Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Have you made a dwelling place for the Lord in your life? Moses does this literally in today’s first reading, after receiving instructions on how to build the Tent of the Lord’s Presence. We have also received instructions telling us how to open our hearts and minds to Jesus. At each Mass when the gospel is read, we sign our foreheads, mouth, and chest, praying “Jesus be in my mind, Jesus be in my words, Jesus be in my heart.” Making a place for the Lord (and spending time there) is the beginning of discipleship.
As we open our full selves up to God more and more, we discover the Spirit is not only content in ‘his place.’ The Spirit comes out, like a curious lover, following us when we leave Her behind, to see and get involved in every part of our lives. We can choose to be open to this love, or we can seek to put God back in ‘his place.’ The more time we spend truly opening ourselves to God, the more righteous we will become.
The great challenge for us as we grow in faith and righteousness is to avoid arrogance. A close friend of mine often quips, “If I had a little humility I’d be perfect!” In today’s gospel reading, it isn’t the disciples or scribes who are separating the good from the wicked. It isn’t even Moses. The time we spend with the Lord in the Dwelling of Presence qualifies us to Love, but it does not qualify us to judge. We cannot know the true state of someone’s heart, or of their relationship with Jesus. We cannot know the degree to which someone has surrendered their life to God.
Good and bad, we’re all in the same net together, and we’ll just have to wait and see what the angels do with us at the end of time. Meanwhile, we can take comfort in our Father’s presence. We can invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in every part of our lives, and be truly open to whatever happens next. In God’s presence, it can only be good.
-Chris Nieport