Again,
It has been a week
that has challenged
any sense
of being positive
about being human.
We have seen the Christian faith
mocked at the Olympics
followed by people telling us
that it wasn't intended
to be
despite direct evidence
to the contrary
from those involved.
We have seen the blasphemy
of little girls being stabbed
while enjoying a dance class
followed by riots.
We are outraged
and we weep
and feel impotent.
All this just gets to you
once in a while,
doesn't it?
[PAUSE]
We see Our Lord
weeping over Jerusalem.
He keeps because
He knows what is going to happen
and cannot change it.
It is at this point
the voices cry:
"Then He cannot be God,
for God can do anything!"
They make a point.
How can God weep
if He is unaffected
by emotions?
How can He fail
to prevent the fall of Jerusalem
if He can see it coming?
[PAUSE]
What we see here is
another reason why Our Lord
became a human being.
Our Salvation
depends upon
the Our Lord
taking Human Nature
up into His Divine Nature.
The gap between
being human
and being Divine
is infinite.
So God bridges the gap
Himself
by taking what it is to be human
into the divine person
of Jesus.
In so doing,
Our Lord sanctifies
all aspects
of what it is to be human.
He weeps
because weep.
He is tempted
because we are tempted.
He is scared
because we get scared.
The person of
Our Lord Jesus Christ
is affected by what we do
because He has our nature.
But more than that.
[PAUSE]
We have free will.
We make our decisions freely
and God forces us to do nothing
because God is Love
and Love does not insist
on its own way.
But God makes His decisions
from Eternity.
This means
that He sees
past, present and future
all at once.
He responds to
our decisions
- even the ones
we haven't made yet -
from Eternity.
But God will not
change our decisions
in order to make
His will happen.
It means
we have a hand in
our own salvation
because we have a hand
in our creation
and, indeed,
all of Creation itself.
[PAUSE]
We cannot change
the decisions of others
even if those decisions lead
to blasphemy and to murder,
but we can still stand against them.
If we have a hand in Creation
then we have a duty
to play that hand well,
and to call out evil when we see it.
Our Lord calls out evil
when he sees it trying to block
the way to God in the temple
through manipulating
the money changers
and the animal sellers.
So we should call out evil
when we see it.
Not that we should call people evil
for we are all creatures of God
and this good in His eyes,
but that we should not
be complacent when we see
something wrong.
It means we have to pray
and learn how to confront evil
in a way that God would want us to.
But we should take comfort
from feeling outraged,
from feeling impotent,
from feeling devastated
because Our Lord
has sanctified these feelings for us.
It just remains for is
to acknowledge
and do that which
is Godly,
filled with grace
and pointing towards joy.
For if God is with us
at our darkest,
then, by loving Him,
we shall be with Him
in His joy.
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