Title: Meditation: Monday, February 25, 2002
The Catholic Calendar for Monday, February 25, 2002
The Second Week of Lent
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Daniel 9:4-10
Psalm 79:8-9,11,13
Luke 6:36-38
A Reflection on Today's Scripture:
"For with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you." (Luke 6:38)
When I was a child, TV was unknown and radio was king. One of my
favorite "sit-coms" was called "Fibber McGee and Molly." What inspired
my childish glee was Fibber's closet, a mad jumble of junk crammed full
to the door. The high point of comedy in each episode was reached when
the closet door was opened and for the next 40 or 50 seconds the "sound
effects man" produced a cacophony of noises depicting a deluge of
objects.
While the analogy may seem far-fetched, Jesus' words in today's Gospel
speak clearly to us about our interior lives. Some people's hearts are
like closets so filled with useless clutter that there is no room for
God. Whenever they speak or act, junk comes crashing out; we see and
hear little from them of God's goodness. Lent is a time for all of us to
do some serious house-cleaning.
We should not interpret Christ's words to mean that God deliberately
withholds His blessings from those who lack mercy, kindness, generosity
or justice. The truth is that we can only receive God's goodness in the
measure that we clean out all our selfish, self-centered and sometimes
nasty ways. Being emptied of self, we are then ready to receive God's
life, participate in it and share it with others.
God created us to be a capacity for Himself, meant to be filled with His
holiness. Apart from Him, devoid of His love and its many
manifestations, we are "nothing." As St. Paul so aptly puts it, we're
empty gongs, clashing cymbals, noise with no substance or purpose, junk
falling out of an over-stuffed closet.
Blessed Lord,
cleanse our hearts of all that is not of Your Word;
dispel our interior darkness
and replace it with the light of Christ. Amen.
- Marie L. Bocko, ocds ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
YOU CAN HELP to evangelize the Word of God: Please recommend our website
to your friends and Catholic webmasters. The Daily Meditations appear online
in English & Spanish at: http://homepage.mac.com/ojoachim3/DailyMeds.html
ARCHIVED Meditations at: http://www.abcsoffaith.com/quiet/quietplace.html
and at: http://www.mail-archive.com/dailymed%40saturn.nibcomp.com
For ALL communications, including subscribe/unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(c)2002 The Way, The Truth, The Life. Permission granted to make reprints
of the meditations or to post on any web page, except for profit.
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/
