All week, the daily Mass readings have had a thread running through them that is somewhat obscure. You have to look for it. It reminds me of the connect-the-dots pictures I used to do as a kid. You can’t see what the picture is until you begin to connect the dots.
* The first dot came from the Old Testament reading on Monday, in which the prophet Micah told the people that God didn’t want sacrifices and burnt offerings. He just wanted them to, “do justice… and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
* Dot #2 was found in Tuesday’s reading from St. Matthew’s gospel, when Jesus says, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50).
* Then on Wednesday, we heard the beginning of the Book of Jeremiah, in which God calls the young man to be a prophet. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) When Jeremiah protested, God replied, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you” (Jeremiah 1:7). That was the third dot.
* The fourth dot was found at the end of Wednesday’s gospel, when Jesus finishes the Parable of the Sower with this sentence, “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:8).
* Another dot comes from the closing words of Thursday’s gospel. In Matthew 13:17 Jesus says to His disciples, “…many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Do you see the picture yet? Of course not! That’s because I haven’t given you the last dots, a little cluster that ties all the others together and completes the picture. Those dots were added on Tuesday when our pastor, in his homily, asked us what Jesus meant when He said, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” What does it mean to do the Will of God? Several members of the congregation offered great answers: to love God and neighbor, to obey the Ten Commandments. Then Father said that he believes that doing the Will of the Father has three parts, three more dots.***
* First, follow the teachings of Jesus. Micah’s call to justice (on Monday) reflects the legal thinking of the Old Testament, whereas Jesus teaches us that it’s all about learning to love one another.
* Secondly, do good. The seed that fell on rich soil (Wednesday) produced good fruit, and lots of it. And that’s what God wants us to do.
* The third thing God asks is that we share our faith with others, and that we express it in our actions as well as in our words. Like God told Jeremiah, (Wednesday) we must go where we are sent and speak what we have been told. Jesus said that many people “long to hear what you hear” (Thursday). Faith is a gift that is meant to be shared.
All week the readings have been forming a picture, piece by piece, of what it means to do the Will of God.
* There is one last dot, from the Communion Antiphon for Friday which comes from 2Corinthians 5:14-15. “For the love of Christ urges us on… so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.”
That’s the answer in a nutshell: doing the Will of God means not living for ourselves but for Him. We just needed to spend a little extra time exploring the daily readings and connecting the dots.
St. Paul connected all the dots in his letter to the Church in Colossae: “…we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.” Colossians 1:9b-10
KEEP READING
Read more of this beautiful message of encouragement which Paul wrote from prison, to a congregation he had not yet visited. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father…” Colossians 1:3-14
Yours was the second email I received this morning urging me to read St. Paul. Liked your dot to dot analogy.