7/24/2023

A Prayer and a Reflection for July 24, 2023,

Prayer

God of all people,
help us to grow and mature as disciples of Jesus.

Through his message of good news
may we become
more tolerant and forgiving of each other.

May we encourage rather than condemn,
be constructive rather than hostile,
and accept one another rather than reject.

May we accept everyone with your own untiring love and trust.

May this be the way your kingdom grows among us.

Reflection

You may not always have a comfortable life
and you will not always be able
to solve all of the world’s problems at once,
but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have,
because history has shown us that courage can be contagious,
and hope can take on a life of its own.

In today’s 1st reading, from the Book of Wisdom
Chapter 12 verses 13, 16 to 19,
in the Good News translation, there are these words:
You have given your people abundant hope.

Listening to what is happening in our world today
can make it very difficult to have abundant hope.
On most days the news seems to be about
people whose lives are full of unspeakable suffering.
Learning about the wars and atrocities in almost all parts of the world,
by people who do it because they think it is the right thing to do,
is both difficult to understand, and also very depressing.
Why do people do such violent, cruel things?
Why are they like that?

In one of his most powerful and moving commentaries,
the Scottish Scripture scholar, William Barclay
wrote about the parable in today’s gospel
Matthew chapter 13 verses 24 to 30.
He said this:

The whole point of the parable about the leaven lies in one thing,
the transforming power of the leaven.
Unleavened bread
is hard, dry, unappetising and uninteresting;
bread baked with leaven
is soft and porous and spongy, tasty and good to eat.

The introduction of the leaven
causes a transformation in the dough,
and the coming of God’s kingdom causes a transformation in life.

Christianity transformed life for women.
In Greek civilisation, women lived lives of utter seclusion,
with nothing to do beyond the household tasks.
In the middle east, when a family went on a journey,
the father would be on a donkey,
the mother would be walking,
and probably bent beneath a burden.

Christianity transformed life for the weak and the ill.
In Greece, when children were born,
if they were fit, they were allowed to live,
if they were weak or deformed,
they were exposed to death on the mountainside.
Dr Rendle Short, a professor of medicine points out that
Christianity was the first faith
to be interested in the broken things of life.

Christianity transformed life for the elderly.
In Rome, the old, whose day’s work was done,
were fit for nothing else
than to be discarded on the rubbish heaps of life.
Christianity was the first faith to regard men and women,
not as instruments capable of doing so much work
but as people.

Christianity transformed life for children.
The custom of simply exposing children to death
was tragically common.
In ancient civilisation,
children had a very good chance of dying
before they had begun to live.

Those who ask the question
‘What has Christianity done for the world?’
have delivered themselves into a Christian debater’s hands.
There is nothing in history so unanswerably demonstrable as
the transforming power of Christianity and of Christ
on the individual life, and on the life of society.

We may get depressed by what is happening in the world,
but rather than despair, our hope should remain strong,
because we believe in the transforming power of the love of God
which is present in our lives because of our faith in Jesus.

Even when terrible things happen,
there is still much in life to renew our faith,
and to help us persevere.

You may remember the story of Oscar Schindler,
who during the 2nd World War, saved the lives of hundreds of Jews.
There is a scene near the end of the film “Schindler’s List”
where, in tears, he regrets that he did not save more of them.
The workers he did save give him a gold ring with the inscription:
“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”

Now and then we may question how we have lived our lives,
we may regret that we have not done more with them,
we may even question whether our life was worthwhile,
and whether we could have helped more people.
Norman Cousins said:

Certainly it is true that
behind every human being who cries out for help,
there may be a million people
more equally entitled to attention.
But this is the poorest of reasons
for not helping the person whose cries you can hear.

How can you determine
which one of a million sounds surrounding you
is more deserving than the rest?

You will never know;
but you will never need to know.
Reach out and take hold of the one who happens to be nearest.
If you are never able to help or save another,
at least you will have saved one.

kommonsentsjane