Tuesday of Fifth Week of Ordinary Time
The people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine human precepts.
The people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine human precepts.
Benedictine Monastery, Monte Cassino, ItalyEach day begins with a sunrise, clouds or no clouds. Each day God "speaks" to us in the rays of light that separate day light from night darkness. Since the world began nothing could be more important to God than taking care of us each day with a sun's breaking above every horizon.
In Mark 7: 1-13 Jesus criticizes Pharisaical concern for meeting or following a schedule or tradition when the matters of love and service are in the balance. Jesus is teaching in this gospel story: teaching that there are moments when our relationship to God, our caring for the well being of our own spirit or others are more important than a schedule or a tradition.
St. Scholastica, the Benedictine sister of St. Benedict enjoyed her brother's visit to her monastery. We celebrate her feast today. As the day of her brother's visit was ending, her brother protested her request to remain overnight at the monastery because he had a busy schedule the next day. Sister Scholastica prayed to God that he would send a message to her brother to remain. When the two were walking to the monastic gates, a terrible storm poured from the skies. The bishop remained. In his quiet conversations with his sister that evening and the next morning he realized how much more important their conversation was than his leaving the previous day. [The two saints are buried in Monte Cassino, Italy, pictured above.]
How often are we schedule-challenges by our highly technical, highly scheduled world today? How often do we allow a schedule or a tradition prevent the Holy Spirit from working in and through us? Time is one of our greatest commodities. Yet, how often do we cheat ourselves from time with God or our own inner spirit becasue we fall into the "time is money" mentality? Where is the freedom of choice we sodesire in our lives when there is the opportunity to enjoy it?
