Eagles and Sparrows

Dear Friend,

In last week’s scripture we heard of a whole people - the Israelites - lifted up on the eagle wings of God. We saw Jesus sending out his apostles as an uplifting wing to people weighed down by fears and burdens. We were called to imagine ourselves sent there too, and to the care of creation itself, laboring under human neglect. 

This week Jesus gives us some further instruction by asking us to picture not an eagle, but a sparrow, and one not flying high but falling to the ground. Clearly, Jesus wants to make sure we get the whole picture. And so do the Gospel writers: by the end of it all, we’ll see Jesus himself fall, and be lifted up. In his solidarity with the little ones, Jesus will reveal the ultimate power of love. 

In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes of this strength as “the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflowing for the many.” It is the grace, as Paul writes elsewhere, that we ourselves carry in earthen (clay) vessels. Just as Adam was formed from the earth at the beginning of creation, so the love of Jesus forms us anew at the threshold of a new creation.

As hope-filled ambassadors of that new place opened by Christ, we enter the world as it is. Today that means being sent by Christ into territory in which, according to the research, people are “de-churching” at a faster rate than ever before. We set out with a love and understanding willing to take in all of it. We set out with our pastoral intelligence and planning, as disciples daring to venture into a future not our own. As bold and humble prophets, both eagles and sparrows have something to teach us. 

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor