THOUGHTS FROM OUR COMMUNITY ON THE WORD OF GOD

30th Sunday of the Year Psalm 104:3-4

The psalmist exhorts us: "Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek always the face of the Lord”. Ps. 104:3-4 These words are incorporated for us into the liturgy as the Entrance Antiphon for the 30th Sunday of the Year, so the Church calls us to use them as our own.

What is this "face" of the Lord that we seek? It is his very Being, his radiance known in creation and his will which is love drawing all creation back to himself. So we can only "seek the face of the Lord" indirectly, as it is reflected in the beauty of creation and in that mysterious pull within us to do what is right and to love all other people as the same reflections of his face that we are. We also "seek his face" in communal worship and in our own individual prayer. So we are called to "seek his face" in every moment, circumstance and person. It means letting go of all that is not God, all self-centeredness, will to power and unlawful pleasure. These obscure his face.

All this is a heavy task. But the psalmist also says: "Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength". There should be joy in our hearts as we "search", for it is only by his strength that we do so. In the long run, our ability to search is his gift and often the best thing we can do is open ourselves to him and wait for him to "find" us. But it must be an active waiting in faith, hope and love, - and perseverance.

The exhortation of the psalmist was the entrance antiphon at the beginning of the Eucharistic Liturgy. It is here that God and man meet in Christ who is the "face" of God but who bears a human face as well. We are here called to seek the face of God by entering into this great mystery and to feed on Christ who transforms us into himself, so that we, too, may bear the resemblance of that divine Face.

Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus said: “Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide, the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it”.

Picture a broad, smoothly paved four-lane expressway you are driving down with ease with a wide, well marked exit at the end. Then picture a narrow dirt road with constant ruts and stones you are bumping slowly over approaching an entrance gate so narrow that your car barely edges through. If you could reach the same destination by both roads, you would certainly choose the wide, smooth one. But in Jesus’ parable the destinations are not the same; each is contrary to the road traveled. Part of our problem is that our focus is more on the road than on the destination.

The here and now is all that matters to us until we remember that there is a destination beyond this life which should be our primary concern. If we shift our focus there we will not notice the road so much. It helps if we remember that Jesus also said, “I am the way…no one comes to the Father (destination) except through me”. He traveled our human road himself and it was a very narrow, rutted road with a gate in the shape of a cross at the end. But he kept his focus on his destination, the Father, and made it through the entrance into the eternal embrace and banquet. He invites us to travel our road of life in him who is our Way. It will not be easy but we have his strong presence to sustain us. And the end is well worth the effort.