Thursday 10 June 2021

Today is Thursday, the 10 June, in the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time.

Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short, sing “joyful light” from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers.   “Joyful light of the holy glory of the immortal one.”  As I look around me now, can I sense that light, that holy presence here, and invite God’s joyful light into my life?

Today’s reading is from the Second Letter to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6

Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

‘All of us … are being transformed’, Paul says—he is excited, and we can almost imagine him breathless. How do you react—and be honest—to this kind of exuberance?

Paul talks about people not getting his message because there’s a veil, a fog as it were, over their minds. Can you think of people and situations that are somehow blocked off against the good news?

As you listen again, you might like to note Paul’s insistence that it’s not himself that he’s proclaiming, but Jesus Christ as Lord. And though he is telling his hearers what they ought to think, he is insisting that he is their slave for Christ’s sake.

Paul clearly felt driven to share his convictions. Imagine yourself on the receiving end of this sort of speech, and explore the effect his message might have on your sense of who you are before God.  

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.