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Message of the Day
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“The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.
- Henri Nouwen How do you notice the Lord coming into your life?
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Readings of the Day
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Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17a
Psalm 25:4-5ab, 6 and 7bc,
8-9 Matthew 21:23-27 Jesus had gone into the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and said, ‘What authority have you for acting like this? And who gave you this authority?’ ‘And I’ replied Jesus ‘will ask you a question, only one; if you tell me the answer to it, I will then tell you my authority for acting like this. John’s
baptism: where did it come from: heaven or man?’ And they argued it out this way among themselves, ‘If we say from heaven, he will retort, “Then why did you refuse to believe him?”; but if we say from man, we have the people to fear, for they all hold that John was a prophet.’ So their reply to Jesus was, ‘We do not know.’ And he retorted, ‘Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like
this.’ USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“When [Balaam] raised his eyes and saw Israel encamped, tribe by tribe, the spirit of God came upon him, and he gave voice to his oracle.” —Numbers 24:2-3
Balaam was a man of great spiritual powers. That’s why Balak sent two deputations of princes to persuade Balaam to curse the Israelites (Nm 22:5-16). Balaam described himself as “the man whose eye is true...who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, of one who sees what the Almighty sees” (Nm 24:3-4, 15-16).
Although Balaam was exceptionally gifted by God and gave one of the greatest prophecies of
all time (see Nm 24:17), he is considered a villain in the New Testament (see Jude 11; Rv 2:14). His great spiritual gifts were sabotaged, for “he was a man attracted to dishonest gain” (2 Pt 2:15). “The love of money is the root of all evil. Some men in their passion for it have strayed from the faith, and have come to grief amid great pain” (1 Tm 6:10). Christmas is often the time when our love of money and what money can buy surfaces
(see 1 Jn 2:15). Christmas is an opportunity to see we are trapped (1 Tm 6:9). Christmas is the time for us to repent, make Jesus our Wealth (Phil 3:8), and get freed from the trap. Go free this Christmas. Prayer: Father, may I love You with all my heart and love money with none of my heart (see Mt 6:24). Promise: “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me Your paths,
guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior.” —Ps 25:4-5 Presentation Ministries
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Spiritual Reading
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Dilexi Te: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, by Pope Francis (completed by Pope Leo XIII), 2025.
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/20241024-enciclica-dilexit-nos.html
CHAPTER ONE
THE HEART UNITES THE FRAGMENTS
24. All that we have said has implications for the spiritual life. For example, the theology underlying the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola is based on “affection” (
affectus). The structure of the Exercises assumes a firm and heartfelt desire to “rearrange” one’s life, a desire that in turn provides the strength and the wherewithal to achieve that goal. The rules and the compositions of place that Ignatius furnishes are in the service of something much more important, namely, the mystery of the human heart. Michel de Certeau shows how the “movements” of which Ignatius speaks are the “inbreaking” of God’s desire and the desire of our own heart amid
the orderly progression of the meditations. Something unexpected and hitherto unknown starts to speak in our heart, breaking through our superficial knowledge and calling it into question. This is the start of a new process of “setting our life in order”, beginning with the heart. It is not about intellectual concepts that need to be put into practice in our daily lives, as if affectivity and practice were merely the effects of – and dependent upon – the data of knowledge.
[16] 25. Where the thinking of the philosopher halts, there the heart of the believer presses on in love and adoration, in pleading for forgiveness and in willingness to serve in whatever place the Lord allows us to choose, in order to follow in his footsteps. At that point, we realize that in God’s eyes we are a “Thou”, and for that very reason we can be an “I”. Indeed, only the Lord offers to treat each one of us as a
“Thou”, always and forever. Accepting his friendship is a matter of the heart; it is what constitutes us as persons in the fullest sense of that word. |
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