Daily Retreat 02/11/07
2007 Feb 11 SUN: SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Jer 17: 5-8/ Ps 1: 1-2. 3. 4. 6 (40: 5a)/ 1 Cor 15: 12. 16-20/ Lk 6: 17. 20-26
From today’s readings: “Cursed is he who trusts in man.... blessed is he who hopes in the Lord.... If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable of all.... Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man....”
#1 Psalm
In a way, the first psalm is a summary of the entire Bible, for all of Scripture purposes to prove the past, present, and future blessings that are concomitant with a life lived loving God, and the inherent curse and woeful wretchedness of the one who turns away from the Lord.
Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord, who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on His law day and night! To the world, Jesus explains, such a man is generally poor, since his focus is on spiritual, rather than material, enrichment; such a one is often hungry from fasting and self-denial; he weeps for his own sins and the sins of the world; he is despised, excluded, and insulted on account of the Son of Man.
Poor, hungry, weeping, and despised - in what sense, then, is such a one who trusts in the Lord to be considered blessed? He is blessed in the past, because the Lord engendered him in life-giving water of new birth, and planted his seed so his roots could always reach the running stream of sacramental grace. He is blessed in the present, because that perennial tap of grace enables him to bear good fruit for the Lord even under the most adverse conditions. He is blessed in the future, because he has a share in the fulfillment of all blessings, the Lord’s resurrection from the dead!
But not so the wicked, not so! Those whose heart turns away from the Lord, those who follow the counsel of the wicked, who walk in the way of sinners and sit in the company of the insolent, those who possess only material wealth, who are bloated from indulgence in feeding selfish desires, and laugh off their sins as inconsequential, and are hailed as worldly successes - they are like chaff, which the wind drives away. Indeed they are cursed, if only because they are smugly content and complacent in their barren, withered lives, cut off by their sins from the source of abundant life and blessing.
Ultimately, there are then only these two alternatives: the blessings of embracing God, and the curse of turning away from Him. Which of these choices does your life reflect?
Jer 17: 5-8/ Ps 1: 1-2. 3. 4. 6 (40: 5a)/ 1 Cor 15: 12. 16-20/ Lk 6: 17. 20-26
From today’s readings: “Cursed is he who trusts in man.... blessed is he who hopes in the Lord.... If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable of all.... Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man....”
#1 Psalm
In a way, the first psalm is a summary of the entire Bible, for all of Scripture purposes to prove the past, present, and future blessings that are concomitant with a life lived loving God, and the inherent curse and woeful wretchedness of the one who turns away from the Lord.
Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord, who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on His law day and night! To the world, Jesus explains, such a man is generally poor, since his focus is on spiritual, rather than material, enrichment; such a one is often hungry from fasting and self-denial; he weeps for his own sins and the sins of the world; he is despised, excluded, and insulted on account of the Son of Man.
Poor, hungry, weeping, and despised - in what sense, then, is such a one who trusts in the Lord to be considered blessed? He is blessed in the past, because the Lord engendered him in life-giving water of new birth, and planted his seed so his roots could always reach the running stream of sacramental grace. He is blessed in the present, because that perennial tap of grace enables him to bear good fruit for the Lord even under the most adverse conditions. He is blessed in the future, because he has a share in the fulfillment of all blessings, the Lord’s resurrection from the dead!
But not so the wicked, not so! Those whose heart turns away from the Lord, those who follow the counsel of the wicked, who walk in the way of sinners and sit in the company of the insolent, those who possess only material wealth, who are bloated from indulgence in feeding selfish desires, and laugh off their sins as inconsequential, and are hailed as worldly successes - they are like chaff, which the wind drives away. Indeed they are cursed, if only because they are smugly content and complacent in their barren, withered lives, cut off by their sins from the source of abundant life and blessing.
Ultimately, there are then only these two alternatives: the blessings of embracing God, and the curse of turning away from Him. Which of these choices does your life reflect?
posted by FrPitstick | 2/06/2007
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