It is our very dependence on God – our knowledge of his
infinite capacity to care for us, our assurance of our place in God’s heart –
that enables us to become laborers for
the harvest, bringing the news of God’s kingdom to all.
In the book of the prophet Isaiah, when the people of Israel
return from exile, they find a homeland destroyed, a city ruined. Yet God calls upon them to see God’s capacity
to comfort them, to care for them in
their need: as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, he tells
them. God invites the people to
relationship, meeting their needs with generosity, so that all humanity can,
collectively and individually, sing
praise to God’s name and
recognize God’s tremendous deeds (Psalm 66). This is the new creation of which Paul speak in his letter to the
Galatians: a state of being in which man
is no longer reliant upon worldly values, but rather is wholly dependent on
God, finding meaning in the cross of
Jesus Christ, knowing that, through Jesus, God brings grace to humanity.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus sends out the seventy-two on a mission
to teach, heal, and preach. He does so
knowing they will act in his name. Their ability to heal is dependent upon Jesus
and is contingent upon their dependence: God
is working through them and in them, healing and casting out demons because of his name. God similarly works in and through us. We, too, are called to be in like
relationship with God, dependent, knowing with confidence that Jesus is with us as we go out to proclaim (and
live) the kingdom of God, today and
every day, reaching others with the Word, caring for them with God’s healing
love, touching them with our lives, lives dependent on our grace-filled relationship with God.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's scripture class.
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