In opening up to the wonder of Jesus, we can reclaim the fullness of our humanity.
Some people will deny the divinity of Jesus on account of the differences between the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, which all follow a similar outline and similar accounting of the life of Jesus, and the Gospel of John, which is very different in regard to how much of the divinity of Jesus is expressed in its theological presentation. Those who would deny the divinity of Jesus following this proposal, state that the author of John is adding to Jesus that which was not there and that in the synoptic Gospels there are no accounts of the divinity of Jesus.
The assumption that there is no accounting of the divinity of Jesus in the synoptic Gospels does not present a true assessment of these texts. This view is just not supported with a careful reading of the text. The very first line of the Gospel of Mark states: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the Son of God]” (Mk 1:1). This verse may often be read as merely an introductory device, and even if we drop the words the Son of God, bracketed because there are some manuscripts that do not include them, Mark was saying something very clear and very subversive when he used the word gospel. The Greek rendering of the word gospel is, euangelion, which we interpret as good news. This is still pretty much, “Ho, hum,” unless we understand the context of how euangelion was used during the time of Jesus.
This word was used by the Roman emperor who would send his emissaries to proclaim the good news throughout the empire announcing his birthday, or an imperial victory. No one else dared to use these words in a public forum as Mark is doing with the very first line of his Gospel, as this was the prerogative of the emperor. Mark was stating that Caesar is not Lord, but Jesus is.
Jesus only fourteen verses later would claim: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). The kingdom of God is at hand in the presence of Jesus. This is the euangelion that we believe. The gospel, the good news, is that the Son of God has become one with us in the flesh, to dwell among us.
In today’s opening verse from Mark, we have read or heard; The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid (Mk 10:32). Again, this verse may be read over quickly as a literary device so we can get to the good stuff, yet again, Mark is saying a lot. We may miss the context, but the readers and hearers of his time would not have. They would have recognized that amazed and afraid were words used in their sacred texts to describe the reactions to God, his messengers the angels, and/or the work of God.
The Good News, proclaimed to us through the tome of salvation history, hidden in the Old and revealed in the New Testament, is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He is our Lord, he is our Savior and Redeemer. He became a human being, he became one with us in all things except sin, and dwelt among us. Jesus did so that we might become divinized, become God through our participation in his life. May we too, like the disciples, be amazed and in awe of the magnitude of this reality. How many times have we heard this Good News, yet have just gone about our business, as if nothing significant was said?
We need to resist that temptation to do that here. We can become so busy, so caught up in just getting through all that we have to do, that we forget what is really important and who is really important. We can take for granted those that are near to us, not out of any malice or lack of care, but just because life happens and we get caught up in doing and completing that which needs to be done. May we spend some time slowing down and appreciating our life in communion with God and one another. May we fully appreciate the gift that Jesus has offered us, which is a relationship with him and his Father through the love of the Holy Spirit. In so embracing and developing the gift of our relationship with God, we can better experience the dignity of our humanity, and helpfully begin to recognize again the same dignity that is present in each and every other human being.
Photo: Being willing to encounter and dialogue with one another increases the chance that we will respect each other’s human dignity!
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Whose invitation will we accept?
For our reading today, we need to go back a few verses. The rich man was given the answer to what he asked for regarding how he could inherit eternal life. He walked away sad because he was not willing to let go of his possessions and follow Jesus. Jesus then said, “Children how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:24-25). The disciples were undoubtedly stymied, primarily because common Jewish belief of that time followed the belief that those who had amassed wealth and riches did so because they were blessed by God. If someone who had followed the commandments of God, was blessed by God, would not be a part of God’s kingdom, what then was one to do?
As Jesus responded to the rich man, he also addressed the disciples’ astonishment. First by stating that “For human beings it is impossible.” Jesus said this because there is nothing that we can do to earn or buy our way into heaven. It is not through perseverance, our dogged determination, or will power that we are saved. Our security also is not to be placed in the things of this world, our happiness and fulfillment is not to be placed in the apparent goods and glitter of the finite things that offer comfort and pleasure. For if we place our hope in the things of this world, in our own belief that we can control our destiny, we will be building our foundation on sand. “For human beings, it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God” (Mk 10:27).
