When the eye is unobstructed, the result is sight. When the ear is unobstructed, the result is hearing. When the mind is unobstructed the result is truth. When the heart is unobstructed, the result is joy and love.
- Anthony de
Mello
(What obstructions do you need to be working to transform during this Lenten season?) |
Dt 30:15-20; Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6 Lk 9:22-25
Jesus said to his disciples:
"The Son of Man must suffer
greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised."
Then he said to all,
"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?"
Reflection on the Scriptures
The message from Luke is short and to the point. We must take up the
cross daily. Daily. Not just during Lent, but take up the cross daily to follow Jesus. Do I make that decision every day? I am not sure that I do. I pray and reflect, but I don’t think I say to God and to myself: I am taking up the cross this day and following Jesus. Why is that important? God gets that I’m trying, doing my best, right? God does. But this is for me. The last two lines of the Gospel reading made that more clear to me: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?" What I need to remember is that I make decisions large and small every day where I might gain the world yet lose or forfeit myself. It’s not just in the big
things where I can lose myself, it’s in those little things. When I think I’ve gained the upper hand by making myself feel better at the expense of someone else. When I could help out a colleague or a friend or a family member, but I’m too busy. I lose those little pieces of myself. And what have I gained? That’s what can happen when I don’t make the decision to take up the cross every day. For today, for Lent, for every day, let me remember to take up the cross and follow Jesus. by Carol Zuegner
The Existence of God by Francois Fenelon SECTION
XXXVII - Of the arms and their use
From the top of that precious fabric we have described hang the two arms, which are terminated by the hands, and which bear a perfect symmetry one with another.
The arms are knit with the shoulders in such a manner that they have a free motion, in that joint. They are besides divided at the elbow and at the wrist that they may fold, bend, and turn with quickness. The arms are of a just length to reach all the parts of the body. They are nervous and full of muscles, that they may, as well as the back, be often in action and sustain the greatest fatigue of all the body. The hands are a contexture of nerves and little bones
set one within another in such a manner that they have all the strength and suppleness necessary to feel the neighbouring bodies, to seize on them, hold them fast, throw them, draw them to one, push them off, disentangle them, and untie them one from another.
The fingers, the ends of which are armed with nails,
are by the delicacy and variety of their motions contrived to exercise the most curious and marvellous arts. The arms and hands serve also, according as they are either extended, folded, or turned, to poise the body in such a manner as that it may stoop without any danger of falling. The whole machine has, besides, independently from all after-thoughts, a kind of spring that poises it on a sudden and makes it find the equilibrium in all its different postures and
positions.
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