There are only three types of people; those who have found God and serve him; those who have not found God and seek
him, and those who live not seeking, or finding him. The first are rational and happy; the second unhappy and rational, and the third foolish and unhappy.
- Blaise Pascal
(Which type are you? ) |
ROM 4:1-8; PS 32:1B-2, 5, 11
LK 12:1-7
At that time:
So many people were
crowding together
that they were trampling one another underfoot.
Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
"Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.
"There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness
will be heard in the light,
and what you have whispered behind
closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.
I tell you, my friends,
do not be afraid of those who kill the body
but after that can do no more.
I shall show you whom to fear.
Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna;
yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins?
Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.
Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be
afraid.
You are worth more than many sparrows."
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
The Gospel reading is a rebuke to hypocrites - those who
appear to be one thing on the outside but are something else on the inside. They seem to think that they can get away with this before God, as if he is like the rest of us who do not really know what they are like. They do not take the counsel of the psalmist that they acknowledge and confess their sins. Instead, they hide them. Jesus says that everything within us will be revealed and all secrets made known. A hypocrite should fear this God. He knows our hearts and has ultimate power to not
only bring everything within us to light but also to cast us into hell. On the other hand, those who trust him, who have put their hope in him, need not fear. In the same way that he knows and reveal the thoughts and intents of the hypocrite, he knows those who love him. If the almost worthless sparrows cannot escape the notice of God, will God forget about us?
- by George Butterfield Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 43
“Prayer uniteth the soul to God”
And this was shewed in this word: And thou beseechest it. In this word God shewed so great pleasance and so great content, as though He were much beholden to us for every good deed that we do (and yet it is He that doeth it) because that we beseech Him mightily to do all things that seem to Him good: as if He said: What might then please me more than to beseech me, mightily, wisely, and
earnestly, to do that thing that I shall do?
And thus the soul by prayer accordeth to God.
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