Your words today, O God our Father brought me back to my elementary days when we read Aesop's fables and memorized lines from Shakespeare, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/ But in ourselves that we are underlings." And how they both perfectly jibe together in your words! So many times we are like the great trees in the forest, so proud of our giftedness and abilities that we cannot give our selves to you and others to serve; we are so in love with our very selves, so proud or insecured that most often we uncannily put undeserving people to power while we bear all the sarcasm in the end.
“Then all the trees said to the buckthorn, ‘Come; you reign over us!’ But the buckthorn replied to the trees, ‘If you wish to anoint me king over you in good faith, come and take refuge in my shadow. Otherwise, let fire come the buckthorn and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’”
Judges 9:14-15
Most of the time, Lord, we know the fault is in us - not in the stars nor among others nor from you who truly loves each of us perfectly like the vineyard owner, always giving the same perfect amount of love and mercy to everyone; cleanse our hearts and our minds of selfish thoughts, of insisting on what we believe, on what we want; give us the grace of discernment to see clearly your will so we may choose wisely the options we have to put your divine plan in place.
Loving Father, make me grateful always to what I have; most of all, let me focus more on what you have given me, not on what others have received for in the end, it could very well happen that "the last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matthew 20:16) And that, Lord, is something completely our fault. Amen.
