Catholic Calendar for Friday, February 4, 2005
Friday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Hebrews 13:15-17,20-21
Psalm 23:1-6
Mark 6:30-34

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"For you also are in the body. . ." (Hebrews 13:3)

This was echoed in the seventeenth Century by John Donne who cautioned us, "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." (Devotions upon Emergent Occasions XVII). But this is often taken out of context. The whole of the devotion focuses on the fact that no man is an island, but every person is part of the body.

We are all part of the body of Christ, therefore we are one body in Him. Does it make sense for the hand to hate the foot, or the stomach to hate the brain? As part of one body, hatred and anger simply are not options to us. We are one body--as such we must operate as one body despite the fact that a recalcitrant knee gives pain to the whole. We do not simply remove the knee, we seek to make it better.

When we deal with others, we should always keep in mind that they are part of us. When we visit the prisons, whether or not the person is justly or unjustly imprisoned, we should recall that we too are there. Wherever there is part of the body of Christ, we are there. And so we should care for one another as we care for ourselves. When something goes wrong with one part of us physically, we visit the doctor. So too, when something goes wrong with part of the Body of Christ, we need to take ourselves to the Divine Doctor, who heals all ill and ask Him to touch and heal the body.

As we hear about illness in the Body of Christ, let us seek not to repudiate, but to take the body to the Lord in prayer. Let us be thankful that we have been given the charge to care for one another. God has incorporated (literally--put into a body) all of us into a body that has Christ as its head. When we are tempted to anger or tempted to lash out, let us recall that we "also are part of the body."

- JuandelaCruz
(sriddle415 at yahoo dot com)

____________________

These meditations are also available by email subscription
©1986-2005 The Way, The Truth, The Life

posted by joachim at 5:11 AM