Daily Reflection – 10/31/2022
Sacred Scripture
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” (Luke 14: 12-14)
Reflection
Rabbi Abraham Heschel, one of the great religious thinkers of the last century, said that only three things are necessary for us to connect with God: God’s willingness to love us, the capacity of the human soul to receive that love, and a moment in which those two realities can meet
Those three absolutes are with us throughout our life.
God is always loving us, we are always capable of receiving that love, and there is always a moment in which we and God can connect. Finding God and connecting with God is easy. It is simple, immediately accessible, like breathing in and breathing out, as present to us as our own consciousness. It begins with the simplest of acts. Stopping and remembering how much he loves you.
Finding God also extends to how we respond to others when we internalize that love from him.
When we act on his love, we often have to extend ourselves to others. That’s an act of generosity. Not self-diminution. Generosity enriches your soul. Why? Because generosity springs from a heart full of mercy and compassion.
A heart full of mercy and compassion.
Isn’t that an act that imitates the heart of Jesus.
God has loved us first, and our love for him is a response of gratitude for the great mercy and kindness he has shown to each of us.
Think of the people in your life who love you, who belong to you, who give you joy. Could you imagine greater? I know that, each day, you give thanks to God for them.
You and I also know that our immediate word is replete with those who don’t feel thankful. An elderly widower forgotten by his relatives. A young person who feels unloved and suffers in silence. A relative or friend addicted to alcohol or drugs whose world is distorted because he or she thinks of only one reward – the next drink or the next hit.
Think of how much your reaching out to them and extending his love can mean.
Today, find a way a way to do that.
In missing that gesture of love, we will miss the joy that it can give us and the God who offers it to us. Look at the real opportunities that are present to you in your life right now: the opportunity to grow, the opportunity to understand, to serve, to laugh, to enjoy what you have been given.
Jesus Christ waits for your visit today.
Prayer of The Day
“Lord Jesus, you have captured our hearts and opened to us the treasures of heaven. May you always be my treasure and delight and may nothing else keep me from giving you my all.”
Daily Note
Jesus invites us to follow Him, putting our feet where His are. Holding a hand as He does ours. Extending His love as He extends ours.
