Jesus said to his Apostles: "Do not
think that I have come to bring peace upon the
earth. I have come to bring not peace but the
sword. For I have come to set a man ´against
his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law; and one´s enemies will be those of
his household.´ Whoever loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and
whoever does not take up his cross and follow after
me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life
will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me, and
whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever
receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive
a prophet´s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because
he is righteous will receive a righteous man´s reward. And
whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one
of these little ones to drink because he is a
disciple-- amen, I say to you, he will surely not
lose his reward." When Jesus finished giving these commands to
his twelve disciples, he went away from that place to
teach and to preach in their towns.
Introductory Prayer: Almighty and ever-living God, I seek new
strength from the courage of Christ our shepherd. I believe
in you, I hope in you, and I seek to
love you with all my heart, all my soul, all
my mind, and all my strength. I want to be
led one day to join the saints in heaven, where
your Son Jesus Christ lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
Petition: Jesus, I want to love as
you have loved me.
1. Not
Peace but the Sword: Complacency can be defined as "self-satisfaction
accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies". This is
a false peace, even a harmful peace. It is a
self-satisfied peace that lulls us to sleep and can result
in the loss of those things that are truly most
valuable in life: God, faith, family, etc.... Jesus comes to
interrupt that false peace by upending the tables of our
lives (cf. John 2:15) in an effort to awaken us
to the dangers that our false peace has blinded us
to. As he drove out the sheep and oxen from
the temple, so, too, he will use circumstances, trials and
difficulties as his "sword" to drive out from our lives
whatever is opposed to God´s goodness and our own dignity.
2. Nothing Before God: “Whoever loves
father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me”: with this phrase we start getting an inkling of
the type of sword our Lord is wielding. He is
giving us a criterion that starts from heaven downward because
he is trying to lift us from the earth upward.
What natural relationship is closer than the one between a
parent and child, especially a mother and child? Yet even
this bond must be subordinate to the love we have
for God. Why? Well, no creature, not even our parents,
can bring us to the fullness of life and happiness
that comes only from God. God wants us to love
him, not because he needs our love but because we
need him. He is objective reality, and we must always
move from the subjective to the objective if we are
to possess the truth. Jesus invites us to adapt our
standards from the merely natural and passing to the supernatural
and everlasting.
3. Love of God
Is Inclusive Not Exclusive: Giving a cup of water to
one of the least of our brothers and sisters will
not go unrewarded, and therefore, unnoticed. In this way, Jesus
shows that he is not calling us to a love
of God that excludes others. The standard of placing God
first does not exclude love for mother or father, sister
or brother. Once we love God as he deserves, we
will learn to love others as they truly deserve. In
fact, we merit the vision of the God we cannot
see by loving the neighbor we do see.
Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, following you demands
my all, and at times it seems that I do
not have the strength to give what you ask. Help
me to stay close to you in prayer and in
the sacraments so as to have the grace to live
the standard of love and generosity that you ask. Mother
Most Pure, make my heart only for Jesus.
Resolution: Today I will make three acts
of self-denial and offer them for someone in need of
prayers.
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