Rich soil comes with daily attentiveness.
Each of the elements of the Parable of the Sower is worthy of meditation and reflection. A very good practice would be to take some time to reflect on each aspect and ask what limits the germination and growth of the seeds God has sown in our lives, and also what helps us to bring about successful growth and a successful yield. When did we experience God’s word but have it almost immediately snatched away; when did we gain an insight, experience joy from his word and guidance, but did not in any way put the learning into practice; how many times have trials, hardship, and lack of courage or outright persecution, robbed us of stretching out of our comfort zone, and we instead withdrew, not wanting to risk growth?
Many of us can relate to: “Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit” (Mk 4:18-19). Distractions pull at us from within and without, from one second to the next. So much seeks to undo us, tear us down, and drive us into states of anxiety, despondency, cynicism, and depression. So many apparent goods and false truths entice us to feed our desires for power, wealth, fame, and pleasure. Material temptations offer promises of fulfillment but shortly after purchase leave us feeling empty. All the while, there is so much good that needs to be done and so much work to do. Even if we are willing to look beyond ourselves to be of help, we may not even be sure how to serve or where to begin.
Jesus offers us in the Parable of the Sower his promise that the seed sown in rich soil will grow to be a mature plant that bears much fruit. To bear fruit we need to be attentive to making rich soil. This means breaking into hard ground such as the hardness of our hearts, prejudgments, and pride by spending time and being present with not only those close to us but also with people who we keep at arm’s length. We also need to be willing to face our fear of rejection and be willing to encounter a person with understanding and respect instead of preconceived notions, then we can begin to diffuse false judgments, prejudices, and fears.
We often react from a defensive posture or give in to our immediate impulses, when instead we need to be more mindful. We do so when we take a moment to inhale deeply, discern each thought, situation, purchase, and action, to pray and seek God’s guidance, and to rely on trusted family, friends, colleagues, and classmates for guidance. We can learn from past experiences and resist making any rash or reactive decisions. Regarding service, it is best to start small, apply the same points just mentioned, and engage in reaching out in our own small ways, but with, intention, confidence, and persistence.
These are just a few ideas that can help us start to uproot weeds and overgrowth, to begin to remove rocks and soften the earth, and enjoy the process of preparing some rich soil – our heart, mind, and soul – to better receive and nurture the seed of the love of God that he sows, which is Jesus his Son. In time, as we surrender more to his will, continue to be nourished by his word, accept and put it into practice, and trust in him and not the temptations that entice, distract, and disrupt our growth, we will see sprouts begin to grow, and soon mature plants that will “bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold” (Mk 4:20).
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Photo: Class of 2017 models of creating rich soil!
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, January 26, 2022
As we receive, we are to give away.
In today’s gospel account, chosen because of the feast of St Paul’s conversion, we read:
Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).
The Eleven, and Paul who would encounter Jesus after his Resurrection (cf. Acts 9:1-9), are commissioned with carrying the Gospel to the whole world. What did they preach? How are we do follow in their footsteps?
The earliest kerygmas, Greek for to preach, and in this case to preach the Gospel, were very simple but effective mnemonic devices. Each disciple was taught what was needed to be covered in sharing the Good News. One such “blueprint” was the symbol of the fish. In Greek, fish is written as ichthus. Each of the characters of ichthus represented the keywords that needed to be covered as follows:
Iesous – Jesus
Christos – Messiah or Anointed One
Theos – God
Hyios – Son
Soter – Savior.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God our Savior.
The dynamic truth of these five words is profoundly transformative if we truly believe them. What we need to ask ourselves is, do we believe this statement to be true? If we do, how can we stop ourselves from smiling, from dancing, from sharing that Jesus is truly who he said he is!
Jesus is fully God and fully man and he became one of us so that we can become one with him. Through the Son of God’s Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, we are called, as were the first disciples, to share in the divinity of Jesus. We become deified, meaning we become God through our participation in the life of Jesus. The foundation of our faith has to do with our encounter with Jesus the Christ.
