November 5
Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
“In you, Lord, I have found my peace.”
Readings
Reflection
Psalm 131, our response today…“In you, Lord, I have found my peace.”
Probably important for us to consider first what is intended for us as “peace.” Peace is something deeper than just an absence of conflict or violence or chaos. Specifically in this psalm, the Psalmist connects peace by relating together images of 1) humility before God and the 2) final nourishment a small child has once weaned from his or her mother. Quite beautiful if you stop to reflect on that as being the source of peace! Such a crucial stage of development in the life of a baby who is helpless (the humility part) and so needs to receive the fullness of nourishment from the mother in order to live.
You’re probably not a baby if you’re reading this, so applying this to our lives, we have the same height of importance of receiving the same life-giving nourishment directly from the Lord himself. Peace comes from having received fully from the life of God in this way—the source of peace is directly the grace or divine life of God freely dispensed to fill us and transform us. Of course, this comes to us most profoundly in the Sacramental life of the Church as Jesus himself made the ordinary way to access this grace, but filling out the context of our readings today shows us yet other avenues.
Peace indeed comes to us from an authentic witness of the law of the Gospel being lived well (both by ourselves and also by others). Peace, again not just the absence of problems, can be the result of us living out the height of the moral life that God calls all of us to. Certainly, the readings today hold accountable those responsible for teaching and modeling the law of the Gospel, but the readings also invite a sincere examination of self. Are there disconnections between what I hold true in faith and the lived expression of my life? Is the discipleship of my life exercised with gentleness (cf. 1 Thes 2: 7b) or is it more like that of Jesus’ concern toward the pharisees ‘do what they tell you, but don’t follow their example’ (cf. Mt. 23:1-12)?
Maybe if we want to live out or experience anew this peace that only comes from the Lord, we should in humility reflect on our own spaces where we choose hardness of heart and return to find the necessary nourishment of God’s mercy especially as found in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. With the divine life of God restoring us to health, our resolve to live in authentic relationship with the Lord and with our brothers and sisters is always strengthened. Doing so we permit Jesus to be our Lord, our master, our model, our hope, and our consolation.
In You, O Lord…in communion with your ways, your life, your Gospel, your image…I will be led to eternal peace.
Peace,
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