True Ministry
by Fr. David M. Knight
June 25, 2024
Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time
Lectionary 372
2 Kgs 19:9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36/Mt 7:6, 12-14 (372)
Byron’s poem on 2Kings 19:9-36 is a commentary on Hezekiah’s words: “You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth.”
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold / And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; / And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, / When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, / That host with their banners at sunset were seen: / Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, / That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, / And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; / And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, / And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, / But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; / And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, / And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale, / With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: / And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, / The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, / And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; / And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, / Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
When God does not choose to show this power, we need to remember he has it.
In Matthew 7:6-14 Jesus is not making something human—our sense of justice—the measure of how we treat others. He invites us to ask deeply what we most deeply desire from others. It is not just fair treatment; it is love.
Love is to want others “to be and be all they can be.” Isn’t this the encouragement we want from co-workers, family and friends? This is the support that comes from appreciation: not only of what we are, but of what we can be. Those who recognize our potential and want to see us develop it are the ones who “treat us as we would want them to.” This is what we should do for others. And this is ministry.
It distressed Jesus that some people had no taste for the divine standards he taught. They neither saw nor cared that the highway they found so easy to follow was really the low way. In the mountains, it is the narrow path that leads to the summit. The “beaten path” is by definition non-challenging. It is for those who don’t realize their capacity for greatness, for life to the full, for the self-discovery of losing oneself in love. Jesus says of this: “What a waste!”
Jesus wanted us to treat him as God. And that is the way he treats us: as humans the Father calls and empowers to live on the level of God, sharing his divine life. That is the aim of ministry.
Initiative: Know what you want. Give it to others.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
