Father, today's scripture was a challenge for me to understand. So much so that I had to pull back and sit quietly and reflect upon the words and ask You to help me get, the get, in the reading. I could not understand, how in the world, could I be held responsible for what my ancestors did if I wasn't even alive or present at that time. It didn't make sense to me. Then I understood the example given in the reading below; from the first murder in the Old Testament of the Bible (being that of Abel) to the last murder in the Old Testament of the Bible (being that of Zechariah). There is a moral code here that speak volumes.

Just as the scholars of law had done, whom Jesus was talking to, so have I honored and revered certain person's or prophets but have not adhered to the wisdom or instruction they delivered. And the prophets were the precursors to Jesus. I have acted as though I follow a moral code but then turn around and support something that is just the opposite of that moral code. In the example given in the scripture, it's like condemning murder but then supporting killing people in other ways. This causes me to ponder all areas of my life and how my actions and reactions contribute to an ancestral cycle of racism, judgment, profiling, hatred, blame, shame, bigotry, criticism, contradiction and intolerance. These things can easily happen to me when I act and react unconsciously to what I claim to support. Sometimes my interpretation of the law (rules) is like the scholars of law, where not only do I hold others to the law, I don't even follow the law myself!

I have recognized for some people, this may even boil down to using Your name in vain or the use of Jesus' name. I know Jesus' name should never be used as a negative exclaimation of frustration and while I may not do it myself, if I don't call someone else on it, then it throws my act of reverence out the window, thereby doing exactly what the scolars of law did, which is claim the law but not follow it. Whatever my ancestral cycle is, I need to be brave enough to stand up for what is right (as the prophets did), rather than cower for being ridiculed or confronted too harshly.

Father, today's reading has certainly given me something to mentate on and I ask You to forgive me of all my racism, judgment, profiling, hatred, blame, shame, bigotry, criticism, contradictions and intolerance as I continue on my path to do the right thing and end my ancestral cycle of wrong doings.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke

Luke 11:47-54

[Jesus said to them . . . ]

47 "Woe to you! You build the memorials of the prophets whom your ancestors killed.

48 Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building.

49 Therefore, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute'

50 in order that this generation might be charged with the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world,

51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who died between the altar and the temple building. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be charged with their blood!

52 Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter."

53 When He left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward Him and to interrogate Him about many things,

54 for they were plotting to catch Him at something He might say.

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ

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