In today’s first reading,
Philemon 7-20, we have such phrases as “…do what is proper,…out of love,” may “the
good you do…be…voluntary,” return to those who know you as a mature person “in
the Lord,” “may I profit from you in the Lord,” and “[r]efresh my heart in Christ.” Each of those phrases affirms Jesus’ teaching
in today’s Gospel, Lk 17: 20-25, when He says to us: “The Kingdom of God is among you”; don’t go
looking for it anywhere else. It’s the reason
Jesus also said to John the Baptist: the blind see, the deaf hear, the poor have
the Good News preached to them (not necessarily in words but through the good
that is done), the lame walk, the sick are healed and the dead (not just
physically dead) come to life. The same
is true today. You and I make God’s Kingdom
visible in the good that we do. We refresh hearts in Christ by our love and
forgiveness, by our conversion and repentance.
By the fruits of our lives, we
will be known as mature women and men in the Lord, as was Paul’s friend
Onesimus (See Philemon 7-20).
O Jesus, may all of this be true for all of us today and every day.
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