Meditation Mk 2,23-28
Stand in God’s presence. God is present here and now, looking upon you with love.
Ask for the Grace:I will beg God our Lord that all my intentionsand actions may be directed purely to the praise and serviceof His Divine Majesty
Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: It is the grainfields. Look what color it has, how the heads of grain look like. On the sabbath, Jesus and his disciples pass among the grain, just after this field, the disciples break the heads of grain. The Pharisees are also there. See them appalling, see their disagreement about what the disciples of Jesus are doing. Where are you in this scene?
Ask for the fruit of meditation: for the desire to know Jesus
1.(…) his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
The disciples are on their way together with Jesus. Going through the field, they start picking heads of grain. They do something that on the Sabbath was forbidden. The disciples are on their way, that is, they are not standing, they are not waiting, they are just going to some chosen goal to which Jesus leads them. Hence, when they become hungry, they take advantage of the benefits of nature and break the heads of grain that they eat to gain strength for the next journey.What is your path, where are you going? Who do you consult the direction of the road with? What feeds you, gives you strength to continue your journey?
2. Also look at this scene in this way: disciples enjoy what everyday brings them.
On sabbath it is forbidden to pluck the heads of grain, so they could look for a place where they would not break the sabbath rules, and the meal they would have consumed would be more abundant and festive. They do not do it. Why? What is more difficult?Perhaps Jesus wants to show that everything that we need for life is around us, maybe Jesus wants to teach us how to make decisions: what draws us closer to Jesus, which serves the greater good. See on your food: what’s better to eat meat on a Friday or buy a meatless dinner and throw meat on Saturday? This is not an incentive to break the rules, but to discern: what brings me closer to God, which choice is for the greater glory of God.
3.The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;
All commandments, the whole teaching of Jesus is for a man, that is, to help him live happily so that he can be a good person and develop to the fullness of life in God. The commandments is not to limit and enslave man. Look at God’s commandments in this context: how each one of them serves your goodness separately?
4. I encourage you to go on a field path with Jesus. See where you go, what is your common wanderings. How do you feel during this journey. How this journey approaches you, how you get to know each other.
Meditation:St Ignatius encourages in The Spiritual Exercises No. 2 … Because not so much knowledge, but internal feeling and the taste of things please and saturate the soul, that is, we stay where we feel interior movement … and nervously do not try to go on.
The final conversation: Spend a little time at the end, being with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit….as you would with a good friend: sometimes talking, sometimes listening, sometimes being together in silence. Speak to God about your feelings. Remember that times when ‘nothing is happening’ can also be significant. When you’re ready, end your prayer by saying thank you or using words that are familiar, such as the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father)–whichever feels right and comfortable. (The Spiritual Exercises No.54)
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