Our Mirror

God Said

 

Prayer of Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
          Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
          Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
          Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
          Be honest anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.
          Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
          Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
          Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
          Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

Is the Messiah Among You?

Once a great order, a decaying monastery had only five monks left. The order was dying. In the surrounding deep woods, there was a little hut that a Rabbi from a nearby town used from time to time. The monks always knew the Rabbi was home when they saw the smoke from his fire rise above the tree tops. As the Abbot agonized over the imminent death of his order, it occurred to him to ask the Rabbi if he could offer any advice that might save the monastery.

The Rabbi welcomed the Abbot at his hut. When the Abbot explained the reason for his visit, the Rabbi could only commiserate with him. “I know how it is,” he exclaimed. “The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no one comes to the synagogue anymore.” So the Abbot and the Rabbi sat together discussing the Bible and their faiths. The time came when the Abbot had to leave. “It has been a wonderful visit,” said the Abbot, “but I have failed in my purpose. Is there nothing you can tell me to help save my dying order?” “The only thing I can tell you,” said the Rabbi, “is that the Messiah is among you.”

When the Abbot returned to the monastery, his fellow monks gathered around him and asked, “What did the Rabbi say?” “He couldn’t help,” the Abbot answered. “The only thing he did say, as I was leaving was that the Messiah is among us. Though I do not know what these words mean.”In the months that followed, the monks pondered this and wondered whether there was any possible significance to the Rabbi’s words: The Messiah is among us? Could he possibly have meant that the Messiah is one of us monks here at the monastery? If that’s the case, which one of us is the Messiah? Do you suppose he meant the Abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant Father Abbot. Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elred! Elred gets crotchety at times. But come to think of it, even so, Elred is virtually always right. Maybe the rabbi did mean Brother Elred. Of course the Rabbi didn’t mean me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. I’m just an ordinary person. Yet supposing he did? Suppose I am the Messiah?

As they contemplated in this manner, the monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one among them might be the Messiah and in turn, each monk began to treat himself with extraordinary respect.

It so happened that people still occasionally came to visit the beautiful forest and monastery. Without even being conscious of it, visitors began to sense a powerful spiritual aura. They were sensing the extraordinary respect that now filled the monastery. Hardly knowing why, people began to come to the monastery frequently to picnic, to play, and to pray. They began to bring their friends, and their friends brought their friends. Then it happened that some of the younger men who came to visit the monastery started to talk more and more with the older monks. After a while, one asked if he could join them. Then, another and another asked if they too could join the abbot and older monks. Within a few years, the monastery once again became a thriving order, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in the realm.

– Author Unknown: Adapted from the Different Drum: Community Making and Peace by Dr. M. Scott Peck

Lord, Be With Us

 

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Since about 66AD there have been almost two hundred predictions about the end of the world. Some very notable people have bought into historical apocalypse theories including: St Martin of Tours, Pope Sylvester II, Pope Innocent III, Martin Luther, Christopher Columbus, Nostradamus, John Wesley, Cotton Mather and recently Pat Robertson and Harold Camping. And let us not forget the great Millennium scare of January 1, 2000 or the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012.

People have been obsessed with the end of the world since the time of Noah and the Great Flood. The Old Testament is full of references to “the day of the Lord” when God will directly intervene in human history. Today’s first reading from Daniel 12: 1-3, is one such reference. Before the day of the Lord comes there will “be a time unsurpassed in distress.” The world will be shaken to its core and judgment will come. But the children of Israel believed that because they were the chosen people they would survive the horror and experience a splendid new world. They believed that God is in charge and that God will win.

In today’s Gospel from Mark 13: 24-32, Jesus gives us another glimpse of the end of the world accompanied with the second coming. Jesus is not trying to scare the disciples or us. He is pragmatic. The world will end. Each one of us will die. However, it is a waste of time for us to speculate about when we will die or when the world as we know it will end. Jesus clearly says “"But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." What we do know is that “Heaven and earth will pass away,” but Jesus’ “words will not pass away.”

We know it is going to happen; the problem is we don't know when. And it is foolish for us to speculate because Jesus tells us clearly, "But of that day or hour, no one knows,

neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father" (Mark 13: 32). Our job is to be prepared. At the close of this chapter, Jesus says " What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'" We will hear a similar reading from Luke's gospel on the 1st Sunday of Advent in just two weeks. Get ready, Jesus is coming!

God our Father,

through your Son you told us

not to worry about the day or the hour

when the old world will be gone,

for you alone know when it will happen.

Open our eyes to the sign of Jesus’ coming

and make us see him

already walking by our side.

Keep us faithful in hope

and vigilant in our love for you

and our concern for one another.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

Amen.

A Prayer by Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this , You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thoughts in Solitude