Our tears of joy tell us everything
"That they might glory in the wonder of his deeds and praise his holy name" Sirach 17:10.
Those more curious than fully invested in following Christ also qualify as belonging to him. They may trail from far, far away, equipped with very little knowledge of Jesus. They will still find themselves hovering under his wing.
Saturday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Sirach 17:1-15
Mark 10:13-16
Sirach awakens even the most cynical among us. Who doesn’t cry at the loveliness of our God?
He created for them counsel,
and a tongue and eyes and ears,
and an inventive heart,
and filled them with the discipline of understanding.
He created in them knowledge of the spirit;
With wisdom he fills their heart;
good and evil he shows them.
He put the fear of himself upon their hearts,
and showed them his mighty works,
That they might glory in the wonder of his deeds
and praise his holy name.
Believers in Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father melt at these words. An inventive heart and a discipline of understanding will lead us to glorify the wonderful deeds of our creator. We are brought to tears over the truth.
We don’t come to these amazing places of awakening and recognition without grace. The words of Sirach must be breathed into us because we can’t figure this out on our own.
More importantly, not all enlightened gifting comes to us at once. Not everyone melts over Sirach, in other words.
I must provide an exception, so as not to limit God. For some saintly graced folks, almost total recognition does happen. Likely for a mission that God needs them to complete. Or, out of sheer joy for his creation, God has infused some of us with everything one must know about God. That is rare, but several saints come to mind.
At the other end of the graced masses are the unfortunate misled, uninformed, and treacherously brainwashed. Fortune’s miseries, however, don’t stop God. We naturally worry about them, because we may be in those ranks, but we should not fret that God forgets them. Or us.
Those more curious than fully invested in following Christ also qualify as belonging to him. They may trail from far, far away, equipped with very little knowledge of Jesus. They will still find themselves hovering under his wing.
This is not a minor theological issue. We will spend an eternity getting to know God. Our time here is minute compared to our eternity. What can we know in such a short amount of time? Curiosity, immaturity, and other speed bumps slow us down. We are still God’s creatures.
Some of us come very late to an awareness of God’s love. How little even the most learned of us know about our maker. Hard-earned knowledge is valuable, but it is not the measurement God uses. Knowledge can be a distraction rather than a path to God, just like money, fame, and luck.
God saves us at his own pace, and with his intentions, but there must be something we need to do. What saves us then? Our yearning for God, certainly. Is that too little? Combined with some other virtues, maybe God can make that work. Even better is a friendship with God. If we purposely decide to be God’s friend, that signals our hope that God wants us, and that he might love us.
There is something unmistakable about wanting God’s love that seems to fit the bill.
Consider those with an academic observance of God. They study the details of the divine. Surely, God works with that person. Not all of us are so inclined. So, that can’t be the watermark for a relationship to God.
A better scale for collaborating and partnering with God comes from giving back to him when we recognize his care and attention for us. The intimacy of acknowledging God’s presence with gratitude completes the desire to please him. That’s how friendship works. It must also be true with God.
We like formulas, steps to follow, and habits that improve. They are fine. However, there will be no scale in heaven or on the new earth that weighs our knowledge of him without a relationship to him.
Check your tears, then. Ponder, yes, but do fall into God’s arms. That melting at his love, and our tears of joy tell us everything about how we and God are getting along.