God the Father is a deep root, the Son is the
shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit is that which spreads beauty and fragrance.
- Tertullian
(Where do you see signs of “beauty and fragrance” in your life?) |
EX 32:7-14; PS 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
JN 5:31-47
Jesus said to the Jews:
"If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my
behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John's.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent
me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.
"I
do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if
you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?"
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Idols don’t captivate just ancient people. We too get ensnared by shiny things. John Kavanaugh, S.J., wrote about the idols of consumer society: Things
are not woundable. They do not bleed or suffer or die. And the culture that enthrones things, products, objects as its most cherished realities is ultimately a culture in flight from the vulnerability of the human person.
Idols bring disorder. What matters more than prayer, simplicity, and community is the drive to produce, compete, and consume.
Society should be directed at persons and the gifts of creation. The idol cons us: it promises salvation but delivers emptiness and violence. Once money defines reality, creatures get tossed aside.
God had had enough of this stiff-necked people. But Moses persisted. He begged for mercy and God listened. “Please take another look.
Don’t give up on us. Something worth more than gold is here.”
- by Jeanne Schuler
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 49 “Where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken, and wrath hath no place. Immediately
is the soul made at one with God when it is truly set at peace in itself”
For I saw full surely that where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken and wrath hath no place. For I saw no manner of wrath in God, neither for short time nor for long;—for in sooth, as to my sight, if God might be wroth for an instant, we should never have life nor place nor being. For as verily as we have our being of the endless
Might of God and of the endless Wisdom and of the endless Goodness, so verily we have our keeping in the endless Might of God, in the endless Wisdom, and in the endless Goodness. For though we feel in ourselves, [frail] wretches, debates and strifes, yet are we all-mannerful enclosed in the mildness of God and in His meekness, in His benignity and in His graciousness. For I saw full surely that all our endless friendship, our place, our life and our being, is in
God.
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