Tuesday in 14th week of Ordinary Time, July 10, 2007

Scripture: Genesis 32:23-33. Psalm 17. Matthew 9:32-38. Lectionary # 384:

From Genesis we have learned that God's people were afraid to "see the face
of God." They feared dying if this should happen, but that is not the case
for many of the holy ones, the patriarchs and the prophets. Today we learn
of Jacob wrestling with a divine-like being and he, too, was afraid of
dying. Instead he is given the name "Israel" (the one who wrestles with
God) and he receives a new call to become; the father of the twelve sons
after whom the twelve tribes are named. Would we be afraid to look upon
the face of God? Would we die? I think not; for as the Scriptures unfold,
we learn that God loves us and that his compassion and mercy are there for
us. We like Abraham are to be friends of God. We are to talk with him and
even wrestle with God from time to time as did Jacob. Our Psalm 17 and its
response fits this story of Jacob: "In my justice, I shall see your face, O
Lord." For Christians it is the person of Jesus who shows us the face of
God and it is the same mercy and compassion that we experience as did the
people of Israel. Salvation history is the story of God showing us his
presence, his face, especially in some hidden ways but especially in those
created in his image and likeness--that is all of us! We see Jesus doing
the works of mercy among all of the sick, the possessed, and the lonely in
one of those summaries that Matthew gives us from time to time. It is
Jesus who casts out fear and evil from our hearts and then we can see God
in one another. Through our own baptism we have been given a name that
normally belongs to a saint or a righteous person. We sometimes follow up
on that name by reading about the history of the one after whom we are
named. If it is a saint, then they have seen the face of God and are
seeing God's countenance now. Living with such a thought we join the
Communion of Saints and experience here on earth what the saints in glory
see more clearly and fully--the face of God. As the Gospel ends we are
like Jacob given a task after struggling with God and seeing God's face.
Jesus asks us to become laborers in the harvest of helping others to
realize that God is alive and every helpful in our own lives. Our Psalm 7
contains these two lines which talk about God and his presence: "Keep me as
the apple of the eye, hide me in the shadow of Thy wings" (verse 8) and "As
for me, I shall behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with Thy likeness." (verse 15). Amen.