Daily Meditation - Friday 13June 2008 - SEXUALITY

[BarbaraTherese]

Friday is a Day of Penance****

St. Anthony of Padua -Priest and Doctor
here
St Anthony has some important patronages - see here

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Meditation

Friday, June 13, 2008

Matthew 5:27-32

Pluck out our eyes? Cut off our hands? Jesus doesn’t mean it, does he?

Not literally, of course, but he does use these extreme examples to emphasize how seriously he takes our sexuality.
He wants us all to look upon each other with the greatest respect,
not as objects to be used for our gratification.

He wants us to value our brothers and sisters as children of God and treat them with the dignity they deserve. So let’s take a moment to examine our conscience in this vital area of sexual purity.

Jesus tells us that the eye is the lamp of the body (Matthew 6:22).

• When our eyes are focused on doing our jobs,
• caring for our families, and reading God’s word, then we are filled with his light.
• However, when they are looking wrongly at inappropriate media—
• or at our neighbors—
• they can bring us into darkness and shame.
  How am I using my eyes? Am I looking at—or imagining—the Lord, or am I looking at—or imagining—images that cause lustful thoughts to reign in my mind?
• What about my body?
• If I am married, do I maintain a loving respect for my spouse by showing physical affection purely and selflessly?
• Have I avoided inappropriate physical contact with the opposite sex?
• If I am single, are my relationships consistently chaste? Whatever my state in life, do I seek to keep the Lord always first in my thoughts and actions so that I can ward off lustful temptations?
• Do I love him above all things—even above my own pleasure and satisfaction?
  As you ponder these questions, let the Holy Spirit be your guide. If he brings to mind some areas that need correcting, take advantage of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to get right with the Lord and with yourself.
• Remember that no matter what you’ve done, Jesus can make you pure and innocent again.
• Never underestimate the power that forgiveness can bring to your life.
• And don’t be afraid of what your confessor may think of you. He’s heard it all before anyway! Just pour out your heart to Jesus—your comforter, healer, and deliverer!
  “Thank you, Jesus, for your mercy. I repent of any sexual sin in my life, and I ask you to heal me and purify me. May I use my senses only to build your kingdom and to focus on what is true, good, and holy!”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Reflecting on today’s Gospel and the whole Sermon on The Mount and the tremendous demands of Jesus spiritually, I reflected on His Words “Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is Perfect” and the impossibility of achieving this.
At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus goes on to perform miracles of healing and there is a deeper lesson in these miracles - that He who can cure bodies is also able to cure souls. The words of Jesus to St. Faustina came back to me “between God and souls is a great abyss - the abyss of My Mercy”. I am never going to be able to be perfect as Our Father is perfect - not even come close in any way, so what am I to do but turn to He who can cure souls and cast my impoverished misery, myself, into the vast abyss of His Mercy in the hope it will carry me to Eternal Shores. Lord, teach me to be merciful.

Barb