As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Chapel
In the first reading for this morning, Jeremiah
voices his lament that it was God who enticed his heart and would give him no
peace until he carried to others the message they did not want to hear. In the
end he praised God with song for delivering him from all those evildoers who
did not want to hear this message.
The gospel reminds us that if many called Jesus,
Beelzebub, his followers can expect the same. But we are to have no fear. God
surely thinks we are of more value than the sparrows.
Jesus urges us to not be afraid to acknowledge
him before others. While they might kill your bodies, do not let them have your
souls. We do indeed suffer as Jesus suffered so that we may also reap the
benefits of being one with Christ.
What are some of the ways we acknowledge Jesus? What
are some of the ways we carry the message of God to others? Perhaps it is a
message they want to hear. Each of us is unique, and our
understanding of how to communicate God’s love to others is unique. Besides
what we may say to others, our living example is one of the ways to carry the
message.
We each have the Spirit of God, who Jesus
promised to send at his Ascension, teaching us in the here and now. Our silent
times are best to hear what the Spirit is teaching us. In other words, we come
to know God through the Spirit’s help, to be able to communicate the Lord God
to others.
Big decisions in life are hardly ever clear. Life
is a series of options, of conundrums, of possibilities taken or not taken.
Negotiating this search for direction is no longer resolved through an
educational process alone. This search is a process of making choices between
the good and the better, between the essence of life and the merely cosmetic.
Everything we do and are affects something and someone.
Have you given any thought to why you are here in
this church for today’s services? Surely it was a choice, not just out of
habit. Being here is one of
the ways to acknowledge Jesus. Being here could be one of the ways for searching
how to best carry out his message during the rest of the day, the rest of the
week. Being here, hopefully, is reverential prayer time. Being here is learning
how to carry that spirit of prayer throughout the rest of the week. It is
learning how to pray always.
I’ve given some thought to what reverent prayer
is, as different from pleading “help me” prayer. Reverent prayer is an attitude
of both heart and mind, an attitude of respect, awe, and wonder for this God
who has created everything—including me. During the Liturgy, the priest says,
“In the fear of God, with faith and love, come forth.” This fear, this
reverence, is awe-filled wonder, mixed with faith and love. Pleading, “help me”
prayer, requires hope and trust in this God we hold in awe.
We can be burdened by many “earthly cares,”
making it difficult to allow ourselves to be moved to make time to reflect, to
pray. We need to make time, though, to step back, to enter a silence that
enables us to stand with faith and love before the One who has brought us into
being, sustains our existence, and loves us beyond all imagination.
May our living example be the message Jesus came
to earth to teach.
Glory be
to God
