Year of Saint Joseph
Other saints: Bl. John of Fiesole, OP, better known as Fra Angelico (1386-1455)
Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 15 The Times for Saying Alleluia
Mass: Dt 30:15-20; Resp Ps 1; Lk 9:22-25
Like a tree that yields its fruit in due season.
ENTRUST YOUR CARES TO THE LORD, AND HE WILL SUPPORT YOU.
(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)
In Saint Benedict's Ch 49, "The Observance of Lent," our holy father begins, "The life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent. Since few, however, have the strength for this, we urge the entire community during these days of Lent to keep its manner of life most pure and to wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times" (RB 49:1-2). In today's Gospel, Jesus says, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Lk 9:23). Jesus tells us that we must take up our cross daily, not when we feel like it, or only during Lent. The holy season of Lent, however, does provide us with the opportunity to be more focused on those things we neglect at other times. Those things we neglect are often the daily crosses Jesus tells us we must carry. Crosses cause us to move inward and look at our motivations of heart and mind. And they never come in ways that we would prefer. Cardinal Basil Hume said this: "We never tailor our own crosses: we don't carve our own crosses to fit our own shoulders: it's always the one that rubs just where it hurts; it's never the cross of my choosing." So whatever form our crosses take, for example, as Cardinal Hume listed, "misunderstandings, an unearned rebuke, gnawing anxiety, ill-health, fatigue", each one us must make a choice, "decide whether these are obstacles to happiness or a path leading to it." The decision is ours to make. Yet we are called by Jesus to accept our crosses and carry them, daily, and so doing, follow Him. Our crosses "lead to happiness-they are means whereby one shares in the risen life of Christ, for 'The Cross on its own does not make sense. The Cross together with the Resurrection does.'" [See Cardinal Basil Hume: A Pilgrim's Search for God (Gracewing, 2019), pp. 107-108].
There is no spiritual maturity without the Cross. If you don't meet the Cross some time in your life you can never be spiritually mature: you remain spiritually a child.
(Cardinal Basil Hume)
But may I never boast except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
(Gal 6:14)
FRA ANGELICO,
SAINT JOSEPH,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Back by popular demand, another look at a Cherry Blossom Tree in Eureka, CA.
© Gertrude Feick 2021
No comments:
Post a Comment