How tuned in are we to God’s plans?
Humankind often spins its wheels trying to make things work out our way, forgetting, of course, that it’s not our plans that count, but God’s. When Cyrus, the King of Persia, sends the people of Israel home from exile to rebuild, they return to devastation, and so they resist: so much work to rebuild is not in their plans! And so, the prophet Isaiah reminds them to seek the Lord where he may be found – not where they think he should be, not where they want him, but where he is, near to all who call upon him, as Psalm 145 proclaims. Love is God’s justice; we haven’t earned it and may not deserve it, but we must open to God’s plans with love, for the Lord is just in all his ways. We may not fully understand it – so high are his ways above our ways and his thoughts above our thoughts – but if we pray for the fulfillment of God’s plans, we will know God’s love, and God’s justice.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ parable of the landowner who hires laborers for his vineyard is another reminder that God’s ways are not fair by human, time-bound, compensating terms – God offers God’s love, God’s justice, as sheer gift. Justice is not about what is earned but about what is given; love doesn’t require payback for what we have done. What God invites us to – a relationship of love – may be very different from what we imagine, but God knows better than we do what each of us needs, and provides us with what we need, which is his love, in spades. It is up to us to realize of what we are made, and live as we are made, so that, as Paul tells the Philippians, Christ will be magnified in our body. We reveal Christ to the world when he is the focus of our life, when we open to God’s plans in love, whether we understand them or not; it is in love that we reveal God’s justice to the world.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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