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The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, June 4, 2002 The Ninth Week in Ordinary Time Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word: 2 Peter 3:12-15,17-18 Psalm 90:2-4,10, 14,16 Mark 12:13-17 A reflection on today's Scripture . . . . "We're waiting for what God promised" (see: 1 Peter 3:13) Long for the day of His coming when the heavens and the earth and all the elements will dissolve in flame. How can we hope to hope for such a thing? Holy detachment. Holy detachment allows us to love the things of the world in proper proportion to their good, but to be willing to give them up for a greater good. This detachment must be slowly cultivated with the help of the Holy Spirit. One begins by focusing on the things that matter -- a new heaven and a new earth -- pristine, unfallen, radiant and splendid, the resurrection of the Garden of Eden without the possibility of fall. If you focus on something as this as the goal then all of the things of Earth pale in comparison. You begin to place the right value on all the things you own and have. You begin to realize that all we have or seem to have is in actuality only a loan for the duration of our time on Earth and the best thing we can do with them is to offer them back to the Lord Himself. In so doing, you do not become so attached that you can be dragged away from the Lord. Too often we have attachments that pull at us. The Lord told us that where our treasure is, there will we find our heart. If we have our hearts set on things of this world, no matter how noble, good, and pure, we are falling short of the possibilities in store for us. No matter how wonderful and pure the goal, the ultimate goal must always be the realization of God's kingdom. There is no earthly good that even begins to compare. Let us follow then the advice of the psalmist who writes in Psalm 34, "Taste and see how good the Lord is." By tasting only earthly tastes, they become like sawdust; by seeing only earthly sights, they become dull gray. As much as we may delight in them, we delight much more in the Creator of them. After all, it is God we worship not the creation! - JuandelaCruz, T.O.Carm. YOU CAN HELP to evangelize the Word of God: Please recommend our website to your friends and Catholic webmasters. The meditations are in English & Spanish at http://www.borg.com/~joachim/DailyMeds.html (case sensitive). ARCHIVED Meditations: 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/ |
Title: Meditation: Tuesday, June 4, 2002
