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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Psalm 45:11, Psalm 48:4, 9 & 10, Sirach 3:17-18, 20 28-29, Hebrews 12:22-24, Luke 14:1, 10-14

Psalm 45:11
Be still and know that I am God.

Beloved, Just as only waters that are still can reflect sky, the sun moon and the beauty around it, so also in serenity, stillness, silence and expectant faith can I experience and reflect You. 
Psalm 48:4, 9 & 10

Here within her line of defence, God has shown Himself to be a sure fortress.
As we have heard so have we seen.
Let us recall Your unfailing love O God, inside Your temple.

You are my sure fortress nothing can prevail, overcome or overpower me when You live in the temple of my being.  And yes Beloved, all I have heard of You I have also experienced. Your word is true.  All day long and in my waking moments at night I recall the beauty and joy of Your constant love in Your holy temple which is my body. 

Sirach 3:17-18, 20 28-29
17 My son, conduct your affairs with discretion and you will be loved by those who are acceptable to God.Psalm 68:6-7, 10-11
18 The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself and thus you will find favor with God.
20 For great is the power of the Lord and it is the humble who give him glory.
 28 For the sufferings of the proud man there is no remedy, the roots of evil are implanted in him. 29 The wise man reflects on proverbs. What the wise man desires is an attentive ear.
 
A boastful person in an annoyance, like cymbals.  Like Mary, Joseph and all the saints the hallmark of true greatness is humility in imitation of God who for our sakes became like us in all things save sin.  It is the humble who are pleasing to both God and man.
 
Hebrews 12:22-24
22 But you came near to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem with its innumerable angels. You have come to the solemn feast, 23 the assembly of the firstborn of God, whose names are written in heaven. There is God, Judge of all, with the spirits of the upright brought to perfection. 24 There is Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, with the sprinkled blood that cries out more effectively than Abel’s.

We eat at the Lord's table and feast at His banquet for we have become brothers and sisters of the First Born of God and co-heirs of the Kingdom of God.

Luke 14:1, 10-14
 14 1 One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched.
10 Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you: ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be raised.”
• 12 Jesus also addressed the man who had invited him and said, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, or your brothers and relatives and wealthy neighbors. For surely they will also invite you in return and you will be repaid. 13 When you give a feast, invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. 14 Fortunate are you then, because they can’t repay you; you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the upright.”

The theme of the Liturgy of the Word is humility.  It is a virtue most pleasing to God.  The people of the world push and shove to get to the top, to the place of honor,  without any concern about who they claw and bring down in the process.  They are unmindful of the means they use to get to the top.  But for the Christian who genuinely loves God, we have a blueprint of the values required - we are to be Christlike if we are to be the truly  beloved of God.

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