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praying with daily scripture readings

Monday, after Epiphany

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 6, 2025

1 John 3:22-4:6, Psalm 2:7bc-8, 10-12a, Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25

I think we need to begin with what Jesus says as he begins his public life, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This has been a strong influence on my own understanding of what Jesus was trying to do. The question for me focuses on what you mean by “at hand.” In my opinion it has too often been interpreted as some undefined future, perhaps when the world ends and God reigns over heaven and earth. Perhaps it just means it’s not here yet and someday life on this earth will be idyllic. Each of these responses is strongly influenced by ideas of what “the Kingdom of heaven” means. These are often images of life after death or God’s final victory in the end times, i.e. the end of the world.

However, I have come to believe that Jesus had something else in mind. That Jesus saw the Kingdom as a present possibility. It was “at hand” because it was available here and now. This view matches with Jesus own behavior. Today’s reading gives us a very nice summary:

“Teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people.”

The construction of this summary puts proclaiming the Gospel in the center of two actions, teaching and curing. So in the style of the time the author is telling us the point of both actions is proclaiming the Kingdom. So Jesus spent his efforts not just telling people about the Kingdom but bringing it into being by curing people then and there. The good news (Gospel) is the Kingdom starts here with lives made whole. We know that Jesus cures people again and again throughout the gospels. Today’s scripture scholars admit that he was probably a wonder worker. The result is pretty clear, “great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.”

It may be easy to go along with the idea of Jesus bringing the Kingdom into being for his contemporaries because we believe he is the Son of God. But history makes it harder for us to see the Kingdom as “at hand” for us. Too much bad stuff goes on to believe that God’s Kingdom could be part of our lives now. I think some of the answer is in our first reading where John is concerned about the anti-Christ or those people and things in the world which are opposed to Jesus and therefore the Kingdom he preached. The anti-Christ is often seen as a signal of the end of the world and John mentions this explicitly, “This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come.” But then, significantly for my argument, says, “But in fact is already in the world.” This letter comes from around the time of the John’s Gospel, about 100 A.D. Already very early in the Christian tradition a sacred writer has to admit that end time events are already taking place. My point is, images and statements that can be interpreted as dealing with the final days of the human race are often also valid as statements about significance and meaning for human life. The Kingdom of heaven may well not be fully formed until the end of time but that doesn’t mean it can’t make a real difference for us right now. I believe that’s how Jesus saw it. The Kingdom is “at hand.” It is available to us if we act as John’s letter tells us, “we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.” This belief and resulting behavior can change us and the world we live in.

Solemnity, Mary the Mother of God

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 1, 2025

Numbers 6:22-27, Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8, Galatians 4:4-7

Luke 2:16-21

One of the things about reflecting on Scripture, or our lives for that matter, is you have to pay attention to the details. Sacred Scripture is the result of many people pouring over the text for years and then other people doing the same thing again, keeping, adding and adjusting until what we have in our Bibles is an amazingly refined piece of work. Nothing is in there by accident, nor was it something that someone dashed off in a moment of hurried necessity.

So I make this point because there’s a detail in today’s reading that I think raises very interesting questions. I think I noticed it because today is the solemnity of Mary as the Mother of God. Luke is talking about the shepherd’s coming to visit Jesus and passing on to Mary and Joseph what the angel’s had told them. And then he says, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” This reminds me of the scene later in Luke after Jesus, now 12, has been talking with the teachers in the temple. Once again Luke says, “His mother kept all these things in her heart.” So for me, Luke is saying Mary is trying to understand what these events mean even after visits from angels. Why else do you reflect on something?

This pattern began the first time the angel comes to Mary and announces that she is favored by God. According to Luke, Mary’s response was to be disturbed and “asked herself what this greeting could mean.” Luke is portraying Mary as not being sure what is going on. To me the real indicator comes after the angel tells Mary that her cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant and she immediately leaves and goes “as quickly as she could” to see Elizabeth. I’m convinced she’s going primarily to verify what the angel has told her.

