Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 471 

Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.

The Gospels are filled with pithy proverbs, parables, and images; we ponder and memorize them so as to have them ready when we need them. Today's gospel has a half-dozen of these proverbs; they are often doublets, two different sentences that say essentially the same thing. 

Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, on the other hand, is written with long, thought-provoking, complex sentences. Read nonstop from start to finish, they leave me -- I speak for myself -- washed up on the shore. Not overwhelmed but distracted. They just go on and on, like the preacher who can't find the end of his sermon and just keeps talking. Saint Paul always has more to say, and it's great stuff. But we have to walk carefully into the thicket of these teachings to find something for daily reflection. 

we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One...

As the Roman Empire was coming apart, the Emperor decreed that the son of every tradesman should take up his father's tools and practice the same arts. With this law he hoped to stabilize the economy and maintain the status quo against further disintegration. That system changed little throughout the next two millennia. Born into such a world, the children didn't need to ask, "What will I do when I grow up?" The answer was there in the house with tools and skills. 

Today's children may ask the same question but the answer might not appear so readily. The tools and skills they will need might not yet exist, nor the market-demand for them. Entering the work force at twenty-five or thirty, they may retire forty years later having long forgotten their initial skillset. The demand disappeared as they adjusted and readjusted to an ever-changing environment. 

But, if they're blessed and equipped with faith, they might have a basic understanding of who they are. They will know from their early days that they were, "...chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will." 

They belong to Christ and they are consecrated to his kingdom. This reassurance will not shelter them from all the anxieties that accompany freedom in the twenty-first century, but it will provide a staff, an aid and support, to sustain their walking through distress. 

Saint Paul might not have experienced the Roman Empire in a state of flux but his particular world was changing rapidly as the Gospel spread, took root, and formed the Church. He travelled from place to place, learning the accents and ways of innumerable different cities and communities; all the while, finding the words to enunciate a gospel whose stories, teachings, words, and symbols were still emerging. He faced challenges Jesus had never met, and trusted the Spirit and his own cleverness to address them. Toward the end of his life, he would say what many an aging parent has said to their adult children, "...by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective."

We need this faith-filled confidence today. How many young people are committing suicide because they cannot see beyond a very close horizon? They cannot say where they'll be, what they'll do, or who they'll be with in five years. Confronted with that daily anxiety as they crash against the disappointments of youth, their future seems to vanish and there seems no purpose in going on. 

Faith assures us, "Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”

If I cannot see beyond the horizon, God does; and what he sees is beautiful.