This encounter is personal for each of us. No one can save another. We can only propose, invite, and present the Good News that Jesus Christ is the Son of God our Savior, and share our own experiences of this reality. Our encounter with Jesus does not need to be as brilliant as happened with Paul. More often, Jesus invites us in more quiet and subtle ways. We are to share the Gospel with joy and accompany each other on our journey by providing support, encouragement, and guidance, and let God be who he is and work through us as he will.
The Apostles and Paul, Mary the Mother of God, Mary Magdalene and the many who have continued to answer yes to his invitation through the ages up until this day were willing to be shaped, conformed and sent on mission. Each of us, have a part to play in salvation history, and so are invited to have our own unique experience of Jesus. As Bishop Robert Barron says often, “Our faith will grow as we give it away.” We too are called. When we say yes to Jesus, we too will be shaped, conformed, and sent on mission to proclaim the Gospel, to give our faith away!
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Picture: The mosaic of Jesus Christ the Pantocrator, Ruler of the Universe, at Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Link for the Mass Readings for Saturday, January 25, 2022
We can be a cloud blocking the light of Jesus or the rainbow radiating the light of Jesus.
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons” (Mark 3:22).
The scribes experience for themselves Jesus exorcising demons, and do not understand how he is able to cast them out to heal those possessed. They judge that he does this feat, not by the power of God but, by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Could their purpose be to delegitimize, or literally demonize, Jesus in such a way that those beginning to follow him will begin to doubt or outright turn away from him? If Jesus is who he says he is, then the scribes are actually the ones serving Satan in aligning with him to sow discord and disunity.
Jesus provides an invitation to build bridges of reconciliation and healing to restore the unity that has been lost by those choosing to sin, to put self first over God. He also meets those on the peripheries, those who have been kept at arm’s length, healing those conditions which have been used to justify their separation. Yet Jesus does not impose, he proposes. Even so, Jesus demands a choice.
Jesus shows over and over again by word and deed not only how he is creating bridges of connection between the human and the divine, he is in actuality the bridge, the kingdom of God in our midst, and yet, he is not going to drag anyone over it against their will. Jesus calls all who encounter him to make a choice, there is no middle ground, we are either for him or against him.
We have witnessed in the Gospel accounts how some of the scribes, Pharisees, and even some of his relatives reject Jesus. He is able to perform only a few miracles in his own hometown. Those who say no to the invitation cut themselves off, separate themselves from the very source of their life, the very core and sustaining force of their being. Those who say yes and repent, like those that receive his healing, will be transformed, and are freed from their enslavement to sin.
They align themselves with the very source and communion they have been created for, God the Father, when they continue to say yes, day by day, decision by decision. This is no one revelatory moment but a daily commitment of saying yes to Jesus. Even in messing up or falling down, we refuse to stay down but arise, repent, and begin again and again. We must always and everywhere reject the lie that echoes in our minds that we cannot be forgiven. Jesus loves us more than we can ever mess up, he loves us more than our worst choice or mistake.
If this is true, then what does Jesus mean when he says that “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an ever lasting sin” (Mk 3:29)? Jesus refers here to our free will to accept or reject the free gift of his grace. We can observe this played out in the choices of Peter and Judas. Peter repented, was forgiven, and transformed. Judas withdrew within himself, cut himself off from Jesus, did not believe that Jesus would forgive him, and took his own life. Jesus would have forgiven Judas as he had Peter, but Judas kept himself at a distance. He refused to accept the love of the Holy Spirit.
We have a choice to make each day. We can let ourselves be defined by our sin and our worst mistakes, believe the father of lies and division who wants us to help him build up walls separating us from Jesus and each other. We can walk the path of darkness which consists of living defensively, keeping those who we deem as different at a distance, or worse, demean, belittle, and degrade others. We can live in the shadows of indifference and cynicism.
