Things Are Not What They Seem
by Fr. David M. Knight
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Twenty-Third Week of the Year
Lectionary 439
1 Cor 7:25-31/Lk 6:20-26
1Corinthians 7:25-31 and Luke 6:20-26 should be read together, as they are in this Mass. In them, Jesus and Paul both are telling us to see the present in the light of the “end time.” To the eyes of a Christian, things are not what they seem.
Jesus reverses all our cultural values. He tells us that those we consider unfortunate (all of us, to some extent) are really blessed. The poor, the hungry, the weeping; those who are hated and ostracized, insulted and talked about as if they were evil. True, Jesus says these last are blessed if they suffer this “because of the Son of Man”—because of their belief in Christ. But from the perspective he is telling us to take, it is true also of those who are ostracized and looked down upon just because, by the standards of this world, they are “losers.” Jesus is telling us not to count our winnings until the game is over. The hand we have been dealt may have trump cards we don’t recognize.
Christians are those who know what the game is all about. We know “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” This is the mystery of God’s will, “according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ”
as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
We know that “in Christ” we have
obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. (See Ephesians 1:9-12; 3:7-12.)
We who know the “plan,” who know God’s “purpose” and our “destiny,” know what to “set our hopes on.” And it is not anything we have, enjoy, or experience in this life that is dependent on our possessions, pleasures, health, talents, circumstances, or aid and approval from others. We who know what will be in the “end time” know how to evaluate what is here and now.
Paul says it makes no difference whether we are married or unmarried, “weeping or rejoicing,” making or not making a profit by “buying and selling.”
Those who make use of this world should conduct themselves as though they were not using it. For the world as we know it is passing away.
And we know what will replace it. Because by Baptism we have been consecrated stewards of Christ’s kingship, we are responsible for using this knowledge to benefit others.
Initiative: Use your foreknowledge. Work to reform cultural attitudes and values.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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