Daily Reflection for Friday, October 28, 2022
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners,
We encourage you to reflect on Friday’s readings at this link:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102822.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: Ephesians 2:19-22
Responsorial: Psalms 19:2-3, 4-5
Gospel: Luke 6:12-16
Our reflection on Friday’s readings:
“In him you also are being built together” Ephesians 2:20
There is a business book I really like called Good To Great, and the author, Jim Collins, talks extensively about getting “the right people on the bus” in order to build a company. The “right people” is a phrase I have heard bandied about a lot over the years. Many people want to spend time with the right people, they want their children to go to school with the right people, they want to live in a neighborhood with the right people, and they sometimes even want to go to church with the right people.
Like Jim Collins, God wants to get the right people on the bus to move his building plan forward, but his criteria seem to be very different than Jim’s. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth “Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing.” (1 Corinthians 1:26)
Foolish, weak, despised, lowly, not wise, not powerful, not of influential birth, count for nothing? I don’t think those are the criteria Jim Collins had in mind for his bus passengers. And yet, those are the “right people” God chooses as living stones for his church. Recently our new music minister told the congregation “If you hear someone singing really well, encourage them to join the choir. And if you hear someone singing poorly, encourage them to join the choir. All that’s needed is a willing heart.” I love that.
I was on a retreat team a few years ago and a friend of mine gave one of the presentations. He is not a natural public speaker, and he was also struggling emotionally after the recent loss of his wife. Quite frankly, I had trouble understanding what he was trying to say during his talk. But when I turned back to the table of participants, I remember how deeply moved each of them was…more than by any other presentation that weekend. God builds his church upon weak and inadequate people like us, not the strong and the powerful. All he needs is for us, the weak and the inadequate multitude, to trust him and hop on the bus.
Grace and Peace to you,
Gerard Randall