Monday, November 5, 2012

11/7/2012 – Wed of 31st week in ordinary time – Phil 2:12-18


         Paul was very connected to the communities to whom he wrote.  He felt a great sense of love, loyalty, and allegiance to them.  He writes to them to encourage them and to give them advice along their journey of faith.  He tells them today that they have been lights shining in the darkness of a perverse generation.  He asks them to persevere through obedience even when it is so difficult to do so.  It is hard being a light in the midst of so much darkness when the ways of man are calling out so strongly to lead us astray.  In many ways, I can see Paul writing this same sort of letter to us in our own modern world, since we are face with some of the same circumstances.  Paul advises the Philippians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.  Fear in the Jewish mind meant to have respect and awe for God, to let God be God, and for them to be the dutiful servants and followers.  So often we want to become gods ourselves, don’t we?  We as human beings want to call the shots and don’t want to have to obey the rules.  This is the richness of Sacred Scripture – it can be so true for us today.  May we continue to follow the Lord in our words and actions, to obedient to him as his followers.  

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