I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU COME FROM

PRAYER MOMENT 

Wednesday 29 October 2014

I DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU COME FROM

                     

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.

Reading: “You may find yourself knocking at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us.’ But he will answer, ‘I do not know where you come from.’” (Luke 13:20-30)

Reflection. Knowledge, in our ‘western’ scientific understanding – and we are all influenced by this whether we like it or not – is a matter of facts and exams. To know something, or even someone, is often simply to know facts about it or them. But in other understandings – and especially in the Jewish tradition – knowledge is relationship, I can only know someone when there is a bond between us of love and mutual service. Our passage from Luke today points to this difference. Jesus’ hearers were like those Christians today who ‘know’ the church and for whom it is important to be known as a Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and so forth. But it ends there. There is not yet this deep relationship with God which shows itself in a passionate commitment to the values of his reign. Religion becomes a convenient part of my identity, not the whole of it.

Prayer. Lord, you know how easily we use our belonging to a church as an outward part of our identity. Help us to really know you in mutual love and sharing. Amen.  

David Harold-Barry SJ