Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - January 13, 2025
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
“I am the vine and you are the branches,” says the Lord, “without me you can do nothing” (John 15). Especially in youth, good health, prosperity and success, we find that last phrase inapplicable. We feel, rather, that we can do anything. Without covering all the implications of that phrase, let's look at one area where I think many of us can see its truth: our efforts to be hopeful or in good spirits.
Covid-19 has given most of us experience in sustaining hope. (I know there are days and times when all of us are simply lethargic or even a bit down; I'm presuming that we do our best with God's help to make these few.) Faced with the daily news of disaster, abuse of children, world poverty and starvation, human cruelty, crime, we have a tough enough time staying hopeful and in good cheer.
But another element in our environment also makes this so difficult at times, the lack of support. You enter your work place with some vitality and a positive spirit only to be met by a cynical word, a gloomy or grouchy colleague. You're hopeful and expectant about the future, about the new day, and you meet sour faces, grim or simply bored people.
Enough of this around you can feel like a heavy weight just pulling you down and dashing your spirits. The temptation is to retaliate by aping the sour faces. But Christians have more to go on, more strength with which to keep up hope and spirits. That is our union with Christ, fortified by prayer and sacrament. We are branches on the vine that is Christ; with that life within us we can keep up hope and even joy.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
