Heart Grooming

~~~ Memorial of Saint Monica ~~~

~~~ 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10, 16-18 ~~~ Psalm 128 ~~~ Matthew 23:27-32 ~~~

May the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you.

Saint Paul writes about peace while Matthew
quotes Jesus speaking harshly to the scribes and Pharisees.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
Jesus accuses them yet again about caring
more about external appearances at the expense of their souls.
We too can be alerted to our external and our internal state.
Do we appear to be something other than the reality in our heart?
We owe it to ourselves to periodically check ourselves.
We should take inventory of our inner self.
Are we too concerned about whether or not we appear
 to be the person we want to be?

Saint Monica prayed that her son would find
within his heart the passion for God as satisfying
 as the passions of his material life.

Is your heart as beautiful as the external appearance
 you work so hard to maintain?
We spend hours each day making our appearance
more pleasing to ourselves and to others.

Do we spend just as much time grooming our heart?
Do we believe that our heart will just take care
 of itself while we focus on what can be seen?

It is more difficult to cleanse our soul than to slather cream on our face.
Too often we are confused,
believing our appearance is what matters most.

Maybe if we were not so hypnotized by the media advertisements
 we would see things differently.

You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside...

I cannot speak for you, but I do not
want to be compared to a whitewashed tomb.

We must not ignore the health and beauty of our inner self...our soul.
No matter how many products we use to make ourselves more
beautiful the beauty of our soul is more important.

Take the time to pay attention to your inner beauty.
As you complete your morning grooming routine
 pause to spruce up your soul with the peace of the Lord.

His peace will keep your inner self
 as beautiful and pleasing as your physical self.

The Lord blesses us with so many images of his kingdom.
Maybe today it is easy to identify with because daily
we take care of our physical appearance.

Saint Monica, pray for us that we may share
 your desires for our own inner transformation.

~~~ Peace~~~