Good News Reflection
Thursday of the 31st Week in Ordinary Time
November 16, 2006
Jesus is coming! Jesus is here!
[en Español: http://gnm.org/ReflexionesDiarias]
Today's Readings:
Philemon 7-20
Ps 146:7-10 (with 5a)
Luke 17:20-25
http://www.usccb.org/nab/111606.shtml
Reflection:
Many people are looking for signs that the Second Coming of Christ
is going to happen soon. Tired of suffering, we hope that God's
total victory will hurry up and arrive. We want evil-doers to get
punished and removed from our lives and even from our thoughts. We
want Satan's butt to get kicked the hell off of earth.
Today, Jesus is telling us the same thing he told the Pharisees in
today's Gospel passage: God's reign is already here!
The "end times" were initiated in the resurrection of Jesus and
began when the Holy Spirit descended upon the earth and came to
live in all believers. It's a time of mercy, forgiveness and love,
a time of overcoming evil with holiness. In salvation history, it's
the time when we are the Body of Christ on earth and we do what
Jesus did, through the Holy Spirit, to take others to heaven with
us.
So why are we waiting for Jesus to show up? We need to live as if
his Second Coming is going to happen tomorrow, but instead of
watching for signs that Jesus is going to soon rescue the world
from evil, we're supposed to be living with Jesus now, finding him
in the people of our Christian community and being him for those
who are afflicted by evil.
This is the point God makes in today's first reading. This short
letter from Saint Paul was written to a believer named Philemon
whose slave, Onesimus, had cheated him and run away. The name
"Onesimus" means "useful", and Paul took advantage of that to tell
Philemon that the formerly useless slave was to be respected and
compassionately reinstated in his job.
How many Onesimuses do we know? These are the persons who seem
worthless to us, and the people who have cheated us. We are to
treat everyone as if we are meeting Jesus himself. Saint Francis of
Assisi genuflected at each person he encountered. We could at least
smile!
The reign of God comes to us every day through every person we
meet. If we bring Jesus into the encounter, the occasion becomes
sanctified, holy. And isn't it interesting that God likes to speak
to us through those who seem useless and stupid. (He enjoys
irony.)
"Welcome him as you would me" is Paul's invitation to Philemon. He
is speaking the words of Christ himself, who says in Matthew 25
that what we do to the least, the very least of all people, we do
to him. We must train ourselves to recognize the reign of God where
we least expect to find it!
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© 2006 by Terry A. Modica