When you come before God in prayer, be in your thought like an ant, like something crawling on the ground, like a child lisping. And in his presence make no pretense of knowledge. Approach God rather with the heart of a child. Go into his presence to receive the loving care with which parents look after their little children.
- Isaac of Nineveh, Ascetic Treatises, 19
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PHMN 7-20; PS 146:7, 8-9A, 9BC-10
LK 17:20-25
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
Then he said to his disciples,
“The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
Today’s first reading brought these stories to mind. Onesimus, a slave who has run away from Philemon, encounters Paul. The “it’s a small world” part of the story is that Philemon is a Christian well known to Paul. Philemon lived in present-day Turkey, while Paul was in present-day Italy at the time. Paul became responsible for Onesimus’ conversion. It seems that today’s epistle is an excerpt from a cover
letter for Onesimus’ voluntary return.
Today’s readings left me confused. Is Onesimus returning as a slave of Philemon? What role in the Church would he take on after his return to Colossae? Looking to biblical scholars, I find disagreement. Moving on to the Gospel, I find similar differences of opinions, even arguing between translating the text as “the Kingdom of God is among you” and as “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Was Jesus saying that
the Kingdom of God is within the hearts of men? Was He saying that the Kingdom of God is at hand? Or was He saying that the Kingdom of God was being made manifest in Him?
I feel that I am left to my own personal reflection. If I envisage myself in the presence of Paul and Onesimus, I picture Paul treating Onesimus as any other brother in the faith. I see Paul as didactic and committed to his cause. Himself confined to prison, he missions Onesimus to return and serve his community as someone no longer on the run. If I imagine myself near Jesus, I notice that I am standing next
to Jesus rather than sitting at His feet. The crowd of Pharisees makes me nervous. I am more ready for action than passive listening. I am feeling that Jesus has intentionally given an ambiguous answer. I sense the Kingdom within as a call to action.
- by Mike Cherney
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 86
"Love was our Lord's Meaning"
THIS book is begun by God's gift and His grace, but it is not yet performed, as to my sight.
For Charity pray we all; [together] with God's working, thanking, trusting, enjoying. For thus will our good Lord be prayed to, as by the understanding that I took of all His own meaning and of the sweet words where He saith full merrily: I am the Ground of thy beseeching. For truly I saw and understood in our Lord's meaning that He shewed it for that He willeth to have it known more than it is: in
which knowing He will give us grace to love Him and cleave to Him. For He beholdeth His heavenly treasure with so great love on earth that He willeth to give us more light and solace in heavenly joy, in drawing to Him of our hearts, for sorrow and darkness which we are in.
And from that time that it was shewed I desired oftentimes to learn what was our Lord's meaning. And fifteen years after, and more, I was answered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: Wouldst thou learn thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed it He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and
know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing without end Thus was I learned that Love was our Lord's meaning.
And I saw full surely that ere God made us He loved us; which love was never slacked, nor ever shall be. And in this love He hath done all His works; and in this love He hath made all things profitable to us; and in this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had beginning; but the love wherein He made us was in Him from without beginning: in which love we have our beginning. And all this shall
we see in God, without end.
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