Thursday June 15, 2023

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Good News Reflections:
Making scripture meaningful to your daily life
by Terry Modica

“If we identify the veils or blinders that we wear, we can become free of them, because the Holy Spirit teaches us what we need to know.”

Good News Reflection for:

Thursday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
June 15, 2023

Today’s Prayer:

Lord, may good intentions spring up in my heart rather than evil thoughts. May Your strength within me lead me to do everything for and with love. Amen.

Subscribe to Today’s Saint Quote & Prayer:
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Today’s Readings:

2 Corinthians 3:15 — 4:1, 3-6
Ps 85:9-14
Matthew 5:20-26
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061523.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-june-15-2023

Lifting the veils that blind us

Is your trust in God faltering in any way? For any reason? Over any unanswered prayers? It’s not because you want to doubt God. There’s something in the way, a veil (as St. Paul calls it in today’s first reading). If this veil were lifted, you’d say, “AHA! Of course (*slapping the forehead*) I can have full confidence that God is working a plan, a good plan. Duh!”

If we identify the veils or blinders that we wear, we can become free of them, because the Holy Spirit teaches us what we need to know. Some veils take a while to peel off — it’s a process that might require inner healing, counseling, talking it over with a spiritual director, or waiting for time to reveal further details. But some veils are removed as soon as we choose to stop limiting ourselves to our own understanding and start relying on the Holy Spirit.

When I was young, I spent seven years believing the lies of the occult. I’d been seeking the supernatural reality of God, and I thought I had found it in psychic phenomena, but this led me further and further away from God until I completely lost interest in being a Christian. After Jesus lifted my veils, the Holy Spirit taught me truths I had previously been unwilling to believe.

Another veil is fear. FEAR is “False Evidence Appearing Real”. Ask yourself: “What message is fear telling me?” Then ask: “And what is the truth that the Holy Spirit is telling me?” This usually lifts the veil immediately.

Anger is another veil. It usually starts with a wound that someone has inflicted upon us; it’s lifted when we choose to forgive, whether the person who sinned against us shows remorse or not. While we’re angry, we lose sight of the goodness — the Jesus — that dwells within that person. Jesus describes the eternal consequences of this in today’s Gospel passage. If we die with any unreconciled relationships, we’ll have to be purged of our unforgiveness before we can experience the fullness of God’s love in heaven, i.e., we’ll go through purgatory until we’ve “paid the last penny”.

Rebelliousness and insisting on doing things my way are veils that interfere with “being transformed from glory to glory into the image of Christ.” Picking which Church teachings to live by and which to reject is such a veil.

Another veil is selfishness, which holds us back from experiencing the awesome glory of being Christ’s hands and feet in this world by loving and serving others. And addictions veil us from the reasons we need to be healed. Co-dependencies veil us from an unimaginably wonderful and intimate dependence upon Jesus. Materialism veils us from the peace of simple living. Anxiety and worry veil us from the discovery of how much really God cares.

And so on. What veils are you wearing today?

For more on this subject, use our video “Be Not Afraid” @ https://gnm-media.org/be-not-afraid/.

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