Or we can surrender our will to Jesus and repent from our pride, prejudice, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, and wrath. We can believe that Jesus is who he said he is, refuse to build walls of separation but instead align ourselves with him and join in the task of building bridges of unification and communion.
We will take steps forward and steps back, and we will fall, but through each experience, the hand of Jesus is still there to help us back up and if we are willing, we can begin again and again and again. We are not alone. Mary the Mother of God and all the saints said yes to Jesus’ invitation. They understand what we are going through. They are also cheering us on, guiding us, empowering us, so that one day we too will be where they are, seeing God the Father face to face.
Jesus invites us to be unified in his love. May we place our hand in his, follow him, and live our lives in communion with others committed to his mission. By doing so we will radiate his light, in our own unique way, like a rainbow, expressing the gift of glory that God has given us.
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Photo: Rainbow at Cardinal Newman HS, sometime in August 2018
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, January 24, 2022
“Love listens. Love hears.”
Having been led by the Spirit into the desert, Jesus fasted for forty days and was tempted by the devil. Jesus resisted these temptations and then, in Luke’s account, began his public ministry by preaching in the synagogues of Galilee. After some time, Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth and on the Sabbath, Jesus “went according to his custom into the synagogue” (Lk 4:16).
This time his presence was different. Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah and as Jesus sat, all were silent. Jesus broke the silence with the words, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:18). This was no ordinary reading, this was Luke’s inaugural address for Jesus. Jesus was sent on mission by his Father through the love of the Holy Spirit to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and return sight to the blind, to free those from oppression and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Jesus came to restore us to wholeness, to be present with us so that we can experience his closeness, and to lead us to reconciliation with his Father. Jesus calls us, just as he called his disciples to share in this same mission of drawing close. We are also to be present to one another, to love one another, and lead each other from our imprisonment to sin, turning in on ourselves, and away from others. We are to instead open ourselves up to embrace God and one another.
USC professor, Dr. Leo Buscaglia, was devastated when he heard the news that one of his students had committed suicide. He was crushed by the loss of such a young life full of potential and promise, but more so by the fact that none of her classmates were even aware that she was missing or struggling with such pain. Dr. Buscaglia then began his non credit course called Love 1A in 1969. He wanted not so much to teach but to facilitate ways in which his students could be free from the barriers that keep people at arm’s length, at a distance.
Dr. Buscaglia allowed God to work through him to bring about a greater good from the devastating loss of one of his students. His class grew beyond the campus of USC through his books and public speaking where he continued to facilitate for his listeners the vital importance of allowing ourselves to be loved and to love in return.
To continue the mission of Jesus we too need to have ears to hear and eyes to see the ways in which we can say yes to our unique invitation to spread the Gospel by being willing to come close, to be aware of each other and present through our caring, understanding, support, loving, and empowering of one another.
Photo: Dr. Leo Buscaglia, 1924-1988. “Perhaps if we listened to another person, truly listened, we could hear his joy or his cry. Love listens. Love hears.” – from his book Love, p. 180.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, January 23, 2022
Each human being has a right to live with dignity from the womb to the tomb.
Jesus arrives “with his disciples” at the house, also translated as home. As with his first arrival home (cf. Mk 2:1-12), the crowds gather again in overwhelming numbers. In addition to the disciples, specifically being mentioned this time, we can also read that the relatives of Jesus are near. “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mk 3:21). This reaction is certainly an interesting way to welcome Jesus back.
What is it that his relatives have heard about him that has gotten them so riled up? Was it that the vast number that had gathered was causing damage, trampling over items, breaking pottery, or acting in an unruly and boisterous fashion? We just read a few days ago how Jesus was concerned that he might be crushed by the crowds. Were undesirables, those on the peripheries, sinners, those on the other side of the tracks, coming into town? We know his disciples were quite the motley crew.
