12.15.13

Lectio: Mt 21.23-27                                                                                                                                                         
Meditatio: “When he [Jesus] had come into the temple area, thee chief priests and elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things?  And who gave you this authority’?” Mt 21.23      

Oratio: O God, how sad it was that the very ones who should have easily recognized that Jesus was the Messiah did not because Jesus was not the Messiah of their mold.

I remember they asked Jesus by what authority He was doing things, yet when he asked them by what authority John the Baptist did his things, they refused to answer because they knew they were in the wrong in rejecting John and they thereby showed their lack of sincerity of their question and that we were not open to truth.

Grant that I may be ever glad that Jesus came to us with the Good News and that our ancestors in faith accepted him and we are the wonderful beneficiaries of their faith. May I pass my faith on to others and especially by how I live my life.

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: "priests and elders...authority”; the religious leaders should have easily recognized by His actions that His authority was from God on high; but in their pride and in their covet for power they deliberately ignored the obvious to their detriment and to the detriment of the people they were called to serve. In prayer ask for a strong faith an for the grace to put it into practice for faith is for my benefit and for the benefit of those whose olives I touch.

Tomorrow's reading: Mt   1.1-17