There is only one way to enter the kingdom of God and that is to accept the invitation Jesus offers. The rich man refused the invitation, because he chose his possessions over the kingdom. The disciples of Jesus chose differently. The opening line of today’s Gospel reading is given by Peter, speaking up for those, who like him, did what the rich man did not do, when he said “We have given up everything and followed you” (Mk 10:28). Jesus affirmed Peter and the other disciple’s acceptance of the invitation to come and follow him, as well as to assure those who would willingly sacrifice and voluntarily give up, house, family, or land, to follow him. Jesus insists that they would receive back “a hundred times more in this present age… and eternal life to come” (Mk 10:30).
In today’s Gospel account from Mark, Jesus is not preaching a prosperity gospel or free reigning capitalism, nor is he being a proponent of socialism or communism. For each of these are human social constructs. Jesus instead is painting a picture of the reign of God as a new family. One that exists, not of the world, but of God’s design. A kingdom not of this world, but still present in it. Those who are a part of this kingdom are not connected through bloodline, tribe, political party, or nation, but through a transformation of heart, mind and spirit. The followers of Jesus are brothers and sisters to one another. They will provide hospitality, charity, support, and encouragement to one another, as well as to the poor, the marginalized, and those on the peripheries. For they too are our brothers and sisters.
Jesus offers us the same invitation that he offered the rich man and his disciples. We are being invited to follow him by letting go of that which distracts and diverts us, holds us attached and bound from giving our life more fully over to following the will of God. The best way we can do this is to make an assessment of our lives, to divest ourselves of those things that are not necessary, to let them go, so as to live more simply. In this way, we will be less tempted to look to our material goods for our security and pleasure, thus be less attached to them, and instead build our foundation on the solid rock foundation of our relationship with Jesus, his Father, and the love of the Holy Spirit. We are constantly offered invitations. Will we accept the allure of wealth, power, pleasure, and/or honor, or will we follow Jesus?
Painting: “The Face of Christ” by Ariel Agemian, based on the Shroud of Turin
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Mary, mother of Jesus, mother of the Church, and model for discipleship.
Today’s memorial, Mary the Mother of the Church, only began three years ago with the decree released on February 11, 2018, by Cardinal Robert Sarah while he was still the head of the Congregation of Divine Worship. Pope Francis called for the Church to celebrate this memorial on the Monday after Pentecost. Not only is Mary the Mother of Jesus, but since we as the People of God participate in the life of Jesus as members of the Body of Christ, she is our mother too.
The New Testament records time and again how Mary reveals by word and action that she is the model of discipleship.
Mary answered Gabriel’s request to conceive and bear Jesus, with her response, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Mary then went with haste to share the good news with Elizabeth and to assist her in her pregnancy of John the Baptist. Mary, after the birth of Jesus, is visited by the shepherds and upon hearing their news from the angelic host, she “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Mary and Joseph care for, protect, and guide Jesus in the Jewish faith as he matures and grows into a young man.
Mary was also present at the beginning of his ministry when she says to the servants at the wedding at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Mary was present at the crucifixion, as recorded in today’s reading from the Gospel of John: When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (Jn 19:26-27). Mary was pierced with sorrow when the lance was thrust through the side of Jesus, her son, as blood and water flowed. Mary was then present as the Church was birthed at Pentecost at the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).
Mary is the mother of Jesus, the Mother of the Church, and so she is also our mother. We do not worship Mary but seek her intercession and guidance as we would our own mothers. We also look to her as a model for living as disciples of Jesus as outlined in the examples above. We too are to ponder the wonders and mysteries of God working in our lives. May we resist the temptation of living in denial, running from our humanity and suffering, but instead face and embrace the sorrow and pain experienced in this fallen world so to receive her Son, Jesus, whose arms are wide open to receive us in the midst of our pain, so that he may bestow upon us his consolation and healing.
But may we not stop there. May we open ourselves to the love and empowerment of the Holy Spirit such that we may say yes to bearing Christ and going with haste to share the Good News of his life with others. May we resist the temptation of indifference and uncaring and instead help and support those we come into contact with who are in need. May we follow the last words of Mary recorded in Scripture and do whatever Jesus tells us to do to make his Church relevant and vibrant in our time, to speak out and stand up to hatred, injustice, racism, sexism, and violence in all its forms. As we honor Mary, may we also learn to honor and respect the women in our lives.
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us now and at the hour of our death!
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Photo: Statue of Jesus and Mary outside Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, Oceanside, CA, Christmas 2017
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 24, 2021
Come Holy Spirt, and lead us to unity while helping us to respect the gift of our diversity.
