We enjoy a mellow stretch of Ordinary Time this winter, attending to Luke on Sundays, Mark on weekdays. The daily continuous readings conclude a several weeks’ sojourn with the mystical Letter to the Hebrews from last month. Next we spend two weeks with Genesis storytelling, and wrap the month with Sirach’s sage advice.

"Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” the amazed throng asks about Jesus. They want to put him in his place, a familiar place, a nonthreatening place. Do I try to put limits on God? On other people?

Imagine that every Bible in the world was about to be destroyed, and you only had time to snatch up one page for safekeeping. One page only, to be your moral guidepost and your consolation. One page of scripture to represent the whole message of the gospel!

Jesus rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard scripture make history. It came true just now in this place.”

It happened over Christmas break, 1967. I bought my first pair of bell bottom jeans, a paisley shirt, and sandals. I let my hair grow and started sideburns. My dad shook his head. My mom cried.

Jeffrey’s brother Jesse was slow. Though Jesse was two year’s older, he acted years younger than Jeffrey. He had suffered brain damage at birth and would never progress past the mental maturity of a 4-year-old.

“You know, it was the one about being nothing but a gong.” So said my friend when describing the reading he was asked to do at a wedding. The gong is an unforgettable scriptural image. Listen and you can hear the hollow words and empty promises of those who claimed to love us and failed us miserably.

As we celebrate God’s banquet of love, let us remember that it is God who rescues us from sin.

To love another person is to see the face of God.