Year A
Galatians 5:19-25
Psalm 1:1-2.3.4 6 (R. See John 8:12)
Luke 11:42-46
CONCEALED TOMBS
Psalm 103:1
Bless the Lord, O my soul and all within me, his holy name.
As we commemorate Saint Callistus I, who after his freedom from slavery became a deacon and later a pontiff or Pope, let's reflect on the modern slavery which we all have to be freed from.
In our world today, the greatest problem is Identity Crisis. You just watch, listen to the news or read the newspapers, the are countless examples of identity lost. The worst of this is that, because of fame, nudity has become the order of the day. This is the selling if the flesh to be famous. Why? What went wrong with humanity? Under the guise of sexual freedom human dignity is lost.
Its high time we looked at the questions regarding our identity and know ourselves. Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? Let us answer these questions with all sincerity.
As we are still reflecting on the theme of the flesh, let us look at how by getting to know ourselves or our identity we can really be set free. As I was meditating on today's readings, I remember in philosophy class the argument on free will and determinism, and the argument that since God knows even the future, man is not free.
This argument is of the view that, whatever action man will do in the future, God already knows and since God already knows those actions, man is determined to do exactly that. Even if man decided to do something and later decides to do another thing, God still knows. Thus only God is Free.
However, saying God is Free is a very important and liberating fact for us. The point is, God who knows his identity, knows that his essence is his existence. What God is, is that He is. And since to be God, is to be to be, and everything depends on God, if God is the only one who is Free, it means freedom is God.
God is Freedom and Freedom is God. If Freedom is God, whatever or whomever Freedom or God acts upon the most is more free.
So lets look at Man who was created in the image and likeness God. God thus acts on Man more than anything in the world, that is why Man is more free than animals and other inanimate objects in the world. Freedom is our greatest Identity, I repeat, God is our greatest Identity.
So without God, without Freedom Man loses his identity. But where Freedom is found in Man is his spirit which dwells in his soul. So for Man to be truly free, God must be in control of our whole being, that means we must rely on the works of the Spirit rather than that of the flesh.
So St. Paul in the first reading talks of the works of the flesh or self-indulgence as follows; sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality, the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements, factions and malice, drunkenness, Orgies and such things.
All these are as a result of lost of identity. When man is reduced to the flesh, man is reduced to an object, and this implies that to man, God is not acting in his life or as the atheist will claim, there is no God. And Man believing this state to rather be freedom falls into grave errors and sins and Man who is rational become like an animal. Man ends up worshipping the flesh and objects.
In fact Sin makes us behave like animals. If you remember the story of Cain and Abel, as Cain planned to kill his brother Abel, God said;
Genesis 4:7
"... sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it."
The imagery for sin is an imagery of an animal who wants to catch and devour. Thus Sin is irrational and makes us irrational.
In the gospel, Jesus Christ also tells the Pharisees and the lawyers that they have lost their identity. He says they are like Unmaked tombs that people walks on without knowing that tombs lies hidden under their feet. The Pharisees are known to be Set apart or Holy, but because they have neglected Love and consequently Justice, they have lost their identity. Have you lost your identity? By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson |
Comments
Post a Comment