Never again are we to look at the stars, as we did when we were children, and wonder how far it is to God. A being outside our world would be a spectator, looking on but taking no part in this life where we try to be brave despite all the bafflement. A God who created, and withdrew, could be mighty, but he could not be love. Who could love a God remote, when suffering is our lot? Our God is closer than our
problems, for they are out there, to be faced; He is here, beside us, Emmanuel.
- Joseph E. McCabe (b. 1912), Handel’s Messiah
(God as here, now, loving . . . Relax! . . . Open yourself to receive God's love.)
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GN 16:1-12, 15-16; PS 106:1B-2, 3-4A, 4B-5
MT 7:21-29
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,'
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?'
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.'
"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their scribes.
Reflection on the Scriptures |
In today’s Gospel lesson in the book of Matthew, Jesus clearly reminds us that thinking we are doing God’s will is not the same as actually following God’s will. We are required to carefully and faithfully “listen” to Jesus’ commands and “ACT” upon them. This requires work and diligence in studying God’s Word and constantly praying for His will to unfold in our
lives. The story of the consequences of building our house upon a rock versus building it upon shifting sand seems so obvious. Yet Jesus used this simple story to remind us how easy it is for us all to try to do things our way (shifting sand) instead of trusting in the unshakable foundation of God’s amazing plan for each of our lives.
Larry Hopp
Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of Norwich
Fourteenth Revelation, Chapter 60
“The Kind, loving, Mother”
BUT now behoveth to say a little more of this forthspreading, as I understand in the meaning of our Lord: how that we be brought again by the Motherhood of Mercy and Grace into our Nature’s place, where that we were made by the Motherhood of Nature-Love: which Kindly-love, it never leaveth us.
Our Kind Mother, our Gracious Mother, for that He would all wholly become our Mother in all things, He took the Ground of His Works full low and full mildly in the Maiden’s womb. (And that He shewed in the First [Shewing] where He brought that meek Maid afore the eye of mine understanding in the simple stature as she was when she conceived.) That is to say: our high God is sovereign Wisdom of all: in this low place
He arrayed and dight Him full ready in our poor flesh, Himself to do the service and the office of Motherhood in all things.
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