Monday 21st March

2022

Meditation 20
There is a popular saying “Be careful for
what you wish.”
One of our most common temptations is to
know what will happen in the future. Most
people just want to know the short- term
future; long-term would probably be too
much to cope with.
The reasons to know the future are varied.
Humans have long wanted to be able to
read the future, perhaps with the hope of
altering it, or profiting from it.
But the the future is possibly better hidden
from sight.
We only possess the past and
the present. But they are
slippery. The past is constantly
whirling away from us while
the present is whittling away
every moment. Paradoxically,
what we possess is the future.
It will come, as long as we
live. Some people live in the
past while others have their
gaze firmly set on the future.
What should we do? The
Jewish psalm- writer observed
“If lift up my eyes to the
mountain, from whence comes
my help. The mountain was
seen by the Hebrews as a holy
place where God dwells.
Writing to the people of
Corinth, St. Paul advised the
first Christians to trust in the
future. “For our light and
momentary troubles are
achieving for us an eternal
glory that far outweighs them
all. So we fix our eyes not on
what is seen, but on what is
unseen, since what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen
is eternal.” ( 2 Cor. 4:17-18)
Jesus advised his followers to
have trust in God’s
providence.
 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink;
or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the
body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap
or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not
much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single
hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers
of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even
Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God
clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into
the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not
worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we
wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble
of its own ( The Gospel of St. Matthew Chapter 6, verses 25-34)
The painting by the French artist George de La Tour ( 1593- 1652) depicts a
young dandy surrounded by five women. The title of the work, The Fortune
Teller, indicates that the young man wished to know his future. Four
women are intent on robbing him as he asks the older women what the
future holds. She also appears to be part of the group intent on relieving the
gentlemen of his money. The morality picture, which was intended to both
amuse and instruct, hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Tuesday 22nd March
2022

Meditation 21
The Irish writer Oscar Wilde once claimed “ I can
resist anything except temptation.” Although a
facetious remark, there Wilde captured the allure of
temptations. Temptation sprint from the allure to
stray from the path that one knows is right.
 

           There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who
,
feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus,
covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich
man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and
was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was
buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham
far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on
me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I
am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your
lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but
now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us
a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you
cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, 'Then, father, I beg you
to send him to my father's  house-- for I have five brothers--that he may warn them,
so that  they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, 'They
have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father
Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to
him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced
even if someone rises from the dead.”
(From the Gospel of St. Luke, Chapter 16, verses 19-31)
The Rich Man Being Led to Hell
A number of strange figures play musical
David Teniers the Younger (1610-90)
The National Gallery, London
The artist was inspired by a parable of
Jesus which is recounted in Chapter 16 of
St. Luke’s Gospel. An elderly man has
been taken by surprise by some deformed
creatures. He gestures in shock and recoils
from the archway which opens in front of
him. He is Dives, the rich man who
neglected to come to the aid of a poor man
called Lazarus.
instruments to accompany the scene,
which is illuminated by a rat- like figure
which holds a candle aloft, and by the
hidden flames which the viewer may
assume are the fires of Hell. The creatures
are clearly delighted to carry out their task
of accompanying the terrified man to his
fate.
We do not see Lazarus, who has already
been carried to Heaven. Rather the focus
is on the man who missed the opportunity
of helping out somebody who was less
fortunate. He failed to bridge the gap and
must now face the consequences
Dives sin was not that he was cruel to Lazarus, but that he
refused to bridge the gap of misfortune that existed
between them. Dives sin was not his wealth; his wealth was
his opportunity. His sin was his refusal to use his wealth to
bridge the gulf between the extremes of superfluous,
inordinate wealth and abject, deadning poverty.

So when Dives cries to Abraham to send him one drop of

water at Lazarus' hands, Abraham replies: “There is a fixed
gulf between you now.” There was a time that Dives could
have bridged the gulf. He could have used the engineering
power of love to build a bridge of compassion between him
and Lazarus. But he refused. Now the gulf is fixed. The gulf
is now an impassable gulf. Time has run out. The tragic
words, too late, must now be, marked across the history of
Dives' life. (From a sermon by Rev. Martin Luther King,
Montgomery, 2nd October, 1955).
Wednesday 23rd March
2022

Meditation 22
The
Path
Not
Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
by Robert Frost ( 1874-1963)
Where do I go from here?

That is a question which crops up

regularly. Robert Frost’s evocative poem
captures the challenge we regularly face.
Until some years ago, it was common in
many societies to undertake a profession
or job for life. There was security; a
pension and a place in society. Once the
choice was made, we tended to stay with
it.

Today there is a vast panoply of choices.

This is due to longer life expectancy,
access to more rapid and economic travel,
electronic education among various
opportunities. Internet banking allows us
undertake new adventures with relative
ease.

Regrets are natural. We all have them.

They are natural and ought to be
embraced rather than simply rejected as
negative emotions. Often our choices are
limited. We waste even more emotional
energy by lamenting that we could not, in
Frost’s words, “travel both.

A Lane Through The Trees, ( 1870-73) by Camille

Carot, 1796-1875) in the Metropolitan Museum,
New York.