“Power Forth from Him” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:6-8)

The Lord is compassionate toward all his works. (Psalm 145:9)

Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all. (Luke 6:19)

Piety

Lord, help me to reflect Your light.

Study

Some of us seek to touch the lesser celebrities of our world, the reality-show stars, the titans of commerce, the political power brokers. As Paul puts it in Colossians 2, we can be attracted by their “empty, seductive, philosophy.” It can be difficult to see that their power is fleeting, and the healing temporary, if at all.

By Judgefloro (Own work) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons.
Mother Teresa is on the left. 

Then there are the true celebrities. Often, they lack the same physical attributes and carefully cultivated talking points.  Here’s an example: She was never pretty in the traditional sense, not even when she was young. The nose was always too big. She was short, standing five feet on a good day. She spoke bluntly and often made those who heard her uncomfortable. But there was something about Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, whom the world knows as St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. People wanted to be around her, the desperately poor of Calcutta, the school children she visited with on a trip to Northern Virginia in 1982, the presidents and other world leaders who jockeyed for time with her. Even many of those who criticized her were unable to simply ignore her; they watched her every move, followed her every word, examined how she spent every dollar.

Why? Because power came forth from her. Even in her own long, dark night of the soul, she radiated knowledge of the Lord in her smile and the light in her eyes.

What we perhaps don’t recognize that, ugly as we may feel at times inside and out, our faith instills power in all of us. People look to us, seek to touch us, more than we realize. They are our children, our spouses, our co-workers, our fellow parishioners, total strangers. He can heal them through us. All we have to do is get out of the way and believe.

Action

There’s still time to offer palanca for the team and candidates on the Arlington 150^th Women’s Weekend that begins Thursday. Help His power come forth.