Daily Reflections for Lent, Not by Bread Alone 2014 March 18: Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent God: Great and Awesome Reading: Dan 9:4b-10; Luke 6:36-38 Scripture: Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments!! (Dan 9:4b) Reflections: In his famous Confessions, St. Augustine addresses God: The idea I had of you was falsehood and not truth, a fiction of my own littleness, not the solid ground of your beatitude.. The mystery of God is overwhelming for our finite intelligence, our littleness.. Daniel the prophet used words like great and awesome and merciful to describe his experience of the Deity.. And even these words, noble as they are, cannot capture the essence of our triune God.. Like St. Augustine, C. S. Lewis also struggled with his concept of God.. With candor, Lewis observes, My idea of God is not a divine idea.. It has to be shattered time after time (A Grief Observed).. Probably the best idea of God, those categories that come closet to giving us some insight into the divine mystery, are love and mercy.. We hear in the gospel today that God is merciful; we read in the epistles of St. John that God is love.. Herein lies the greatness and awesomeness of our God.. This attempt to understand and name our God has practical consequences.. Made in the image and likeness of God, we are called to be loving and merciful.. This love is expressed in active concern for others; this mercy is manifest in forgiving others as God has forgiven us.. During this Lenten season our challenge will be to confront sins opposed to love and mercy.. Too often we fail in responding to people in need; too often we hold grudges and refuse to forgive.. In this season of conversion, we ask our merciful and loving God, our awesome and great God, to send the Holy Spirit into our hearts and into our fragile broken world.. Meditation: How has your concept of God changed over the years?? What categories help you to appreciate the mystery of God?? Prayer: + In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen Triune God, You reveal Yourself to us in the person of Jesus.. In Christ we see Your love and mercy; in Christ we hear words of forgiveness and tender concern.. Help us to be good disciples and to keep Your law.. We ask this through Thy loving and merciful name.. Amen + In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 23:31:36 +0000
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