In our present darkness, we are to reflect the light and love of Jesus to others.
“That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely” (Lk 12:47).
Jesus, as did the prophets, spoke in ways that can be jarring. The purpose was to shake his listeners out of a dull stupor and to make clear his point. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus addressed Peter’s question: “Lord, is this parable meant for us or for everyone” (Lk 12:41)? Jesus was most likely speaking to Peter and the Twelve. They are the ones he entrusted with continuing his mission. And just as he had been clear to point out those Pharisees who had abused their positions, he was being clear with Peter and the apostles. Jesus wanted to make sure that his successors were not to continue on with business as usual. What Jesus required of them was not just for themselves, but those whose care they had been entrusted with and beyond them to all the nations. His parable was for both the Twelve first and foremost and then to everyone.
Unfortunately, we have witnessed those in Church leadership who have in effect, “beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk” (Lk 12:45) on their own power. Those who have: abused children, covered abuse, skimmed off the top of the donations of the blood, sweat, and tears of their parishioners’ donations, limited access to positions within the leadership of the Church to only male or clergy, been unmerciful confessors, held up the sin of one group or groups while turning a blind eye to others. These and other forms of hypocrisy do irreparable damage.
The world has been darkened by sin and so has the Church. Even though all of us have been wounded we have not destroyed by sin. The Son of God entered into the condition of our fallen nature, became one of us, one with us, and overcame the darkness of sin. Even when those in his name have participated in and perpetuated in that which Jesus warned his Apostles against, we are not to lose heart nor hope. I agree with Bishop Robert Barron that we are called out of “the realm of hatred, racism, sexism, violence, oppression, imperialism, what Augustine termed the libido dominandi (the lust to dominate).”
We are called out of this darkness to be children of the light. There have been many throughout the ages as well as up to and including our own present time who have done just that. They have embraced the light of Christ allowing it to reveal to them their sins. With humility and contrition, they confessed their weaknesses and failures and from this place of surrender, they were healed and transformed. They have become an empty cup able to be filled to overflowing with the love of Jesus. We too are to be open to opportunities to share the purifying light, the healing salve of the Father’s Love that we have received so also to spill over into the lives of those in our realm of influence.
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Photo: Crucifix front entrance of St Peter Catholic Church, Jupiter, FL
Barron, Robert. Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith. NY: Image, 2011.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Do we plan or prepare?
Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks” (Lk 12: 35-36).
As disciples, we need to be ready for the coming of Jesus. Yes for when he comes again at the end of time, but more importantly, to be prepared for his coming each day in the midst of our lives. If we do not prepare to encounter him daily, the likelihood of us being prepared for his coming again will be slimmer, and only the Father knows the time or the hour.
To plan something means that we outline all that needs to be done down to the last detail. This can be an advantage especially when we are dealing with blueprints for a home or building. By having detailed plans we can be sure we have the proper materials and tools, an estimated budget, and hire the help needed to accomplish the goal. There are many areas in our life where planning has its advantages. Planning our spiritual life is important, deciding when and how we are to pray, meditate, study, engage in Bible and spiritual reading and/or which service we are going to attend, establishing a routine of spiritual direction, time for fellowship and small groups, and how, when and where we can serve others. These are all plusses for planning.
The challenge with planning pops up when we become too attached to the plan and we leave no room for the Holy Spirit, no awareness for the knock at the door because we are so focused on finishing the plan. Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are on the horizon. How many times have we experienced planning a dinner with guests, gotten stressed when things did not go exactly as planned and spent more time adhering to the plan and its execution such that we missed engaging with those we are working so hard to provide hospitality for?
Preparing is akin to planning, in that we get ready but are more flexible to other options not governed by our mind and control alone. Jesus calls us to be prepared to receive him at any moment. Are we prepared to encounter and be present to a classmate, colleague, family member, or neighbor who asks for help at an inopportune time, the homeless person in need, the undocumented immigrant, migrant, or refugee looking for safety and security, the unborn striving to actualize his or her potential, the coworker that has not been the most pleasant, the person that we perceive as somehow different from us – who we keep at arm’s length?
