Title: Meditation: Tuesday, February 19, 2002
The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 34:4-7,16-19
Matthew 6:7-15
A reflection on today's Scripture . . . .
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and soak the earth,
so shall my word be. (see: Isaiah 55:10-11)
As the rain produces the crops, which in turn are harvested and give
bread to eat, so too God's holy word. Reading scripture is food.
Interestingly, the King James Bible terms scripture as "strong meat."
That is food that fortifies, strengthens, and supports.
Reading God's word is a direct meeting with Jesus because He indeed
is present, although sometimes hidden in all of scripture. And this
verse is a prime example. The word that goes forth from God's mouth
might indeed be seen as the Word made flesh. This Word cannot return
to God empty, for God has invested in Him all power to save
humankind.
How do we know this Word? By reading the word of God which tells of
Him. Ignorance of scriptures is ignorance of Jesus Christ. Scriptures
should be the primary food and drink of all Christians. It should be
the source of our meditations and the spring of our devotions. When
we recite our rosaries, each of the mysteries is drawn from scripture
and we can make a deep meditation on Jesus and His holy Mother by
drawing on the image of the word in each of the mysteries. The
recitation of the Rosary is a rehearsal of some of the prime points
of our salvation story. Indeed, the Rosary is a compact summation of
scripture---the prayers themselves are drawn from the word of God.
So, by the word, we come to know the Word, and we are transformed by
that knowledge. The more intimately we come to know the Word, the
more our lives are changed and improved. Scripture, the word, is one
key road to this goal.
- JuandelaCruz T.O.Carm. ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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All scripture quotes are from the Douay-Rheims edition of the Catholic Bible.
Full text from the New American Bible: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm
Lives of the Saints: http://www.christdesert.org/public_texts/martyrology/
