10th Sunday after Pentecost 20.7.08 Status
Much is made of self-image among youth. They worry what people think of them.
Much is made of appearance. The hair, the clothes, the look. The Pharisee in today’s parable worried about appearance too much. He was more worried how he looked to others than how he looked to God.
Man looks at appearances; God looks at the heart.
The Publican had the right heart. He may not have looked much but he had the one thing that mattered – union with God.
To the Youth – looks don’t matter much. What is in your heart? That is what counts. (One thing: if your heart is pure you will probably look better anyway.)
Search for the true God and you will find yourself. True self-identity is found only in relation to that true God. No other basis for life can deliver a proper self-understanding.
I must have some god even if only myself, but what god can lead me to my true self other than the true God?
WYD is quest for true God. For some perhaps it will be only the buzz of being part of a large event, but for some at least it will be an encounter with the living God.
He makes Himself known in different ways: He can be spectacular like Fatima or subtle like the gentle breeze.
Some discover Him in big rallies; others in the quiet of their own room. Same God.
We discover true self in humility. The first thing is to die to self. Like the seed. Then we bear fruit.
To be humble enought to say that I am not God; I am not the centre of the universe. No. I am a satellite of God. I revolve around Him.
To see myself as branch of the tree. I draw life from Him. I cannot exist by myself. I would not have the power to create myself or sustain life; nor can I do anything useful apart from Him.
But if I connect with Him then I come to life; then I have my true identity and the joy of that we see in some of the pilgrims. And we may have had that experience ourselves at some earlier time.
We become somebody the moment we say we are nobody.
Not nobody so I go and kill myself, but nobody by comparison with God who then raises me to be somebody.
If I had won Wimbledon and had been a war hero, and had academic brilliance and so on... impressive? We are in awe of people for the wrong reasons. Earthly status does not mean two straws if the person is not in union with God.
Conversely the tramp in the street is a royal personage if he is in union with God.
But we don’t waste time saluting each other, rather directing all our praise and attention to God Himself, knowing that we shine brighter when we do that.
We sense our weakness and vulnerability. Some are crushed by that. In reality it is a sign of hope. It means we are on the way to discovering true identity.
Also it means identity with each other - which in turn delivers us peace and joy etc, no small by-product.
So we have much to hope from WYD. It is in the end just one more way that God can reach people; it will do more good to some than others.
We continue in the large and small events of life to seek union with God more fully and to pray it and show it for others.
