Phil 3:17-4:1
Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.
But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
The Scales That Blind Me Fall Away
In today’s reading we find ourselves invited to join with St. Paul in imitating him as he lives, according to the cross of Christ. What an invitation to live as St. Paul lived! St. Paul’s conversion has always been a source of consolation and challenge for me. I often practice Ignatian contemplative prayer and imagine the scales falling from his eyes and asking God that those scales that blind me fall away as well. I especially ask that the scales that blind me from the injustices around me are peeled away. Whether those injustices are local like disinvestment in communities of color or those states that continue with the death penalty or the national injustice of the disproportionate number of people of color locked up in our jails and prisons, I pray that those scales fall off so I can hear the call to action.
What might I see if those scales that blind me are peeled away?
—Tom Drexler is a graduate of Marquette University High School and Creighton University, and works in advancement with the Midwest Jesuits.
Prayer
Good and gracious God, you know my weaknesses and my blind spots. Remove the scales from my eyes that prevent me from seeing your face in those around me, or that prevent me from recognizing injustice in my community. As I come to see you in the needs of the world, give me the wisdom to know how to respond. Amen.
—Jesuit Prayer team