SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR
MONDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:31-35) Seeds were meant not to stay seeds but to blossom into flowers and plants. Seeds always look to the future, of what they can be, and what they will become. They contain within themselves the power to be something else. In becoming what they are meant to be they give joy to others.
The Kingdom of God within us is similar. The first movement of faith, the first time we say “I believe,” the moment when we look to God and try to follow His law as our response, we have the seed of the Kingdom. It is supposed to grow into the background of our lives, that is the tree which gives shade to all with whom it comes into contact.
TUESDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:35-43) The Kingdom of God is not yet complete within us or within the world. The promise has yet to reach its fullness. Evil is still present. All we have to do is pick up the daily newspapers, or look within ourselves to see the proof that all is not really the way it should be. There must be something beyond what our daily experiences tell us. The imperfection with which we come into contact must be yearning for completion. If this were not so, we would be doomed to a fatalism and to a life without hope. But the Lord does tell us that someday, we call it the end of the world, the evil will be uprooted and God’s dream will be complete.
WEDNESDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:44-46) The field is our hearts; the treasure is the kingdom. The man who sells everything, that is also ourselves. Treasures can be buried, hidden under a lot of the things which we think are so important. We become quite satisfied with the trinkets of life; they dazzle and captivate. The treasure is still hidden. Maybe the trinkets aren’t so important? Maybe we have to let go of their attractiveness to dig deeper and come to the treasure. When we find the treasure, God, we will realize where all the brilliance of the trinkets came from.
THURSDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:47-53) A simple lesson: hold onto both the old and the new. The Old Testament and the New Testament both are the story of God with His people. If we know the Old, we will get a deeper insight into the New. When we look at the Old in the light of the New, we see the promise which has been completed in the Lord. The Old introduces us to the God of Love; the New sees the love of God enfleshed in the Lord. To know the Old deepens our longing fulfilled in the Lord. We must hold onto both.
FRIDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:54-58) Blindness is so terrible. We see that in today’s Gospel. They saw, but they really did not see. Faith “sight” takes us beyond simply the material. They were caught in the material. Faith “sight” penetrates into the meaning of things. It opens up the door to the reality which God wants us to see. This passage reminds us that we are called to be the “see-ers,” . This is why St. Paul equates faith with sight.
SATURDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.14:1-12) Poor Herod. He is a man so torn. When they asked for the head of the Baptist, he was distressed. He really did not want to do it. But he was afraid: afraid of loosing face, afraid of being embarrassed he chose to do that which was wrong. Fear can be so crippling. It makes us do what we do not want to do, and not do what we should do. Herod’s fear was disordered. We are called to be people of “righteous fear”: to be afraid of the right things- sin, of hurting people, of not being all we should be. Herod was so imprisoned by the lower fear that the higher fear did not take hold.
MONDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:31-35) Seeds were meant not to stay seeds but to blossom into flowers and plants. Seeds always look to the future, of what they can be, and what they will become. They contain within themselves the power to be something else. In becoming what they are meant to be they give joy to others.
The Kingdom of God within us is similar. The first movement of faith, the first time we say “I believe,” the moment when we look to God and try to follow His law as our response, we have the seed of the Kingdom. It is supposed to grow into the background of our lives, that is the tree which gives shade to all with whom it comes into contact.TUESDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:35-43) The Kingdom of God is not yet complete within us or within the world. The promise has yet to reach its fullness. Evil is still present. All we have to do is pick up the daily newspapers, or look within ourselves to see the proof that all is not really the way it should be. There must be something beyond what our daily experiences tell us. The imperfection with which we come into contact must be yearning for completion. If this were not so, we would be doomed to a fatalism and to a life without hope. But the Lord does tell us that someday, we call it the end of the world, the evil will be uprooted and God’s dream will be complete.
WEDNESDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:44-46) The field is our hearts; the treasure is the kingdom. The man who sells everything, that is also ourselves. Treasures can be buried, hidden under a lot of the things which we think are so important. We become quite satisfied with the trinkets of life; they dazzle and captivate. The treasure is still hidden. Maybe the trinkets aren’t so important? Maybe we have to let go of their attractiveness to dig deeper and come to the treasure. When we find the treasure, God, we will realize where all the brilliance of the trinkets came from.
THURSDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:47-53) A simple lesson: hold onto both the old and the new. The Old Testament and the New Testament both are the story of God with His people. If we know the Old, we will get a deeper insight into the New. When we look at the Old in the light of the New, we see the promise which has been completed in the Lord. The Old introduces us to the God of Love; the New sees the love of God enfleshed in the Lord. To know the Old deepens our longing fulfilled in the Lord. We must hold onto both.
FRIDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.13:54-58) Blindness is so terrible. We see that in today’s Gospel. They saw, but they really did not see. Faith “sight” takes us beyond simply the material. They were caught in the material. Faith “sight” penetrates into the meaning of things. It opens up the door to the reality which God wants us to see. This passage reminds us that we are called to be the “see-ers,” . This is why St. Paul equates faith with sight.
SATURDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR (Matt.14:1-12) Poor Herod. He is a man so torn. When they asked for the head of the Baptist, he was distressed. He really did not want to do it. But he was afraid: afraid of loosing face, afraid of being embarrassed he chose to do that which was wrong. Fear can be so crippling. It makes us do what we do not want to do, and not do what we should do. Herod’s fear was disordered. We are called to be people of “righteous fear”: to be afraid of the right things- sin, of hurting people, of not being all we should be. Herod was so imprisoned by the lower fear that the higher fear did not take hold.
No comments:
Post a Comment