Reflection for Oct. 22, 2023

Thank you for your reflection. I like the way you summarized the readings: God is on the move. Yes, God is on the move, and we have to find ways we can respond.

What does “Hearts on Fire, Feet on the Move” mean for you?

Two passages from Sunday's first reading [1 Thes. 1:1-5] stand out to me:

1) "ENDURANCE IN HOPE of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

2) "our gospel did not come to you in word alone,

but also in POWER and in the HOLY SPIRIT and with MUCH CONVICTION."

Hope can feel like it's fading sometimes, and I start to lament, just as those waiting and longing for God's TRUE and JUST PEACE ON EARTH did millennia ago, in the Psalms. [Psalms 13, 79, 80, 90]

And then I start to wonder if God 'really' knows what it feels like to be human -- and hurting so overwhelmingly?

In those times, all I can do is offer my emotional and spiritual pain and suffering to God, calling upon and beseeching Holy Spirit to come upon us once again, in 'new' and 'moving' ways.

Ways that will "MOVE" hearts - and minds - to NEW Understanding.

The "NEW-NESS" of my own heart, mind, and understanding then comes from the giftedness of visionaries and prophets like Ken Burns who produces amazing, wonderful documentaries that tell the truth of our times.

Most recently is the two-part series of, THE AMERICAN BUFFALO, which tells of the the TERROR-izing reality the First Nations, Indigenous Peoples experienced from those who came to conquer and dominate and destroy them. (The American Buffalo: Blood Memory; The American Buffalo: Into the Storm, PBS)

From bearing witness to all the brutality of ignorance and arrogance (just as JESUS experienced from the cross), I then come to the realization of how the PERSEVERANCE and RESILIENCY of those who survived now gives birth to NEW HOPE and NEW LIFE to Sacred Earth and Our Shared Humanity once again.

This all takes much time, effort, understanding, patient and intentional wisdom, however. It does not happen like "magic" overnight. That is not the kind of 'miracle' needed. The 'miracle' we need includes the following:

The guidance and direction of Holy Spirit into a NEW and UPDATED, RELEVANT PROCESS OF HEALING, FORGIVENESS, and RECONCILIATION. Such a process is not about one side over the other. This "NEW" process is about ALL OF US HURTING TOGETHER, and ALL OF US WANTING TO HEAL TOGETHER, as ONE WHOLE PEOPLE.

Such a process involves real and true, genuine and authentic DEEP LISTENING in ways long overdue.

In such DEEP LISTENING, our hearts will, indeed, begin to "burn within us" as we walk-the-way TOGETHER.

"Were not our hearts burning within us ......" [Luke 24: 32]