"God of Heaven Come Down..."

Mass Readings for Sunday, November 9, 2008
Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome

Reading I
Ez 47:1-2, 8-9, 12

...He said to me, "This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.

Reading II
1 Cor 3:9-11, 16-17

Brothers and sisters:
You are God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ.
Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

Gospel
Jn 2:13-22

..."Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace." His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for my house will consume me...

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Our vocation is to love. It is to be holy. If something is contrary to love or stops us from growing in holiness, then we probably shouldn't do it. All we have to do is love. After all, if love God and others (the two most important commandments), then we will never do anything contrary to God's will. We don't have to know exactly what we are called to do at this moment, or in the near future, because God will reveal that to us in time.

God called to St. Francis of Assisi and said, "Go and rebuild my church, for as you can see it is in ruins." Francis took this literally and reconstructed 3 churches that needed renovation. It was only after this that he realized the Lord had greater plans for him to rebuild the Church spiritually. He sold everything, announced God as his only Father (much to the dismay of his biological father), and began preaching the mercy and forgiveness of God. Francis just loved and followed God's will for him as he understood it, which evolved over time. This, too, is how it is with us. God will not necessarily strike us down with a bolt of lightning and tell us our specific vocation or course of action. Our understanding of God's will for us will gradually evolve and form us into the followers that He wants.

Of course, we have to be open to this. As the scriptures above say, wherever the river flows, there will be abundant fruit. If we want to see the fruit, we have to let the river flow. LOVE as God calls us to love, and we will build our foundation as a temple for Jesus Christ and therefore become holy. This affects others whether know it or not, whether we want to believe it or not.

"If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze."
- St. Catherine of Siena

Seriously, if our faith is boring, something is wrong.
If our life is boring, we're not doing God's will.
It's as simple as that.


I will sing a song of hope, sing along
God of Heaven come down, Heaven come down
Just to know that you are near is enough
God of Heaven come down, Heaven come down