True Worship
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February 7, 2017. Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Ordinary Time
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Mark
7:1-13
Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who
had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his
disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. [For the
Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their
hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the
marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many
other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups
and jugs and kettles (and beds).] So the Pharisees and scribes questioned
him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but
instead eat a meal with unclean hands?" He responded, "Well did
Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ´This people honors
me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship
me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.´ You disregard God´s commandment but
cling to human tradition." He went on to say, "How well you have
set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses
said, ´Honor your father and your mother,´ and ´Whoever curses father or
mother shall die.´ Yet you say, ´If a person says to father or mother,
"Any support you might have had from me is qorban"´ (meaning,
dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed
on. And you do many such things."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your Gospel and for all the truth it
teaches me. Thank You for warning me of attitudes and dispositions that could
become temptations for me. I love You for Your goodness and mercy, and I
entrust myself into Your loving hands.
Petition: Lord, help me to serve You sincerely, in truth and in
love.
1. “This people honors me only with lip
service, while their hearts are far from me.” Jesus calls his disciples to authenticity.
Too often so-called disciples give the impression of following him, while at
the same time accepting sensual loves and lusts in their heart. Although the
Pharisees display the outward trappings of holiness, the way they treat Jesus
and others betrays their true character. Jesus would call them “whitewashed
tombs” (Matthew 15:27): clean and bright on the outside, but full of dead
men’s bones within. Self-righteousness would be their downfall. Such
dispositions may lend the proud man certain short-term security, but it will
always be illusory since it is not rooted in the truth. Is there any way in
which I also pay tribute to God with my lips but say something else in my
heart, or behave contrariwise in my actions?
2. “The worship they offer me is worthless.”
True worship begins
with humility, when the soul recognizes that it possesses no good in and of
itself, but that all of its goodness comes from God. The Pharisees offered no
real worship to God since, in effect, they worshipped only themselves by
relying more on their talents and goodness than on the goodness that comes
from God. It is not insignificant that when Jesus describes a Pharisee’s
prayer in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, he says “The
Pharisee prayed this prayer to himself” (Luke 18:11). How can I
make sure that my prayer is truly devoted, meaning that I am addressing Our
Lord with the words of my heart?
3. "You make God’s word null and void.”
The Pharisees used
the talents and gifts God had given them not for God’s glory, but for their
own personal gain, whether that gain consisted of praise and admiration or
personal comfort and ease. True worship of God, truly placing God above all
else, involves using the things God created as means to reaching him. As
number 226 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “It means making
good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use
everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to
detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him:
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.”
Conversation with Christ: Lord, thank You for my life and all the good things You have
given me. Help me to realize that You have created everything and that all I
have is from You. May I use all I have to serve others and as a means to come
closer to You, the source of all good.
Resolution: I will examine my conscience to see if I am
using any of my gifts and talents to glorify or serve only myself. If so,
I’ll strive to put these same gifts at the service of God.
Excerpts from the
DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
92 Humiliation is my daily food. I
understand that the bride must herself share in everything that is the
groom's; and so His cloak of mockery must cover me, too. At those times when
I suffer much, I try to remain silent, as I do not trust my tongue which, at
such moments, is inclined to talk for itself, while its duty is to help me
praise God for all the blessings and gifts which He has given me. When I
receive Jesus in Holy Communion, I ask Him fervently to deign to heal my
tongue so that I would offend neither God nor neighbor by it. I want my
tongue to praise God without cease. Great are the faults committed by the
tongue. The soul will not attain sanctity if it does not keep watch over its
tongue.
200 O Jesus, how deeply it hurts the soul when it is
always trying to be sincere and they accuse it of hypocrisy and behave with
mistrust toward it. O Jesus, You also suffered like this to make satisfaction
to Your Father.
282 Once the Lord said to me, My
Heart was moved by great mercy towards you, My dearest child, when I saw you
torn to shreds because of the great pain you suffered in repenting for your
sins. I see your love, so pure and true that I give you first place among the
virgins. You are the honor and glory of My Passion. I see every abasement of
your soul, and nothing escapes my attention. I lift up the humble even to my
very throne, because I want it so.
320 Jesus made known to me how
very pleasing to Him were prayers of atonement. He said to me, The prayer
of a humble and loving soul disarms the anger of My Father and draws down an
ocean of blessings. After the adoration, half way to my cell, I was
surrounded by a , pack of huge black dogs who were jumping and howling and
trying to tear me to pieces. I realized that they were not dogs, but demons.
