Thursday, August 27, 2020

What’s stopping you from dying tomorrow? I’ve talked to people one day and they died the next. They didn’t know they were going to die. Guess what!...... If everyone knew what time God was coming everybody would accept Him. Stop putting Him off. You do not know the day or the hour!


I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game. - Tom Landry: 1924 – 2000: was an American professional football player and coach)

Gospel Text: (Matthew 24:42-51)

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Stay awake!
For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
Be sure of this: 
if the master of the house
had known the hour of night when the thief was coming,
he would have stayed awake
and not let his house be broken into.
So too, you also must be prepared,
for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant,
whom the master has put in charge of his household
to distribute to them their food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.
Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is long delayed,’
and begins to beat his fellow servants,
and eat and drink with drunkards,
the servant’s master will come on an unexpected day
and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely
and assign him a place with the hypocrites,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

 

Are you attentive to Him coming to you in these ways every day?  Are you attentive to the infinite number of ways He is seeking to enter your life more fully?  Though we do not know the day on which our Lord will come in His final victory, we do know that every day and every moment of every day is a moment of His coming by grace.  Listen for Him, be attentive, be watchful and stay awake!

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

“It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills.”

  

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.  - George Orwell: (1903 – 1950: was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic)

 

Gospel Text: (Matthew 23:27-32)

Jesus said,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside,
but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.
Even so, on the outside you appear righteous,
but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You build the tombs of the prophets
and adorn the memorials of the righteous, 
and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors,
we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’
Thus you bear witness against yourselves
that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets;
now fill up what your ancestors measured out!”

 

How about you?  Can you take an honest look at your own soul and name what you see?  Hopefully you will see goodness and virtue and rejoice in that.  But you can be certain you will also see sin.  Hopefully not to the extent that the Pharisees had “every kind of filth.”  But nonetheless, if you are honest you will see some dirt that needs to be cleaned.

 

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

“The people of today would rather stand next to a man with no substance but covered in gold, rather than the man with substance and wisdom of gold. What if God was dressed as a carpenter with dirty nails and beaten boots? Would you recognize your Maker? Would you give him your time? Your vote? A cup of tea or water? Only those with truth in them will recognize truth. And you must learn to recognize all that is untrue to get the truth.”

  

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.  - Thomas Paine: (1737  - 1736: was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary

 

Gospel Text: (MT 23:23-26)

Jesus said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You cleanse the outside of cup and dish,
but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup,
so that the outside also may be clean.”

 

Reflect, today, upon how easily the beauty of your interior life shines forth.  Do others see this?  Does your heart shine forth?  Are you radiant?  If not, perhaps you, too, need to hear these words Jesus spoke to the Pharisees.  You may also need to be chastised out of love and mercy so that you will be motivated to allow Jesus to enter in and act in a powerfully cleansing way.


Friday, August 14, 2020

A good marriage is centered and anchored in Christ. “Love is love” – we hear this refrain echoed so many times without any real knowledge of what it really means to love. Love has as its foundation God. Without God, the task of love would simply be too much to bear.

  

"Love is not about staring at each other, but staring off in the same direction." - Antoine de Saint Exupery: (1900 – 1944: was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator.)

 

Gospel Text: (Matthew 19:3-12)

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?”
He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.” 
They said to him, “Then why did Moses command
that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?”
He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery.”
His disciples said to him,
“If that is the case of a man with his wife,
it is better not to marry.”
He answered, “Not all can accept this word,
but only those to whom that is granted.
Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so;
some, because they were made so by others;
some, because they have renounced marriage
for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”  

 

Reflect, today, upon the mystery of the people you are called to love, especially if you are married.  To call the other a “mystery” may at first lead to a smile as you acknowledge you cannot figure him/her out.  But humbly recognizing the beautiful meaning of “mystery” will lead you to appreciate the uniqueness of others and help you to embrace the call to human unity, especially within marriage.

 

Thursday, August 13, 2020

There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself; it is infinite.

  

“Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Gospel Text: (Matthew 18:21–19:1)

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,

“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed,
and went to their master and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?’
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.”

When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee
and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.

 

Don’t forget that Jesus is serious about obstinate refusal to offer mercy and forgiveness to others.  

 

Why is He so strong on this requirement?  Because you cannot receive what you are not willing to give away.  Perhaps that doesn’t make sense at first, but it’s a very real fact of the spiritual life.  If you want mercy, you must give mercy away.  If you want forgiveness, you must offer forgiveness.  But if you want harsh judgment and condemnation, then go ahead and offer harsh judgment and condemnation.  Jesus will answer that act in kind and severity.

 

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.”

  

I, also, would like to look and smile, sit and walk like that, so free, so worthy, so restrained, so candid, so childlike and mysterious. A man only looks and walks like that when he has conquered his Self. I also will conquer my Self.  - Hermann Hesse: ( 1877 – 1962: was a German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter


Gospel Text: (Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14)

The disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever becomes humble like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones,
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
What is your opinion?
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,
will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills
and go in search of the stray?
And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it
than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. 
In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father
that one of these little ones be lost."


Trusting: Children trust their parents without question.  They may not always want to obey, but there is very little reason for children to lack trust that a parent will provide and care for them.  Food and clothing are presumed and not even considered as a concern.  If they are in a large city, or shopping mall, there is safety found in being close to a parent.  This trust helps eliminate fear and worry.

 

Natural: Children are often free to be who they are.  They are not overly concerned about looking silly or being embarrassed.  They will often naturally and spontaneously be who they are and not worry about the opinions of others.

 

Innocent: Children are not yet skewed or cynical.  They do not look at others and presume the worst.  Rather, they will often see others as good.

 

Awe-inspired:  Children are often fascinated by new things.  They see a lake, or mountain, or a new toy and are amazed at this first encounter.