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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace - Sunday's reading reflection

"For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans."

All the tension, posturing and rigidity in the world couldn't disprove this verse from the Book of Wisdom in today's first reading.  As presidents and prime ministers debate with their congressional bodies, as some leaders urge peace and others war, we realize that "the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans."

So as media reports confuse the situation in Syria (Assad is the bad guy; no the rebels are the bad guys; no some rebels are and some aren't), lets make it plain and simple this Sunday as we pray with Pope Francis and the world for peace in Syria.

• When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.  (Jimi Hendrix)  

• An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.(Mahatma Gandhi)  

• If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.  (Mother Teresa)

It may seem like an oversimplification but as we read parable after parable, we realize that Jesus simplified things rather than confuse them.  "Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?," the first reading asks.  Jesus the Lord can.  And he made it pretty simple.  "Love one another as I love you."

Old wine skins easily burst - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"new wine"

Jesus warns the scribes and Pharisees about the problem of a "closed mind" that refuses to learn new things. Jesus used an image familiar to his audience – new and old wineskins. In Jesus' times, wine was stored in wineskins, not bottles. New wine poured into skins was still fermenting. The gases exerted increased pressure. New wine skins were elastic enough to take the pressure, but old wine skins easily burst because they became hard and rigid as they aged. 

What did Jesus mean by this comparison? Are we to reject the old in place of the new? Just as there is a right place and a right time for fasting and for feasting, so there is a right place for the old as well as the new.  Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old (Mt 13:52). How impoverished we would be if we only had the Old Testament or the New Testament, rather than both?  

The Lord Jesus gives us wisdom so we can use both the old and the new. He doesn't want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new work of his Holy Spirit in our lives but he also wants us to see that what is old wine is good wine, but that will eventually give out and be replaced with the new wine. "I make all things new," he says.  He wants our minds and hearts to be like the new wine skins – open and ready to receive the new wine of the Holy Spirit. 

(Adapted from Don Schwager)

Master to miracle worker, Self-assured to humble - Tomorrow's reading reflection

“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”

Simon was wearied from a night of fruitless toil, he nonetheless did what the Lord Jesus told him to do: At your word I will let down the nets. When you meet disappointment and failure, do you listen to and respond to the Lord, like Simon, even if you doubt a solution can be attained?  "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets."  Simon Peter went from seeing Jesus as Master to Jesus as Miracle Worker.  And as he did so, his disposition became one of repentance and humility.  "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."  To which Jesus responded, "Do not be afraid..."

This incident tells us an important truth about how God works in and through each of us for his glory. God expects of us greater things than we can do by ourselves. When we cooperate in his works, we accomplish far beyond what we can do on our own. Therese of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun who died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four, wrote to a friend: "Jesus has so incomprehensible a love for us that he wills that we have a share with him in the salvation of souls. He wills to do nothing without us. The Creator of the universe awaits the prayer of a poor little soul to save other souls redeemed like it at the price of all his Blood."

(Adapted from Don Schwager)

Who do you take your troubles to? - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"the Gospel, that has come to you"

Who do you take your troubles to? Jesus' disciples freely brought their troubles to him because they found him ready and able to deal with any difficulty, affliction, or sickness which they encountered. When Simon Peter brought Jesus to his home for the Sabbath meal (right after Jesus preached in the synagogue in Capernaum), his mother-in-law was instantly healed because Jesus heard Simon's prayer. Jesus could not avoid drawing a crowd wherever he went.  

Jesus' numerous healings and exorcisms demonstrated the power and authority of his word, the "good news of the kingdom of God." When he rebuked the fever, it immediately left. When he rebuked the demons, they left as well. Why did the demons shudder at Jesus' presence? They recognized that he was the Christ, the Son of God and that he had power to destroy their kingdom by releasing those bound by it. Jesus came to set us free from bondage to sin and evil. Do you seek freedom in Christ and trust in his power to set you free, however that may be?

(Adapted from Don Schwager)