Thursday.blog
The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, May 27, 2004
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
St. Agustine of Canterbury, bishop
Scripture from Wednesday’s Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Psalm 16:1-2,5,7-11
John 17:20-26
A reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture:
I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. . .
Jesus wasn’t praying in time when He spoke these words. He was praying in the throneroom of the Almighty. The Apostles were charged with the grace of being able to overhear this intimate conversation between Father and Son, but they didn’t really know what it meant.
We do. We have seen the sending of the Holy Spirit; we have the advantages of 2,000 years of study and interpretation. Jesus was praying for our unity with one another. “May they be one as I am one with the Father.”
St. Thomas Aquinas taught an extremely important truth about God. God is simple. That is, God has one nature that does not and cannot contradict itself. More importantly, something that is simple cannot abide the presence of what is not. The simple does not like the dual-spirited. Remember when Jesus said, “You cannot serve two masters because you will love one and hate the other?” This is dual-spirited. God is only love. Not love and vengeance, not love and anything. Simply and wholly love; Father, Son, and Spirit, are one nature of Divine Love.
We are to live that divine nature. We are to become simple, single spirited, single focused. We are not to quibble and fight over things that do not really matter. But we must uphold the essential truths of the faith in the face of the world, and we must do so as one voice, one people, one nature, one Body of Christ serving the world.
And to do this we must start by loving God as He loves Himself and as He loves us. This is the only way to have one nature. This is the only way to become simple, and it is the only way to truly serve His people in earthly exile. Love God with all that you are and all that you have. Everything else follows from that. Love God.
- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)
____________________
These meditations are also available by email subscription
©1986-2004 The Way, The Truth, The Life
20040527