6 October 2019 - fire powered

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, 'We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.'"

Before we start to grumble about this command to put others before ourselves let us remember that Jesus himself did this before he asked any of us to do it. He offered the Eucharistic feast, the heavenly banquet, before he commanded us to prepare something to eat. He himself provides the bread that can feed the hungry crowds. He is the one who washed the disciples feet. It is precisely because he did it first, because he himself reproduces it in us each and every time we do it, that we have nothing of which we ourselves can be proud or for which we can demand reward.

but bear your share of hardship for the gospel
with the strength that comes from God.

When we labor with the strength that comes from God we don't need to be first or to be rewarded for doing what we ought to do. When we labor, not on our own, but depending on faith, the strength that comes from God can move trees and mountains. Our struggle is mostly not with the tasks themselves, but within our own hearts that have not yet committed to this faith.

I remind you, to stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.
For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice
but rather of power and love and self-control.

We need this flame of the gift of the Holy Spirit or we will grumble, demand recognition, and struggle with lukewarm faith and little strength to meet the challenges of life. Paul didn't complain about being in prison. The Holy Spirit showed him that this was ultimately a privilege. He didn't demand prideful recognition. He focused instead on what he knew to be true, the sound words that were his norm, and the faith and love that he had in Jesus Christ. It was the same Holy Spirit that he trusted to guard this truth in him. Probably we've never been in prison. But maybe we've felt trapped in life. Let the Holy Spirit guard this truth of love and faith in us as well.

For the vision still has its time,
presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
if it delays, wait for it,
it will surely come, it will not be late.
The rash one has no integrity;
but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.

Even if we struggle for a time faith assures us that our vindication is coming. We may be tasked with preparing banquets for others now but it is only as part of a broader invitation to the ultimate consummation of the heavenly banquet when all of us will rest from our struggles, when there will be no more pain and no more tears.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.