From a more spiritual take, the number would not have been lost on anyone gathered. The Messiah was to usher in the gathering of the nations. Jesus choosing and commissioning twelve Apostles, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, thus continuing and extending his healing, preaching on his own authority, is a big change from the carpenter next door who they all grew up with.
We don’t know, but the fact that they were ready to “seize him” because they thought that, “He [was] out of his mind” says that something about Jesus was really pressing their buttons. Jesus very early on in his public ministry is already receiving a growing chorus of resistance from the Scribes and Pharisees, demons and unclean spirits, and now his own relatives. Jesus continues forward and refuses to water down his message or adjust his ministry. If anything he doubles down, as is recorded not in Mark but Matthew 10:37: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;” and even stronger in Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus calls us to live a life that is dedicated to him and the will of his Father and as we begin to step out in a public way to live our faith, there will be push back from all quarters. Especially, those who we have known us all our lives. We place others in and are placed in boxes by others. Expectations and prejudgments abound. It is hard enough for us to stretch out of our comfort zone, to go beyond prior established boundaries, but as we do so, those in our realm of influence, those who observe us making a move in that direction, consciously, or more often unconsciously, may feel threatened.
Living a life of faith, of loving and willing the good of others, especially those outside of our societal or accepted boundaries, those that are “different”, those that are other, though we have been created to and find fulfillment in doing so, means we are taking a risk. We risk being misunderstood, labeled, rejected, and thought of as losing our minds. Yet, risk we must, if we are to follow the will of Jesus, if we are to grow in holiness, and to become saints. As we risk, we are to remain faithful, true to who God is calling us to be. We are also to resist the temptation to strike back negatively when challenged and instead radiate the light of Jesus. This will continue to repel some who still prefer the darkness, but may just draw some others in from the shadows.
In coming to encounter and know Jesus we are going to be transformed, we cannot stay the same. Yet we are hesitant to, or fear, change. The plateau, the valley is comfortable, but that is not the path Jesus would have us walk. As Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman said: “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
Today, Saturday, January 22, we are reminded that the status quo is unacceptable. The death of the unborn and the economic, societal, and political pressures that create the platforms of this choice are not acceptable. Nor is the oppressive governments and societal systems that oppress the poor and vulnerable acceptable. Let us join the many today who will speak for the protection of those in the womb as it is the day of prayer for the legal protection of the unborn. May we also celebrate the beatification of Fr. Rutilio Grande, SJ, along with Fr. Cosme Spessottoin, Manuel Solórzano, and Nelson Rutilio Lemus, in El Salvador. Fr. Rutilio gave his life in 1977 because he was willing to be a voice for farm workers and peasants who were being oppressed and denied just and sustainable access to fair wages.
When we do not see the dignity of the person at each stage of life and in each situation of life as important, we are less human. As Pope Francis wrote, “None of us can think we are exempt from concern for the poor and social justice” (Evangelii Gaudium, 201). The only difference between the unborn and us is that they are smaller and more vulnerable. The only difference between those who are oppressed is that they are denied the dignity of equal access. May we pray and work to change systems of oppression that support dehumanization and work to promote the dignity of each human life from the womb to the tomb and each stage in between.
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Photo: Icon of Rutilio Grande, S.J., by William Hart McNichols
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, January 23, 2022
Jesus invites us to follow him to greater heights.
Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him (Mk 3:13).
Through the centuries mountains have been sites where people have gone to rise above their daily experiences, to rise above the clouds, where the air is crisper, cleaner. It is a means of gaining a new perspective, transcending the human to touch the spiritual, and possibly hearing the voice of God. When one of the Gospel writers inserts the detail that Jesus is present on a mountain, we can be prepared that something significant is going to happen.
