The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, September 5, 2001
The Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Colossians 1:1-8
Psalm 52:10-11
Luke 4:38-44
Full text: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm
A Reflection on Today's Scripture:
In today's first reading St. Paul is giving thanks to God for the way
the Colossians have responded to the preaching of the Good News. Paul
says the Word of God has continued to grow and bear fruit ever since
the time they "first comprehended God's gracious intention." It is
God's 'gracious intention' that I fear so many fail to recognize.
If understanding is such a critical factor, it is clear why the
preaching of God and His ways is so important. We could argue that
there is hardly a place on the earth that hasn't been probed by the
loving activity of missionaries of the Word. Why then, isn't there
more wide spread evidence that the gracious intention of God for all
mankind isn't reflected more substantially in us, the beloved
creatures of His creating loving hand.
Perhaps the answer resides not on our lack of understanding of God
and His ways, for we are taught that we have been imbued with a
"natural" moral sense of good and evil even without divine
revelation. We even have access to supernatural understanding and the
ability to respond in a way superior to our created nature through
the action of grace - God's freely given gift of Himself.
The crux of the matter is that without our willingness to =cooperate=
with God's grace, we remain as it were, mute and unintelligent,
seemingly paralyzed and unable to respond.
Let us then beg the Holy Spirit to unleash God's power in and through
us so that we may more fully comprehend and more suitably respond to
the graciousness of God who wills for all humanity not pain and
destruction, loneliness and restlessness, but love, peace, joy,
patience, kindness, gentleness - life eternal and everlasting
beginning not at some unknown time in the future, but now.
The Kingdom of God is at hand!
- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds
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