February 27, 2022,
Susan Quaintance OSB, St. Scholastica Monastery in Chicago, IL
Sir 27:4-7; 1 Cor 15:54-58; Lk 6:39-45
“Shine like lights in the world as you hold on to the words of life.” That’s the gospel acclamation today, Philippians 2:15d and 16a.
If you’re anything like me, you spend a fair bit of time these days, wondering how the world got to the state it’s in. So much hatred and incivility, destruction and violence. Our democracy, our natural world, our sense of the common good: all of it in deep distress and peril. Hasn’t humanity gotten beyond the tribalism that deems any interest other than my own as evil? Apparently not.
The Philippians didn’t really fit into their cultural milieu, either. Two different commentaries refer to the “hostile environment” in which the church at Philippi lived. Philippi was kind of a big deal among Roman cities; it was where Marc Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius in 31 BCE.