Sunday 30th August, 2009
22ND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.
 Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8. The just will live in the presence of the Lord—Ps 14(15):2-5. James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27. Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

  
Meditation: mp3 | podcast
Readings: Text | mp3 | podcast

By his own choice God made us his children.

God, like a confident lover, takes the initiative. All through the history of salvation, it is God who initiates, who commands, who forgives, who sends Jesus, and who gives us the Spirit of Jesus. In today’s gospel, when Jesus challenges the Pharisees, he stresses that it is not their human rules and regulations nor their empty lip-service which God wants, but the surrendering of their hearts.

Despite all the teaching we have had, we foolishly go on making ourselves the centre of our attentions. Lord, God, on my knees before you, I acknowledge you to be the great and holy One. Make me more and more aware that only through your gift do I have any power to act, any sense of truth and goodness. And so make me wise with a sense of my smallness. Help me, through your Spirit, to see exactly who I am, and may I always be open to your abiding power and presence around me.