The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, June 27, 2004
   The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Scripture from Sunday's Liturgy of the Word:
   1 Kings 19:16, 19-21
   Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
   Galatians 5:1, 13-18
   Luke 9:51-62

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

In today's readings we get an idea of what discipleship requires - an unequivocal decision to follow Jesus. How often have we said, "Yes" to Christ's call only to lapse into our own self-centeredness, turning away from God's will to follow our own instead? It seems to be the revolving door of our lives to be filled with fervor and determination one moment and to slump into lukewarm mediocrity the next.

If it wasn't for God's mercy, we'd certainly have reason to despair. Yet, even the story of Elisha reminds us that when we discover we've turned away, but repent and start out anew, God is there waiting and ready to accept us back again--perhaps even with a "double portion" of His goodness

We may spend our whole lives in some stage of this cyclic ebb and flow of devotion. But the point is we must be determined to keep Gods' grace operational in our lives by frequent reception of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist, by time for daily quiet prayer, by uplifting spiritual reading and good practices that help us develop habits of responsiveness to the needs of others.

Our fallen nature is just that -- fallen! If we expect to "stay" redeemed we must constantly drop the yokes that bind us in order to answer again and again the never-ending relentless call of Jesus to "Come, follow Me."

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



posted by joachim at 4:03 AM