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"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it."
- Blaise Pascal -
(Do you love the truth? How
does truth lead you to God?)
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EX 40:16-21, 34-38; PS 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A, 11
MT 13:47-53
Jesus said to the disciples:
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the
end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."
"Do you understand all these things?"
They answered, "Yes."
And he replied,
"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both
the new and the old."
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
USCCB Lectionary
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Matthew 13: 47-53 Parable of the dragnet
Today’s parable teaches us an
important lesson. Jesus has come to transform humanity, but he also accepts the messiness of the world. So, too, are we invited to accept our messy world and broken lives as worthy of transformation.
* Imagine that God has cast a spiritual dragnet into your soul today. What would be dragged out? What
would you most like to keep? What do you want to throw away?
* Pray for the grace to know that God loves you just as you are now. Paperback, Kindle
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God and I: Exploring the Connections between God, Self and Ego, by Philip St. Romain, 2016 (2nd ed.) ____________ Chapter 4: The False Self System Pervasive and insidious though the false self may be, we know that it is not the whole of our experience of consciousness. Something within even the most damaged among us strains against it, and would be free of it completely if such a possibility seemed achievable. Such attainment is the concern of religion and, to a certain extent, psychology.
What is the source of this inner sense that we are
“not ourselves” when caught up in false self thinking and activity?
The response which suggests itself most strongly to me is that it is the still-healthy aspect of the human spirit manifesting as Ego that strains against the false self. Although much of Egoic energy has become co-opted by the false self system, the roots of Ego in the deeper awareness of Self can still discover a freedom to re-focus one’s life. As long as this tiniest spark of freedom remains, there is an
individual consciousness available to do battle with the false self. The existence of this “remnant” of Egoic freedom and desire is implied in every religion, which would equip it with wisdom and connect it with Power to overcome the disharmony within. Grace builds on nature; this is a basic conviction of St. Thomas Aquinas’s teaching. Without an Ego, it would seem that grace would have nothing to work with, much less any-one to
liberate.
Hardback, paperback, eBook and free preview versions.
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