In today’s Gospel of Mark, the good news revealed to us is that Jesus calls to himself the Twelve, the Apostles, to preach and cast out demons. They are to continue the ministry of Jesus. These are not perfect men, but each will have a part to play in salvation history. Jesus will entrust them with the deposit of faith that they are to protect, yes, but more so to proclaim. Apostle means one who is sent.
Jesus will continue to call the Twelve to himself, to teach, mentor, model, and empower them so they will continue his mission to call people to repent and believe in the Gospel. Even though, especially through the Gospel of Mark, it often looks as if Jesus may have made a mistake in his choice. The Twelve consistently have trouble understanding who Jesus really is, and when Jesus needs them most, Judas will turn him over to the Temple guards, the others flee at his arrest, and Peter will publicly deny him three times. It will not be until after the Resurrection and Ascension that the seeds that Jesus had sowed in them would begin to germinate and bear fruit.
Just as Jesus called the Twelve, he calls us as well. Each generation must experience and embrace the deposit of faith that has been given to us and pass it on to the next. Are we perfect, no. Do we have doubts, fears, weaknesses, yes. Does God call us and love us anyway? Yes. Like each Apostle, we are to go out and proclaim the good news that Jesus is our Lord! We do this daily with our words, faces, and actions. We think, look, speak, and act in ways that are kind, empowering, uplifting, and convicting while at the same time resisting the temptation to fix others. We are to strive to bear witness, be present, accompany and guide one another.
We all have much on our plate, some of us to overflowing. We may be thinking I cannot possibly do one more thing. Start small by bringing God into whatever we are already doing. He will give us the tools and accompany us as we seek to fulfill his will. As did the Apostles, we will make mistakes, make false starts, trip, fall, sin, and deny opportunities to reach out to be a witness. When we commit any or all of the above, we must resist beating ourselves up and instead learn from the experience, lean into Jesus, seek his forgiveness, and with him prepare better for the next apostolic opportunity.
Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he would send. Are we worthy of this same call? Probably not, for all of us fall short of the glory of God. Are we willing? That is a question for each of us to answer today and each day hereafter.
Photo: Hiking to the heights, Mohawk Trail, MA., around 1983-84
Link for today’s Mass readings for Friday, January 21, 2022
Allow yourself to be drawn into the embrace of Jesus.
Mark details in his account that many from all over the region came to Jesus to be healed. Among the crowd, unclean spirits threw those they possessed down before Jesus. This did not slow the gathering of people who pressed in on Jesus, just to touch him. The crowd grew to a point that it was getting out of control so Jesus “told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him” (Mk 3:9).
People wanted to be healed, to be cured, to be exorcised, and brought others to experience the same. Yet they were missing the deeper point of who Jesus is. He was not just a miracle worker, not just someone that brought about physical healing. Healing accounts were heard and known about in the ancient world. The unclean spirits got it, they recognized Jesus before the people did, “for, whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God'” (Mk 3:11).
Throughout the Gospel of Mark, we will read about how the crowds, disciples, and even the apostles, all struggle to understand who Jesus is. The people closed in on Jesus seeking to be healed, but missing the deeper hunger within their souls that St Augustine, the fourth-century bishop of Hippo, so eloquently described on the first page of his autobiography: “[Y]ou have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they can find peace in you” (Augustine 1963, 17). Jesus is the Son of God, not just a miracle worker, but God Incarnate.
The only way we will be fully satisfied, find fulfillment, find meaning, and be at peace within our own skin, is by developing an ongoing and deepening relationship and communion with our Creator. God is infinite and cannot be exhausted. We as finite beings are left wanting even when we have the best of material things. We always hunger and want for more, because in the depths of our very being, whether we recognize it or not, we want God.
Making time each day to discern which experiences leave us feeling flat, let down, or deflated is a worthwhile pursuit. We can also continue to look at what experiences open us up to joy, ways in which we feel inspired, empowered, where we encounter a foretaste of heaven, the divine in our midst. When we slow down and make the time to see where we do not, and do, experience God in our everyday experience, we can better choose actions that will support a deeper relationship, deeper intimacy, and union that we all hunger and thirst for.
