Good News Reflection
Thursday of the 2nd week of Advent
December 9, 2010
Available as a Good News Ministries Podcast:
http://gnm.org/DailyReflections/podcasts
Today's Readings:
Isaiah 41:13-20
Ps 145:1, 9-13ab
Matthew 11:11-15
http://www.usccb.org/nab/120910.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_12_09.mp3
To find peace, heed carefully what you hear
Think of a mountain you've been facing: What overwhelming problem has been afflicting you? What need is unmet? What have you been waiting for that would make life better? In other words, why do you need a Messiah? From what do you need to be delivered?
Isaiah says, "The afflicted and the needy seek water in vain." What have you been praying for in vain?
Look at Jesus' last words in today's Gospel reading: "Heed carefully what you hear!" God has already been telling you how to thresh the mountains in your life and crush them. He has been sending you a storm that will scatter the particles of your crushed-down mountain. But OH! Sometimes we don't like God's solutions to our problems!
God's solution to a divided relationship is for you to do good to the person who has sinned against you, even if they don't repent. That's what Jesus did on the cross: He died even for those who never accept his gift of mercy.
God's solution to financial problems is tithing (donating 10% of our total income) even if it seems that we cannot afford to give that much.
God's solution to the mountain of misery we're enduring from physical illness or a bad situation in life is to praise him in all circumstances and to offer up our sufferings as a penance for someone else's sins.
God's solution to unfair treatment is to love our enemies, do good to those who persecute us, go the extra mile when something is demanded from us, and let go when someone steals from us instead of demanding it back (see the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6 and 7).
Always, when we do things God's way, the harder it is to do, the better the results will be. By bridging divisions we gain renewed friendships. By giving generously we discover that we cannot outdo God in generosity. By imitating Christ, misery crumbles into peace and then joy. Unfair treatment no longer bothers us as much. God says, "Fear not, I will help you" and we believe him!
Heed carefully what you hear. God's solutions are often not easy. This is why Jesus said, "The kingdom of God has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." We cannot bring God's kingdom into our problems without opposing our normal tendencies and forcing ourselves to quit trying to solve problems the way we want to do it. Such violence to ourselves requires extra help – help that comes from the Holy Spirit.
In scripture, water usually symbolizes the Holy Spirit. Re-read today's first reading to see the Holy Spirit offering help to you:
Their tongues are parched with thirst (for the Holy Spirit). I, the Lord, will answer them... I will open up rivers of the Holy Spirit's power.....
Heed carefully what you hear! If you do things God's way, You shall rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Yay God!
© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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THE HOLY SPIRIT
ReplyDeleteCatholics certainly believe in the individual's infilling with the Holy Spirit, but we hold this in balance with the equally important truth that the Church herself is inspired and filled and guided by the Holy Spirit.
The Church is the Body of Christ on earth, and as such is a living, moving, breathing, Spirit filled organism--against which the gates of hell will never prevail.
It is this Spirit filled Church which provides the balance and ballast for our own individual experience of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit-filled Church which provides the correction and qualification of our claims. It is the Spirit-filled Church which validates God's guidance in our lives and it is the Spirit filled lives of the saints, the teaching of the Church and the liturgy of the Church which deepen, broaden, complete and sacramentally seal the personal infilling of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will not be subject to human reason. This is the fundamental problem with Protestantism. The intellect becomes one’s compass for truth, instead of the Living Voice of the Holy Ghost.
The proper use of reason is to believe in and serve the Divine Revelation revealed by the Holy Ghost in the Church, not to criticize what is revealed endlessly until you satisfy your intellect.
The intellect is only perfected after it has accepted the divine truths that God reveals to it.