6 June 2013 - ordinary day

6 June 2013 - ordinary day

Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
Blessed shall you be, and favored.

This isn't how we usually think of it.  Or at least it isn't how we usually act, as we don't really stop to reflect.  We would more readily appreciate a verse that said

Blessed are you who work hard on your handiwork, 
for the LORD isn't involved!  
Work and control everything as much as you can 
since that's the only way you'll be happy.

And it is in this that we get in to trouble.  Our lives have a de facto segregation where the LORD only reigns over spiritual things.  But he wants to be the LORD of our whole life. We know this but the limited skip of our prayer keeps these spheres separate. There is nothing we do about which the LORD isn't concerned.  We need to ask for his blessing and involvement on our entire day and on the entire range of our activities.

For example, I'm going to help plan a menu for a week of meals today.  It seems somewhat trivial.  But it will be way better if I ask the LORD to help.  He can use things like that to bring a growth in unity and virtue if we let him be involved.  He can make the food taste better and come together more smoothly, too.

Tobiah and Sarah get this.  They don't allow their marital union to be something merely natural.  It would be really easy for them to do after the history of hardship and suffering that Sarah in particular experienced.  We would excuse her for thinking that if God was interested in her relationships he wouldn't have allowed the seven previous husbands to die.  Instead of being deflected by circumstance they both entrust this relationship to the LORD in order to fully open it to his blessings.

“My love, get up.
Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us
and to grant us deliverance.”

Did it take seven times facing disappointment for her to attempt this prayer?  Or perhaps only on the seventh did a husband finally join in.  Or again she might have come together in prayer with her husband before each relationship and still suffered his death.  The point is that God has a plan and by clinging to him and putting him first she experiences his blessings.  There is certainly a message here for all of us who have had many relationships which haven't worked out.  Cling to God!  He has a plan!

Putting the LORD first and calling upon him elevates all we do from the merely natural.

Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine
not because of lust,
but for a noble purpose.

We are so scattered and fragmented that it is difficult to give the LORD each and every thing we do.  The morning offering can help:

O Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer You my prayers, works,
joys and sufferings
of this day for all the intentions
of Your Sacred Heart,
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
throughout the world,
in reparation for my sins,
for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
and in particular
for the intentions of the Holy Father.

This helps us to keep God in first place throughout the day.  It helps us put concretely into practice the words of Jesus as to what is important and what our priorities should be:

Hear, O Israel! 
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, 
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.