Saturday, November 29, 2008

Daily Office Reflection: Ends

Psalms 137:1-6(7-9), 144 * 104; Zechariah 14:12-21; Philippians 2:1-11; Luke 19:41-48

Today is the last day of season after Pentecost. Today is also the last day of our Daily Office readings from Year Two. Tomorrow we begin Advent. In the Sunday lectionary we switch to "Year B" with a heavy emphasis on Mark. In the Daily Office lectionary we begin "Year One". Prayers, music, their are subtle shifts in emphasis tomorrow. But today, we are still "in" Pentecost: at the very last day of this season. We are at an end of sorts.

We hear about Jesus' sorrow as he enters Jerusalem in our Gospel reading today. Granted, Luke is writing after the destruction of Jerusalem and this passage is steeped in the foretelling of that loss. But this passage also dwells in this idea of being able to recognize something important before time runs out, before time ends. 

God's love for us goes unrecognized by so many people. We become blinded by and distracted with other events, other people, our own self-centeredness. Death-bed confessions, death-time realizations are so heartbreaking. They are because they are so unnecessary. We all make mistakes and missteps for reasons innumerable. Those errors do not have to get in our way. At the end, we can look back in joy at our lives when we have been steeped in and reveled in God's love for us, allowing that love to form and shape our lives.
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Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved. 

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