Love as Strong as Death

Set me as a seal on your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
     Song of Songs: 8:6

This is the cry of a lover for a responding unbreakable love. It's the cry of every believer.

Every child thrives in the knowledge of its father's love. Everything else may be falling in ruin but when the father's love is experienced and unquestionable, all is well. 

Lord, magnify my love today that I may better reflect your love.

Saint Scholastica,, please pray for me.

His Peace Is My Peace

Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,
a peace the world cannot give,
this is my gift to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
Jn.14:27

Jesus is about to experience the unspeakable violence of his passion and death. What does he first want to give to his disciples? Peace.

Peace in the world can only start with peace in me. One tiny pebble can break the tranquil surface of a pond. I need peace in my heart to then pass that on to those about me. 

I take up Jesus' offer. I exchange my troubled and fearful heart for his own peace, a peace the world cannot give.

Come Lord Jesus calm the waters in my heart with your peace. 

Love Christ Love Others

For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, that man will save it.
Lk.9:24

Jesus makes clear what it takes to gain eternal life. Death.

Dying to self, taking up my cross. These are contrary to my inclination. My natural tendency is to place myself first. Jesus shows by his life and death that this is no way to live life to the fullest. 

How can I make the good of others my natural response and desire? A starting point could be to see Jesus in others, even in the poor, the plain and the simple. Then serving them becomes serving Christ, which is my heart's desire. 

Jesus, show yourself to me in those I meet today that my love for you becomes love for them.
Saint Agatha, please pray for me.

Love Always Hopes

"This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him.
Mk.6:3

The home town of Jesus couldn't see past the Jesus they thought they knew. For them he would always be a carpenter.

Placing people in a box is a weakness of mine. I tend to rain on people's parades. I need to acknowledge that Jesus can do new things in peoples lives. Just look at what he did in mine! Love always hopes. Hopes in what? Hopes for the better, hopes for change.

Judgement stops progress dead in its tracks. Hope encourages growth and new life. 

Lord, let me be a hope-filled cheerleader.

The Key To The Kingdom

I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Mt.18:3,4

Simplicity, innocence and littleness meld to form a key to the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus isn't just giving advice, he's giving a warning. Unless I change... I will never enter the kingdom. Change from what? Sophistication, impurity and aggrandisement. 

There's work to be done but the God who forgives, who heals who redeems and who crowns me with love (Ps.102:3,4)  is on my side.

Saint John Bosco, please pray for me.

An Open Hand

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
Mk.4:24

Jesus defines God's heart as a generous heart. 

The more I give, the more I receive. Generosity is a strange thing. Not only does it bless the receiver, it folds back and blesses the giver. 

Was it Winston Churchill who said, 'We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."? 

Jesus warns the reverse is also true. Miserliness shrinks a life. 

My wife is naturally generous. She will happily stuff $20 notes into a needy family's letterbox. Knowing that I struggle with this, she gets me to do the stuffing. 

Also, I've noticed that generous people tend to be joyful people. They are life-giving. Their hand is an open palm, not a grasping fist. They are the sort of people I like to hang around.

Lord, open my hand. Give me a generous heart like yours.

Simple is Best

Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ.
Mt.23:10

The desire for honorific titles is a common enough human weakness for Jesus to see the need to address it. 

It's intriguing that the Church chooses this scripture for the memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the Church's greatest of teachers. Maybe a key is the word "allow". This infers a fostering and encouragement of the title. 

For me this is a temptation from the world, a desire to become a mini-god in place of Jesus. The world exalts the rich, the powerful, the beautiful and the brainy while turning sharply from the poor, the weak, the plain and the simple. Scripture records Jesus being drawn more to the later group. 

So, the message from scripture for me this morning? A warning. There is a road to Hell and it is paved with self-exaltation. 

Saint Thomas Aquinas, please pray for me.