Abbot's Sunday Chapter Talk.

Abbot's Sunday Chapter Talk.
The Mind of the Lord - Sunday 23
The Book of Wisdom tells us in today's first reading that no one can fathom the mind of God or understand his purposes."Gods ways are not your ways. As far as the heavens are above the earth so are his ways above our ways."
And yet this very passage ends by thanking God for the Gift of Wisdom which he has sent by his Holy Spirit, a gift which enables us to know just what his mind is in or regard and just what his wonderful plans and purposes are for our destiny.
Without that gift who could dare to surmise the unspeakable wonders of the life of grace he has called us to. That we should be called and should really be God's children, partakers of his divine life already here and now; that we will see him face to face; that we will know him as we are known by him.
This is wisdom indeed and it is an utterly gratuitous gift of God; a gift that demands only our Faith in it as the price to pay for it.
The sacred author goes on to lament the vagaries and uncertainties of our human reasoning and how difficult it is to have certainty even about the things of this world.
"The reasonings of mortals are unsure...our perishable body presses down the soul, our tent of clay weighs down the mind. It is hard enough for us to fathom the things of earth..........who then can discover what lies in heaven?All the more wonderful then is the unwavering certainty that comes with the Gift of Faith. What a gift indeed!
By this gift of Wisdom "the paths of those on earth have been straightened" the sacred author adds.
In these few words lies the secret of a life, not of freedom from suffering, but of the strength that comes from peace and confidence, from hope and trust. "...the paths of men have been straightened...." means that we know where we are going and we know how to get there. We are not wandering aimlessly through a life that is meaningless and purposeless."and men have been taught what pleases you" .....means that, no matter how true it is that the mind of God is ultimately unfathomable, yet there is a sense in which we always know what is the will of God in our regard. We need only take life just as it comes at us, with its constant procession of ups and downs, with its joys and sorrows, its failures and its triumphs. Whatever he sends us in life is a vehicle of grace. "....all things work together unto good for those who fear the Lord."
Still, we might object, "life as it comes at us" so often calls for a response and so often we just dont know what response God expects us to make. There are indeed such situations, so often we just dont seem to know what to do. In these situations God doesn't expect us to "know what to do" all he asks is that we do our best with good will and he will attend to the rest. He is teaching us one of the greatest lessons of life, namely that LIFE really a much bigger game than we can play. It is ultimately God's own game and he is fully in charge and he alone can work it all out. If we can approach life in that spirit then we can acquire a peace and strength and confidence that nothing can shake. It is all God's game and God is on our side and "If God is for us, who is against us?"
God bless.
Fr Raymond