Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 23, 2008 - Thursday in the Twenty-ninth Week of Ordinary Time
[Ephesians 3:14-21 and Luke 12:49-53]......that Christ may dwell in our 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.....
There are a number of prayers that are favorites of mine (I think everybody has some that seem to express what they are feeling even if they did not compose the prayer(s). One of them is "the Merton Prayer," another is the opening stanza of Hopkins' The Wreck of the Deutschland. But the prayer from the Letter to the Ephesians in today's first scripture remains at the top. What more could one pray for on behalf of another? It is a prayer that someone may experience the love of Christ at first hand and completely! Anyone who is able to fall in love and maintain that love as a continuing commitment knows how such a love can seem to fill one's life. Friendship has that power and perhaps that is why St. Thomas Aquinas regards the love of friendship to be the highest and best form of human love. The Letter to the Ephesians offers that friendship and by implication that same prayer is one that we can say on behalf of another! Would it seem too embarrassing to send this prayer to someone we know? I hope not! The love of Christ is truly one of the greatest goods! Why shouldn't we want it for anyone, and especially for those who are closest to us? AMEN