A snail carrying a caterpillar Picture by Am Odunayo Micheal
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Extraordinary Time
Response: I trust in the mercy of God forever.
I, like a green olive tree
in the house of God,
Trust in the mercy of God
forever and ever.
I will thank you always for what you have done,
and proclaim the goodness of your name
before your faithful ones.
Emphasis mine: Ps 52:10, 11
I trust in the mercy of God forever.
The question that came into my mind when I was reading the Responsorial Psalm was, why do we need the mercy of God?
The Angels were created with full knowledge of God; when they sinned, it was irreversible, and they couldn’t be forgiven because of their full knowledge of God.
However, we were Created in God’s image (Gen 1: 27) but were given free will to accept, love, or deny God.
Right from the start, we were different from every other created species.
We are that unique!
Jesus said that those who do the will of His Father, in imitation of Jesus, will be called Brothers, Sisters, and Mother.
His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him. A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers and your sisters] are outside asking for you.” But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and [my] brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. [For] whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Emphasis Mine Mark 3: 31-34
If you are trying to do the will of God the Father, look at the status you obtain by doing the will of God the Father—Brother, Sister, Mother. I didn’t say this, Mark and Luke made this claim.
Brother, Sister, Mother is Outrageous, yet there it is: the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
Now I pray you realize that when you sin, trust in the mercy of God forever because a God without mercy would have a very small family; remember, St. James said,
we all fall short in many respects. James 3: 2
If you want to join Team Jesus, try praying. “This is the day the lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”
Sidebar:
Mysteries of The Messiah by Jason Sobel
Rabbi Sobel just blew my mind. It will hopefully get you thinking about how important you are to the Triune God.
Rabbi Sobel didn’t mention this, but I didn’t understand what I was reading when I read this to prepare for being a lecturer.
For God formed us to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made us.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who are allied with him experience it.
Emphasis mine: Wisdom 2:23-24
Who is satan envious of?
This was a question I had been asking myself for years.
When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place—
What is man that you are mindful of him,
and a son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands, put all things at his feet:
All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas. Emphasis mine Psalm 8: 4-9
Rabbi Sobel pointed out that the above Psalm tells us that YOU and I are why satan became envious.
Wow!
When the Holy Spirit reminded me that in 1 Corinthians 6:3, Paul said, “Do you not know that we will judge angels?”
Judge Angles?
I have difficulty believing this, yet this is what Paul wrote.
Knowing our potential standing with God is so important.
Knowing that satan is envious of me now fires me up to try harder to imitate Jesus on His Cross.
My potential status with God, I now know, is actual.
But,
I have to choose to do the will of God my Father by imitating His Son and Living in the: “Spirit World.”
This explains Jesus leaving the ninety-nine to find the lost sheep.
This explains why YOU and I are a Pearl of Great Value and why Jesus sold everything to obtain us.
This explains the Prodigal Son being welcomed back by his father.
But most importantly, this explains THE CROSS and why Jesus shed all His Blood and Water so that we might be Justified.
I wrestled with why Jesus climbed up on The Cross all my life.
Now I have the answer, and all I can say is WOW!
I feel it is safe to say that the Envy of satan started at the Creation of Man.
God created mankind in his image;
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. God also said: See, I give you every seed-bearing plant on all the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the wild animals, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the earth, I give all the green plants for food. And so it happened. God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day. Emphasis mine Genesis 1: 28-31
I now think when God said, “found it very good.” satan was filled with envy. Rabbi Sobel also said satan wanted Adam and Eve to be thrown out of the Garden of Eden as he was thrown out of Heaven.
Envy of OUR being created in HIS Image.
Also, remember the sixth day is Friday; Jesus died on Friday.
satan then seduced Adam and Eve by telling them if they ate the apple, they would be like God, and being like God implied that if they were like God, they didn’t need God.
I also believe Adam and Eve’s sin occurred on Friday.
Time elapsed between Genesis chapter one, when they were created, and chapter three, when Adam and Eve sinned.
Once again, Rabbi Sobel, The apple was picked from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. Rabbi Sobel didn’t say this, but Roland Rohaser, in his book Our One Great Act of Fidelity, waiting for Christ in the Eucharist, did.
The picking of the apple was an act of RAPE of God.
We will add the rape was physical, picking the apple, and physiological, trying to be equal to God.
God threw out the angels from Heaven who rebelled at our status, and God set in motion Their plan to win back our love and willingness as free people to obey God our Father.
Since it was a physical rape of God, God had to defeat the Physical rape through Outrageous Love.
Jesus died nailed to the Cross, Physical; on His Cross, Jesus was filled with Love, Joy, and Peace! Physiological. A new world, forgiving those, YOU and I, who crucified Him, a “Spiritual World,” was created after his death and resurrection.
The tree that Adam and Eve picked the apple from became a tree of death for all creation.
The tree that Jesus died on became the Tree of Everlasting Life for those who choose to Love God and Neighbor as self and acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
We will repeat:
YOU are not a chance meeting of a sperm and an egg.
YOU were wanted from the beginning of time by your Father.
Your Brother created YOU.
When YOU were Baptized, you became a living Temple of God.
YOU and I are that SPECIAL!
WOW, I have enjoyed typing this blog. I better understand why Jesus was sent to climb up on The Cross.
With that understanding, I want to imitate my Brother in doing the will of His and our Father even more.
Rabbi Soberl referred to Psalm 8: 4-9 and look at all that it set my, our mind to thinking about. Questions I have pondered for decades are now being answered, and I love the Triune God even more.
Picture:
A snail carrying a caterpillar Picture by Am Odunayo Micheal
Greetings of the day. Am Odunayo Micheal from Lagos, Nigeria.
I took this picture at a teaching hospital where I spent a week looking after my father, who was referred to the hospital for complicated health issues.
The picture tells me we all need other people’s support, and life can sometimes be very difficult to navigate alone. It shows a snail carrying a caterpillar.
After rendering my daily mass reading every morning, I enjoyed reading your daily reflection. It has been a great spiritual growth for me.
Thank you
AYO
WOW, does this picture fit in with this week’s blog? God is the snail; we are the caterpillar.
Please keep Snapping!
Several people from foreign countries have asked for my email address, but I am still waiting to hear back. We decided to include my email for your convenience.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
By sending your picture, you consent to allow us to reprint that picture in our next book, God Thoughts 2023, with your name and any comments in the Blog.
