18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 7th, 2022 Fr. David Rosenberg
Institute for Spiritual Direction “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." ” Luke 6:21 This week's scripture begins where it left off last week, Christ's teaching on possessions: the culture of scarcity leading to greed, which is always self-defeating. Fear of scarcity leads to lust and idolatry, committed when one projects onto a mortal object a power the object does not have. This dominate consciousness, “hand to mouth” “paycheck to paycheck” is prone to lead daily to anxiety and with it a constant concern for survival. Jesus alternatively offers us a path to a spirituality of abundance: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” where we come to live life as a gift as we take on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We come to see life as “Barakah” which is the wisdom that all life is gift. Coming into this consciousness through Lectio Divina of the Gospel our life unfolds over time from the inside into an outpouring wellspring of life in abundance. Once we intentionally encounter through Lectio Divina the mystical interior life of Christ we see that He is a bountiful giver, and once this is revealed to us, we naturally become life for others. This illumination creates within us a generative discipleship where we become the channel of outpouring grace, an inexhaustible bounty for others. Look no further than the saintly examples of superabundant outpouring of the lives of St. John Vianney, Blessed Solanus Casey and St. Philip Neri, etc. Jesus, having preached this lesson, extends the conversation to that of stewardship, which is the natural continuum of the life of a generative disciple. “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded." Luke 12:48 What awakens within the illuminated generative disciple is the reality of life flowing from the Father in abundance, and that as we are given this abundance we are called, in turn, to pour out that which has been given. This is a profound realization that our life is “barakah - gift.” This sense of “givenness” we realize is entrusted to us in order that it increase in the outpouring. In other words, as God increases within us, and we decrease (see John 3:30 “He must increase; I must decrease.”) there is more life for us and others. This is the lived reality of stewardship. Reflect on the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God, the River of Life through the wonder and awe of our Kairos Moments. Intentional life in the Kingdom is passed on from the graciousness of the Father that we, in turn, through the incarnate reality of the Mystical Body of Christ as it perfects within us, outpours into the world. This lived Eucharistic reality is the love that binds us to our community as we offer bread for the world, a world that hungers. “The bread that I will give, says the Lord, is my flesh for the life of the world.” John 6:51 download PDF version:
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Description |
Sept 13 |
ISD Fall 2022 Semester, Classes Resume TSP 401 Christian Spiritual Tradition and TSP 403 Systematic Spiritual Direction TSP 302 Old Testament Class Location: 202 N Market St DeWitt |
Fall 2022 |
Ignatian 3-Day Weekend This silent Ignatian retreat is built around the elements of the Spiritual Exercises, Lectio Divina and the Examen prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola. (click RETREATS link for details) |
Aug 18 |
Alumni/New Cohort Day A day for ISD Alumni to gather for peer seminar, Mass, and social gathering with dinner to share with the incoming Fall 2022 Cohort 7. |
