Friar’s Corner: Living on Jesus’ Words
Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 145:8-9 and 15-18; Romans 8:35-39; Matthew 14:13-21
These scriptures today are filled with so much amazement, hope and joy. These are the sentences that “jump off the page at me.” Isaiah 55:1 instructs us if we are thirsty to come to God without paying or cost. “Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life.” Psalm 145 tells us, “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. …The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, …in truth.”
If we have come to know Jesus personally, St. Paul asks, “What (and who) will separate us from the love of Christ?” If we don’t let the lure and temptations of our culture and world, St. Paul says, “I am convinced that … nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Is our God full of “Amazing Grace?”
Amazing Graces
The gospel today is full of more “Amazing Graces!” Early on in Jesus’ ministry after John the Baptist was beheaded, “Jesus withdrew from there in a boat by himself to a deserted place, but when the people learned of it they followed Him on foot from the towns. When Jesus came ashore and saw the vast crowd, He had compassion on them and healed those who were sick.”
When He finished that work, it was evening and the disciples wanted Jesus to dismiss the crowd. He said no, give them something to eat yourselves. All they had was five loaves and two fish. “Then Jesus ordered the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples,” to distribute. They did and fed five thousand men plus the women and children. With your calculator, total up the numbers. Jesus fed about twenty-five thousand and the disciples picked up twelve baskets of fragments. Does this amaze you? It surely does me.
Overburdened?
Jesus said in an earlier text, St. Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Let us grow deeper in faith, hope and love from this day forward. Let us really repent of our past sins and not following Jesus. Let us spend more time each day closer to Jesus in our prayer, wanting to be closer to Him. He will heal us and fill us with all the grace and power we need to bring His good news to others.
The Mass and Divine Liturgy for the Byzantines is the most powerful source of God-power for our lives. Get that beautiful picture of Jesus by Bette Myers, www.truefaceofjesus.com, and gaze often into His eyes, filling you with love. To help us develop a deeper prayer life, we can pray part of what priests and religious pray daily for us and the world. We can do that easily with these apps on smartphones or tablets.” On the web, go to: “laudate,” “ibreviary,” “divine office,” or “liturgy of hours.” They are free. These are mostly scripture with some prayers for various situations in our world. These prayers give us the official structure for morning, evening and night prayer in a four-week schedule so you don’t repeat the same thing every day. It really gives your prayer the wings of the Holy Spirit to come more fully into the heart of Jesus and be filled with more God-power so we can push out the darkness around us.
We can also pray daily the Chaplet of Divine Mercy with Jesus and Sr. Faustina. Also, if you like, the rosary. Jesus is our only hope of Salvation. He is our only Way, Truth and Life, St. John 14:6. Safe blessings from His Sacred Heart from the flying eagle from my upper room nest in Loretto, PA.
+ Father Bob Hilz
fbhilz@gmail.com
(© 2020 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
