Nehemiah 1:5-11: Continuity
Friday, September 20, 2024
The commentary in the Biblia de América points out that the words of Nehemiah, the administrator who rebuilt Jerusalem some 50 years after the devastation left by Nebuchadnezzar and his troops, ring with the words of Moses as the people are about to enter into the land promised to them. And it strikes me today that these are words echoed by Christ and that they are words we might read with care each morning upon our rising. It is the confession of the people that they have erred. It is the cry to God that this people seek God’s companionship. It is the best response we can make to the promise extended to us.
Moses speaks in Deuteronomy 30 and we see both the scattered and the call to the Diaspora to return. Just so are we scattered today among the various pagan places where people have the choice to fall down in worship to empty gods or to the one true God.
All of this reminds me of the parting of bread and the spilling of wine which Christ performs during the Eucharistic prayer at Mass on countless altars in countless places each day. In order for the sharing to begin, the bread must be broken, the wine shared.
There is continuity in this paradox of breaking and joining. As we break away from our distractions to focus on true life and our vocation in it, we move closer to the person we are meant to be. As we share the wine of life with others and allow ourselves to be poured out as a libation, we move into intimacy with God.
This is a message worthy of hearing and passing on. This is a life which cries out for continuance. It is a belief which deserves continuity. And if we do not move forward into this act each day, what other life will following generations model? What other life can we imagine worth living?
God’s plan unfolds in God’s time, in God’s places. God’s vocation coalesces in our actions of love, of hope and of faith. We make God visible when we continue the work and agree to become his priests and his builders. We become carpenters in the kingdom of God when we willingly join the long line of followers, when we take up the threads of God’s story to weave them into the lives of countless other pilgrims who commit to the continuity of the one great story – that we are created in love – that we are create for love – and that are to love in return.
LA BIBLIA DE LA AMÉRICA. 8th. Madrid: La Casa de la Biblia, 1994. Print.
Image from: https://www.rehobothbaptist.net/rebuild-restore-revive/
Adapted from a reflection written on February 3, 2009.
The Noontimes 