Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
In commenting on the story of Rebecca and Jacob’s deception, St. Augustine wrote: Non est mendacium sed mysterium – “It is not a lie but a mystery.” St. Augustine, of course, knew very well that Jacob’s lie was just that! But he was pointing to the mystery of God’s dealings with us humans. It is the mystery unfolding in the use Divine Providence makes of human lives. Our good and evil deeds, our foibles and plots, our plans and failures – all are under God’s Providential gaze. The stories of the Old Testament, again and again, show the sovereignty of God! God is in charge of the universe. Our part is not to get everything figured out, as if we could. Rather, our part is reverent waiting and obedient love.
In our Gospel this morning there is a particular application of this: the new wine must be put in fresh skins because God has given us Christ’s resurrected Body to be the “place,” the temple, where our lives are continually made new. We are to keep opening up to the inflow of the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand and remake our plans and behaviors.
What I am saying here is put so beautifully by Fr. Giussani:
Abandonment to the Mystery: this is the Fiat of the Blessed Virgin. Mystery is nothing other than the significance of what we are living: today, with its conditions, its circumstances, its struggles, and its attractions, its positives and its negatives. May our life be a Fiat, like the Yes of our Lady! This is not automatic, we have to desire it time and time again. There is nothing more human than the Fiat, nothing more self-aware and more demanding for freedom.
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Ordinary Time, Daily Reflections