Daily Retreat 10/07/07
2007 Oct 7 SUN: TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
Hb 1: 2-3; 2: 2-4/ Ps 94(95): 1-2. 6-7. 8-9 (8)/ 2 Tm 1: 6-8. 13-14/ Lk 17: 5-10
From today’s readings: “The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.... If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.... For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.... Increase our faith.... ”
Respect Life Sunday
When you or I give something as a present for a loved one's birthday, or anniversary, or Christmas, before dressing our present in bright, cheery wrapping and ribbons, and crowning it with a shiny, beautiful bow representing the bonds of affection which inspired our gift - before this whole ennobling ritual, there's first the perfunctory custom of tearing off the present's price tag.
We remove the price tag, one might initially suppose, to make the gift easier to receive, to make it harder for the recipient to feel awkward because the gift is too expensive, or conversely, to feel offended, because the gift is too cheap.
However, the American mind is endowed by our commercial culture with the involuntary habit of stamping a price tag on everything - with the speed and ease of scanning a bar code, our mind's computer can match almost any object with it's amazingly accurate pricelist database, continually updated with the stream of advertisements downloaded constantly whether we're online or offline.
“Oh yes - those run about $12.95 - I remember seeing the ad in yesterday's paper.” OR “Look - he just got one of the closeout '07 models - sticker price of around $28 grand, when you include the options.” It's part of our culture!
So, in a way, it's futile to remove a present's price tag, because the recipient will reflexively, even unintentionally, stamp a new one on, and generally, they'll be little difference between the actual and imagined retail price.
Yet our custom of giving and receiving presents with price tags removed might also inspire you and me to consciously and conscientiously adopt our innate standard of appraisal for all gifts, as opposed to the falsely inflated standard imposed on us. For we've been brainwashed to depend on the commercial standard, the dollar standard, which we’ve acquired at unconscionable cost from the supermarket of the world.
But our naturally inborn standard, the standard by which even our Creator appraises His own work, is the Gospel Standard of Life. For in the final analysis, nothing has true value except that which overflows with the creative energy of life; that which gleams with the polish of the loving blood, sweat, and tears of life; that which glows with the splendorous spark of life, even when the passing of years reduces that spark to a flickering flame.
Rather than conceding that the more dollars something (or someone!) costs, the more valuable it is, instead, as Christians, you and I are charged with upholding the Standard of Life, employing it in the assessment and evaluation of the world and our own decisions. For instinctively, who of us values a truckload of free merchandise samples more than a simple flower presented by a child as a sign of her love? Those who bow to the dollar standard only value a rosary if it's made of gold, but as Christians, we hold that a plastic bead rosary prayed every day for the life of the unborn is worth infinitely more than a diamond rosary locked in a safe!
Unlike the dollar standard, which fluctuates, and can be devalued and compromised, there's no room for haggling over the Standard of Life, because it's written clearly on the tablets of our hearts, so that one can read it readily. Oh, harden not your hearts to this Standard! Whether we're rich or poor, you and I can give only one truly price-less gift, the gift of our life, whether that gift be vowed in holy matrimony to a spouse and children, or that gift be vowed in sacred service to Jesus the Bridegroom, and to all God's children.
Only by adopting the Standard of Life in preference to the secular "standard of living," can we rediscover the sacredness of an uncontracepted conjugal embrace overflowing with life! Only by cultivating our Standard of Life can you and I fathom how faith, even the size of a mustard seed, can uproot barren trees of despairing worldly entanglements and equivocations! Only by openly employing the Standard of Life as our perennial litmus test, can you and I fully confront and conquer the destruction and violence levied against us! Only by guarding the rich trust of the Standard of Life can you and I make our own creditable deposit to the ledgers of history! Because, you see, regardless of how much money bears the words, “In God we trust,” there’s still only one currency bearing God’s trust, and that is the Gospel, the Standard of Life!
Hb 1: 2-3; 2: 2-4/ Ps 94(95): 1-2. 6-7. 8-9 (8)/ 2 Tm 1: 6-8. 13-14/ Lk 17: 5-10
From today’s readings: “The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.... If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.... For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.... Increase our faith.... ”
Respect Life Sunday
When you or I give something as a present for a loved one's birthday, or anniversary, or Christmas, before dressing our present in bright, cheery wrapping and ribbons, and crowning it with a shiny, beautiful bow representing the bonds of affection which inspired our gift - before this whole ennobling ritual, there's first the perfunctory custom of tearing off the present's price tag.
We remove the price tag, one might initially suppose, to make the gift easier to receive, to make it harder for the recipient to feel awkward because the gift is too expensive, or conversely, to feel offended, because the gift is too cheap.
However, the American mind is endowed by our commercial culture with the involuntary habit of stamping a price tag on everything - with the speed and ease of scanning a bar code, our mind's computer can match almost any object with it's amazingly accurate pricelist database, continually updated with the stream of advertisements downloaded constantly whether we're online or offline.
“Oh yes - those run about $12.95 - I remember seeing the ad in yesterday's paper.” OR “Look - he just got one of the closeout '07 models - sticker price of around $28 grand, when you include the options.” It's part of our culture!
So, in a way, it's futile to remove a present's price tag, because the recipient will reflexively, even unintentionally, stamp a new one on, and generally, they'll be little difference between the actual and imagined retail price.
Yet our custom of giving and receiving presents with price tags removed might also inspire you and me to consciously and conscientiously adopt our innate standard of appraisal for all gifts, as opposed to the falsely inflated standard imposed on us. For we've been brainwashed to depend on the commercial standard, the dollar standard, which we’ve acquired at unconscionable cost from the supermarket of the world.
But our naturally inborn standard, the standard by which even our Creator appraises His own work, is the Gospel Standard of Life. For in the final analysis, nothing has true value except that which overflows with the creative energy of life; that which gleams with the polish of the loving blood, sweat, and tears of life; that which glows with the splendorous spark of life, even when the passing of years reduces that spark to a flickering flame.
Rather than conceding that the more dollars something (or someone!) costs, the more valuable it is, instead, as Christians, you and I are charged with upholding the Standard of Life, employing it in the assessment and evaluation of the world and our own decisions. For instinctively, who of us values a truckload of free merchandise samples more than a simple flower presented by a child as a sign of her love? Those who bow to the dollar standard only value a rosary if it's made of gold, but as Christians, we hold that a plastic bead rosary prayed every day for the life of the unborn is worth infinitely more than a diamond rosary locked in a safe!
Unlike the dollar standard, which fluctuates, and can be devalued and compromised, there's no room for haggling over the Standard of Life, because it's written clearly on the tablets of our hearts, so that one can read it readily. Oh, harden not your hearts to this Standard! Whether we're rich or poor, you and I can give only one truly price-less gift, the gift of our life, whether that gift be vowed in holy matrimony to a spouse and children, or that gift be vowed in sacred service to Jesus the Bridegroom, and to all God's children.
Only by adopting the Standard of Life in preference to the secular "standard of living," can we rediscover the sacredness of an uncontracepted conjugal embrace overflowing with life! Only by cultivating our Standard of Life can you and I fathom how faith, even the size of a mustard seed, can uproot barren trees of despairing worldly entanglements and equivocations! Only by openly employing the Standard of Life as our perennial litmus test, can you and I fully confront and conquer the destruction and violence levied against us! Only by guarding the rich trust of the Standard of Life can you and I make our own creditable deposit to the ledgers of history! Because, you see, regardless of how much money bears the words, “In God we trust,” there’s still only one currency bearing God’s trust, and that is the Gospel, the Standard of Life!
posted by FrPitstick | 10/06/2007
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