A Reflection for Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Find today’s readings here.
Not going to lie: As I write, I’m only just barely starting to recover from a four-day bout of food poisoning. I'm trying desperately to get rehydrated and back on track, and I began writing this Gospel reflection byglumly patching together some thoughts, anxiously checking the word count as I went, hoping it would be good enough.
And what is today’s Gospel reading that I’m writing a reflection on?
"[D]o not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."
You might be surprised at how far into my reflection I had gotten before I suddenly realized God was laughing at me.
Do not worry.
About how you are to speak.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
And there I was, worrying with all my dehydrated might, completely convinced that not only did I have to come up with the right words about the Gospel all by myself, but that I could probably cheat a little by double dipping into old words that I had previously written about the Gospel, possibly for this very publication. How do you say “you’re missing the point” in Aramaic?
I know the context of the Gospel passage is drastically different from my own. I’m facing a tiny little bitty struggle, not feeling well and trying to write something that is edifying, while my cat dozes nearby and the kids splash in the pool. It’s hardly being scourged in the synagogue or getting dragged before the governor and kings, and although I do have a bit of a headache, I wouldn’t characterize my current situation as being sent “like a sheep in the midst of wolves,” which is what Jesus says he is doing to the Apostles at the beginning of today’s passage.
But if God can speak to us through nature, song lyrics, movies, billboards, or through any means he likes, then I suppose he can also speak to me through the actual words of the Gospel.
“Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say.”
And don’t assume the Gospel is about someone else. Maybe God is talking directly to you.
