Sunflower in my garden
“The splendor of His name…”
Psalm 148:13
The half-shekel that Peter found inside the fish in the Sea of Galilea to pay the Temple Tax (equal to 2 days’ wages) was provided by Jesus to prevent undermining the Jewish Law.
Though Jesus was God, He was not sent there to overpower men by force but to submit Himself under the power of men for a little while, so as to draw all mankind to Himself.
He does the same today. Since He “handed Himself over into the power of men” by being put to death (Mt 17: 22-23), He, again, does not use force but invites mankind to share in His glory.
The heavenly glory that awaits us
The prophet Ezekiel lived approximately 600 years before Christ, during the Babylonian exile of 597 B.C. It was in light of the destruction of Jerusalem (in 587 B.C.) that Ezekiel predicts a new kingdom will be ushered in by God, one that can never be destroyed.
The destruction (which was self-destruction on the part of the Jewish kings and the people), would, therefore, be eventually transformed and healed.
How does healing happen?
I must become like a little child and acknowledge all strength comes from the Lord, and lean on Jesus, especially when life is hard.
This is impossible without the help of God.
St. Edith Stein, a Jew-turned-atheist-turned-Catholic philosopher was arrested by the Nazi’s in 1942 and martyred at Auschwitz Concentration camp on this day. She wrote:
“Whoever chooses Christ is dead to the world and the world is dead to him. He bears the wounds of Christ in his body, he is weak and despised by men, but his cause is strong because the strength of God is made perfect in weakness. (…)
They have fought a hard battle against their nature, so that the life of sin should die within them and the life of the Spirit be given room to flourish. That battle demands the greatest fortitude.
But the Cross is not the end: it is lifted up and shows us the way to heaven. It is not merely a sign, but Christ’s undefeated weapon: it is the shepherd’s sling with which the divine David battles the evil Goliath.”
Edith Stein, From “The Wisdom of the Cross”, Divine Office Breviary, Liturgy of the Hours, Universalis.com, accessed August 9, 2022, https://www.universalis.com/20220809/readings.1.htm.
Heaven is waiting
Jesus said so in His first public sermon: “The Kingdom of God [heaven] is at hand” (Mark 1:15). The words, “repent” (turn away from the empty life and towards God), and “believe” are the two things He tells us to do next.
Edith Stein knew she would be made glorious by God in heaven. Heaven was waiting, and its prerequisites had been introduced on earth by Christ Himself.
Though we don’t live in Ezekiel’s or Edith Stein’s times of utter annihilation of civilizations (yet), I think it is safe to say that, despite our own personal destruction, oppression and life’s daily opposition to doing these things, daily repenting and believing is the only way we can achieve true and lasting healing.
