Preparation for Total Consecration

WEEK 2:
SELF-KNOWLEDGE

All of us have strengths and weaknesses on the emotional, psychological and physical levels. They interact. The more we have some understanding of what is happening, the better for ourselves and those among whom we live. It is helpful to consider this in the light of the ideal of Jesus.

First Day: Lk. 7: 41, 42

ETERNALLY GRATEFUL

Parable.A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?

Reflection.We are selfish from the cradle, even biologically so. We need to be taught from childhood to say 'Thank you'; it does not seem to come naturally. Living is so much easier when we do.

To freely acknowledge that we have reason to be grateful and to say so willingly is good. It means that I can step outside myself and recognise my obligations to others. Selfishness isolates me from other people and from God. I can be so self-centred literally, that I am unaware of my neglect of others or of God. The biblical phrase 'hardness of heart' describes it. I don't even know I suffer from the condition. This is what sin is - myself first, last, and all the time.

One way of breaking out of this shell is to try to see myself in the light of God in Christ. God so loved us that, in Christ, he came into our often self-centred, sinful world, was crucified by the evil of sin, and then rose gloriously from a grave. My capacity for harm can even crucify. God's capacity for love can reach me through anything I can ever do.

If, like the debtor in the parable, I can make my own the realisation of just how I am freely forgiven by God in Christ, wonder and gratitude should mark my life. It should be reflected too in my attitude to others. I am ready to forgive as I know myself to be forgiven.

Prayer.Lord Jesus, If only I lived the logic of the Gospel! Your love cancels all debts yet leaves me indebted to you. You rose from a grave to invite me to be with you now. Glimpsing that, and living in its light, how could I ever thank you enough? How could I be so hard as not to be equally forgiving to others?

May your Mother, who knows so well the price you paid to show us how to break free from sin, encourage me to live in that light.

Montfort.'Remember that our loving Saviour has his eyes on you at this moment and he says, ... See how almost everyone deserts me on the royal road of the Cross' (FC 11).