Truly, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love (Psalm 33:18).
God’s love is a mystery contemplated throughout life. If the Eucharist is the most precious and ultimate Gift given to the Church, then the motive behind the Gift is God’s Love, and that says it all! I was reading a commentary by Dominican Priest Fr. Bernhard Blankenhorn, who said that we can receive this great gift of the Eucharist only through Faith and Thanksgiving.
Faith and Thanksgiving
The First Reading, St Paul’s famous prayer to the Ephesians (Chapter 3:14-21), reminds me that we can comprehend God’s love only through Faith and Thanksgiving. St Paul interestingly uses a term that is uncommon in Church language these days: ‘Inner Man’. The Word is bent on one thing: to satisfy the outer man (the carnal/fleshly nature). To comprehend the Love of God, one needs to strengthen the inner man.
Now, who or what is the Inner man? CCC Paragraph 1995 gives us the answer: The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the ‘inner man’, “justification entails the sanctification of his whole being: Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. … But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life”.
The answer to who the inner Man is: ‘The Indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit’ who continues to direct us to the things of Christ so that we can live the inheritance life as God’s Sons and Daughters in this world. I remember our move from Toronto to a small city, Peterborough, Ontario, just East of Toronto; the Lord had prepared us for years through constant time of prayer and daily Eucharist. I did not fully realize that this was God’s plan to strengthen the ‘Inner Man’. Once the inner man is strengthened, we move as the Spirit wills; there is no resistance whatsoever. That is a glorious life, brothers and sisters.
Ephesians 3:14-21
I am placing a unique challenge before you: memorize Ephesians 3:14-21; it is going to do a great deal of good for your soul. How to memorize? Just read it multiple times a day slowly and continue this every day, before you know you would have memorized, after this proclaim it every day, speak in an audible voice what you have memorized, you will be surprised at the results.
The Holy Spirit will start moving you from the things of the outer man to the inner man; you will start finding great delight (Joy) in things of Christ and the church, be it daily prayer, the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and that would put you on a trajectory that has Eternity in focus in all your decisions. At that point you will be filled, as St Paul so gloriously states in V 19: “with all the fullness of God”.
Now, that’s the fire Jesus wants to cast in the soul of each one of us, as stated in today’s Gospel, Luke 12:49: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” O Holy Spirit, my Divine Friend, cast that Holy Fire into my soul and the soul of everyone who reads this reflection, so that we will be another Christ on this Earth, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
