eternal salvation

REFLECTION ON THE FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI includes 3-line reflection

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The Feast of Corpus Christi shows so much more than a reminder of His sacrifice for the benefit of our salvation. While this is obviously the critical aspect of His mission on earth, there is so much more here for us to contemplate and enrich our lives.

He takes the cup of redemption, through His sacrifice and in doing so provides us with an unlimited supply of grace for our own salvation. This is an invitational process that He makes clear in the Gospel today, when His followers are hungry and tired, He will let them rest and refresh them with their physical needs, through miraculous means if necessary. We can rely on Him.

However, now, the cup He offers us is one of Peace and Love, full to the brim with His love for us to celebrate any time we partake in the Eucharist, or just bask in His presence with the knowledge and wisdom of His being. Let us partake of his chalice willingly and as often as we can. It will enrich us in ways we cannot imagine and provides graces for our own eternal salvation.

Three line reflection

Take the Chalice of Peace and Love

Sip and savor each taste, moment and grace.

Fulfilling every imaginable desire with God’s presence.

Exploring

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The little fish asked the other little fish “which way to the ocean?”

          You see they were lost fish and thought they had to find where to go,

someone answered, with precision;

they thought it was from God, but it was the wolf.

 

The others were busy celebrating where they were,

          Running, clapping, cheering,

                   happy fish of all sizes and shapes.

But the lost fish were bottling up the messages of the wolf,

Messages baking from thoughts to passions until

          at high temperature, wicked trickery, offered them it all but with a price;

                     eternal salvation by hurting others.

 

The little fish didn’t see this message was not from God, but from the other.

Minds jam packed with nails, explosives, they put them in a pressure cooker,

          An instrument of peace to prepare loving, sharing meals,

                    is suddenly filled with thoughts and materials no maker never imagined.

Until at last, it is transformed into a fire breathing dragon,

Spitting nails and foul exploding parts to all around them.

 

The other fish do not hear a call from heaven, but the sound of hell.

Lives once run with direction, now stop. Where to go. What to do.

         For a moment, confusion reigns; a world instantly orderless;

Then, as sudden as the trumpet of the devil, it is drowned by deafening silence of compassion,

          as fish shower love, blankets, water, medicine and comfort,

          on all those in need.

          Which is everyone.

 

A catholic priest walks 2 miles with a lost runner to keep her company,

Ambulances full of helpers, rip towards hospitals,

Filling holes and removing evil from innocent flesh.

The world is Boston that afternoon.

 

The two little fish are cheered on by the wolf,

          “I am well pleased with your work, continue.”

But the other fish look for them and end their journey.

 

Now many of the other fish that weren’t looking for the ocean ask:

“Which way to the ocean?”

 

Copyright 2013  Michael J. Cunningham

THE DAILY GOSPEL AND READINGS 21 JANUARY 2013

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Memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr
Lectionary: 311

Reading 1 Heb 5:1-10

Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my Son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place,
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
In the days when he was in the Flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Responsorial Psalm PS 110:1, 2, 3, 4

R.(4b) You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
till I make your enemies your footstool.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
“Rule in the midst of your enemies.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
“Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
“You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
R. You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.

Gospel Mk 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.