LITURGY & DEVOTIONS | DAILY MEDITATIONS Wearing the Right Clothes Matthew 22:1-14. Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time. Today I will try to work on a virtue that I need so as to respond to Gods love for me. by Fr Jose LaBoy, LC | Source: catholic.net Matthew 22: 1-14 Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe in you because you have created me to be with you. I hope in you because you always give me what I need to be with you. I love you because you continue to invite me, in spite of my reticence and sinfulness. Petition: Lord, grant me the grace to value heaven and to live in such a way that I can get there. 1. How Dare You Not Accept! God invites us to accept freely the gift of union with him to which he calls us. But, lo and behold, we can use our freedom badly and not accept the only thing that can truly make us happy. This occurs when we forget about God, no longer giving him the adoration and love he deserves as our Creator and Father, putting ourselves in first place, and becoming the sole criteria for our decisions and actions. This passage helps us to remember what type of freedom we have. We do not have absolute freedom. We cant choose what our end should be. Only God is our end. Our freedom is limited and consists in being free to choose the means that most efficaciously help us to reach that end. 2. An Undeserved Invitation: Our possibility of getting to heaven is truly a gift from God. He invites us even though we are sinners, even though we dont take his Sons death and resurrection seriously, even though we continue to fall in spite of having all the grace and strength we need to overcome temptation. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, states how hard it is for a man to give his life for another person (see Romans 4:7). Maybe he would do it for a very good person. Christ didnt give his life for good persons; he gave it for sinners. We should be moved to respond to this amazing manifestation of love for us: Total adherence to God is the only worthy response. 3. Dressing for the Occasion: God is good, but he is not naive. He wont let us in to full communion with him if we do not value it properly. The robe mentioned in the Gospel passage is an image of the soul. The soul that has been purified and is prepared to enter into heaven wears a wedding robe. The soul that is full of selfishness and sin is improperly dressed. It is not a matter of God not having mercy on us. Its a matter of theuse of our freedom. When we encounter something that has value and know that it will make us better, we have to appropriate that value through conscious effort. We have to live up to it. We cant be indifferent or superficial regarding heaven. We shouldnt regard it as just something possible; it should be an existential need. Conversation with Christ: Dear Lord, so many times I give more importance to my own satisfaction than to centering my attention and efforts on achieving true communion with you. Help me to value your invitation to reach heaven through a truly Christian life that prefers virtue to sin, disinterested love to selfishness, humility to pride. Resolution: Today I will try to work on a virtue that I need so as to respond to Gods love for me.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:07:03 +0000