16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Genesis 18: 1-10a
2. Psalms 15: 2-3, 3-4, 5
3. Colossians 1: 24-28
4. Luke 10: 38-42

• Here comes the future
• Life is full of surprises.  Often we wistfully think to ourselves that a glimpse into the future would help us prepare better, meet what is coming our way with more composure, be more effective in our lives, our ministry.  But I wonder ...
• Are there any parts of your life today that you would not have expected 10 years ago?
• If you had known then what you know now, how would you have lived differently?
• Would that have actually made things better?
• Why do you think that God didn't brief you ahead of time?

• God's Presence
• How is God with you in your everyday living?
• Normally, how aware of that Presence are you?
• What difference has that Presence made to you?
• How are you present to God?
• What difference do you think your presence makes to His Presence?

• Today in Eternity
• We tell ourselves that Jesus suffered for all of us.  That suggests a finality, a completion to Jesus' suffering.  We also claim that God has revealed Himself fully in sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which also suggests a closure, a finality.  No new revelations, no hidden truths are in our future.
• Yet there is still suffering in the world, and we seem to need new prophetic voices in our midst to call us once again to the truths that have ever been before us.  If we still need prophets, is it possible that we still need suffering?
• If so, how is suffering redemptive?
• What do we, as ministers, have to do with suffering to make it redemptive?
• When we suffer, how can we turn that into a blessing, a grace?

• Losing the forest for the trees
• Hospitality can be a rare gift when offered in love.  My theory is that Martha was happy to "put it all out there" for Jesus, but as she worked, and she kept thinking of more things that "needed" to be done to make it all just right for Jesus started mounting in her mind, she despaired of getting it all done in time to actually enjoy the visit.  Meanwhile, her "useless" sister was enjoying the visit.
• Have you ever missed out on life by preparing for it too much?
• How did that happen?
• How can we better see what the important elements are in daily life?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How is God preparing me for something new?
2. How am I companioning God today?
3. How am I being Presence to those in need?
4. What distracts me from what is important?

Just Being

I envied the nurses.

They all had their jobs, their training.
Coming in one after another to draw blood, check blood sugar,
Take blood pressure, check for fever, administer medication.

Me, I just tried to stay out of their way.

His life was really measured in bursts of activity
Done on his behalf,
Punctuated by short spells of quiet.

Or maybe it was the other way around.

Either way, I tried to not be alone in that hospital room.
To reach out beyond my discomfort, my "to do" list for the day
My sense of helplessness.

The fact that his hearing aid batteries were dead didn't help.

Somehow, the fact that I had to yell to be heard bothered me.
As though that one final inconvenience was just one too many.
As though it really didn't matter what I said.

And I realized that was completely right, it didn't matter.

Then I comforted myself with the thought that he must know that I'm there
That a familiar face amid all of the clatter and commotion would steady him
Make the whole experience less threatening in some small way.

And I wondered whether he would even remember that I was there.

And then I found peace.  Knowing that all that was asked of me was presence.
That somehow, in some mystical way, I was the hands and feet of Jesus just by being there.
All I had to do was let His Presence flow through my poor presence.

And I realized that my "nothing much" could be transformed into Everything.
Shalom!