GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 30TH MAY 2017
TUESDAY OF THE SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTR
FIRST READING: Acts 20:17-27
PSALM: Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
GOSPEL: John 17:1-11
THEME: FINISH HARD!
There are many starters but few finishers. We just need to look around us and we would find many examples. There are beautiful plans that have seen the rising of the sun but not its setting. Uncompleted projects abound in the political, socio-economic and even religious spheres of our earthly life. Many start but not all are able to finish.
Both Jesus and Paul were no mere starters; they were finishers. Jesus in our Gospel text, prayed to the Father saying, “I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do” (Jn. 17:4). Paul, in his farewell speech to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus as narrated in our First Reading, states, “I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, in order that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). They both went through excruciating sufferings and yet they did not allow the pains to make them abandon their God-given mission. They went all out to the very last end.
Like Jesus and Paul, our heavenly Father has entrusted to each one of us a particular task here on earth. In seeking to carry out this task, we often come face to face with challenges. Unfortunately, some of us easily give up and walk away. As followers of Christ, we ought not to easily succumb to the pressure to give up and be overwhelmed by the waves of challenges. We must finish hard.
To be a “finisher”, one needs the virtue of longsuffering, synonymous to patience. This virtue is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22-23). During this period of Pentecost Novena, let us turn to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to give us that grace of endurance to complete the task that He has entrusted to us.
PRAYER: Come Holy Spirit. Give me the strength I need to endure whatever comes my way on this journey of faith. May trials never discourage me for you are with me even in dark hours of my life. For the sake of Christ, I pray. Amen.
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).