Come Back Safe
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he exclaimed, "Truly, the LORD
is in this spot, although I did not know it!" In solemn wonder, he cried
out: "How awesome is this shrine! This is nothing else but an abode of
God, and that is the gateway to heaven!" Genesis 28:16-17
When Jesus arrived at the official's house and saw the flute players
and the crowd who were making a commotion, he said, "Go away! The girl is
not dead but sleeping." And they ridiculed him. When the crowd was put
out, he came and took her by the hand, and the little girl arose. And news of
this spread throughout all that land. Matthew 9:23-26
Piety
Jacob’s Prayer: May God remain with you, protecting you on your journey. May the LORD give you enough bread to eat and
clothing to wear so that you can come back safely to His house. Just as he
promised Abraham and Jacob, the LORD shall be your God. Where ever is the place
that you call home here and now shall be God's abode." (Based upon Genesis 28)
Study
Just a week ago, last Monday’s Gospel reminded us that Jesus has no
place to lay his head. Recall these
words recounted on Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time:
As they were
proceeding on their journey, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever
you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Luke 9:57-58
Jesus does not need to worry about a bed or a pillow. He hardly stays
in one place very long throughout the New Testament. If you did not know that
we are an “Exodus people,” before, you could not help come to that conclusion
reading the Good News. This is a Messiah always on the move!
Jesus is on a journey again today.
Jesus stops off to preach and is called away to minister to someone else. But, on the way, a woman asks him to cure her
daughter. Jesus is like the miracle-making-pinball-man of the desert, bouncing
from one obstacle to the next.
Jacob’s story is an apt introduction.
One the one hand, we recall the image of Jacob’s ladder and the people
climbing and descending the “stairway to heaven.” They are bouncing between
heaven and earth like Jesus on a mission. Heaven is something to be
attained. Heaven is something to be
pursued. The City of God is something
yet to be built.
However, Jacob’s story is also the story of one place – the present
location in the present moment. “The LORD is in this spot.” Jacob is one with
the present moment, as well as a future moment, spent on the way to (and from)
heaven just like he was Jesus on the way to cure the synagogue official’s
daughter.
Action
“The LORD is in this spot.” Your spot.
The “spot” where we are standing is our gateway. This chair set in
front of the Dell monitor is but an abode of God. The train or bus you are riding when you read
this is but an abode of God. The bed
where you will retire or from which you arose is…but…an abode of God.
God remains with us wherever we go. Is it any wonder why some people
say, “Christianity is not a spectator sport.”
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