Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Mass Readings
God’s ways are not our ways, however that does not mean that there is no deeper plan being carried out. In today’s first reading we a get view of the end of Moses life in the closing chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. We have traveled with Children of Israel from Egypt to Promised Land. God’s promise to Moses and Israel is now fulfilled and indeed Moses gets a complete glimpse of the whole of the Promised Land. It is a foretaste which Moses will not enjoy himself as this view is his last. In many ways Moses worked his whole life for this moment and God gives Him some closure by allowing him to see it. Seeing the realities we have worked hard for is not always in the cards. Think of the ways each of our parents spent much of their adult life working to form us into happy, healthy, and holy adults. Many of their sacrifices remain permanently hidden from us in the past. Often parents only get a foretaste of that which is to come from their efforts. Teachers, catechists, even pastors pour great effort into their ministries without specific guarantees that their labor will bear fruit.
The fruits of our labor are in the end God’s responsibility. Our responsibility is to live in trust and follow the processes God has given us. In today’s gospel Jesus gives the disciples and us a four step process for reconciliation. The method is step by step in trying to bring wholeness to broken relationships. Even if we work the steps correctly we have no assurance of a successful outcome, none the less we are called to follow this process from God in its entirety. We have fulfilled our obligation, when we do our best we to live out and obey God’s laws of love, especially in the context of the Christian community.
Think about someone in your life with whom you need reconciliation. Consider reaching out to this person in humility, remembering that God is a part of the process. The end result may not be what we intend it to be but God sees the effort. Even the glimpse of a work begun in God's name can bring us much comfort. The more we imitate Christ and live out the models He has given us, the more God will accomlish God's work in us.
“Lord help us to remember the tremendous deeds You blessed us with through our lives. Let our lifesong give joyful praise to Your glorious name. In this way our hearts will be overflowing with a spirit of wisdom that will fill our souls with the fire of Your love! Amen.”
- Michael Montgomery