It is a good idea once in a while to pause your journey and look behind you. If you look carefully at your life, you will probably see that God’s goodness and mercy have often appeared. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.”

At times, goodness and mercy may not be at the top of mind. Consider the Prophet Ezra (First Reading). He is consumed by wretchedness and guilt as he remembers all the wicked deeds heaped up by God’s Chosen People and the retribution that visited them. Four times in less than twenty years, the King of Babylon crushed them and ripped significant numbers of their elite from cities and villages to be force-marched hundreds of miles to captivity in Babylon. It is decades later when Ezra writes, “…our God has brightened our eyes and given us relief in our servitude.” God’s mercy has come through King Cyrus the Great of Persia, who vanquished the Babylonians, freed the captives, and assisted their return home, bearing gold and silver to rebuild the Temple!

Jesus’ instructions (Luke’s Gospel) given to the Twelve as they leave two by two to proclaim the Kingdom are succinct and clear: take nothing; when you enter a house, stay there and go from there; if you are not welcome, move on. The tremendous and all-encompassing love of God, who will forever bless them and keep them, is not mentioned. Jesus has taught them well: they have heard and taken this unconditional love deep into their hearts. Now they must share (and we must share) this great love with all the world. Consider what we have that the Apostles did not yet have for this mission: the Holy Eucharist, Jesus’ own Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity!

Let us pray:

Dear God, we see your great love, your endless kindness, and mercy with us forever. Grant that we may always take in and hold close the greatest gift of your most holy Eucharist! Amen.