Good morning!
This Sunday we hear in the readings how God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and when He was asked His name responded ‘I Am who I Am. This’ he added ‘is what you must say to the sons of Israel: “I Am has sent me to you.” God's reply is both mysterious and yet complete -He is the essence of being Itself. He is greater than we can comprehend -more powerful and all-knowing, all-loving, all-merciful, all-just and all-good than we can even begin to fathom. And this in itself should give us great comfort because He is in charge of the universe -and He is in charge of every corner of our lives and hearts.
In the Gospels Jesus continues this revelation of God to Moses by placing Himself in the center of this "I AM" revelation -He continues it by telling the people 'I Am the Light of the world', 'I Am the Good Shepherd', 'I Am the Bread of Life', 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life...' -by revealing Himself in a series of 'I Am' statements, He is showing us both His intimacy with the Father and His deep connection to our hearts from the very beginning of time... its pretty incredible. I linked here my podcast about these 'I Am' statements -it would be a great way to go deeper into this revelation God makes to Moses in the first reading today. What does it mean to be 'I Am' Himself?
Also in the second reading we hear about all of the miraculous graces God granted to the Israelites in the desert -how He guided them miraculously with food and water -and yet the people were left free to choose to accept these graces or not -to allow them to penetrate their hearts and turn them from 'hearts of stone to hearts of flesh -of LOVE' or not. That same choice is given in the Gospel -the fig tree is tended and even given another chance after it refuses to bear fruit... But God does expect for it to respond to the caretakers tending to bear fruit -otherwise it has no worth.
In our own lives we live in a vast desert. When people look around the world they are overwhelmed by the suffering around them both individually in their personal lives as well as on a global scale. But this atmosphere is no different than the situation that the Israelites found themselves in thousands and thousands of years ago. God provided water from a rock and bread from heaven for them -and He still today provides us miraculous graces to endure earth's exile. Yet we are still -like the fig tree -free and responsible to accept His work and graces in our lives and bear fruit for Him or not. The greatest fruit we can bear for Him is gratefulness and LOVE. Do our lives bear the fruit of LOVE for the Lord and our neighbors? You don't have to be rich, or popular or successful or big to bear fruit for God. All you have to do is receive to your hearts the graces He gives you and offer Him back a sacrifice of praise -to allow your own heart to be the burning bush where He consumes you with the fire of His Love without destroying you.... His Fire of Love actually makes you perfect.
Many incredible things to mediate on this week.
Thank you so much for all of your continued support. We are working on sending another 2000 books in Dari to Afghanistan for Easter. Please pray for this project -both financially and for the safety of all involved. I am also still searching for both a Russian and Ukrainian translator for "Out of the Darkness" -please lift this up to the Lord as well! And we are printing 1000 copies of the 'Holiness of Womanhood' in Spanish for Mexico right now -it will be distributed through Catholic Charities and used in a women's ministry. Please pray for this and all of our continued projects for Central America as well. And I am still searching for a Polish vendor in Poland for our books. Please pray for this as well.
THANK YOU for your prayers, your support and your love. YOU are the fruit God is pleased with in this world.
in His great Mercy and Love,
Mary
Fiat +
Please consider joining our Patreon family and supporting my ministry by a monthly contribution. See here for more details:
No comments:
Post a Comment