“Responding to the Love of the Lord, with greater discipline and faithfulness!”

(Based on 1 Tim 1:15-17 and Lk 6:43-49 – Saturday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time)

It is said that “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment”.

Discipline, in general, is based on four F’s:

Firmness
Fondness
Frankness
Fairness

The Book of Proverbs 13: 24 says, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them”.

Disciplining a person, with the principles of firmness, fondness, frankness and fairness, is an act of charity and an expression of genuine love.

The Gospel of the Day presents a verse of disciplining by the Lord – the One Who deeply yearns that we always walk in the right path and in the ways of perfection.

Jesus says, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do what I tell you?” (Lk 6: 46)

The test of true love consists in a faithful obedience to the one who is loved.

The spouses may exchange gestures of love and affection…
… but do they also exhibit true love by caring for each other, respecting each other’s opinion and accepting one another as they are?

Children may say that they truly love and care for their parents…
… but do they also exhibit it in action, by being obedient to them and taking practical heed of their advices?

Students may express their concern and acknowledgement for their teachers…
… but do they also display it in their life, by faithful abiding to what is expected of them as students?

To say “I love you”, but failing to show it forth in actions of obedience, is mere farcical!

There is therefore, a great need to examine – in honesty and sincerity – when we say “I love you” to the Lord.

Our Blessed Lord raises a tone of pleading when He asks, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do what I tell you?”

It has tones similar to…
… a parent who tells the child, “Why do you say, you like me, when you constantly disobey me and fail to give heed to my words?”

… a teacher who tells the student, “Why do you say, I want to be a good student, when you fail to make efforts to learn and do your
works,in the proper time and in the right manner?”

… an elderly person who advises a young person, “Why do you say, I wish to lead a happy life, but still continue to walk in the paths of immorality, dishonesty and lethargy?”

The Lord is deeply interested in the well-being of our lives…
.. but somehow, we fail to understand this aspect, and continue to live a life, as per our own wishes and fancies!

And therefore, the Lord raises the rod of discipline, and makes it very clear – a stern warning – with the parable of the Two Foundations.

Unless you live a life, founded on the rock of obedience, the “house” of your life will not stand!
If you seek to base your life on the “sands” of disobedience, be assured, that soon it will have a tragic collapse!

The Lord is FIRM, FOND, FRANK and FAIR with us, in His Love for us!

Let us respond to this Love with greater discipline and faithfulness

Let us seek the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary to give heed to the “disciplining call” of the Lord, and reform our lives…
… so that our love for the Lord may show forth in true obedience and sincere submission!

God Bless! Live Jesus!

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Discovering the beauty of the Catholic Church through the Catechism
SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

WATER: The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth…
… just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the Divine Life is given to us in the Holy Spirit.
As “by one Spirit we were all baptized,” so we are also “made to drink of one Spirit.”
Thus the Spirit is also personally the Living Water welling up from Christ crucified as its source and welling up in us to eternal life.

ANOINTING: The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit.
In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called “chrismation” in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew “messiah”) means the one “anointed” by God’s Spirit.
Jesus is God’s Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit established him as “Christ.”
The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed Him the Christ at His birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord.
The Spirit filled Christ and the Power of the Spirit went out from Him in His acts of healing and of saving.
Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

Now, fully established as “Christ” in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until “the saints” constitute – in their union with the humanity of the Son of God – that perfect man “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”: “the whole Christ,” in St. Augustine’s expression. (Cf. CCC # 694-695)