February 24, 2022

Mk 9: 41-50

For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 

And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. 

Seeking the Grace of God

The image of fire is a hard one.  I’m afraid of the harm fire can do.  Gehenna scared everyone back then.  Jesus knew that, so he took us home to the kitchen. Any hurt we do is wrong.  We are wounded when we wound.  If we are to be healed, the wound must be cleansed, and that can burn.  St. Ignatius reminds us constantly to ask for the grace we seek.  How often do we ask, “Please, Lord, if you will…heal me.”

Jesus tells us to have salt in ourselves…to care for it like a loved child.  His grace is ours because we are loved children of God.  Heal with compassion and kindness.  Cry our tears to cleanse our spirit and speak our gratitude.  Grace protects us from the decay of our sinful nature and gifts us with the joyful peace of consolation. Can we live the Sucipe today?

—Mary Ann Gessner first encountered Ignatian spirituality through Jesuit Prayer. She completed the 19th Annotation in May 2021 and is now a Chaplaincy Intern at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.

Prayer 

Join me in praying the Sucipe version I learned as a child…

Take, Lord, and receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will….all that I am and call my own.  Take it.  It is yours.  Do with me what you will.  Give me only your love and your grace.  With these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more.  Amen

—Mary Ann Gessner