MEDITATIO

“The Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. So his brothers said to him: Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing… Jesus said to them: My time is not here, but the time is always right for you” (Jn 7:2-3.6)… Jesus answered in this way to those who were advising him to seek for glory: “the time for my glory is not yet here”. Notice the profundity of this thought: they are pushing him to seek glory but he wills humiliation to precede exaltation; it is through humility that he wants to pursue his path to glory. The disciples, who wanted to be seated one at his right and the other at his left (Mk 10:37), were also seeking for human glory: they were only looking towards the end of the path without considering the path that must lead to it. Therefore the Lord reminded them of the real road so that they might reach the homeland as one needs to do. Our homeland is on high but the road to it is lowly. The homeland is the life of Christ, the road is his death. The homeland is where Christ dwells, the road is his Passion… So let us have upright hearts, the time of our glory has not yet arrived. Let us listen to him speaking to those who love this world, like the Lord’s brothers: “Your time is always right, ours has not yet come.” Let us be bold enough to say this, also. We who are the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who are his members, who joyfully acknowledge him as our head: let us repeat these words since it is for us that he deigned to speak them first of all. When people who love the world mock our faith, let us say to them: “Your time is always right, ours has not yet come.” Indeed, the apostle Paul has said to us: “You are dead and your life is henceforth hidden with Christ in God.” When will our time come? “When Christ our life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory” (Col 3:3). “Our life is hidden with Christ in God.” During the winter one might well say: this tree is dead – a fig tree, for example, a pear or some other fruit bearing tree. Throughout the winter it seems to be deprived of life. But summer will provide proof and allow us to judge whether it is alive. Our own summer is the revelation of Christ.

maronite readings – rosary,team

Lord, how long will it be? (Ps 6,4). How long, Lord, will you forget us? How long will you hide your face from us? (Ps 12,2). When will you look upon us and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes and show us your face? When will you come back to us? Look upon us, Lord, hear us and enlighten us, show us your very self. Return us the good of your presence amongst us, whose life is so weary without you. Take pity on our efforts and our striving toward you, for we may do nothing without you. Since you invite us, therefore help us. I beg you, O Lord, do not leave me sighing of desperation; but rather let me breathe hope…May I at least be allowed to catch a glimpse of the light, even from faraway, even from the depths of hell. Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me, for I cannot seek you unless you guide me, nor may I find you unless you show yourself to me. I will seek you in desiring you and desire you in seeking you, find you in loving you and love you in finding you.

maronite readings – rosary,team

If anyone recognizes the darkness of his blindness… let him cry with his whole mind, let him say: “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” But let us hear what happened when the blind man was crying out: “And the people ahead rebuked him, that he should be silent” (Lk 18,39). What is meant by ‘the people ahead’ as Jesus comes if not the crowds of bodily desires and the uproar caused by our vices? Before Jesus comes into our hearts they disturb our thoughts by tempting us, and they thoroughly muddle the words in our hearts as we pray. We often wish to be converted to the Lord when we have committed some wrong. When we try to pray earnestly against the wrongs we have committed, images of our sins come into our hearts. They obscure our inner vision, they disturb our minds and overwhelm the sound of our petition… But let us hear what the blind man, still unenlightened, did. “But he cried out all the more: ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’”… In proportion to the tumult of our unspiritual thoughts must be our eagerness to persist in prayer… It is surely necessary that the more harshly our heart’s voice is repressed, the more firmly it must persist to overcome the uproar of forbidden thoughts and break in on our Lord’s gracious ears by its intrepid perseverance. I believe that everyone observes what I am saying in himself, and herself. When we turn our minds from this world to God, when we are converted to the work of prayer, what we once enjoyed doing we later endure in our prayer as demanding and burdensome. Holy desire only with difficulty banishes the recollection of them from our hearts… But when we persist ardently in our prayer, we fix Jesus to our hearts as he passes by. Hence: “But Jesus stopped and ordered him to be brought to him” (v.40).
maronite readings – rosary,team