The Merit of His Deeds March 8

More tortuous than all else is the human heart,
beyond remedy; who can understand it?
I, the LORD, alone probe the mind
and test the heart,
To reward everyone according to his ways,
according to the merit of his deeds. Jeremiah 17:9-10

If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead. Luke 16:31

Piety

God, Father and Forgiver, give us this day and every day our daily bread and the bread of life. Help us to encounter Christ through the saving actions of Jesus in the sacraments. As we study our environments, help us to draw the line of temperance between enough and excess. Lord, give bread to the hungry and hunger for you to those who have bread. Help us to love our neighbors and our enemies. Let us seek justice in this world now and always…and work to make it a reality.

Too many go hungry in the silent tsunami of malnutrition and disease which kills 30,000 children each day. Forgive us for our silent sins of commission and sins of omission. Give us the prudence and grace to forgive those who persecute us. Like the returning Prodigal son and the woman who was not stoned, we enter your Kingdom through the door of reconciliation and forgiveness. Give us the fortitude to quell our pride so it does not become an obstacle to faith. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/030807.shtml

Talk about a reversal of fortune from this life to the next. Today’s story illustrates the ideals laid out in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-21, 24-25). In addition, the parable underlines that each person will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his or her works and faith.

The rich man was not condemned for being rich. He was condemned for his deeds…or more specifically for what he failed to do. “Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of sin,” explains The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Every day we pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The presence of those who hunger (whether outside our door or half way around the world in The Sudan) because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward our sisters and brothers, both in our personal responsibility and in our solidarity with the human family. We can not isolate the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man from this petition and the Last Judgment. We can not isolate this petition and this parable from our own lives.

Action

We have more resources to lead us to do right…in addition to Moses and the prophets. Let’s start by asking and answering “Where are YOU on the Global Rich List?” Don’t know? Then find out here at this link: http://www.globalrichlist.com/ or by clicking on the box over in the margin.

As a society, we are obsessed with wealth, getting ahead and having a great retirement. But we gauge how rich we are by looking upwards at those who have more than us. This makes us feel poor. Bill Gates has X. Warren Buffet has Y. And I only have Z.

Before we know what we can do to help the poor, we must understand where we stand globally. When you know that, you can realize that in fact most of us (who are able to have an e-mail account and read this daily message or surf the Internet) are in the privileged minority.

Hopefully, the Global Rich List makes you feel pretty good. Then you can feel even better when you give an hours pay to a worthwhile charity. It’s your choice. It was the Rich Man’s choice, too.

Three billion people live like Lazarus on less than $2 per day while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 per day. Seventy percent of those living on less than $1 per day are women like the widow who gave her last mite.

Send today’s lunch money to your favorite charity or put it in the Operation Rice Bowl container.