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If it be all for naught, for nothingness
At last, why does God make the world so fair?
Why spill this golden splendor out across
The western hills, and light the silver lamp
Of eve? Why give me eyes to see, and soul
To love so strong and deep? Then, with a pang
This brightness stabs me through, and wakes within
Rebellious voice to cry against all death?
Why set this hunger for eternity
To gnaw my heartstrings through, if death ends all?
If death ends all, then evil must be good,
Wrong must be right, and beauty ugliness.
God is a Judas who betrays His Son,
And with a kiss, damns all the world to hell,-
If Christ rose not
again.
.- Anonymous, Unknown soldier, killed in World War I, included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison.
(This voice of reason and passion shines brightly, does it not? What part of this message speaks
to you?)
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IS 1:10, 16-20; PS 50:8-9, 16BC-17, 21 AND 23; MT 23:1-12
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
"Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold."
"Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?"
"When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God."
USCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
In the gospel Jesus is very clear about our responsibilities to one another: "You are all brothers".
This statement was shocking, even revolutionary. Kinship was the most important social force in the ancient Mid East. We are as responsible for the well-being of brothers and sisters in Christ as we are for our own blood relatives. As kin, their problems are automatically ours as well. So Jesus says.
The readings stress that following the rules, observing the religious rituals - though a good thing to do - are not
enough, not nearly enough. They're certainly not a substitute for lifting the burdens of others; they're not a substitute for supporting them in their woundedness, even when we can't heal those wounds.
Lent is a God-sent time to look about and see what burdens our expectations and proprieties have imposed on others - burdens we could help lift - should help lift. Pope Francis has told us that, when we enter so deeply into the wounds of our brothers and sisters that we feel them ourselves, we are filled with compassion - and ultimately with gratitude as well.
- by Robert P. Heaney
Creighton Online Ministries
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Selected Quotes from St. John of the Cross on the Journey of the Soul to God by Contemplation - from Living Flame of
Love
Stanza 3. #35. The soul feels withdrawn from all
things, together with a sweet aspiration of love and life in the spirit, and with an inclination to solitude and a sense of weariness with regard to creatures and the world.
#39. God is secretly speaking to the solitary soul while the soul keeps silence.
#41. The greater the progress it makes, the farther it must withdraw from itself walking in faith, believing and not
understanding; and thus it approaches God more nearly by _not_ understanding than by understanding.
- compiled by James and Tyra Arraj Paperback edition: Kindle edition available
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