A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
It's been quite a ride since Ash Wednesday, hasn't it? We had our penitential season of Lent; then our glorious Easter Season; finally Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, then Corpus Christi. Lots of special graces flowing for all those holy seasons and special Sundays. For some of us, just the grace we needed to advance our spiritual lives at least a few steps forward.
Now we're back in what the new calendar calls "Ordinary Time." The traditional calendar - followed for centuries - will, on the other hand, denote Sundays until Advent as "after Pentecost. It's a constant reminder and reinforcement of the critical importance of that great day when the Holy Spirit descended on Our Lord's disciples, giving them the understanding and courage they needed to spread the Good News throughout the world.
The Inner Life of the Soul quotes the Introit for today's Mass of the Second Sunday after Pentecost:
"The Lord became my protector, and He brought me forth to a large place."
How appropriate, not only for those first disciples whose hearts were enkindled with the fire of Love by the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost, but for all of us as well. This world of ours - seen from both a material and a spiritual perspective - is pretty large, don't you think?
There's an old expression: "The world is your oyster." It's intended to reduce that large place to something each of us can grasp and open up to find within a pearl of great price. The expression supposedly originated in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor": Falstaff: "I will not lend thee a penny." Pistol: "Why then, the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open."
Pistol's world here is reduced to money - and it seems he's willing to use any means to get it. The phrase can also mean that any of us, with our talents and ambition - rather than a sword - can open that oyster to acquire the pearl within.
What does that pearl represent? For many, it's likely riches, honor, power. And so we spend our days chasing these. But is that really what we Catholics should be spending our time and talents doing? If so we risk being one of those whom Cardinal Sarah recently described after he toured the ruins of the burned out Cathedral of Notre Dame. Referencing the Cathedral's spire that collapsed as witnessed by millions around the world either live or on video, he eloquently interprets this dramatic moment:
"Indeed this spire symbolized the one and only reason for the Church’s existence: to lead us to God, to point us toward Him. A Church that is not pointed toward God is a Church collapsing, already in the throes of death. The spire of the cathedral of Paris has fallen: and this is no coincidence! Notre-Dame of Paris symbolizes the whole West, buckling and crumbling after turning away from God. It symbolizes the great temptation of Western Christians: no longer turned toward God, turning inward upon themselves, they are perishing.
"I am convinced that this civilization is living through its mortal hour. As once during the decline and fall of Rome, so today the elites care for nothing but increasing the luxury of their daily lives, and the people have been anaesthetized by ever more vulgar entertainments."
Whether we're powerful or weak, wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between, we Catholics don't want any part of that.
Besides, as appealing as the idea of the world being our oyster might be, we all know that no matter how rich, successful, or powerful we might be, we're only one small step from something bad happening to us, whether in our business, professional, or personal lives - or all of the above.
Sunday provides us all with an occasion to spend a little more time with God, to see ourselves as His creatures rather than products of the sort of world described by Cardinal Sarah. As His creatures, we know the pearl in our oysters is the grace to do His will. Take some time on this Sunday to pray for the grace to discern what His will might be for you.
The Inner Life of the Soul sums it all up rather eloquently:
"God wills it. There lies the key to every problem, and would that we all possessed it. Then no longer would romance, or sentiment or ambition influence our young people in the choice of their state of life. And no longer, then, would parents hold back their children, when God calls them to His special service, whether to the priesthood, the cloister, the missions, or to a life in the world, yet entirely set apart for Him. 'God wills it,' they would say. 'Shall I dare oppose Him? Oh, never.' And they would deem it, not their honor only, but something sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, when their children went forth, rejoicing, to offer their life and their life-blood to their King."
Now we're back in what the new calendar calls "Ordinary Time." The traditional calendar - followed for centuries - will, on the other hand, denote Sundays until Advent as "after Pentecost. It's a constant reminder and reinforcement of the critical importance of that great day when the Holy Spirit descended on Our Lord's disciples, giving them the understanding and courage they needed to spread the Good News throughout the world.
The Inner Life of the Soul quotes the Introit for today's Mass of the Second Sunday after Pentecost:
"The Lord became my protector, and He brought me forth to a large place."
How appropriate, not only for those first disciples whose hearts were enkindled with the fire of Love by the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost, but for all of us as well. This world of ours - seen from both a material and a spiritual perspective - is pretty large, don't you think?
There's an old expression: "The world is your oyster." It's intended to reduce that large place to something each of us can grasp and open up to find within a pearl of great price. The expression supposedly originated in Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor": Falstaff: "I will not lend thee a penny." Pistol: "Why then, the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open."
Pistol's world here is reduced to money - and it seems he's willing to use any means to get it. The phrase can also mean that any of us, with our talents and ambition - rather than a sword - can open that oyster to acquire the pearl within.
What does that pearl represent? For many, it's likely riches, honor, power. And so we spend our days chasing these. But is that really what we Catholics should be spending our time and talents doing? If so we risk being one of those whom Cardinal Sarah recently described after he toured the ruins of the burned out Cathedral of Notre Dame. Referencing the Cathedral's spire that collapsed as witnessed by millions around the world either live or on video, he eloquently interprets this dramatic moment:
"Indeed this spire symbolized the one and only reason for the Church’s existence: to lead us to God, to point us toward Him. A Church that is not pointed toward God is a Church collapsing, already in the throes of death. The spire of the cathedral of Paris has fallen: and this is no coincidence! Notre-Dame of Paris symbolizes the whole West, buckling and crumbling after turning away from God. It symbolizes the great temptation of Western Christians: no longer turned toward God, turning inward upon themselves, they are perishing.
"I am convinced that this civilization is living through its mortal hour. As once during the decline and fall of Rome, so today the elites care for nothing but increasing the luxury of their daily lives, and the people have been anaesthetized by ever more vulgar entertainments."
Whether we're powerful or weak, wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between, we Catholics don't want any part of that.
Besides, as appealing as the idea of the world being our oyster might be, we all know that no matter how rich, successful, or powerful we might be, we're only one small step from something bad happening to us, whether in our business, professional, or personal lives - or all of the above.
Sunday provides us all with an occasion to spend a little more time with God, to see ourselves as His creatures rather than products of the sort of world described by Cardinal Sarah. As His creatures, we know the pearl in our oysters is the grace to do His will. Take some time on this Sunday to pray for the grace to discern what His will might be for you.
The Inner Life of the Soul sums it all up rather eloquently:
"God wills it. There lies the key to every problem, and would that we all possessed it. Then no longer would romance, or sentiment or ambition influence our young people in the choice of their state of life. And no longer, then, would parents hold back their children, when God calls them to His special service, whether to the priesthood, the cloister, the missions, or to a life in the world, yet entirely set apart for Him. 'God wills it,' they would say. 'Shall I dare oppose Him? Oh, never.' And they would deem it, not their honor only, but something sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, when their children went forth, rejoicing, to offer their life and their life-blood to their King."
Happy Sunday!
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