The Catholic Calendar for Friday, November 7, 2003
Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Romans 15:14-21
Psalm 98:1-4
Luke 16:1-8

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

Have you ever read Holy Scripture and didn't have a clue about what was being said? Sometimes it isn't that the core message is so difficult to understand, or the lesson so far removed from our experience or understanding of human nature, but that our current state of mind and preoccupations render us incapable at the moment to assimilate a meaningful message.

Today's Gospel presents just such a challenge to me. I'm too tired, too consumed by other things to even have the desire, much less the energy and intellect to process a cogent thought.

It is in times like this that we come to realize how little we can depend on our own attributes and how completely dependent we are on God's mercy and grace to illumine and direct us. These are the moments when God can really be God - when we let go and say, 'Lord, I can do no more.' In truth we haven't done anything that God's grace hasn't allowed us the choice and the gifts to accomplish.

Like Jesus on the Cross we must surrender, not just in moments of obvious weakness, but always, even when we seem strong and in control. 'Father - it is finished - into Your hands I commend my Spirit'.

That doesn't mean we give up and stop trying. Quite the contrary, it means that we seek always and in every way, the opportunity and the grace to accomplish all God will's for us.

Let us, for now, leave behind all need to know and understand,
and instead just love - just love.

- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds (drn3rd at hotmail dot com)

____________________

These meditations are also available by email subscription
©1986-2003 The Way, The Truth, The Life

posted by joachim at 5:18 AM