Eventide & Altar

Jesus heals a man with dropsy on the Sabbath, in front of Pharisees watching closely for exactly this, and asks them plainly first: is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not? Nobody answers him. He heals the man anyway and sends him away, then asks which of them would not pull their own child or ox out of a well on the Sabbath without a second thought.

Paul's first reading opens with a prayer that grows sweeter with time rather than thinner: I am confident that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Paul is not writing to young converts still finding their footing. He is writing near the end of his own ministry, and the confidence in that line comes from someone who has watched the good work actually continue, decade after decade, further than he could see when it began.

You have watched some of your own good work continue past what you could see when it started, children who grew into people you could not have predicted, a faith that outlasted seasons of doubt, a community that kept going after you stepped back from leading it. That continuation was never fully yours to guarantee. It was, as Paul says, the one who began it, still completing it, with or without your hand directly on it anymore.

The Pharisees' silence in tonight's Gospel is its own kind of answer. Sometimes the most faithful response to a hard question is simply to act in love and let the silence stand.

The Sorrowful Mysteries tonight, since it is Friday. Offer the fourth mystery, the Carrying of the Cross, for the good work you began that has continued further than you could see, and for the grace to trust it is still being completed.

• For the grace to trust that the good work we began continues even after our hands leave it, we pray to the Lord.
• For every community carrying forward what an elder began and stepped back from, we pray to the Lord.
• For all who have died, that the good work begun in them is now complete, we pray to the Lord.

Name one good work you began years ago that has continued without you. Give thanks for it today, specifically, rather than simply noting it in passing.