Father Tim Lemlin
The amazing thing about Jesus' statement in today's gospel ("Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.") is that it is completely positive. Jesus believes that he is simply stating what God is doing at this very moment - what God does each and every moment. It is amazing because we don't have to jump through any hoops. We don't have to be a member of a particular church. We don't have to be holy. We don't have to be worthy. What God is doing right now isn't dependent upon me at all. We miss this reality, Jesus tells us, because we are so caught up in what we believe to be important rather than in what is truly important.
We resist such a message because it contradicts the accepted image and way of relating to God with which we are comfortable. It undermines my accepted belief that I can make myself worthy. It tells me that I am operating as an impostor, something I don't want to know about myself. I would rather live a lie that I pretend is true, because it is the accepted way of life that most people live.
Most people do not live in the present moment. We most often live in the past and in the future. We allow the past - especially our hurts (real or imagined) - to tell us who we are. The past defines us by pitting us against someone or something else. When the past defines who we are, our lives (the way in which we relate to ourselves, others and the world) are pre-determined. We are told how we are to react to each person and each situation. This never happens on the conscious level.
The scriptures never tell us to remember our hurts. They do tell us to remember God's faithfulness.
The future defines us in a similar way. Anxiety and fear are always about future happenings. "Will I make a good impression at this interview?" "When will she arrive?" "I'm afraid something might happen?" "It's going to snow next week… how will I make it to my meeting?" "Will I miss my plane connection, bus, or ride?"
Jesus calls fear and anxiety the opposite of faith. Clearly, Jesus announces repeatedly NOW is the moment of our salvation. Not yesterday or tomorrow… NOW is only time in which we can meet God.
When who we are is determined by the past and the future we live in negativity. This is the direct opposite of Jesus.
The resistance that you might be feeling within yourself comes from the realization that to accept and begin to live in this way means the death of who you believe yourself to be. And this is the only self that you know! Most of us don't know the self that is in union with God. Most of us only know the self that defines itself by what makes me different from God and others. This "false self" (the self that dies when our body dies) lives in the past and in the future, but never in the present.
God is available to each of us NOW. God is always available to us NOW. No gimmicks… no expectations… no requirements… nothing ever separates us from God. Nothing can separate us from God. We all know this on some level to be true. The reality is simply asleep within us waiting for the opportunity to awaken and give us hope.
