[ Today's Readings ]
You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
We're typically pretty good at reading the weather forecast and preparing for rain or heat. We're less good at reading the word and preparing ourselves for judgment. It's not that we don't try. It's just that it isn't quite as real to us. Jesus wants the cosmic situation in which we find ourselves to be more real and pressing to us than even our daily circumstances. Daily circumstances may be immediate but their impact is short lived when compared to our eternal destiny. Yet most of us think we're doing well when we can split our priorities fifty/fifty. Instead we need to learn to see everything in the light of eternity, more and more. We need to redouble our efforts to "settle the matter on the way" to the magistrate. We need to become "the people that longs to see" God's face.
When God and eternity become our focus we will strive to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. We begin to desire the unity that God desires and we finally have something lasting around which we can unite. No longer must our unity by fleeting or selfish. We unite around the one who draws all people to himself. We unite for the cause of the Kingdom of God, which, unlike every other cause, will never end. We begin to make present and experience even now the profound unity that awaits us in that kingdom.
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Let's read the real signs of the times so that we can cleanse our hands and purify our hearts. This isn't legalism. We do this because we are the people "that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob."
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