From the Word of the Day

        

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, ‘the coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’  For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.

                                                                            (Luke 17: 20-25)                                          

 How should we live this Word

 To the Pharisees’ desire to know ‘when’, Jesus juxtaposes the need to understand ‘how’ God’s Kingdom comes.  He clarifies that it does not come in a way that draws attention.  Above all, before the day of the Son of Man comes in His glorious at the end of time, ‘first He must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation’. 

 We realize that Jesus intends to deflate the false expectations of the Hebrews, especially of those adept at deciphering an apocalyptic-pharisaical environment.  They were obsessed with figuring out the times of the final events and were mistakenly projected toward a spectacular manifestation of God’s Kingdom.  The ‘itch’ to know ‘when’ has crossed the centuries.  Even today, many people run after ‘visions and ‘prophesies’ 

 How necessary it is to concentrate our attention on ‘how’ the Reign of God comes.  Jesus alerts us that it comes very discretely, in the routine, silently, mildly.  What’s more, in its inceptive phase, it is already in our midst.  It is in our faithful daily listening to the Word of God that becomes enfleshed in us.  It is in our life that continually seeks to rise, passing through the mystery of the Cross.  Jesus warns us of this Mystery, allowing us to perceive how suffering and dying are not haphazard incidents, but rather the mysterious opportunity that God offers us for our redemption.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will seek to penetrate more deeply the meaning of ‘how’ God’s Kingdom comes within me and around me.  I will invoke the Holy Spirit so that I may be made attentive and vigilant as I wait for the Lord each day.

 Lord, I do not ask when You will come but I ask You to help me to wait for Your coming as I live my daily life with hope.

 The voice of Sr. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Carmelite and Mystic

 I feel that the Master draws near.  He speaks to me only of eternity, of love, in tones that are ever graver, ever more serious.  I want to live every minute intensely!

From the Word of the Day

        

Hear, O Kings, and understand; learn, you magistrates of the earth’s expanse!  Authority was given you by the Lord and sovereignty by the Most High.  Desire therefore my words; long for them and you shall be instructed.

                                                                                              (Wisdom 6: 1-11)                                         

 How should we live this Word

 “Hear, O Kings, and understand, learn.”  Today, the Lord’s words take on an urgent rhythm.  They are addressed to those who are on ‘high’ so that they may ‘desire and long’ for His Words, to receive instruction and govern according to His will, humbly allowing themselves to be taught by divine wisdom. 

 God says to the great ones of the earth and to each of us as well who have responsibility over others, ‘Authority was given you by the Lord’.  It is not a right to be exercised arbitrarily, domineeringly.  Neither is it power to be managed with pride, glorifying oneself.  It is a gift and a mission.  As such, it demands gratuitous acceptance and honest rectitude.  There is no escape for those who arrogantly abuse their role.  The sacred author stresses this, showing that God is impartial in judging and is not influenced by the dignity of the powerful; ‘a stern judgment’ awaits those who oppress others.

 Our duty and response of love must be to listen docilely to the Word each day.  From there we can draw on the wisdom that enables us to exercise authentic love, the basis of all authority, far from domination and manipulation of others.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will listen with heart and mind to Wisdom in the certainty that those who love her ‘will contemplate her without difficulty’ because Wisdom ‘let’s herself be found by those who seek her’.  Even more, she comes to those who desire her, meeting them ‘as a mother’ (Quo. 15, 2).

 Lord, grant that I may seek Wisdom.  Grant that Your words may inflame my heart so that my every gesture may be a delicate expression of welcoming love.

 The voice of St. Anthony, Desert Father

 Oh, how we run like fools, ignoring the first of all virtues, humility, as the first of all passions is gluttony and concupiscence for the things of life.

 

From the Word of the Day

        

When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’

                                                                                              (Luke 17: 7-10)                                           

 How should we live this Word

 Here is another of those Gospel arrows that we may find disconcerting.  Why?  Hasn’t Jesus just said that the ‘children of darkness’ are more adept in doing evil than the ‘children of the light’ in doing good?  Is He diminishing the value of using all of one’s qualities, capacities, alacrity, creativity, gifts received from God? 

 Not at all; it is really the opposite.  All is to be joyfully used for God’s Kingdom and for the growth of a civilization of love within us and around of us.  We have no cause to demand rights, compensations, graces from God.  Working for the Kingdom is not a gift that we give to God, but simply using that which He has given us.  We are debtors for everything and therefore cannot boast of anything or demand anything.  By calling us ‘useless servants’, Jesus is not trying to humiliate us but rather to awaken in us the awareness that leads to true joy.  It is the awareness that we receive all from God, gift upon gift, at every moment. 

