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The Love that Compels

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Daily Reflections

Daily Scripture, July 6, 2025

Scripture:

Isaiah 66:10-14
Galatians 6:14-18
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Reflection:

My fellow Kentuckian, Trappist monk Thomas Merton, wrote: “I have come to think that care of the soul requires a high degree of resistance to the culture around us, simply because that culture is dedicated to values that have no concern for the soul.”

When the culture around us endorses or is indifferent to owning nuclear weapons, polluting of our fragile planet, leaving our brothers and sisters homeless, hungry, or diseased, we disciples must offer a high degree of resistance. When people in our culture cheer when immigrants and refugees are arrested without due process, stripped, shaven, and thrown into a foreign country’s jail, resistance is demanded, as our pope and American bishops have courageously done.

The seventy-two disciples Jesus instructs in today’s Gospel are sent into harsh territory, into mostly Greek-formed cultures where Christians were required to offer a high degree of resistance. The Gospel focus on forgiveness, love, and absolute trust in God no doubt got a lot of push-back.

In imitation of these disciples, we must ask what are our own acts of resistance in our fast-paced, complex, media-saturated world?

Our culture is not foreign to us, most of us were born into it and have been shaped by it. But the message of Christ is foreign to our culture. The advertising world promotes being young, attractive, popular, powerful, and wealthy. These things, we are told, assure happiness, pleasure, satisfaction. To sustain our consumer-satisfying culture we start wars for oil, build war machines to “guarantee” security, and exploit and pollute Mother Earth in irreputable ways.

None of this offers care of the soul. Jesus’ message, which the seventy-two are asked to preach and live, emphasizes humility, powerlessness, detachment, and deep love for one another, especially the weak, lowly, discarded, and poor.

To be close to Christ means living simple, sincere lives with total trust in God to help us resist what does not respect our souls. This can mean pain, suffering, rejection, and, at times, feeling like we are accomplishing little in the eyes of the world.

But it is the only path to caring for our souls, to finding the deep, inner joy and peace that everyone longs for in the darkest moments of the night.

Jim Wayne is a board member of the Passionist Solidarity Network (PSN), and author of The Unfinished Man. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Daily Scripture, December 8, 2009

Feast of the Immaculate Conception Scripture: Genesis 3:9-15, 20 Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 Luke 1:26-38 Reflection: Because I was weak in Marian theology, when I was a student at C.T.U. I » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 7, 2009

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10 Luke 5:17-26 Reflection: The reading for the 2nd Monday of Advent is highly dramatic.  Jesus is preaching, teaching and healing in the synagogue in Capernaum.  Luke tells » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 3, 2009

Scripture: Isaiah 26:1-6 Matthew 7:21, 24-27 Reflection: The Word of Life Out of chaos and darkness, came Creation with a zillion wonders of nature and humanity! Out of winter and » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 5, 2009

Scripture: Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26 Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8 Reflection: This past week during the Thanksgiving holidays, I visited a Holocaust memorial.  The physical size of this memorial was quite small, yet what most » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 2, 2009

Scripture: Isaiah 25:6-10a Matthew 15:29-37 Reflection: I received an e-mail recently, with this subject: "Tell me how he did it, and I’ll give you a thanksgiving turkey."  The "it" was » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, December 1, 2009

Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-10 Luke 10:21-24 Reflection: In today’s readings, Isaiah announces and names the gifts and work of the Spirit of the Lord and in the gospel, Jesus rejoices in » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 30, 2009

Scripture: Romans 10:9-18 Matthew 4:18-22 Reflection: There are two words that the Lord used frequently in the Gospels.  The first word is "Come."  "Come, follow me." "Come and see." "Come, » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 29, 2009

Scripture: Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Reflection: Happy New Year! Or perhaps you think I am a bit confused with this greeting…but in reality, the First Sunday » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 28, 2009

Scripture: Daniel 7:15-27 Luke 21:34-36 Reflection: This time of year fills me with energy.   So much is happening; activity seems to abound! The scriptures for this time of year are » Continue Reading.

Daily Scripture, November 27, 2009

Scripture: Daniel 7:2-14 Luke 21:29-33 Reflection: These are strange times.  The world is suffering.  I’m certainly not going to try and dissect the economic and political reasons for why our country » Continue Reading.

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