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Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and meditation are good; but then, they are only good at times and occasions, in a certain degree,
and must be used and governed with such caution as we eat and drink, and refresh ourselves, or they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance. But the Spirit of Prayer is for all times and occasions; it is a lamp that is to be always burning, a light to be ever shining: everything calls for it; everything is to be done in it, and governed by it, because it is and means and wills nothing else but the whole totality of the soul, not doing this or that, but wholly, incessantly given up to
God to be where and what and how He pleases.
- William Law (1686-1761), letter XI in Works of Rev. William Law, v. IX
(". . . to be where and what and
how He pleases.")
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IS 49:1-6; PS 71:1-6, 15 AND 17; JN 13:21-33, 36-38
R. I will sing of your salvation.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, and
deliver me;
incline your ear to me, and save me.
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety,
for you are my
rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
For you are my hope, O Lord;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother's womb you are my strength.
My mouth shall declare your justice,
day by day your salvation.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
USCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
This Tuesday of Passion Week, we begin to follow Jesus as he interacts with his disciples during the Last Supper. Today's Gospel passage focuses on Jesus' prophecies about Judas' betrayal and Peter's denial. He knows of Judas' plan to turn him over to the religious authorities. (To compel Jesus to assert himself as a revolutionary? To profit somehow from the inevitable rejection of Jesus? We can only guess Judas' motive.) Jesus also knows of Peter's weakness and how, after
the arrest in the garden, that weakness will lead to his denial of even knowing Jesus. And still Jesus allows the betrayal and the denial to unfold without exposure or confrontation. Why? Because he trusts the Father, as we learn from Luke's report of the word from the cross, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
Jesus may also be sustained by the vision of Isaiah expressed in today's first
reading, the passage we have come to call the Second Servant Song. It is clear from the other parts of the New Testament that the Evangelists, and Paul too-when they wrote after Easter--understood Jesus to have fulfilled the role of Isaiah's Suffering Servant. It is also likely that Jesus understood his role as Messiah as fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy. For though the Servant had reason to despair ("I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength"), he is
assured by the Lord God that he will not only restore the tribes of Israel ("It is too little . . . for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel") but, even more, he will become "a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."
However much Jesus, in his humanity, may have envisioned this outcome, ever since Easter and
Pentecost, Jesus' followers have applied these prophetic verses to interpret and proclaim the mission of the Church after the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The fact is, Jesus was able to sustain the betrayal and denial of some of his closest friends and that outcome of gathering the people of Israel and enabling his followers to become a lumen gentium, "a light to the nations."
- by Dennis Hamm, S.J.
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
Second Redaction
Stanza 1. #22. The virtues and properties of God, which are perfect in the extreme, war against the habits and properties of the soul, which are imperfect in the extreme, so that the soul has to suffer the existence
of two contraries within it. This flame of love makes the soul feel its hardness and aridity.
#28. The soul says to God, "Perfect me now if it be Thy will."
- compiled by James and Tyra
Arraj Paperback edition: Kindle edition available
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