04/08/2024

As I begin each morning's reflection I am very self-conscious. I am always aware that many valid criticisms could be levelled at me. That there are many in the world who would be able to feel contempt for my attitude to life which comes from belief in God. I don't feel any need to defend my point of view for I know that I am getting closer to the human being who I have been created to be, a friend of Jesus.

I am trying to be a child of Our Father and so I am somewhat perplexed by Paul's statement in the first reading that he first fed his Corinthians on milk. Paul is upset that quarrels have broken out among his converts. How can the Resurrection of Christ ever be considered to be as easy to digest as milk is to a baby? St Paul is above all the preacher of the Resurrection. How can this reality that stopped him in his tracks ever be weak or strong? It is always the blinding light on the road to Damascus; the sign of our salvation.

Jesus has left Nazareth and is staying with Peter's family. The first preachers of our Faith read into and from the Old Testament allegories that predated what they had come to know as the teaching of Christ. The very first antagonists to Our Lord's Message chose not to believe the reality that had been witnessed outside the city walls of Jerusalem.

In our New Testament there are many moments when the details of the reality of the remembered events of the life of Jesus, cannot be denied. Our Lady's "They have no wine" is one these. The woman of Sidon, "cannot the house dogs eat scraps from the master's table?". One of these moments, which usually involve women, happens in today's Gospel at the home of Peter. The bed-stricken mother-law "Got up and began to wait on them".

This is still the reality of life for many women. Mary, sister of Lazarus, chose the better part but Monica's role is still an absolutely essential one on Earth, but why should it be for women only?

Dear Lord, it is quite clear from the memoirs of the Evangelists that the story of your Incarnation is as historically true as the destruction of Herod's Temple. Today your children are still living in the material Universe that you have created for us to use in our material lives. It also should teach us that if we confine ourselves to it we live "unspiritual lives". You are incarnate to teach us to live in the Spirit, to know that the reality of our bodies fades away but you are waiting to welcome our souls into  Spiritual eternity. We all have to search for the life of the spirit which is not disbodied intelligence but a return to the Love, FatherSonHolySpirit, that searches us out to ask for our co-operation. You always went to a quiet place to join the Father in prayer. You know that my "my quiet place" is not quiet for very long and that sin is not very far away from me. You have no need of any individual but when we know your love it is very easy, we are all human beings, for us to become self-satisfied. May I become a part with Mary and all the saints of the Spiritual Body that is You, still on Earth, but in complete communion with the will of our heavenly Father and pray for your mercy to be showered over  all sinners, living and dead. Amen