Thursday after Misericordias Domini
Posted on April 22, 2021 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 18:10-14 (NKJV)
18:10 “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. 11 For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.
12 “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? 13 And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. 14 Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Devotion
“Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones…”
People can be hard to love. Even if those people are saints in the Church, some are just harder to be patient with than others. But our Lord Jesus does not give us the right to despise one another. We may get angry if they do evil; we may get frustrated when they make the same mistakes over and over; but we do not have the right to be unmerciful or hateful toward each other.
Christ has shown each of us more patience and mercy than we can truly appreciate. All of us who are faithful members of the Church have been forgiven much, and so we are called to love and serve according to that great gift. Furthermore, those who are not part of the Church need our love and patience so that God may work through us to save them as well! No matter how hard it is to love some people, we must keep our Lord’s teachings in perspective, because He loves them and wants to bring them to salvation. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and His love for the world is more important than our own feelings.
Prayer: God, who by the humiliation of Thy Son didst raise up the fallen world, grant unto Thy faithful ones perpetual gladness, and those whom Thou hast delivered from the danger of everlasting death do Thou make partakers of eternal joys; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
