God is doing a greater work in us, and that can only come as we learn to trust him no matter how dark the days and sleepless the nights. And it is only
as we have been through the darkness with him that what we know with our heads slides down into our hearts, and our hearts no longer demand answers. The Why? becomes unimportant when we believe that God can and will redeem the pain for our good and his glory…. When I put the sovereignty of God beside his unfailing love, my heart can rest.
- Verdell Davis
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Eph 3:14-21; Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 11-12, 18-19
Lk 12:49-53
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will
be divided,
three against two and two against three;
a father will be divided against his son
and a son against his father,
a mother against her daughter
and a daughter against her mother,
a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
“Not peace, but division.”
Is anyone comfortable with this Gospel passage? My question belies the problem. We seek comfort from our religion, not challenge. We seek justification, assurance that the status quo — maybe with a few tweaks — is just fine. That nice is good enough and all that can reasonably be asked of us. One commentator suggests that
faith in Jesus divides the eager from the contented. Perhaps the division is also within each of us, that part which longs for the easy life against that part which strives to be a true and worthy disciple. We can be the latter if we simply stop protecting the former.
“Lord Jesus, help us
live today without regard for our own comfort.”
- from preacherexchange.com
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 28
“Each brotherly compassion that man hath on his fellow Christians, with charity, it is Christ in him”
THUS I saw how Christ hath compassion on us for the cause of sin. And right as I was afore in the [Shewing of the] Passion of Christ fulfilled with pain and compassion, like so in this [sight] I was fulfilled, in part, with compassion of all mine
even-Christians—for that well, well beloved people that shall be saved. For God’s servants, Holy Church, shall be shaken in sorrow and anguish, tribulation in this world, as men shake a cloth in the wind.
And as to this our Lord answered in this manner: A great thing shall I make hereof in Heaven of endless worship and everlasting joys.
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