Liturgy & Devotions | Daily Meditations

I will examine my conscience

by Catholic.net | Source: Catholic.net

 

Mark 7:1-13

 

Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for your Gospel and for all the truth it teaches me. Thank you for warning me of attitudes and dispositions that could become temptations for me as well. Help me to listen with an attentive ear and a readiness to act. I love you for your goodness and mercy, and I entrust myself into your loving hands.

Petition: Lord, help me to serve you sincerely, authentically and in truth and in love. Free me from falling into the error of the Pharisees, who loved praise and comfort more than they loved you, and who served themselves before serving others and you.

1. "This people honors me only with lip service, while their hearts are far from me." Jesus calls his disciples to authenticity and fidelity. Too often so-called disciples give the impression of following him, while at the same time accepting sensual loves and lusts in their heart. Although the Pharisees display the outward trappings of holiness, the way they treat Jesus and others betrays their true character. Jesus would call them "white-washed tombs", (Matthew 15:27): that is, clean and bright on the outside, but full of dead men bones within. Self-righteousness would be their downfall. Such dispositions may lend the proud man certain short-term security, but it will always be illusory since it is not rooted in the truth. Is there any way in which I also pay tribute to God with my lips but say something else in my heart, or behave contrariwise in my actions?

 

2. "The worship they offer me is worthless." True worship begins with humility, when the soul recognizes that it possesses no good in and of itself, but that all of its goodness comes from God. The Pharisees offered no real worship to God since, in effect, they worshipped only themselves by relying more on their talents and goodness than on the goodness that comes from God. It is not insignificant that when Jesus describes a Pharisee's prayer in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, he says "The Pharisee prayed this prayer to himself" (Luke 18:11).  How can I make sure that my prayer is truly devoted, meaning that I am addressing Our Lord with the words of my heart?

 

3. "You make God's word null and void." The Pharisees used the talents and gifts God had given them, not for God's glory, but for their own personal gain, whether that gain consisted of praise and admiration or personal comfort and ease. True worship of God, truly placing God above all else, involves using the things God created as means to reaching him. As number 226 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him: 
 My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
 My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.
 My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you."
The Pharisees used their position of authority and power for self-gain and not to serve others and come closer to God.

 

Conversation Dialogue with Christ: Lord, thank you for my life and all the good things you have given me. Help me to realize that you have created everything and that all I have is from you. May I use all I have to serve others and as a means to come closer to you, the source of all good.

 

Resolution: I will examine my conscience to see if I am using any of my gifts and talents to glorify or serve only myself, and if so, I'll strive to begin using these same gifts for the sake of the service of God.