Title: Meditation: Monday, April 15, 2002
The Catholic Calendar for Monday, April 15, 2002
The Third Week of Easter
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 6:8-15
Psalm 119:23-24,26-27,29-30
John 6:22-29
A reflection on today's Scripture:
"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
(John 6:29)
The greatest danger to humanity originates within the very heart of man.
It is his insistence on gaining and keeping the right to "self", to
think, do and say whatever he pleases regardless of the consequences.
Refusal to believe in and yield to God's wisdom essentially renders
hearts like walled cities, armed against and impregnable to God's Word,
ready to strike out at any who challenge their values or way of life.
For two thousand years Christians have suffered a variety of martyrdoms.
The reading from Acts depicts the events that led to Stephen's death by
stoning, the first to be killed for witnessing to Jesus Christ as the
awaited Messiah. He publicly traced God's salvation plan as recorded in
Scripture and ended by accusing Israel's religious hierarchy of
betraying God's living Word by crucifying Him, implying that their
hearts had become so hardened that they were no longer able to perceive
the things of God.
In today's Gospel Jesus was asked how one is to do the work of God. His
reply was believing in the one sent by God, meaning Himself. Believing,
however means more than just a mental assent to Jesus being the Savior
of mankind. True belief is a work of the heart; because God loved us
first, we are to love Him in return, which can only be done if we come
to know and live by the truths inherent in God's love. This means we are
to obey God's law as fulfilled by Christ in all our thoughts, words and
deeds.
Jesus warns his hearers that the greatest obstacle to following Him is
feeding our desires with worldly, perishable things rather than those of
God which will endure to eternal life, those which spring from hearts
filled with God's own love.
Lord of all love and truth,
we thank you for having led us from death to a new life.
May our hearts overflow with Your life,
that You may bless others through us. Amen.
- Marie L. Bocko, ocds ([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/
