image-i-nations trésor

21st Sunday of Year A – 2023

QUESTIONS: there are all kinds of them, they are countless.
There are short questions, easy; others are intricate, or vague.
Some are intriguing, others are disturbing, they make us feel uncomfortable.

People ask us questions, of course.
Life also asks questions of us, often difficult questions.
And even… God asks us questions!

This started long ago – we see it happening in the very beginning of the Bible where God asks Adam where he is hiding! (Genesis 3:9).
Throughout the books of the Bible, different people are confronted with this questioning from God.
The prophets are often the interpreters to their people of God’s questions.

Today’s gospel text shows us Jesus asking a very important question indeed (Matthew 16:13-20).
He asks his apostles:
“What about you? Who do you say I am?”

If we move from the first to the twenty-first century where we find ourselves and…
If we listen to this very question now addressed to us…
What will we answer?
Not repeating Peter’s answer, but giving our own very personal reply to Jesus…

Some people reading this text will think: ‘It all depends…’
Very true! It all depends what kind of relationship we are having with God.

For us, is God a distant deity, far above, or far away, who has little to do – we think – with our daily life and experience?
Do we know little about who he is, apart from acknowledging his greatness and power?
Or, do we perceive him – mysteriously, perhaps – as close and concerned about us, always ready to come to our help?

God’s questions are always meant to help us discern the way to a better life, a deeper freedom, a more meaningful existence.
And, we should be convinced that, with God, there are no bad answer, no reply that is wrong.
All our answers – even the most inadequate or incomplete – will be received by him who accepts us as we are!

But, of course, we have to listen to him to hear him speaking to us…
For his part, he will wait, and wait, for our answers…

 

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French, at: https://image-i-nations.com/21e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2023/

 

Source: Image: Unsplash

7th Sunday of Year A – 2023

Reading the word of God in the Bible, one can experience all kinds of feelings:

joy and consolation,
hope and anticipation,
wonder and questioning,
regret, perhaps… or helplessness?…

But there are times when the feeling is one of surprise – total and unexpected amazement!
The first lines of today’s 2nd reading can awaken such a reaction.
Writing to the Corinthians, Paul somehow admonishes them in these words (1 Corinthians 3:16-23):

“Didn’t you realize that you were God’s temple,
and that the Spirit of God was living among you…
The temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.”

These words are truly astonishing.
Just pause for a moment and ask yourself:
If, one day, someone came to you and asked you that very question:
‘Do you realize that YOU are God’s temple’, how would you answer?

I think that, faced with this situation, many people would be taken aback,
possibly unable – or unwilling – to answer!
How many of us, Christians, ARE AWARE of this reality?

A temple is seen as a sacred building since it is the location where worship happens.
It is considered to be a place for ritual celebrations.
In other words: it is reserved for activities related to God.

But, on the eve of his death, Jesus told his apostles (John 14:23):

“If anyone loves me, he(she), will keep my word,
my Father will love him(her),
and we shall come to him(her),
and make our home with him(her).”

With the word ‘home’, Jesus meant more than a building, or a simple location.
Obviously, he had in mind something that goes beyond wood or bricks.
Jesus was speaking of a relationship.

This is what we are called to: a relationship of close proximity with God.

Something amazing, yes, but more still:
something absolutely wonderful that needs to be discovered anew – and lived – day after day…

 

Note: Another text is available on a different theme, in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/7e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2023/

 

Source: Image: Scripture Images

 

21st Sunday of Year C – 2022

Pretexts and excuses – we must admit that such claims are often used in many situations nowadays !
It would seem that our 21st century is quite similar to the 1st century where we meet Jesus and the people surrounding him.

The gospel text of this Sunday (Luke 13:22-30) shows us people trying to make themselves acceptable.
They justify themselves in what appears to be convincing words:

“We once ate and drank in your company;
you taught in our streets.”

In the eyes of God (represented by the master of the house) this is not sufficient.
Such justification is not a valid representation of a true relationship.
This is what God expects of us: a life lived in a genuine relationship with him.

External conformity to traditions, faithfulness to rituals, observance of certain religious prescriptions –
these may have some merit, but they are not the essential.
They may obtain the response:

 

I do not know where you come from…”

The essential, for God, lies deeper, much deeper.
It is found in a personal relationship with God our Father, our Brother, our Counsellor.
A relationship lived from day to day, walking in the steps of Christ, under the guidance of his Spirit.

From day to day, step by step…
until the day when we will, indeed, share in the feast he has prepared for us:

“the feast in the kingdom of God.”
 

 

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/21e-dimanche-de-lannee-c-2022/

 

Source: Images: SlidePlayer  Scripture Images

 

11th Sunday of the Year, B

The gospel accounts, especially that of Matthew, offers us many texts on the kingdom of God.
The specialists on those gospel texts discuss among themselves about the meaning of this term:
“the kingdom of God”.
They generally agree that it refers to God’s special relationship with human beings,
his presence and action among us – a presence and action accepted by people to guide their lives.

One of the parables of this Sunday (11th Sunday of Year B – Mk.4:26-34) speaks in this way:

“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land.
Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake,
The seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.
Of its own accord, the land produces, first the shoot, then the ear;
Then the full grain in the ear.”

A few words struck me in the text: “Of its own accord…”
As if the seed had a will of its own!
Yet, mysteriously, it follows the laws of nature ‘rooted’ – literally – in the depths of itself.

The seed has no will of its own but… we do!
And our will should be … ‘in accord’ with God!
The expression is unusual, perhaps, but it is theologically true!

Our daily life and actions,
our plans and occupations,
our projects and our goals should be according to God’s will.
His presence should be the inspiration of our lives.
And pleasing him should be what we aim at from day to day… of our own accord!
Simple? Yes.
Easy? Perhaps not…
But God’s Spirit in us – the vital energy enabling us to grow – can also enable us to live in this way

Note: Another reflection is available in French on a different theme at: https://image-i-nations.com/11e-dimanche-de-lannee-b/

Source: Images: inkfish.fieldsofscience.com   VideoBlocks