15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

"Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... before the world was made he chose us, chose us in Christ to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence." (Eph 1:3-14)

This doctrine of our faith inspired and sustained me during my first years of Religious Life - and still does. It fired me to learn more about Christ, to enter fully into the mystery of the person of Christ. Jesus says, "Father, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent", and again, "no one can come to the Father except through me".

"God chose us" but first Jesus himself within the loving communion of the Blessed Trinity is chosen and sent by the Father, He who is so madly in love with His creatures, as St Catherine expresses it, to tell the world of this love, to redeem us even thoug we were/are sinners. The Incarnation cost Him dearly. He poured out every drop of blood for love of us and of His Father - in return rose gloriously from the dead.

The wonder of it all is that you and I are in this same Christ - we make one with Him in the Divine thought. Jesus reveals to St Catherine in her 'Dialogue', "I created souls in my image and likeness, even more, in taking human nature I made myself like one of you. Consequently, I do not cease working to make your souls like to me, as far as they are capable of it and I endeavor to renew in them, when they are tending towards heaven, all that took place in my Body". It is mind boggling but a reality - a divine reality. Faith alone can receive it as love alone has given it, Dom Marmion says.

Our life revolves around the Eucharist, the Liturgy and here we have the supreme reality of being in Christ. Fr. Barden OP, in his inspiring book "What happens at the Mass", says "in our movement to God, that we go to God in Christ is found only in the Mass and to a lesser extent in all the Sacraments. The Mass is a profession of faith, hope and charity, of that faith, hope and charity by which we move towards the Father through Christ and with Christ. But the special glory of the Mass is that by it we also move towards the Father in Christ, glorifying Him and propiating Him in Christ. O wonder of wonders, because of our baptism we can claim as our own the merit of that priestly act of oblation in Christ's mind and will by which he surrendered His living body and blood through death into the possession of His Father."

Let us answer the call of our whole being to bow down in loving surrender, adoration and awe.