Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Passion for the Lord can become like an all-consuming fury. A heart so filled with praise, gratitude and zeal we proclaim great and wonderful are you works oh Lord. This proclamation comes not only from our lips but from our discipleship. This lifting up of our voices and lives as an offering of praise is the testimony to the gratitude we have for all of our blessings.
In realizing our blessings we can have a profound wonder and awe for the Lord. So the question is do we have a wonder and awe for the Lord? Do we glorify the Lord with our lives? If not, what could we do to purify our hearts so that our lives become a sign of the victory that Christ won for us? The first reading reminds us that we need to allow the Lord to conquer any sin in our life. Perhaps a healthy fear of the Lord could move us to open ourselves to God’s grace and love which has power to transform hearts.
The gospel suggests one way we will know that our lives are giving true testimony to the Lord is through persecution. Persecution might be like an all-consuming fire that purifies us from the inside out. In turn this process of purification will strengthen our beliefs and our power of testimony. As faith grows in strength we realize that our witness is not simply given for our own sake, but so that it might be shared with the whole community. Indeed, the whole world ought to be able to look at things we say and the way we live our lives, and know that our life is dedicated completely to Christ. When we think, talk and act like Jesus then our lives give testimony to Christ.
"Lord, help us to be at peace this day. Guide our hearts so that renounce what we must renounce and claim what we must claim. Give us the openness and passion so that our whole being can be renewed again to find a joy that will allow us to glorify the Lord with our lives. Amen."
- Michael Montgomery