Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 21 The Deans of the Monastery
Mass: 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a; Resp Ps 89; Rom 6:3-4, 8-11; Mt 10:37-42
For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
HEART OF JESUS, OUR LIFE AND RESURRECTION,
HAVE MERCY ON US.
In a text communication yesterday, an old friend from high school asked if I was busy praying for the healing of the world. My response was that I was praying for my own healing, and, yes, healing for everyone. She asked why I needed healing. Next, I typed that we all need healing. We are a wounded people. So goes the human race. Thank God for mercy, forgiveness, and love. Now I didn't ask my friend what she was thinking, but the instant commo caused me to reflect, especially in the light of today's Gospel, where Jesus tells us: Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me (Mt 10:38).
There may be a tendency to think that everyone else is the problem and everyone else needs to be healed from one thing or another. This one has that quirk, that one is chronically ill with that; another can't do that because of whatever, and the one over there has an endless agenda. The truth is, I, and maybe I have company, really don't know the small and big crosses that others carry. Some crosses are more visible than others, as a fellow student once reminded me. Jesus is pretty straight: If you don't take up your cross, you are not worthy of me. And not only that, we are to help each other carry the crosses that we bear, the visible and invisible ones. Saint Benedict tells us that if we are people of good zeal then we support with the greatest patience one another's weaknesses of body or behavior (RB 72:5). It just now dawns on me that this Sunday would be a good day to practice some good zeal. And lest we forget, Pope Francis calls the Church a field hospital. We are a wounded people and a wounded world; we are always in need of healing. Jesus has a preferential option for wounded and sick people in need of healing. So let's get busy, take up our own crosses big and small, and help others take up theirs. After all, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Christ. May we live for God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:8, 11).
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Another mysterious look into the woods from behind the novitiate cabin.© Gertrude Feick 2020
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