Fr Richard's words for the Friday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time
Readings: https://universalis.com/20201120/mass.htm
The Divine Ego
In today's Gospel, Jesus encounters a number of people with "big egos" in the temple. Firstly, he drives out those who think the House of God is a place they can trade rather than the place set aside for prayer. Then, as he teaches each day, the chief priests, scribes and leading citizens try to get rid of Him. So filled with their own self importance, they're priority is to stamp their supposed authority and shut down the Son of God Himself. However, they struggle to find a way to do away with Jesus as the majority of people hold onto His Divine words.
When Christ speaks, there's always people who reject Him because they think they're more important. But there are also people who are open, who listen to His words, and take them to heart. Faithful followers of Christ humble themselves before Him. They offer their whole lives to Him; they submit to His teaching as they recognise it brings them to life eternal.
Faithful Christians are those who reject their own egos for the only ego that matters - Christ's. It is Jesus Himself who has the authority to teach in His Father's House. The French Dominican theologian Fr Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange says that a saint, he says, substitutes his own ego for the Divine Ego who is the Incarnate Word, He who declares: "The Father and I are one." May we do away with pride and sit always at the feet of He who says: "I am the way, the truth and the life."
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