Lk 11:29-32 Someone Greater Here

Lk 11:29-32 Someone Greater Here

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We have reduced ourselves to the lowest common denominator. We have become so practical that we are in danger of becoming mathematical. In many ways we are surrounded by a reductionist mentality. Art is reduced to scandal; music to trends; fashion is skimpiness; beauty to bones. Man is seen as just another animal. We can continue: School has been reduced to grades; graduation to rewards and awards. Success is income; family is 1.2 children and a child has been reduced to “a choice”. Now Man has become less than an animal! Life has been reduced to a job; health to living longer; happiness to feelings; love to sex; man (woman) to particular organs. Man is less than whole!

The same goes for God. God has been reduced to “a power” or “Mother Nature” or “Greenness”. God is the color green. Christ, throughout the centuries, has been constantly reduced to a “reformer”, a motivational speaker, a wise-man, a good man, a decent man, a man. But He can never be the God-Man!

We reduce things in life so that we can ignore what we cannot understand or let go from what we cannot grasp. We have a hard time understanding Christ, so we reduce him to another Buddha. We have a hard time praying, so we reduce praying to yoga or even simple exercise.

Today, the Lord presents us with the brutal facts. Jesus, the Lord, is greater than all the prophets, all the patriarchs, all the Laws! In fact, he is above the law because he leads by example. He lives what he preaches. He gives it all, unconditionally. In fact, Christ is alone in all humanity because he can forgive unconditionally and give unconditionally. No human being has ever lived as he lives. No one ever will for Christ is something greater than we could ever imagine: Jesus alone is God. When he walks it is forever. When he speaks it is forever. When he raises his right hand it is forever! Life should not be reduced to the "now." Life is forever, eternal.

He can take the worst day of our lives and call it a blessing. He alone can fall three times and rise up for all eternity. With his simple words he has changed the course of human history and inspired countless generations of men and women to follow him to the remotest corners of the world.

The Lord continues to surprise us to this day! In England we are witnessing a miracle. With the on-going decline of priestly ordinations, the reductionists were licking their chops and pointing fingers to Rome asking when the Holy Father would wake up to the signs of the times! We need to solve this problem! We need women priests! We need an end to celibacy and poverty. We need an end to these archaic principles routed in our poor and misguided Lord and Bride.

Well, on Ash Wednesday, over sixty Anglican priests were officially welcomed as catechumens and candidates for reception in the Catholic Church. They will be ordained priests by Pentacost. Four thousand and seven hundred people will be received into the Roman Catholic Church on Easter Sunday, a record. Who would have imagined. No one, unless you think in terms of milleniums rather than in the "today." The Church thinks long term, longer than a lifetime. It thinks eternal.

Why don't we think the same way? Because we tend to forget that there is someone greater than you or me.