Everywhere I turn during this time, I find Mary. I picked up a CD at church that speaks about her role in Divine Mercy. Every book I read references her and her role as our Spiritual Mother. If I turn on the radio, she is the topic being discussed. I turn on EWTN and there she is. It seems that I am being flooded with images and ideas, concepts and stories about our heavenly Mother. A coincidence? I think not. So I put my hand in her hand and ask her to show me the way.
Today's scripture reading is Matthew 23: 25-28
Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup
and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind
Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the
outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites! For
you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within
they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So also you outwardly
appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
St. Louis de Montfort TD:#102-103
There
is another category of false devotees of our Lady – hypocritical ones. These
hide their sins and evil habits under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin so as to
appear to their fellow men different from what they are.
Then
there are the self-interested devotees who turn to her only to win a
court-case, to escape some danger, to be cured of some ailment or to have some
similar need satisfied. Except when in need they never think of her. Such
people are acceptable neither to God nor to his Mother.
Question:
What is
the image of yourself that you present to the world? What is the reality with
in you?
Resolution
It is
very common to do what is good so that others might see and notice us and not
for a truly holy motivation. Look for an opportunity to be generous in a
hidden way and do it.
How naked I feel before this question of hypocrisy. After all, don't we all wear some mask or other each day? Are we who we know we are in every circumstance? So many questions. Who am I? Am I an empty tomb with dead men's bones, or am I a living tabernacle of the Lord? What is it within me that keeps me from embracing wholly the Lord? Why do I fear? What do I fear?
It seems that today I am full of questions Lord. I don't know the answers but I trust that you are revealing yourself to me little by little. You give me as much of You as I can take in any given moment. You see my fears, You know my hidden places. You see my faults and yet, I feel that You love me so much. Perhaps this day I will just hold to that...Your love. Today I will just allow you to transform me a little bit more than the day before. Today I will allow myself to know Your love, to trust just a little bit more than I did last year or last week or yesterday. I will allow your sweet Mother to lead me where You want me to go...knowing that she loves me so much. She like You doesn't see my ugliness. She like You loves me unconditionally. Help me to love that way too.
Sisters, how strange that the Master of the Universe needs our permission to work within us. I know that I've held back. I haven't fully given myself to Him yet. But I will. This I vow. I will belong completely to the Lord.
My Lady, pray for me that I can do this.
I do believe, Lord help my unbelief.
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