Meditation: Do you believe that God's word has power to change
and transform your life today? Isaiah says that God's word is like the
rain and snow which makes the barren ground spring to life and become abundantly
fertile (Isaiah 55:10-11). God's word has power to penetrate our dry barren
hearts and make them springs of new life. If we let God's word take root
in our heart it will transform us into the likeness of God himself and
empower us to walk in his way of love and holiness. God wants his word
to guide and shape the way we think, act, and pray. Ambrose, a fourth century
church father, wrote that the reason we should devote time for reading
scripture is to hear Christ speak to us. "Are you not occupied with Christ?
Why do you not talk with him? By reading the scriptures, we listen
to Christ."
We can approach God confidently because he is waiting with arms wide
open to receive his prodigal sons and daughters. That is why Jesus gave
his disciples the perfect prayer that dares to call God, Our Father.
This prayer teaches us how to ask God for the things we really need, the
things that matter not only for the present but for eternity as well. We
can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Christ
has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection.
When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve.
Instead, he responds with grace, mercy, and kindness. He is good and forgiving
towards us, and he expects us to treat our neighbor the same. God has poured
his love into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
And that love is like a refining fire – it purifies and burns away all
prejudice, hatred, resentment, vengeance, and bitterness until there is
nothing left but goodness and forgiveness towards those who cause us grief
or harm.
Consider what John Cassian, an early church father who lived for several
years with monks in Bethlehem and Egypt before founding a monastery in
southern Gaul (360-435), wrote about the Lord's Prayer and the necessity
of forgiving others from the heart:
"The mercy of God is beyond description. While he is offering
us a model prayer he is teaching us a way of life whereby we can be pleasing
in his sight. But that is not all. In this same prayer he gives us an easy
method for attracting an indulgent and merciful judgment on our lives.
He gives us the possibility of ourselves mitigating the sentence hanging
over us and of compelling him to pardon us. What else could he do in the
face of our generosity when we ask him to forgive us as we have forgiven
our neighbor? If we are faithful in this prayer, each of us will ask forgiveness
for our own failings after we have forgiven the sins of those who have
sinned against us, not only those who have sinned against our Master. There
is, in fact, in some of us a very bad habit. We treat our sins against
God, however appalling, with gentle indulgence: but when by contrast it
is a matter of sins against us ourselves, albeit very tiny ones, we exact
reparation with ruthless severity. Anyone who has not forgiven from the
bottom of the heart the brother or sister who has done him wrong will only
obtain from this prayer his own condemnation, rather than any mercy."
Do you treat others as you think they deserve to be treated, or do you
treat them as the Lord has treated you – with mercy, steadfast love, and
kindness?
"Father in heaven, you have given me a mind to know you, a will to serve
you, and a heart to love you. Give me today the grace and strength to embrace
your holy will and fill my heart and mind with your truth and love
that all my intentions and actions may be pleasing to you. Help me to be
kind and forgiving towards my neighbor as you have been towards me."
This reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager (c) 2012, whose website is located at http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings
From my Samsung Galaxy Pro GT-B7510
Robin K Brookes
69 Beresford Road,
LOWESTOFT,
NR32 2NQ
UK
Mobile: +447920881439
