May 6, 2014
Reflection on Lectoring
“We are the children of divine love and nothing can
change that fundamental fact about us.”
-
Desmond Tutu, St. Phillips’s Christmas III Sermon, 1984
Look out at the assembly as you proclaim the Scriptures
and ask yourself who are the people seated before you? So you see mostly strangers? Do you see your friends? Do you see people with whom you share one of
the most fundamental aspects of who you are?
The idea that we are all children of God can be
extraordinarily challenging. Perhaps it
is easier to focus more personally on yourself by saying “I am a child
of God.” Perhaps a person’s identity is adequately
defined by his or her own “personal relation with my Lord and Savior.”
Certainly we shall all be judged by God individually. That point is clear in the Book of Job which tells
the story of one man and the blessing and hardships he experienced.
But it is also a story about the people around Job who understood
very little. They fail to recognize that
Job was a child of both God’s love and his justice. They also seemed to miss the point that they
and Job together were children of God’s love.
Although Job’s story is filled with ambiguity, it is abundantly clear
that Job had a better understanding of his true identity.
Desmond Tutu lived through a time when identity was more
constrained and more delimited. Strict racial
and group identities helped to shape people’s individual identities, but they
also stood as a barrier to understanding their most basic and universal
identity. Desmond Tutu and Nelson
Mandela changed the course of history because they helped others better
understand the foundation of genuine identity and true community.
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First Reading - Ezekiel 37:12-14
When Trust is Difficult
The Scriptures often ask us to do a lot of trusting. A little more than a month ago at Sunday Mass,
St. Matthew’s Gospel relates how Jesus advises us not to worry about what we
shall eat or wear. “Do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself,”
says Jesus (6:24).
That can be a tall order when the rent or mortgage
payment is due and there is no money in the bank. Today’s first reading asks us to trust at an
even higher level. We are told that when
we are in our graves God promises, “I
will open your graves.”
After seeing their temple destroyed, their freedom taken
away, and their God appearing to turn his back on them, the prophet Ezekiel
tells the Chosen People they must trust despite everything that has happened. Despite the troubling question of where God was
when the Babylonians destroyed everything, people should still trust.
The same wrenching question can still be asked today in
light of Nazi exterminations, interminable civil wars, or even when experiencing
the personal grief of losing a loved one.
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Second Reading - Romans 8:8-11
I in You and You in me
This week’s Reflection on Lectoring spoke about our
identity as children of a loving God. It
is an identity that can easily get lost in the everyday affairs of life. It is surprisingly easy to lose sight of the
fact that “the Spirit of God dwells in
you.” Nevertheless, it is precisely
what today’s second reading insists is our most important, distinguishing
characteristic.
In the verses that follow today’s reading the same point
is reemphasized: “For those who are led
by the Spirit of God are children of God” (8:14). At the Last Supper Jesus made what may be the
ultimate declaration of what makes us who we are when he said, “Remain in me as I remain in you” (John
15:4).
Every day we are intimately connected to God. We remain his children. We can be proud of our heritage. And we can be confident of our true identity.
© George Fournier, 2014
