Wednesday - December 13, 2017
You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride which is your greatest enemy – the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud.
-St. Vincent de Paul
TODAY'S READINGS
December 13, 2017
Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
Lectionary: 183
Reading 1IS 40:25-31
To whom can you liken me as an equal?
says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these things:
He leads out their army and numbers them,
calling them all by name.
By his great might and the strength of his power
not one of them is missing!
Why, O Jacob, do you say,
and declare, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles' wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these things:
He leads out their army and numbers them,
calling them all by name.
By his great might and the strength of his power
not one of them is missing!
Why, O Jacob, do you say,
and declare, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God"?
Do you not know
or have you not heard?
The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
Though young men faint and grow weary,
and youths stagger and fall,
They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength,
they will soar as with eagles' wings;
They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint.
Responsorial PsalmPS 103:1-2, 3-4, 8 AND 10
R. (1) O bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. O bless the Lord, my soul!
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Behold, the Lord comes to save his people;
blessed are those prepared to meet him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Behold, the Lord comes to save his people;
blessed are those prepared to meet him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 11:28-30
Jesus said to the crowds:"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
******************************
Living in the Light to share the Light
To give birth to Christ and brighten the world around us with his light, we must remain in the light of Christ.
Basking in the light of Christ should be very restful. But it doesn't always seem so, right? Not when it's too bright! When Jesus reveals to us a sin that we've been committing, our first instinct is to slam our eyelids shut. Then we either run away and hide, or we wrestle and struggle and squirm in his arms.
It's hard to get away from the light of truth. Everyone tries, but no one succeeds. Oh, for a while, we might mask the purity of the light of truth with colors of our own choosing, but when we really, sincerely want to become more like Christ, we let him transfigure our human nature into his divine glow. And when we truly trust him, we readily accept the changes.
The light of Christ is restful only when we let go of our desire to interpret the truth according to what's most convenient for us and what's easiest for us to believe. Sometimes we misunderstand the value of a truth -- for example, a teaching of the Church that we don't like because it's inconvenient or because it doesn't make sense to us (such as the ban against artificial contraception or why marriage is meant to be a Sacrament between one man and one woman) -- and so we reject the teaching as if it's a dark spot on the Church's wall. But rejecting it prevents us from sharing the light of Christ with others.
We become distributors of darkness until we stop resisting what God is doing in the light. We need to relax and allow his light to consume us, trusting that we're safe in this transformation process because of God's goodness. Then, as described in today's Gospel reading, we're strengthened by yoking ourselves to Jesus. To be yoked to Jesus means teaming up with him to love as he loves, to plow what he plows, and to go where he goes.
Our burdens grow lighter as Jesus helps us pull the load. The world around us grows brighter as he takes us in a different direction than where we were headed under the weight of anger and resistance and the illusion that life must be easy to be good.
When we relax in the light of Christ, we begin to understand how he's meek and humble of heart. To be meek means to be strong in the truth without forcing it upon anyone. Jesus knows how to create an environment in which others actually want to find out why we believe what we believe. If we don't resist what he's doing by trying to tug him in the wrong direction, his yoke is easy.
In this life of being united to Jesus, he helps us work harder. He exercises us while patiently waiting for us to build up our strength so that we can go farther in distributing his light.
It reminds me of the colorful array of Christmas lights on a house when they work together to form a constellation that redefines old shapes while breaking the darkness. Yoking ourselves to Jesus is like this, redefining old shapes and patterns in our lives according to the light of truth as we rest in the strength of Christ's love and guidance.
And this is how we become more effective at birthing Jesus more fully into the world.
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God Bless You.....
The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!
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