There is a list of seven deadly or capital sins. They are pride, lust, greed, envy, wrath, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. Acedia may be the least recognized on the list but it is the most dangerous because it is the most subtle. If it is recognized at all, it is often compared to laziness, but that does not quite grasp the depth of it. The word, from its literal meaning, means a lack of care. This can manifest in our life as cynicism, finding no meaning, a minimalist approach, a resistance to discipline, disengagement with the world around us, and ultimately a “lack of care given to one’s own spiritual life, a lack of concern for one’s own salvation” (Nault 2015, 28).
Marc Cardinal Ouellet, in his foreword to Jean-Charles Nault’s, The Noonday Devil, describes the effects of acedia on us today this way: “Left to his own devices, man ultimately despairs of ever being able to find a meaning for his existence and runs the risk of sinking into mediocrity that is just the symptom of his rejection of his own greatness as an adopted son [and daughter] of God” (Nault, 2015, 11).
So many of us, especially over the past year of this pandemic, struggle with just getting by, feeling tired, worn down, and worn out, seeing on some far horizon the possibility for our potential but wondering if we can ever fully achieve it. We can come to deny the very gift of our humanity, we retreat into a stance that accepts the unthinkable, as long as it does not directly affect us. We grow in our indifference toward the needs of others we consider not like us. This happens when we listen to the father of lies instead of our Father in heaven.
Today we celebrate the antidote to acedia as well as all those temptations that grasp at our throat to choke out the divine life from growing within us. Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the Apostles to empower them with divine Love.
From our Gospel reading today we read how: The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). Jesus, who embraced our humanity, took upon himself our sin on the Cross, then conquered death, rose again, and freed us from our slavery to sin. The Risen One comes to us as he came to his disciples in the locked room and invites us to participate in his divine life, to share in the love he shares with the Father, who is the Holy Spirit. So when temptations arise in our minds and hearts, we are to, in the words of St Benedict of Nursia, “dash them against Christ immediately” (Nault, 2015, 41).
We are able through the prompting of the Holy Spirit through prayers, songs, and words of Scripture to counteract the lies and temptations that seek to lure us away from the truth of our relationship with Jesus, ourselves, and each other. One simple but powerful prayer to use is reciting the words from Psalm 70:2 “God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me.” Another is “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.” Just saying, Veni, Sancte Spiritus, or the English equivalent, Come, Holy Spirit, reciting the Jesus Prayer or simply the words, Come, Lord Jesus, and/or our own spontaneous words of prayer are all ways to immediately turn away from the temptations that arise and draw on the infinite power and love of God.
We are like diamonds in the ruff. We are unique and special gifts to this world, though wounded and marred by our own sin. We may feel adrift, without direction; we may feel cynical and without hope; we may feel beaten, worn out, and worn down; we may feel anxious and afraid, but let us not despair or lose our ability to care, especially for each other. We need to realize that we are not overcome or outdone. We may be wounded by indifference and complacency, but we are not defined or set in stone. We can change. We can learn to love, to will the good of each other, even those that are different than ourselves.
Today, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, let us call on the same Holy Spirit that empowered Mary and the Apostles to give us the guidance and strength from our God and Father who loves us and desires for all of us to fully actualize who we are and who he calls us to be: People of love. Love is the antidote to the sickness of fear and hate. Love helps us to resist the defensive posture of turning in upon ourselves and instead moves us out beyond ourselves to will the good of each other.
God does not want us to settle for a minimalist approach or to live a life of mediocrity that is bogged down by apathy, but instead, he urges us to call on the name of his Son, Jesus, who will break the bonds of our enslavement to sin, and through our participation in his life become empowered by the Holy Spirit so to be free to live the life we have been created for; a life of meaning, fulfillment, joy, love, and unity with God and one another. This is a promise made, not just for a select few, but for all people, no matter their ethnicity, race, or creed.
Holy Spirit set us aflame with the fire of your love and burn off the dross of our covert or overt biases, prejudices and racism so that we may be like precious stones radiating your light and love in such a way that we keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking deceit, that we turn aside from evil and do good, that we seek and strive after the peace of God, that peace that surpasses all understanding and that we become more present, more understanding, and more loving, so to see each other as you see us, as precious children in your sight. Help us to respect the gifts of our diversity and differences while at the same time embrace the dignity of each human person.
The gift of Pentecost is the universal invitation to enter into relationships with those that are different than us so to come close and embrace our common humanity. Help us to see each other as brothers and sisters, as fellow human beings, as people with dignity. Help us to love one another as you love us.
Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit!
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Photo from the Basilica of St Peter accessed from A Window Panes a Thousand Words
Nault, O.S.B., Jean-Charles. The Noonday Devil: Acedia Unnamed Evil of Our Times. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2015. If you are looking for a transformative book for summer reading, I highly recommend it!
