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Thursday, September 16, 2010

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Pope St. Cornelius
St. Cyprian


1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 28
Luke 7:36-50

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i can never thank you enough

Jesus asked: " 'Which of them was more grateful to him?' Simon answered, 'He, I presume, to whom he remitted the larger sum.' Jesus said to him, 'You are right.' " —Luke 7:42-43

The more serious our sins and the greater their number, the more thankful we should be to the Lord for His forgiveness. The more we have been forgiven, the greater should be our love for the Lord (Lk 7:47).

This means that all of us have cause to thank and love the Lord constantly and forever (see 1 Thes 5:18). We have all been forgiven many serious sins — even if we think that we've lived a fairly decent life. Because of the spiritual blindness and self-deception due to sin, we have probably committed many more sins than we admit, and some of the sins we think are not that bad are very serious (cf 2 Sm 24:10ff). We failed to do much good we could and should have.

A pious practice would be to repent of the sins of which we are aware and go to Confession monthly, if possible. Then we should ask the Lord to remove the layers of deception which have caused our spiritual blindness. Finally, we should ask the Holy Spirit to let His light shine on the dark corners of our hearts. In those inner recesses, we will see our sinfulness (see Mk 7:21-23). Then we will realize that the Lord has forgiven us an inestimable debt of sin (see Mt 18:24ff). We have cause to thank and love the Lord with all our hearts forever.

Prayer:  Father, may I live a life of repentance and penance.

Promise:  "I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and in which you stand firm. You are being saved by it at this very moment if you hold fast to it as I preached it to you." —1 Cor 15:1-2

Praise:  St. Cornelius worked in the field of repentance and penance, and followed the narrow road about which Jesus taught.

Rescript:  †Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, February 8, 2010

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