When

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, March 2nd, 2025:
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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1 Corinthians
15.54-58

​Brothers and sisters: When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

When perishable becomes imperishable.
When mortal becomes immortality.

When is a moment. A waterfall. A particle. A suddenness yet to come.
When is a continuum. A river. A wave. A sequence in each breath. 

When is awaited. 
    A consummation in standing before You, 
        the mirror darkly shattered.
When is now. 
    A consolation in walking with You, 
        the light to come pouring through widening fissures.


Thomas Merton, from The Seven Story Mountain:

“God my God, God who I meet in darkness…
We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life. That is why we are traveling, and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace; and, therefore, in that sense, we have arrived in our dwelling in the light. But, oh, how far I have to go to find You in whom I have already arrived.”


My Lord Jesus Christ, 
My Victorious Jesus,
My Master Jesus,
My Shepherd Jesus,
    oh my sweet Jesus,

I cannot have it, but I long for it. I grow in a longing to enter an unmediated unity with You before I get to the final When, while I am in the now When. It must be that I can only feel this longing because of Your own longing for me to enter it now as well. On my own I can start nothing. You call and invite me into more. This more is only possible gradually through a series of Whens, where in each one of them I die interiorly to anything less than unity with Your Love. You give an invitation into a sequence of deaths before the suddenness of Death making space for light in the darkness. These fissures of Your light, shining through now, outline all the shards of darkened glass that I need to let fall to the ground. 

Then, as I die each small death to the sin You let me see, its stinging stops. Its ability to blind me dissolves. Light shines through and good things grow. The fruit of victory over death is possible in this life. As this transformation is solidified into steadfastness – made evident as I join You in Your labour of Love – we make things together that last, things that are immovable. We shape an eternal When in the clay of the now When.

Come Holy Spirit, fire the clay.
Father, thank You for The Victory, 
    and for each victory, 
        through our Lord Jesus Christ,
            Amen.




​Noreen Smith​

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