What does it mean to be blessing for others?
In our first reading from Genesis this Sunday, God makes an
enormous promise to Abram: I will make of you a great nation, and I
will bless you… As important, however, is God’s second promise: I will
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. What would it mean for us to be a source
of blessing for others? In a sense, it
means we become a conduit of grace, examples of what is possible in relationship
with God, so that others can come to that relationship in the future, can hope for his kindness, as Psalm 33
suggests. Ever faithful, Abram is open
to God’s plan, whatever it may be: Abram went as the Lord directed him. Abram’s radical faith, demonstrated through
obedience, brought countless others to God.
If the first reading is about fidelity to God’s plan, Paul’s
second pastoral epistle to Timothy reminds us that our life here on earth is
about sustaining whatever it is necessary to sustain, so that God’s plan might
be fulfilled: Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes
from God, Paul writes. Like Abram’s
family, Timothy’s community is meant to be a blessing for others, proclaiming
the good news, not with eloquent speeches, but by how eloquently they live in
fidelity to God’s plan, how holy, in
a word, their life truly is.
As Matthew’s story of the Transfiguration reminds us, Jesus
is the fulfillment of everything the disciples have hoped for, the culmination
of all that God has ever promised. The
Transfiguration carries the disciples into the realm of the divine with the
intent of revealing Jesus to them, allowing them to look at God face to face in
the figure of Jesus standing before them.
Obedience is again in order: This is my beloved Son; listen to him,
God says. Listen to him, not as you have before, but differently, more
attentively, so you can follow him… differently. At the Transfiguration, every theophany
previously manifested is present: Jesus
is in the very process of fulfilling God’s plan; he is the ultimate blessing for the world. Only by following in his footsteps, only by
embracing obedient fidelity to God’s plan, can we too be blessing for others…
so that with us, God can also be well
pleased.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Photo source
No comments:
Post a Comment