Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 26, 2006 - 29th Thursday in Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 3:14-21 and Luke 49-53]I kneel before the Father, form whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
That prayer is all one sentence! It is one of my favorite passages from St. Paul. I cannot imagine asking more for someone than he asks in that prayer! Can one even imagine what it must be like to be filled "with all the fullness of God?" Yet that is open to all of us who seek it. And we can pray for it to happen to others as well! That "inner self" is the place where we meet God "in person" and not in the person of another. Sometimes it is intimidating to think of that possibility. We may consider ourselves to be too sinful or timid or whatever! St. Paul thinks we have what it takes to experience this. Prayer is the expression of this inner encounter with God. We know that God is "present" in us by virtue of that fact that we exist. All being is from God. Yet, there is an affective dimension to this - a genuine relationship - that is possible in faith. We can be "rooted and grounded in love" if we only turn our face toward God and ask for it. We can read this passage for ourselves that we may experience what St. Paul has prayed for on our behalf! We don't need to be "mystics, " just faithful Christians. AMEN
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