Remove the Wooden Beam June 26

Your Daily Tripod Monday June 26, 2006

PRAYER

Good Morning, Dear Lord. Go before me today that I may look on this world and see You. Guard me in all I undertake. Keep me aware of the love that You pour out on me today. And help me offer it to others all day.


STUDY

http://www.usccb.org/nab/062606.shtml

“…and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you… You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first”

“Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us.”

The fall of the kingdom of Israel, is measured out to a people who chose false gods and disloyalty. Yet even so, the psalmist cries out in hope that God will answer; that God will not be disloyal. God’s right hand is still there for us to protect us from sin and to show us when we have a wooden beam in our eye obstructing our vision.

As we expect love and forgiveness, Jesus teaches us, we must love and forgive. The Pharisees of his time were blinded by what they measured: they obeyed the laws; they wore long and impressive stoles to prove their devotion; they stood at the front of the synagogue which is their “rightful” place as chosen sons of Yahweh. But these measures are all man-made not God-given, not true.

What wooden beams in our lives blinds us to the righteousness of others? Why do we judge the failings of others whom God would forgive? What are our blindnesses by which we will be measured? Pope Benedict, in DEUS CARITAS EST tells us that we must cultivate a relationship with God in order to see our neighbor through Jesus’ eyes.

“Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. Jn 19:34).”

And

“If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. … Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me. The saints—consider the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta—constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbour from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its realism and depth in their service to others.”

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html

ACTION

Today, when you feel a prick of irritation or exasperation, pause for a moment and truthfully consider: Why am I annoyed? Is this a plank in my own eye which I am blaming on the person in front of me? Say a prayer of thanksgiving for that irksome person. And say a prayer of remorse for yourself; ask for help from God’s right hand. Start again, just as the psalmist asks of the Lord.


Welcome to all our new “Babe Chicks”, the Women of the 122nd Cursillo!

DeColores
Beth DeCristofaro