Forum on Christianity and Spirituality
October 3, 2024, 7:30 p.m. CDT Mary - A Woman Clothed With the Son
by Carla Mae Streeter, OP See https://shalomplace.com/inetmin/forum.html for more information and registration.
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Message of the Day
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Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being.
- Brother David Steindl-Rast (A "vital awareness." Be awake this day!)
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Readings of the Day
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1 Cor 7:25-31; Ps 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17 Lk 6:20-26 Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor,
for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed
are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets
in the same way. But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will
be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this
way.” USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“Woe to you when all speak well of you.” —Luke 6:26 Most of us want people to speak well of us. However, we cannot serve both God and men (see Mt 6:24).
We must choose between pleasing God and pleasing people. The praise of human beings is fickle. Jesus understood this well (Jn 2:24-25). In the span of five days, the crowds in Jerusalem changed from acclaiming Him with joyful shouts of “Hosanna” (Mk 11:9) to furious cries of “Crucify Him!” (Mk 15:13) St. Paul understood this dynamic also. He chose to write a necessary but difficult message to his young church in Galatia. Paul wrote
them: “Whom would you say I am trying to please at this point – men or God? Is this how I seek to ingratiate myself with men? If I were trying to win man’s approval, I would surely not be serving Christ!” (Gal 1:10) Paul also wrote to the church in Thessalonica: “As men entrusted with the good tidings, we speak like those who strive to please God, ‘the Tester of our hearts,’ rather than men. We were not guilty, as you well know, of flattering words or greed under any pretext, as God is our
witness! Neither did we seek glory from men” (1 Thes 2:4-6). Unlike St. Paul, the Pharisees “preferred the praise of men to the glory of God” (Jn 12:43). They rejected Jesus and thus exemplified Jesus’ comment, “Woe to you when all speak well of you” (Lk 6:26). Therefore, rejoice when people speak ill of you, especially for your belief in the Lord (see Lk 6:22, 26). Let us live no longer for ourselves, but for Jesus (2 Cor
5:15). Prayer: Father, may I be full of joy to be “judged worthy of ill treatment for the sake of the Name” of Jesus (Acts 5:41). Promise: “Blest are you poor; the reign of God is yours.” —Lk 6:20 Presentation Ministries
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Spiritual Reading
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Readings from Jesus Alive in Our Lives, by Philip St. Romain. Ave Maria Press, 1985. Contemplative Ministries, Inc. 2011. Part Three, Gift of the Spirit Chapter : The Holy Spirit and the
Trinity - Selected quotes
In later Christian writings, we find Paul speaking many times of Jesus as the Lord—a term used only for God. Peter, too, calls Jesus Lord, and even states that righteousness comes from “our God and savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Pt. 1). Although they might have struggled to understand how to explain the
Incarnation, the early Apostolic tradition gives evidence in many ways of a deep intuition of Christ’s divinity.
So far we have a Divine Dyad (or Dynamic Duo, if you will)—the Father and the Word, who became incarnate as Jesus. What, then, of the Spirit?
Again we turn to John’s Gospel, and to the writings of Paul. There we find many clear distinctions between the
person of Jesus and the Spirit. Jesus himself states that the Father will send the Spirit in his name (Jn. 1:25) and constantly refers to the Spirit using personal language rather than an energy or cosmic force. This person is not simply the risen Christ in his ascended state, but one sent by the Father in Jesus’ name to lead Jesus’ followers into the fullness of truth (Jn. 14:26). So the Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, and is not simply an energy emanating from them,
but a person in Her own right, participating in the work of salvation in Her own distinctive way. Believers are to be baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28:19), an early formula that eventually became the predominant practice of the Church.
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