In these days of summer, farmers and gardeners are hard at work: watering and irrigating crops, flowers and herbs; weeding and deadheading flowers so that there will be room for future blooms to mature and to blossom.
There is a reminder in today's reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah that the Lord does precisely this with us as well while we are still living in this world and preparing for life in heaven. The prophet says: the Lord of hosts will send among his fat ones leanness, and instead of his glory there will be kindling (Is 10:16).
Such reminders are always useful for the life of missionary disciples as we make our pilgrim journey. If we were to content ourselves with life in this world, we might be seduced into thinking that the accepted norms of the society in which we live should all be accepted at face value, but when such norms do not defend the dignity of the human person, when such norms have the potential to lead us to self-centredness rather than openness to the needs of others, when such norms pave the way to ignoring the presence of the frail and the needy among us ... we must never forget that we are Jesus' disciples; the work we are called to do is about building up His kingdom and not ours.
Have a great day.
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