Monday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
My daughter is entering the last few weeks of her pregnancy with our first granddaughter. I must admit I am a little crazy with joy and anticipation. I am trying in a new way to navigate a situation where my daughter, raised in Catholicism, and her husband, raised in no particular spiritual tradition, have no affiliation with a faith community right now. Like most parents, I have concerns, especially with the new baby so close. I have struggled with this off and on for a number of years and, thanks to some very wise friends and my personal discovery of an all-powerful God, who I have come to know as omnipotent, I do realize I am not ultimately in control of what happens with my adult children. The most I can do, from this time forward, is point the way to Jesus by the way I live my life. And when they inquire about my personal faith, I can only share my personal experience granted through my faith in God. In other words, when they ask, I tell them.
Today’s Gospel is St Luke’s relating of the story of the blind man. Every verse in this passage has an amazing message. However, the verse of Scripture that strikes me is Luke 18:37: “They told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’.” (I implore you to read the entire Gospel passage today (Luke 18:35-43) and be open to what God is saying to you personally.) The reading from 1 Maccabees tells of the Greek King Antiochus Epiphanes passing laws to ensure all the people in his kingdom follow the same customs so as to be one people; many abandoned their faith in God. But there were a number who, as a result of their adherence to faith in God, were put to death.
What I come away with today is that I have no control over what over people do…including my own precious children. I can only fulfill my duty as a parent of the children entrusted to my care. At some point, I must realize that outside influences can surely hold sway where my children are concerned. Like the blind man in the Gospel, my child may ask me ‘what is happening? This is my opportunity to say “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” (Lk 18:37). It is my opportunity to reveal that Jesus is here and present in the world at that particular moment. I do not know if it will have an effect immediately or sometime down the road. I only know that in that moment ‘I told them’. I must leave the rest to the God I have come to know is completely in control and has a plan for everyone…including my children.
This day, I pray I can continue to trust God has covered everyone. God has loved and bestowed mercy upon everyone, including my own children. And whenever an opportunity presents itself, may I tell them, ‘it is Jesus of Nazareth passing by’.
--Gail Lyman
“The Lord remembered us in our low estate, for his mercy endures forever.” PS 136:23