Seeing with the Eyes of God
26th Sunday Ordinary Time
“Keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ”1 Timothy 6:14
We need to see with the wisdom of God, with the gaze of citizens of heaven, as his children, enlightened by the Word of God. Only in this way can we want the values of heaven and place our hearts in them, and not in those of earth, as God asks of us (Col 3,3)
The world is in darkness, it is the natural way of our human condition, ignorance, the blindness of the carnal instinct, the human will inclined to sin, pulled by the flesh that tends to sin, pride, greed, anger, envy, gluttony, lust, sloth, enthroned in this world, and presented by men without light as the ideals to achieve: honors, riches and pleasures.
God has offered us his divine life, to be citizens of heaven, to aspire to the goods of heaven more than those of earth. For this, we must listen more to God than to the world, because the world, from spiritual blindness, wants to lead us to love and set our hearts on everything earthly and temporary, on idols, false riches; it leads us to love sin, self-sufficiency, selfish independence, as we see in the rich man who cannot see his brother Lazarus in need, because he only sees himself.
God who is love and truth, wants to make us know true riches, those of heaven, eternal values, which fill our soul much more than any of the idols or goods of this world. God wants to lead us to know, experience and love the fruits of the Holy Spirit that are the only ones that will fill our lives with true happiness, peace, goodness, etc., that which the world cannot give us.
To detest sin we must stop nurturing love for it. Stop cultivating and fertilizing that plant that bears nothing but bitter fruit and is destined to perish, and cultivate instead the plant of spiritual life that was given to us at Baptism, whose fruits are tasteful like no other: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness and self-control. And it is a plant that will never perish.
It depends on us what we are going to appreciate and cultivate, according to whom we put our faith and trust. If we trust more in ourselves and in the world than in God, we will cultivate bitter fruits, that of sin, selfishness and ephemeral pleasures. If we put more of our trust in God, we will cultivate that of God, that of the Holy Spirit that was given to us in Baptism, and we will experience fruits of life.
“Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him. He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.”Jn 7:37s
I can’t pretend to harvest oranges if what I plant is garlic. If I nourish the love of sin, coveting it like men without faith, feeding that desire, contemplating it and listening to it, it will be impossible not to reap its fruits of death.
“Make no mistake: God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows for his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit. Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time we shall reap our harvest, if we do not give up.”Galatians 6,7ff
Readings for the Week
Monday: Jb 1:6-22; Ps 17:1bcd-3, 6-7; Lk 9:46-50
Tuesday: Jb 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Ps 88:2-8; Lk 9:51-56
Wednesday: Jb 9:1-12, 14-16; Ps 88:10bc-15; Lk 9:57-62
Thursday: Dn 7:9-10, 13-14 or Rv 12:7-12a; Ps 138:1-5; Jn 1:47-51
Friday: Jb 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5; Ps 139:1-3, 7-10, 13-14ab; Lk 10:13-16
Saturday: Jb 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17; Ps 119:66, 71, 75,
91, 125, 130; Lk 10:17-24Saints & Special Observances
Sunday: 26th Sunday Ordinary Time; Priesthood Sunday; Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) begins at sunset
Monday: Ss. Cosmas and Damian
Tuesday: St. Vincent de Paul
Wednesday: St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions; St. Wenceslaus
Thursday: Ss. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels
Friday: St. Jerome
Saturday: St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus; First Saturday