We see this same behavior in the shepherds of today’s reading. The angel announces Jesus’ birth to a group of shepherds and gives them a sign they can verify. This child will be lying in a manger, an animals feeding trough. What do they do? They go “in haste” to see if it’s true. Luke spells out the evidence, they find “the infant lying in a manger.” And only then do they tell Mary and Joseph the message of the angel. Finally, when they return glorifying God for all they had seen it is because it was, “just as it had been told to them.” In other words they weren’t sure it was true until they could see it.

Now you could write off Mary’s reflecting on all these things in her heart as devote behavior in the face of divine revelations. However, I think Luke is giving us a sample of what happens when we encounter God acting in our lives. What, in retrospect, we interpret as God’s help in our lives is often something we didn’t recognize at the time. Coming to see God’s action is a process of real life verification, checking out what parts are good and what isn’t. I don’t think we should read these wonderful Bible stories and think, “how come that doesn’t happen anymore?” It wasn’t obvious to the people at the time. It took time for people to figure out that these events were God’s action.

Luke’s telling of the story is from the perspective of one who understands the significance of what happened. We shouldn’t take them so literally that we miss the underlying meaning. Without undercutting the point of the story Luke is hinting at what it might have been like for the original participants. Which suggests what it might be like for us. God could be bowling us over and we may not, in the moment, recognize what turns out to have been an angel in front of us.

Sixth Day, Octave of Christmas

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings, December 30, 2024

1 John 2:12-17, Psalm 96:7-10, Luke 2:36-40

Today’s Gospel continues the story of Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the Temple to be consecrated to the Lord. Simeon, an upright and devout man, has just recognized Jesus as the promised savior. Now Anna, a prophetess, arrives and talks about Jesus to those waiting for redemption. Both are devout Jews, both, a man and a woman, were able to recognize Jesus as the redeemer. Then Mary, Joseph and Jesus go back to Nazareth where Jesus grows up.

I’m glad Luke sees these two believers as important to telling the story of Jesus. I also like that the family goes back home where Jesus “grew and became strong,” a person that God “favors.” This has an everyday feel to it. I think that’s important for us because too often religion and the belief in God are assigned to the professionals. Priests, nuns, preachers and monks are supposed to be religious. The rest of us operate in the real world and drop-in on religious events like sacraments, Mass or prayer services. It’s as if we have to take time out for religious or spiritual activities. That’s not a helpful way to see faith or things we label spiritual because it suggests the spiritual and spiritual things are separate from regular stuff.

The problem with separating the spiritual from the everyday is that we can begin to identify the spiritual as holy and the everyday stuff as something less. All this other stuff then looks like it is keeping us from being holy because we’re all tied up with kids, work, vacations, spouses and well, life. If, however, you are Christian and believe in the Incarnation, that faith tells us all this stuff is what’s holy and blessed and part of being spiritual. It’s not separate at all.

So we have to begin to rewire our thinking to understand that belief in God and religion is a language for talking about our life values and how what we do means something. I know for many people spirituality has gotten so institutionalized, so dependent on a special language that we don’t recognize ourselves or God in it anymore. I actually think the best thing to do is to talk to other people about that problem. If we talk to others, regular other believers, about what they believe and why, it helps sort out what makes sense for us. We have good evidence that this works from today’s first reading. John is praising different groups of regular Christians, people he labels as children, fathers and young men, because they “know the Father” and “are strong” noting, “the word remains in you.” This letter from John is dealing with the problem that some people had left the community and those who remained were worried that something had gone wrong. He is reassuring them that they can know what is right and act accordingly.

So can we. All of us, just as Simeon and Anna, can recognize God in our lives. The whole point of Jesus being born is to say that God is here with us every day right with the kids, work, vacations, spouses and everything else. We just have to look for God’s presence in everyday situations, perhaps talk with a few others about how they see it and accept that we too can know “him who is from the beginning.”

Monday, Fourth Week of Advent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for December 23, 2024

Malachi 3: 1-4, 23-24, Psalm 25: 4-5, 8-10, 14, Luke 1: 57-66

Can’t you just feel the anticipation? Here we are so close, one more day and it’s Christmas. A time of wonderful excitement. That’s what is in our readings this morning. It is best expressed in the Psalm response for the day, “Lift up your heads and see; your redemption is near at hand.” No more negative thoughts, no more feelings that we can’t or shouldn’t, now is the time for everything that is new and hopeful.

