The liturgy has only one thing in mind…shaping us up as disciples. The Church has a ‘one track mind’…to bring her children closer and closer to her Bridegroom. So September continues the mystagogy. We are being instructed on how to deepen the relationship begun in our baptism.
As we enter the first signs of autumn, we are first reminded that it’s all about choices. No, not wishful thinking…like “I wish I could lose ten pounds…” It’s about a firm act of the will. No ‘if’s’ or ‘buts.’ This is what I choose, even if I mess up now and then. I choose to follow Jesus.
Then we are reminded of the greatest challenge of all…not to wound love. By the way I think, by the way I speak, by the way I’m silent. Love is that fragile little flower…not to bruise it. Then our texts remind us that this pilgrim walk is not all about ‘me.’ Growing up is all about getting out of the ‘me’ bubble, and prayer extends me to the most important ‘Other.’
Then there is this ‘flesh’ thing. Keep in mind that the Greek word is sarx, the word for human limitations, not soma, the word for body. When Paul says he is still in the ‘flesh,’ he means he has to put up with all the time/space limitations we all have to put up with. When Jesus says we have to eat his flesh, he meant we have to deal with him in the limits of our brothers and sisters. There’s the crunch…yes, it is life-long formation. We are never quite ‘done.’
We are halfway through Ordinary Time.
Wise Mother Church does not waste it…
Week by week she gathers us around
and tells us how to keep our eyes on her Beloved.
We are to intentionally choose Him day after day…
We are to guard against wounding love…
We are to think always beyond our little selves…
And we will need to ‘stomach’ the faults and quibbles, and the limits
of our sisters and brothers, just as we hope they daily will put up with me.
Companions in life-long learning.
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