Ephesians 4:1-6 / Luke 12:54-59
Paul talks about unity: Preserve your unity in the Spirit.
James McGinnis, a St. Louis resident, tells how two children were playing on the walk-in front of his house. One was three years old; the other was five. One was on a tricycle; the other was blocking the tricycle’s movement. Both were screaming at the top of their lungs. McGinnis walked out and asked them if they were having fun. They both said that they were not. Then he asked them what they might do to have fun.
“We could take turns riding the tricycle for about ten minutes each,” the one said. When McGinnis offered to time their rides, they both smiled and got all excited. The younger one even offered to let his older brother ride first.
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How do we try to preserve family unity or friendships when something threatens them? “It takes two sides to make a lasting peace, but it takes only one to take the first step.” Edward M. Kennedy
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There is a song with the opening lines that goes like this: "I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows. I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows."
In a way, that is a good reminder for an awareness of the things we see around us. We may have seen flowers and lighted candles, sunrise and sunset, and we just pass them by without thinking or reflecting. We may have also seen many other things and passed them by without reflecting and wondering. We have seen wars, violence, oppression, injustice, poverty, death and we just pass them by. We are numbed by it and have become numbed to it. Or we have seen a smile, a helping hand, care and compassion and understanding, and we have also become indifferent to it.
Jesus is reminding us to look, to observe and to reflect on the signs in our lives and then to act on it. May this prayer of St. Francis help us in our reflection:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
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Let us Pray: Lord our God, when today’s world hungers for justice, truth and spiritual values, perhaps disguised and distorted in a form hard to recognize, open our eyes and give us your Spirit of wisdom and discernment. May we thus learn to understand this world, to feel at home in it, and to discover the stepping-stones that could lead us all to you through Jesus Christ our Lord.
