Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
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
Then Abraham said, “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
Thomas Merton's Prayer of Abandonment
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself.
And the fact that I think that I am following
your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have the desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the
right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may
seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear for you are ever with me and
you will never leave me to face my troubles alone.
-Thomas Merton
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/022108.shtml
In God We Trust.
These words are etched into all of the coins and currency of our country. The Department of the Treasury reports that “The motto has been in continuous use on the one-cent coin since 1909, and on the ten-cent coin since 1916. It also has appeared on all gold coins and silver dollar coins, half-dollar coins, and quarter-dollar coins struck since July 1, 1908.”
Is it a real sentiment or just a slogan? Do we trust more in God than in the currency upon which this slogan appears? Do we trust more in God than in the consumer products that we purchase with our coins and currency?
For all the reminders in our pockets and purses, we are a nation that experts tell us trusts each other less and less each year – except when the economic conditions are good.
Research shows that we do not trust people who are not like ourselves. Generalized trust has declined in the
Today’s readings drive home the same message. Even in Biblical times, people put their trust in Mammon, not in God. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus again illustrates Luke’s concern with Jesus’ attitude toward the rich and the poor. The reversal of the fates of the rich man and Lazarus further illustrate the teachings of Jesus in Luke's “Sermon on the Plain.”
Dives finds himself in a losing debate with Abraham. He finds he failed to volunteer to help the poor who sat right outside his front door. He didn’t even give to charity to save the poor from the dogs.
Despite all the signs he missed in life, Dives wants to warn his family not to fall into the same trap that ensnared him. But Abraham rebukes him.
The Lord is alone in his ability to read our hearts and minds. Dives is alone in his torment because he failed to heed the overt messages from the Lord.
Action
How many more ways can the Lord say to us “Listen and Obey” before we heed his words and their meaning in our lives? If we heed his words, then we may not find ourselves tormented by loneliness. As Thomas Merton led us in prayer, “I will not fear for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my troubles alone.”
What will it take to restore and increase your levels of trust? Not just trust in your immediate family and friends, but in people whom you do not know and are not like you? Do you think we have an obligation to help them?
How is it best to express that? With the widow’s mite? Or maybe with some of the coins you are hoarding in your penny collection by giving them to charity.
Get rid of that coin bank. Give it (and its contents) to charity.
1 comment:
Thankyou for your blog! :) God Bless You
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