Daily Retreat 06/23/08

2008 Jun 23 Mon: Ordinary Weekday 2 Kgs 17: 5-8. 13-15a. 18/ Ps 59(60): 3. 4-5. 12-13/ Mt 7: 1-5   From today's readings:  "Give up your evil ways and keep My commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your fathers and which I sent you by My servants the prophets....   Help us with Your right hand, O Lord, and answer us....  Stop judging, that you may not be judged...."   Truth or Consequence   Each of us has experienced in some way the negative consequences that haunt the betrayal of truth, whether one is simply caught in a lie, or life becomes restlessly complicated when enmeshed with what Sir Walter Scott called the "tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive."   Likewise, many of the biblical reflections (particularly in the Old Testament) drive home this insight of the dire aftermath of straying from the Truth of God.  The First and Second Books of Kings not only chronicle the history of the monarchs in Israel and Judah, but the books also pound out blunt conclusions about how abandonment of true faith leads to disaster, as when Shalmaneser besieged Samaria around 725 BC.   To be sure, the risk of unpleasant consequences can hardly be the sole inspiration for our faith, which is meant to be a whole-hearted embrace of God's grace lovingly reaching out to us.  But just as the sour complications of a lie can providentially be the bitter but best medicine to cure the liar, so the biblical debacles offer the sober but sure cure for the disease of anemic faith!     P.S. Please especially remember me in your family prayers as I celebrate today the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood - 14 joyful and fulfilling years in this happy vocation of serving God and His people!  Coincidentally, today is also the start of my final week as pastor of Our Lady of the Valley parish in Okanogan - my new assignment at Mt. Angel Seminary begins on July 1st! Fr. Rory Pitstick Our Lady of the Valley Parish 2511 N. Elmway Okanogan WA 98840 USA (509) 422-5049 "Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui." John 3:30