Continue

A Reflection on the Second Reading for October 16th, 2022:
​Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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2 Timothy
3.14 - 4.2

Beloved: Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how form childhood you have know the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

​All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the one who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:  proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching.

I’m on all fours wiping down the most crumby part of the kitchen floor, with the dishcloth that I’ve decided has reached that point where it shouldn’t be used on the counter and should be put in the wash, when I realize something. I’m 56 on all fours wiping down the floor, and it feels pretty good still. There’s an odd pleasure in the position and the motion, and I start to see in my mind’s eye images of myself, going backward and forward through the decades, doing the same thing. I remember doing this at 36, pregnant with our fourth child. I wonder what it’ll feel like at 76. At 96? The broadcaster on the radio is talking about the Queen’s Queue; she was 96. Funny how if I try to extend forward and touch the hand of me at 96 it seems a far reach, but when I go to take the hand of me at 16 it seems a close grab. That was when I started knowingly walking and talking with Jesus, taking His hand. 

Getting off the floor and taking the cup of coffee from the clean countertop, I head to my chair by the window to sit with Him, and His words. The first two words seem to create this immense space of time between two of my heartbeats — as if I could fit 40 years between one pulse and the next. Beloved. Continue.

Continue learning
Continue believing
Continue knowing
Continue coming to His word
Continue in salvation
Continue in correction
Continue in training
Continue coming to His presence
Continue equipping
Continue proclaiming
Continue encouraging
Continue coming to join Him in His purpose

Continue this life with Him from heartbeat to heartbeat and from decade to decade because this is just the beginning. A drop in the bucket. The lid of time will be lifted off and I will see my Beloved. I will see that I am beloved. I trust the look I will meet in His eyes. I will train my soul to be ready to bear that Beauty. Come Holy Spirit and hone me through sacred scriptures and the sanctity of scrubbing a floor.




Noreen Smith

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