During this time of uncertainty...I moved from Salem, packed all my stuff, stored it in a garage at St. Mary's in Beaverton, I don't have a job, I don't know for sure where I am going...and so on! I feel very frightened and alone. I am sad. I am tired and stressed. I can't find God! I can't hear God. I pray and my words feel empty.
So this morning when I was meditating on the readings for today...well, God always speaks loud and clear when I am really listening, I read that during a time when wars and rumors of wars were all around the people of God, they trembled and gave in to great fear. But God warned Ahaz that a terrible fate would await Judah unless Judah would stand firm during these frightful times. “If you do not stand by me, you will not stand at all.” The message is clear to me, too: Ahaz is to put his firm trust and confidence in the protection of Yahweh, who alone has the power to save him and his people. Unfortunately, the message will not be heeded by the people (nor by me either, unfortunately!).
In the prophets, faith is not so much a theoretical belief in the existence and uniqueness of God as an attitude of confidence based on God’s choice of Israel: he has chosen Israel, he is Israel’s God, he alone has the power to save his people. This unconditional trust, a guarantee of salvation, excludes all reliance not only on human agency but still more on false gods.
I, too, cannot expect God to stand by me if I do not stand by him. This is not to be interpreted as saying that God is touchy and vindictive and that, if he feels insulted or ignored, he will abandon me or bring some terrible punishment on me. It means that only when I am fully on his side, when his way is fully assimilated into my live will I find the life he promises. If I insist on going my own way, he will not stop me but he will not be able to help me either. I will have shut myself off from his loving help.
(Summarized from a reflection by the Jesuit priests from Ireland.)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
“The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to his harvest.”
Matthew 9:32-38
Stories of blindness, deafness and dumbness in the Gospel always have a deeper meaning. Far more serious than physical blindness, deafness and dumbness are being spiritually blind, deaf and dumb. We are blind because we cannot see or do not want to see God at work in Jesus; we are deaf because we do not hear or do not want to understand what Jesus says. And we are also dumb because we cannot speak the words of life that Jesus gives to us to share with others.
Let us pray today to be able to see clearly, to understand what God says to us and to be able to share it with others.
Jesus is teaching in synagogues; he is proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom; and he is healing all kinds of diseases and sickness. He shows deep compassion for the needs of the people. He sees them harassed and dejected, wandering and aimless like sheep without a guiding shepherd - a familiar image in the Old Testament (cf. Ezekiel 34). Then, looking at his disciples, he says, “The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to his harvest.” Jesus cannot do it all on his own. In fact, he will hardly step outside the boundaries of Palestine. He needs many helpers. He needs more young people with the COURAGE to answer his call to serve in the Church. Where are you, young men and women?
Today, the situation has not changed. The harvest is as big as ever; people are as lost and rudderless as they have ever been in spite of the great strides in knowledge we have made. Where are the laborers? They are not just the bishops, priests, religious brothers and sisters. That is a very narrow concept of laborers. Every single baptized person is called, in some way, to be a harvester, to help people find and experience the truth and love that God gives in Jesus. Every single person, in that sense and it is a very real sense, has a vocation, a call to serve and to build the Kingdom.
What and where and with whom is your vocation?
Stories of blindness, deafness and dumbness in the Gospel always have a deeper meaning. Far more serious than physical blindness, deafness and dumbness are being spiritually blind, deaf and dumb. We are blind because we cannot see or do not want to see God at work in Jesus; we are deaf because we do not hear or do not want to understand what Jesus says. And we are also dumb because we cannot speak the words of life that Jesus gives to us to share with others.
Let us pray today to be able to see clearly, to understand what God says to us and to be able to share it with others.
Jesus is teaching in synagogues; he is proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom; and he is healing all kinds of diseases and sickness. He shows deep compassion for the needs of the people. He sees them harassed and dejected, wandering and aimless like sheep without a guiding shepherd - a familiar image in the Old Testament (cf. Ezekiel 34). Then, looking at his disciples, he says, “The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to his harvest.” Jesus cannot do it all on his own. In fact, he will hardly step outside the boundaries of Palestine. He needs many helpers. He needs more young people with the COURAGE to answer his call to serve in the Church. Where are you, young men and women?
Today, the situation has not changed. The harvest is as big as ever; people are as lost and rudderless as they have ever been in spite of the great strides in knowledge we have made. Where are the laborers? They are not just the bishops, priests, religious brothers and sisters. That is a very narrow concept of laborers. Every single baptized person is called, in some way, to be a harvester, to help people find and experience the truth and love that God gives in Jesus. Every single person, in that sense and it is a very real sense, has a vocation, a call to serve and to build the Kingdom.
What and where and with whom is your vocation?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
