Friday.blog
The Catholic Calendar for Friday, September 24, 2004
Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
Psalm 144:1-4
Luke 9:18-22
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
'Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life!' is a song familiar to our grandparents. It describes the elusive and tantalizing nature of life. Life defies definition. A later and more cynical generation would express somewhat the same thing as they sang 'What's it all about, Alfie?'. We may be puzzled, teased out of patience, angered, but life remains a mystery to limited, human intellect. However, God consoles us with a great gift--a gift that eases the pain. He has given us the gift of timelessness, as today's reading from Ecclesiastes states. Even as life overwhelms us in its immensity, God, in his tender mercy, eases the mystery for us. Just as He divides night and day, winter and summer, months and years, so too does he separate activities--a time for sowing, a time for reaping, a time to weep and a time to laugh--and says that there is an appropriate time for everything under the sun!
In effect, God is telling us not to fear, to judge all things in the light of eternity. Just as the storm troubles the waters on the surface, it cannot jar the serenity of the depths.
Good advice for these troubled times! Even as the events in our world can alarm and frighten us, cause us to wring our hands and even know doubt and uncertainty in our hearts, God's words today urge us to calmness of spirit, drawing on the great gift of timelessness assured us in today's Scripture. Let us take those restless hands of ours, fold them in prayer, and seek relief for our world from our powerful God. May this time of war soon be transformed by God's power into a time of peace.
- Msgr. Paul E. Whitmore
(smartins at twcny dot rr dot com)
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