One of them spoke up in a rage, "Because you have snatched so many souls
away from us this night, we will tear you to pieces." I answered,
"If that is the will of the most merciful God, tear me to pieces, for I
have justly deserved it, because I am the most miserable of all sinners, and
God is ever holy, just, and infinitely merciful." To these words all the
demons answered as one, "Let us flee, for she is not alone; the Almighty
is with her!" And they vanished like dust, like the noise of the road, while
I continued on my way to my cell undisturbed, finishing my Te Deum and
pondering the infinite and unfathomable mercy of God.
332 +Thursday. When I started the Holy Hour, I
wanted to immerse myself in the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives. Then
I heard a voice in my soul:Meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation
. And suddenly the Infant Jesus appeared before me, radiant with beauty. He
told me how much God is pleased with simplicity in a soul. Although My
greatness is beyond understanding, I commune only with those who are little.
I demand of you a childlike spirit.
1306 + O humility, lovely flower, I see how few
souls possess you. Is it because you are so beautiful and at the same time so
difficult to attain? O yes, it is both the one and the other. Even God takes
great pleasure in her. The floodgates of heaven are open to a humble soul,
and a sea of graces flows down upon her. O how beautiful is a humble soul!
From her heart, as from a censer, rises a varied and most pleasing fragrance
which breaks through the skies and reaches God himself, filling His Most
Sacred Heart with joy. God refuses nothing to such a soul; she is
all-powerful and influences the destiny of the whole world. God raises such a
soul up to His very throne, and the more she humbles herself, the more God
stoops down to her, pursuing her with His graces and accompanying her at
every moment with His omnipotence. Such a soul is most deeply united with
God. O humility, strike deep roots in my whole being. O Virgin most pure, but
also most humble, help me to attain deep humility. Now I understand why there
are so few saints; it is because so few souls are deeply humble.
1579 + It is when I meet with
hypocrisy that I suffer most. Now I understand You, my Savior, for rebuking
the Pharisees so severely for their hypocrisy. You associated more graciously
with hardened sinners when they approached You contritely.
1602 Today the Lord said to me, Daughter,
when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water
which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles
it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy,
with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul.
When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there
for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I myself act in your soul. Here
the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this
fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their
trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace
inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because
My grace turns away from them to humble souls.
1702 Towards the end of the Way of
the Cross which I was making, the Lord Jesus began to complain about the
souls of religious and priests, about the lack of love in chosen souls. I
will allow convents and churches to be destroyed. I answered, "Jesus,
but there are so many souls praising You in convents." The Lord
answered, That praise wounds My Heart, because love has been banished from
convents.
Souls without love and without
devotion, souls full of egoism and self-love, souls full of pride and
arrogance, souls full of deceit and hypocrisy, lukewarm souls who have just
enough warmth to keep them alive: My Heart cannot bear this. All the graces
that I pour out upon them flow off them as off the face of a rock. I cannot
stand them, because they are neither good or bad. I called convents into being
to sanctify the world through them. It is from them that a powerful flame of
love and sacrifice should burst forth. And if they do not repent and become
enkindled by their first love, I will deliver them over to the fate of this
world...
How can they sit on the promised throne of judgment to judge the world, when their guilt is greater than the guilt of the world? There is neither penance nor atonement. O heart, which received Me in the morning and at noon are all ablaze with hatred against Me, hatred of all sorts! O heart specially chosen by Me, were you chosen for this, to give Me more pain? The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through..
1710 May 26, [1938-Feast of the Ascension].
Today I accompanied the Lord Jesus as He ascended into heaven. It was about
noon. I was overcome by a great longing for God. It is a strange thing, the
more I felt God's presence, the more ardently I desired Him. Then I saw
myself in the midst of a huge crowd of disciples and apostles, together with
the Mother of God. Jesus was telling them to... Go out into the whole
world and teach in My name. He stretched out His hands and blessed them
and disappeared in a cloud. I saw the longing of Our Lady. Her soul yearned
for Jesus with the whole force of Her love. But She was so peaceful and so
united to the will of God that there was not a stir in Her heart but for what
God wanted.
1711 When I was left alone with the Blessed Virgin, She instructed me concerning the interior life. She said, The soul's true greatness is in loving God and in humbling oneself in His presence, completely forgetting oneself and believing oneself to be nothing; because the Lord is great, but He is well pleased only with the humble; He always opposes the proud.
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-I-92, 200, 282, 320, 332)
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-IV-1306)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-V-1579)
(Diary
of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-VI-1602, 1702, 1710-1711)
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