11/02/2025

Tuesday week 5 of ordinary Time.        Our Lady of Lourdes 

This morning's mass-readings remind us that mankind did not create itself. We are all part of the Universe that is created by IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT's loving awareness of and joy in his own being, God knows that he is and creates out of that Love.

Mankind is gifted beyond all other bodily creatures. In his self-awareness and rationality he is above all other animals. He is also "image and likeness" in his freedom of soul and power of will. We can choose to adapt and confine ourselves to God's revelation of himself or chase after the material illusions we generate as we lose ourselves in our own egos and prepare to vanish in solely identifying ourselves with the flesh that is certainly going to die.

Our Father knows that his beloved creation, mankind, is capable of much more than we have already achieved with the material of this world. Even though Adam and Eve instantly fought against our Creator he still trusts us with "freedom". All code is based on "on or off". We are not spiritually encoded but trusted to always become "yes" to the loving revelation God never ceases to make. 

I know that mankind fails to be true to itself and its maker whenever we choose to continue on the path that exults in its own power, beauty and creative ability. We have all been created by and to "know, love and serve" the Supreme Being.

Today Jesus faces the "Temple Religion" of his Jewish Humanity and warns for all time that "Institutional Faith" uses our freedom to perform all sorts of "workarounds" when faced with any fundamental question which requires us to completely deny ourselves in choosing to do God's will.

The Pharisees retained ownership of the wherewithal to take care of their aged parents by claiming that it was "dedicated to God". Our "Christian Nations" have always engaged in wars often waged in the "Name of God". "Thou shalt not kill" is the absolute Word  revealed to Moses, reinforced by the personal "Turn the other cheek" but always ignored as nations fulfilled their various "manifest destinies" by the slaughter of each other and especially of the weaker.

This morning Jesus addresses the pharisees who are challenging him but his answer is for all mankind to hear, by quoting from Isaiah,

"This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men".

Dear Lord, help me to live in the pure light of your grace and thus become able to know that I can live according to your will by always being open to Love that you pour out to each individual that composes humanity. We can only do your will when we say "yes" and acknowledge that you are always there to lead us into the holiness that Jesus demonstrated by his life lived for others. There must have been many "anonymous saints" in history for I cannot find a time in written history when "Your will was done on Earth as it is in Heaven". May I never forget, today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, that we Mary and John are part of your Mystical Body, a New Holy Family within which your grace safeguards me from the snares of the devil and the evil that I can create by saying "no" to what you reveal to me. Amen