In between cleaning all the guns that I don't have and watching scenes from Tombstone on continuous loop, I look forward to Maundy Thursday with it's double mandate, do this and love one another as I have loved you, the former realized in the Eucharist, was ever a command so obeyed?, and the latter signified by Christ washing the feet of his disciples.
The connection is clear and lies in the Cross, from which Jesus washes away our sins in his supreme act of love. And it's precisely this sacrifice that's made present to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. The extent to which we receive the grace offered, think Parable of the Sower, depends on our obedience to the commandment to love.
Benedict XVI reflects:
In it (Confession), the Lord continually rewashes our dirty feet, and we are able to sit at table with Him.
But in this way, the word takes on yet another meaning, in which the Lord extends the "sacramentum" by making it the "exemplum," a gift, a service for our brother: "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14). We must wash each other's feet in the daily mutual service of love. But we must also wash our feet in the sense of constantly forgiving one another. The debt that the Lord has forgiven us is always infinitely greater than all of the debts that others could owe to us (cf. Mt. 18:21-35). It is to this that Holy Thursday exhorts us: not to allow rancor toward others to become, in its depths, a poisoning of the soul. It exhorts us to constantly purify our memory, forgiving one another from the heart, washing each other's feet, thus being able to join together in the banquet of God.
Holy Thursday is a day of gratitude and of joy for the great gift of love to the end that the Lord has given to us. We want to pray to the Lord at this time, so that gratitude and joy may become in us the power of loving together with his love. Amen.
Amen to that. We must and should hunger and thirst for righteousness, swords about the Cross. But by the same token, there is no place for the poisonous serpent of hatred within our hearts. It is the hallmark of our Adversary, Satan. And remember, though it seems counter-intuitive, the enemy's lost and lost hard.
Be on the side of Light,
LSP
Always TRY to be on the right side...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Parson. I need to work some on forgiveness. These days I'm doing my best to not judge people, and man that's hard!
ReplyDeleteWithout religion, I believe I'd be the same person, others not so much regardless.
ReplyDelete-Kid
OT, Just ran into this one, looks like decent ammo prices.
ReplyDeletehttps://ammoseek.com/ammo/22lr
-Kid
I'm sort of a "forgive, but never forget" type of person. There are a few people who occupy my "hate" list much to my chagrin. I work on that all the time. Then I remind myself that it's good to not live in their body.
ReplyDeleteMy bad, but I don't even try to not hate tyrants.
ReplyDeleteNFO, the experts tell us that even the attempt is rewarded. Thank God...
ReplyDeleteSame here, drjim. Easy to say, eh?
ReplyDeleteKid, we're blessed to live with the values of a Judeo-Christian culture. BUt what happens to culture when cult disappears? Well, everyone coasts along as though nothing's changed and then, boom, men, ahem, can have babies which are just "clumps of cells" to be disposed of or not. And on.
ReplyDeleteTo your point, we've gone an awfully long way without religion in a very short space of time.
And nice link, Kid! Great aggregate site.
ReplyDeleteAdrienne, how can we forgive if we forget the harm people do to us? Serious point. Saying that, harboring bitterness and hatred is poison to the soul and transforms us into hateful people, unsurprisingly.
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed, I know you have, how full of hate the Left is? Of course they think it's righteous anger, and some of them are deceived by the Father of Lies, others are willing participants.
That said, we must forgive them, Christ is specific on this and he does the same for us. Now, does that preclude stamping out wickedness? To the contrary, hence my link to Lepanto :)
Every blessing for the Triduum!
But WSF, why should you not hate wickedness? Hard not to make it personal though, I agree.
ReplyDeleteLSP, Agree. My upbringing may be an influence. And yes, people seem to easily take the path of least resistance. Everyone else is doing it... abortion, stealing, whatever.
ReplyDeleteI may stick a couple hundo into EEENF. Don't know much about it to pass on. Energy is in favor though.
Kid, EEENF? Hey, why not. Trading just a little ahead of our pup, DOGE$, who seems happy in the high .05s. Longish chart says "cup and handle" in an ascending pattern. Hmmmm. I'm holding.
ReplyDeleteAs for the satanists, they're doubling down.