That is certainly what the Gospel presents. Elizabeth gives birth to their long awaited son. As if to emphasize how new and amazing this is, he is not named for anyone in the family but a new name, John, which describes exactly what has happened, Yahweh has shown favor. This is why the villagers are amazed because there is no precedent for naming a child other than an existing family name. John is the living example of doing something “out of the box.” Zechariah, of course, knows exactly what’s going on and his first reaction is to use his renewed voice to praise God for such a wonderful gift.

Here we are one day from Christmas with all our expectations still jumping. This annual celebration of Christ bringing light into the darkness. Here in the middle of winter, cold, bleak and dark, we’re about to receive the Light of the world. Whatever has made you hang your head, the psalm speaks to you, “Lift up your head and see…” We have been in the dark long enough. Now’s the time for new life and joy because old things are passing away. They are being transformed. That’s what the first reading is saying to Israel, the refiner’s fire will purify the gold and silver. We may have had trouble finding God, we may have wondered if God was ever going to be there for us but now we will be transformed into giddy little children with a new toy, a new joy, seeing the gifts of God for ourselves.

I think Malachi points us to the kind of transformation we should expect. This is a transformation that turns the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. These are changes of heart, changes of outlook, changes inside ourselves that make all the difference in who we are. Then maybe we’ll find our own voices of praise and be like Zechariah who learned that anything is possible with God, including a new born son. Christmas may only come once each year, however its joy is available anytime. We have to be alert for the person or situation that is God’s messenger and be willing to accept something new.

Saturday, Third Week of Advent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for December 21, 2024

Song of Songs 2:8-14, Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21, Luke 1:39-45

As I have said in other reflections I believe we too often spiritualize God’s relationship with us. We keep God at a distance by making contact with God something elusive, ethereal and just not substantive. Today’s readings see the God/human relationship as amazingly up close and personal.

In Song of Songs the connection is openly sexual. The woman in the Song of Songs starts out by repeatedly calling the man her lover. She describes him in wonderfully admiring, masculine terms of strength and prowess. He in turn uses pet names and admiration for her beauty to ask her to reveal herself and come to him. As part of Wisdom literature there aren’t any of the references to The Lord or God that you would find in other parts of Hebrew Scripture. However, the accepted understanding is these poems are in the Bible because they are descriptions of the relationship between God and his chosen people. The description here is of two people who not only love each other they are chasing each other.

The same theme can be seen in part of today’s Psalm response. God’s plan is described as “the design of his heart.” There is an inheritance that goes to “the people he has chosen.” And the response of the people is, “our soul waits,” “our hearts rejoice,” and “we trust.” My point is simply that these words are talking about an intimate relationship with real life consequences.

In Luke’s Gospel we have not one but two examples of God’s intimate relationship with God’s people. Elizabeth was too old to have children but conceives a child anyway. Mary, a virgin, will give birth to the Savior because she has trusted in God. The story of these two women and their sons illustrates that God’s presence is here as part of human life. Perhaps just as importantly it is a story of joy. What could be more exciting and joyful than having a child? Circumstances would seem to have prevented both these pregnancies but here they are “with child” and excited to share the news.

Mary has rushed to see Elizabeth and Elizabeth with nothing more than a greeting from Mary is filled with the Spirit of the moment. She knows Mary is pregnant and that the child is the long awaited Savior. They have come together to share their joy of new life, the children they will bear. They have a special reason to be thankful. They recognize their children, these new lives, as gifts from God. The challenge for us is to be able to recognize the moments that leap for joy within us, as gifts from God.

Like the young lovers in the Sons of Songs, so excited to embrace each other, so excited to yearn and need each other, we too should gaze through windows, peer through lattices to find the God who seeks us. The story of these two women tells us the Spirit of God is within each of us. There are fresh new lives ready to be born. Will we, like Elizabeth, recognize them? Will we trust enough, like Mary, to embrace what is offered? Human birth happens every day all over this planet. Could it be that God’s gifts are just as plentiful, just as common? Perhaps the more we come together, as Mary and Elizabeth did, the easier it is to see them.

