By Fr.
Isaac Spinharney, CFR from
the Friars’ e-Letter
In …Genesis 28:11-22,
we hear the story of Jacob’s ladder. The Fathers of the Church saw in Jacob’s
ladder a prophetic image of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, who is both True God and
True Man, is a ladder uniting heaven and earth upon which God first descends to
us so that we might ascend to Him!
We see this ladder
image played out in Matthew 9:18-26… where Jesus heals… the woman with the hemorrhage
and the official’s daughter. By a simple touch Jesus descends into their
hopelessness allowing them to ascend the ladder of hope and healing to new life
in God. The fact that He touched them, or allowed Himself to be touched…, is
significant. According to Jewish
ceremonial law, touching the bleeding woman or a corpse rendered Jesus ritually
unclean; that is, unfit for Temple sacrifice and worship. But Jesus has already said to the Pharisees
who were outraged that He was eating with sinners that God “desires mercy, not
sacrifice” (Mt 9:13). Jesus ranks mercy over the ceremonial law because only
the ladder of God’s mercy, only His sacrifice, can bridge the infinite gap
between God and man.
Brothers and Sisters,
what about us? Do we experience the
mercy of God in our own lives? Do we try to ascend to God by… human effort or
do we beg Him to first come to us? Do we allow the ladder of God’s mercy to
touch down upon those areas of our hearts that are bleeding or even dead so
that we might rise and ascend to new life in Him?
This is God’s desire
for us: that we would allow His mercy, which comes to us in the sacrifice of
Jesus, to be the ladder by which we climb to Him. This can happen every time we go to Mass. In
the Eucharist—the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus—heaven and earth are
united… Jesus comes to us as we are, to once again eat with poor sinners. He
comes to forgive, He comes to heal. He
comes so that through Him, we might return to God our Father!
Pax et bonum
