Jer. 23:1-6; Ps. 23:1-6; Eph. 2:13-18; Mk. 6:30-34

“The Lord our justice”.  The Lord’s justice is not based on a conditional agreement but on a covenant of love.  It is the giving of oneself for the other as the Lord sacrificed himself for our mercy.  We are called to give ourselves to God in love.   Works are the fruit of love not the conditional measuring stick of salvation.  Our justice is the Lord, his sacrifice, his love, and his mercy.  He shepherds his own out of this love.  Where there is love then justice and peace meet.   

The Lord our justice comes to us in Jesus Christ, “a righteous shoot of David”.  He is a shepherd to guide our paths in the dark valley of a sinful world.  He is not only at our side but he resides within to govern our soul with gentle love and holy inspiration.   The Lord’s generosity is boundless and yet we are the ones who set boundaries and limit his generosity.  How foolish our humanity that prides itself more on its limitedness that on God’s boundless love.    Through the cross there is an ocean of mercy and yet how few come to receive it in the sacrament of confession.  We are so near to him and yet stop short of receiving his boundless love. 

In his flesh on the cross he abolished the “law” based on the external compliance of hundreds of rules that burdened the people of Israel.  He created the “law” of love of the heart that becomes evident by the visible signs of the invisible grace of God that lies within.  Where there is love there is active participation in that love.  Where there is love there is sacrifice, giving of oneself for those we love.  Where there is love there is the Lord our justice who bring us his peace. 

The Lord Jesus came to bring his peace to the “near” and “far” meaning to the people of Israel and to the Gentiles bringing both together as a shepherd to all.  No one is denied “access in one spirit to the Father”.  No one that is except the one who denies it to himself by denying God.  It would be tempting to claim that as a believer we do not deny our God but then when put to the test are we really surrendering to him our mind, heart and will and responding to our encounters of life putting God first?   The spirit is wanting but the soul is weak, holding on to its control when it is being called to let go and let God. 

The Lord knows us better than we know ourselves.   His voice speaks to our hearts when we follow him in his Word, in his sacraments, and through his apostles in the Church.   He is our high priest who left us the priesthood to continue his apostolic mission to the world.  We are not alone and we were not meant to be alone in this world.  To isolate our faith to our own will is to deprive ourselves of the riches that come from the graces of coming together as one body in Christ.  It is in the unity of the body of his people that he breaks himself into bread in the Mass to become the bread of life.  The eucharist is the highest form of unity to God in the Trinity. 

People who believe they can isolate their faith solely between them and God are not only limiting themselves from the communion of faith but from God himself who comes to us through all of creation.  It is not God’s way to create silos of faith as the way to come to him. This is our attempt to make God conform to our will not his.  Silos of faith are no more than making of ourselves our own God with our own individual theology, and our own standards of practice.  This is the deception of the evil one who conquers through division. 

The Lord our justice has given us the blueprint for a strong foundation.  It is the foundation of love, sacrificial love, unconditional love, the mercy of love poured out of the heart of Jesus.  Justice is the Lord’s and we are the more blessed by it.