Thursday, Third Week of Advent

~ Retired Bill ~ 1 Comment

Scripture Readings for December 19, 2024

Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25a, Psalm 71:3-6, 16-17, Luke 1:5-25

The only way to begin looking at today’s readings is to point out the distinct parallel of two women, barren and derided because of it, hearing from an angel of God that they will bear a son. Sons who will “begin the deliverance of Israel.” Luke is using this pattern to connect his story of salvation with Israel’s historical and religious story of liberation. For us, set in this Advent season before Christmas it emphasizes a sense of preparation. God doesn’t just drop in out of nowhere. God arrives as part of the history that people already know. God is woven into the patterns of life we understand.

On an individual basis it’s interesting that these men who are going prepare the way for God’s saving of Israel are being chosen before they were born. God isn’t asking them to change lives that are well underway like Moses or Abraham or any of the apostles. These guys will “be consecrated to God from the womb.” This condition is also claimed for Isaac, Samuel, Jesus, of course, and Catholics believe it was also true for Mary in the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Each of these people have a special role to play in salvation history. They are models of being committed to God literally from womb to tomb.

Personally I think these stories are a way to tell us how God operates all the time. We are all chosen before birth as God’s children and empowered by the Spirit to make good things happen. To free our people from fear and hatred through love and mercy. The part we need to remember is that from the beginning, our very beginning, we have not been alone. God put this all in motion. The issue for us is to recognize that we have been “filled with the Holy Spirit” from our mother’s womb and “the Spirit of the Lord stirred” us so we would have the strength to make the world a better place. Our Psalm today says exactly the same thing. “On you I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength.”

This is the last week of Advent, shortly the Christmas story will go even further saying that God’s very self comes into our world. For now these readings suggest God has been acting in human history, acting in our lives, for a long time. Maybe it says that before we can rejoice in a God fully present, see ourselves as supported by a God of love, we should look for markers throughout our lives. Maybe we need to consider everything from the beginning to get a true sense of what is valuable for us. A good look back may help us recognize what brought us to this time when everything is about to change. When even if we have felt barren and empty a new child is about to be born.

Monday, 5th Week of Lent

~ Retired Bill ~ 1 Comment

Scripture Readings for March 27, 2023

Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 or 13:41c-62, Psalm 23:1-6, John 8:1-11

There’s an amazing contrast in today’s readings. An innocent person and a guilty person are both saved by God’s actions. To make the contrast even more compelling it’s the same alleged crime, adultery. Committed supposedly by a member of the same powerless group of people, women. That is so clear and powerful we should stay with that and ask simply what that says to us?

God rescues both an innocent person and a guilty person. There’s a serious difference between guilt and innocence but God’s action is the same. That tells us something wonderful about God. God’s love and mercy are real and clearly beyond our typical understanding. All of which suggests should we take it at face value. We need to accept that God’s care, love and actions are there to support us not condemn us. We can read Psalm 23 and believe what is said.

Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side
With your rod and your staff that give me courage.

The challenge, of course, is our own feelings. Guilt, shame, perhaps righteous indignation at things we’ve experienced or seen. We need to remember we aren’t God. Whatever stuff we have to deal with has to be faced honestly, openly and with the other people involved. Both the stories in Daniel and John’s Gospel occur in public settings. We can’t solve our issues or deal with the feelings that divide us by ourselves brooding alone or ranting about injustice. This is conversation time that has to be thoughtful and compassionate. Daniel makes everyone go back to court and Jesus takes his time writing in the sand. Both then ask questions of the accusers that reveal the hidden truth, the hidden agenda in each situation.

I think a similar setting is required to get out from under our own fears and uncertainties. Can we ask for help? Can we face the challenge of revealing the feelings that need to be out in the open? I think it’s the only way to eventually accept ourselves as we are, just as God already does. Guilty or innocent isn’t the issue. Love and acceptance are.

Wednesday, 4th Week of Lent

~ Retired Bill ~ 1 Comment

Scripture Readings for March 22, 2023

Isaiah 49:8-15, Psalm 145: 8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18, John 5:17-30

These readings are about the basics of our faith, the foundational principles we should never forget. In Isaiah, God is speaking about loving the people of God no matter what, bringing them back to an ideal world. The Psalm is about God’s mercy and how God is always with us. Finally, John’s Gospel makes clear that Jesus is God’s very presence among us doing God’s work.

