Message of the Day
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Our perennial spiritual and psychological task is to learn to look at things familiar until they become familiar again.
- G. K. Chesterton (Every moment, all is new when preconceptions are no more. "The Logic of Happiness")
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Readings of the Day
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2 COR 6:1-10; PS 98:1-4; MT 5:38-42 R. The Lord has made known his salvation. Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
In the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Gospel
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Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.
Jesus calls us to go beyond obvious expectations of service, justice and love. We are to measure charity and generosity by Jesus' standard of radical love, not by our own limited sense of duty. To love as Jesus loves, we must maintain constant social vigilance and seek the common good. We must operate out of a distinctive sense of justice and fairness that promotes the dignity of each human being. We must act in a way that shares with every person our belief that all of God's children have incomparable worth. We cannot forget the fundamental imperative to respond in love and justice to the least in our midst.
Lord, help us to be your instruments to build a just and loving world, we pray. - by Patricia Russell
My Daily Bread
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Spiritual Reading
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The Sparkling Stone, by St. John of Rusybroeck (1293-1381)
And therefore we should all conceive of God in this way: first of all that, of His free goodness, He calls and invites all men, without distinction, to union with Himself; both the good and the wicked, without exception. Secondly, we should thus comprehend the goodness of God; how He through grace flows forth towards all men who are obedient to the call of God. Thirdly, we should find and understand clearly in ourselves that we can become one life and one spirit with God, when we renounce ourselves in every way, and follow the grace of God to the height whereto it would guide us. For the grace of God works according to order in every man, after the measure and the way in which he is able to receive it. And thereby, through the universal working of the grace of God, every sinner, if he desires it, receives the discernment and strength which are needful, that he may leave sin and turn towards virtue. And, through that hidden cooperation of the grace of God, every good man can overcome all sins, and can resist all temptations, and can fulfill all virtues, and can persevere in the highest perfection, if he be in all things submissive to the grace of God. For all that we are, and all that we have received, from without and from within, these are all the free gifts of God; for which we must thank and praise Him, and with which we must serve Him, if we are to please Him. But there are many gifts of God which are for the good an aid to, and a source of, virtue; but for the wicked an aid to, and an occasion of, sin: such are health, beauty, riches, and worldly dignity. These are the lowest and least precious gifts of God, which God gives for the benefit of all, to His friends and to His enemies, to the good and to the wicked. And with these the good serve God and His friends; but the wicked, their own flesh, and the devil, and the world.
- Chapter Five: "Of the works which God works in all in common and of five kinds of sinners"
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