Today we get to listen to a conversation between Jesus
and a scholar. The scholar is steeped in Mosaic law, but he asks Jesus
what he must do to have eternal life.
Jesus turns the question back to him. Tune in to find
out how their discussion ends and what it means for us today.
You can find the latest episode of Opening God's Word here.
Have a blessed day in God's Word!
*****
The Sunflowers
We had three plants sprout in our front garden that we did
not plant. We weren’t even sure what
they were until they matured. To our
great surprise, what emerged were several, beautiful, bright sunflowers.
I was thinking about these after listening to a podcast
about St. Francis of Assisi. They were
talking about the beauty of a garden and that got me to thinking about the
importance of the silent witness to God that comes out of beauty in nature.
Just by being itself, flowers add interest and texture to
our world. They don’t have to do
anything other than what they have been created to do.
This isn’t a new idea, of course. One of our great saints, Therese of Lisieux, who
was known as the little flower, saw herself as a small flower among the more
grand, beautiful ones.
Here are a few quotes from St. Therese, courtesy of goodreads.com:
“I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful,
that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the
perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that
if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be
enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's
living garden.”
And, I suppose more to the point, she said:
““Holiness consists simply in doing God's will, and being just
what God wants us to be.”
Our beauty reflects the beauty of our creator, and while
some stars will shine more brightly than others, like the beauty of flowers, it
takes all of them (us!) to complete the masterpiece. Just like our sunflowers brought interest and
beauty to our front garden, you, too, bring interest and beauty into our
world. It is not by the things you say
and do (although those can serve to do so as well), but simply by being you,
being who God created you to be.
We are not all going to be a St. Therese of Lisieux, but we
can bring the “perfume of the violet” or the “sweet simplicity of the daisy” into
the world, if that is who we are called to be.
Aspiring to be a rose isn’t the goal here.
One last thought from St. Therese:
“God would never inspire me with desires which cannot be
realized; so in spite of my littleness, I can hope to be a saint.”
Are you a lily or a daisy?
Doesn’t really matter. Just be
the best lily or daisy you can be!
Janet Cassidy
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