A Jesuit Catholic University
in Omaha, Nebraska, since 1878

[126] Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 Ps 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11 Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a Luke 14:1, 7-14

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections

“Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.” – Luke 14:14

“Water quenches a flaming fire,
and alms atone for sins.” – Sirach 3:30

This is one of the most beautiful set of scripture readings that I can remember reading or hearing.  I will spend little time on attempting to interpret the sublime readings, but rather encourage us all to reflect on the simple beauty of the humility demonstrated, described, or envisioned in all of these readings… What seems central to me is the fact that this humility is centered on our faith in God and tied inseparably to the poor among us.  When we give ourselves to each other, especially to the most vulnerable among us, it is one of the most deeply humbling and holy experiences we can have.  Indeed, perhaps it is even more moving when we are the ones in need, the ones being served, humbled by the love, support, or understanding of a stranger reaching out to us.  That vulnerability, that rawness, is the very essence of love.  It burns brightly like a fire, is quenching like water to a parched man, and it both overwhelms and beckons to us all.  There is where God finds us as well…
May God bless this coming week for all of us, and allow us to open our hearts to the humility and love we yearn so deeply for.

Though the air is full of singing
my head is loud
with the labor of words.

Though the season is rich
with fruit, my tongue
hungers for the sweet of speech.

Though the beech is golden
I cannot stand beside it
mute, but must say

"It is golden," while the leaves
stir and fall with a sound
that is not a name.

It is in the silence
that my hope is, and my aim.
A song whose lines

I cannot make or sing
sounds men's silence
like a root. Let me say

and not mourn: the world
lives in the death of speech
and sings there.

- Wendell Berry