"For our suffering to result in a mature and more Christ-like character
requires a fundamental trust
in God's ultimate good intentions
for us."
Don Talafous, OSB
Today's Readings
requires a fundamental trust
in God's ultimate good intentions
for us."
Don Talafous, OSB
Today's Readings
Each person on this earth is "called" to a unique and personal vocation. Each one of us is "called" to serve God or one another. Jesus was no different. It was the Father who "called" Jesus: "You are my Son ... You are a priest forever." Son, though he was, "he learned obedience from what he suffered."
The challenge that all of us have whether we are called to serve the Lord or others is to understand what true obedience is for us. For us who live in a society where freedom is pivotal and essential for democracy to work, this is a concept that demands much reflection and understanding on our part. It is indeed a buried treasure that we must find in the very core of our being.
Monday and Tuesday of this week are so filled with words and pictures stirred on by the freedom we wish to have in our lives. We, all of us, know well how a dream, the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is realized now to a great extent but not completely. The sin of hatred, because a person is born "black," racial hatred still lingers among our people. So, we continue to long for the complete fulfillment of the dream.
One particular aspect of our successfully achieving our freedom -- when all hatred and division are removed from the American landscape -- is following Jesus Christ in a particular way. From suffering we, again all of us including the Son of God, learn obedience. "Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.
And what is obedience? Simply stated it means that we strive with all that is in us to learn to listen, to be attuned, to what it is that God "deems" the best for us.
I believe that Dr. King was able to accomplish what he did because he realized in the suffering that he endured throughout his life as he strove to set us free --- free from racial hatred, free from the evil demons that bring us to sin against the Lord and one another -- that being one with God is critically essential for success in achieving one's freedom.
We have to ask ourselves why personal sin may seem distant from our daily lives. Perhaps, just perhaps, it may be because we have opted for doing what we want by developing our own norms, our own guidelines, our own interpretation of the Commandments.
The challenge that all of us have whether we are called to serve the Lord or others is to understand what true obedience is for us. For us who live in a society where freedom is pivotal and essential for democracy to work, this is a concept that demands much reflection and understanding on our part. It is indeed a buried treasure that we must find in the very core of our being.
Monday and Tuesday of this week are so filled with words and pictures stirred on by the freedom we wish to have in our lives. We, all of us, know well how a dream, the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is realized now to a great extent but not completely. The sin of hatred, because a person is born "black," racial hatred still lingers among our people. So, we continue to long for the complete fulfillment of the dream.
One particular aspect of our successfully achieving our freedom -- when all hatred and division are removed from the American landscape -- is following Jesus Christ in a particular way. From suffering we, again all of us including the Son of God, learn obedience. "Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.
And what is obedience? Simply stated it means that we strive with all that is in us to learn to listen, to be attuned, to what it is that God "deems" the best for us.
I believe that Dr. King was able to accomplish what he did because he realized in the suffering that he endured throughout his life as he strove to set us free --- free from racial hatred, free from the evil demons that bring us to sin against the Lord and one another -- that being one with God is critically essential for success in achieving one's freedom.
We have to ask ourselves why personal sin may seem distant from our daily lives. Perhaps, just perhaps, it may be because we have opted for doing what we want by developing our own norms, our own guidelines, our own interpretation of the Commandments.
