Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

This is why it’s so important in recovery for us to keep our side of the street clean, to use a recovery saying, and to regularly maintain conscious contact with God to receive a daily reprieve from our disease. That’s why Step 4 is so important: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves,” which involves examining our character defects and working to root them out through humility and right action. It’s no doubt challenging to take an honest, hard look at ourselves. Yet, when we do this we open ourselves to receive the grace of God and to love in the way Saint Paul instructs us in today’s first reading:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (Corinthians 13:4-7).

As we “clean house” and seek to allow God’s grace to remove our character defects and show us the right way to love, let us ask for the grace to love truly and to love always.

 

Reflection Questions

  • What character defects of yours are standing in the way of being more loving? Of the many descriptors that Paul gives for love, is there one that most resonates with you and, if so, why?
  • What can you do today to love your neighbor?

 

Daily Mass Readings

First Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33:2-3, 4-5, 12 and 22
Gospel: Luke 7:31-35

Reflection by Jana I.