REFLECTION FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR A), Week beginning 22ND JANUARY 2023
On Wednesday of the coming week, January 25th, we have the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. This Feast concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (the Christian Unity Octave which began on January 18th).
Last Sunday’s newsletter Reflection ended by saying how, as we are intended by God to nourish and nurture our spirits, our attention can never be merely on bodily matters. This is so because we, each & all, have been created in God’s very Image and Likeness.
St. Paul addresses this very topic at the start of Chapter 12 of his Letter to the Romans. He writes there as follows:
“Think of God’s Mercy … and worship Him, I beg you, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings, by offering your living bodies as a holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to God”.
Paul, of course, was only too aware of the Mercy of God shown to him personally. He himself came to worship God as a thinking being who was quite ready to offer himself as a holy sacrifice, and in a truly pleasing way to God. Therefore, he exhorts us, not merely the Romans, to do as he did! In that Chapter he then continues:
“Do not model yourselves on the behaviour of the world around you, but let your behaviour change, modelled by your new mind. This is the only way to discover the will of God, and know what is good, what it is that God wants, what is the perfect thing to do”.
Our Faith, & its practice, fundamentally point us away from the example we find from the world. Our Faith has given us a new mind, a new heart, with which we can discover God’s Will.
Our Faith will reveal to us what is good, and what is desired by God from us.
So, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, 25 days into 2023, has much to offer for our reflection in a spirit of prayerful resolutions.
Good Shepherd Catholic Church 