{"id":4367,"date":"2016-08-28T10:03:42","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T14:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4367"},"modified":"2016-08-24T13:05:44","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T17:05:44","slug":"reflections-on-the-scriptural-readings-for-this-weekend-20160828","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4367","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on the Scriptural Readings for this Weekend — 20160828"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pentacost\"<\/a>As we complete this fifteenth week after Pentecost, our first reading is taken from the fourth chapter of Paul\u2019s second letter to the Church in Corinth. He presents the idea that the life within us can be seen as similar to light. He writes:<\/p>\n

For God, who said, \u201cLet there be light in the darkness,\u201d has made us understand that it is the brightness of his glory that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. But this precious treasure – this light and power that now shine within us – is held in a perishable container, that is, in our weak bodies. Everyone can see that the glorious power within must be from God and is not our own.<\/p>\n

What a truly wonderful description of human life. It is similar to the description that persons, who have had near-death experiences, have felt to be God. He is truly the \u201clight\u201d of life in a real sense. He has, according to our belief, brought, through the Person of Jesus, light of knowledge into our world – that is knowledge about the real meaning and purpose of life.<\/p>\n

Our second reading, which comes from Matthew\u2019s Gospel, relates an encounter Jesus had with a lawyer who was attempting to trip Him up. He asked Jesus, Teacher, which is the most important command in the Law of Moses<\/em>?\u201d Jesus very astutely answers:<\/p>\n

Love the Lord your God with all your hear, soul and mind\u2026. And your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other commands and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.<\/p>\n

This is, in truth, a summary of the teaching of Jesus. It gives true light to a world that is often filled with the darkness of hatred, bigotry and prejudice. When love is present, God is present.<\/p>\n

While this idea of Jesus seems so very simple and true, it seems that humans resist living in this manner because, it is my belief, we don\u2019t always love ourselves. If we truly loved ourselves, we could not judge others, hate others, disregard others and defame others. Why? Because, in essence, we do the same to ourselves when we treat others in this manner – when we envision the \u201clight\u201d of God\u2019s life within us, and therefore within all others, we can only stand in awe. If we cannot see God\u2019s life in others, how can we imagine God\u2019s life in us?<\/p>\n

God revealed to us through Jesus that love of God, self and others are intimately and intricately intertwined. They cannot be separated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we complete this fifteenth week after Pentecost, our first reading is taken from the fourth chapter of Paul\u2019s second letter to the Church in Corinth. He presents the idea that the life within us can be seen as similar … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4367\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}