THOUGHTS FOR TRINITY 4 Today’s Gospel (Matthew 10. 40-42) comes at the end of Jesus’ instructions to his disciples. We are living in a time where prophesy is needed. None of us know where our current situation will take us. We are called to trust that the way forward will be clear. What we say and do as Christians will be looked at. We have a responsibility to speak and act with care in accordance with what we understand to be the will of God. We can only find out what that is through prayer and meditation. The habits we have developed in the time of our lockdown will stand us in good stead now that we have greater freedom. We look forward to a time when we can meet again in our churches. We are waiting for our bishop to produce the guidelines we need to hold our first acts of public worship in three months safely and with due reverence. The expected date is 5th July. We look forward to that date. Hold that thought in your prayers. The second reward Jesus promises us is the reward of the righteous. We are called to be fair and God-fearing in our daily lives. I think we have all been challenged by the lockdown and have found it frustrating. Many of you have found it an opportunity to reach out to family and neighbours. I know many of you have been supported by generous neighbours with shopping and carrot cake and trips to the surgery to collect prescriptions and a myriad other ways of helping and supporting. Your dogs have all become much fitter with all the walks they have had. That all has to continue! we must go on supporting one another. We hold one another in our prayers, especially those who are still shielding. The threat is still there, but so is the light at the end of the tunnel. That light is a smile, the loving smile of our Lord, a reward for our loving support of others. Jesus lived his life for others. He died for others. He constantly refers to ‘the little ones’. By this he principally meant, of course, children, as children had even fewer rights than women in his day - we must call on our leaders to make sure that our children get back to school as swiftly and as smoothly as possible. The damage that is being done will take a long time to correct, and they deserve to have the same chances we had as children. But Jesus also refers to the weak and the sick, the disadvantaged and the disabled by ‘the little ones’. All those who cannot assert their rights against others. Our society is under strain. Don’t forget ‘the little ones’ in your prayers, and don’t forget our leaders in your prayers - that they may act and think prophetically and with total concern for all of society. Today is Trinity 4 but it is also the feast day of Irenaeus of Lyons. Born circa 130 in Asia Minor he heard Polycarp of Smyrna preach, who was himself a disciple of John the Apostle. Irenaeus was thus a link with the early days of our faith. In a long life he rose to become bishop of Lyons in Gaul. He wrote extensively (alas, his writings are mostly lost). He is best known for two works which combat heresy and set out the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He is the first great Catholic theologian, one who drew on the emerging traditions of East and West. He died about the year 200. He had the vision to give his life to Jesus in challenging times. He lived through the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius and the plagues and famines of the second century. He kept the faith. He is an example to us all nineteen centuries later. God our Saviour, look on this wounded world in pity and in power; hold fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCanon John Green Archives
May 2021
Categories |