Daily Retreat 11/21/07
2007 Nov 21 Wed:Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary M
2 Mc 7:1. 20-31/ Ps 16(17):1bcd. 5-6. 8b and 15/ Lk 19:11-28
From today’s readings: “Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.... Lord, when Your glory appears, my joy will be full.... While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because He was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately....”
A Most Admirable Mother
Nearly all mothers, of course, strive to instill in their children the thirst for excellence and commitment to high moral standards. The Maccabean mother presented in the first reading had such dedication to this responsibility that literally, with her own dying breath, she exhorts her sons to faithfulness even unto their own dying breath.
There are two aspects to this dying mother’s undying witness: first, she clearly recognizes God’s sovereignty, His primary and principal role in the creation of her children’s life, that He, and He alone “is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man's beginning.” So, while not denying her own essential, but necessarily ancillary role, she is aware that she is not the One who gives the breath of life. Thus, the second point: she and her sons owe their first allegiance not to themselves or to each other, but to God, the Creator.
May the mothers (and fathers!) of this day begin and focus their own children’s instruction with those same crucial insights!
2 Mc 7:1. 20-31/ Ps 16(17):1bcd. 5-6. 8b and 15/ Lk 19:11-28
From today’s readings: “Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.... Lord, when Your glory appears, my joy will be full.... While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because He was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately....”
A Most Admirable Mother
Nearly all mothers, of course, strive to instill in their children the thirst for excellence and commitment to high moral standards. The Maccabean mother presented in the first reading had such dedication to this responsibility that literally, with her own dying breath, she exhorts her sons to faithfulness even unto their own dying breath.
There are two aspects to this dying mother’s undying witness: first, she clearly recognizes God’s sovereignty, His primary and principal role in the creation of her children’s life, that He, and He alone “is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man's beginning.” So, while not denying her own essential, but necessarily ancillary role, she is aware that she is not the One who gives the breath of life. Thus, the second point: she and her sons owe their first allegiance not to themselves or to each other, but to God, the Creator.
May the mothers (and fathers!) of this day begin and focus their own children’s instruction with those same crucial insights!
posted by FrPitstick | 11/20/2007
<< Home