The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of the role of the Grace of God in hard times and in preparing for the end time.
Aware in hard times
The reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians contains a salutation and reference to Grace.
* [1:1] Called…by the will of God: Paul’s mission and the church’s existence are grounded in God’s initiative. God’s call, grace, and fidelity are central ideas in this introduction, emphasized by repetition and wordplays in the Greek.1
Psalm 145 praises the greatness and the goodness of God.
* [Psalm 145] A hymn in acrostic form; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems usually do not develop ideas but consist rather of loosely connected statements. The singer invites all to praise God (Ps 145:1–3, 21). The “works of God” make God present and invite human praise (Ps 145:4–7); they climax in a confession (Ps 145:8–9). God’s mighty acts show forth divine kingship (Ps 145:10–20), a major theme in the literature of early Judaism and in Christianity.2
In the Gospel of Matthew, the parable of the faithful or the unfaithful servant sets an expectation about our preparedness.
* [24:51] Punish him severely: the Greek verb, found in the New Testament only here and in the Lucan parallel (Lk 12:46), means, literally, “cut in two.” With the hypocrites: see note on Mt 6:2. Matthew classes the unfaithful Christian leader with the unbelieving leaders of Judaism. Wailing and grinding of teeth: see note on Mt 8:11–12.3
Tamora Whitney comments that we never know for sure what will happen, but we try to be ready for whatever does.
The thousands of people who have died from COVID didn’t expect that would happen. They couldn’t have guessed last year that there would be a deadly pandemic now. They certainly didn’t plan on it, but we hope they had or got their affairs in order. Now we know more about the situation and how to react better.4
Don Schwager quotes “You do not know the day,” by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD).
"But his meaning is like this: If ordinary persons knew when they were going to die, they would surely be striving earnestly at that hour. In order therefore that they may strive, not at that hour only, he does not tell them the hour or day. He wants to keep them on their toes looking for it, that they may be always striving. This is why he made the end of each person's life so uncertain. In this passage he openly implies that he himself is Lord. Nowhere before has he spoken of this so distinctly. But here he seems to me also to be putting to shame those who remain careless about his lordship. They take much more care about a thief taking their money than about their own soul. Those who care about their house and do not want their possessions stolen take measures against the thief. They watch; they are prepared for the thief. So it is with you. You do not know when he will come. But you know assuredly that he will come. If you do not continue to watch, you will not be ready on that day. You will be unprepared. Destruction will come in your sleep. If the person had known when the thief was coming, he would have been prepared. So be like the one who is prepared at all times, so you will escape free. Having then mentioned the judgment, he directs his thoughts next to teachers, speaking of honorable and dishonorable actions. His discourse closes with that which is alarming, for he speaks first of those who do right, then of those who continue in sin." (excerpt from the THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 77.2-3)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 notes that on those difficult days, we can follow Paul’s lead and thank God because he has called us and he will keep us firm to the end (1 Corinthians 1:8).
As you seek to take hold of the faith to which you were called, striving your best toward holiness, God will continue to pour out grace to help you, especially on those very bad days. Remember, even your desire to answer his call is grace! The drive to hold onto what you profess and live a life of faith is also grace. Even the awareness of falling short always comes wrapped in the grace to repent and proceed anew.
The next time you have a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day,” stop and thank God, who is faithful, who has called you, and who will keep you firm to the end.6
Friar Jude Winkler discusses the view of some Corinthians that Christ was degraded by being human. Stay awake and always be ready is the Gospel message. Friar Jude advises that we leave nothing unsaid and nothing undone.
Barbara Holmes, a member of the Living School faculty, writes that when we return to the original Order—the unbroken unity of all of creation with and in God—with new eyes, we see the gifts of abundance, diversity, and interconnectedness always available to us.
We are one, and our wars and racial divisions cannot defeat the wholeness that lies just below the horizon of human awareness. . . . Diversity may not be a function of human effort or justice. It may just be the sea in which we swim. To enact a just order in human communities is to reclaim a sense of unity with divine and cosmological aspects of the life space. As Hebrew Scripture scholar Terence Fretheim suggests, the “Let us” discourse in Genesis [1:26] is a statement of the community of God. [3]7
Our daily gratitude to God and our relationship with the Divine in hard times are experiences that sharpen our preparedness to receive gifts of full life.
References
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