Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. Dec 29, 2009 - Tuesday Meditation (In Jesus, We Have Victory!)
| Dec 29, 2009 - Tuesday Meditation (In Jesus, We Have Victory!) |
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| Sections - The Daily B.R.E.A.D. | |||||||
| Written by Bobot Apit | |||||||
| Sunday, 27 December 2009 02:18 | |||||||
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If we, like Simeon, have dwelt in the temple of our hearts, have pondered God’s promises, and believed that God will be faithful, we know our thimble-sized hearts are being excavated into greater vessels and our faith becomes action for compassion – already glimpsing the victory. The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas 1 John 2:3-11 Psalm 96:1-2a, 2b-3, 5b-6 L uke 2:22-35 And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (23) -- as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord" -- (24) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. (25) Now there was a man in Jerusalem , whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel , and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (26) And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. (27) And inspired by the Spirit he came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the law, (28) he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, (29) "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; (30) for mine eyes have seen thy salvation (31) which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, (32) a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel." (33) And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him; (34) and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (35) (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed." Meditation by Eileen Burke-Sullivan In the midst of the chaos that seems to attend the end of semester, Christmas preparation, year- end economic decisions and a multitude of emotional and physical demands that go with and beyond these various dimensions of my life as I prepare this reflection, it is something of a shock to enter prayer and meet Simeon in the quiet of the Temple where he embraces the child Jesus and rejoices in a profound and personal knowledge of God’s fidelity. Simeon has waited patiently – a skill that manifests the depth of his faith in God’s promises. So deep was his faith that it is easy to imagine that the act of waiting itself had become a joy because it offered an opportunity to love God in return. In my own life, I generally find that I trust another because he or she has generally come through on their commitments. I tend to like heroes that win their victories and then come to claim my trust and confidence. To trust God’s promises which don’t always look like victories changes the ante considerably. Here I am called not only to trust MORE, I am called to trust entirely differently. On one level it seems to me that the promise throughout the Old Testament is a promise of the restoration of a generalized human capacity for absolute and perfect intimacy with God (and all of God’s creation). God makes it possible for us to completely trust Him – and to act on that trust by giving our lives to him in confidence, as agents for bringing about His Reign and thus, the promised victory. We Christians assert that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises. Simeon certainly confirms this with his radiant joy – and his clear-eyed appraisal of Jesus’ affect on his world – division between those who will hear and embrace God’s gift of self and those who, in terror, will reject that level of intimacy. We can almost hear the cranky questions: “Who does God think he is becoming human so that we have to discover Him and trust Him – and choose him as a vulnerable infant rather than as a conquering hero?” It is easier to put our trust in conquering heroes because they have done the work and have earned our trust by proving that they can win. But with God, we don’t know we have won until we are beyond scorekeeping do we? Unless . . . unless, like Simeon, we are given the capacity to “see” that in the act of waiting for victory that God is already granting us the fruits of victory. Simeon’s faith – like Mary’s faith – is the fruit of Christ’s coming! As we wait for God to completely fulfill the promise of the Kingdom our belief in that fulfillment is the gift of deepened capacity for intimacy with God (which is the Kingdom in our own hearts already alive). The deepened capacity we have already received enables us to act on the intimacy we have experienced which then draws us to greater capacity. A spiritual director I was privileged to be guided by a number of years ago characterized this as a “constantly enlarging heart.” God hollows out our hearts so as to make them capable of “more” love. When I was a child the Baltimore Catechism had the very funny image of the human heart as either a thimble, a tumbler, a bucket or a barrel. Whether I am a thimble or a barrel, God will fill me as full as I am capable of holding. God’s promise, fulfilled in Jesus, doesn’t just fill what we are but hollows us out to be (and receive) so much more. Simeon practiced his faith by patient waiting and from it he radiated human joy and peace. His waiting was not characterized by frantic anxiety but by joyful hope. But he warns Mary (and the Church she personifies) that human hearts will be divided over the humanity of Jesus. It is too demanding for many of us to trust a God who wants us to labor for the victory as well as share in it. For those who read this on the fifth day of Christmas, the day the Simeon reading feeds us, the Christmas Feast itself has come and gone. In our world the stores have re-opened for exchanges and sales – the decorations are coming down as we now look to “Super bowl Sunday” for our next culturally established “victory fix.” But if we, like Simeon, have dwelt in the temple of our hearts, have pondered God’s promises, and believed that God will be faithful, we know our thimble-sized hearts are being excavated into greater vessels and our faith becomes action for compassion – already glimpsing the victory.
