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The foolish fear death as the greatest of evils;
the wise desire it as a rest after labors and the end of ills.
- St. Ambrose
(Make friends with death, for it belongs to Christ.)
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HEB 10:32-39; PS 37:3-4, 5-6, 23-24, 39-40
MK 4:26-34
Jesus said to the crowds:
"This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come."
He said,
"To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade."
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
"A man scatters seed on the ground. He goes to bed and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows without his knowing how it happens." —Mark 4:26-27
Does God's Word work? Does faith truly come through hearing and then hearing comes by the Word of God? (Rm 10:17) Is God's Word living and effective? (Heb 4:12) If so, then why is the world in its present shape despite all the preachers, churches, and Bibles?
God's answer to these most important questions is that, as rain and snow always accomplish their purposes, so His Word shall not return to Him void. His Word shall do His will, achieving the end for which He sent it (see Is 55:10-11). God's Word works! "There is no chaining the word of God!" (2 Tm 2:9)
However, the messengers of God's Word can be chained through lack of faith. Sharing God's Word is like sowing seed. We often don't see any immediate effects of our work (see Mk 4:26ff). Even when we do see some results, they are often as tiny as a mustard seed (see Mk 4:31). To persevere in sharing God's Word, we must sow by faith and not by sight (see 2 Cor 5:7). "We are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have
faith and live" (Heb 10:39). Work in faith and give God's Word a chance to work.
Prayer: Father, may I have confident assurance concerning what I hope for and conviction about things I do not see (Heb 11:1).
Promise: "Do not, then, surrender your confidence; it will have great reward. You need patience to do God's will and receive what He has promised." —Heb 10:35-36
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
CHAPTER II. THE DIVINE ACTION WORKS UNCEASINGLY FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF SOULS.
SECTION V. The Action of Jesus Christ in the Souls of Men
The divine action continues to write in the hearts of men the work begun by the holy Scriptures, but the characters made use of in this writing will not be visible till the day of judgment.
“Jesus Christ yesterday, to-day, and for ever” (Heb. xiii, 8), says the Apostle. From the beginning of the world He was, as God, the first cause of the existence of souls. He has participated as man from the first instant of His incarnation, in this prerogative of His divinity. During the whole course of our life He acts within our souls. The time that will elapse till the end of the world is but as a day; and this day abounds
with His action. Jesus Christ has lived and lives still. He began from Himself and will continue in His Saints a life that will never end. O life of Jesus! comprehending and extending beyond all the centuries of time, life effecting new operations of grace at every moment; if no one is capable of understanding all that could be written of the actual life of Jesus, all that He did and said while He was on earth; if the Gospel merely outlines a few of its features; how many Gospels would have to
be written to record the history of all the moments of this mystical life of Jesus Christ in which miracles are multiplied to infinity and eternity. If the beginning of His natural life is so hidden yet so fruitful, what can be said of the divine action of that life of which every age of the world is the history?
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