11/5/2014 – Wednesday 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 loyalty and allegiance to them.   He writes to them to encourage them and to give them advice as they journey in faith. He tells them today that they have been lights shining in the darkness of a crooked and perverse generation.  He asks them to persevere through obedience even when it is difficult to do so.  It is hard being a light in the midst of so much darkness when the ways of the world 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 faced with similar 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 want to be in control, we want to have all the answers, we don’t want any ambiguities or mystery to be present.  We as human beings want to call the shots and don’t want to have rules constrain us.  This is the richness of Sacred Scripture – it can be as true for us today as it was for the people of the ancient world to whom Paul wrote.  May we continue to be open to God’s word as it calls out to us.