YOU ARE SHARERS IN THE DIVINE NATURE

“As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”(John 17:18-19)

Jesus concluded his Last Supper discourse with a beautiful prayer showing the level of his unity with his Father. In today’s Gospel (John 17:11b-19) he prays for all his disciples – for each of us – that we might experience this unity too because we are his presence and his instruments in our world. we are this because we have been consecrated in baptism, sealed in confirmation, nourished in the Word and Eucharist, and healed every time we have failed. We are the presence and the instruments of Jesus our Savior in today’s world

During this week the Mazenodian Family is praying for vocations. A good place to begin is by becoming more aware of how we were transformed at our baptism and its ongoing consequences in our daily lives.

St Eugene calls out to us:

“Christians, know then your dignity, with St. Leo I will call you sharers in the divine nature”

and the words he addressed to the poor of Aix apply equally to each of us whether we are covered in rags or not:

Lift yourselves towards heaven where your minds should be set, conversatio vestra in caelo (Phil. 3:20), let your eyes see for once beneath the rags that cover you, there is within you an immortal soul made in the image of God whom it is destined to possess one day, a soul ransomed at the price of the blood of Jesus Christ, more precious in the eyes of God than all earth’s riches, than all the kingdoms of the earth, a soul of which he is more jealous than of the government of the entire universe.

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1 Response to YOU ARE SHARERS IN THE DIVINE NATURE

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    This morning I seem drawn to Eugene’s words from his Lenten Homily in the Church of the Madeleine in Aix. It was just this past Sunday when our Superior General repeated another part of the same homily as he talked with all of us from around the world. “…let your eyes see for once beneath the rags that cover you, there is within you an immortal soul made in the image of God whom it is destined to possess”

    I have never taken this to be just about the clothes that I wear but to be very honest I have also refrained from looking very closely to see what my rags are. What are the rags I wear to try and protect myself?

    My defenses – my defenses against others and myself being able to see my woundedness, my fears, my insecurities, my sins… This morning I see that my defenses are in tatters, shredded and ragged, dirty and frayed.

    I stop to look at my little Kintsugi Egg, once broken into countless small pieces and lovingly glued back together, with the frailest bonds being set in gold. Fragile, resilient, beautiful. I begin to fleetingly see the beauty within myself as it is captured and reflected in the eyes of my Beloved. It is like I am squirming within the embrace of my Beloved – not too sure of its comfort, not immediately able to allow myself to be calmed and held.

    I ponder the word “Consecrated”. Deliberately used! I think of the consecration that takes place within our Mass, of what we believe and live. Transformation. And with our Baptism we are consecrated for life in God. It is somehow more real, more honest for me than the word “ordained”.

    “I love you, you are mine. I have called you by name.”

    Consecrated – we are all consecrated. It is this which we pray for. Today I want to savour the word. Savour and allow it to become a part of me as I continue to look beneath the rags that I wear and recognize the beauty and joy of our vocation, wanting to share that with all who we meet. This is what I pray for others to know.

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