Friday of the First Week In Ordinary Time

The woods in winter

Let us be on our guard

while the promise of entering into his rest remains,
that none of you seem to have failed.

The Lord meets us in our human predicament, promising relief, healing, forgiveness, reconciliation and anything else we need. It is not correct to say that Christianity addresses only our “need for salvation,” a need unknown to other religions. Our quest is the human struggle. We can name our desire with a thousand names and not yet describe what we want. The human being has a “God-sized” emptiness that wants fulfillment. It might be called personal salvation and it might as easily be called universal happiness. How could I be happy if my loved ones or loved ones of my loved ones are in misery?

The Letter to the Hebrews, by an unknown author, calls it simply “rest.”

For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this manner,
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works;
and again, in the previously mentioned place,
They shall not enter into my rest.

Therefore, let us strive to enter into that rest…

That “rest” is the symbolized by the Sabbath Rest which Jews celebrate on Saturday, Christians on Sunday, and Muslims on Friday.

Hebrews reminds us of the present opportunity with its enormous urgency. There is a window of salvation open now which was not there in the past and may soon close. We are no more deserving of reward than our ancestors but we may be all the more deserving of punishment if we miss the opportunity.

That urgency may be translated into our current spirituality as awareness. Or “pay attention!” Realize the gift you have received. See the opportunities before you. Experience the moment without rushing from the past or into the future. If you are mad, sad or glad, own your feeling without shame or denial.

And “Know that I am God!”