Message of 12-7-15

Published: Mon, 12/07/15

A Daily Spiritual Seed
Monday: December 7, 2015
Message of the Day
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.
 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(What door are you waiting to have opened for you these days?)
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Readings of the Day
IS 35:1-10;    PS 85:9AB AND 10-14;    LK 5:17-26

R.  Our God will come to save us!

I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD –for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.

Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.

The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and salvation, along the way of his steps.

USCCB lectionary
Reflection on the Scripture
"Who is this Man Who utters blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" –Luke 5:21

Jesus always has forgiveness on His mind. The roof literally falls in, but Jesus responds: "My friend, your sins are forgiven you" (Lk 5:20). A man lies before Him paralyzed and Jesus says: "The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Lk 5:24). The apostles ask Jesus to teach them to pray and Jesus replies: "Forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us" (Mt 6:12). Even while hanging on the cross, among His last words Jesus kept saying: "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34).

"You can depend on this as worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tm 1:15). "I tell you, there will likewise be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent" (Lk 15:7). Jesus is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). He is preoccupied with the forgiveness of sin.​

PRAYER:     Jesus, baptize me in repentance. Send the Spirit to search my heart. May I repent on the deepest level.

PROMISE: "They will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee." –Is 35:10

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Spiritual Reading
Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body
- selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj

II: Theology of Original Sin According to Christ’s Unity and Redemption

163. (At the beginning) marriage in that state would have been a sort of equivalent of our present sacraments.

Humanity, in the full, supernatural measure of its existence, deprived itself of the gifts that were to have made it more happy and more unified by making it divine. But the offer of the gift was not retracted; the sin had been foreseenÉ and nature remained destined for the gift. Hence nature is in opposition to the gift and to itself, in absolute interior disorder, in sin. There is sin only in relation to the supernatural order, and because of God's persistent, obstinate goodness.
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