The Catholic Calendar for Friday, May 20, 2005
Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
St. Bernardine of Siena, priest
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Sirach 6:5-17
Psalm 119:12, 16, 18, 27, 34, 35
Mark 10:1-12
A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:
"Because of the hardness of your hearts. . ."
The law granting Moses divorce, was done not because divorce was right, good, or proper, but because of the hardness of heart that came from a people who looked to their own good first and God only second or third. Often today some of the things we charge ourselves with, result not from love of God but from ourselves, from our own hardness of heart, often toward ourselves.
Some of us tend to be overly scrupulous in very small matters thinking that if a complete Rosary cannot be prayed all at once in the proper manner with all the bells and whistles, then perhaps it should not be prayed. And yet how much do we miss by not seizing a brief opportunity to offer praise to God and invoke the aid of the Blessed Virgin.
Jesus came to do away with hardness of heart, to define the law so that it became a structure of freedom -- not oppression. The Law is not a set of rules or a stick to smack people upside the head with, it is a law of love. It is God's word to us on how we might live well. It's chief proponent and example is Jesus Himself, temperate in all things EXCEPT the love of God. Our love of God should be intemperate, overwhelming, and life-defining. When it is so, all of the law will be fulfilled in listening to Him day by day.
So, do not cleave to a law that cannot redeem but only burdens. Accept instead the yoke of Christ which frees you to love God as you are.
- JuandelaCruz
(http://floscarmeli.stblogs.org/)
____________________
These meditations are also available by email subscription
©1986-2005 The Way, The Truth, The Life
posted by joachim at 4:23 AM