5 May 2014 - signed, sealed, delivered

5 May 2014 - signed, sealed, delivered 

Jesus wants to reveal himself.  He gives signs to the people so that they may know who he is.  He wants them to have life and to have life to the full.  The only way that they can have life is to believe in him and have life in his name.

But it is tricky.  Jesus feeds the five thousand as a sign.  He wants to reveal that he is the one that satisfies our deepest longings.  But since he also fills the stomachs of the five thousand they miss the deeper purpose of the sign.  Temporary abundance blinds them to the greater and eternal abundance Jesus comes to provide.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

Jesus knows all of this in advance and still chooses to give the sign.  He knows that the temporal effects of his sign fascinate the crowd enough to keep their attention on him.  If their attention stays on him he can lift their minds from the sign itself (their bellies full) to the thing symbolized (the Eucharist and eternal life).  Jesus is willing to work this way.  He is willing go to lengths to get our attention.  He wants his signs to be before our eyes.  He wants to reveal himself.  We do not believe in a silent God.  Not only that, but we believe in a God who makes allowances for our weakness when he speaks and reveals himself.

He says to us, "Do not work for food that perishes" even, sometimes, as he gives us that temporary food.  He shows us that he knows what we need so that we trust him when he shows us that we need something deeper still.  For our part, we are reluctant to acknowledge that this world is shifting sand.  We hate to realize that all of the work we do here is temporary.  We still think that we can create ourselves a paradise here if we just figure out the trick to it.  We ask him, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"  But listen!  Implicit in the question is that the works we want to do are works which only he himself can do.  Hence his answer, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

So our focus needs to shift.  From our personal project kingdoms we need to seek instead his kingdom.  We need to shift from focusing primarily on what we can do to focusing on  on the one who can do all things.  We lift our eyes from works to trust in a person.  We lift our eyes from sign to thing symbolized.  Our minds are raised from letter to Spirit.

Saint Stephen's mind is lifted entirely to Jesus his king.  He is familiar with the Scriptures just as the Sanhedrin is.  But he is not trapped in the letter of it as are his accusers.  What his accusers ultimately imply is that Jesus will destroy the sign to bring fully the thing symbolized, whether or not they know they are saying that.  He himself is the true temple.  The custom of the passover given by Moses gives way to the Eucharist banquet.  But his accusers are trapped in the letter of the law.  They need the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit brings the Scriptures to life.  He is so present in them that they become "counselors" just as the Spirit as a counselor.

Though princes meet and talk against me,
your servant meditates on your statutes.
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
they are my counselors.

It is a wonderful feed forward mechanism because the Holy Spirit not only empowers us to read Scriptures, the words he himself wrote, but also fills us more and more as we do read them, empowering us to go deeper and get more and more from them.

Do we want to face the difficult circumstances of this world with a face "like the face of an angel"?  The goal seems lofty, but it begins simply.  We undertake the work to which Jesus calls us.  We "believe in the one" sent by the Father.  He elevates our minds from the world of shifting sands to the kingdom which cannot be shaken.  Perhaps "great wonders and signs" will begin to show up in our wake as well.

Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!