How about planning and preparing for those traumatic events in life that appear all of a sudden? When we heard of JoAnn’s diagnosis we went into planning mode, and anyone who has spent any time with JoAnn knows that she is in her element when there is something to plan for. There were many items we could plan out and for the most part, they came together as JoAnn planned. There were other experiences where we needed to be flexible and adjust the plans sometimes on minimal notice. Since we were open to the guidance and leading of God, as well as his help, support, and prayers coming through family and friends, we were blessed during a tremendously challenging time.
JoAnn often said that life is hard, even before her diagnosis. She saw many people suffering and couldn’t understand why people couldn’t be kinder to one another. St. Oscar Romero wrote, “It would be beautiful if people saw that their flourishing and the attainment of their highest ideals are based on their ability to give themselves to others.”
Can we better prepare ourselves to be more open to those closest to us, even in the most challenging of times, as well as being present to whomever we meet today as human beings, as brothers and sisters, created in the image and likeness of God? Yes, even in our current political climate. Are we willing to see and serve Jesus, who is present in each person we encounter, for: “whatever you did for one of these least brothers [or sisters] of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40).
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Photo: JoAnn and me two spring breaks ago in CA.
Rothrock, Brad. 30 Days with Oscar Romero. New London, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 2016
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Our joy will increase in the measure we give.
“Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions” (LK 12:15).
Jesus wisely warns us to be careful to resist the temptation of greed, which can be defined as an intense, selfish desire for something. Here Jesus addresses the greed of material wealth, but we can also have unhealthy selfish desires for anything. Jesus also stated that “one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Material goods are finite and will not ultimately fulfill us but they can be good when used for the purpose they were intended for and in moderation.
God provides for our needs. Fostering an attitude of thanksgiving for that which we have received and then being good stewards helps us to resist the temptation of greed. St Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD) wrote: “How could we do good to our neighbor if none of us possessed anything.” God does bless us, and from what we have been given we are to assist those in need. The problem comes when we interfere with the flow of receiving by hoarding what we have received and rationalizing our unwillingness to share. Also, when we look to our wealth as our safety net, instead of God’s providence, we begin to cling to what we have and develop an unhealthy attachment. We need to remember that the material and finite of below will not satisfy and will not last, we need to set our heart and mind to God above.
Acts of charity, willing the good of and support for one another in need will help us to resist the temptation of greed and help us to be open conduits of God’s mercy. Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903 AD) wrote that “Once the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, the rest of your money belongs to the poor.” How many of us are willing to put that quote on our bathroom mirror? More so, put it into practice? How about posting this quote from John Chrysostom (349-407 AD) over our closet and reading it before we enter: “The man who has two shirts in his closet, one belongs to him; the other belongs to the man who has no shirt.”
God has given us the gift of his Son, Jesus. In so doing he has given us the free gift of our salvation which is a reason to rejoice! He loved us and creation into being and is loving us into eternity. We are invited to participate in the love experienced by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We do this best when we resist clinging to the material and finite and instead be thankful for the gift of life and invitation to be in relationship with his Son. May we share that which we have received from God, our infinite source and spring of eternal Love. We will be fulfilled and joyful, not by how much we have saved up in our bank account, but by how much love we invest in serving each other.
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Photo from pexels.com
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, October 19, 2020
We make our society better when we live and put into practice our faith.
The Pharisees and Herodians had hatched a clever plot to trap Jesus. The Pharisees pretty much went along with paying the Roman taxes, which is equivalent to approximately a laborer’s wage for the day, to keep the peace with Rome. The Herodians showed public support for the paying of the tax because they supported the house of Herod and his dynasty. Herod Antipas, the tetrarch or prince of Judea and son of the deceased Herod the Great, would only stay in power as long as he abided by the authority of Rome. Which meant making sure his subjects paid the tax and he kept the peace. The Jews that identified themselves as nationalists or zealots were more openly opposed to the Roman tax, to the oppression by Rome, the presence of Roman leadership, and the military in their land.
If Jesus sided with paying the tax to Rome he would upset the nationalist zealots, and if he sided with not paying the taxes he would upset the Herodians. The disciples of the Pharisees were sent with Herodian representatives to ensnare Jesus and so begin to divide and conquer his support base. The only problem was that they were used to playing two-dimensional chess and they were on their way to meet a master at three-dimensional chess. Jesus immediately saw through their flattery and called them out for what they were – hypocrites! Jesus then deftly answered their challenge with, “repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mt 22:21).
