4th Week of Easter
May
16, 2019
CollectNativity, Washington, D.C.
“You
restore human nature to yet greater dignity than at its beginnings” (Collect).
In the
beginning, men and women had the dignity of having been created in God’s image
(Gen 1:27). Now—in the Easter season—we
praise God for restoring that, because sin had spoiled the image, like slashing
a priceless painting.
Being raised to Christian dignity:
St. Patrick baptizes a pagan Irish king
(St. Catharine Church, Spring Lake, N.J.)
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But the
prayer speaks of “yet greater dignity”—greater than being an image of God. What dignity could be greater? The dignity of being his adopted children,
members of his family, because of our intimate relationship with his true Son,
Jesus Christ.
We come
then to the actual prayer. We plead with
God to “look upon the amazing mystery of your loving kindness.” It is amazing that God should do for us
sinners what he has done, take us back and even upgrade our status. Come on up from coach to first class! And he’s done so out of “loving kindness,”
out of his own benevolence toward us, as undeserved as it is.
We ask
this further grace: that God “preserve
the gifts of your enduring grace and blessing” in “those you have chosen to
make new through the wonder of rebirth.”
Our restored and upgraded dignity is that rebirth of which Jesus spoke
to Nicodemus (John 3:1-8); we’ve been born again, given a new life, thru the
resurrection of Jesus. The former
translation of this prayer emphasized that this “rebirth” refers to Baptism,
and “those chosen” are the newly baptized.
But all of us have been baptized, so in truth the prayer speaks for all
of us. We share in Jesus’ new life thru
“water and the Holy Spirit,” thru the water of Baptism and thru the whole
sacramental life of Christ’s Church, in which the Holy Spirit always plays a
vital role, as you can note, for instance, at the consecration of the bread and
wine at Mass.
All
this is by God’s choice, by his having chosen us. At the Last Supper, Jesus told the apostles,
“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” (John 15:16). We may think it’s our decision, but it’s only
our response to the gift that he offers.
Would you like to be given eternal life, eternal happiness? Jesus offers it to you! Please say yes!
We need
God’s help to say yes day after day, as all of us know. There are days when we don’t quite feel like
saying yes. So we pray that he preserve
his gift in us. The Church has always
advised us to pray for the gift of perseverance: that God’s grace endure in us thru holy
lives, that God’s blessing go with us all our lives and into eternal life.
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