Daily Inspiration:
1Maccabees 6:8-11
8 When he received this news, he was terrified and deeply upset. He fell sick and became greatly depressed because things had not turned out the way he had planned. 9 So he remained overcome by this terrible anguish for many days. He felt that he was dying, 10 so he called his friends and said to them, “Sleep has fled from my eyes and I am greatly crushed by my anxieties. 11 And I keep on asking why such grief has come upon me – I who was generous and well-loved when in power – and now I am so discouraged.
Beloved, how true this is of us too sometimes, something happens in our life and things do not go the way we had planned or foreseen and we are immediately downcast and upset. Often times our despondency is in greater proportion to the trivial thing that caused the upset or disturbance. If it is a matter of greater difficulty, then we get into a terrible state and the whole world and everyone in it becomes a bitter place. We even imagine we will never get over it, worse still, we keep harping on it to all who are around us and we worry the thing to death. We can think, or speak of nothing else but the person or situation. I have felt this way in the past. If I stop to question and ponder the reason for the calamity that has befallen me, closer examination will almost always reveal sin that created the barrier between grace and I. As quickly as we realize our sin we should hasten to confess and repent and we will almost always find that whatever disturbed our peace will melt like dew in the summer sun.
Daily Mass Readings: Jeremiah 7:23-28, Luke 11:14-23, Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Jeremiah 7:23-24 & 27-28,
23 One thing I did command them: Listen to my voice and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in the way I command you and all will be well with you. 24 But they did not listen and paid no attention; they followed the bad habits of their stubborn heart and turned away from me.
27 You may say all these things to them but they will not listen; you will call them but they will not answer. 28 This is a nation that did not obey the Lord and refused to be disciplined; truth has perished and is no longer heard from their lips.
How clear it is from Your Word that the way to being happy is to be obedient to You and Your Word. It seems so simple, one would imagine, that in the world we live in which believes it is smarter than any generation in any age, we ought to be a great deal happier and fulfilled and yet it clearly not so. Sin abounds in every area of our life in public and in private. Christian nations have now become places of idolatry. The body has become the god at which worship is offered. Feverish possession of people and things have created a frenzy and peace seems to have been lost to the world. You have been so merciful. Calamities have struck but have not annihilated as we deserve and these ought to have served to bring us to our senses.. But we seem to have drifted even further away from the Way the Truth and the Life. Apart from You there is no life either here or in eternity. The Church speaks clearly, loudly and insistently but no one seems to be listening.
This Lent, grant us wisdom and understanding in order that we may return to You in sorrow and repentance. Acknowledging You as the only God, bring us home to peace and happiness with You.
Luke 11:14-23,
Beloved, how often our genuinely good actions are misconstrued and given an evil twist. Evil is made out to be good. Abortion for example is pitted against a woman's right to choose and thus a defenseless life is sacrificed on the altar of self.
How very frustrating it must have been for You to have the Pharisees deliberately attribute what was clearly the power of God to evil. They knew that if they called the signs and miracles by its true name, it would challenge them to acknowledge that You were indeed the Son of God and the longed for Messiah.
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
1 O Lord God, vengeance is yours; O God who avenges, show yourself!
2 Judge of the world, repay the proud with what they deserve.
6 They murder the widow and the lonely, they massacre the helpless;
7 “The Lord does not see,” they say, “the God of Jacob does not care.”
8 Remember this, you stupid people, when will you understand, you fools!
9 He who made the ear, will he not hear? He who formed the eye, will he not see?
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