It’s easy to forget some of this, to let the prescriptive rules of Lent or what was often a church culture that emphasized penance and the examination of our consciences to avoid sin push us down the rabbit hole of doubt, worry and fear. Rather we need to hear today’s readings and take them to heart.

God’s message has always been one of hope beginning with the idea that we are not left to our own devices. Isaiah uses the extreme example that even if a mother were to abandon her child God will not abandon us. Jesus in John’s Gospel makes clear he does nothing on his own. What Jesus, a living breathing human being from the little town of Nazareth, does is the work God is doing. The person of Jesus is a message to us about how close God is to our lives. We do not operate on our own much as we might think we do. The question is, can we hear what God present in the world around us is trying to say? Can we read Isaiah and accept the possibility of a road, a pathway that cuts through the mountains of challenges, the stacks of worry, the treacherous terrain of life and provides the refreshing spring of water that satisfies our thirst?

Today’s Gospel is filled with statements of how Jesus does what God does, how Jesus can give life just as God gives life, how believing in Jesus takes a person from death to life. This is all about how God’s presence in Jesus, God’s presence in the world, is transformative and can make all things new here in this world, in this life. That is the promise of the Christian faith that we should believe.

In general, the problem for us is we are often coming from a place where we struggle, falter and fail to live as we have hoped. We can feel guilty for little and big things. It all can become a problem, a burden that feels too big to solve. Which is where today’s Psalm can help remind us of God’s mercy.

The LORD supports all who stumble and lifts up all who are bowed down.

The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him from the heart.

No matter how off the path we might go, God, the one as near to us as ourselves, still loves and accepts who are and is ready for us let go of whatever is doing the damage.

It is today’s Psalm that perhaps best captures the message:

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.

To this message of love and mercy we add, the element expressed in today’s Gospel, “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” God is still at work. Jesus is still at work. John is trying to tell us that the world is not finished but still being created by all who live in it. Because it’s a joint project, God and all God’s creation. We, with God, are creating that wonderful world Isaiah foresees and it’s to be done with compassion, graciousness and mercy supplied by God so we can try and try again, do better and find our path to a space of peace and joy.

Tuesday, Week 4, Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for February 1, 2022

2 Samuel 18:9-10, 14b, 24-25a, 30 – 19:3, Psalm 86: 1-6, Mark 5: 21-43

It’s pretty common for us to think of God in terms of a parent and we as God’s children. The most obvious example of this is the nearly universal prayer, “Our Father …” Today’s readings give us three striking examples of the kind of deep parental love God has for us.

The background to the reading from Samuel is that the various tribes of Israel are in conflict. There is a power struggle and some have taken up arms against their King, David. This includes David’s son Absalom. David sends out his forces to do battle and as we see Absalom is killed in a humiliating way. David’s army has been successful but David has lost his son. Is David pleased that his army has been successful? Are their mixed feelings because his son was against him and has lost his life in the process? No, David totally ignores the army’s victory and the lives it cost to save his rule. For David there is only one reality, his son is dead. He would rather have died himself than have his son, the one who led a contingent of the opposition, die. Maybe that should inform our understanding of how God feels when we make poor choices. In New Testament terms, better he die on a cross than we should be lost.

This same kind of love gets told twice in Mark’s Gospel. First, Jairus a synagogue official, comes to Jesus because his daughter is close to death and he believes Jesus can heal her. Jesus without hesitation goes with him and when he arrives at the family’s home ignores what everyone is saying about the girl having died. He reassures Jairus that he doesn’t need to be afraid, just have faith. Faith, by the way, in this instance and all others should not be thought of as holding to a set of beliefs but rather as trust. Trust in another. It’s a relationship word, to have faith in God is to say, we trust God. That’s what’s going on here. Jairus must trust Jesus and he does. So Jesus takes mom, dad and his closest friends in to save Jairus’ daughter from death.

