Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
In Good Times and Bad Times
I am not sure if this Sunday the Scriptures you hear will scare you or comfort you! Perhaps they will leave you wondering. The end of the liturgical year, the month of November especially, leaves us with advice to evaluate our lives. Are we prepared for death? God’s ways are not our ways. We do not know what is coming, so we take quiet time to reflect, to ponder our status in God’s eyes.
Bad things happen. But whether we live or die, no matter what darkness swirls around us, no matter how dire the situation, the Lord desires to shine through us like stars in the night sky, like the brightly glowing, full moon we experienced this week. You and I are to be the blessing of God at this point in history. What does that mean for how we are to act? For how we are to pray? How can you and I grab onto that personal mission even more strongly as this Church year draws to a close?
In our Becoming Catholic (formerly RCIA) session this Sunday, we are reflecting on these questions:
- When has life been so bad that you thought that God did not love you?
- How did you learn to say at last, “Thy will be done”? From reading Scripture? From a supportive person? From an insight during prayer?
- Which people around you in your life most need your support in order to believe that they are lovable? That in God’s plan they are safe?
- What people in the Church or in society seem to you to be preaching bad news and not good news? How might you reach out to them in a fruitful way?
Let’s pray and reflect together and ask God to give us the grace to persevere through whatever trials and upheavals come into our lives. We ask to live in the awareness that God is with us and continues to draw us more deeply into communion, into deep relationship. God seeks for each one of us. God doesn’t wait but sends the Holy Spirit to nudge us. Are we listening?