The Old Testament books of the Chronicles are a cleaned-up “cliff notes” version of the story of Israel. They, along with Ezra and Nehemiah are products of the ‘intertestamental period’, the roughly 400 years between the return from exile of the Jews and the advent of Christ. Just as these are later writings of the story of Israel, so too the New Testament readings for this week, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon are later writings in the Pauline corpus.
Our reflection jumped off from 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 a song of David expressing his praise to God and gratitude at the generosity of the people who gave of their treasure to build the temple.
Blessed are you, God of Israel, our father
From of old and forever
To you, O God, belong the greatness and the might,
The glory, the victory, the majesty, the splendor; Yes! Everything in heaven, everything on earth;
The kingdom all yours! You've raised yourself high over all.
Riches and glory come from you,
You're ruler over all;
You hold strength and power in the palm of your hand
To build up and strengthen all.
And here we are O God, our God, giving thanks to you,
Praising your splendid Name.
We likened this song to a giant cornucopia and, at the end of our reflection, wrote the following:
Dear God, you are the source of all bounty and abundance
You fill our cornucopia.
We thank you for the gift of being able to praise.
We pray that we will share joyfully your ever-flowing love
So that we can feed ourselves and others from your generosity.
AMEN.
