The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Galatians 1:13-24
Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
Luke 10:38-42

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

When reading the Word of God we should always be prepared to hear in faith and receive with love what God in His wonderful and personal way intends to communicate. I’m not talking about private interpretation, but the mysterious “knowing” (in union with the Church’s understanding of the Sacred texts) that the Word of God often transmits. At times we get a glimpse of God and the wonder of His transcendent attributes, sometimes it is all a puzzle, while today it was something that made me laugh.

The subject was very serious however. St. Paul remonstrated the Galatians for backsliding. What was funny was how Paul said, in effect, that if he wanted to be popular he certainly would not be a follower or preacher for Christ! The thing that struck me as funny and so authentic was that it brought to mind such a vivid picture. I could almost picture Paul being at his wits’ end and in effect saying, “Are you crazy? Do you think I‘m doing this for fun or to be popular? Not on your life!” And appropriately, the outburst (of sorts) ends with an exclamation mark.

Indeed, popularity is not part of the benefit package of discipleship. Quite the contrary is more true as the blood of the martyrs attests.

So what is so funny and wonderful is that every thing that goes into our comprehension, from word-meanings, sentence structure, even punctuation are all gracious gifts from God and how perfectly they work together to communicate His mind and heart and the teachings of the Sacred Word!

“If I were trying to win man’s approval, I would surely not be serving Christ!”

The question is: “Who is it that we serve?”

- Donna Nelson, OCDS
(drn3rd at hughes dot net)