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"You have turned aside from your early love." These words from John to the Church at Ephesus are surely among the most poignant in the Bible. That poignancy is not confined to these words, of course. It is a constant biblical theme, a constant expression of the way God, as it were, experiences so much disappointment in us. Once again, we hear the sigh of God on which we reflected last Wednesday. Through the prophet Hosea, God once said to Israel that He would take her back into the desert to teach her to remember how He loved her when she was young, for Israel had fallen away from the fervour of her first love. First love is exciting and exhilarating, a source of great dreams and great energies. But life must be lived with a more mature love, a love that is tempered by pain and tutored by patience. The dreams and the energies engendered by first love may fade, but the love itself must grow into a great and mysterious reality if it is to be a source of life and happiness until death. Lord, if our first love for You ever fades, lead us to deeper and firmer love, that our loving maturity and our mature loving may be for Your greater glory. |
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P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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That politicians and economists may feel it their duty to attend to the welfare of all people, giving first place to the most poverty-stricken
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This prophetic year 2000 projecting into the 3rd millennium is faced with people suffering from hunger, under-development, lack of work, abandoned old people, the sick without care and those suffering from the scourge of drugs. In front of these facts we are called to review our conduct, choices, commitment in the light of the causes which have determined them. Every Christian who is a member of a state and an economic system must take on himself specific responsibilities to overcome these negative elements which greatly disturb the harmonious development of persons and peoples and are at the root of poverty and of its increase. We cannot place ourselves in a situation of passive waiting for other people's conversion. Our personal conversion is the starting point for hope for the necessary changes of direction. It is our hearts we must change. Conversion is a grace given to those who ask the Saviour for it. We turn to the Lord, with insistent prayer, and ask that we may influence the "politicians and economists to feel it their duty to attend to the welfare of all people and especially the most poverty-stricken". | |
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