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 23, 20201
By respecting each other’s dignity, we can better lift one another up!
How many times have we looked to others instead of staying focused on what we need to do or be doing? How many times do we compare ourselves to others, assessing what we or others have or don’t have, how others are more or less confident, more or less better looking, more or less intelligent, and even, how our faith life is worse or better?
We get a taste of these questions and what our response ought to be from Jesus in today’s Gospel. The background of today’s reading is a continuation from yesterday’s, in which the author described how Jesus forgave Peter for denying him by asking him not only if Peter loved him, but how he was to put that love into action by feeding his lambs, taking care of and feeding his sheep. Jesus also had just let Peter know that Peter was going to die in his service to him.
Today we read that upon hearing the news of his eventual death, that Peter shifts the direction away from himself. When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me” (Jn 21:21-22). Jesus does not definitively say what is or is not going to happen to the beloved disciple. Jesus is clear with Peter that his focus is not to be on what is going to happen to the beloved or any other disciple, but to direct his attention to following him and his will.
Our orientation as disciples of Jesus is to be focused on his will for our lives and to expend our energy in such a way that promotes his will toward building up the kingdom of Heaven on earth. This means we are to spend less time comparing ourselves to others. This temptation is a very slippery slope that can easily lead us to the devastating sins of gossip, pride, and envy. If we are to compare ourselves to anyone, let it be to Jesus.
Jesus calls us to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect, which is an impossible task if we seek to go it alone. Yet, we can become perfected through our participation in the life of Jesus the Christ. We begin when we decide to ask for Jesus to help us make a commitment to resist the temptation to compare ourselves to others. Then when the first instant of a comparative thought arises, we are to replace it with a prayer of blessing directed toward another.
Moment by moment, we then just need to remember that we are not alone, that we walk with Jesus. Together, one thought, one action, one interaction at a time, we are called to surrender our will to the love of God. By taking these steps to counter the influences of self first as well as comparative and/or the cult of personality, we can begin to shift the momentum away from the increasing divisiveness, polarity and growing tide of rampant violence, and instead strive toward embracing the gift of our mutual uniqueness and diversity in which we commit to supporting, encouraging, and uplifting one another.
Let us combine our prayer with action in our realm of influence so to build bridges of communication, conflict resolution, and dialogue. In so doing, we can help to begin to lessen the intensity of fear, prejudice, and violence.
We need to be willing to see each other as human beings again, to resist seeing people as others, and be more willing to respect the dignity of each and every human life. This can begin to happen when we resist comparing ourselves to others and are willing to see each other through God’s eyes.
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Photo: Working together to lift one another up!
Link for the Mass reading for Saturday, May 22, 2021
An encounter with Jesus, is an invitation to change.
When we spend time reading the Gospels, we will encounter in them that the God of Jesus Christ is a God of justice, yes, but a justice that is tempered with mercy and love, a restorative justice, not a punitive justice. God invites us to be in communion with him and one another, and to answer that call requires a transformation, a change of heart and mind. Jesus meets people where they are, accepts them as they are, while at the same time holding a mirror up to them to show how what they are doing is keeping them from the very reality of communion with his Father that they seek.
One example can be seen when Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well and he asked her for a drink. What followed from that simple, while at the same time profound request, led to her humble confession that she did not have a husband to which Jesus responded: “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Jesus spoke to a woman and a Samaritan in public, two things that were not done in his time as it was against societal norms.
Jesus recognized the distinction, but saw instead and foremost, a human being created in the image and likeness of God. He saw a woman isolated, close to the point of being ostracized from her community, for who else would come by themselves to fetch water in the full heat of the day? What he shared with her was acceptance, as he spoke to her as a person. Because of her honesty, humility, and courage, what transpired over the course of the conversation was not only her transformation but the redemption of her whole community. This transpired because, with joy and courage, she proclaimed the Good News even to those that kept her at arm’s leg, and on the margins (cf. Jn 4:1-12).
Another encounter happened with Saul who was present and oversaw the stoning of St Stephen and continued his zealous persecution of the followers of Jesus. On the road to Damascus, Saul encountered the risen Jesus, who met him with the words: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 9:4)? Again, as with the woman at the well, Jesus greeted Saul with a simple but profound question which had a tremendous effect on him. Saul was transformed from a persecutor of the Way to a follower of the Word. He would not only change his name to Paul and proclaim the Gospel to a community but to the Mediterranean world.
