Saturday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Almost every evening my husband and I read and reflect on one of the daily Mass readings as part of our evening prayer. There are many times that after reading the passage we look at each other and wonder, “What exactly is this suppose to mean?” We believe that scripture is God’s revelation to us, but understanding the depth of the meaning is challenging for many reasons. Despite our inability to grasp God and His infinite presence, we are still called to seek God in all things.
The first reading is a beautiful writing describing how God reveals Himself to Zechariah. God promises Zechariah that not only will God provide protection as “an encircling wall of fire” around Jerusalem, but God is “coming to dwell among you.” This prophecy seems to point to Jesus’ incarnation. It is through Jesus that “many nations shall join themselves to the LORD.” This great promise of relationship seems to calls all people to be God’s people and live with Him.
The second reading from Luke provides encouragement for me as a disciple seeking Jesus and His message. Jesus tells the disciples to “pay attention.” Even though he brings awareness to what He will say, the disciples are completely dumbfounded by Jesus’ statement, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” The disciples are close friends of Jesus. They know His manners, His words, and live in the same culture, but they still are unable to understand what Jesus is trying to say. Luke says, “Its meaning was hidden from them, so they should not understand it.” Why would Jesus tell them to pay attention, and then prevent the disciples from understanding? Could it be that Jesus wants them to take note of what He is saying, so after His death and resurrection the disciples will be able to look back and understand that this was part of the plan from the beginning? Why were the disciples afraid to ask Jesus to explain what he means with this saying? Again, there is no obvious disclosure about their fear, but I wonder if they are afraid that their idea of who Jesus is and what He might accomplish will be undone if Jesus is put to death.
We are like the disciples as we read the scripture, since we have the same human limitations and pre-conceived ideas that they did many years ago. Unlike the disciples, I do believe that Jesus invites us to seek and ask questions. Fear prevents us from growing our relationship with Christ. Although we have 2000 years of time, reflections, and writings from religious scholars and teachers, the Spirit continues to further reveal God’s self to us even today. This makes me wonder if there have been things that God has “kept hidden” from us, until we are ready to understand the fullness of His plan.
Both of these readings remind me that God’s love has been and continues to be the foundation for all things. God promises to be with us and is with us always. God desires to reveal God’s self to us, but does it as we are able to comprehend because of our human limitations. This should not be a source of frustration, but a sign of hope and promise realizing that God continues to remove the scales from our eyes, so we can see more clearly. When we read scripture and even as we live our daily lives, we do need to “pay attention” just as Jesus commanded. With faith in God’s love and mercy we are called to believe that God will reveal all that we need to allow us to become His holy people.
Loving Father, Jesus is Your living presence for us. Through scripture, community, and all of creation allow us to grow in our love for You. May Your Spirit provide the grace for us to grow in wisdom and faith. We pray this through Christ our LORD. Amen.
- Marylynn Herchline