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5th Sunday of Easter, Year C – 2022

13 mai 2022
Nicole Gregoire
2 Comments
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: Acts 14:21-27, believe, committed, needs, relationships, rely on, trust

Looking at our lives, we sometimes pause to consider what is important to us.
We may look at this or that aspect and we question what is really… essential!

Our personal needs may first come to our minds.
And, of course, our relationships with the people near and dear to us are most important.

But… something is still missing… which can be found in a verse of today’s 1st reading (Acts 14:21-27).
It speaks of the two apostles, Paul and Barnabas, and says:
“Paul and Barnabas… committed the Elders of the communities to the Lord in whom they had put their trust”.

 To be committed to the Lord and put our trust in him – is this not essential to our very being?

Committed to the Lord by the people who love us, the people to whom we really matter –
this is, in fact, the best gift they can give to us.

Committed to the Lord also as something that WE, ourselves, do.
Committed, being engaged in an on-going relationship with him.
Committed, being faithful to what we know he expects from us.

A commitment which supposes that we have put our trust in him.
We have confided to him whatever is important to us,
we rely on him in all situations,
we surrender to him the small and big things of our daily life,
we confide to him our very selves.

I have noted with interest that in one version of the Bible, the word ‘believe’ is translated by ‘to trust’, ‘to rely on’.
This rendering of the text places faith in a perspective that offers all at once security and serenity…

 

Note: And another reflection, on a different theme, is available in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/5e-dimanche-de-paques-annee-c-2022/

 

Source: Image: Commonweal Magazine

 

19th Sunday of the Year A

10 août 2017
Nicole Gregoire
Aucun commentaire
Catégories: Anglophones et anglophiles
Mots-clés: alone, answer, Apostle Peter, apostles, faith, fear, Jesus test, pray, rely on, request, storm, struggle, trust

The theme of last Sunday (Feast of the Transfiguration, Year A) is back again: “Do not be afraid…”

Yet, the situation described in today’s gospel (19th Sunday of Year A – Mt.14:22-33) is quite frightening!
A storm on the lake and the apparition of… a mysterious being walking on the water – this is most unusual and rather scary, even for grown-up fishermen like the Apostles.

After the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus had stayed behind to send back the people.
He had remained on his own to pray.
An unexpected storm is raging and the apostles are alone.
They feel insecure and they struggle to face a situation which they seem unable to control.

The strange being moving in the distance does not reassure them in any way.
Then, they hear the voice they know well: that of Jesus himself telling them, yes, not to be afraid!
As usual, the first to react is Peter who utters a request typically true-to-character:
“Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.”
 
We know the rest!
Peter has somehow put Jesus to the test and… Jesus took him to his word.
But the test was, in fact, one of Peter’s faith!

The struggle on the lake was between the strength of the fishermen and that of the waves, of course,
But it was also a struggle between doubt and faith…
A struggle between fear and trust…
A struggle between relying on oneself and… on someone else – the one who calls to us.

And the answer needs to be repeated day in day out, on a stormy day as well as when the sun shines bright!

Source: Image: lds.org