Friday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Optional Memorial of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin

First Reading: Ephesians 1:11-14

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 12-13

Gospel: Luke 12:1-7

Daily readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101626.cfm

A crowd is pressing so tightly around Jesus that people are trampling one another. He turns first to his closest friends and gives them a quiet word. Beware of hypocrisy, the leaven that puffs up and hides what is real. Whatever is whispered in the dark will one day be heard in the light. Then, almost in the same breath, he says the line we all need: do not be afraid. Five sparrows sell for two small coins, and yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. You are worth more than many sparrows.

That is an astonishing detail, if we let it land. The God who holds the universe knows the number of hairs on my head. He is not distant or vague about me. He is attentive to every ordinary part of my day: the worry I carried into work, the tired patience I found at the dinner table, the thing I did not say out loud. Paul says the same thing in his own words. In Christ we were chosen, destined, and sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. We do not have to perform to be seen. We are already known, and the Spirit within us is a down payment on all that is to come.

Today the Church offers us Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French Visitation nun of the seventeenth century. She spent much of her youth ill and entered the convent at Paray-le-Monial in 1671. Beginning in 1673 she experienced visions of Jesus showing her his Sacred Heart, a symbol of his love for us, and she was asked to help spread devotion to it. Her community and superiors were at first doubtful, and it took the support of her confessor, Saint Claude de la Colombiere, for the message to be heard. Her life is a quiet reminder that the heart of Jesus is not far away or abstract. It is the heart of someone who counts the hairs on our heads.

A few questions to sit with tonight:

1. What fear did I carry through today, spoken or unspoken? Can I place it in the hands of someone who knows me completely?

2. Is there a place where I am putting on a front, at work, at home, or even in prayer? What would it feel like to simply be honest with Jesus about it?

3. When did I feel seen or cared for today? Can I thank God for it, even if it was small?

4. What would change if I believed, deeply, that my life is worth more than many sparrows to God?

For tomorrow:

Set aside two minutes tomorrow to place your hand over your heart and pray slowly: Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like yours. Do it when a hard moment comes, or at the first quiet one.

Lord Jesus, you know me down to the number of hairs on my head, and still you tell me not to be afraid. Thank you for choosing me and sealing me with your Spirit. Free me from the need to hide or to impress, and help me to live honestly in your light. Saint Margaret Mary, pray for me, that my heart may grow gentle and trusting like his. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like yours. Amen.

If you would like to share: what is one fear you would like to hand over to Jesus this weekend?

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