Message from Augie

In today’s Gospel lesson  Jesus is not teaching a crowd or answering a question.  He is praying.

The moment is quiet, but it carries enormous weight.  His hour is approaching.  The cross is near.  And in that moment, He speaks these words to th e Father: “I have given you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”

He says, “I have finished the work.”  The other readings from today do the same from the Psalm and the First Letter of Peter.  Different voices.  Different moment same message:  A life in which faith is not  held apart from experience but carried into it.  This is where the tension begins for us.  We do not reject faith.  We do not walk away from it.  But we learn, often without realizing it, to keep parts of our lives separate.

There are visible pasts, prayer, worship,  and the things we would readily call spiritual.  And then there are the quieter, more guarded places, the decisions we justify, the  habits we carry, and  the areas we would rather not examine too closely.  After a while this just feels like life. We want to believe that faith can live along   side those boundaries without touching them too deeply.  The gospel keeps pressing in a different direction.

The connection between belief and life, between love of God and love of neighbor, is not built in theory.  It is built in what we actually do.  In how we respond.  In whether we allow what we believe to take shape in the world around us. We eventually  begin to see it more clearly.  We might think of it, in simplest terms as learning to connect the dots.  Not all at once.  Not in a straight line slowly all begins to take place. 

This is where the work is.  And that is where slowly a life begins to come together, steady enough, honest enough, that one day it might be said, not perfectly but truthfully:  “I have given you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.”

Dot by dot.

SO THE QUESTION:  IN FAITH ARE YOU CONNECTING THE DOTS IN YOUR LIFE?

PRAYER TO ST. JUDE:  St. Jude, apostle of Christ, the church honors and prays to you universally as the patron of hopeless and difficult cases.   Pray for us in our needs.   Make use, we implore you of this powerful privilege given to you to bring visible and speedy help where help is needed.  Pray that we humbly accept the trials and disappointments and mistakes which are a part of our human nature.   Help us to see the reflection of the suffering of Christ in the trials and tribulations of our lives.   Let us see in a spirit of great faith and hop the part we even now share in the joy of Christ’s resurrection and which we long to share fully in heaven.   Intercede that we may again experience this joy in answer to our present needs.   If it is God’s dire for us (here make your request)  we know our prayers will be heard through your intercession.  AMEN