Ho-Hum

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The first reading is a breathtaking illustration of how obedience to God, even when all He asks of us is the ordinary, brings about miracles. We see over and over again through salvation history how this simple obedience in trust brings about disproportionately great results. The best example of this in any creature is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose obedience led to her role as active and powerful collaborator in the furthering of her Son’s infinitely powerful act of salvation.

It is hard to obey, when the ordinary is involved. Just as in the first reading Naaman found it hard to submit to the ordinary command to bathe in the river for the cure of his leprosy, so Jesus’ hearers in the gospel find it hard to accept that Jesus, who has grown up in an ordinary way among them, has anything extraordinary to bring to the table.

If we wish to obtain miraculous results like Naaman in the first reading–and even better, like the Blessed Virgin Mary–we must learn to submit in trust to the ordinary duties of love that God introduces into our lives, and know that it is precisely in the midst of those ordinary duties, with all their stresses and challenges, that He will perform the miracle.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you to trust that the ordinary that surrounds you, with all its challenges, is precisely the stage where Providence will perform its wondrous miracles. Tell Him that you are not attached to some false context that you may dream of, but to the gritty reality that He has given you–because it is He who has given it to you.