The Word of God is Unchained June 8

Piety

Jesus, forgive us. We have chained the word of God in our lives. We trap it on the bookshelf. We hide it under the table. We clutch it in our heart never sharing it with others. We don't even acrry it with us into church. And the words we hear we leave it in the pews echoing in empty chambers.

Inspire us to take your word from the seminary to the sanctuary and from the sanctuary to the streets from the streets to the Senate witnessing to life in all forms.

Help us to carry your Word forth like Paul, no matter what the cost. Help us to persevere with you so that we also may reign with you. Teach us your ways and grant us understanding so that we are not far from the Kingdom of God. Amen.

Study http://www.usccb.org/nab/060806.shtml

“But the word of God is not chained.” 2 Timothy 2:9

We encounter a short, pithy summary of the Bible and the Christian life here in 2 Timothy.

If we have died with him we shall also live with him;
If we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

When sin dies in us through baptism and faith, we also die with Jesus. When we die with Jesus, we gain eternal life just as when Christ died for our sins to grant us eternal life. To reap these rewards, we must unchain the word of God and let it spring forth in our minds, on our lips and in our hearts. The Christian life explained by Christ and Paul is no poetry reading though. It features endurance, witness, and even suffering like Paul in jail and Jesus on the cross.

Jesus will be true to those who are faithful but he also will protect those without faith because he can not NOT love us. He is love.

In the Gospel, Jesus is once again put to the test by questions from the people. Just as Satan tested Jesus three times, the people test Jesus three times with questions. Again, Jesus does not get trapped or misled. The two great commandments come right back to love. He is love. That doesn’t surprise us any longer.

Action

Congress is busy squandering money needed to help the poor these days. First the Senate is trying to undo the estate tax which provided needed revenue for government programs for the poor. Now the House is trying to gut foreign aid provisions.

According to the Virginia Catholic Conference supported by Bishop Loverde:

Sometime this week, the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the FY 2007 foreign-operations appropriations bill that includes funding for international-assistance programs to improve the health of mothers and their children, educational opportunities, agricultural production, and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Currently, the House bill provides $3.4 billion to combat global HIV/AIDS and provide treatment and care for people affected by this disease in the hardest hit regions of the world. It also provides $2 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, which helps poor countries address poverty and promote economic development. Meanwhile, core humanitarian and development programs that fund education, agriculture, and other projects are still nearly $220 million below FY 2006 levels.

While funding levels for all of these programs are less than what the U.S. bishops have supported, there may be further attempts to reduce international-assistance spending during the House of Representatives debate this week.

To ensure that these programs are protected from further cuts, PLEASE SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE TODAY.