8.25.13

Lectio:  Mt 23.13-22                                                                

Meditatio: “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If one swears by the temple, it means nothing, but if one swears by the gold on the temple, one is obligated’.” Mt 23.16

Oratio: O God, how amusing we must be when we seek to make what is an unsupported principle  for our position in order to feel good about doing what we should not.

I remember Jesus castigated the Pharisees and Scribes for holding that you could swear by the temple and it meant nothing but if you swore by the gold on the temple, you were bound!

Grant that I may be careful to judge rightly in accord with God’s will and not in accord with what I want to do as God is our moving principle and not us and we need to conform to what He wants of us and not what we want for ourselves. Seek to know the truth and put it into practice. I ask this and all things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Contemplatio: spend some time in silence and meditate on the selected passage and hear what God is saying to you..

Operatio: reflect on "blind guides?"; the religious leaders of the people; they should have known better and they most likely did; but they rationalized everything so that they could do as they wanted and not as they ought. In prayer seek the grace to keep in focus the good and the right as established by the source of All-Good and Righteous; and then live in accord with God’s principles and not man’s.

Tomorrow's reading: Mt 23.23-26