DEAD MEN’S BONES

PRAYER MOMENT                      

Wednesday 27 August 2014, St Monica

DEAD MEN’S BONES

Pause. Be still in God’s presence.

Reading: “Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones.” (Matt 23:27-32)

Reflection. For three days we have read Jesus’s fierce attack on the religious leaders. They are spoiling his whole mission to bring the fullness of the message of God to his chosen people and through them to the whole world. He is furious and shows it. This confrontation will build up to the climax when they round on him and physically do away with him. It is a skirmish that manifest the larger battle that has been there from the beginning between the enemy of our human nature and God himself. It is a battle that is being waged today in our world and in each of us individually. We experience ourselves as divided: wanting to do the good but finding so often we do the oppositel. The force of Jesus’ attack ends with a flourish: ‘You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets! Very well then, finish off the work that your fathers began!’ What a challenge! He foretells his own death but it doesn’t puncture the hearts of stone that he is up against.

   

Prayer. Lord Jesus, you long for us to turn to you and yet we see so much hardness of heart in our world. Soften us with the dew of your Spirit that we may welcome your gentle presence. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