Reflection: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In the words of the Our Father we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

As Christians we are called, or as Paul speaks in Romans “predestined,” to work for good.

We are called to try to walk in the light which Jesus showed by his life.

We are called to be “conformed” to the image of God’s son.

To do so, one tries to seek divine wisdom. As God’s children, it is our heart’s natural desire. Solomon, in realizing that wisdom is something not easily grasped, asks God for the wisdom to “distinguish right from wrong” and “an understanding heart to judge [God’s people whom he has been called as King to server over].” This pleases God greatly for it is what God wishes all of us to ask for in our lives. Not for our own health and goodwill or that of our friends. Not for riches. Not for God to smite those whom we feel are against us. But for understanding – to ask for HIS kingdom to come – as HE wills.

God calls us to ask him for the wisdom to know that our way as humans is not God’s way. For God, though he walked among humans in the form of Christ, is not human. Though he speaks to the hearts of men through the Holy Spirit – man can only grasp at a microscopic speck of God’s infinite being, knowledge and love. We can only imagine his kingdom. In Matthew, Christ himself attempts to explain the worth of God’s kingdom to our simple human minds. He speaks to the human vanity of treasure and says that the Kingdom of Heaven is something beyond worth to which we should give all that we are.

God sent his son to teach us. To provide us with an example of the path he wishes us to follow – an impossible ideal to which we are called to conform. Each in our own way called to work for good. Called to ask for God’s wisdom which is sent through the Holy Spirit. Called to allow God’s glory to shine through us. Called to sincerely pray – “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
29/30 June 2017
1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
Rom 8:28-30
Mt 13:44-52


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