The coin used to pay the tax was a denarius, and it bore the inscription of the Roman emperor, Tiberius, on it. In point of fact, the coin did belong to Tiberius. Jesus not only evaded their verbal trap but also utilized the situation as a teaching moment for those present with him and for us today. We are citizens of states and countries, while at the same time citizens of heaven. We are to give to the government that which is for the greater good of the society to provide for appropriate services and the protection of our fellow citizens, especially in being sure to take care of the poorest and most vulnerable among us. We are also to pay to God that which belongs to God, our very life.
Jesus presented a consistent message that God the Father is to be first in all things, that he is to be the priority over everything. Also, that God wants all of us, not just that we worship one day a week. We are to align ourselves with his will and have the courage to follow him. Jesus was no hypocrite. What he required from his followers, he did himself. Jesus showed this in his encounter with Pontius Pilate. Jesus did not call down the angelic host to wipe out the soldiers that came to apprehend him at Gethsemane, nor did he do so with Pilate and his army in the Praetorium.
Instead Jesus said: “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above” (Jn 19:11). God allowed the judgment of Pilate to stand, the death of an innocent man, and Jesus followed his Father’s will to his death, and death on a cross, to bring about a greater good, the salvation of the world. Jesus rendered to Caesar what belonged to Caesar and to God what belonged to God.
May we pray daily for the discernment to know and the courage to follow the will of God as did Jesus and the saints, such that we too can be engaged citizens in our society while remaining faithful to our God. We are to be shaped and formed not by the society, culture, and political climate. We are to be shaped by the Gospel of Jesus the Christ.
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Photo: Friend of 30 years, Fr. Ed O’Brien, who taught me to carry the NY Times in one hand and the Bible in the other.
Denying the Holy Spirit cuts us off from the love of God.
“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).
This verse is often referred to as the “unforgivable sin” and it can be difficult to understand. Also, if you have been reading this blog regularly you may have read more than once my writing that God forgives us more than we can ever mess up, so, how is it that we can’t we be forgiven for blaspheming the Holy Spirit?
A story that I shared in yesterday’s reflection may help. When I was a junior or senior in high school, one of my teachers commented that if we thought Stephen King wrote amazing tales, then we might find reading the book of Revelation from the Bible interesting. This was a public school mind you. As a big fan of Stephen King, that phrase stayed with me, and a few weeks later, I purchased a King James Bible from our local bookstore, Waldens, which I am not sure exists anymore. I don’t remember if I read it at all, I must have thumbed through it a time or two, but then placed in on a shelf, presumably with my a copy of The Stand.
A month or two passed and I remember being at a party and not having much fun, so I left. When I arrived home I had the urge to open my newly purchased Bible and when I did my eyes found not the words from the author of Revelation but Luke. He shared: “Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Lk 12:7). After reading the section leading up to this verse, I felt God saying to me that I would not ever win the lottery, but like the sparrows, he would take care of me providing me the opportunity and the ability to work. He has continued to be true to his word through all the ups and downs of my fifty-five years so far. These beginning stepping stones have led to others that would ultimately pave the way to me typing these words to you today. Because of each successive yes to the invitation and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and confessing those times that I did not, I placed myself in a better position each time to recognize and hear the word of God.
Now, that experience could have taken a different turn. I could have resisted the initial curiosity that welled up within me from my teacher’s discussion and instead of going out to purchase a Bible, I could have stayed home that day and opened up my copy of The Stand and given it a second read. Thus denying that invitation of the Holy Spirit, I would not have had a Bible when I went to that party. I could have followed through on the first urging to purchase a Bible but then resisted the second urge to leave the party. Choosing to ignore either or both promptings would have led to a higher probability of my not hearing God’s voice that night. Say each step did happen up to and including hearing God’s voice but then I denied that I heard God, instead attributing the experience to some bad pepperoni pizza from the party. Each one is an example of how I could have closed myself off to God’s communications.
God invites us to share in his life in a myriad of ways. With each invitation, no matter how small, we can say yes, or we can dismiss these “encounters” as mere “coincidences.” With each denial, we further limit ourselves to the possibility of acknowledging an encounter with God, even begin to doubt and/or come to a place of denying that he even exists. We could then develop “a mentality which obstinately sets the mind against the Spirit of God, and as long as that obstinate mindset perdures, God’s forgiveness cannot be accorded to such a person” (Fitzmeyer 1985, 964).
