Friday, August 21, 2015

Leviticus, Chapter 19, verse 14

You shall not insult the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.

Be like your Heavenly Father; God is not a bully. Christ was often confronted by the bullies of his time. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Mt. 22:34-40)

The modern world attempts to bully the faithful in abandoning their relationship with the Lord. Today is the memorial to Saint Pope Pius X who resisted the bullying of the modern world by establishing an oath against modernism[1]. The crux of this oath has five main points:

1.      I profess that God is the origin and end of all things.

2.      I accept and acknowledge the external proofs of revelation, that is, divine acts and especially miracles and prophecies as the surest signs of the divine origin of the Christian religion.

3.      I believe with equally firm faith that the Church, the guardian and teacher of the revealed word, was personally instituted by the real and historical Christ.

4.      I sincerely hold that the doctrine of faith was handed down to us from the apostles through the orthodox Fathers in exactly the same meaning and always in the same purport.

5.      I hold with certainty and sincerely confess that faith is not a blind sentiment of religion welling up from the depths of the subconscious under the impulse of the heart and the motion of a will trained to morality; but faith is a genuine assent of the intellect to truth.

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[1] http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=5732

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 18-20

Now as all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blast of the shofar and the mountain smoking, they became afraid and trembled. So they took up a position farther away and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.” Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin.”

The Israelite's were afraid and preferred to have Moses mediate for them with God rather than having a real relationship with God.

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bernard/loving_god.i.html

What is love? In his text On Loving God, St. Bernard surveys the four types of love that Christians experience as they grow in their relationship with God: loving one's self, selfish love, loving God as God, and loving one's self in God. St. Bernard reminds us that not only did God give us life, but He gave us Himself. For indeed, "God deserves to be loved very much, yea, boundlessly, because He loved us first, He infinite and we nothing, loved us, miserable sinners, with a love so great and so free." St. Bernard reminds us that we are indebted to God for his love and His sacrifice. Not only should we love God because it is what He deserves, but also because loving God does not go without reward. Loving God is to our advantage. The Lord rewards those who love Him with the blessed state of the heavenly Fatherland, where sorrow and sadness cannot enter. St. Bernard's medieval prose is poetic and full of clever imagery. His work is as beautiful as it is knowledgeable.

Emmalon Davis
CCEL Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Exodus, Chapter 18, Verse 18-21

¹⁸  “You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. The task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. ¹⁹ Now, listen to me, and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. Act as the people’s representative before God, and bring their disputes to God. ²⁰ Enlighten them in regard to the statutes and instructions, showing them how they are to conduct themselves and what they are to do. ²¹ But you should also look among all the people for able and God-fearing men, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain, and set them over the people as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

Our Lord asks us to lead, follow or get out of the way. Our Lord tells us, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Mt. 12:30-31)

If you are a leader start leading in the church with a group of ten; follow where you can and do not hinder the work of the Holy Spirit become a dynamic catholic.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Judges, Chapter 6, Verse 23

The LORD answered him: You are safe. Do not fear. You shall not die.

Unlike Gideon, whom this verse is about, most of us do not have an angel appear from heaven to tell us that we will not die and to not be afraid. Yet, we have something greater than an angel here; we have the Lord Jesus Christ telling us-Do not fear.

We are blessed because we are the receivers of the apex of God’s graces through Jesus Christ, His mother and the action of Divine Mercy. If you are afraid to start again or are discouraged by failure it is because you do not understand you can do nothing without Christ. Therefore if you have sinned go to confession and receive His Body and Blood: being renewed. I remember in 2006 when I and my wife Mary were blessed with being able to make a trip to Israel. I was reflecting upon the graces I had received. I was thanking the Lord for I had touched the spot on the earth where He was born, and I had touched the spot where He had died, and I had touched the spot where He had ascended into heaven. I was prideful and thought how lucky am I. Then my Lord reminded me that a greater grace still awaits me and everyone in the Holy Eucharist.   Be honest, humble yourself and make a sincere effort. Leave all else in His hands-saying: Jesus I Trust in You!

Pride wants immediate success. Be brave as Gideon and renew your intentions, make a resolution daily to do the will of God and seek to please Him. 

Monday, August 17, 2015

Exodus, Chapter 9, Verse 27-30

http://bcove.me/4520dqi8

²⁷ Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! The LORD is the just one, and I and my people are the ones at fault. ²⁸ Pray to the LORD! Enough of the thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.” ²⁹ Moses replied to him, “As soon as I leave the city I will extend my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth belongs to the LORD. ³⁰ But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God.”

This was the seven plague of God on the Egyptians and of course Pharaoh had closed his ears and heart to God.  Thunder was to the Egyptians the voice of God but they did not listen nor did the hail melt the ice of their hearts to the true God.

Because God loves us He sometimes permits plagues in our lives that will bring about an exodus from our sin and a melting of our heart. When we are poor in spirit it is then that we can draw near to the Lord. A young man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. (Mt. 19:16-22)

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Exodus, Chapter 9, Verse 20

Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the LORD hurried their servants and their livestock off to shelter.

Even Pharaohs servants when they heard the word of God took action. Blessed are we that hear the word of the Lord! Today our Lord asks us to do the unthinkable, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”(John 6:53-58)

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Exodus, Chapter 3, Verse 6

I am the God of your father, he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

This is Moses first encounter with the Living God. Moses responded with natural fear thus he tried to hide himself just as Adam did in the garden. Yet, how does one hide from God. The beginning of Holiness is to not try to hide but to face our Lord manfully and admit we are what we are and He is what He is.

After this Moses was 100 percent for God; he was His man. Moses here began a journey with God that eventually led to the birth of Christ true God and true man and we beheld him face to face.