Today is Oct. 23, Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time.
In the readings for today’s Mass, St. Paul says, “To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens” (Eph 3:8-10).
Archbishop Fulton Sheen says, “Two classes of people make up the world: those who have found God, and those who are looking for Him — thirsting, hungering, seeking.”
What’s interesting in the archbishop’s observation is that he does not include a type of person who has no interest in God. I think it’s because such a person does not exist. Every human being who has ever lived has longed for God.
We were made for God, and God desires for us to be with him. As the Catechism says in its opening paragraph, “He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.”
This was always God’s plan: in the fullness of time, he would reveal the depths of his love by sending his son. That’s what St. Paul is talking about: the love of God has been made manifest. A share in God’s own inner life — divine grace — has been offered to us. And that grace is offered to all. It’s the healing every broken heart yearns for, the answer to the human desire for meaning.
For all who seek God, for every soul who hungers and thirsts for whatever is good, true and beautiful, grace comes bringing its unmistakable marks of light and peace.
A prayer to serve the Lord willingly:
Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart. Through our lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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