Ninth Sunday Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
Moses told the people, “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead. Deuteronomy 11:18
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” Matthew 7:26-27
Piety
“Direct, O Lord, I beseech you all my actions by your divine inspirations. Carry them out by your gracious assistance so that every prayer and work of mine might always begin from you and by you be happily ended.”
Study
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/060108.shtml
What do I do with the words of the Lord? I listen to them and try to live them. In my old age so many words go into one ear and out the other without much delay. I need to personalize the words of the Lord by living them. It is easy to hear the Lord saying if you love me you will keep my commandments. Our years teach us that piety is our love for God.
And how I live out his word is my piety. Giving my life for others makes every little thing special. The commandments are the big things that are special. How we put the little things into our lives is how we personalize his word on our heart. In the Religious Life, the least wish and the will of the superior makes something important to do. We learn by love to prefer the way of doing of another. Love opens our minds and our hearts to what is best. Reading the lives of the Saints is helpful.
Some hagiography is good reading. Studying the lives of the saints gives insight on how to put Christ into our day and age as we see how the saints did it for their time. There are some saints for every age. Our piety calls us to be an update of Christ in jour day and age. How we apply what Christ said and did is how we go from talking about Christ to being a Christ for one another.
Action
Action does speak louder than words. St. Francis is reputed to have said, “Speak always and occasionally use words.” St. Ignatius actually applies that to prayer. If a formed Religious asked for more prayer time, he would give them another job. The Contemplative in Action grace is the realization that the Lord will work 100% in what we do if we but ask. St. Ignatius invites us to pray thus.
“Direct, O Lord, I beseech you all my actions by your divine inspirations. Carry them out by your gracious assistance so that every prayer and work of mine might always begin from you and by you be happily ended.”
Thus all we do, we do for Christ. We can actually say to one another.
The Christ of my heart recognizes the Christ of your heart. We live our lives for Christ. And he will recognize us for what we have done in his name. He is the foundation on which we build the temple of our lives. We will be able to stand up against any storm because we stand in the name of Christ to be his work.
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