Philemon 7-20 / Luke 17:20-25
Human beings have this tendency to want to have a hold on the future in order to have a sense of security.
That is why fortune-telling and horoscopes etc. is such an attractive and thriving business.
Yet we may get so engrossed about wanting to know the future that we lose hold of the present.
We forget to live in the here and now.
That is what Jesus meant when He said that "the kingdom of God is among you".
In other words, the kingdom of God is in the present and in the now!
God wants to be present in the NOW of our lives and it is in the here and now that He reveals Himself to us.
Our present may not look that nice and rosy.
We may be struggling in our difficulties and worries and anxieties.
Just like in the 1st reading, the slave Onesimus was worried about his future because St. Paul was sending him back to his former master Philemon.
Yet it is in those difficulties and struggles that God reveals to us how much He loves us.
He even let His only Son Jesus suffer grievously and die for us.
In Jesus we are assured that God will always be with us. As it was, as it is and as it always will be.