MEDITATIO

It is you, John, we recognise to be a new Moses, since you have seen God, no longer in symbol but clearly. It is you we see to be a new Joshua: you did not cross the Jordan from one side to the other but, with the water of the Jordan, you enabled people to cross from one world to another (…). It is you, the new Samuel, who did not anoint David but baptized David’s Son. It is you, the new David, who were not persecuted by the evil king, Saul, but who were killed by Herod. It is you, the new Elijah, who were fed in the desert, not with bread by a raven but with locusts and wild honey by God. It is you, the new Isaiah who said, not: “Behold, a virgin will conceive and bear a son” (7:14), but who declared before all: “Behold, she has brought forth the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). (…) Blessed are you, John, chosen of God; you who put your hand on your Lord, who took into your hands the flame whose brightness makes angels tremble! Morning star (cf. Nb 24:17), you have shown the true morning to the world; joyful dawn (cf. Ps 29[30]:6), you have made known the day of glory; shining lamp (Jn 5:35), you have pointed to the Light without compare. Messenger of the Father’s great reconciliation (Is 9:5 LXX), the archangel Gabriel was sent before you to announce you to Zachary, like a fruit in advance of its expectation (…). The greatest of the sons of men (Mt 11:11), you precede Emmanuel, he who is greater than all creatures; firstborn of Elizabeth, you precede the Firstborn of all creation (Col 1:15).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Let us love God, my brothers, let us love God, but let it be at the expense of our arms and the sweat of our brow. For only too often so many of our acts of love for God, kindness, favor and other, similar feelings and interior practices of the gentle heart, however good and desirable they are, are nevertheless to be held in suspicion when they don’t at all bring us to practice actual love. Our Lord said: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit” (Jn 15:8). Now this is something about which we need to be very careful because there are many who, so as to be exteriorly well-ordered and interiorly full of great feelings for God, stop at that. And when it comes to the point and they find themselves in a situation for action, they stop short. They pride themselves on their inflated imaginations; they are satisfied with the sweet exchanges they have with God in prayer; they even talk about it like angels. But when they come away is there any question of working for God, of suffering, practising mortification, teaching the poor, searching for the lost sheep (Lk 15:4 f.), being pleased when they lack something, accepting sickness or some other misfortune? Alas, then there is no one to be seen, courage fails them! No, let us not deceive ourselves: our whole task consists in progressing towards acts.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Those who kill by acts of terrorism actually despair of humanity, of life, of the future. In their view, everything is to be hated and destroyed. Terrorists hold that the truth in which they believe or the suffering that they have undergone are so absolute that their reaction in destroying even innocent lives is justified. (…) Terrorist violence (…) is altogether contrary to faith in Christ the Lord, who taught his disciples to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt 6:12). (…) Forgiveness is above all a personal choice, a decision of the heart to go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil. The measure of such a decision is the love of God who draws us to himself in spite of our sin. It has its perfect exemplar in the forgiveness of Christ, who on the Cross prayed: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:24). Forgiveness therefore has a divine source and criterion. This does not mean that its significance cannot also be grasped in the light of human reasoning; and this, in the first place, on the basis of what people experience when they do wrong. They experience their human weakness, and they want others to deal leniently with them. Why not therefore do towards others what we want them to do towards us? All human beings cherish the hope of being able to start all over again, and not remain for ever shut up in their own mistakes and guilt. They all want to raise their eyes to the future and to discover new possibilities of trust and commitment.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team