The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, November 18, 2004
Thursday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, virgin

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Revelation 5:1-10
Psalm 149:1-6,9
Luke 19:41-44

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"If this day you only knew what makes for peace"

Jesus came to establish God's kingdom, as we approach the feast of Christ the King, we hear more about the kingdom and Christ's reign in it. But has Jesus established His kingdom in our hearts?

The Kingdom has no substance except the lives we lead, our prayers, and the actions of the day. God cannot be expressed to others in any other way besides direct divine intervention, which the Good Lord chooses to limit for His own reasons.

Today let us open our eyes and look at what makes for peace--love, particularly deep and abiding love of our Lord and Savior. This love does not sit idle in our hearts but pushes us and molds us to make us better citizens of the kingdom. When we love with God's love, we come to know what makes for peace--not the pursuit of our own isolated agendas, but a deep and abiding love that flows out in actions all around us. We mediate the kingdom of God here on Earth. We make it real. If we do not know what makes for peace, how can we bring it to others?

Do not let the tears that Jesus wept be for us, embrace his Kingdom, and make it real for countless people who, to quote God's words for the end of the book of Jonah, "Do not know their right hand from their left." Let us be a people of God's peace and a manifest sign of His love. Let us make the kingdom real on Earth.

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

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posted by joachim at 7:15 AM