eyes peeled

Wisdom 7:22-8:1; Ps 119 Your word is forever, O lord. Luke 17:20-25

Today we celebrate the memory and life of Pope Leo the Great. Before we get to Leo. Yesterday, Pope Benedict in his wednesday audience gave a reflection on Psalm 119. Since today we incorporate this psalm in our celebration I thought I would leave a snippet of the Pope's reflection:

"And this psalm is wholly pervaded by love for God's Word -- it extols its beauty, its saving power, and its capacity to bestow joy and life. For the divine Law is not a heavy yoke of slavery but a gift of grace that liberates and leads to happiness. "I will delight in thy statues; I will not forget thy word" (Verse 16); and again: "Lead me in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it" (Verse 35), and yet again: "Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day" (Verse 97). The Lord's Law, His Word, is the center of the life of the one praying; in it he finds consolation, he makes it the object of his meditation, he keeps it in his heart: "I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Verse 11), and this is the secret of the psalmist's happiness; and again: "The godless besmear me with lies, but with my whole heart I keep thy precepts" (Verse 69).

The psalmist's faithfulness is born of listening to the Word, of keeping it in his inmost heart, of meditating on it and loving it --"


Now back to Leo the Great.

The fame of Leo the Great is centered around the meeting between him and Attila the Hun in 452. Yea, that is correct, Attila the Hun. Attila was for lack of better words a "bad ass" of his time.

Here we have the Pope riding out to meet him to convince him not to continue his war of destruction on Italy. IT worked.
Certainly, Pope Leo the GReat had courage and strength and was willing to defend peace and any cost even it meant putting himself in harms way.

Pope Leo the Great also presided over the Council of Chalcedon which reaffirmed the identity of Christ who in union of his one Person of his two natures, human and divine.

Jesus Christ is true God and true man: the Hypostatic Union. Sounds pretty darn cool if you ask me. Jesus is both Human and Divine which means he brings heaven to earth in the incarnation; it also means Jesus brings earth to heaven when he ascends. Thus, Jesus takes our humanity to heaven when he ascends. THere is one like us in heaven.

Pope Leo the Great also, tried to instill in the faithful the reality that the Christian liturgy is not the memory of past events but the actualization of invisible realities which act in the lives of each one of us. Grace is always present to us at each moment. The past helps us visualize what grace does but it is lived in the present moment.

Hence we have the reading from the book of wisdom, "Wisdom passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets. " Grace is always right now and it is ever present everywhere.

The words of the gospel, "the kingdom of God cannot be observed..." The kingdom of God can only be lived. This is the task of grace in our lives. Believe it, love it, live it!

Now we go to the very end of today's gospel, "But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation."
Even here in this cryptic passage there is truth. What is it about the fallen nature of man that rejects perfect goodness? What is it about the fallen nature of man that refuses to receive the offer of grace? Grace is all around us but when it comes in a package we are not ready for, we run from it or we reject out right. There is a diligence required on our part. Daily we must surrender and trust that the hidden and disguised reality of grace is what we need for it is what God offers.

Grace will come and we will know it because it will irritate us and make us uncomfortable.

How many times in our life we have come face to face with God's invitation and like the pharisees and the scribes we reject it because we didn't like it.

Keep you eyes peeled!





Pope Leo the GReat pray for us.