God loves us more than we can ever mess up, so much so, that he gives us the freedom to reject him. He does not impose his will upon us. John the Baptist and Jesus got this, and this is why their emphasis on repentance was so preeminent in their preaching. If we turn to God with humility and contrition, true sorrow for our sins, God will forgive us and we will receive his healing touch.
The danger of a consistent and obstinate disposition is that like a muscle that is not used, it will atrophy, and so will our ability to see God working in our lives. We will become less and less able to notice his gentle stirrings and invitations. We will become spiritually blind and our hearts will become hardened. Now that does not mean God stops communicating. He continues to reach out to us in an infinite number of ways, but we are less and less able to receive the forgiveness he so thirsts to give us when we close off ourselves to even the mere possibility of him doing so.
Jesus, in becoming one with us so that we can become one with him, opened up the opportunity for us to experience the Holy Spirit, who is the Love that is shared between himself and God. The more we say yes to his guidance and leading, the more we will experience him, the more we will begin to recognize his voice, and the more we will participate in his forgiveness and love. I don’t believe in coincidences, but God-incidences!
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Photo: The dome in the apse of St Ignatius Church in San Francisco. “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.”
Fitzmeyer, Joseph A. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV in the Anchor Bible. NY: Double Day, 1985.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, October 17, 2020
Not even the sparrows escape the notice of God.
“Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Lk 12:6-7).
Some thirty-five plus years ago I was in high school and either in my junior or senior sociology or psychology class, my teacher mentioned that if we thought Stephen King told amazing tales, we should definitely read the Bible. He keyed in especially on the imagery expressed in the Book of Revelation. My teacher’s comment piqued my interest because at the time I enjoyed reading Stephen King, though I had not spent any time reading the Bible. My teacher’s words stayed with me beyond that class period.
A few weeks or months later I remember going to Waldens, a bookstore, at the Enfield Mall in the next town over from where I grew up in East Windsor, Connecticut. I purchased a King James Bible. I don’t remember reading it right away, but shortly sometime after, I do remember leaving a party. I don’t remember anything about the party or why I left, but when I arrived home, I remember going up to my room and for some reason grasping my new Bible. I then just opened it at random and began reading. The verse above was what I read, and it was the first time I can remember experiencing God speaking to me.
It was not a booming voice emanating from the burning bush that was directed to Moses, the room didn’t shake, nor did the lights flicker. Yet, in that quiet and still moment, I heard in my mind, “You will not ever win the lottery, but like the sparrows, I will take care of you. I will always give you the ability and means to work.” God has proven true to his word. I have not won the mega millions, but God has provided me with the opportunity to have regular, gainful employment and even though experiencing some tight financial times through the years, God has provided beyond work through the kindness of friends, families, as well as some amazing assistance outside of the norm at times.
Does God still speak to us as he spoke to the people in the Bible? Absolutely! God does speak to us directly, he also speaks to us through his Word in our personal reading, in our time of communal worship, and through preaching. He also speaks to us through music, art, movies, through others, through our serving each other, through his creation, and a myriad of other infinite possibilities.
The question is not so much, does God still speak to us? The question is how do we open ourselves up to the reality that we can hear his words or his silence? One way is to ask God to help us to recognize his voice, just as the sheep that come to learn the shepherd’s voice. Another way is to stop and be still. Doing so gives us the opportunity for reflection, to ask God to reveal times in the past where he has spoken and we were not aware. When we examine and reflect on our day, with God’s help we can see where God has been with us and reaching out to us.
Not only do we need to make a consistent time each day to pray but we need to stay long enough to listen! One of the biggest reasons many of us do not hear God is because we are not listening or we don’t make the time to stop. God’s silence is also a profound answer. There are many people that may want to give us advice, to offer solutions to fix our problems, when sometimes, we just need to stop, slow down, and be still. Are we willing to be open and believe that God speaks to us, and guides us? Fr. Jim Martin, S.J. has expressed the search for finding God in this way: “God is always inviting us to encounter the transcendent in the everyday, the key is noticing” (Martin 2010, 86).
God knows us better than we know ourselves, he loves us more than we can ever imagine. Let us be a little more aware today than we were yesterday, and may we have eyes, ears, and minds open to notice God working in our lives. Our Loving God and Father cares for and provides for us as he does the sparrows. Are we willing to answer his invitation to spend time with him and to listen for his word or his silence?
