Reflections from the Heart – June 11, 2023

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Do not forget the LORD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.”  Where is your Egypt?  You know – that place where God needs to come to rescue you from others and save you from yourself.  That state of mind or frequented situation that causes us to resist God’s grace but rather depend on ourselves and even permit others to take control of our faith and of our pursuit for all that is God, holy, good and true.  Your Egypt can be that habitual sin or that form of addiction that you do not want to be in but are not ready to leave or let go.  For some, Egypt can be that unhealthy relationship that you understand and know is not good for you but perhaps considered the only means, possibility, and chance for some happiness.  From their own personal Egypt, the People of God cried out in their need, in their plight and in their great oppression.  They needed to be freed and rescued not only from those who oppressed them and reduced them to slavery but also from their own self-oppression brought about by their own sinfulness and slavery to idols and false worship.  They wanted God but they also wanted the freedom to sin.  There is no freedom in sin. Although we have free will to choose or decide, sin is not from God.  Even the Lord says he takes no pleasure in death but rather in life, in giving life and sharing life eternal.  Sin enslaves us and places us in a prison like state.  Rather than becoming free to love and to be love, our truest form of happiness, sin separates, takes apart, and renders us orphans and citizens of an oppressive state. God needs to rescue us from the darkness, from the evil, from the harmful effects of sin.  God calls us children, beloved children, heirs of the Kingdom of God.  We are not oppressed by God but rather free to share in his grace and in the glorious freedom of the Children and People of God.  Love binds, mends, heals and unites.  Sin oppresses, abandons, isolates and separates. Love helps us to remember all the good that God has personally done to rescue us from the effects of our personal Egypt and sin.  The enemy wants us to forget who God is.   The oppressor wants us to remain in our Egypt by continuing to recall our personal hurts, failures and disappointments. Do not forget the Lord who saved you.