Unlimited Blessings
by Tom and April Hoopes in Family on Saturday, July 11, 2009 6:00 AM
(Tom and April Hoopes are co-editorial directors of Faith and Family magazine. In this weekly column, they share family-friendly ways of observing the liturgical year and celebrating the Sunday readings.)
July 12 Readings
Amos 7:12-15; Psalm 85: 9-14; Ephesians 1:3-14; Mark 6:7-13
Our Take
Today’s second reading describes God’s unique relationship with us.
1. In Christ we have “every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” That’s a lot of blessing. It is, in fact, limitless blessing, limited only by our willingness to receive it.
2. We aren’t an afterthought.
God “chose us,” says Paul, “before the foundation of the world.” God didn’t carefully create the world, set it in motion, then discover later that it would produce us. He created the world with us in mind. The things we encounter aren’t random hazards — they are planned helps for us, if we use them properly.
3. God wants to adopt us.
God destined us, it says, for “adoption to himself through Jesus Christ.” Adam and Eve fell for Satan’s temptation to “be like God.” If only they had known that God wanted that, too, and had a better way than Satan’s. We play out the same drama with every temptation, which offers us a cheap, counterfeit grace in place of what God wants — to make us his children.
3. God “sums up all things in Christ.”
Pope Benedict XVI’s inauguration homily explains: “If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.”
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