RB: Ch 2:11-15
Mass: 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22b-27; Resp Ps 84; Lk 6:39-42
For a sun and a shield is the Lord God; grace and glory He bestows.
JESUS, GENTLE AND HUMBLE OF HEART,
TOUCH OUR HEARTS AND MAKE THEM LIKE YOUR OWN.
One theme that runs through all the readings today is, "practice what you preach." First, Saint Benedict tells the Abbot or Abbess that he "must point out all that is good and holy more by example than by words" (RB 2:12). Furthermore, if the Abbot "teaches his disciples that something is not to be done, then neither must he do it lest after preaching to others, he himself be found reprobate (Cor 9:27)" (RB 2:13). Practice what you preach.
Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, in one of my favorite passages, encourages the Corinthians to "run so as to win" (1 Cor 9:24). In other words, "seek the things that are above" (Col 3:1). Doing so takes discipline and focus. Paul himself does not "run aimlessly or fight as if he were shadowboxing" (1 Cor 9:26). No, he writes, "I drive by body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor 9:27). Practice what you preach.
Lastly, in our Gospel, Jesus speaks: Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye (Lk 6:42). This happens to be the same way today's passage from the Holy Rule concludes (RB 2:15). All of us must be working on our own faults and shortcomings. Oh it so much easier though to judge others and focus instead on what I think are their faults and shortcomings, or notice the splinter in my sister's eye, but do not bother to perceive the wooden beam in my own eye (Lk 6:41). Practice what you preach.
MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: The Wednesday noonday sun.
© Gertrude Feick 2020
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