This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad. Psalm 118:24.
Chapter 11.
Jesus, Your King, Your Royal Confidante.
11.1 In charge of God's creation.
Your Highness, you are one of many persons who have been put in charge of God's creation. "God blessed them saying to them: 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.'" (1)
But, be fruitful, your Highness? Multiply? Fill the earth? Conquer it? Be masters of the fish, the birds, all living animals on the earth? Eat of all the trees except the tree of knowledge of good and evil? How do we do these things? Who is going to show us?
"For this Law that I enjoin on you today is not beyond your strength or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, 'Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?' Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, 'Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we may hear it and keep it?' No, the Word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your Heart for your observance." (2)
The "Word" is within you; "It is in your mouth and in your heart." Remember this text from John's gospel?
"In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through him.
All that came to be had life in him
and that life was the light of men,
a light that shines in the dark,
a light that darkness could not overpower." (3)
The "Word" is Jesus, who gives everything to you gratuitously, to govern with Him to make "all things anew." "Now I am making the whole of creation new He said." (4)
11.2 Your name says it all.
From time to time, (during the retreats) I would ask a person to come to the blackboard and write down everything he or she knew about his or her spouse. Obviously, they could not do this because there simply wasn't enough room on the board for so much information. "To write down everything I know about my spouse" they said, "would take volumes and volumes."
A single hair contains enough genetic information about you to fill 1,000 volumes. The brain is made up of 100 billion nerve cells called neurons, and can hold more information than all the books that have ever been published. Writing everything there is to know about another person would take books and books and books, unless . . . unless we simply wrote that person's name.
A person's name contains the person and everything there is to know about that person- his or her past, present and future. No record can contain more information about a person, than his or her name.
[Ask any mother what she sees when she hears the name of her child. She will tell you volumes, for she knows her child through and through. When she hears his or her name, he or she is present to her.]
But, if a name is to be meaningful to another, it will depend on how well the Other knows that person. A person can only be present to you to the extent you know that person. If a person is physically present and you do not know that person, you would only see the physical presence and know the person only from what you see. You really would not know him (or her). When you truly know a person, you are present to that person, whenever his or her name is thought of by you or spoken by you or another, whether that person is physically present or not.
11.3 Jesus is within you.
Dwelling within you and me, is the Word, (5) is Jesus, "through whom all things came to be." (6) But, to live with Jesus we must know Him. To know Him, we must (as in all personal relationships) meet Him. To meet Him, we must respond to the visible signs of His presence- first in our heart for we are made in His image and because His Word is within us. Then, through His creation, His gospels, His church, His sacraments, His saints, our experiences, His presence in Others.
We in turn must receive His gifts, thank Him, use them lovingly, learn from Him and become Christ-like in our ways. Do not forget we are made in His image. It is normal and natural to be one with Him, "Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you." (7)
His ways will be our ways and our ways will be His ways. Then, your Highness, will you delight in Jesus' sweet invitation when He says: "Whatever you ask for in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it." (8) Do you understand this? "If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it." The King of kings anxiously awaits your request, your Highness. "Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete." (9)
Your Highness, Jesus, your Royal Confidante, will never abandon you, "Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you." (10)
11.4 What has Jesus done for you?
Jesus made you in His image, Jesus dwells within you, and because of His love for you, Jesus has made you a new creation in Him.
11.5 The bottom-line.
If Jesus was not, you and I would not be. Our spouses would not be. Our children would not be. We were brought into existence, for His sake, to minister to Him.
["In the sixth instant was decreed the creation of a people and congregation of men for Christ, who was already formed in the divine mind and will, and according whose image and likeness man was to be made, in order, that the incarnate Word might find brethren, similar but inferior to Himself and a people of his own nature, of whom He might be the Head. In this instant was determined the order of the creation of the whole human race, which was to begin from one man and woman and propagate itself, until the Virgin and her Son should be born in the predestined order. On account of the merits of Christ, our Saviour, the graces and gifts were prearranged, and also original justice, if they would only preserve it. The fall of Adam was foreseen and in that of all others, except of the Queen, who did not enter into this decree. As a remedy, it was ordained that the most holy humanity should be capable of suffering. The predestined were chosen by free grace, and the foreknown were reprobated with exact justice. All that was convenient and necessary for the conservation of the human race and for obtaining the end of the Redemption and the Predestination, without interfering with the free will of men; for such ordainment was more comfortable to God's nature and to divine equity. There was no injustice done to them, for if with their free will they could sin, so also could they abstain by means of grace and light of reason. God violated the right of no one, since He forsook no one nor denied to any one that which is necessary. Since His law is written in hearts of men, nobody is excused for not knowing and loving Him as the highest Good of all creation." The Mystical City of God by Blessed Mary of Agreda, Part First, "The Conception," Book One, Chapter II, page 35.]
Dearest Friend, the next time you see anyone, (you, your spouse, your children, others) remember, that person is there because of Christ. Yet, He has not made us His slaves, on the contrary He has elected to share with us His Kingship, His Priesthood and His Prophetic Voice. He has sent to each of us the Holy Spirit to enable us to do all this. "Ah, what is man that you should spare a thought for him? The son of man that you should care for him? You have made him a little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and splendour." (11) Through God's bounty we were given life and made "worthy" to minister to His Son. He has even made His Mother our Mother.
Dearest Sister or Brother, live the life of the person you really are, the person God made. Be faithful to your King. Minister to Him with all that Heaven has given you. The Holy Spirit is with you to teach you how. Above all, do not deny or prevent another (especially Hearts confided to your care) from loving and serving Jesus their King.
Footnotes.
1 Genesis 1:2.
2 Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
3 John 1:1-5.
4 Revelation 21:5
5 Deuteronomy 30:14.
6 John 1:2.
7 John 17:21.
8 John 14:13-14.
9 John 16:24.
10 Isaiah 49:15.
11 Psalm 8:4-6.