20th Week in OT Cycle C
Weekday 2/Tuesday
Ezekiel 28:1-10, Matthew 19:23-30
St. Augustine once said: “LOVE, AND THEN DO WHAT YOU WILL…” // The SON OF GOD put it to us this
way: “I leave you a New Commandment – that you love one another as I have loved you – and remember
this, there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend…”
LOVE – it’s the one and only disposition that will emanate out from the pores of every man woman and child that
someday lives out eternity in heaven with their New Glorified Resurrected Bodies.
After all, is not the entire physical Universe made OUT OF LOVE for our dwelling?
IT'S FOR US that the light of the sun dispels the gloomy shadows of the night.
IT'S FOR US that the heavens are embellished with the beauty of sunsets and sunrises, the moon, and the stars.
IT'S FOR US that this planet is adorned with flowers, trees and fruit.
IT’S FOR US that God has made the birds of the air, creatures that prance around in the fields and that swim in
the waters – and yet no one seems to be awestruck by the wonder of CREATION – instead, we end up being
Mesmerized, Hypnotized, by our quest for material goods, human recognition and Material things. We must
BEWARE of riches and the acquiring of temporal things…
For the things we own, in the end, end up owning us!!!
Some 2000 years ago, our King came to set us free from sin, this world, and the devil. He told us to keep the eyes
of our hearts focused on the IN-BREAKING OF THE KINGDOM. I mean if you take the time to analyze the
parables of Jesus spoken throughout the course of his three-year ministry, you will find that they are like one
brilliant snapshot - one after another - of the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN shown to us FROM EVERY
DIFFERENT ANGLE.
It's kind of like what happens to you if someone you know has just come back from a trip and taken a few
thousand pictures and you just happen to visit them soon thereafter. They want to show you every brilliant
snapshot of what they saw and experienced… (And just like some people could care less look at a bunch of
pictures from a trip: likewise, many people could care less about hearing anything concerning the
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!)
Thing is, it probably won't change or affect your life if you don't look at pictures from someone's trip – BUT I
PROMISE YOU that it will change and affect your life if you could care less about the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
because at the end of the day – unless someone's figured out how to live forever on this planet – making our way
towards another time and place seems to be part of the package deal when it comes down to being mortal human
beings.
As far as the Son of God is concerned, ETERNAL LIFE IN THE KINGDOM is the only DEAL that matters!!
And He wants to infect us with a new kind of volatile enthusiasm when it comes down to having the right
perspective on HUMAN existence. He wants us to do now that which we will do forever in the kingdom of
heaven: Emanate Love before all in the ways and opportunities with which we are presented on any given day.
If we really know what's going on in life, then we will keep our KNOWLEDGE focused on the Kingdom of
Love's coming reality!! Because that place “is our true home”, and not some cottage up in the woods!! To use the
words of Pippin’s song from the Lord of the Rings, –
“Our TRUE HOME lies in front of the world ahead… and while we, on many starlit nights, must tread
down gloomy paths and experiences – the day will come when SUDDENLY – we will find ourselves
passing through – mist and shadow, clouds and shade” – as time, money, power and material things of this
world IS FADING away… All is fading away…
When the day comes for the renewal of all things to take place, all peoples will find themselves standing, FACETO-FACE before the LUMINOUS LLOVE EMANATING out from every pore of “The Son of Man…” On that
day, many who are first in the ways of this world will be last in the ways of the Kingdom and the last will be
first.