Message of 9-4-17

Published: Mon, 09/04/17

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Monday: September 4, 2017
Message of the Day
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. 
- C. S. Lewis

(What do you think about the next life? How do such thoughts influence your time here on earth?)
Readings of the Day
1 THES 4:13-18;   PS 96:1 AND 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13

LK 4:16-30

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, "Is this not the son of Joseph?"
He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb,
'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
And he said,
"Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.


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Reflection on the Scripture
"He has sent Me to bring good news to the poor." —Luke 4:18, our transl.
 
Jesus declared that His mission was to proclaim the Good News of freedom to the poor. He said He was carrying out this mission at that very moment (Lk 4:21). Then He told the people He was not going to heal them but heal other people instead (see Lk 4:23-27). What kind of Good News is that? The people obviously saw no Good News in Jesus' prophetic words; so they tried to throw Him over a cliff (Lk 4:29).

What Jesus means by Good News may often sound like bad news to us. His thoughts and ways are as different from ours as the heavens are high above the earth (Is 55:8-9). Our reaction to Jesus' Good News may be to attempt murder, even the murder of God. But to those who accept Jesus' Good News, despite its seeming absurdity (see 1 Cor 1:18), the Gospel is "the power of God leading everyone who believes in it to salvation" (Rm 1:16).

Have the faith and the courage to ask Jesus to speak the Good News to you — by His standards.
 
Prayer: Jesus, may I respond to You by letting You free me instead of trying to kill You. May I consider the call to repent to be Good News.


Promise: "The Lord Himself will come down from heaven at the word of command, at the sound of the archangel's voice and God's trumpet; and those who have died in Christ will rise first. Then we, the living, the survivors, will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thenceforth we shall be with the Lord unceasingly." —1 Thes 4:16-17
Amazon Gift Cards: Good for any occasion.
Spiritual Reading
Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body
- selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj

Book V: In Christ
 
Chapter 17: The Functions of the Church
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529. When Christ lends to our thinking His cooperation, His light and His thought, our concepts are bathed in eternal light. Let us think, then, for when we reflect we let the rays of this brilliant light penetrate our souls. Our reflections are the only love our minds are capable of when they are in the presence of the truth that charms them.