Monday of the 14th
Week in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2015 8:30am
In today’s first reading Jacob receives
a message from God in a dream.
He wakes up and says, “Truly, the Lord is in this spot.
“This is nothing else but an abode of God.”
In the gospel, we see God present
and acting through touching – Jesus touching the young girl and then allowing
the woman to touch his cloak.
We ourselves believe that God is
everywhere.
We believe that God is in
persons, in the mountains and the sea, in the sun and moon and stars, and in
the soil and produce of the earth – everywhere!
But even though we believe this,
we still celebrate and believe in God’s presence in particular places and at
particular times.
For us, Jesus gave us sacraments
to highlight at particular moments the presence and power of God.
So, on the one hand, God’s
presence and power are there for us in any place and at any time.
But on the other hand, without
sometimes making a point of it, we tend to forget God’s presence and power.
As the saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind” – and maybe
this is precisely why Jesus gives us the sacraments.
Jesus himself was the walking
embodiment of God’s presence and power.
Our theology calls Jesus the
original sacrament.
In him, all God’s grace is
available to us.
Since the time of his
resurrection and ascension, his presence and power are now available especially
in special signs and words, in sacraments.
And interestingly, what we call
the highest of these signs – the Eucharist – uses ordinary bread and wine.
Jesus uses that for his body and
blood, to make himself and his power present to us.
And the very ordinariness of this
sign takes us full circle, and reminds us that God is present everywhere – in
all creation, even the very ordinary.
That must be one reason why he
tells us to “Do this in memory of me.”
