PUTTING ALL THINGS UNDER HIS FEET
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, whom the Church honored this
month, wrote these words of reflection that are fitting for today's Scripture
readings:
"Acknowledge that without Me you can do nothing, but I will
never let you lack help as long as you keep your weakness and nothingness
buried in My strength.
"Let Me do everything in its own time, for at present I
will have you to be the sport of My love, which will treat you according to its
good pleasure.
When we think of our human condition we should be aware of our
weaknesses. In one sense, we can say that life is a mountain to climb in order
to get to our eternal home. We do not have the power to make the journey on our
own, but there is Someone Who does, and that Someone is our heavenly Father.
How great is God's loving power? St. Paul says that the power
which God uses within us is like the power that raised Jesus Christ from the
dead. Death is a reality more universal and more overwhelming than the pull of
gravity forcing a car to slow down as it ascends a mountain. Nothing can resist
death's pull into the dark unknown - not money, nor prestige, nor influence.
Medical science can prolong life but it cannot prevent death. Death recognizes
no distinction among people. It overcomes the rich and the poor, the elderly
and the young, male and female.
Although death is inevitable, it is difficult for us to accept
our own mortality. We know in a theoretical way that one day we will die, but
we can often feel as though it will not happen to us. At sometime, though, we
must accept this reality as part of our earthly lives. Our faith in God's
loving power to raise us from the dead should fill us with great hope!
Today's first reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the
Ephesians. It contains a prayer that we may know the great hope to which God
our Father has called us to and the wealth of His glorious heritage. This hope
depends on our trust in the immeasurable scope of God's love and power, which
are like the strength He showed in raising His Son, Jesus Christ, from the
dead. Our great hope is in the fullness of the Lord, Who fills all things in
every way.
In the Responsorial Psalm we pray, "You have given Your Son
rule over the works of Your Hands" (Ps 8:7). God has put all things under
Jesus' feet, and we have come to know our smallness and our greatness, our
dignity and our nothingness. And knowing both, we accept in simplicity the
crown of the Ruler of Creation, the One outside us and the One inside us. Amen.