St. Albert the Great, bishop, religious, doctor of the Church


Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:


1 Maccabees 1:10-45,41-43,54-57,62-63
Psalm 119:53-158
Luke 18:35-43


A reflection on today's Scripture:

Today's first reading from the Book of Maccabees and Psalm 119 are connected to our Gospel story from St Luke. The lesson we will draw from this is about Faith.

We read to what extent the Israelites had sunk in their moral degradation. They brazenly abandoned their belief in the one true God of their forefathers. They allowed themselves to be lured into pagan worship and sacrifice, even killing anyone found with the ancient scrolls of the moral law in their possession. It is said that the brightness of Christianity is fading; although not in every place and every heart, there does seem to be a disturbing trend in that direction.

Today's Gospel depicts a blind man who insists that Jesus cure him of his blindness. But it is we who are really blind - blinded by our refusal to love God completely. As we wake up, spiritually, we find ourselves trapped in our blindness and we call out in =faith= to the Lord as did that blind man in the Gospel.

Faith, Hope and Love - the three theological virtues - the basis on which our relationship to God exists, is our connection with the almighty God. We pray that our relationship might be strengthened in those virtues, that our bond with God may be strong and perfected by holy grace, by a holy life.

O Lord our God,
You are our light and our direction.
May we ever grow in your virtues.
Amen

- Joachim