Petition: Lord Jesus Christ, help me to follow your example and set a good example for others. you have invited me to live in your love and bring others to do the same. I ask you for the grace to respond fully today, despite whatever obstacles may arise. 

1. History Will Teach Us Something: Throughout the Old Testament, the history of the people of Israel is the drama of God, a profound gesture of his love and protection, as he reveals himself to his chosen people in ever-greater ways. Israel’s response to God’s love, as seen in the Old Testament, that love is pocked and pitted with infidelity, abuse, and ingratitude. At times the people outright reject God and whomever he sends to guide them back to his loving care. These falls from God’s grace are instructive for us today. We see the grandeur of what God did for the people of Israel and marvel at it. We should be aghast at how a people who received so much could respond so little. But more than this, we need to use this history of Israel as a mirror in which to regard our own lives: to recognize the same patterns of failure and lack of fidelity in our own lives and use this self-reflection to inspire us to return to the Lord. If we fail to admit our weaknesses and failures, however, we will be like the Pharisees to whom Christ spoke, who brought the blood of the prophets upon their own heads because of their stubbornness and hardness of heart. 

2. History Repeats Itself: In the parable of the vineyard owner who leased out his vineyard (cf. Luke 20:9-16), Christ explains that the owner sent servant after servant to collect from the tenants what was his due, but each was mistreated, beaten or even killed. The situation comes to a head when the owner sends his own son, who is killed. On oneanother occasion Christ warns the disciples that if this is the way he is treated, they should expect no less themselves (cf. John 15:20). Do we honestly expect not to have to face some difficulty as disciples of the Lord? Of course not. But what if that difficulty comes from within? This is from where the most serious menaces to our discipleship come. Our pride, our vanity, our love of comfort: these are the battlegrounds and the martyrs’ fields where first and foremost we need to suffer for being a disciple of the Lord. The prophets and martyrs who suffered for their zeal for the Lord did so even up to the cost of their lives. He might not need us to lay our lives on the line in quite the same way, but an interior sacrifice is what Christ does ask of everyone whom he calls. 

3. Stoppage Time: One of the key moments in Edith Stein’s conversion happened when from Judaism to Catholicism occurred on a mid-week afternoon. Sshe went into a Catholic Church to see what it was like, and as she sat there in silence, an older woman came in to spend a few moments with Christ in the Eucharist. She had groceries in her hand and was obviously on her way home to prepare dinner. For young Edith, still struggling with belief in God, it was an example of just how grounded in day-to-day reality the Catholic faith is. The woman’s example helped to open Edith’s heart and mind to receive the gift of faith. There is little chance that woman ever knew the importance her example played in helping form this future saint and patronness of Europe, but the woman’s authentic faith was just what Edith needed to see. Our living witness is critical for those around us, whether or not we ever see or hear of the consequence. We can serve as an occasion of grace, or we can be a stumbling block on the path that delays someone from arriving at the place God wants to lead them. 

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I know that I am an integral part in your plan to save souls. You have the confidence to use me as a channel of your grace for those around me, particularly those closest to me. I offer you my life today. Use me as a channel of grace and a testimony to your love.

Resolution: I will offer to God today the sacrifice necessary to change something in my behavior that might be an obstacle for someone else coming to know Christ better.