When he was at table with them, he took the bread. He blessed the bread, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him!(Luke 24:13-35)

Sunday, March 22, 2020

An invitation to faith

One of the greatest things about the Holy Spirit in my life is that He will inspire me through Scripture in different ways each time I read it or listen to it—even if it is the same passage!

I wrote my reflection on today’s gospel and posted it last night. When I reflected on it yesterday, I focused more on our being “children of the Light”, and how we are obligated through our Baptism to spread that light to others.

As I just read it again in preparation for watching the live-streamed Mass from my parish, I find myself surprised that I didn’t catch the question posed by the disciples to Jesus, nor His answer to them. 

(John 9,1-41)
“As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."”

The Q&A’s are so relatable to our current CoVid19 crisis and the claims I’ve read by some present-day televangelists that the virus has been “sent” by God in “retaliation” for a sinful world.

God is not a vengeful Father.  He is a loving and merciful Father, because everything we experience in life from our Lord will have as its goal a deepening of our faith.  

Sometimes that takes on the form of “signs and wonders” while at other times it may be His sustaining presence in the midst of a trial without any visible sign or wonder.  The goal we must strive for is faith by allowing whatever our Lord does in our lives to become the source of our faith’s increase.

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