When I trust deeply that today God is truly with me and holds me safe in a divine embrace, guiding every one of my steps I can let go of my anxious need to know how tomorrow will look, or what will happen next month or next year. I can be fully where I am and pay attention to the many signs of God's love within me and
around me.
- Henri Nouwen
(Pray for the grace to trust God so deeply as to embrace life to the full.)
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Christianity and Spirituality monthly forum
Tonight, 7:30 p.m. CDT
Topic: The Uniqueness of Christ
Who do people say Jesus is -- then, and now? This will be the focus of our Zoom gathering, with times for prayer, teaching, reflection and discussion/sharing.
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Gn 22:1b-19; Ps 115:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 Mt 9:1-8 After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town.
And there people brought to
him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Courage, child, your sins are forgiven."
At that, some of the scribes said to themselves,
"This man is blaspheming."
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,
"Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise and walk'?
But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins"–
he then said to the paralytic,
"Rise,
pick up your stretcher, and go home."
He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to
men.
Reflection on the Scriptures
In our days, it is more than amazing how the physical injuries, sicknesses can be
healed. We have grown to expect totally, health and well-being. I was told recently about how surgeons no longer have to reach inside wit their hands, they more accurately manipulate, through their watching on a screen, little tools and lights which patch hearts and other delicate parts of the human body as well as animals. They move inside to create life for the outside. I have two particular friends who are having wholes in their hearts repaired from outside into the inside so their can be
more life flowing from the inside outward! So our question might be, about what is Jesus more interested in, inner or outer healing. I suggest that Jesus is more involved in the future than the past and more dedicated to the
picking up of the past and even more intently, what are we doing with our interior and external healing. The healed-man got up and went home. The story ends here? I reflect that the man lives more a revelation of his interior-healing in how he brings life to others at home. Healing, then, is never a private, once-and-for all, but exactly once and then for all and not just at home. The man could have become quite comfortable with his stretcher-life and paralyzed by his illness, physical or spiritual, but his real healing was rising and living beyond what the Scribes or the crowds expected. Jesus has authority not only to forgive sin, which drives the Scribes crazy, because they want, only, the authority to allow people to be back into the pure-culture, but His authority urges those forgiven to reveal God’s Love to be lived as healingers themselves. So that authority of Jesus is shared with those of us who have experienced a past which has
been confining, debilitating and stretcherful. The real miracle, for us, is that we can accept the healing from our deeds, attitudes and memories which can lay us low and we can rise and live beyond. The rising is not so much the healing as the going home and bringing new life.
-by Larry Gillick,
S.J.
Proverbs for Perspective and Spiritual Living by Philip St. Romain, M.S., D. Min. From Pathways to Serenity, 1989, Liguori Publications; reprinted by Contemplative Ministries, Inc., 2013 (Minor editing applied.)
- https://shalomplace.com/view/pathview.html Included in Light for the Christian Journey, 2020: Contemplative Ministries, Inc.
https://shalomplace.com/view/light-journey.html
V. Discernment
13. Crooked means do not produce holy ends. Never! Loving means produce holy ends. Always!
14. If loving brings about the destruction of certain matters, then those matters needed to be destroyed. (Adapted from a saying by Leo Tolstoy.)
15. If your purpose is to get rich or become
famous, you may choose many avenues in pursuit of your goal. God, however, is in no way bound to show you the right way. If, however, you are striving to grow in virtue and you are open to God’s will, then God is bound by his own promises to provide guidance and support.
16. After surrendering everything to God in
prayer, dream your dreams, ask your questions, and note your concerns, trusting that these will draw you closer to God.
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