Glory to you, O Christ,
proclaimed to the pagans;
glory to you, O Christ,
believed in by the world. 1 TIM 3:16
1 JOHN 4:19-5:4
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
It is abundantly clear and so simple, Lord, if we say we love You then the most visible proof of that love is our love for one another. Looking at our broken world it is clear Lord that we do not love You as we ought if we did peace would reign among us. As it is the world has never been so at odds with all that is true, good, holy, and beautiful on the contrary it appears that the world is given over to lawlessness, and debauchery of every kind. Heaven must weep at how far we have fallen into the trap of Satan. How readily we believe the lies spewed by the spawns of the devil, how easily we allow ourselves to be inveigled by false doctrine preached by those who themselves have been led astray by concupiscence.
If we loved You as we ought - as the First Commandment exhorts us to, then we would readily obey every other Commandment that follows but we do not love You as we ought, we do not consider everything and our very lives well lost for love of You, Beloved. We who say we belong to You, we who are members of Your Body, the Church You founded, we who are the branches of the true Vine, are being cut off from You because we have failed to love one another as You love.
Each one of us, within the Church, has been begotten by God, and is privileged to call Him, Abba, Father, Dad, Papa, but have failed miserably in recognizing that all those in the Church have also been begotten by God and are truly my brothers and sisters in You, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. When I fail to love them but shout out loudly from the rooftops that I love You I am nothing more than a miserable liar for the immutable truth is this:
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ
has been begotten by God;
and whoever loves the Father that begot him
loves the child whom he begets.
has been begotten by God;
and whoever loves the Father that begot him
loves the child whom he begets.
We can be sure that we love God’s children
if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us;
this is what loving God is –
keeping his commandments;
and his commandments are not difficult,
because anyone who has been begotten by God
has already overcome the world;
this is the victory over the world –
our faith.
if we love God himself and do what he has commanded us;
this is what loving God is –
keeping his commandments;
and his commandments are not difficult,
because anyone who has been begotten by God
has already overcome the world;
this is the victory over the world –
our faith.
PSALM 71(72):1-2,14-15,17
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
O God, give your judgement to the king,
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
to a king’s son your justice,
that he may judge your people in justice
and your poor in right judgement.
From oppression he will rescue their lives,
to him their blood is dear.
(Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.)
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.
(Long may he live,
may the gold of Sheba be given him.)
They shall pray for him without ceasing
and bless him all the day.
May his name be blessed for ever
and endure like the sun.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
Every tribe shall be blessed in him,
all nations bless his name.
All nations shall fall prostrate before you, O Lord.
LUKE 4:14-22
My Soul's Beloved,
My Soul's Beloved,
The sad truth for most of us is that we allow our emotions to dictate our response to what we see, hear, and experience when in truth we ought to give free rein to our intellect to direct and form our understanding and response to those with influence and power both in the Church and in the world. Too many of us who are Catholics are spiritually immature, we lack a proper understanding of what the Church teaches in matters regarding faith and morals, and ignorance combined with concupiscence makes us easy targets for peddlers of lies and half-truths.
In the Gospel passage for our reflection today we see ourselves reflected in the people among whom You grew up and lived with all of Your adult life who were present in the synagogue that sabbath day. You selected a particular passage from the book of Isaiah and in the presence of those who thought they knew You because of the familiarity of thirty years growing up among them, and because of this familiarity that clouded their vision they failed to grasp the momentous occasion when God revealed Himself to them.
Beloved, You constantly reveal Yourself to us but our senses are filled with the raucous sounds of the world designed by Satan to distract us and turn us away from our true purpose and goal in life which is to be united with You and with our sisters and brothers. Open our ears O Lord to hear Your voice and to recognize it in the cacophony of sounds that compete for our attention and having heard it grant us the grace to listen and obey so we may be filled with zeal to spread the Gospel by the witness of our lives.
He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
No comments:
Post a Comment