12/09/2021

Our Lord makes no bones about it . We have to renounce all our selfishness. We have to root out all signs of egoism. We have to abandon our selves to "the Way, the Truth the Life" that is Christ. He tells the disciples about "His Way"; he will be completely forsaken and that they too have to be ready to follow this "Way" to be true followers of him. Peter is not up to accepting this  and remonstrates "Oh come on Lord you don't really mean; it nothing like this is going to happen to you". Jesus' rebuke is total and uncompromising. "It is the Lord who speaks" and we have to accept it as the word that is  direct and unchangeable. 

Some of Jesus' teachings are foreshadowed in the OT and in the Isiah we see "Turn the other cheek". Isiah's contemporaries show very little evidence of accepting this as having the force of Moses'  revelation; just as we do not show much acceptance of the Lord's command. 

St James' letters were written 30 years or so after the resurrection and they must have grown out of the prayer and experience of those first Christians in  Jerusalem . What he writes is the barebones of Christian dogma in its original Jewish setting. The "faith" he preaches is the "faith" taught by "Brother Isa" and as such it must become visible in our behaviour. Belief is not just  something existing between God and me and only happening in my brain. I must do good by avoiding sin but also be of positive benefit to those around me. "Maranatha" was the word in the Temple and we can ask those on whose lips it was first spoken to intercede for us in heaven.

Dear Lord as I start this day I, as usual, become aware that what I think and write must be visible in my behaviour. You know that now I am quite pleased with myself for the reflections above. Let me accept the chidings and scruples of my conscience as being inspired by you. I make this prayer through Father Son and Holy Ghost.