3rd
Feb. Trinity
(Sunday
before Ash Wednesday, 7th Sunday before Easter)
Luke
18: 18-34
One
of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what
must I do to obtain eternal life?”
Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is
good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy
marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth,
and you shall honor your father and your mother!
He
said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”
When
Jesus heard this, he said, [Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said… Mk 10:21]
“One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions, and give the money
to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come
and follow me!
He
was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him
thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or
inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God kingdom
of God
Those
who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”
He
said, “For man alone it is impossible; it will be possible however through the
power of God working in man.”
Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up
everything to follow you.”
He
replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife, or
brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now
we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written
about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples
of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge
him and kill him; but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”
Yet his disciples understood
nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and
they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.
5th February
Trinity
Luke 18: 18-34
Day follows night; spring follows winter. In cycles of time,
the seasons follow one another, inscribing a great spiral.
In our lives too, there are seasons; youth, maturity, age;
illness, health; life and death—greater and lesser cycles that carry their own
greater meaning.
Christ asks those who believe in Him, trust in Him, to
follow Him; to walk where He walks, to go where He goes. He asks us to engage
our will, and our willingness. For He wishes to lead humankind into an
ascending spiral, into a new kind of spring, a new kind of youth. But
paradoxically this path leads Him, and us, first through winter, through illness,
and through death.
And herein lies the problem; for everything in us strains
away from suffering and death. And so His plea, that we follow Him, is a plea
that we overcome our antipathy for the hard things. For suffering and illness
can only bear fruit if we are willing. There is no resurrection without death;
no love without sacrifice. Death can be inhabited by Life only if we love Him, and
are willing to accompany Him there. Only through the working of God’s power in
the human being is the great spiral of ascent even possible. Rilke said:
As once the winged energy of
delight
carried you over childhood's dark
abysses,
now beyond your own life build the
great
arch of unimagined bridges.
Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely
granted
achievement can we realize the
wonder.
To work with Things in the
indescribable
relationship is not too hard for
us;
the pattern grows more intricate
and subtle,
and being swept along is not
enough.
Take your practiced powers and
stretch them out
until they span the chasm between
two
contradictions ... For the god
wants to know himself in you.[1]
