December 9, 2011
Friday of the Second Week of Advent
By Melanie Rigney
Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life. (John 8:12)
Jesus said to the crowds: “To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by her works.” (Matthew 11:16-19)
Piety
Jesus, You endured total submission, showing me the way to refined living. Submitted to the Father until the end, You fulfilled the Celestial Plan. Teach me the meaning of meekness, my will complying to the Heavenly Father. Remove my weaknesses of disobedience, shaping me to the Will of God Almighty. Guide me on the road of resignation, molding my soul into total submission. I walk in the path of righteousness, hand in hand with the Lord Jesus! (Found at
http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=2804)
Study
What would Jesus do?
The phrase took on a life of its own in evangelical Christian circles in the 1990s and became part of pop culture (What would Johnny Cash or the rock group Journey do? The answers are in their song lyrics) complete with WWJD bracelets.
What would Jesus do?
Easy to ask. Not so easy to discern sometimes. And even more difficult to do many times.
We know the two greatest commandments—to love the Lord God with our hearts and minds and souls, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But the definitions of love are God’s, not ours. That makes it difficult to put him in those nice little predictable boxes we as human beings like. Just as the children in today’s Gospel reading, we think we’re the ones calling the tune.
That view, of course, didn’t begin with those of us alive today. John’s diet meant he was a whack job, someone people didn’t need to listen to seriously. Jesus’s diet and his choice of companions showed he wasn’t a truly godly man. Neither of them danced to the tune convention played.
What would Jesus do about hunger and poverty and homelessness and fear and ignorance and disharmony? Maybe he’d overturn a few tables and raise his voice. Maybe he’d turn fish and loaves into enough food to feed a multitude.
We can be sure, however, that he would let his Heavenly Father lead the way, show him how to go depending on the time and the place, rather than on what those around him might expect.
It’s that submission of will and of knowledge, of turning decisions over to God rather than steamrollering on because we know best, that is so hard to achieve.
What would Jesus do?
He’d pray. He’d listen. Then he’d act in God’s name.
And he expects no less of us.
Action
Jack Finnerty and Phil Kiko, the candidates to serve as Arlington Cursillo’s lay leader for the next three years, will present their visions for the movement and answer questions on Saturday morning at Sacred Heart in Manassas (12975 Purcell Rd.). Come and participate, or read statements afterward at www.arlingtoncursillo.org. Let members of the Secretariat know your thoughts. The Secretariat will select the next lay director at a January 24 meeting at St. Charles Borromeo in Arlington.
