Year A: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Second Reading: Romans 8: 28-30

Today’s reading follows straight on from the Reading about the role of the Spirit in our prayer that we read last week.

God calls us to become true images of His Son - fully human beings as we were created to be. It was not God’s intention in creating us to make life hard - our own selfishness and that of others does that well enough. Rather, God intended, as St Paul says, that we should become like Jesus.

When we allow the Spirit to pray within us and draw us into communion with our Creator and Redeemer - so we are drawn more fully into what it means to be human beings. We are drawn from the exile of life without God into a deeper and more meaningful existence with God who is in us and who is at the same time utterly beyond us.

This openness to union allows God to “co-operate” with us - to work with us and alongside us and so, bring about things that we could never have imagined. the things He brings about are always for our good - and so may not be what we thought we were asking for - but the Spirit and God are one - and They know what our prayer was really for! We may think we are praying for one outcome - and find ourselves joyfully surprised by an answer that we had not even thought about!

Like Jesus, we learn that prayer is about “earthing” the love of God - not just asking for things. We learn to let God bring things about in co-operation with us - and so become like brothers and sisters of Jesus who, as the elder brother, sets the example.

God calls us to work with Him - and justifies us so that we can trust Him and be faithful servants of the Kingdom.

By working to be yeast for the world - to be the mustard seed - to be on constant lookout for the pearls and treasures we have been hearing about in the Kingdom parables, we can allow God not just to work to our own good - but through us - to the good of the whole world.

We become co-creators - and so, eventually, will be drawn even more closely into the eternal glory that is God.

What does it mean for me?

How can you allow God to “co-operate” with you - and so bring about your good and the good of the world?

Text © 2007 Wellspring

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