Heb. 4: 1-5, 11; Mk. 2: 10-12
Jesus delivers “The Works”. “Do not forget the works of the Lord!” How do we know Jesus is Lord? The Works! There is an expression when ordering a burger and you get asked “how would you like it?” The response “the works” implies with everything. Jesus delivers everything in completeness. It is a totality of healing the heart in forgiveness of sins, healing the mind in driving out demons, healing the body from sickness, and healing the soul in freedom from death. Jesus delivers “the works”. Then he does one better, he delivers himself for us that we may possess him and continue “the works” of redemption with reconciliation, with corporal works of mercy, and with spiritual works of mercy.
The power lies in Jesus working in us. How do we access the power? It is the faith of the paralytic. In the paralytic’s helplessness we recognize our own helplessness and need for God. Through faith we call upon the Lord to answer our prayer so as to fulfill our calling by delivering the works which are his works. Jesus is the source and summit of power in the world. What is easier to say, “Lord take care of your people” or “In the Name of Jesus I’ve come to do your will”? We are called to take up our cross and to follow him and we receive through grace the power needed to do his will.
The door to enter into the Lord’s rest is found in the unity of faith that “profits” the believer that is he who delivers the works of the Lord. His works are accomplished as set “at the foundation of the world”. The works will be fulfilled. What remains is who will enter into that rest by fulfilling those works we are called to deliver. If not us, others will and we may be left in unrest from disobedience.
The beginning of ordinary time in the readings finds Jesus going about doing the works he came to fulfill and the crowds kept growing. He also found his balance getting away to pray in solitude. Temperance is finding our balance of spiritual rest in God and the works we respond to with God and through God. The key to holiness comes by committing to doing the next right step and in time all the little steps are transformative and arrive at holiness. Jesus did not come announcing “I am the messiah”. He came and began delivering salvation one person at a time. In three years he turned the world upside down and it has never been the same. That is our faith and our hope and we arrive there in charity. Let us turn our world upside down with one act of holiness at a time.
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