integrity

16th Sunday of Year B – 2024

It goes without saying, as believers, we try to please God.
We strive to follow Jesus’ teaching and to fulfil God’s will in our daily life.
From day to day, we make special efforts to behave as we think he wants us to do.

At times, we wonder if we really manage to do this…
Thinking about what we said, what we did on a certain day, we may find that we did not succeed very well.
Looking back on certain situations, perhaps we find that our response to people was not what Christ’s response would have been.

We may feel discouraged… we may think that our efforts do not achieve what we would like…
We may feel that no matter how we try, our life is not really Christ-like.

A few words in today’s 1st reading may bring us some comfort (Jeremiah 23:1-6).
The prophet Jeremiah, speaking about God, tells us that God is:

“The Lord-our-integrity”.
Or, in another translation:
“The Lord-our-righteousness”.

In other words, the Lord himself is the one who will make us more and more as God wants us to be… if we only allow him to do so!
He is the one who will achieve his plan for us and through us.

Integrity is this quality of honesty, transparency, that characterizes someone truly open to God.
The righteousness we aim for is the goodness and uprightness of someone who does not ‘cut corners’ as we would say in today’s language.
Someone acting with integrity does not pretend nor show off.

This way of living may not be achieved easily – we know this from experience.
But as we remind ourselves of God’s presence with us – he who is “the Lord-our-integrity” –
we take heart, and we do our best day after day.

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/16e-dimanche-de-lannee-b-2024/

Source: Image: https://www.scripture-images.com/bible-verse

1st Sunday of Advent, Year C – 2021

There is no doubt about it: this 1^st Sunday of Advent invites us to look to the future.
A promise is essentially doing this and it is a promise that we are given in the 1^st reading (Jr.33:14-16).
The text of the prophet Jeremiah gives us God’s words in a clear language:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfil the gracious promise I made…
In those days, I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.”

We often speak of God’s grace, yes, our God is a gracious God.
He delights in showering on us his blessings of all kinds.
The promise he makes is that the Gracious One – the Righteous One – will do what is good for us.

Another translation of the text uses the words “honesty and integrity”
And the one who is coming to us in God’s name – God himself – is called:
“The Lord-our-integrity.”

We all want to receive good things from God, but how can we be sure that his blessings will be ours?
I would venture to say that the best way is to… ad-just ourselves to God’s ways –
that is to become just ourselves –

just in our ways of thinking
just in our ways of judging situations
just in our choices and decisions
just in the plans we make and the options we choose
just in our relations with people…

In other words: behaving with honesty and integrity.

This could be the first step in this Advent period as we set on the path to welcome anew God’s coming to us.

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/1er-dimanche-de-lavent-annee-c-2021/

And in a short video, also in French, Ghislaine Deslières offers us another reflection on this 1^st Sunday of Advent at: https://youtu.be/lpkMLsxne3s

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16th Sunday of Year B – 2024

Source: Image: https://www.scripture-images.com/bible-verse

1st Sunday of Advent, Year C – 2021

Source: Image: slideplayer.com