Knowing is one thing. Evidencing the knowing through living is a whole other business. My wife and I are in the season of parenting when both of our sons are in college and we are empty-nesting. This means tuition payments for us, the “world is your oyster” type of speak, and the vast horizon of learning that is set before them, and the daily prayer that what we have taught, modeled, and nurtured in their hearts for nearly two decades will bear fruit in such a way that demonstrates them to be responsible young men who are loving, kind, and compassionate.

That’s what we preachers and teachers of the Gospel pray for: that when the “Amen” is proclaimed at the end of the sermon, when the classroom lesson is finished, when the book is finished and put down, that those who have received the oral and written message will respond to live out the faith in real and tangible ways.

The 20^th century Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Ur von Balthasar had an apt term for what I’m describing and which the texts for the August 2023 lectionary bear witness to: “Theo-Drama.” That phrase is the title of von Balthasar’s five-volume piece wherein he described God’s good actions towards humanity and what humanity’s response is in a divine-human encounter. And while von Balthasar’s description focused on the pivotal events of the Triduum and Easter, the divine knowing and self-disclosure evoke and provoke a human response.

In these reflections on the Pentateuchal and Gospel texts of the August 2023 lectionary, we will see this theo-drama at play. Ask yourself and ask your congregation this question: “Now what?”

August 6, 2023 Genesis 32:22-31 and Matthew 14:13-21		August 13, 2023 Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 and Matthew 14:22-33
August 20, 2023 Genesis 45:1-15 and Matthew 15:10-28		August 27, 2023 Exodus 1:8-2:10 and Matthew 16:13-20