Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, July 16, 2023
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God calls us not to be prepared, but to be ready.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, is famous for having crafted a faith tagline of sorts: ad majorem dei gloriam. AMDG. Translated into English, it reads, “For the greater glory of God.” This is the posture that he and the rest of the Jesuit order assumed. This is the spirit in which the Society of Jesus wanted to live; the spirit in which they felt compelled to build community. To this day, AMDG remains a core tenant of Jesuit teaching and life. Everything the Jesuits do, they do for the greater glory of God. Everything.
And that is because the Jesuits believe that God is in everything. Physically. Metaphysically. Everything. All the time and everywhere. God is inescapable; God is unavoidable. God is not some distant, judgmental onlooker, checking in on us periodically to see if we’ve figured things out. No—God is supercharging every fiber of our world in real time, coming to life alongside us every day, bestowing grace on us again and again and again. So, anything we do will necessarily involve God. As far as the Jesuits are concerned, we had better be sure that we glorify God instead of any of the alternatives—not because we should, but because there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. We had better be sure that we glorify God, not because we fear the ramifications of failing to glorify God, but because we mourn the loss or the squandering of any opportunity to shout from the rooftops how amazing and how truly awesome God is.
What a beautiful parallel to the way that we understand God’s grace. According to the author of 2 Peter and the author of the Gospel of Matthew, anticipating Jesus’s coming should be an AMDG venture. The way they’re laying it out, readiness means living in a constant state of recognition that God is, indeed, in all things—that our status quo is already miraculous. That God has loved on us not because we deserve it, but because that’s what God is all about. We know from our biblical witness and from the words of Jesus, himself, that it is impossible for us to imagine what Jesus’s return to our world will look like. It is impossible for us to prepare for the second coming. But we can always be ready for it by basking in—and helping to grow—God’s grace in our everyday lives.
A Jesuit prayer: Suscipe, or “The Radical Prayer:”
Take, Lord, receive—all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my whole will, all that I have and all that I possess. You gave it all to me, Lord; I give it all back to you. Do with it as you will, according to your good pleasure. Give me your love and your grace; for with this I have all that I need.
