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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Extravagance

Father Michael challenged us to identify with some of the characters in the Passion Scripture readings. One of those he mentioned was the woman who poured out the costly contents of the alabaster jar to anoint the feet of Jesus. She did not just take a portion of the precious contents, but she broke the jar and poured out all she had. It was an extavagant gesture. To many it seemed that the contents were wasted. She could have graciously used a portion and saved the rest.
Father Michael challenged us to be extravagant in our relationship with Jesus, to be extravagant with our time. He asked us to think about "wasting time" with Jesus in prayer.
I thought about all the other times I waste, whether it is listening to the same news over and again, or surfing the net, or lingering over that second or third cup of coffee. And that may not be so bad. But I never thought of wasting time with Jesus.
We think about "setting apart some time" for the Lord, and that is a good thing to do. But how about lingering in prayer when we could well be doing other things? How about "wasting time" with Jesus. I just never thought about it in quite that way before...being extravagant with my time.
No time with the Lord is wasted. But why not be more generous?

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