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will examine myself in God’s presence.  Am I one of those who never find interior contentment because I am always searching for recognition, recompense, and gratitude from God and from others?  I will ask the Holy Spirit to give me the awareness that if I have received all as gift, I can demand nothing.

 Lord, rid my heart of the pretense that I merit something.  Thus joy will spring up in me and around me.

 The voice of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 I do not think I have any special qualities.  I do not expect anything for the work that I do.  It is His work.  I am like a small pencil in His hands, nothing more.  He thinks.  He writes.  The pencil has nothing to do with this.  The pencil only needs to let itself be used.

 

From the Word of the Day

        

Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.

                                                                                              (John 2: 13-22)                                           

How should we live this Word

 Jesus drove the merchants from the temple.  For the people of Israel, the temple was the place of God’s presence where they could encounter Him and where they solemnly expressed public cult.  The pious Israelite was obliged to make a yearly pilgrimage there.  Jesus remained faithful to this practice along with His holy parents.  An affective tie binds the faithful Jew to this place, a tie that was not unknown to Jesus.  But precisely with Jesus, something new is happening.  Both the presence of God in the midst of His people and the cult itself are brought to completion.  They therefore take on new connotations.  This is the profound meaning of the Gospel episode offered by today’s liturgy for the feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.  It is the Cathedral of the Church of Rome, built by Constantine at the time of Sylvester I (314-335).  It is esteemed as the mother Church of the entire world.

 From the first part of the passage we see that Jesus is not contesting the temple but rather the abuses associated with its liturgical practices.  Some profit for their own interests through the sale of animals for the offerings.  Maybe I am one of these temple merchants.  Perhaps I present myself before God with merits to boast of, with gifts to give, with assets and debits.  Yet, God is not earned, calculated, or managed.

 Yes, Jesus loved the temple of Jerusalem very much.  He admired it.  He became indignant with the merchants.  He cried over its imminent destruction.  But He also strongly challenged it.  ‘Neither in Samaria nor in Jerusalem will the Father be adored, but in spirit and in truth’.  ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.  But He was speaking about the temple of His Body’. 

 Jesus wants us to see the place where God’s presence is strongest.  It is not in stones but rather in the living perimeters of a body of flesh.  God’s full revelation is Jesus’ humanity, not His preaching, not His dwelling.  Our faith passes through Jesus’ humanity.  There is where we see the welcoming, loving, forgiving face of the Father.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will ask the Holy Spirit to help me turn toward the East, toward Jesus because only He is the Way that leads to the House of the Trinity.

Holy Spirit, effusion of love between the Father and the Son, open my eyes that they may contemplate the Face of Jesus in every portion of humanity that reaches out its hand to me.

 The voice of Bishop Riboldi

 It is beautiful to say to the Church today, ‘I love you as my home’.  But it is also correct to exhort the Church to avoid having doors that are sealed shut but rather to be, as John XXIII joyfully exhorted, ‘the fountain placed at the center of the plaza where everyone, really everyone who thirsts, can drink without distinction.

From the Word of the Day

         I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar and a little oil in my jug.  Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks, to go in and prepare something for myself and my son; when we have eaten it, we shall die.

(1 Kings 17: 10-16)           

 How should we live this Word

 The protagonist of this episode is a poor widow from whom Elijah had asked a piece of bread.  The woman’s response reveals a situation that is not only precarious, but desperate.  Her few resources have been exhausted and she is ready to die with her son.  She has nothing left, and yet in her extreme misery she finds the courage to share.  She is like the widow of the Gospel who drew Jesus’ admiration because ‘she gave all that she had to live on’. 

 One of these two women becomes an instrument of salvation and the other, a teacher of life.  God truly ‘chooses the things that are not to confound those that are’.  The humble, the little, the least, if they trust God and entrust themselves to Him without self interest but in pure gratuity, become chosen instruments in God’s hands so that His plan of love may progress in history.

 This is how it was for the ‘poor man of Assisi’, the humble Francis and for the orphan of Becchi who became Don Bosco, the ‘father of orphans’.  This continues even today in a society in which the few vaunt their riches in the face of the many indigent.  We have not yet forgotten the little woman wrapped in a sari, Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  Poor among the poor, she was able to make her uncomfortable appeal ring out in the conclaves of the rich and powerful.  Her very funeral was transformed into the most eloquent manifestation that the ‘humble will be exalted’.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will learn from the little and humble ones who cross my path, those whom I sometimes consider debtors.  It is to them that I owe the meaning of my life if I let them question me.

 I thank You Lord for the poor who stretch out their hand on the side of the road and discomfort me because I have too much in my closets and in my refrigerator.  Help me to give more than quick alms.  Allow their gaze to penetrate me like a sword, reminding me that under those rags are my sister and brother.

 The voice of St. Ambrose, Church Doctor

 When you give to the poor, you have gained something for yourself.  When you reduce your capital, your profit increases.  The bread you give to the poor nourishes you.  Those who feel compassion for the needy, cultivate themselves with the fruits of their very humanity.

From the Word of the Day

        

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.          

    (Luke 16: 10)     

 How should we live this Word

This passage immediately follows the parable of the unfaithful steward.  The goods demanded of the administrator by the master are not his and thus are deemed as of little account.  The management of these goods represents a gym in which to train for the correct way to possess true riches, the important things.  These are the treasures that really count and cannot be taken away because they are the unchangeable goods of eternal life.

 We cannot use them with levity or for our own advantage without keeping in mind the will of the One who conferred the administration on us and desires their equal distribution for the good of all.  To do otherwise means risking the ‘capital’ that makes us co-heirs in the measure that we assume the Son’s attitudes.  The true administrator is the one most conformed to Christ Jesus who ‘though being God, did not deem it a privilege to be like God, but emptied Himself taking the condition of a servant, becoming similar to humans’ (Phil. 2: 6-7). 

 What we receive from God in material goods or personal abilities, cannot ever be considered an exclusive possession.  We must keep in mind the intention of the One who gives them and not use them for egoistic gratification.  They are to be put at the service of our brothers and sisters.  There is the temptation to hide behind the common mentality of ‘they are of little importance’ and ‘what’s wrong with this…everybody does it’.

 We cannot improvise fidelity in important matters.  We cannot be faithful intermittently!  Either we adhere to God with our entire being or our protestations of love are only words, devoid of meaning, inarticulate sounds.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will examine the attitudes that I have in the administration of my material and spiritual goods.  I will ask the Lord to help me use them rightly.

 Lord, make me aware of my position as an administrator of goods that are Yours and that I must manage for the good of everyone so that Your face as Provident Father may be revealed to all.

 The voice of St. Augustine, Church Doctor

 A just administration of temporal goods in keeping with duty…procures the merit to obtain eternal goods as long as they do not possess us as we possess them…let go of concern for passing things.  Seek the enduring and eternal goods.  Let us raise ourselves above our temporal riches.

 

From the Word of the Day

         I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

(Romans 15: 14-21)          

 

How should we live this Word

 Paul speaks of his apostolic mission, comparing it to a cultural function.  In effect, the Church from the time of ancient Israel is a people consecrated to the worship of God.  Therefore, proclaiming the Gospel is not transmitting a moral doctrine, limited to indicating ethical behavior in respect to norms.  Rather, it is enabling people to render thanks to God, celebrating the liturgy of life. 

 Obviously, this necessitates an ever more intimate and deep knowledge of the One whose praise is celebrated.  It means the assumption of a style of life that is marked by self oblation.  In delineating a program of life for believers, Paul himself begins with the exhortation to offer oneself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  He states that this is ‘your spiritual worship’ (12. 1).  Only after he has clarified the mode of this worship, does he go into practical details: do not conform yourselves to the mentality of these times, ready yourself to discern God’s will, be benevolent toward all…

 This does not mean to live justly, understood simply as conformity to a norm or the goal of Christian living.  It means to become a pleasing offering to God after Jesus’ example.  ‘Entering into the world, You were not pleased with sacrifices and offerings.  Rather you have prepared a body for me…then I said, Behold I come to do Your will O God’ (Hebrews 10: 5-7).

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will reflect on my Baptismal commitment to announce the Gospel so that God’s praise may resound through all the earth.

 Lord, grant that I may be a living praise and thanksgiving that embraces every instant of my life.

 The voice of Rabindranath Tagore, Poet

 O greatest poet, I am seated at your feet.  I want to make my life simple and honest like a bamboo flute that You may fill with music.

From the Word of the Day

        

Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

(Romans 14: 8)  

 How should we live this Word

 Read in context, this expression is a breath of freedom.  Paul is reminding Christians to refrain from facileand rash judgments in regard to the actions of others.  “Why then do you judge your brother or sister?”  The fact is, we are the Lord’s property, His servants.  The term ‘servant’ does not have negative connotations.  Belonging to God frees us from all servitude.  The Christian moves with utmost freedom, following only the dictates of one’s conscience that indicate what is for God’s glory.

