Being rational and free, human beings are capable of being diabolic. This is a feat which no animal can duplicate, for no animal is sufficiently clever, sufficiently purposeful, sufficiently strong-willed or sufficiently moral to be evil. (We should note that, to be diabolic on the grand scale, one must, like Milton's Satan, exhibit in a high degree all the moral virtues, except charity and wisdom.)
 - Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy

(". . . except charity and wisdom." Pray to grow in these virtues.)

EX 11:10-12:14;    PS 116:12-13, 15-18;    MT 12:1-8

R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.

To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.





The Gospel reading from Matthew about the disciples eating the grain on the sabbath shows how the law becomes treated as an end in itself, and is used to imprison or condemn rather than liberate.  Because the guardians of the law are usually the people with some authority or power (and often a great deal of responsibility to uphold and protect the law) they can come across to us as nit-picking and controlling - which, to be fair, is clearly the way Matthew seems to intend to portray the Pharisees in this passage.  But without any law of remembrance and loving respect for the rituals of God, the critical message of salvation is lost.

So the trap seems to be being caught between corrupting the law by making it an end in itself to control others,  or neglecting it altogether which deprives us and other humans of communities of the means of remembrance of God's saving work.   How do we remain focused on law or command as GIFT of God's self-disclosure about his love and liberation?  Human reason plays a part; certainly the desire to share God's freedom rather than oppression does as well; God's grace which stirs our minds and hearts to remembrance of the purpose of the law in the first place, prayerful consideration of law as means not end,  all contribute to enabling us to have a reasonable respect - even LOVE for - the  "commands" or word of God that liberate us, without making these media of God's love into false gods by idolizing them.

- by Eileen Burke-Sullivan

Selected Quotes from St. John of the Cross on the Journey of the Soul to God by Contemplation

- from Ascent of Mt. Carmel

Bk. 3. Ch. 26. #4. The spiritual man is perceptive of the things of God, one who penetrates and judges all things, even the deep things of God.

Bk. 3. Ch. 32. #1. The heart and the joy of will is withdrawn from all that is not God and concentrated on Him alone. 

#2. In this elevation of joy in Him, God gives testimony of Who He is. "In a desert way, dry and pathless, I appeared before You to see Your power and glory." (Ps. 62:3). 

#4. The soul is exalted in purrest faith, which God then infuses and augments much more abundantly. As a result the soul enjoys divine and lofty nowledge by means of the dark and naked habit of faith.

- compiled by James and Tyra Arraj