Wednesday, March 10

Scripture for the Week:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For God says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. - II Corinthians 5:17 – 6:2

Reflection – Sara Tierno

We often think of the Sabbath as a remedy for the constant pressure we feel in our modern society to be always at work, always doing something to better ourselves. It should be clear, though, that this need to “do,” to work on seemingly more important things, is as old as man itself. A very different group of people from us received the Sabbath Commandment thousands of years ago, in the middle of an inhospitable desert. There is no commandment to work; we push ourselves that way of our own free will. There is a commandment to rest, and it seems to me that it is as relevant today as it ever was. Setting some time aside for reflexion allows us to better steer the ship of our lives.

To ponder and pray:

• What things in our own life are threatened and/or set free by the discipline of Sabbath?

• How might we become agents of freedom for others through this discipline?