Readings:
1Cor 6:1-11
Lk: 6: 12-19
Reflection:
‘I have chosen you … go and bear fruit that will last …’
How do we refresh and express Luke’s message in our lives? It’s important to know that one is valued. I remember an elderly person sharing that all throughout their life, people and experiences reinforced that they were a ‘nobody’. They confided that all they longed for deeply was to be seen as a ‘somebody’.
Jesus puts our significance in a whole new focus: ‘I have chosen you’, showing us all the source of our true value What impact does this offer for each of us, struggling with wounded self-esteem or damaged lives? What impact does this have for our fragile world?
Regardless of our background, our experiences, our mistakes, we are truly known and valued, chosen by God and blessed in and through Jesus. Herein lies the source of our true worth. All people, all our environment, all our world, are chosen to ‘bear fruit that will last’. Each of us is chosen to affirm and develop this productivity in all these aspects of our community. It is up to everyone to work towards these goals.
We are called to affirm the true value of each person as a ‘somebody’; really seeing who they are; reaching out again and again, building loving, supportive, compassionate relationships with each other and our world. As Richard Rohr expresses it: ‘to experience who we are in God and who God is in us.’ We are called to discern how our attitudes, our choices, our actions ‘bear fruits that will last’ by choosing that which is life giving for self and others and offers opportunities for fullness of growth and life. It begins with each of us asking: How am I called to refresh or express these messages in my life today?
Pam Storey is a member of the Passionist Faith Community at Holy Cross, Templestowe, and one of the founding members of Passionist Companions. After a very active and varied family, church and working life, Pam is now focusing on developing a slow spirituality.