PRAYER MOMENT
Thursday
20 August 2015, St Bernard
I
WILL OFFER UP THE FIRST PERSON
Pause. Enter into the stillness of God
within.
Reading: “If you deliver the
Ammonites into my hands, then the first person to meet me from the door of my
house I will offer up as a holocaust.” (Judges 11:29-39)
Reflection. Well, of course, the first
person Jephthah meets is his own daughter! This pagan story of human sacrifice to
obtain victory in battle jars horribly on our minds today. Yet here it is in
the middle of scripture and the selectors in Rome, far from passing over it in
embarrassed silence, chose to include it in our daily readings for the
Eucharist. Perhaps we can see a reason. Human sacrifice, awful as it is, is
still with us with the suicide bombers who have suddenly become plentiful. And
purified to the level where I do not take my own life but offer it, in a
situation where I may lose it “by laying it down for my friends”, it takes on a
new meaning and resonantes with Eucharist itself.
Prayer. Lord, help us to offer our
lives for others so that all your people may come close to you and find the fullness
of life. Amen.
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