Jesus speaks to us everyday. He speaks and is present to us in a special and unique way in the sacraments. The sacraments are Christ’s own gift that provide us with his grace. This grace can strengthen us to bring about change to overcome sin if we only ask, but do we really want to change?
Today's reading hit me like a rock, or shall I say like a stone, my own stoney heart. Just last week I asked for strength and persistence in one of my ministries that I have been lax in serving. Well, today is the day I planned to get back on track and too many times my thoughts have drifted towards excuses of why I just couldn't do it. I don't think that was Jesus talking.
And now, at daily mass, Jesus did speak to me through the reading and it was loud and clear!
Reading 1 Heb 3:7-14
"The Holy Spirit says:
Oh, that today you would hear his voice,"Harden not your hearts as at the rebellionin the day of testing in the desert,where your ancestors tested and tried meand saw my works for forty years.Because of this I was provoked with that generationand I said, 'They have always been of erring heart,and they do not know my ways.'As I swore in my wrath,'They shall not enter into my rest.'"
Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still "today,"
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end."
I have allowed sin to deceive me into thinking that my little no's didn't really matter. They do! I literally found myself there in the pews trying to hide from the glaring eyes of truth himself, reminding me of how Adam and Eve thought they could hide. There Jesus was in front of me on the cross and in person, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Eucharist and I was trying to hide. Hide from the one I came to seek. Funny, but I suppose this happens throughout the day when I say yes to my worldly desires and no to my savior, the one I profess to love above all else. So what to do now? Well, thanks be to God and His saving grace I was given the answer in His own word, yesterday's gospel.
Gospel Mk 1:29-39
"On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them...."
Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, grasped her hand, and helped her up. He wants us to take his hand. I need to share that this is the message that Jesus spoke to me this past Sunday morning!
Just reach out your hand, Jesus wants to be your friend for life...to save your life!
And now it all comes together for me with the next line in the gospel , "The fever left her and she waited on them." Yesterday the priest focused on this line. He pointed out that when she was healed, she served others. So too when Jesus heals us, our response should be to serve others. The gospel goes on to say that Jesus continued on to serve His purpose of preaching and healing. So if I want to be more Christlike, I must glorify the Lord with my life by loving and serving Him and others and by announcing the Gospel of the Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, As it was in the beginning, and now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen!