Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Jeremiah 18:18-20_ & Matthew 20:17-28
God’s ways are fueled by truth and love, or mercy, not by convenience or self-indulgence. It was not convenient for Jeremiah to speak of the mercy of repentance and God’s forgiveness; he was stoned more than he was praised throughout his long life as a prophet. Neither did Jesus bow to the convenience of choosing the half-truths of the religious conventions of his day, but instead chose to become the Mercy of God through his passion, death and resurrection. The people who lived in both eras and chose the convenience of the priests, the elders and the ‘prophets’ of the status quo, over God’s ways of repentance and forgiveness, closed their hearts to Jeremiah’s message of mercy and put mercy to death by crucifying Jesus, and so restrained themselves from God’s grace. Am I choosing convenient religious or societal trends and activities, or am I embracing the mercy of God and extending it to others? Christ Jesus, help me choose not what is convenient, but what is merciful. My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. (Psalm 31:14) Fasting really makes sense if it chips away at our security and, as a consequence, benefits someone else. Pope Francis Soli gloriam dei .
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AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
March 2024
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