Day 39

In today’s Gospel reading, we are challenged to recall the suffering and death of our Lord on the cross and the great love and self-sacrifice He demonstrated for us. A new covenant is given to us through our Lord’s blood, one that invites us to turn away from our old life and enter a new one. This is the way of our recovery, too, as we read in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, “And so it is, the beginning of the end of the old life, and the beginning of [one’s] emergence into a new one.”

We find restoration from our life of addiction at the foot of the cross. From there, the Lord mercifully gazes at us, shedding His blood for our sake. God shows us how to lay down our lives for others—how to die to ourselves for the love of God and our neighbor. When we do this, we receive life in abundance: sobriety as well as health and healing from the depths of our woundedness, brokenness, unhealthy attachments, and the bondage of self. As a result of the Twelve Steps of recovery and the sacraments of the Catholic Church, God gives us a way out of our disease and our destructive patterns, character defects, and shortcomings, and a way back into the “garden” of recovery and God’s unending love.

Reflection Questions

• In reviewing your past and present, do you have anything you’re hiding, feeling shame about, or defending by blaming others? How can you surrender these to God?
• In what ways has God offered you a way out of your addiction, compulsions, or unhealthy attachments and a way into recovery and healing?

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 87:1-2, 3 and 5, 6-7
Gospel: John 19:25-34

Reflection by Marybeth B.

(672-735) — Saint Bede was an English Benedictine monk who was a Bible scholar, theologian, scientist, and historian. He is considered the most educated man of his time and is the “father” of English history. During his life, he was sought out for both his spiritual and intellectual gifts. He is the first English Doctor of the Church.

Bede was thought to be the smartest person in the room, yet he had humility and open-mindedness to be teachable and continue to learn. These characteristics are essential, along with a willingness to try something new. Both recovery and the spiritual life are about relationship, not technique. Are you still humble, open-minded, and willing in your recovery and in your pilgrimage to the Father?

“So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are entirely ignorant” (Saint Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England).

Reflection by Brad Farmer