In today’s Gospel, Peter, who had betrayed Jesus three times, encountered Jesus who also posed a question, but this time asking it three times: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (cf. Jn 21:15-19). With these simple questions and Peter’s affirmative responses of yes, Jesus forgave Peter for betraying him. Peter went forward to proclaim boldly the life of Jesus at the feast of Pentecost, and three thousand were moved by his words and sought to become part of the Way of Jesus.
In each encounter that Jesus experienced with the Samaritan woman, Paul, and Peter, he met each of them, not with condemnation or judgment, but with love and mercy. He met them on their level and then offered them a look in the mirror by asking a simple question. Jesus sought to draw them out of their own false senses of self and sin, and into the love of God. Each person answered with truth and humility, and willingly looked at their life, turned away from their self centered posture and accepted the invitation of Jesus to lead them to a change of heart and mind.
The justice of God is not about the punitive measure, about rubbing our noses in our own mistakes and misjudgments. Yet, if we choose our own sin over the love of God’s healing transformation, it may feel punitive, because God will allow us to feel the effects of our decisions. God gives us another choice. He has sent his Son to show us the path of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Jesus echoes Hosea 6:6 when he is recorded as saying, “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9:13). Jesus comes to us, as he came to the Samaritan woman, Paul, and Peter, who were able to receive the healing of Jesus because they acknowledged they had turned away from the will of God.
When we make some time for prayer and spend some time in silence today, let us allow ourselves to see Jesus approaching us or sitting with us. What simple, yet transformative question does he ask that reveals to us our sin, how we are keeping ourselves at a distance from God? In what way do we need to change our hearts and minds? When we choose to leave behind our false self, our pride and our ego, and instead respond with humility and contrition, true sorrow for our sins, as did the Samaritan woman, Paul, and Peter, we will be healed, transformed, and empowered to go forth to share the Good News of the love and mercy we have experienced with God?
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Photo: Close up of Heinrich Hoffman’s Christ and the Rich Young Ruler, 1889
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, May 21, 2021
We are invited to embrace and share the love of God we have received.
Jesus bestowed his love his grace upon his Apostles as a gift. The fundamental option, our ultimate end goal, that which we seek from the very depths and core of our being, is to experience the same love that the Apostles experienced. The Creator of all that exists, that so transcends our comprehension, that is so beyond our ability to comprehend fully, has come close to us, become one with us in the person of his Son, and loves us more than we can ever imagine.
This reality, the core of the deposit of faith that they received, was not to be hoarded, buried away, or to be shared with a select few. This living gift of grace was to be shared by the Apostles, the ones who Jesus called by name, who he hand-picked to receive his message and then sent them forth to proclaim his word. They were to protect it for the purpose of transmitting it accurately to their successors so that it would then be passed on to each successive generation who would receive and make it relevant for their own time.
Jesus said to his Father in his farewell discourse, as recorded by John that: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them” (Jn 17:26). Through our participation in the love of Christ, we are perfected and conformed by his will such that we too can experience and share in the love of the Father.
The Trinity is at the heart of the Gospel, the Good News. The Trinity is a divine communion of three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have been created with a burning hunger and desire to experience this same communion. Yet why don’t we say yes to this joyous invitation? St Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, or Summa, outlines four substitutes or temptations that we may put in place of our highest hope and good; these are wealth, honor, pleasure, and power. In and of themselves, these are not unhealthy desires, as long as God is first and we orient ourselves to them from God’s perspective.
When we assume the posture of pride, believing that we are the center of our lives and we seek wealth, power, pleasure, and/or honor for our own sake and self-aggrandizement, each will be distorted and leave us empty, or worse lead us into the crippling slavery of addiction because in and of themselves they are finite pursuits. How many times have there been reports of someone who has amassed most or all of these four, and then come to a place of such despair and emptiness that they had taken their own life?
Through a properly ordered sense of power grounded in love, defined by St Thomas, as the willing the good of the other those in positions of power and privilege are called to be a voice for those who otherwise would not have a voice. Those with access to wealth, are to recognize that this is a gift from God, and they are to be good stewards of what they have received to help and support others, not only in the limited stance of a hand-out but as a primary means to provide a hand up. To accompany and shepherd those who do not have access such that they can arrive at the point where they can be provided with access, skills, and means to participate in the dignity of meaningful work and gainful employment.
