What a beautiful day yesterday. I pray you took advantage of the beautiful weather. I do need to make a correction to Saturday’s post – Vianney defeated Columbia-Hickman high school on Saturday, not Blue Springs. None the less, they are baseball state champs and from my understanding a very good, very hard working baseball team.
The readings this AM are full of things to contemplate – starting with Peter. Can a greeting to the people he is writing to (you and me) get any more beautiful?
Beloved:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance
through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
And how beautiful is this? The key to life and devotion to Christ is knowledge…His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and power. Get to know the Lord. Contemplate His Gospels, contemplate His Truth through the writings in the Holy Bible. Use the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit to build your foundation upon…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
God implores us in the Psalm (91) today to place all of our trust in Him…
R. (see 2b) In you, my God, I place my trust.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
Say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress.
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
I will deliver him and glorify him;
with length of days I will gratify him
and will show him my salvation.
R. In you, my God, I place my trust.
I pray for the leaders of our communities, our country, the world and the Church. They have such a burden on them to do what is right. So, what is right? A few weeks back the blog discussed that the root cause of division is sin. Can the world be more divided? Pro Life vs. Pro Choice. Traditional marriage vs. modern marriage. Legalization of drugs. Liberal vs. Conservative. We have very wide divisions in our lives. So again, what is Division? Division is sin. We have been taught that and if we truly believe that division is sin, then how can we mend this division? I only know of one way and that is to do what every prophet has yelled from the mountain top, what has been the basic rule since the Garden of Eden, what was given to Moses in the desert and what every single one of us has at some point in our life failed to do…obey God’s law, trust in His Word. Educate yourself in God’s Word. So to anyone who has the responsibility of leadership, pay heed to the parable given in today’s Gospel. Jesus addressed this parable not only to the Elders, Scribes and Pharisees from of old, but His warning in today’s Gospel applies to all of us today…
He had one other to send, a beloved son.
He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
So they seized him and killed him,
and threw him out of the vineyard.
What then will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come, put the tenants to death,
and give the vineyard to others.
If you truly believe the Gospel is the Truth, this is a dire warning. Do not reject Christ for Christ is the cornerstone upon which the kingdom is built. It is Jesus who asks “Have you not read the scripture passage?”. So I say to you – read the scripture passage – as a matter of fact – read ALL of the scripture passages. The only way we can close the divisions in this world, this sin that separates us, is to be open to God’s Word, God’s True Word given to us in the Holy Bible and the only way to do that is to OPEN that Bible and study it. Again, from our first reading this morning…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.
Do something great for our Lord today.
God’s will, not mine, be done.
Be not afraid.
Jesus, I trust in You.
St. Mary Magdalen Men of God 