Raised in Glory

Love Never Ends: Being the Body of Christ

Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C

Our discipleship path and our journey to heaven are the same journey. That is the glory that we are aiming toward; that is the promise that Paul reminds us of when he tells us that we will be raised in glory. Thanks be to God.

Here again, while the background issue that Paul argues is about the life and the body that we have after resurrection from the dead, the more pertinent issue is. “What does it mean to be glorified as Christ was glorified?” We ask, “How are we ‘raised in glory’?” Paul invites us to emulate Christ and to then confess when we have failed to do so. This is a call to aspire to a Christ-like life and to stop excusing ourselves as “only human” and therefore exempt from the attempt. We are called to embrace the new creation, the new start that we are given in Christ and to live fully wrapped in his glory and therefore being glorified ourselves.

Prayer

O God,
you spoke your word
and revealed your good news in Jesus, the Christ.
Fill all creation with that word again,
so that by proclaiming your joyful promises to all nations
and singing of your glorious hope to all peoples,
we may become one living body,
your incarnate presence on the earth. Amen.

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/prayers.php?id=113.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,
in glorifying Jesus
and sending us your Spirit,
You open the way to eternal life.
May my sharing in this Gift increase my love
and make my faith grow stronger.
Send Your Spirit to cleanse my life
so that the offering of myself to You at Mass
may be pleasing to You.
May my sharing in the Eucharist,
our Bread of Life,
bring me eternal life.

Catholic Online, https://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=739.

The Prayer of Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
It is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete,
Which is another way of saying that
The Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that should be said.
No prayer fully expressed our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
Knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produced effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
And there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
A step along the way,
An opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
But that is the difference
Between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
Ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own.

Archbishop Oscar Romero, https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/morning-and-new-beginnings-prayers.

In This Series...


Epiphany/Baptism of the Lord, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes Transfiguration Sunday, Year C - Lectionary Planning Notes