Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 470

Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
though testified to by the law and the prophets,
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe.

The doctrine of "Revelation" challenges our human pride and much of our cultural expectation. We think we can figure this out, and our sciences have proved incredibly successful in doing that. They have discovered mysteries hidden from time before time but are seen as transparently obvious today. Our children wonder how we could not have known that.... quantum theory works, or relativity is reliable, or that some people are created with a different sexual desire. We should have figured those things out a long time ago! 

Revelation means there are truths which God has revealed. We would not know them otherwise; although, having seen, heard, touched, and been touched by them, they make perfect sense. We can see what we could not see. We did not recognize, for instance, the equal dignity of men and women. Nor that of persons who are unequal in physical strength, mental acuity, wealth, or status. We did not realize "a person's a person no matter how small," but of course it makes sense; and we should have known it all along! 

We did not see that we choose to do evil but are not compelled to. With God's grace we can refuse, as Mary consistently chose rightly and according to God's will. We did not understand that to do evil is sin! If God had not spoken to us, we might offend God but could not be held responsible for it.   

The Pharisees could not see the "righteousness of God... apart from the law, though (it was) testified to by the law and the prophets." As far as they were concerned, the only way to live righteously was to avoid every wrong deed which had been identified by the Law of Moses. "It's possible!" they insisted. 

That they were sinners despite their scrupulosity,  and that they could be saved and restored to innocence by faith in Jesus Christ (whom they crucified!) -- it was impossible. Unimaginable nonsense! 

Saint Paul saw it clearly because it had been revealed to him. He had not figured it out for himself but, after the incident on the road to Damascus, it was the only way to understand the Gospel. It shone like a golden doorway before him; and he knew it as a gift. Unearned and undeserved; pure and simple. There could be no other explanation. 

There are stalwart Christians among us who have yet to see this truth. Trained and disciplined in the secular sciences, they're convinced -- for instance -- that humans can and should build a world of peace and justice. They imagine interstellar journeys of colonizing Earthlings who agree that they and their children for a hundred generations or more will travel to a distant planet which may or may not exist. And not once during that journey of millennia do they turn against one another or doubt the purpose of their existence. Education will free them from doubt and all wrongdoing! Education works so well on earth; why wouldn't it work in outer space?

Without revelation we remain ignorant and frightfully self-righteous. We can't even recognize our foolishness when it's thrown in our face. We say, "I live rightly! Why doesn't everyone else!"

Revelation shows us our sins, and convinces us that we are guilty of wrong thinking and wrongdoing. 

As Catholics prepare to confess our sins, we ask our Kindly God to show us when, where, how, and why we have sinned. We want to know! We want to walk through that shining gateway of self-knowledge to see in a very particular fashion, how the Lord has called me by name, saved, and delivered me from evil. We want to see the practical possibility of living in grace and without those habits and attitudes. We understand that Grace gives us to live freely; and without compelling fears, needs, and false beliefs. 

We want to see the purity of God which has not been transparent in our life; but which we have beheld in the Life of Jesus, Mary, the martyrs and saints. We want to be enamored with the God who owes us nothing but gives us everything.