20th Week, Saturday, August 20
Ezekiel 43:1-7 / Matthew 23:1-12
I saw God's glory; It filled the Temple once again.
Movie actor Martin Sheen told a newspaper reporter, not long ago, that he had returned to the Catholic Church after a 16-year absence from it. He said it all started in India where he saw absolute poverty, misery, and hopelessness. "I saw in India what I was taught as a boy in a Catholic school and in a Catholic family: We're all part of the mystical body of Christ."
And at that moment, the glory of God, so to speak, re-entered the life of Martin Sheen in a new and powerful way. Martin Sheen is now devoting himself to films that will further God's glory.
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How aware are we that our needy brothers and sisters are members of Christ's body? "The glory of God is a person fully alive.' St. Irenaeus
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Everyone who is in the preaching ministry knows the necessity of practicing what he preaches. Yet the complementary aspect can also be to preach about what one practices. Because when one preaches about what one practices, then the premise is the reality of life and not just from precepts or concepts. Then the preaching becomes related with life, with the struggles and failures, the disappointments and pain, the tears and sweat.
Jesus tells us in the gospel to get down to the reality of life and not to expect from others what we ourselves cannot do or won't do. He told the people not to be guided by what the scribes and Pharisees do, since they do not practice what they preach. But He also said something important before that - You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say.
To preach about what we practice may have a connection to the reality of life but yet it may also limit the challenge to growth in spirituality and discovery of self. We must remember that God has called us to be holy, just as He is holy. To follow Jesus is not to be contended with what we are doing now but to discover what He wants us to do. Indeed, the precepts of Christianity opens our eyes to the depth of the reality of life.
