|
Christ prays for unity, not uniformity. Where there are great pressures for uniformity, we should be suspicious. Christians do not have to look, dress, think, and act alike. The church is not an assembly line producing only Fords.
- Joe Aldrich
(Individuality, unity, and uniformity: how do you experience the tension between these?)
|
|
Eph 2:1-10; Ps 100:1b-2, 3, 4ab, 4c-5
Lk 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable.
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall
say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself
but is not rich in what matters to God.” USCCB lectionary
|
Reflection on the Scripture |
“One’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Most of us don’t build barns to hold our stuff. After our garages and attics and closets are full, we rent space. The self-storage industry claims over $22 billion in annual revenue and over 2 billion square feet rented out to storage. Self-storage is an apt name, for we give a little bit of ourselves to each thing we own — our time and
energy to buy it, clean it, walk around it, store it, wonder what to do with it. And someday, someone we love will inherit all this. Lucky them. There’s only so much space in our closets. A home can hold a few beautiful and useful things. Too much, and it ceases to be beautiful or useful. The same is true for our hearts and minds. We can only hold so much. If our homes are cluttered, chances are our hearts and minds will be cluttered, too.
“Lord Jesus, help us to make room for you and those you place on our path today.”
- from
preacherexchange.com
mycatholic.com
|
|
Theological Gems from Emile Merch's Theology of the Mystical Body - selected by Jim and Tyra Arraj
Book III: Christ
Chapter 11: Nature of the Redemption
369. Through the grace of the Incarnation, the Son, the assumed human nature, and the regenerated human race are all united.
The grace of divinization flows to Christians from Christ and hence from the Son. That is the essence of grace. This divinization must have a "filial" character and must sanctify
men by fulfilling its sole purpose, which is to make them worthy members of Him who is the Son.
|
Please support this outreach with a tax-deductible donation.
|
|
|
