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| Contemplate our calling |
The Prophet Ezekiel becomes a model for the people of Judah in their response to the Exile to Babylon.
* [24:17] The bread of mourners: a post-burial meal that mourners shared to comfort one another; cf. 2 Sm 3:35; Jer 16:7. The other gestures mentioned here were also popular mourning customs. Because Ezekiel does not observe any of the mourning customs mentioned, the people are puzzled and ask him to explain.In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus challenges the young rich man to grow in his understanding of his role in the world.
* [19:21] If you wish to be perfect: to be perfect is demanded of all Christians; see Mt 5:48. In the case of this man, it involves selling his possessions and giving to the poor; only so can he follow Jesus.Cindy Murphy McMahon shares that God is more concerned with the quality of our hearts then the accomplishments of our to-do list.
This Gospel has long been interpreted to mean that not everyone needs to sell all of their possessions in order to be right with God, but that Jesus was looking into the heart of this young man, and saw that he was looking for a way to get right with God only as far as it fit his own agenda. The lesson for us is that Jesus knows our hearts, and he knows what each of us are clinging to in hopes of somehow getting around whatever God is asking of us.The Catholic Culture Website comments on the Memorial of St. Bernard that he continually asked the question: "For what purpose are you on earth?" The Collect Prayer for today recognizes his example.
O God, who made the Abbot Saint Bernard a man consumed with zeal for your house and a light shining and burning in your Church, grant, through his intercession, that we may be on fire with the same spirit and walk always as children of light. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.The Franciscan Media “Saint of the Day” adds more detail on the life and work of St. Bernard.
Don Schwager offers a question for meditation: where can we find true peace, security, and happiness?
A young man who had the best the world could offer - wealth, position, and security - came to Jesus because he lacked one thing. He wanted the kind of lasting peace and happiness which money and possessions could not buy him. The answer he got, however, was not what he was looking for. He protested that he kept all the commandments - but Jesus spoke to the trouble in his heart. One thing kept him from giving himself wholeheartedly to God. While he lacked nothing in material goods, he was nonetheless possessive of what he had. He placed his hope and security in what he possessed. So when Jesus challenged him to make God his one true possession and treasure, he became dismayed.The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 19:16-22 notes that the rich young man in today’s reading wants to know what he needs to do to make it to heaven. But when Jesus speaks to him about single-minded devotion to God’s kingdom, he walks away dejectedly because he feels the sacrifice is too great.
The dictionary defines single-minded as “having one driving purpose or resolve.” Our purpose, our dream, is to be like Christ. And that requires resolve to focus our thoughts, words, and actions—even our relationships and the way we spend our time—towards this ideal of becoming like Christ.Friar Jude Winkler provides background to the actions of Ezekiel in Babylon ten years before the general exile from Jerusalem in 587 BCE. We seek a normal equanimity so that when things go well or not we encounter the Love of God. Friar Jude shares sacrifice through vows and notes that we all also observe vows of poverty when we live our responsibilities.
Craig, a married Catholic convert with two boys who has spent over three years studying and praying with Benedictine monks, asks how can he make his Domestic Church more monastic? He reflects about St. Bernard and Thomas Merton on Simplicity and the True Aim of Life.
Even a cursory reading of these notions, which are the very cornerstone of cistercian asceticism, will show that St. Bernard has really vindicated the fundamental goodness of human nature in terms as strong as have ever been used by any philosopher or theologian. And if the first step in the cistercian ascent to God is for the monk to know himself we may reasonably say that, in some sense, the whole life of such a one will consist in being himself, or rather trying to return to the original simplicity, immortality and freedom which constitute his real self, in the image of God.Fr Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces James Finley who briefly shares the story of the Buddha’s life to provide some context for Buddhist teachings.
Then Siddhartha, utterly alone, stopped and calmed himself and looked deeply into his situation. Stripped of all superficiality and adornment of the extremes of wealth and poverty, his situation is our situation. He reveals us to ourselves. He is the human being who has discovered the bankruptcy of the ego’s agenda to come to abiding happiness. He made a vow to sit there under a Bodhi tree until he resolved the human dilemma of suffering and the search for inner peace and fulfillment in the midst of life as it is. Through the night, he was tempted by the demon Mara, but he was unshaken in his resolve.The points of resonance in the reflection today between the texts from the Lectionary, the life of St. Bernard, the True Self exploration of Thomas Merton and a brief insight into Buddhist teachings are opportunities to contemplate the question of the Cistercian father about our purpose on earth.
References
(n.d.). Ezekiel, chapter 24 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/24
(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 19 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/19
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved August 20, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(2018, August 19). Memorial of St. Bernard, abbot and doctor - August 20, 2018 .... Retrieved August 20, 2018, from https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2018-08-20
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(2018, August 19). Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved August 20, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/2018/08/20/
(2016, August 20). St. Bernard and Thomas Merton on Simplicity & the True Aim of Life .... Retrieved August 20, 2018, from https://www.anotherbenedict.org/st-bernard-thomas-merton-simplicity/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 20, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
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