Daily Thoughts: Today’s Gospel
(Luke) presents us with a moment in Jesus' early ministry when he
returns home perhaps for a weekend visit. This story whenever I read it or hear
it always paints two pictures for me, one of a moment in the life of Jesus and
the other a moment in our own lives.
The moment in Jesus' life is pretty
straight forward he returns home and like a good young man honors his faith by
going to the synagogue on the Sabbath. He is now a wise young man with a
reputation as a preacher so he is honor by being asked to do the reading. So he
stands up and is handed the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and proceeds to read
the passage where Isaiah says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me..."
A very familiar passage to us and the community gather for prayer that day.
After the reading Jesus just sits down but everyone there is in awe and all
eyes turn to Jesus. After what probably were a few moments of awkward silence,
Jesus simple says, "Today this Scripture passage if fulfilled in your
hearing." Perhaps in other words, "Folks, this is what my life is
going to be about, today my ministry starts!" After with those words
everyone is even more amazed! A pretty straightforward picture wouldn't you
say?
Now as for the second picture of us – every
one of us have had a moment like Jesus. We have been in our own parish church
perhaps for a sacrament, baptism, confirmation, first communion, marriage and a
community has gathered. At some point during that sacrament all eyes are on us,
watching us receive baptism, receive communion, take our vows, be anointed with
oil. After the mass or the service people have come up to us and congratulated
us and speak highly of us because of this special moment in our lives.
The difference between Jesus' picture
and ours is that we know the end of Jesus' story. We know he did fulfill the
words of Isaiah by the way he lived, died and rose for the death. However, we
don't know the end of our story! Will we fulfill the words of our baptism, our
confirmation, our marriage, our priesthood, our religious life, our Eucharist?
Today we are asked once again to love
and in doing so to live that love as best we can by bringing the gift and
presence of God to the world. We are asked to stand up and proclaim the Good
News with our life and let that proclamation be fulfilled in the way we live
our faith! So my friends, stand tall, love richly and live fully today and
always!
Daily Prayer: O God, help us
to live life to its fullest, loving richly, acting justly and walking humbly
with you our loving God. Help us to bring life to the Good News that we
proclaim by our lives so that all who hear and see will know the gift of your
love. Amen!
Runner's Thoughts: Always run open
to discovering the strength that you did not know you had, let that strength be
the very Spirit of God's presence in your life!
Daily Blessing: Before I forget
I would like to send a shout out to my friend, classmate and fellow Passionist,
Fr. Chris Cleary, C.P. on his birthday. Happy Birthday, Chris and many
blessings today and always and yes you can use as many puns as you want today!
In a few moments I will be headed over
to Jamaica Queens, NY to our retreat house there, Bishop Molloy, to give a Day
of Recollection. I am looking forward to the day and perhaps for those of you
in the New York area, I might be seeing you.
My prayer today is that God will
continue to bless all of us with his life giving presence and that God will
grace us with the strength and energy to share that presence wherever we go and
with whomever we meet! Blessings to all today, have a great day, stay warm and
know that God is with you! Peace in Christ's Passion...Fr. Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment