Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. Creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. - Romans 8:18, 21

We ourselves groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. The groaning is the condition of the woman who has the firstfruits but not yet the full harvest. The firstfruits are the beginning of the evidence: the Spirit is here, the word is not void, the glory is coming. The groaning is between those realities and the full receiving.

The seed sown among thorns: hears the word but worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. The word is heard. The word is there. The thorns do not remove it; they strangle its light and space until the fruit cannot develop. The groaning of the woman among thorns is the groaning of the word that cannot fully grow.

All creation is groaning in labor pains. Labor is not illness. Labor is the productive suffering that is aimed at birth. The groaning creation is not groaning in the dark - it is groaning toward the glorious freedom of the children of God.

Name the specific thorn that is at this moment stealing light from the word planted in you - the specific anxiety, the specific lure that is not letting the fruit develop. Name it. Pull it. And receive the labor-pain frame: this groaning is not the dark, it is the labor toward the birth. The glory to be revealed is that large.

Lord, pull the thorns that are choking what you have planted. Let the word achieve the end for which it was sent. And let the groaning be received as labor toward the glory that is coming. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us. Amen.