Message of 9-21-12
Published: Fri, 09/21/12
A Daily Spiritual Seed
- resources for prayer and spiritual growth
Message of the Day
It is through conscience that we see and recognize the demands of the divine law. We are bound to follow this conscience faithfully in all our actions so that we may come to God, who is our true destiny.
- Documents on Religious Liberty, Vatican Council II
(How do you experience conscience? Spend some time listening for God's guidance in conscience for an important decision you are considering.)
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Lectionary Readings of the Day
http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
Eph 4:1-7, 11-13; Ps 19:2-3, 4-5; Mt 9:9-13
R. (5) Their message goes out through all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
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Reflection on the Scriptures
- http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
In some sense Matthew's name and the word for disciple are related and thus he represents the whole group of disciples. His call is a kind of healing. This part of the Gospel according to Matthew is all about Jesus' ministry of healing; his call and the discussion that follows it with the Pharisees is a kind of interlude between a series of special healings that Jesus did for people in need.
Matthew's "healing" is an interior event. Jesus' invitation to him (the call) along with his immediate response shows forth the awesome power of the presence of Jesus to those who responded positively as disciples. In this healing Matthew goes from public sinner to disciple/apostle with no apparent delay.
The down-deep healing of Matthew reminds me of the magnificence of God's love through Jesus. Can I respond to the call with as instant and positive response that the apostle Matthew exhibited? His journey from sinner to disciple can be a mirror of my own response to Jesus. The grace of recognizing my own sinfulness and opening myself up to the rescuing presence of Jesus in my life truly is a miracle wrought by a merciful and gracious God.
What a source of joy and of gratitude is here as it was for Matthew, the tax-collector-become-disciple. And so the "newness" perdures as Jesus continues to call and invite each of us: as Matthew found his roots in the Jewish Bible, we find our roots in Matthew's response as well as the other disciples who said and continued to say "yes" to Jesus and to God.
- by Tom Shanahan, S.J.
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Spiritual Reading
On Cleaving to God
by St. Albert the Great
Alternatively, the lover is in the beloved when he is united with him by all his desire and compliance in agreement with the beloved's willing and not willing, and finds his own pleasure and pain in that of the beloved. For love draws the lover out of himself (since love is strong as death), and establishes him in the beloved, causing him to cleave closely to him. For the soul is more where it loves than where it lives, since it is in what it loves in accordance with its very nature, understanding and will, while it is in where it lives only with regard to form, which is even true for animals as well.
- Chapter 12. How powerful the love of God is.
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