Meditation is an ideal way to pray. Using God's word (Lectio Divina) allows me to hear, listen and reflect on what the Lord wants to say to me - to one of his disciples - just like He did two thousand years ago.
The best time to reflect is at the beginning of the day and for at least 15 to 30 minutes.
Prior to going to sleep, read the Mass readings for the next day and then, in the morning, reflect on the Meditation offered on this website.
I hope these daily meditations allow you to know, love and imitate the Lord in a more meaningful way.
God bless you!


Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Luke 13:18-21 Young and Humble

Luke 13:18-21  Young and Humble


Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?  To what can I compare it?  IT is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.  When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”

Yesterday, I received a card from a couple who have been trying hard and praying hard to have a baby for some time now.  It finally happened.  The card read:  “It’s a baby!”  At first it struck me as odd that it didn’t read “It’s a girl” or “It’s a boy.”  But after a while, I finally got it.  They could care less what sex their child was.  They were just happy to have a baby.

Babies are cute.  People love to be around them.  It doesn’t matter what they do in front of us or to us.  They can burp in our face.  They can poop in our arms.  They can throw up all over our shirt.  It doesn’t matter what they do.  Nothing they say or do could ever wipe away the joy in our heart or the smile from our face. 

But when babies grow up, they’re not so cute.  Why is that?  Why do kids become so ugly?  It has nothing to do with their physical size or physical appearance.  it has everything to do with their selfishness. 

When the Lord describes the Kingdom of God as being the size of a mustard seed, what he is describing is not so much its physical dimensions but rather its spiritual conditions.  The reason why the Kingdom of God is so small and so great is because God makes himself small so as to be great.  It is the reason why the Lord said:  If you wish to be great, you must make yourself small. 

Babies get everything they need and want and even more.  Why?  Because they ask for nothing.   I keep telling our school kids that if they want to get more from their parents they need to stop asking for more.

I know some parents who are very "concerned" about their kids because they never ask for anything.  So what do they do?  They keep giving them more and more.  Their kids know the secret.  One student never asked for a car and got a car.  One student never demanded more freedom and got more freedom. 

Interested? 

The rule is simple:  If you want to be loved, then start loving.  If you want to be great, then start serving.   If you want to receive, then stop asking and start giving.

If you think about it, the Lord does not demand much from us, except to love Him and to love our neighbor.  Oh, I forgot.  He also asks us to give Him our sins so that He can give us His love.

Be subordinate.  In his letter to the Ephesians (Eph 5:21-33), St. Paul challenges Church leaders to be “subordinate to Christ”.  He goes one step further and challenges members of the Church to be “subordinate to one another”.  He then demands wives take a leap of faith by being “subordinate to their husbands in everything.”  But like everything St. Paul writes, he demands that we do what we do just like Christ did for us.  It is not enough to love.  We need to love as Christ loves us.

The Church is a “sacrament” of the Body of Christ.  Christians are a “sacrament” of Christ’s continual presence in the world.  Husbands are a sacrament of Christ’s unconditional love and sacrifice for His bride (the Church). 

There is no demanding in any of these relationships, only giving of oneself and dying to self.  These are the conditions that make all relationships possible, powerful, beautiful, amazing and ever young and new… like a new born baby.

Like a child, the Kingdom of God will grow from a small mustard seed to a burning bush, but only if it remains forever young and humble of heart.

3 comments:

  1. Yeap Yeap Yeap! Subordination is not fun but it is humbling and challenging and definitely forces us to grow into more mature Christians. It builds up endurance and patience to see how God is working in our heart specially when we must endure an unfair situation.

    "There is no demanding in any of these relationships, only giving of oneself and dying to self." - A constant sacrifice of love!

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  2. These are the conditions that make all relationships possible, powerful, beautiful, amazing and ever young and new… like a new born baby- I strongly agree,I will work on the relationship between God and I.Before I ever start loving a man again. That will take a very long time.Like my Friends tell me " You are still young,You have your whole life ahead of you" and My response is LOL!!!

    God Bless u My Dear Father :)

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  3. There is no demanding in any of these relationships, only giving of oneself and dying to self. These are the conditions that make all relationships possible, powerful, beautiful, amazing and ever young and new… like a new born baby.
    This is only possible if both persons understand that this is the starting point...no demanding in any relationship! Our culture is so weak in communication that we can only ‘think’ of what the other is thinking instead of actually sitting down and having a deep discussion of what is really at the basis of the relationship. We are so superficial!! As you say, are we afraid? embarrassed to discuss our true thoughts? I know I am in many different circumstances. We are so busy, so exhausted that we no longer have the energy to carry on the many different relationships we want to give to another, but we just don’t understand the intentions of the other, thus we don’t even want to work on it. It’s so much easier to give up and give ourselves a pat on the back for ‘trying’. What a cop-out! Anyway, every single person I encounter is a face of Jesus. This is the basis of how I ‘try’ to see everyone. I realize, with a deep conviction, that there are no coincidences in life. God plans my encounters. God plans my routes. God counts every hair on my head. I am not in control. I truly do not understand why He continues to love me. I am in awe. I just want to learn what He is trying to tell me in each encounter.

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