Supplementary Reading WoRK IN PRoGRESS
T he writing on the t-shirt said, “I am God’s work in progress.” As I attend the Feast every Sunday and listen to the teaching each time, I cannot help but recall the message on the t-shirt. Because as I absorb each teaching and try to apply the wisdom imparted, I know that it is God’s way of molding me and working on me. He never tires of waiting for me to stand again when I fall. And when circumstances seem to crush me, He uses them to make me stronger. God loves us, that’s why He doesn’t stop molding and fashioning us into His image and likeness. Be assured that even if we’re all God’s work in progress now, He will finish the work He has begun. --- Chelle Cristanto REFLECTION: When you sin or fail, do not be disheartened. Remember, you are a work in progress. Lord, complete the good work You’ve begun in my life. Amen.
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"Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?"--John Mendoza
MAKING A MORE JUST WORLD
The duty of Christians to create a more just and more human society.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). St John tells us at the start of today’s Mass.
The Child we have been contemplating in the crib during the last few days is the Redeemer of the world and of every one in it. He has come in the first place to give us eternal life as something to be looked forward to in this life and to be fully possessed after death. He has become man to call sinners (Luke 5:32), to save what was lost (Luke 19:10), and to make divine life known to all men (Mark 10:45).
During the years of his public life, Our Lord had little to say about the political and social situation of his people, and this in spite of their oppression by the Romans. On different occasions he makes it clear that he does not want to be a political Messiah nor a liberator from the yoke of Rome. He came to give us the freedom of the sons of God: freedom from the sins we had committed, which had reduced us to a state of slavery. He came to give us freedom from eternal death, another consequence of sin; freedom from the dominion of the devil, since man could now overcome sin with the help of grace. And finally, he gave us freedom from life according to the flesh, which is opposed to supernatural life: The freedom brought by Christ through the Holy Spirit has restored to us the capacity, of which sin had deprived us, of loving God above all and of remaining in contact with him (Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (SCDF), Instruction on Christian freedom and liberation, 53, 22 March 1986).
It behoves Christians, within the many opportunities we have for action, to contribute to a world order that is more just, more human and more Christian without in any way compromising the Church as such (cf Paul VI, Encyclical, Populorum progression, 8). The Church’s concern for social problems derives from her spiritual mission and is kept within the limits of that mission. The Church, of her very nature, does not fulfil her purpose in solving temporal problems (SCDF, ibid, 80). She follows Christ when he declared that his kingdom was not of this world (John 19:36), and absolutely refused to be considered a judge or a promoter of justice in purely human affairs (cf Luke 12:13).
Nevertheless, no Christian should stand aside from the need to do everything in his power to solve the enormous social problems that now afflict mankind. Let each one examine himself, exhorted Paul VI, to see what he has done up to now and what more he ought to accomplish. It is not enough to cite general principles, make resolutions, condemn grave injustices, make denunciations with a certain prophetic daring. None of this will carry any weight unless accompanied in each person by a more lively realisation of his own responsibility and by effective action. It is too easy to make other people responsible for today’s injustices, if at the same time, we don’t realise that we too are responsible and that a personal conversion is therefore the first necessity (Paul VI, Letter, Octogesima adveniens, 48, 14 May 1971).
With permission from Scepter UK. Short excerpt from IN CONVERSATION WITH GOD by Francis Fernandez. Available at SinagTala or Totus Bookstore 723-4326 or at www.totusbookstore.com ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
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