Friday, August 07, 2015
18th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Dt 4:32-40 Gospel:
Matthew 16:24-28
Jesus said to his disciples, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. For whoever chooses to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life for my sake will find it. What will one gain by winning the whole world if he destroys himself? There is nothing you can give to recover your own self.
“Know that the Son of Man will come in the Glory of his Father with the holy angels, and he will reward each one according to his deeds. Truly, I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they see the Son of Man coming as king.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in
the Assimilated
Life Experience)
A mother superior was traveling through Europe with another nun behind the steering wheel. Suddenly a little demon jumps unto the hood of the car. “Turn the windshield wipers on”, says the superior. The nun obeys but the demon clings on. “What shall I do now?” the nun asks. “Switch on the windshield washer; I filled it up with holy water at the Vatican,” the superior replied. The nun turns on the windshield washer and the demon screams as the water burns his skin, but he clings on.
“Now what?” the nun insisted. “Show him your cross,” says the superior. The nun opens the window and shouts obscene words at the demon. “No, I didn’t mean that you go that nasty”, says the scandalized superior. “I’m just showing the demon my real cross,” the nun explained.
We all have crosses to bear. Some crosses stem from persecutions, while others from our own compulsions. Persecutions happen when peoples’ misuse of their freedom disturbs us. Compulsions stem from our own bad habits we find hard to let go. Carrying our crosses means bearing persecutions meritoriously after trying non-violent means to convert our persecutors. Where compulsions involve bad habits, carrying our crosses means imposing stricter discipline upon ourselves.
We can do very little about persecutions since we cannot take the law into our own hands. But we can do a lot about our compulsions since we only have to change ourselves. This notwithstanding, the same can be very challenging. But Jesus offers a remedy. “Deny yourselves”, He said. Self-denial means saying no to self even in things that are not sinful in themselves. Ascetics call this “agere contra”.
Repetition builds up will power, making us strong in overcoming temptations. How repetitious must we be in order to build up stronger will power? As repetitious as the wiper of a car’s windshield! – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email:[email protected]. Website:www.frdan.org.
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