Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 6, 2022 - 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[2 Macc 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thess 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38 or 20:27, 34-38]May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you. [2 Thessalonians]
During the 1990's, I served on the governing council of the Southern Dominican Province, of which I am a member. The Master of the Order (our head honcho in Rome) was coming for his official "visitation" of the province and asked that all the members of the council gather with him at the beginning of his visit. He told a story about a famous predecessor of his, Bl. Hyacinth Cormier, O.P. who said that the purpose of a visitation was "to encourage, to encourage, to encourage!" His words came to my mind in meditating on St. Paul's words to the Thessalonians.
I have mentioned before a Day of Recollection I once preached for a group of women at a parish. I organized my presentations around the three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. I discovered in my conversations with the ladies that their principal need was centered in "hope!" They needed encouragement to keep going every day at the endless challenges that life presents to being faithful and loving.. I have found that to be true over and over again in my many years of campus ministry. Students need encouragement in the midst of academic demands, personal relationships, time management and the inevitable challenges to their Catholic faith and moral tradition.
St. Paul also asks the community he founded in Thessalonia to pray for him that he may be encouraged in his own ministry. Although I am considered "retired" ("limited service" is our Dominican word for it), I continue a personal ministry to students here at Texas Tech. I send this reflection each morning, and celebrate the sacraments at our university parish and elsewhere here in the Diocese of Lubbock. My Dominican brothers have recently asked me to serve as Promoter of Dominican Laity for our province. I will turn 80 next February and am grateful that the Lord has given me good health to do these ministries. Your prayers are my encouragement! It is something we can all do for one another. AMEN