Jesus offers us today his good news: Christianity is not just a philosophy or even a theology, we are not just a people of the Book. Christianity is an encounter with the living God who has opened up heaven for us in the humanity he has assumed. Jesus conquered death and freed us to abide in an authentic love expressed at a deeper, more intimate level than we can ever imagine. Jesus satisfies our deepest hunger as he invites us to be drawn into his grace-filled embrace so as to be healed, renewed, shaped, and conformed to his heart, mind, and will. When we come to this place of encounter, reconciliation, and relationship, we come to know our mission and in serving through that mission, we come to know who we are.
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Drawing by: Jesus and the Lamb by Katherine F. Brown
St Augustine. The Confessions of St Augustine. Translated by Rex Warner. New York: New American Library, 1963.
Link for the Mass reading for Thursday, January 20, 2022
Pride or humility?
In today’s Gospel account, Jesus enters the synagogue and sees a man with a withered hand. The eyes of the Pharisees are on him to see if, yet again, Jesus will heal on the Sabbath. Jesus is clear in his mind what he is going to do, though before doing so, he calls the man up and asks the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it” (Mk 3:4)?
Jesus here is giving them a no-brainer of a question. Of course, one is to do good rather than evil on the Sabbath, to save life rather than destroy it! Yet, the Pharisees remain silent. Jesus expresses anger and grief “at their hardness of heart”. Imagine yourself present in the synagogue and witnessing Jesus looking at the Pharisees and the Pharisees looking back at him. I am sure you can recall a time when being present in a similar scene and there was dead silence. Can you imagine what was going through the mind of the guy standing in between them with the withered hand?
The anger rising in Jesus may have to do with the unwillingness of the Pharisees to show any compassion, their outright refusal to acknowledge the need of this man. That they would hold so tightly to their self-righteous stance to refuse to even have a discussion about the matter. Not even to say in effect, “Yes, Jesus of course, it is lawful to do good, to save a life but what you are doing is unorthodox.” No. They refuse to dialogue. Their faces are set like flint, they are digging in their heels, and even though Jesus is inviting them to move toward compassion, they instead harden their hearts. In their silence, they are choosing evil over good, destroying life rather than saving it. Pride has reared its grotesque head yet again.
Jesus breaks the silence as he says to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”
The man is healed, but instead of rejoicing, and sharing the good news as Andrew did with his brother Simon, the Pharisees leave immediately to find the Herodians and begin to plot to not only undo Jesus but plot how “to put him to death.”
We have witnessed in today’s Gospel the evil of pride and we have witnessed the mercy of God presented and rejected. As is stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit” (1864). That is what Jesus is angry about. Not only do the Pharisees resist any move in the slightest direction toward compassion, or their own repentance, they further separate themselves from the love of God. They start with a principle of defending the law, and walk out seething with a premeditated intent to kill Jesus, and on the Sabbath!
With each choice of putting self over another, pride grows. Its appetite is insatiable. Pride is known as the mother of all sins because of its disordered focus on self at the expense of all others and all else. The attention sought is solely directed at oneself. The height of which is in direct opposition to God. We have witnessed its effects in today’s Gospel.
Let us begin this day together in prayer. Jesus, I surrender my will to you this day. Reveal the darkness that dwells within me and grant me the humility to call it out for what it is. Grant me the courage to repent and the willingness to receive the healing touch of the Holy Spirit such that I might be transformed in your image and likeness, so to know you and your Father more. May I reject evil and choose good, reject pride and choose love, reject death and choose life. With each person I encounter today, may I reject the temptation to withdraw or scowl and instead offer a smile and a hand of welcome.
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Painting by James Tissot.
Catholic Church. “Article 8: Sin,” in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012.
Link for today’s Mass readings for Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Spiritual Stepping Stones 