Tuesday

Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from 

good will. ... 

What does it matter? Just this, 

that Christ is proclaimed in every way.... 

Only, live your life 

in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ. 

                                     Philippians  1:15, 18, 27 

First I read  Psalm 45... that’s usually  a wash for me. And then there came I Kings 16:23-34 - even worse! For Years I have wondered, as I bombed through it, why in God's name (literally) were we reading THIS and how can THIS be helpful to us?  Today I suddenly got a tiny glimpse of  the broad sweep of God's will for the cosmos being done in spite of, around and through us all.... We can stand in the way, we can get it wrong, we can be a temporary building block  or a stumbling stone, we can even think we are one and be the other, out of ignorance or pride, or a limited vision.....  That was helpful to me but it didn’t give me the needed  place to rest and meditate.S o I went on to Philippians. And I got the last verse. But then I had a vision of this pulpit in Melk Abbey. What were the motives of the people who built it? The abbots who have administered it through the hundreds of years? We cannot know the whole purpose of God (some terrible things in my life have turned out to be huge blessings) nor can we judge the motives of others though we can "look and pass on" as John of the Cross advises. What DOES matter, in the end , all we can do , is to try, one day at a time, to "live a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ." The outcome is God's.   

               God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year, 

               God is working his purpose out, and the time is drawing near, ...

                Give ear to me, ye continents, ye isles, give ear to me,

               that the earth shall be filled with the gory of God 

                as the waters cover the sea.    From Hymn 534