Mt 11:25-27 Giving Praise To God
“I know you!” exclaimed the woman as I was checking out at Kroger. She looked at me, examined me and said, “You are the priest at St. Joseph.” I asked her if she was a parishioner. She said, “Yes.” I was surprised I didn’t recognize her. Then I said, “You go every Sunday?” That’s when she put turned away and said, “That will be twenty-four dollars and fifty-five cents, please.”
“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Who can know the Son? Anyone who the Son wishes to reveal to him. These words are from Christ. He is the one who reveals His Father’s thoughts, His Father’s words and His Father’s actions. He alone can see the Father, face to face. He alone can probe His heart. He knows His Father by heart!
Moses, the greatest hero and prophet of the Chosen People, could only speak to the Lord from a burning bush. Although it was a lot (more was revealed to him than to any other mortal) it was still not enough. He wanted more. He wanted a name. We want more. We push the limits. We want to see God now and we want to see him face to face. But more than that, we want to know Him.
To know someone takes more than just a name and seeing them.
The interview process is flawed. As a Director of Formation at a The Highlands School out in Irving, I was involved in the hiring process at all levels. We made some good decisions. We made some bad ones. The process is flawed because you can never really know the person you are hiring regardless of all the information you receive. And that’s the problem. The first step is to read over resumes. A resume is a piece of paper with very useful information. But it is not a person. A person is more than just the facts. Then the second step is to talk to the person. Now, I have a voice. I can recognize the person by their voice. It speaks volumes, but it is still not enough. Then finally, the last phase is to call them into your office. They are dressed to impress. I know their name. I know their past work experiences and hobbies, I have data. I can recognize them by voice and in person, but I still do not know them. I can ask more questions and even call up their friends and ask questions, and still, I do not know this person. The fact of the matter is this: I will only know this person when I know their heart, when they become a friend!
The same is true with God. I can read all I want about Him. I can seek Him out in nature, through intuition, through logic and by abstract reasoning. I can call out to Him and cry out to Him and even hear His voice. And yet, until I know Him by heart, I do not know Him. Until I have a personal relationship with God and trust in Him, I will not know Him. Knowledge is essential. Reasoning is pivotal, but when I establish a relationship, a friendship with Him, then I will know Him. Friendship begins with an open heart, trust, dialogue, commitment and ends with sacrifice and love.
Now the biggest problem (temptation) is this: Until I know Him, I will try to change Him!
When we receive the Eucharist, the Lord’s body, blood, soul and divinity, we are receiving God! The Lord takes a tremendous gamble, a risk beyond comprehension every single time he comes into my hands and allows Himself to be consumed by me. But He will not allow me to manipulate Him. The Holy Father, Pope Benedict, reflected upon this mystery in his beautiful homily on the feast of Corpus Christi, when he said, “Jesus says to us, ‘You will not change me into yourself…You will be changed into me.’"
