Barefoot

Friday of the Twenty eighth Week in Ordinary Time &
St. Paul of the Cross

Biographical Information about St. Paul of the Cross

Readings for Friday of the Twenty eighth Week in Ordinary

Reading 1 Eph 1:11-14

Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-136
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

Gospel Lk 12:1-7

Reflection:

In Christ we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ.

Rather than take a big picture look at scripture, let’s look at just this one sentence from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Let’s break it down and see what the great evangelist is saying to us as we hear him all these years later.

“In Christ we were also chosen”: we were chosen in Christ and by Christ. We were elected in Baptism to carry His banner to the world. We were given the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and with that armor – guided by those who went before us in faith – we are sent to take his message to the world.

“…destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,” We are called in “accord with the purpose” of Christ – it is His will and purpose we serve and by his will we continue to carry the love he shared with the world forward.


“…so that we might exist for the praise of his glory”: We who were called by him and directed according to the purpose of him who sent us do all things for the greater glory of Christ in God the Father. We cannot accomplish anything on our own and what good we do accomplish, again according to his will, must be done for his glory, not our own.

“…we who first hoped in Christ.” Indeed, Christ is our hope, our salvation. Without him there is no hope. Without the Lord of Light, all is darkness.

As is often the case in scripture, these huge words and concepts of our faith are densely packed when presented in the context of authors like St. Paul. I have not done justice to the thought he gathered in that one sentence. The emotion of our adoption is missing in my brief commentary, as is the intense ach of Paul’s passion for the Lord.

The action demanded is clear. Christ asks us to follow him, to do his will and to do it for his greater glory. We are all going to grasp onto that call differently. This is exemplified today as we remember St. Paul of the Cross. He grasped the passion of the Lord and committed his life and the lives of the other members of the Passionist Order (Congregation of Discalced Clerks of the Most Holy Cross and Passion) (FYI – Discalced means; Shoeless or Sandaled) to the great sacrifice of the Lord. Once again in this week of memories, the Lord called another saint to show us that, while our path is to Him and the Father, there are many ways to walk it.

Pax