Daily Meditation - Tuesday 26August 2008 - LOOSING SIGHT OF GOD AND HIS PURPOSE FOR THE LAW

[BarbaraTherese]

Mass Readings & Meditation
Readings

Meditation

Do you allow any blindspots to blur your vision of God’s kingdom and his ways?

• Jesus went to the heart of the matter when he called the religious leaders of his day *blind *Pharisees and hypocrites!
• The word hypocrite means actor
• – someone who puts on a show to draw attention to themselves.

The scribes regarded themselves as legal experts

since they devoted their lives to the study of the law of God contained in the five books of Moses (Torah). They divided the 613 precepts of the Law of Moses [Rabbi Simlai, bTalmud Makkoth 24a]]into thousands of tiny rules and regulations.

They were so exacting in their interpretations and in trying to live them out, that they had little time for much else.
By the time they finished compiling their interpretations it took no less than fifty volumes to contain them!
Jesus chastised them for Read on HERE

 

[the_phoenix]

One thing it seems like people sometimes don’t see about God’s laws is how when they can seem restrictive, they’re actually for our benefit and allow us to live in a far greater and truer freedom than the laws we mere human beings would either set up or rebel against. And how following God’s laws bring joy whereas following one’s own desires at the expense of God’s laws brings eventual dissatisfaction.

~~ the phoenix

 

[BarbaraTherese]

One thing it seems like people sometimes don’t see about God’s laws is how when they can seem restrictive, they’re actually for our benefit and allow us to live in a far greater and truer freedom than the laws we mere human beings would either set up or rebel against. And how following God’s laws bring joy whereas following one’s own desires at the expense of God’s laws brings eventual dissatisfaction.

~~ the phoenix

Hi TP…I dont think the meditation is meant to undermine laws and regulations…rather to pointout that they are not ends in themselves but have an underlying purpose. They exist to achieve an end and that is love of God and neighbour. Too often perhaps one sights that the law is rammed down the throat of others with a very big stick indeed…this is missing the whole point of the law. One can come across others who may be quite fastidious about laws and regulations and again with the big stick, and with no attention to love of God and neighbour and really just advertising or clinging to their own ‘perfection’ as the underlying motivation. The underlying reason in keeping the law is centred on self and paybacks for the self even at the cost of others.

The thing about laws and regulations is that all they really can prove to us is that we are indeed contravening the law somewhere. We keep one law, and contradict another. We are sinners thus in need of a saviour and we have one. For example if I go to Mass every Sunday and are proud of my performance and condeming of those who do not go to Mass on Sunday…I am the publican up the front of The Church as it were telling God how great I am and how dreadful these others are. Hence I keep one law, but break another.

All this does not mean that laws and regulations do not matter, but to get things into as best a perspective as possible, realizing that I will still fall short and am a sinner. Too many do use the law to give them a sense of security for their own sake. In other words, up the front The Church telling God how good they are, and looking down on others. The moment I see a splinter in my brother’s eye, I can be assured and confident there is log in my own.

And as I write the above speaking of the splinter in my brother’s eye, can I see the log in my own?

And how following God’s laws bring joy whereas following one’s own desires at the expense of God’s laws brings eventual dissatisfaction.

Then is it all about (motivation) keeping the law in order to feel good oneself and about onself? I am not saying that it is, just a question. If this is so, it is an imperfect reason to keep God’s Laws…and imperfect reason is certainly good enough for God…if one is honest with oneself, sin and imperfection abound in us all everywhere. It is only nature of that sin and imperfection that differs…and what makes my particular sin and imperfection less morally than that of the other?

 

[the_phoenix]

Hi Barb,

Nice to converse with you.

• lol * Well, now you’ll find out why I don’t much participate in deep discussions in the Spirituality forum … It’s because my communication on the topics isn’t always as clear as I’d like.

Some of the points you’re making, Barb, are the ones that I was trying to make, or do indeed agree with, but kinda messed up on when trying to express them.

Love of God and neighbor … Yes, that’s it. How much happier the whole world would be, if we lived according to “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Which while allowing one to feel good about oneself, goes far deeper IMHO to virtue being its own reward, and to our cooperating with God’s law because He knows better than we do what will make us happy, and He wants our happiness. Meanwhile, true love is sacrificial, so there can indeed be pain mixed in with the feeling good about oneself part.

Yes, we do sin. And I know a nun named Sr. Monica who’s said, “The only real tragedy in the world is sin.”

I would say, to go along with what you’ve already said, that the underlying purposes of God’s laws are to protect us from ourselves, and to enable us to be our best selves, with His help.

~~ the phoenix

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Hi Barb,

Nice to converse with you.

• lol * Well, now you’ll find out why I don’t much participate in deep discussions in the Spirituality forum … It’s because my communication on the topics isn’t always as clear as I’d like.

Some of the points you’re making, Barb, are the ones that I was trying to make, or do indeed agree with, but kinda messed up on when trying to express them.

Love of God and neighbor … Yes, that’s it. How much happier the whole world would be, if we lived according to “Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Which while allowing one to feel good about oneself, goes far deeper IMHO to virtue being its own reward, and to our cooperating with God’s law because He knows better than we do what will make us happy, and He wants our happiness. Meanwhile, true love is sacrificial, so there can indeed be pain mixed in with the feeling good about oneself part.

Yes, we do sin. And I know a nun named Sr. Monica who’s said, “The only real tragedy in the world is sin.”

I would say, to go along with what you’ve already said, that the underlying purposes of God’s laws are to protect us from ourselves, and to enable us to be our best selves, with His help.

~~ the phoenix

Glad we can agree, TP:thumbsup: …and I identified with your comments above…it always makes me feel good if another agrees with me …my endless problem I can sight in these forums, is my tendancy to get on my pulpit and sprout out everywhere. I have no idea why sighting this in myself, I just go right on ahead climbing that pulpit and sprouting away . I have my problems I tackle with…and others have their own problems equally tackled. What makes their problems worse than mine…only I do!
I wouldn’t mind a penny for every time I have kept The Law because I know if I break it, I am going to feel lousy about myself and more focused on feeling good about myself than anything else. I try anyway to see the ideal, to have it there before me, while aware of where I am actually at and the distance between that I alone cannot bride…I try that is to keep these things in mind .
“All is Grace” - St. Therese.