The ultimate goal of pleasure is to embrace the Beautiful, the gift that God provides in which we can have access and enjoy the wonders of his creation. At the same time, we can be participants in the expression of creativity through the arts as well as our everyday actions by finding joy in our interactions with one another and engaging in our vocations. If honor, fame, and glory arise in the faithful, they arise not for their own sake or as to heighten the focus on self. This attention comes with the responsibility to further radiate the light and love of God so to evangelize and draw others to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, as did Peter when he preached and three thousand came to accept the love of Christ. When Pope Francis visited the United States the news for a week was filled with joy and hope. When St Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Peace Prize she began her speech by saying, “As we have gathered here together to thank God for the Nobel Peace Prize” and ended with the words, “God bless you!” These are all examples of God being the source and focus to bring about the proper alignment and use of wealth, power, pleasure, and fame.
Jesus has revealed the love with which his Father loved him with and sent him to share with us. He invites each and every one of us to receive and live in the love that he shares with his Father such that we may experience the very presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. May wealth, power, pleasure, and honor, not be distractions or diversions to our embracing the love of God, but a means to radiate his light and to provide opportunities and access to others who otherwise would not have any access.
God is to be our fundamental option such that we strive to open our hearts and minds daily to receive his love, be filled with, and experience his joy, so as to radiate his presence to others. In this way, we are sent out to accompany others, to share with those who are in need of hope, his presence, and his love. In serving as well as respecting, standing up for and speaking on behalf of the dignity of each person God places before us we will also experience and help others to encounter the love of the Holy Spirit and make our corner of the world a little bit better today than it was yesterday.
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Photo: 2020 graduates radiating the love of Christ, one smile at a time, one person at a time
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 20, 2021
We experience oneness with God when we are true to ourselves, to each other, and the unique way he calls us to live and to serve.
“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one” (Jn 17:11).
Jesus is well aware of the temptations of the world and recognizes that the disciples will need the protection of his intercession and that they will remain faithful only if they remain in his love and in relationship with him. The unity that the Father and Son share is an eternal communion. Jesus, as the Son of God, continued to be one with his Father, while fully experiencing his humanity. As a human being, Jesus faced the same temptations present in this world that we face. The difference is that with each choice that he made, as a human being with a free human will, he chose to say yes to his Father at each and every opportunity, and so his unity remained intact and deepened.
Jesus sought the same unity that he shares with his Father for his disciples and he seeks the same for us today, that we may be one as he and the Father are one. Yet, he is not going to pull us out of the world for that to happen. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One” (Jn 17:15). The disciples then and us today, are to do as Jesus did. We are to develop a relationship with God, come to know his will, and share it with those we encounter in our realm of influence. We are not to be transformed by the world, but we are to allow God to transform us by the renewal of our mind and heart. As we do so, we can bring light into the darkness as God works through us one person at a time.
Following the will of God is not easy to do. Many distractions, diversions, and temptations pull at us and attempt to draw us away from being faithful and true to God, ourselves, and who God calls us to be. Many times these distractions not only appear to be, but are good things. The challenge is not that we are being good or doing good, but are we doing what God is calling us to do?
I have pursued many interests in many areas throughout my life. I continue to discern and to pray about what God would have me to do. I have felt drawn to the practice of Zen Buddhism for years only reading about it and making some feeble attempts on my own. Upon my return to Los Angeles after JoAnn’s funeral, I participated in an introductory course in Zazen, sitting meditation, at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. Being able to stop, to be quiet, to be still and to just breath has been a helpful practice that I have continued.
We can deepen our relationship with Jesus and his Father when we slow down our pace, so to become still within and in this way better be able to hear his voice. The Holy Spirit will also reveal to us the gifts that he has imparted, and above all guide us to clearly know his direction and grant us the courage to follow it. If any fear or anxiety arises about what we are invited to do, how better we are to serve, we just need to remind ourselves that God will provide the means and support. We are not meant to do what he calls us to do alone.
We will accomplish that which God requires from us and through the unique perspective he calls us to act when we continue to turn to him for guidance. He will place the people and the means, help us to recognize the temptations and pitfalls in our path, and impart in us the persistence and dedication to accomplish the task that we have been given. We just need to be willing to change, to be transformed, to grow, and to extend ourselves beyond our comfort zones. When we risk doing so, it will be worth it because as we follow the will of God and trust his support, we will find meaning and fulfillment in our lives and ultimately, through the love of the Holy Spirit, we will grow in our oneness with Jesus, the Father, and each other.
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Photo: Spending a few minutes enjoying the quiet of the evening and looking up a few nights ago.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Spiritual Stepping Stones 