Hearing Aids

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Readings for Wednesday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Eph 3:2-12

Responsorial Psalm Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6
R. You will draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

Gospel Lk 12:39-48

Reflection:

How did you do on yesterday’s challenge? I know I did not do very well. Today, in the Gospel from St. Luke, the message is made more urgent, more emphatic, as we hear yet another parable about the servant who thinks his master will not return right away. It is not a pretty picture, in fact it gets even more difficult. Those last lines of scripture are super harsh;

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

Like Paul, “… the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given” to us as well. We have been given the code of life that Christ has inscribed on our hearts during our baptism and sealed there in Confirmation. Of course, that does not necessarily mean that we understand what our Lord wants from us. Therein lies the crux of the problem. Listen as Luke tells us:

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?”

What does that mean for us? We have been given tasks to perform on this earth and we should not be caught ignoring those duties entrusted to us when the Lord returns (or when we return to the Lord which is more likely). How are we supposed to figure out what God wants us to do? How do we guess what is on his mind? (Great philosophers would ask that question in a different way asking; what is the meaning and purpose of life?) How are we supposed to answer a question hotly debated by brilliant people for millennia?

Actually, that was the point of Christ’s great sacrifice. He came, not only to bring us salvation, and not only to demonstrate the Father’s intense love for us, but also to give us an example of what God wants us to be. His life is the perfect answer to the question; what is the purpose of live?

Ok, so now we have the ten thousand foot answer to the first question; what does God want us to do? Now we need to find a practical answer that works on a daily basis so we can be prepared. There are several ways to discover the mind of Christ. First is one we are already doing if we are reflecting on these very words – it is in Scripture – the Logos (Word) that Christ is found, preserved for us to examine in the tiniest detail. The second is closely linked and that is prayer. Not the words we speak, but the will we hear in our listening silence.

There is also a third and most important way – we find God’s will in our worship as Church. God called his whole people and his word cannot be understood clearly when only an individual hears. It is when the faithful are gathered that the word becomes flesh and the flesh feeds us and the will of the Father is made known. It is in the joyous note of the choir and the profound silence of prayer that we hear that voice most clearly – if we listen.

Pax