Daily Retreat 02/25/08
2008 Feb 25 Mon: Lenten Weekday
2 Kgs 5: 1-15b/ Ps 41(42): 2. 3; 42(43): 3. 4/ Lk 4: 24-30
From today’s readings: “If the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it?... Athirst is my soul for the living God.... Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. ”
Extraordinary ways through ordinary means
As much as the Bible chronicles the extraordinary interventions of God in human history, an even more fundamental theme underlying all of scripture is that God is present and active through ordinary means as well. So often people sincerely pray, “God, speak to me, tell me what to do!” But, since they’re only looking to hear an extraordinary voice from Heaven, they tune out the ordinary method of hearing God’s Word, when it is proclaimed in Church.
Naaman the leper learned this hard-to-swallow insight long ago at the time of Elisha the prophet. Naaman was bitterly disappointed when Elisha proposed the ordinary action of washing in the Jordan river as the extraordinary means for God’s healing. When he was ready to leave in disgust without trying the ordinary sounding solution, Naaman’s servants reasoned with him that there was nothing to lose, and since he wouldn’t have hesitated to go along with an extraordinary suggestion, why not follow Elisha’s ordinary directions? “So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean!”
Similarly, our faith assures us that you and I can welcome God in our lives in so many ordinary ways, particularly through the sacraments and in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Now, if the Bible particularly recommended a certain extraordinary means for drawing closer to God (e.g., a 50-mile barefooted pilgrimage), then surely you and I would undertake that suggestion, no matter how demanding it might seem! Yet because our God so loved us, He committed Himself to quite ordinary means of assuring us of His presence, but because the means are so ordinary, so many people don’t bother taking advantage of them!
This Lent, learn the leper’s lesson about letting God touch our lives in extraordinary ways, but through ordinary means. So, go to confession, come to Church even more than once a week, read the Bible, commit yourself to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by Easter, celebrate your extraordinary closeness to God!
2 Kgs 5: 1-15b/ Ps 41(42): 2. 3; 42(43): 3. 4/ Lk 4: 24-30
From today’s readings: “If the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it?... Athirst is my soul for the living God.... Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. ”
Extraordinary ways through ordinary means
As much as the Bible chronicles the extraordinary interventions of God in human history, an even more fundamental theme underlying all of scripture is that God is present and active through ordinary means as well. So often people sincerely pray, “God, speak to me, tell me what to do!” But, since they’re only looking to hear an extraordinary voice from Heaven, they tune out the ordinary method of hearing God’s Word, when it is proclaimed in Church.
Naaman the leper learned this hard-to-swallow insight long ago at the time of Elisha the prophet. Naaman was bitterly disappointed when Elisha proposed the ordinary action of washing in the Jordan river as the extraordinary means for God’s healing. When he was ready to leave in disgust without trying the ordinary sounding solution, Naaman’s servants reasoned with him that there was nothing to lose, and since he wouldn’t have hesitated to go along with an extraordinary suggestion, why not follow Elisha’s ordinary directions? “So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean!”
Similarly, our faith assures us that you and I can welcome God in our lives in so many ordinary ways, particularly through the sacraments and in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Now, if the Bible particularly recommended a certain extraordinary means for drawing closer to God (e.g., a 50-mile barefooted pilgrimage), then surely you and I would undertake that suggestion, no matter how demanding it might seem! Yet because our God so loved us, He committed Himself to quite ordinary means of assuring us of His presence, but because the means are so ordinary, so many people don’t bother taking advantage of them!
This Lent, learn the leper’s lesson about letting God touch our lives in extraordinary ways, but through ordinary means. So, go to confession, come to Church even more than once a week, read the Bible, commit yourself to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by Easter, celebrate your extraordinary closeness to God!
posted by FrPitstick | 2/23/2008
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