However, what is really important here is that Mark has split the story into two parts and sandwiched another story of faith in the middle, another story of trust. When Mark does that it’s a signal that the story in the middle is the most important because it conveys the deeper meaning for both events.

Now a woman who has sought healing for 12 years comes up behind Jesus, secretly touches his cloak and is healed. Jesus hasn’t said a word to her, didn’t do any of the things usually associated with healing like laying on of hands, and, in fact, didn’t even know she was there. Yet as Mark says, “Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,” now wants to know who has been healed. He asks, “Who has touched my clothes?” He’s in a crowd, the Apostles can’t imagine how many people must have touched him. But the woman knows what he means. She is frightened because to touch someone in her condition is to make that person ritually unclean just as she has been for 12 long years. But she comes forward and tells the truth. She has trusted that just a touch, the slightest contact with Jesus would be healing, so she says, “It was me.” And Jesus acting just like a loving father confirms her trust, “Daughter, your faith has saved you.”

Here is the heart of the story. We don’t need special attention from God. We can be cast out from our loved ones, alone and frightened for years on end but if we trust that God, love and kindness, can heal us then we just need to step forward, reach out and tell the truth. God’s love goes beyond our injuries, failures and even opposition, to heal whatever is broken if we simply trust enough to reach out for help.

Thursday, Week Three, Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Scripture Readings for January 27, 2022

2 Samuel 7:18-19, 24-29, Psalm 132: 1-2, 3-5, 11-14, Mark 4: 21-25

When I read Samuel for today I couldn’t help but think that David is the stand-in for all of us. David is amazed at the favor God has shown to him and his family. David doesn’t think there’s a good reason for God to have chosen him.

“Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point?”

In fact, God has just told David his idea of building a fancy temple for God is missing the point of God’s being with him all this time. God has chosen David and will stand by him and his family forever. That’s it. Today we might say God’s going to be David’s friend. God will have David’s back, no matter what. Young people might say, BFF’s (best friends forever).

Why is God doing this? God wants this relationship and Samuel suggests it’s because God wants everyone in on the deal.

“Your name will be forever great, when men say, ‘The LORD of hosts is God of Israel,’”

This is even clearer in the New Jerusalem Bible translation:

“may the promise which you have made … stand firm forever as you have said, so that your name will be exalted forever and people will say, ‘Israel’s God is Yahweh Sabaoth.’”

It suggests that God wants everyone to know about the gifts or blessings God is making available for us all. The problem, of course, is that life doesn’t always encourage us to see ourselves as beneficiaries of God’s largesse. We don’t feel worthy. Life can be challenging and often discouraging and harsh. There’s no simple answer to why bad things happen.

Mark’s Gospel for today hints at one way to approach the question of understanding the gifts we believe God offers to everyone. Jesus is saying in Mark that “the light” is not meant to be kept under a bushel basket but rather everything that is “hidden” is meant to be out in the open. Another words, pay attention or “listen” to what is being said, in the words and very life of Jesus and just as importantly in our lives everyday.

Then Jesus says something that can seem odd:

“The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, 
and still more will be given to you.
To the one who has, more will be given; 
from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

In terms of being chosen like David, God intends good things for everyone. We’re all just as worthy, unlikely as it may seem to us, as David was. Mark’s Gospel says to the extent you accept that and dive in, you’ll gain more of what is offered. If however, you don’t accept that approach then what little you already have is likely to go away. However we do have to understand what’s important. David thought building a strong cedar wood temple for God was what was needed. God said no, we’re not talking material things here, we’re talking a relationship in which God offers life and blessings to human beings and they respond in gratitude and act accordingly. That offer is available for ever and to everyone we just have to listen well enough to hear it, to be aware of it.

We know about this from ordinary experience if we think about it. There are times when I feel overwhelmed by circumstances, too many things aren’t going right and I just want to curl up and avoid all human contact. If I keep this up things only get worse. Then there are moments when I feel good about what is going on, the day is beautiful and I’m ready to take on anything. To me, that’s where we have to look for the presence of God and divine gifts, in our individual lives, our feelings and the choices we make. I think today’s readings say that we are all chosen and promised a future in which God gifts us with what we need to flourish. We need to live based on that generosity and in so doing reveal the light that is still hidden.