TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[cappie]

LUKE 7:11-17 KEY VERSE: “A great prophet has risen among us!” (v 16b).

In our Gospel today from Luke and in our Old Testament lesson from 1 Kings, we hear of people being healed. We too often hear stories like these and think that they are great stories, but that they have nothing to do with us. We cannot simply say that these are inspirational stories and leave it at that. Jesus did not come to earth and become one of us so that we could be inspired, but came to earth as one of us so that we could learn from him and change the world around us into the Kingdom of God. Jesus is constantly reminding the people around him that they are called to live as he lived. Thus, we too are called to live as Jesus did. Our Baptismal promises reminds us time and again that we are to live as Jesus did, that we are to be a people of God to everyone around us. We are called to be vehicles of God’s grace, love, and peace in the world around us.

Jesus comes upon a woman who is in deep grief over her son’s death, her husband’s death, and the fact that she is alone in the world. He does not pass her by thinking that there is nothing that he can do for her, but rather he stops – he stops the funeral procession – and acts out of compassion. He tells her not to weep, not in the way that someone would tell us to stop weeping if they were uncomfortable with it, but in a way that tells her that he will take care of her and show her great care and compassion. In raising her dead son to life, he completely changes the outlook for this woman. She once again has social standing in the community, she once again has a family, she has what she had lost.

Jesus’ great love for this woman is just a glimpse of the love Jesus has for each of us. After Jesus gives this mother her son, the people say, “A great prophet has appeared among us; God has visited his people.” Those words are also heard in Mary’s song, the Magnificat and Simeon’s song, the Nunc dimittis. God looks with favour on God’s people. It is all throughout scriptures and it is all throughout our lives. No, our lives are not one happy, moment; but our lives are enriched with those around us and they are brought to fullness and grace through God. Yes, there will be difficulties in our lives, yes we will suffer hardships, there will be war and violence and oppression around us AND it is our duty as people of God to serve in a way, to live in a way as to help stop these horrible things from happening and continuing to happen. God looks with favour on us, God looks with love on us, God looks with grace and unconditional caring upon all of us. It is then our job as people of God to turn and do the same.

There are times in all of our lives when we wonder where God is. How could God be letting this happen? Why didn’t God come and save the day and perform a miracle like it happens in the Bible? Where is God in those moments? God is with us. In our moments of pain and suffering and aloneness, God is there in the people who are around us, God is there in that compassionate card or phone call. God is there in the offerings of help, the hugs, and the people who will sit with us as we journey into the depths of our lives. God does not promise that life will be easy. God does promise to be there and to look with favour on us. God is a God of compassion and caring, of peace and justice, of love and grace. We, by our Baptismal Promises and through scriptures are called to be conduits of God in the world through are actions, through our words, and through our very being.

“The Practice of Presence of God”, is a book about Brother Lawrence, a Carmelite Friar who lived in the 17th century. Many people are intrigued by this man because he simply lived every moment with God and lived every moment acting out of God’s presence in his life. He was assigned to work in the kitchen of the monastery, not anything that he was particularly good at, but did it with faithfulness and with a mind toward God. There was not anything that was beneath him because there was no task that was too mundane or routine as each thing was a medium for God’s love. For him, it was not about how sacred or important the task, but more about the motivation behind the task.

As people of God, we are all called to see our tasks as part of our life with God. Who we are, how we act, how we treat others… this is how we are God in the world.

So, in this ordinary time of the year, as we continue to explore where God is calling us to grow, where God is calling us to serve in the world, know that it may be in the everyday, it may simply be in our actions and in our words that we will best serve God.