The Catholic Calendar for Wednesday, October 17, 2001
The Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Romans 2:1-11
Psalm 62:2-3,6-7,9
Luke 11:42-46
Full text: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm
A Reflection on Today's Scripture:
Karl Marx once said that religion was the "opium of the people." It
seems to me, he never experienced - or perhaps misread - the calm
that our omnipotent and merciful God extends to those who humbly
submit to Him and seek to know and do His will.
The peace of Christ is not like the blunting action of narcotics
which veil underlying discomfort and anxiety. Instead that peace
allows even excruciating pain and otherwise-incapacitating worry to
exist, to be coped with and productively examined.
Christ, by his life, death and resurrection, accomplished for us, not
only eternal salvation, but the means of temporal survival, sanity
and sanctity. It requires however, some effort. We must first
recognize our relative ailments, infirmities and sicknesses; we must
want to be cured or at least feel better; and we must seek Him who
alone can heal us.
Let us then not be bereft of solutions for our daily trials or be
intellectually blackmailed into thinking that faith in God produces
at best, a self-induced sense of false well-being. Instead, as
Monsignor Joseph Champlin* says at the conclusion of his radio
presentations for strategies in a stress-filled world. "You've tried
everything else, why not try God?"
To begin a daily regime of therapy for today's ills, consider reading
just the Responsorial Psalm for the day. You might find it isn't hard
to swallow - it isn't bitter and it works!
Only in God is my soul at rest,
from him comes my salvation
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold;
I shall not be disturbed at all.
Trust in him at all times, O my people!
Pour out your hearts before him;
God is our refuge. Ps 61(62):2-3, 6-9
- Donna Raye Nelson, ocds
*Msgr. Joseph Champlin is rector of the Catholic Cathedral of the
Immaculate Conception, Syracuse, NY
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