Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Monday, 10 November 2014

Roman Catholic The Word Among Us Daily Mass Reading & Daily Meditation for Monday, 10 November 2014
Meditation: Luke 17: A Kernel of Faith
1-2 He said to his disciples, “Hard trials and temptations are bound to come, but too bad for whoever brings them on! Better to wear a millstone necklace and take a swim in the deep blue sea than give even one of these dear little ones a hard time!
3-4 “Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.”
5 The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.”
6 But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith. If you have a bare kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore tree, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it would do it.

Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Forgive. (Luke 17:3)

Jesus wasn’t tiptoeing around the issue. Millstones are heavy. Large ones, like the one Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel reading, can weigh more than a ton. Still, we can get so focused on the millstone that we lose the heart of his central message here: if you have been sinned against, you need to forgive. Seven times or seven times seventy times, it amounts to the same thing: every time. Jesus wasn’t just offering a public rebuke to the ones who cause people to sin. He was telling all of us to forgive!

We have all been hurt at some time in our lives, and sometimes the memory of that hurt can stay with us for a long, long time. If we don’t deal with our pain through the gift of forgiveness, it can become a constant companion: a recurring complaint, a rancorous story told repeatedly, a sad movie that plays persistently in our thoughts. Whether we speak about the hurt or keep it bottled up inside, the result is the same: resentment and fear and shame deepen; bitterness festers. The chains that those emotions forge tighten and become heavier and heavier.

We don’t have to live in that kind of bondage! Forgiveness is the key. Forgive. And if the hurt resurfaces, forgive again. And again. Seven times seventy times, if necessary.

Sometimes, all you need is to take just one small step to forgive a hurt. Other times, you need to take a number of steps, over a long period of time, before you get your heart to a place where you can forgive. Whatever it takes, as long as you are trying to move forward, your heavenly Father will help you along.

Then there are those times when the pain is too sharp and the offense is too great for you to forgive. Know that even in these situations, God sees your heart, and he will ask you only to take the steps that you can take at that moment. Ever patient and compassionate, he is with you to help you and to heal your wounds.

So whatever your situation, picture your heavenly Father sitting next to you, his arm around your shoulder. Tell him what hurts. Tell him how hard it is to forgive. And ask him for his help. Give him time, just as he is giving you time, and he will help you take the next step. And the next one. And the next one.

“Father, help me to forgive. Heal me so that I can let go of anything that is holding me back!” Amen!

Titus 1:1-4 I, Paul, am God’s slave and Christ’s agent for promoting the faith among God’s chosen people, getting out the accurate word on God and how to respond rightly to it. My aim is to raise hopes by pointing the way to life without end. This is the life God promised long ago—and he doesn’t break promises! And then when the time was ripe, he went public with his truth. I’ve been entrusted to proclaim this Message by order of our Savior, God himself. Dear Titus, legitimate son in the faith: Receive everything God our Father and Jesus our Savior give you!
A Good Grip on the Message
5-9 I left you in charge in Crete so you could complete what I left half-done. Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.
Psalm 24: A David Psalm
1-2 God claims Earth and everything in it,
    God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
    laid it out on River girders.
3-4 Who can climb Mount God?
    Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
    only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
    women who won’t seduce.
5-6 God is at their side;
    with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
    to God-seekers, God-questers.
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