Wednesday, October 6, 2021
God’s Eternal Call
As you know, we treated each one of you as a father treats his children, exhorting and encouraging you and insisting that you conduct yourselves as worthy of the God who calls you . . .
We linger with the thoughts that Jeremiah’s words bring to us in the 21st Century. This prophecy continues to move us millennia after it was first spoken. Each of us has experienced exile from a loved one or a loved place. Each of us has known the devastation of corrupt leadership and betrayal. Each of us has received God’s call to live in a manner worthy. Before we allow the words of the prophet to cease their resonating power, let us reflect on the power of God’s persistent, endless love.
God’s Eternal Call
This stillness of separation nurtures sweet embers of hope . . . for God is near.
The darkness of rejection gives way to a rising spark of confidence . . . for God is at hand.
Vertigo of displacement, sting of betrayal, agony of deception . . . consumed by God’s burning desire to live within.
Overcome not by darkness but by the piercing light of God’s love.
Fire of courage sweeps through dry tinder of exile.
Flames of resolution rise up to greet the call.
Anger, revenge, corruption . . . disappearing in the conflagration of God’s indwelling.
Hope, fidelity, love . . . living in a manner worthy of God’s eternal call.
St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians – and he reminds us – that despite trials and suffering, God’s word is at work in us. This word will not be extinguished. This words breaks forth in the darkest of times. This word is the unceasing presence of God’s fervent call. Let us live in thanksgiving of this worthy indwelling.
And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you . . .
Image from: http://antiochcofc.org/#/worthy-of-gods-call/4556896195
The Noontimes 