Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Travel light and trust in God

Readings and my meditation for Wednesday, September 23, 2008
Ezra 9:5-9
Tobit 13:2, 3-4a, 4befghn, 7-8
Luke 9:1-6

Whenever my family and I go on a trip, no matter how short, it seems we pack everything except the kitchen sink! Even on my short trips for work, I have to pack carefully so I don’t forget anything important. So when I read in the gospel, “Take nothing for the journey”, it got me thinking. Why is “traveling light” so important on the mission He is sending the Apostles on?

Jesus is doing several things. The first is that He is teaching trust. God is utterly reliable. When you are doing His work, what you need to see it through is miraculously provided. We see this time after time in the Bible and the stories of the saints.

He’s also teaching us how to leave things behind. It’s hard to go on a trip without all of those things around us that give us comfort and security. Our comfort and security are to be in the Lord alone. He is the source of all comfort.

Finally, Jesus is reminding us of our ultimate destination and final home. On that journey we will travel without walking stick, without a second tunic, without food, without anything we are accustomed to.

We will be entering an unknown land through an unknown way. If we have become used to traveling in this way, that final Journey will become so much easier.

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"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".