Monday, May 13, 2019

Gospel Thoughts Today: Thieves and Robbers

Happy Monday! I pray all mothers had a wonderful, blessed day. So grateful for all the blessings, challenges, heartache and joy motherhood brings. For each child born has a purpose . . . one only God knows in entirety.

While reading the Gospel today, my first thought after the first paragraph was, "I'm a little confused as to what Jesus is talking about just like those He is speaking to!" Then you get to the second paragraph . . . lo and behold, Jesus clarifies. Does the second paragraph remind you of anything? Well, it does me! All the stealing, slaughtering and destroying the Left has and is doing only drive a majority of people back into the arms of Christ, and, support of this great President. When you take a walk on the dark side, darkness invades your every thought to the point truth is disregarded. I truly believe we all must be praying for those determined to take an innocent man and those who support him down. As hard as that is, it is crucial to ask Jesus for the ability to do so. Solace comes in the fact God is and always will be on the Throne! Sometimes we must suffer in order to find complete joy.

Today's Gospel (John 10:1-10), Jesus explains how to live an abundant life:

Jesus said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers." Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."

In Anne a lay apostle's book Staying in Place, after reading the section below, read and reread the last line:

Protecting Against Distortions

December 7, 2014

"Today I became aware of myself ‘strolling’ through the Church yard. I was aware of the school behind me but I was casually moving amongst others, groups and individuals serving in the Church. I came upon someone using a whip to assault another. Whip and assault are two terms that are symbolic in this instance. I stopped, intensely interested, because I understood that I had a role to play. I focused all of my attention, with rather fearsome intensity which was not from me but from God, on the weapon, the ‘whip’. As I did, it disintegrated in the offender’s hand and fell to the ground. Next I extended my hand to the victim and pulled him to his feet. Without the distortion of whatever the whip was made of, the offender could hurt no further. I then resumed my walk, keeping the victim closely at my side and speaking calmly about all that was happening in the Church that was noble and admirable, all that legitimately represented the Trinity and the presence of the Trinity in the world so that the victim could also resume his ‘stroll’ through life as a Catholic with a Catholic understanding of the Church’s role amongst all of God’s children. The understanding he gained healed and directed him into his rightful service and then he began to concentrate with the same scrutiny as I had on similar scenes when I happened upon the initial scene.


Notable here were a number of things. One, I ignored the individual person of the offender but not the offense or the victim. I focused all of my attention on first the weapon that was being used, in order to understand it and expose it, thus disarming the offender. I believe the offenders are the thieves and brigands and we all need to work to possess self- awareness so that we are not that person on a given day."

Lay apostles, how are you conducting yourselves on a daily basis? The last line in the quote from Anne above is a good "self-awareness check" at the end of the day. Strive to be the light, not the darkness.

Thank you, Lord, for the challenges . . . they drive me closer and closer to You!

God bless,
Bonnie

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