FW: Meditation:

[Joachim]

Title: FW: Meditation:

The Catholic Calendar for Saturday, July 20, 2002     Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:     Micah 2:1-5     Psalm 10:1-4,7-8,14     Matthew 12:14-21 A Reflection on Today's Scripture: We have an interesting combination of concepts in today's readings: a 'provoked' God with the power to punish in the reading from Micah, and a patient, gentle, merciful God, in Christ, as described in the gospel of Matthew. There is also the concept of 'timing' in the gospel with the description of the bruised reed and the smoking flax being left until the time of 'victory'. Man's ways and God's ways are often very different as regards to timing. It can be frightening to consider a 'provoked God'; but periodically it might help us to consider that God is a God of justice. We like, instead, to dwell on the infinite gentleness and mercy of God. Even as Christ depicted throughout His life, there are times for both. We saw Christ provoked and angry in the temple with the marketing ventures; yet, many times we heard of Christ's merciful behavior. There are times when we, as followers of Christ, need to demonstrate a just anger, rather than to set a poor example and/or condone evil. We also need to be forgiving when the situation warrants it. Timing is important in our reactions of just anger or forgiveness. We have the example of Christ source of all Truth, Justice and Mercy as our guide! - Joan of Jesus, ocds  ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) YOU CAN HELP to evangelize the Word of God: Please recommend our website to your friends and Catholic webmasters 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@saturn.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. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms (c)1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. 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/