Sister Maria Catherine Toon

When the Israelites get a moment alone without Moses (without God, they think), their minds, and their hearts, go back to Egypt, filtering out their suffering. Our Lord is unrelenting, and impatient when the chosen people begin to show a marked preference for other gods.

Today the church gives us readings that examine both the hardship of living the life of the Gospel, but also the glory of our magnificent God and the vast and deep inheritance we have in him. Just prior to this reading from Acts, Paul and Barnabas have won hearts and minds through healing a man who had never been able to walk. But when others come to Lystra (now in present-day Turkey) they stone Paul, and leave him for dead. It is only when the “disciples gathered around him” that he was healed. From this, we can discern that believers prayed over him, (perhaps even the Apostles) and gave him the anointing of the sick. No small thing to narrowly escape death, and to be healed through the intercession of other believers.

In a deep, crackling voiceover, Bryan Cranston recites Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” for a trailer of one of the last episodes of “Breaking Bad.” The startling words of the poem are set against the backdrop of time-lapsed images of busy cities, the movement of the sun, and the timelessness of the desert. The poem describes a traveler coming upon the ruins of an ancient king who believed that his fame and reputation would live forever through the stone monuments he had built for himself. But instead the traveler sees only rubble and the sands of the desert.

This passage in the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that eternal priesthood comes from God.