As always, there is much in our readings at Mass this Sunday.
In the first reading we are very forcibly reminded that there is only one God and our destiny lies with Him, and it easily follows that the response to the Psalm is, “Happy the people the Lord has chosen as His own”. The letter to the Romans enforces that and adds the presence of the Sprit as a guarantee, as it were, of that promise, “..we are children of God”. The Alleluia verse praises the Holy Trinity and then leads us to the Gospel reading itself.
St Matthew presents a scene to us, which leads us to the very end of the words of his Gospel, “And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” To me these are immensely powerful, and deeply comforting, words. I believe they mean exactly what they say. There is for me no doubt, no grey areas in this statement. It is a true promise and God cannot, not keep His promise! I believe that Jesus says that to equip us for what he commands us immediately before, that we will spread His name and His truth throughout the world, wherever we are planted.
All this happen, we are told by Matthew, on a mountain in Galilee, “…where Jesus has arranged to meet them”.
It is that phrase of Matthew’s; “where Jesus had agreed to meet them “that I think troubles me. What concerns me is, bluntly, how many appointments with Jesus have I missed? Now there’s a thought for us to carry with us this coming week!