A reflection on the daily readings by Father Perry.
+ ” Terms of endearment” flow naturally from people’s lips with affection, and there are a lot of agreed upon ones like: honey, buddy, dude, cutie pie, honey bun, darling.”
Today, in Isaiah, God calls out to Israel and Judah with anti-terms of endearment: “O worm, O maggot.”
The Bible almost never ceases to amaze us, and today is yet another example. Why? Why, oh why, would God call Israel and Judah such names?
Well, among the other nations — and in the eyes of other peoples — that is how Israel and Judah were seen.
It can’t get much lower than worms and maggots, and yet God tells them, “I will take you by the hand, I will not forsake you, I will redeem you.”
Then God speaks of the lush and fertile lands that he will give them, that he will make them to be.
+ How beautiful a context for this reflection upon John the Baptist by Jesus.
In one breath, Jesus says that there has been no man up until this very moment that surpasses the greatness of John the Baptist; John is the best of the best of the best!
And in the very next breath, Jesus reflects upon the importance and greatness of the kingdom of God come to fruition in the coming of man: “Yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he [John].”
It is not so much “any individual” that Jesus is speaking of, but rather the “greatness and importance” of the kingdom of God that has come and that will pour out grace upon grace and fruitfulness and goodness upon anyone “who has ears to hear.”
+The encounter that you, and I, and we, are supposed to have with this word of God today is to understand the greatness and goodness to which we have been called and are being formed into today and every day.
We must “open our ears.” We must “open our eyes.” We must “open our hearts.”
Every word and action in our lives today has the potential to reflect and project the kingdom of God.
If we want it to be, if we are open to seeing it and doing it, we can “make” the kingdom of God present and real again and again and again today through our compassion, kindness, thoughtfulness, justice, peace, forgiving, and understanding.
Being last to be first, being least to be greatest; and surrendering, accepting, transforming, believing, and endearing.
Ears. Eyes. Hearts. Open!
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 14th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at perry.leiker@gmail.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
