Tuesday.blog[Please note: Because I’ll be away tomorrow morning, I’m posting this meditation one day in advance. Everything back to normal on Thursday, God willing. --joachim]
The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, March 3, 2004
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
St. Katharine Drexel, virgin, religious, founder
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Jonah 3:1-10
Psalm 51:3-4,12-13,18-19
Luke 11:29-32
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture. . . .
“For at the preaching of Jonah they reformed,
but you have a greater than Jonah here.” (Luke 11:32)
Today’s readings echo Ash Wednesday’s message, the fragility of life and the importance of our abiding in God’s will and our reflecting His love and goodness to the world. Jonah was at first a reluctant messenger and later, mean-spirited, regretful of the success of his mission -- saving Nineveh from destruction by calling them to repentance of their sins. Selfishly it did not occur to Jonah that he should extend to others the same mercy God had shown him, freeing him from entombment in a whale.
Psalm 24 is the heartfelt cry of a sinner realizing his spiritual peril and begging our merciful God for cleansing and forgiveness. He sees that the only sacrifice acceptable to God is a “humble and contrite spirit,” one truly sorrowful for having hurt both God and man. The psalmist declares his need of a loving communion with God, seeking His Holy Spirit to teach, guide and strengthen him in life’s temptations and problems.
Jesus alludes to Jonah and compares Israel’s condition to Nineveh’s, but his age refuses to see its sin. His people resisted change, preferred to remain blind rather than accept His light, the love and truth that He, their Messiah, had shown upon them to lead them out of their entombment in sin. Will our present, highly dangerous age choose to be a Nineveh or a Jerusalem?
O Merciful God,
make us to seek Your light,
that we may repent of our sin,
resolve to live in Your truth and love
and avoid self-destruction
through willful blindness. Amen.
- Marie Bocko, ocds
(mlbocko at borg dot com)
The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 34:4-7,16-19
Matthew 6:7-15
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
“In prayer do not babble like the pagans. . . .”
During this Lenten season we may endeavor to pray more regularly and more fervently. We may add more rosaries onto our daily prayer routine or decide to take up another form of prayer. This is all good. Sometimes though, we need to be careful that our focus is not just on the achievement or completion of our daily prayer tasks, for in this there is no gift in itself. We need to remember that the real gift of prayer is that it keeps us centered on the present moment, where God is ALWAYS present. It takes us out of the mindless chatter of our mind, keeping us truly alert and reflective, opening our hearts to the abundance of love that God wishes to bestow on us.
- Cliodhna Doyle
(clia at cliadoyle dot com)
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