Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
Recently I had the opportunity to sit with a friend who knew that they did not have a long time left for this world. Those moments I shared with my friend left me awestruck as to her ability to have a positive outlook on life even as her days are drawing to a close. Her positive outlook not withstanding she did share with me that she felt like a burden to her family. I asked her how long she had cared for her children and assured her that we were grateful for the opportunity to care for her. One can hardly use the word burden to describe the labor of love it is to care for someone you deeply love. Perhaps I might feel differently if I was a constant caregiver. Still, it is in these moments of suffering and our responses to them, that we are given profound opportunities to keep our eyes on the Lord.
In today’s gospel from Luke we encounter the version of the Lord’s Prayer with which we are less familiar. This prayer speaks towards the opportunities in which we encounter the Lord. It calls on us to do God’s will. The prayer asks us to trust that the Lord will provide for us daily. It challenges us to be good at forgiving if we wish to be forgiven. However, it is the last verse that seems the most divergent from our familiar Lord’s Prayer. “And do not subject us to the final test.” (Lk 11:4b) What is meant by the word test? For simplicities sake let’s define “test” as opportunities to be faithful disciples.
The test is more than a final exam, although it may be that as well. The test is more of an on-going reality in which we encounter opportunities to grow in our relationship with the Lord. In the first reading we hear how Peter came to stay with Paul for a while in Antioch. During this time, Peter ate with the Gentiles, until James came from Jerusalem and then Peter separated himself from them because they weren’t circumcised. Paul criticized Peter for his hypocrisy. Clearly Peter failed the test, yet this certainly became an opportunity from which he learned.
What are the opportunities we are being given to be faithful disciples? Have our responses to life’s recent challenges been faithful to the gospel? If not, have we learned from our mistakes? These are the opportunities on which we will be judged. As for my friend, whose time grows short, in the last week she learned that her body was no longer digesting food and therefore they were ceasing to feed her. In her response to the news, I find the ultimate symbol of hope. She insisted on speaking with her grand-children. She asked them to tell her about the joy in their lives and made it clear to them using words and ritual (blowing them kisses) that she loved them deeply. In her loving witness we encounter a beautiful and courageous response to the ultimate test. Would that all of our responses to life’s trials could be so beautiful.
-Michael Montgomery