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 intentions and actions may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty
Fixing a place, a picture for meditation: Jesus is passing with his disciples through a field of grain. Maybe they are talking together. During this journey, his disciples are picking the heads of grain.
Ask for the fruit of meditation: for the desire to know Jesus
1.The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.
Sometimes we forget about what we have received from God is to help us grow, so we often treat it as a burden. It happens when we treat faith as the letter of the law, i.e. very prescribed, strictly, restrictively, when we respect all commandments as a superior value. The Gospel Sabbath can change our thinking when we start to see our faith more as a relationship with God. This does not mean, of course, that regulations, rituals, and commandments are omitted by us, but that our faith is based more on trust, mercy, understanding. When I commit a sin, I trust in God that He still loves me and I know He will help me stand up.
What is my faith? Which faith am I closer to: the rigid, fundamental one, without exceptions, or the one based on trust, gentleness, closeness, and mercy? What enlivens my faith and what weakens? Which way do I want to go on the path of my faith?
2. Have you never
Jesus admonishes the Pharisees, who rebuke him that his disciples break the rules: they pick grains on the Sabbath! Jesus shows them that they don’t always do the right thing either.Somehow it is in our life that stricter and more restrictive we become to ourselves, the more we are to others. This does not mean that we will not make a mistake or sin, but that we look at ourselves in a very strict way and even after the sacrament of Confession, we feel guilty for a long time. We approach our loved ones in a similar way. We want them to be almost perfect, we expect it from them. Today Jesus says to each of us: be guided in your life by love, by greater good, that is by what brings me closer to God.Let’s look at ourselves before we judge someone, put a patch on before we say a hurt word. Maybe the first person who needs change and rebuke is me? Perhaps the admonition is: be kinder and gentle with yourself? Think, what one specific thing you can change in yourself just to become more and more kind and gentle to yourself and others, to become more and more like Jesus?
3.The Sabbath.
The Sabbath is a day of rest, a day without work, a day dedicated to God. What is your Sabbath?
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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