invite humanity to participate. God acted with Abram, with Israel and the Prophets; and God acts completely and fully in sending the beloved Son to complete and manifest this Harmony.


Jesus comes to bring us Harmony; Jesus is Divine Harmony. Jesus reveals God’s infinite love of us and God’s desire for forgiveness, thus we can be reconciled with God.


Jesus shows us how our love of God becomes real in love of others; in our generosity and kindness, our mercy and patience, our humility and our willingness to give of ourselves. We love God, we love others, and we live in harmony with others and all of creation.


Jesus manifests this because it is within him. It is intrinsic to his personhood as Son of God and as Human. He believes this and it is part of his being. This is how he expels those unclean forces that bring chaos, this is how he teaches with authority. It comes from within. This is God being present into this world.


As we begin to grasp a wider, deeper, more expansive faith in Jesus, a fruit of this is a wider, deeper more expansive understanding of our world and our selves.


We need to ask ourselves “what do we truly seek?” Is it a momentary healing, or do we really need a deeper healing?

Is it knowing what we “should” do in a moment or do we seek a greater divine wisdom to guide us in our lives?


What I find is that many of us settle for a too shallow of a life and faith life.

We wish or are willing to only do the minimum. What we will get is the minimum. That is sad because God offers so much more.


Yet, here at this parish there are present ways for us to find more in life for ourselves and for youth. Programs, classes, ministry, including Youth Ministry, all for the goal of opening our minds and our hearts to something that is larger that maybe we realize; to a reality that can offer us a joy in this life even as this life gets us down.


I can tell the persons, whether young or old, who are truly engaged in the faith, taking those steps to become a better disciple of Jesus. They smile more often. They don’t get so battered by the hardships of life. They speak words of gratitude for so much. They have a sense of peace about them. They display reverence but also a sense of fun. They heal, they calm, they minister, they have a sense of wonder about their lives.


Imagine how many more people can be healed, made whole, find a harmony, if many more of us engage in a more fully Jesus Christ.

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