Daily Reflection for Thursday, April 30, 2020
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners,
Today we welcome parishioner Melissa Kittrell to our St. Monica Daily Reflections team. Thank you, Melissa!
We encourage you to reflect on Thursday’s readings at this link:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/043020.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: Acts 8:26-40
Responsorial: Psalm 66:8-9; 16-17, 20
Gospel: John 6:44-51
Our reflection on Thursday’s readings:
Blessed be God who refused me not my prayer... Psalm 66:20
There have been times in my life when those words have rung hollow in my heart. I know that God answers prayers because he has answered countless of mine. But God works on his own timeline. If I’m going through a difficult time, my morning prayer is most likely, “Where are you God?”
I imagine this was the feeling of the Ethiopian eunuch in today’s gospel.
In his own country the eunuch was a man of great power and authority. He was also a devout worshiper of the God of Israel. (Only the devout made the trip to Jerusalem.) But he was a eunuch and according to Jewish law a eunuch was considered ceremonially unclean and was not allowed to go into the temple to worship (Deuteronomy 23:1). Regardless of these unhappy facts, he went up to Jerusalem anyway.
On his way home he and his party stopped on the road. He was sitting in his chariot reading from Isaiah specifically the passage that reads in part: “In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity?” This must have resonated with the eunuch; the humiliation of being considered unclean...always. Unable to worship in the Temple, the sure knowledge that because he would have no children of his own, future generations wouldn’t remember him. He wanted to know who this man was who seemed to embody his own situation.
God knows all things. He knew the Ethiopian official’s faithfulness. He knew his humiliation. He knew his hunger for something that would make sense of his life and God’s place in it.
God sent Phillip to explain that Isaiah was talking about Jesus. God who became flesh and lived among us and suffered all the things that we suffer, especially sorrow and humiliation. He is the living bread that gives the gift of eternal life to all who believe, regardless of status or worthiness.
If something in your life has left you feeling unworthy, “less than,” or not good enough, know that God does not see you that way. Those who persistently seek him are precious in his sight. Have you sought him today?
Rejoice and be glad in the Lord!
Melissa Kittrell