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TODAY’S WORD…

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Jesus said,

“The eye is the lamp of the body.

So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light;

but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

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– Matthew 6:22-23 (NRSV)

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REFLECTION…

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Jesus uses the simile of the eye

as a lamp which provides the body with light.

This "eye", this "lamp", refers to the motivation behind our behaviour.

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St. Thomas Aquinas explains it in this way:

"The eye refers to motive.

When a person wants to do something, he first forms an intention:

thus, if your intention is sound – simple and clear –

that is to say, if it is directed towards God,

your whole body, that is, all your actions,

will be sound, sincerely directed towards good."

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It follows, therefore,

that if your motives are bad and purely self-centred,

they are only adding to the darkness that already exists in you

– a darkness that may be taking over your very soul.

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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O Jesus, Light of the world, be the Light of my soul!

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