Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel according to St Luke the teachers of the law try to trick Jesus again….”The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him”……These men did not care about the good of the people…They cared about their own position…Why were they so concerned about Jesus?….Where they interested in learning from him?……No, Jesus threatened their status….What about following Jesus threatens your “status”?…..Jesus was not about “half measures”…Are we all in?…Jesus was all in!
There are many “things” that we value…..What people think of us?……Our status…Our reputation……Would you give it all up for Christ?…Not some of it - But all of it……This is exactly what Jesus’s 12 friends did…They left everything to follow him……Today as Catholic's the same invitation is put before us…..We either take up our cross and follow the God-man or we do not…..When we lay down our life before the Lord, God will always honor our sacrifice….Its in the “space of sacrifice” where we meet the Lord face to face
There is no such thing as “cheap grace”
Think for a moment when Jesus was tempted in the desert by the devil….He was offered the entire world…What if you were offered the entire world and everything in it…Would you take it?……In our case we are not even offered a fraction of the world…Yet we are so quick to “trade that fraction in” for temporary pleasure….The cold hard reality is if we rely on our own strengthen and gifts…We will NEVER do what Christ asks of us…This is the mistake of far too many….They trust in themselves far too much......The teachers of the law in Jesus time were presented with a tremendous opportunity…And they “traded it in” for temporary status…..We too are presented with the same opportunity….How will we respond?…And if we do choose to respond to Christ's invitation we will soon realize just how weak we are….Because of that…We need to cling to daily prayer, weekly fasting and the Sacraments…I repeat this “formula” often because without it, we will not carry our cross
“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”
Jesus today when confronted by the teachers of the law “traded in his status” to help a poor man with a withered hand on the Sabbath….St Luke tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees when they saw what Jesus did…..”Became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus”……Its so easy to “point a finger” at the scribes and the Pharisees and tell our self we would not have done the same thing…St Peter took that position when he claimed he would never deny Christ…We all know how that turned out for St Peter when his hour of testing came…."Cock a Doodle Doo”……If we rely of our own strengthen and gifts, we won’t “cross the finish line”…..Because the cross stands before us always…The cross is real…And the cross is the only “ticket” to eternal life
What about following Jesus threatens your “status”?……..“The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”…Don’t think so? - Ask St Peter - "Cock a Doodle Doo”!
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