Monday of the 28th
Week in Ordinary Time
October 12, 2015 8:30am
Today, our first reading is the
beginning of Saint Paul’s letter to the people in Rome.
His pastoral or spiritual greeting
comes not in verse 1, but in verse 7, at the end of today’s passage.
He says: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
I imagine that sounds familiar to
you.
It is one of the greetings in the
Missal from which we can choose to begin Mass, and I often use this particular
one here in the chapel.
I find the wording both simple
and rich at the same time.
Paul says “Grace to you…”
Grace means the presence, the
love, and the healing of God.
There is so much wrapped up in
that word “Grace” – the presence of
God, and therefore the love of God who is love itself, and then the healing
action of God because our healing or wholeness or holiness comes from the presence
and love of God.
Also, the very word “grace” means gratuitous, a gift from
God.
The idea is that God gives
himself to us.
It is a gift, not something we
have earned.
And then Paul says “Grace to you and peace…”
The peace flows from the grace.
And so, we have an inner settledness,
a sense of being at home or at one with ourselves and with God.
This “peace” flows from the presence, love, and healing of God within
us.
And finally, Paul says: “Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Paul carefully mentions the
Father, the Almighty, transcendent God, and couples the Father with Jesus.
In doing that he reaffirms the
belief that Jesus is one with the Father and is God’s Son.
So, a simple greeting, in effect
a prayer, that Paul uses to begin many of his letters, and now we use to begin
our celebration of the Mass.
A greeting that is so simple and
so spiritually rich at the same time.
