TUESDAY, TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.”—Matthew 5: 27-30
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Today’s Gospel in follow of Elijah’s discernment of GOD in “a tiny whispering sound:” this one hits me too.
If I were to remove all that caused me to sin, what of me would remain? I would have no eyes. I would have no ears, no lips or tongue with which to speak. I’d have no hands, no mind…
If to remove all parts of me that sin, all that would remain of me is a bleeding heart that tries.
Maybe that’s all GOD wants of us and all we really need.
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(After writing this—I learned yesterday was the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which, in the Catholic Church, is celebrated on the Friday following the Solemnity/Feast of Corpus Christi. As a Catholic, practicing and following daily readings from Missal at home, I often miss and am unaware when these special solemnities, feasts, and celebrations occur and keep with daily readings in order of the Catholic year. Learning of the Solemnity, I found it fitting—and not at all surprising—how, even reading the wrong Gospel, I was led and arrived, with solemnity, upon the very focus of the celebration: a Sacred Heart—the one in us, made in the image of God’s, that in spite of all our faults and sins, pours out its love in services and acts and signs in its love for God and mankind: a bleeding heart that tries.)
