This 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time continues with the Bread of Life Discourse and will continue over the next two weeks. I wanted to move from that and pick up on it next week. I pray you don’t mind.
It was the 2nd reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that caught my attention, especially when he says, “So be imitators of God…” What does that mean to be an imitator of God? He answers this in what we today call the famous wedding reading, St. Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians chapter 13. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
St. Paul knows that love in its essence is God, so he could have easily substituted the word love with God, which would have looked or sounded like this, “God is patient, God is kind, He is not jealous, God is not pompous, He is not inflated, He is not rude, He does not seek His own interests, He is not quick tempered, (you get the point).
St. Paul exhorts us to be imitators of God and therefore we should since not only does St. Paul do so, but Christ as well when He says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In my observation of people I would like to think, or if I may be so bold as to conclude, that most people do strive to be like God, even with all of our shortcomings. We can think of people in two ways, as genuinely good or genuinely evil or no good. I like to think of people as good, though we are all a little messed up due to our faults, weaknesses, and sins. Nevertheless, Jesus had to see some good otherwise He would have given up on us, so you see there is hope for all of us.
Some may object, “Where have you seen this good, surely not in Colorado with the recent shooting spree at a local theater, where twelve died and many more were injured; surely not at the Sikh temple where another gunman opened fire; surely not in all the wars around the world?” That is the worst of man and the worst sometimes happens, but other times we see God in man, when firemen run up burning buildings to save strangers, when police officers jump into freezing waters to save a life, when parents devote every spare minute to a sickly child, when Mother Teresa picked up (literally) out of the sewers people who needed help, when we spend time with those who grieve, when we look to others instead of ourselves, when we say a kind word to another even when they are not kind to us, when we lend without seeking a return, and we can go on and on.
Take a good hard look at yourself today, yes you are wounded – like everyone, but you are precious and good, for God made you so through His love and grace. You have the ability to be a saint and a great one, and in some ways you already are! Do you believe it? If not, then do so, because God loves the cheerful heart and the cheerful giver, and you are both! Praise God and give Him glory, Amen!
FJ
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