Self-Reflection and Santification
Jun 26: Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
Today is the feast of St. Josemaría Escrivá. Among many other things, he wrote The Way.1 It’s a collection of aphorisms and advice Josemaría had given and received over the years, not unlike the books of Proverbs or Sirach. Except, you know, written in the 20th century.2
He was also the founder of Opus Dei, which teaches that we should sanctify our work and daily lives. As I explained a few months ago—no matter what you do for a living, you can make the job itself holy.
Don’t just donate a fixed amount of money at the end of the month or year. If you plan on donating $X, figure out how many hours that is, or the number of sales it would take. Say a little prayer at the office, that you’re going to consecrate your time on the Jones account to the sick that the Red Cross ministers to; or you’ll spend the next 6 hours in the factory devoted to the homeless shelter downtown; or, if you’re living off of savings and investments, you can even consciously give up something you were going to buy for yourself and donate that. Whatever applies in your case!
Depending on your job, you might actually do more good earning a little extra money working overtime so you can buy supplies for the soup kitchen, than spending those same hours ladling soup out for the hungry.
Reading 1
Gn 12:1-9
The LORD said to Abram: "Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.
"I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you."
Abram went as the LORD directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife, Sarai, his brother's son Lot, all the possessions that they had accumulated, and the persons they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land as far as the sacred place at Shechem, by the terebinth of Moreh. (The Canaanites were then in the land.)
The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." So Abram built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country east of Bethel, pitching his tent with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. He built an altar there to the LORD and invoked the LORD by name. Then Abram journeyed on by stages to the Negeb.
Abram and his family were pastoral nomads. That means they didn’t simply roam around, like we tend to think of nomads. Sometimes they settled for periods of time, depending on the weather and other things. It wasn’t like the Sheep Wars, where they destroyed everything in sight.
In fact, the villages and the pastoral nomads often cooperated, trading goods that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to.
So, Abram didn’t exactly lead a nomadic hoard, like Muhammad, as he’s sometimes depicted. God basically said, “Settle down here, and I will bless your family.”
The phrase “All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you” is grammatically ambiguous. It could mean, people will see (“find”) that you have been blessed; or, it could mean that the whole Earth will eventually share in the blessings God has bestowed on Abram’s descendants. As Christians, we naturally believe the latter.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 33:12-13, 18-19, 20 and 22
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
From heaven the LORD looks down;
he sees all mankind.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
God chose the Israelites; they didn’t choose Him.
So it is in our lives, too; God loved us, first. It’s then up to us to respond, like Abram did, to accept His gifts. Remember, God didn’t just bless Abram; He commanded him to go to Canaan, first. It was because of Abram’s obedience that God was his help and shield.
Alleluia
Heb 4:12
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God knows the difference between your mind wandering, and actually committing sin in your heart.
Gospel
Mt 7:1-5
Jesus said to his disciples: "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
Jesus obviously doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to recognize the fault in others; that wouldn’t even make sense in the context of this passage. How would you know there’s a splinter in your brother’s eye, if you couldn’t judge at all?
No, the point He’s making is to not judge from our own self-righteousness. Instead, judge as God does, taking in a view of the whole situation. We can’t do that if our perception is blocked by our own sin.
Which, not coincidentally, is what early Christians called Christianity before the term “Christianity” was coined.
Which is actually starting to feel like a long time ago, now, huh?