Daily Reflection for Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Peace and Blessing, Friends and Parishioners,
We encourage you to reflect on Wednesday’s readings at this link:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091620.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Responsorial: Psalm 33:2-5, 12 and 22
Gospel: Luke 7:31-37
Our reflection on Wednesday's reading:
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians. 13: 12-13
These words are among the most familiar in Scripture. A problem with familiar words is that their meaning can be lost because we stop hearing the living spirit in these words for our lives. I recently found a rendering of the Bible in contemporary language by Eugene H Peterson. I offer his interpretation of 1st Corinthians 13:12-13 to provide a different perspective from which to receive new understanding of St. Paul’s wisdom and insight.
“We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun begins to shine bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of these three is love.”
We are in a very difficult and challenging time in our world, in our country, and in our personal experience. How can we be true to our Catholic Christian faith? How to follow Jesus in these days can be difficult to discern. In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul gives us perspective and real direction. We wake each morning to a fog of fear, uncertainty, and too much selfishness and blame in our world. It can and it does overwhelm me at times. But scripture holds a light in this fog.
Paul acknowledges the very real limits of our ability to see so many things clearly. At the same time he calls us to a path of trust and hope and committed love. This love is not as the world loves, reactively and selfishly. Rather this is a love based in faith and trust in our Creator who is present and active in our world and in our lives, beyond our ability to fully understand. Believing in God's involvement in our world gives us grounds for hope that indeed, God’s “will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our part in this is to love, to love as Jesus loved. This love is our beacon through the fog of personal, national, and worldly sin and confusion. This is our guide to how we will be as we face the living of our lives with trust, hope and a desire to love with Christ’s love in our hearts.
It is this light that guides us, that pulls us toward the heart of Jesus and the continued and eventual revealing of the Kingdom of God. We have this promise that we will see the continued revealing of God's Kingdom where we shall indeed know as we are known in the light of divine love.
Prayer:
Lord our God, creator and giver of the light of life, help us to see beyond the fog that surrounds us to the beauty of your love and your power to redeem the world you have made. Amen
Ed Mitchell