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Photo by Tejas Prajapati from Pexels
Martin, S.J., James. The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life. NY: Harper Collins, 2010.
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, October 16, 2020
We are called to be artisans of peace.
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” (Lk 11:52).
I have quoted my friend, mentor, and brother, Dr. Sixto Garcia, before, and it is worth quoting him again: “We are a living, craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and one another. This is true for the atheist and believer alike.” At the very root, in the very bowels of our being, we yearn for God. The psalmist echoes this point as well: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God” (Psalm 42:2). Whether we know it or not, believe it or not, we yearn for God. He is the only one who can fulfill what our deepest longing is because as St Augustine wrote in his Confessions, he “has made us for himself and we are restless until we rest in thee”.
To prevent access, to those who seek, as did those for whom Jesus points in today’s Gospel, is an egregious offense. Especially in the way that Jesus describes. They themselves have the key to enter, do not avail themselves of the gift they have received, and worse, prevent others from going in! I remember a time in eighth grade where I had wanted to ask a girl I liked out to the school dance. I confided this hope with someone but of course, the word got out. A few days later in math class, the teacher laughed aloud and announced to the whole class that I was the first one he had ever heard of being rejected before I could even ask someone out. I wanted to melt into the floor.
Now, this may not be the most direct example of what Jesus was talking about, but there is a parallel. Teachers, like religious leaders, are to open up greater access and care for those that have been placed in their trust. When they do the opposite by denying access, betraying that trust, belittle, or worse abuse those they are charged to empower, they slam doors in the faces of those who seek the fulfillment of their being. We are all caretakers of each other. We need to resist any temptation to demean, dehumanize, or crush the spirit of anyone.
St Paul in his most theologically mature letter wrote: “We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1). People are hungry for God. We must resist building walls or refusing to open doors to those who seek. We need to build bridges of encounter and accompaniment, even when the seeker does not recognize they are seeking, and when they express their thirst in not the most pleasant of ways. Here it is even more important that we resist reacting and slipping into a defensive posture but instead we need to be open, understanding, willing to listen with our spirit instead of our ego for what their need truly may be.
As Pope Francis wrote: “Each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing new walls! Let us dialogue and meet one another in order to establish a culture of dialogue in the world, a culture of encounter” (Pope Francis, 128).
Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014.
Photo: Getting some pointers on how to be a better artisan of peace during preschool preparations this year.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 15, 2020
Let us come out from the shadows and into the light of Jesus.
After Jesus continues to call out those Pharisees who follow their own will and put themselves in the place of honor instead of God, one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.”
Jesus does not miss and beat and convicts the scholar as well when he said, “Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them” (Lk 11;45-46).
Jesus is clear about his mission, about what the kingdom of God is not and what it is. Jesus is shining a light on the practices of the Pharisees and the scholars of the law in the hope that they can see the darkness that is blinding them. Unfortunately, unlike Bartimaeus (see Mk 10:46-52) who knew he was blind and wanted to see, this is not true for these men who Jesus confronts in today’s Gospel.
How about us? As Jesus shines his light and love in our direction, do we cover our eyes because the light is too bright and withdraw further into the shadows or do we remain still and allow our eyes time to adjust so that the brightness of the Mystery of God will reveal to us that which has kept us bound? Will we justify, or rationalize our behavior or that of others that we know are sinful, or will we be transparent and walk further into the light and the embrace of Jesus, so to repent and believe in the Gospel?
We need to resist the path of those Pharisees and scholars of the Law who imposed heavy burdens on those seeking a relationship with the living God and instead be willing to follow Jesus and meet others where they are in the moment, so to accompany, encourage, and support each other in living the Gospel in our everyday lives. Hiding in the darkness, enslaved by our fears and prejudices, is no longer an option. Jesus beckons us to come out from the shadows and into the radiance of his light. As we experience his love and mercy, he encourages us to continue to move out of our comfort zones and complacency so that we may encounter others with the same love and mercy we have received.
In actuality, the prescriptions that Jesus places on us as his disciples are more challenging than those of the Pharisees and scribes. The difference is that what Jesus invites us to do, he will accompany us and give us the divine assistance to accomplish. What we need to remember is that it is Jesus working through us, not us doing it on our own. Apart from Jesus, we are nothing, but with Jesus all things are possible.
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Photo from remehernandez from Cathopic.com
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Spiritual Stepping Stones 