Promise or Threat?

Friday of Week 28 in Ordinary Time

Luke 12:1-7

There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed

Promise or threat?

My daughter and 4-month old grandson came for a nice long visit last week.  There is something that happens when grown children return to the home they grew up in…for one, they forget how to do the dishes or put away food!  But more importantly there is a magnetic attraction to reminiscing.

On one of our walks I joined her, remembering things from my own childhood that still have the capacity to make me cringe…what a great word…cringe;)

And they are all, at their core, sins.  They are times when my inside and my outside were at war.  They are times of hypocrisy.  The funny thing is that the cringe continues.  And that is as it should be.  Cringing helps me stay attentive…practiced, if you will.  Yesterday’s cringe worthy actions are still hidden.  I have to turn around and look with ‘practiced’ reflection. 

Talking about the transformation the Gospel invites us into, John Shea* notes that the move is always from:

Blind

Deaf

Asleep

Lost

And

Dead

To:

Seeing

Hearing

Awake

Found

And

Risen

Promise or threat?  Both!

*from The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers, Mark Year B, Introduction p1