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Bernard [of Clairvaux] did not stop with love for God or Christ, he insisted also that the Christian must love his neighbors, including even his enemies. Not necessarily that he must feel affection for them—that is not always possible in this life, though it will be in heaven—but that he must treat them as love dictates, doing always for others what he would that they should do for him.
... A. C. McGiffert (1861-1933), A History of Christian Thought [1932-33]
(Love is a decision and act of the will moreso than a feeling. What is one new way you will be more loving this day?)
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Lv 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37; Psalm 81:3-4, 5-6, 10-11ab
Mt 13:54-58
Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.
They were astonished and said,
“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?
Where did this man get all this?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and in his own house.”
And he did not work many mighty deeds there
because of their lack of faith.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“They were filled with amazement.” —Matthew 13:54
We want God to help us, bless us, and be there when we need Him. However, He wants us to help Him, bless Him, and be there when He needs us. We want to tell God what to do, but He wants to tell us what to do and take over our lives. That’s much more than we had in mind.
Like the people of Nazareth, we find Jesus “altogether too much” for us (Mt 13:57). If only Jesus would stay in His place, come when He’s called, speak only when spoken to, and visit occasionally...
But, no, He wants to run our entire lives and be with us constantly. We can’t go anywhere without Him tagging along. We can’t go on a date, watch TV, or even go to the bathroom without Him being there, all the time. We might feel like dwelling on sexual fantasies, committing sexual sins, or getting high. Yet with Jesus there all the time, we can’t have any “fun.”
We have no privacy. We can’t do as we please. Jesus is too much. He’s too concerned about our actions. He spends too much time with us. Twenty-four hours a day, every day, is excessive. Jesus refuses to be Lord of anything in our lives unless He can be Lord of everything.
Is He asking too much?
Prayer: Jesus, because You died for me, I give my life to You unreservedly.
Promise: “When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap your harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.” —Lv 23:10
Praise: St. Peter Chrysologus was Bishop of Ravenna during the Fifth Century. Many of his sermons have survived and can be read today. He endorsed learning as an obligation to develop God-given talents.
Presentation Ministries
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Precautions, by St. John of the Cross
- from his Collected Works
INTRODUCTION
John of the Cross wrote the Precautions for the nuns in Beas while he lived at El Calvario (1578-79), after he had escaped from prison inToledo. These warnings represented some of the fruits of his years as spiritual director in Avila. The nuns, in turn, made copies and sent them to other houses. From the adaptations in gender that appear in some manuscripts, it seems that the friars, too, must have
laid hands on the material and made copies for themselves.
The work is brief, with much doctrine condensed into a small amount of space. Written for nuns influenced personally by St. Teresa, the lean statements spoke to women who were ardent in their embrace of the spiritual journey. They wanted to reach poverty of spirit, union with God, and "the peaceful comfort of the Holy Spirit" in a short time. Love has little use for delay. The objective, then, is to
overcome any obstacles interfering with rapid progress. People less passionate about their goals have other alternatives. The aspiration to avoid any stumbling blocks accounts for the negative tone of the work.
The condensed character and particular objective of this writing, then, require a reading in the doctrinal light of John's other works. In these he describes in detail how union with God comes about not through the observance of precautions but by adapting to God s communication through the theological life of faith, hope, and love. The precautions take any value they may have from their ability to promote this
adaptation.
Christian spirituality, rooted in Scripture, spoke commonly of three spiritual enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Within this tradition, John finds the structure for his work: three precautions against each of the three enemies. Building from this framework, he formulates the kind of behavior one must adopt as a precaution with respect to particular areas of life; he describes the harm and dangers
that arise from not observing the specific precaution; and extols the advantages and benefits that follow from practicing it. If overlapping occurs in the presentation of the material it is because, as the friar himself points out, vanquishing one enemy means vanquishing the others also, and weakening one means weakening the others as well.
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