Memorial of Saints Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs
Today's reading really brought home the image of God as Alpha and Omega. Repeatedly we saw beginnings and we saw endings. In all of these there's God.
The first reading describes the beginning of the end of the exile. And how does the ending begin? With the beginning of the building of the Second Temple. This is the same Temple to which Jesus will later compare himself and proclaim himself greater than.
One of the lines from the Psalm talks about going out in sadness with the seeds and returning rejoicing with the sheaves of the harvest. The beginning and the end.
The gospel speaks of the lighting of the lamp and it fulfilling its purpose of illuminating for those in the house. The gospel also speaks of those who will have much and will be given more, and those who have little and will receive even less. In these cryptic words of the gospel we're left with an opportunity to trust that God is in the beginning and the end and that when all things are brought into the light God's wisdom will astound us.
Repeatedly there are beginnings and there are endings and it is the Persian king who seems to put his finger on that most essential part for us today. The in-between. There is always the in-between in which we find discipleship. We can only live and pursue that discipleship if we believe that there is truth to the Persian's words when he says, "Let [them] go up, and may [their] God go with them."
Discipleship is that trust. It is that trust that St Andrew Kim had that his beginning was in the call from the Lord, and that his end was with the Lord. A truth that we celebrate today on his memorial and the memorial of his companions. And it's about the in-between. The trust that the Lord walks that road with us and that we strive to stay on that road with him. For we can put our trust in God being there from beginning to end.
-Spencer Hargadon