BELONGING AND HOPE: 29th Sunday OT A

POINTING TO THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD

Dear Friends

We all have experiences of these two groups of people. On the one hand, people who are not who – or what – they appear to be! These people live lives of pretence. On the other hand people who are the same both on the outside and the inside. Who always seem to do the right thing.

The scriptures this Sunday present us with the two types of people considered above.

In the 1st reading, from the Prophet Isaiah, God gave His grace to Cyrus, a man who seems to belong to the second group above. A man who always seemed to do the right thing. Even though he did not know God, he co-operated with God's Grace. In contrast we see the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees in the gospel, who were not who or what they appeared to be. Externally religious but hypocrites. They tried to entrap Jesus, who was the perfect model of what it means to be religious on the outside and spiritual in the inside. Something the disciples and saints became. Something we must strive every day to become.

St Paul in the 2nd reading educates us on how to do this. He tells the Thessalonians that we need much more than words. We need the power of the Holy Spirit – And we need conviction! Words can fall on deaf ears and closed minds – Words cannot penetrate hardened hearts – But the power of God’s Holy Spirit can enable us to become what we must be for God, for others, and for ourselves!

So, dear friends, let us pray that we will become the whole and integrated persons that God created us to be. May we reject all those things which stand between us and God – And may we always bring out the best in others, by being the best we can be ourselves!