The Catholic Calendar for Friday, October 21, 2005
Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Romans 7:18-25
Psalm 119:66, 68, 76-77, 93-94
Luke 12:54-59

A reflection on today's Sacred Scripture:

"Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?"

Sometimes we do not see clearly--our judgment is so clouded and so obscured by our worries and desires of the moment that we cannot see what is right before our eyes. This is most particularly true when we are looking at God's law. It is perfectly clear what He desires from us, but those desires are at odds with what we see as immediately good for us.

True judgment involves the whole person mentally--memory, intellect, and will. Memory assists us in recognizing the pattern or the action from the past. Intellect helps us discern what is the proper course of action. The will must be invoked to act on the proper course of action.

Of course all three of these are covered by grace. By ourselves we can do no good--it is only with God's assistance that we can discern and act upon the proper way. God has clearly marked out the path for us and gives us the grace for the strength to follow it. We must learn to reorder our faculties to desire what God desires for us and not to desire that God should change His express will.

If we rely upon the judgments of those around us (and too often we have in the past) we are led down the societal path of least resistance and we participate in the culture of death. When we know and do God's will we in some small part spare the world some of the suffering it would otherwise endure. More than that, through grace we teach the world by our lives and actions what is the proper direction for all to follow.

- JuandelaCruz
(http://floscarmeli.stblogs.org/)