Monday, July 16th:
Jesus is given to the world. He was chosen, blessed, and broken to be given. Jesus’ life and death were a life and death for others. The Beloved Son of God, chosen from all eternity, was broken on the cross so that this one life could multiply and become food for people of all places and all times.
As God’s beloved children we have to believe that our little lives, when lived as God’s chosen and blessed children, are broken to be given to others. We too have to become bread for the world. When we live our brokenness under the blessing, our lives will continue to bear fruit from generation to generation. That is the story of the saints – they died, but they continue to be alive in the hearts of those who live after them – and it can be our story too.
Henri Nouwen
For further reflection…
For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. – 1 John 3: 11, 16 (NRSV)