Woes and delights stand out equally

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for the Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

Today we begin our Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. There is a glorious and tremendous proclamation in the opening verses of this letter —

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The love, the blessings, and the choosing and the destiny and the favor, and the granting and the redemption, and the forgiveness and the lavishing — it goes on, and on and on with such blessing and abundance.

This is, in short, a hymn of glory and love beyond all counting. To write such a letter and to be recipients of such a letter astounds. For the next nine days we get to soak in such love and blessing.

The psalm today echoes the joy of this letter and allows us to soak in its beauty and blessing.

The Gospel today, however, continues where we left off in Luke.

Jesus continues to spew his woes and laments over the Pharisees and this generation, whom Jesus says, “might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world.”

Now that’s quite a charge! And no wonder, that the Pharisees, “began to act with hostility toward him … plotting to catch him at something he might say.”

The first reading, an explosion of blessing and grace; and the Gospel, an explosion of condemnation and revilement — what a cataclysmic set of opposites today!

In these opposites, both the woes and the delights stand out!