Scripture:
1 Corinthians 2:10-16
Psalm 145
Luke 4:31-37
Reflection:
God’s Spirit at Work
As I’ve grown older, I know firsthand how I depend on my eyeglasses to help me see. I’ve worn glasses for most of my life; they are "first-on" and "last-off" each day. I regularly have my eyes professionally examined, and often there are tweaks in the prescription lenses. My eyeglasses are important in helping me see clearly the beauty of God in both people and nature…and then engage in life.
Building upon today’s first reading from St. Paul, we need to "see clearly" with the aid of the spiritual vision that comes from faith in Jesus Christ. We have received a share in God’s Spirit which helps us to recognize and then actively appreciate the many gifts God shares with us. Looking through in the Scriptures, the gift of faith helped the Israelites to see that it was God who parted the waters of the Red Sea for their Exodus crossing, and the gift of faith that helps us see Jesus’ death on the Cross as Jesus’ supremacy over sin and death…not simply a political execution. As we regularly share in the Eucharist, it’s faith that helps us see not ordinary bread and wine at Mass but truly Jesus’ own Body and Blood given to us.
In the Gospel, Jesus is teaching with authority at Capernaum. He encounters a possessed man in the synagogue, and powerfully and lovingly cures the man. Again, it’s God’s Spirit at work in Him, meeting the challenges of a man possessed and people of little or no faith – inviting all of them to a deeper faith — and changed lives!
It’s God’s Spirit at work in our lives, helping us recognize God’s gifts all around us – in both joys and sorrows, successes and failures, the forces of nature, the passage of time. Nothing in life escapes God’s presence and love. In faith, we are called to see everything in light of God’s love…"God is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works" (Psalm 145).
Blessings on this day, and the Spirit at work in our lives! May we "see" clearly and respond lovingly!
Fr. John Schork, C.P. is the local leader of the Passionist community in Louisville, Kentucky.