8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 27 February
27th February 2022
8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 27 February
A reflection on today's gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"The music we like is the music that we already have in our own soul. We hear a composition played for the first time, and we bring to it either our approval or disapproval. This is because our soul has its own melody, its tune, its rhythm, and it rejoices in that which conforms to it. If one applies this to the moral order, it means that to the pure, all things are pure, and to the defiled all things are rotten.
"A good man, like a bee, can extract honey from the bitterest plant, or like the Aeolian harp, turn the shrieking wind into music. On the other hand, experience teaches that each man unerringly detects in others the vice with which he is most familiar in himself. Persons seem to each man what he is himself. One who suspects hypocrisy in the world is himself a hypocrite. He who is constantly afraid of being cheated is apt to be dishonest. The rotten apple is sweet to the worm, but nauseous to the palate of man. In trifling moods, all seems trivia. In serious moods, all seems solemn. Each man, therefore, is to a great extent the creator of his own world, and the solution he brings to the world’s problems will, to a great extent, depend upon his own inner condition.
Practically all nourishment the earth gives to man comes from the top four inches of soil. But in the depths of the earth are hidden gold, diamonds, and other precious things. So it is with persons; we judge through our commerce with them on the surface; the way they seem to act, the manner of speech and the ephemeral judgments based on the common hearing of the hourly newscast. As a result, most humans are thought to be very superficial, when the truth is that those who seem to have no depth at all to careless eyes really contain treasures of surpassing worth. What is often interpreted as shallowness in others is really a hiding of tragic forces, which only in great storms are brought to the surface.
"A young divorced woman who seemed to be lost in the whirl of fashion took into her home on weekends a young victim of leprosy whom society disdained. I said to her: “I know why I have him in my home; it is because he stands for Christ Who bore in His body all the sins and leprosy of the world. But why do you have him in your home?” She answered: “For the same reason.” One would never have suspected such deep fountains of sympathy and compassion.
"What is true of the depths in others is also true of ourselves. It has been said that every atheist is afraid of the dark. Herod, who did not believe in a future life, nevertheless believed that Our Lord was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Communists, who deny religion, talk much about it. There is a buried life in every soul awaiting resurrection." (Walk With God)
Prayer for True Repentance & Pardon
Behold me at Thy feet, O Jesus of Nazareth, behold the most wretched of creatures, who comes into Thy presence humbled and penitent! Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to Thy great mercy! I have sinned and my sins are always before Thee. Yet my soul belongs to Thee, for Thou hast created it, and redeemed it with Thy Precious Blood. O grant that Thy redeeming work be not in vain! Have pity on me; give me tears of true repentance; pardon me for I am Thy child; pardon me as Thou didst pardon the penitent thief; look upon me from Thy throne in heaven and give me Thy blessing. Amen. 🙏💖