Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time
February
1, 2019
Very Rev. Denis Robinson, OSB
We are not among those who draw back and perish,
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Like a fish hook, crooked in the soft palate of
our throats, the final phrases of our first reading catch us in very act of
being caught up in the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We are not among those who draw back and perish,
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Is it true? I wonder …
Who in the world has gathered in this chapel
today?
Who is here among us? We think we know each other
but do we? Do we understand the real dynamics of what is happening around us?
In our community, our nation, our world?
Needless to say we are all kinds of folks with
all kinds of attitudes.
Perhaps we are angry, furious about this or that
situation, caught up in the snares of emotion about what as happened, what is
likely to happen, what might happen.
Does the message of Christ offer us any solace,
any ease? Are we agents of that reconciliation?
We are not among those who draw back and perish,
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Perhaps we are in mourning, personal or corporate
mourning for a world, a church that never was, can never be again, or in mourning over the loss of someone, some idea or ideal.
Does the Good News of Jesus Christ offer us any
hope, any sense of wonder? Are we messengers of that Good News?
We are not among those who draw back and perish,
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Perhaps we are confused, put out by what should
have been or should be. Perhaps someone has disappointed us, even a pastor, or
the rector.
Does the message of Jesus Christ offer us anything,
any healing, any genius? Are we associates of the Divine Physician?
We are not among those who draw back and perish,
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
Like a fishhook the situation of the modern
world, our media-drenched social order embeds itself into our tender flesh, but
it also draws us along, embedding in our
hearts a desire for the greater thing, the things of God, the movement of
the Spirit.
What can we do?
The Gospel offers us a solution, I think.
Be caught up in the small things of life. Attention
to the minute, the momentary, and appreciation for the tiny seed, may well
engender in us the need to, the necessity of being
God’s people, God’s people
only.
What will we find in the Church today, among
ourselves today? Perhaps it is small, a gesture, a nod. Perhaps it may grow
into something great.
What will we bring to the task of discipleship
today, judgement, crankiness, a desire for dissolution?
Or shall we have something else, a hook upon
which to hang the salvation of the world?
We are not among those who draw back and perish,Image Link
but among those who have faith and will possess life.
