Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Tone 5; Our Holy Fathers and Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexander, John, and Paul the Younger.
2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4; Matthew 22:1-14.
Read 2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4
Grief is the experience of love when someone we care deeply about is not there anymore. The pain of a deep yearning for the person’s presence only exists because love came first. The only way out of grief is to go through it; time is the landscape we go through in the journey of grief – it is a process.
Our experience of grief is not confined to loss through death. The challenges in our relationships that arise within ourselves and those we love can leave us feeling a sense of their absence even when they are present with us. The reconnection of relationship is never entirely within our control – it too is a process. It takes time.
Paul refrained from immediately coming to the Corinthian church to spare them and himself more pain. He knew that addressing the state of their relationship with God and him as an apostle would be painful. He knew that the feedback loop of them causing each other more pain during a personal visit would be counterproductive. So, he wrote to them first. This reveals, in apostolic spirituality, an understanding of and respect for process that takes time. The activation and dissipation of feelings, the (re)introduction of teaching, the beginning of intentions growing into decisions – that would need time and space to germinate and grow, in hope of it coming to the full fruition of mutual joy and comfort.
“Faith is…the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) It takes faith to respectfully, healthily take initiative and be intentional in relationships. I also takes faith to not circumvent the process in the other person by trying to force a premature outcome. Paul exhibits this faith from the outset: “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ.”