Monday 5 July 2021

Today is Monday the 5 July, in the 14th week of Ordinary time.  

The Convivium Singers sing Margaret Rizza’s setting of the Benedictus:  “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel! He has visited his people and redeemed them. He has raised up for us a mighty saviour in the house of David his servant, as he promised by the lips of holy men, those who were his prophets from of old.  

Today’s reading is from the Book of Genesis.  

Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’    

Up to this moment, Jacob has been working in his own best interests with no mention of God. Even now, he is off to find a ‘suitable’ wife.  And now, for the want of having nowhere else to stay here he is, asleep with his head on a rock. I ask myself: do I ever feel driven by the busyness of life. Do I ever stop and consider the meaning of what I am doing?        

In what seems a place as good as any other, the spiritual conversion begins as a dream. Jacob dreams this very ordinary patch of earth is aligned with the gates of Heaven. The angels spiral above him and God calls to him with promises and blessings he was surely not expecting. Jacob’s sleepy vulnerability makes him open to the wonder and glory of God, and the recognition that the Lord is right there with him. How do you picture all this in your mind? Place yourself there…  

As I listen to the scripture again, I consider my willingness to be vulnerable; How may I be open to the Lord’s presence in my life, in the world around me?  

‘The Lord is in this place - and I did not know it’. In this final time of prayer, I ask that the Lord might be revealed to me today.

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.