Scripture:
Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12
Luke 10:1-12
Reflection:
I do not intend for this meditation to add to one’s anxiety and stress but there is a sense of urgency in the Word of God today. Ezra assembles all the people, even the “children old enough to understand” what was read from the Torah. Jesus sends forth the seventy-two disciples with no provisions lest they be burdened in their strong and rapid announcement that the “reign of God is at hand.” Faith is a relationship of total reliance upon Him. Anxiety or not, our embracing the Scripture can move us to a heightened mode of consciousness and activity today.
Just contemplating Jesus’ exhortation on sending the disciples out in pairs, and in what manner he sends them is enough to, at least, increase curiosity as to what is in store for us today. Are you ready to accept what God intends for you in the building of the kingdom on earth before he returns? It is curious enough that the “seventy-two disciples” represent the seventy-two grandsons of Noah, who left their grandfather’s homestead, spread out all over the world and thus became the origin of all the peoples that live on the earth. And somehow, that which makes up the light and vision that shows us through the day is the ultimate Good News that we, together, form one family, one Father, one Brother and one Spirit. In the Book of Revelation John describes how he sees all the nations coming together to the New City, the New Jerusalem, each one bringing their own gifts to it. It is the movement started around Him by those seventy-two which continues till now.
The Step Three prayer of AA may be an appropriate way with which to conclude our meditation as we willfully go forth with God today. “God I offer myself to You – to build with me and to do with me as you will. Relieve me of the bondage of self that I may better do your will. Take away my difficulties so that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Your Power, Your Love and Your Way of Life. May I do your Will always. Amen”
Fr. Alex Steinmiller, C.P. is a member of St. Paul of the Cross Community in Detroit, Michigan.