Prayer is the human response to the perpetual outpouring of love by
which God lays siege to every soul. When our reply to God is most direct of all, it is called adoration. Adoration is the spontaneous yearning of the heart to worship, honor, magnify, and bless God.We ask nothing but to cherish him. We seek nothing but his exaltation. We focus on nothing but his goodness.
- Richard J. Foster
(Adoration . . . let your prayer be drawn to God in this manner today.)
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WIS 2:1A, 12-22;
PS 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 AND 23
JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in
Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.
Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look,
he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
"You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."
So they tried to arrest
him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
There are a number of times in John's Gospel where it is a question of catching, getting ahold of, clutching, grasping, understanding, etc.; this is not a matter of vocabulary but of a certain motion which can be either physical, mental, or spiritual. Here we see that especially in the last line of today's Gospel reading, where “they tried to seize Him,” a movement obviously physical and negative. The alternate
response to what Jesus offers here is parallel in a positive mental and/or spiritual attempt to get a grasp on what Jesus is saying, to comprehend His words.
We ourselves need to have some grasp of Jesus (spiritually and mentally), to maybe cling to Him (spiritually) at times in desperation and hope and maybe, at best, in love and still in hope. There are many forms and shades of that, and each
of us does it in a very personal way but always at least partly in the wrong way because we remain fallible, finite humans: we think we have a claim on God or presume that we grasp Him and all that He means and offers us, and we believe that our hold on God is strong enough to make Him remain there, limited to that single insight or encounter. Jesus is always moving on, however, always calling us further and deeper in our knowledge of Him, in our trust in Him, and in our attachment to Him
but also always in new ways that we don't need to fully understand in order for us to respond to them.
In all of this we must believe that this action works in both directions: Jesus Himself has an absolutely strong and absolutely loving grasp on us. He holds us in safety, in warmth, and for our good --- if only we will trust Him. We need to base our lives on that and to give Him
constant gratitude and thanks, finding everything about ourselves in Him first, last, and in all ways.
- by Chas Kestermeier, S.J. Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 36 “My sin shall
not hinder His Goodness working. . . . A deed shall be done—as we come to Heaven—and it may be known here in part;—though it be truly taken for the general Man, yet it excludeth not the special. For what our good Lord will do by His poor creatures, it is now unknown to me”
But what this deed should be was kept secret from me.
And
this is the understanding of this word:—That it shall be done for me, meaneth that it shall be done for the general Man: that is to say, all that shall be saved. It shall be worshipful and marvellous and plenteous, and God Himself shall do it; and this shall be the highest joy that may be, to behold the deed that God Himself shall do, and man shall do right nought but sin. Then signifieth our Lord God thus, as if He said: Behold and see! Here hast thou matter of meekness, here hast thou matter
of love, here hast thou matter to make nought of thyself, here hast thou matter to enjoy in me;—and, for my love, enjoy [thou] in me: for of all things, therewith mightest thou please me most. |
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