 Our life is transfigured by belonging to God as He places His seal of love on what we do.  “If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord.”  Thus all becomes a reason for giving joyful thanks to God.  This is an ocean of freedom permeated with love.  Here possession is not one-sided but reciprocal.  We are the Lord’s and He is our God.  We live ‘for Him’.  This means God is our beginning and our end.  This is what gives ultimate meaning to our living and our dying.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will taste the joy of this belonging that makes me free and capable of formulating my response of love to the Love that possesses me.

 I bless You and I praise You Lord because You possess me in love.  Grant that my life may be a joyful song of grateful love.

 The voice of Mahatma Ghandi, witness

 We cannot be God, but we are of God, just as a drop of water is of the ocean.  Imagine it taken from the ocean and thrown millions of miles away.  It becomes defenceless out of its environment and no longer feels the power and the majesty of the ocean.  But if someone would show it that it is the ocean, its faith would revive.  It would dance with joy and the entire power and majesty of the ocean would be reflected in it.

 

From the Word of the Day

        

Every one of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.

(Luke 14: 33)     

 How should we live this Word

 Our first reaction on reading this passage may be to dilute its strength.  Jesus was speaking to His apostles, for the priests and religious, and wanted to recall their attention to the need of being detached from all that they possessed and so on.  To reduce the Gospel to our pygmy stature is a very subtle temptation. Instead, God wants to open our sails to unlimited horizons.

 Certainly this demand goes beyond human logic.  Aren’t we solicited on all sides to accumulate more power, more goods?  Doesn’t society tell us that if we do not have the ‘in’ things we are nothing?  Jesus speaks of renunciation, a repugnant term that we would like to remove.  Obviously, we are not asked to reduce ourselves to misery, especially if one is responsible for a family and the duty to provide the necessities.  But surely He is asking something more of us than just detachment that risks being only nominal.  We cannot be the disciples of one who radically despoiled Himself of all to the point of sharing our existential poverty, becoming a servant, and at the same time nourish a culture of accumulation in the face of a growing poverty. 

 Self-limitation is a priority today.  It is a duty of every citizen of the earth, but a Christian is called to this in view of Baptism, a grafting onto Christ.  This is what qualifies and defines our belonging to Him.  We must assume our commitment to lead a life that is moderate so that resources may reach our needy brethren.  This is charity.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will let Jesus’ invitation resound in me without diluting it.  I will find ways to actuate it.

 Lord, open my hands and my heart to the needs of my sisters and brothers so that all those who approach me may perceive your provident love of a father.  Grant that I may be recognized as a disciple of Christ.

 The voice of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 When things take possession of us, we become very poor.  We must free ourselves of things to be full of God.

 

From the Word of the Day

Anticipate one another in showing honor.

(Romans 12: 5-16)             

 

How should we live this Word

 We well know the precept of love and, generally, we are inclined to help those in a needy situation and thus inferior.  Confronted with someone who arouses our compassion, we are ready to help, even dedicating our time personally.  These are certainly noble gestures that should increase and that merit acknowledgment.

Yet, there is a type of charity that is difficult to give.  It is the one St. Paul indicates.  Giving gratifies us.  Acknowledging the value of others is perceived as diminishment of oneself, a threat, and therefore, we avoid it.  The esteem that we should give each other has its roots primarily in the divine imprint that marks the depths of our being.  It is present in the new born, in the handicapped person, in the sick, in the indigent, in the sinner, in everyone.  What is more, we are in some way indebted to everyone.  The beggar on the side of the road seeking alms solicits the distracted passersby to find their true self, their dignity as God’s children and thus all brothers and sisters.  Every fraternal relationship is shown in sharing.  The indigent and the mendicant bare our creature state.  I too, need to stretch out my hand and not only toward God.  I need others to complete me with their gifts.  I need their acknowledgment, their love.  I need their forgiveness.  Above all, I need the very esteem that I hesitate to give.  This is needed even more than the bread I may offer.

 Today as I pause for silent contemplation, I will think of the persons I find hard to esteem and I will seek to see their positive and valuable attributes.

 Lord, today I want to thank You for those persons toward whom I have not nourished sufficient esteem.  Please free my mind from all prejudice and negative memories that do not permit me to appreciate the gift each person is for me.

 The voice of  Antoine de Saint- Exupéry, pilot and author

 One only sees well with the heart.  What is essential is invisible to the eyes.