Oh, the richness of the readings of today’s liturgy and the
great love of our God for each one of us. In
the first reading, Acts 22: 30; 23: 6-11, the Lord says to Paul, who has encountered all
kinds of problems in his ministry, “Take courage. For just as you have borne
witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.” The Lord asks us also to “take courage.” We
are to be His witnesses right where we are this moment, this day, this week at
work and at home, in our parishes and our schools, with our children and
grandchildren, with our spouses and co-workers and with our neighbors around the world.
In the responsorial psalm of today’s Mass, Psalm 16, we say to the Lord: “My Lord are
you. O Lord, my allotted portion and cup, you it is who counsels me; …I set the
Lord ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.” The Lord is my cup and yours. He fills it and
He empties it! Fills it with love; empties it of hatred and prejudice. Fills it
with meekness and empties it of anger. Fills it with joy and empties it of
sadness, envy and jealousy. Fills it with humility and empties it of pride and
arrogance. Fills it with courage and empties it of fear! Fills it with truth
and empties it of deceit. Fills it with generosity and empties it of
selfishness and on and on and on!
God is a generous God and an initiator. When He sees that my
cup, or yours, is empty, He is there to
fill it. Why? Jesus gives us the reason in His last
discourse to the apostles at the Last Supper and related in today’s Gospel,
John 17: 20-26: “…I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be
one, as we are one, I in them and you in
me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that
you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.”
How aware am I, are you, that God is filling and emptying your cup?
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