Reading for Thursday, 5th Week of Lent

Romans 11:13-24

“For if you were cut off from your native wild olive and against nature grafted into the cultivated olive, how much more readily will they, the natural olive branches , be grafted into their native stock!” (Rom 11:24 – Revised English Bible)

Hopefully, you’ve gotten Paul’s metaphor. The Gentiles were the wild olives who were grafted onto the cultivated olive tree that was the people of Israel. For now, the Jewish branches have been cut off to make room for the wild olives. But as far as God is concerned, there is nothing about his creation that is “natural,” or to put it another way, immutable, that is, not open to change. The Gentiles were changed by God’s grace from wild olives to cultivated olives. And if, for now, the Jews have become wild, they could just as easily be regrafted, and the Gentiles cut off.

As creatures of God, we all were created with a certain “nature.” That nature is God’s gift. But we are also connected to this broken world. And as we grow and are exposed to the fallen nature of this world, our “nature” changes accordingly. Hopefully, as we accept and grow in God’s grace, our nature is changed back into that which God gave us at our beginning.

There was a time in my life when I was quite defensive about my opinions and outlook on life. I started observing the tradition of the Daily Office in the late 90s. I joined an Education for Ministry group in 2000, and was exposed to viewpoints different from my own. I can’t pinpoint when the change occurred. But thanks to prayer and the fellowship of ministries like Cursillo and EfM, at some point, I came to recognize a peace within me that allowed for disagreement without those different views becoming a personal threat. My nature was changed.

May all of us grow in God’s grace as he slowly, but surely, grafts us to the tree of eternal life.