GOD HATH VISITED HIS PEOPLE

 A REFLECTION FOR THE 15TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The people who witnessed the raising of the young man of Nain from the dead were struck with fear: “And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us, and That God hath visited his people.”  Today, we look back at that visitation by God, and we are not so much struck with fear as inspired.  But how do we feel about the next visitation of Christ among us, his people?

How would we sum up the Life of Christ?  It had so many aspects; our blessed Lord set so many examples for us to follow, he healed so many sick people, righted so many wrongs.  He gave us the right prayers to say, the true Mass to celebrate in his memory, he founded our Church, he entrusted his own blessed Mother to be our own Mother. He literally died for us—all of us.  Our Lord’s life can’t easily be described in just a few words.  Words fail us, and the reason is that he is the Word.  The Word.  The divine Word made flesh.

Today’s Gospel comes very close to the essential element of Christ’s life on earth.  He doesn’t merely heal a young man from his sickness, he actually raises him from the dead.  When he made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk, these miracles were mere shadows of the wonder of bringing a dead man back to life.  And even this act, great thought it may be, is a mere nothing compared to his ultimate role of dying himself so that we may all escape death and have eternal life.

There has been much controversy since the Novus Ordo Mass was introduced, as to whether the words of consecration of the traditional Mass are correct in saying that our Lord died “for you and for many” so that sins may be forgiven, or whether the new Mass made a necessary correction by changing the words to make it “for you and for all men.”  While the change to the form of the sacrament was substantial, and therefore probably invalidated the new “Mass,” nevertheless both statements can be viewed as theologically correct.  It’s the basic distinction between Redemption and Salvation.  Our Lord redeemed all men.  But he did not, alas, save them all from hell.  Salvation depends upon our correspondence with the divine grace we receive.  It depends not only upon God, but upon our own free will.  And not all men are saved.  Indeed, we could even say, along with so many saints and theologians, that the vast majority of men will not save their souls.  Redemption was our Lord’s job, Salvation is ours.

As Christians, we look forward to our Lord’s return to this earth.  He came the first time to heal, to save the souls of all those who received him.  He cured the living and raised the dead.  Next time, it will be different.  He will come again in glory to judge both the quick and the dead.  The first time he came, he showed us the way to glory.  Next time, he will either take us to glory or banish us from that glory forever.  He has already done his part by dying on the Cross, and the graces that flowed from his Sacred Heart give us everything we need to do our own part.  He is the Redeemer of us all.  At his Second Coming, we will find out whether he is also our Saviour—whether the part we played was good enough.  Many will be disappointed.  Please God, we’re not one of them!