Roses from thorns

A recording of today's reflection can be accessed here.

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Today’s gospel (Luke 12 : 13-21) was the subject of a reflection on the blog this time last year (follow this link). Today’s thought, therefore, concerns today’s first reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans (4: 20-25).

 St Paul here reflects on the faith of Abraham, its strength, and particularly its anchorage in what God had promised. Yet, St Paul observes, Abraham’s case is a lesson for us, and an example of the transformation that can come about in our lives when we believe in the redemptive actions of Our Lord and Saviour, His death on the Cross that redeems us from sin, and His resurrection from the dead after which He pleads for us before the Father. St Paul leads us to grasp this parallel in which the promises made to Abraham are renewed in the new covenant sealed in the blood of Jesus. It is the unfolding of God’s original plan, not a new approach or a change of heart. In His mercy, God leads man deeper and deeper into the mystery of His friendship, but this cannot come about without a salvific solution to the sin which entwines itself around our very being. We are in chains; we have the possibility now of being liberated. Jesus has died for us, but it is only insofar as we embrace that mystery and live it in our own lives that we can taste His liberation and benefit from its fruits.

And so, there is a new logic that arises with Christ. Abraham was required to be faithful, and heaven knows he was put to the test by God’s command to sacrifice His only son Isaac through whom presumably he thought the divine promises would be fulfilled. But even in these actions we see a shadow of the new logic by which all those who desire to benefit from the new covenant must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus through His transformation from death to life. We do this initially in baptism, but the passage from death to life is woven into every moment, every action, every opportunity we have to serve God. As St Paul again says, I live; now not I but Christ lives in me.

This transformation is the extension of the Incarnation on which we dwell so often in COLW, as we become new Christs in our turn, first through baptism, then by offering our yes and thank you to the Father in every moment, following the example of Mary who stood beside the tragedy of the cross, having once felt the abundance of His life within herself. And just as it was Abraham’s faith that held him to the promises of God, so we need to live our faith, to hold us true to the promises of our transformation in Christ. We need to beg God to perfect that faith through the divine gifts of knowledge, understanding, and especially wisdom.

From now on, in our lives and in the actions of every human being open to grace, there is the opportunity for this transformation to take hold, for the logic and pattern of death and resurrection to overtake and renew our intentions. We simply need to say yes: yes, and thank you, and by your power alone, Lord. The thorns of this life need not remain as thorns: barren, painful, a reminder of our losses and the dangers of our isolation from God. Now through grace, every moment of our life can know the transformation of grace, the passage from death to life, the metamorphosis by which something that can never happen in nature breaks in on the reality of this world: our thorns can become roses.

Now, looked on through the eyes of faith, our daily struggle, our duties, our inner weariness, and pain, can be melded into the mystery of Christ, our elder brother, and turned into a moment of eternal value. The eternity of God can break through on the mundaneness of our lives. The deadened lifelessness of daily disappointment and burden can become a springtime of vigour and joy, for in Christ and through His grace, our ugliness is made beauty, our sorrow is made festivity, and our little nothingness basks in the everlasting gaze of our loving Father and Lord. The eyes of faith bring the horror of the world around us into the eternal moment where God redeems us from the sufferings we endure in order to restore us to our home again.

Through faith and all the consequences that flow from it, life will follow death, triumph will come after disaster, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.