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God has brought us into this time; He, and not ourselves or some dark demon. If we are not fit to cope with that which He has prepared for us, we would have been utterly unfit for any condition that we imagine for ourselves. We are to live and wrestle in this time, and in no other. . . If easy times are departed, it is that the difficult times may make us more in earnest; that they may teach us not to depend on
ourselves. If easy belief is impossible, it is that we may learn what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed.
... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872)
(What lessons are you learning during this season in your life?)
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Gn 17:1, 9-10, 15-22; Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
Mt 8:1-4
When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I will do it. Be made clean.”
His leprosy was cleansed immediately.
Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“Abraham prostrated himself and laughed as he said to himself, ‘Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Or can Sarah give birth at ninety?’ ” —Genesis 17:17
Abraham and Sarah laughed at jokes God didn’t even tell (Gn 18:12). We often laugh when God is serious. God is serious about fulfilling His promises. He’s serious about healing the leprous (Mt 8:3) and those incurable by medical standards. Many times doctors and Christians have laughed at God before He healed the terminally ill or even raised the dead (Mt 10:8).
The Lord is also extremely serious about saving us. Nobody in their right mind cracks a smile at the foot of the cross. He’s serious about cleansing us of our sins in His blood. Shed blood is no laughing matter.
However, the Lord isn’t all serious. He laughs at the learned and clever who take themselves too seriously (Lk 10:21; cf 1 Cor 1:25). He gets a laugh out of mighty nations who think they’re something more than a moment in time (Ps 2:4). He considers our preoccupation with money and material possessions ludicrous. It would be even more hilarious if we weren’t so foolish (Lk 12:20).
The Lord laughs a lot and even cries (Lk 19:41). We do the same. Yet do we laugh and cry for the same reasons as He does?
Prayer: Father, teach me to laugh when You laugh and cry when You cry (Jas 4:9).
Promise: “Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him and said, ‘I do will it. Be cured.’ Immediately the man’s leprosy disappeared.” —Mt 8:3
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO HIM
SECTION 10. We must see God in all creatures!
In the state of abandonment the soul finds more light and strength, through submission to the divine action, than all those possess who resist it through pride.
The Holy Spirit, who arranges all the pieces on the board of life, will, by this fruitful and continual presence of His action, say at the hour of death, "fiat lux,‚" "let there be light‚" (Gen. i, 14), and then will be seen the treasures which faith hides in this abyss of peace and contentment with God, and which will be found in those things that have been every moment done, or suffered for
Him.
When God gives Himself thus, all that is common becomes wonderful; and it is on this account that nothing seems to be so, because this way is, in itself, extraordinary. Consequently it is unnecessary to make it full of strange and unsuitable marvels. It is, in itself, a miracle, a revelation, a constant joy even with the prevalence of minor faults. But it is a miracle which, while rendering all common and
sensible things wonderful, has nothing in itself that is sensibly marvellous.
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