Living in alignment: mind, body, and heart.

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Gospel: Luke 11: 42-26

The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces.  
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
“Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
And he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,
but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Saint Ignatius of Antioch, one of the early Christian martyrs, once said, “Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips and the world in your heart.”

Spiritually, everything should be in alignment: our mind, our lips, and our heart.

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The scribes and Pharisees failed to learn this. They spoke of God and claimed to be his representatives on earth, but they were obsessed with the things of this world – money, pride, power, image, and prestige.

They were religious on the outside, but defiled on the inside.

Jesus sees through their appearance, hence the “woes” in today’s Gospel.

It’s easy to criticize these figures from long ago, but we all face the same temptations, to, “have Jesus Christ on our lips but the world in our hearts.”

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What pulls me away from my faith?

Perhaps I’m afraid to trust God. Maybe I doubt him when a prayer goes unanswered. Maybe I’m clinging to an earthly attachment – success, money, my career, my own plans for the future.

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Strive to live in alignment today, having, Jesus on your mind, on your lips, and in your heart.

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Image credits: (1) Sonia Choquette, QuoteFancy (2) Portraits of Saints, Tumblr (3) JeanHanson.com