Jesus, please dwell within us that we may shine your light before others like the dawn from on high.
Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me (Lk 10:16).
On the surface, today’s Gospel may sound like a Debbie Downer of a message, but it is actually the road map, the passage that will lead us from the darkness of slavery steeped in our own sin to the light of truth and freedom in Christ. Jesus is continuing to prepare the 72 that are about to go out to proclaim his message of repentance. This echoes Mark’s recording of Jesus’ mission statement: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15).
Sin is any actively contemplated thought, word, or action that we knowingly know goes against the will of God and we freely choose to act on it anyway. This is why many of us prefer the darkness to the light because we do not have to see and name our sins. We hold on to apparent goods or substitutes that we believe will make us happy and fulfill us, otherwise we would not hold on to them when in actuality they are empty promises. After experiencing the lack of satisfaction, once the emotion or passion of the moment or experience wanes, we either seek more to fill the void or hopefully, recognize the false lure.
If we choose to seek more, we continue along a slippery slope of ensnarement and addiction. But if we repent, allow the light and truth of Jesus into our darkness, trust in his willing our good, we can begin to see our sin, name it, let it go, be forgiven, be healed, and fulfilled by receiving the love of God and deepening of our relationship with him for whom we have been created for.
As servants of the Lord, we are invited to repent, to realign ourselves in such a way that we are saying yes to building a relationship with God, recognizing that this is a daily, lifetime task of examining our conscience to continue to see and confess our sin. This process is not just for ourselves.
We are called to bring the light of truth to those we meet. This does not mean we are perfect. Through the awareness and confession of our sin, we are incrementally more open to receiving the love and light of Jesus within us, such that he can shine his light through us into another’s darkness and gently guide them to come out of the shadows.
We need to resist the temptation to go forth and wag thy finger of judgment. For then we are only a darker storm cloud approaching those we seek to provide healing. They will either draw deeper into their own shell or come out fighting seeking to dispel us from their midst. Jesus sends us to instead encounter one another with understanding, mercy, patience, understanding, and love. We also need to remember that in the beginning, our light needs to be soft, like the morning dawn, so as not to blind those we seek to offer an invitation.
May we embody the Canticle of Zechariah: “In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk 1:76-79). Let us no longer be barriers preventing access to Jesus and instead help to prepare the way for others to encounter him.
Jesus, this day and each day going forward, dwell within us, so that as we meet those you place on our path we may be present to them with your warmth, welcome, and joy. May we respect each person before us, accept them, be present and accompany them, so that they may know that they are not alone, that they, in fact, do exist, that they matter, that they are loved as you love us. May we be like the first light of the dawn to help awaken those in the darkness of their pain, suffering, and sin, so to be a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path, that leads to an encounter and embrace with you; our Truth, our Way, and our Life. Amen.
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Image: Photo by Amy Chung from Pexels.com
Link to the Mass readings for Friday, October 4, 2019
Spend some quiet time experiencing the wonder of God’s creation.
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples and said to them, “Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals” (Lk 10:3-4).
The opening of today’s Gospel continues the same theme of the past few days and that is the call of a radical dependence on God. Jesus sent his disciples out with no money, no credit cards, no sack, no luggage, no sandals, no Crocs. They were to rely solely on divine providence. They were taught by Jesus to believe and trust in the Father, and now they would put both to the test.
How well could we fare today? Do we even leave the house without our cell phones?
Jesus meets us and accepts as we are and where we are, but calls us to go deeper, to expand beyond our present understanding and practices. We may say to ourselves that we are not capable of being a great saint, but that would miss the point of who a saint is. A saint is not one who was great, but one who chose to release that which kept him or her from receiving more of God in their life.
There are so many distractions, diversions, demands, and many material enticements, that we are lured by. What all of us can do is assess how much of what we have, what we think, and how we spend our time, is getting in the way of our trusting in God more and allowing him to expand us so to receive more of him in our lives.
A periodic extended time of letting go is a wonderful practice. About two to three weeks before JoAnn died, we stopped watching TV because it was too uncomfortable for her. She needed quiet and stillness as much as possible and four weeks later, except for watching a few movies and a couple of shows with Jack and Christy, I have not watched any television and I have not missed it.
Since our return to California after JoAnn’s funeral, as we mourn, rest, heal and begin again, I have spent more time being quiet, praying, and meditating. Even though we live a half-mile from downtown LA, each day I hear bird song, I see trees and feel the sun on my face. I encourage you to carve out some time in your day to be still and to spend time in the wondrous, beauty of his creation. When we do so, we can hear God speak to us in the silence, we can experience him who we depend on for everything and allow him to become more present in our daily lives.
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Photo: JoAnn and I spending some time together in the open air of the NW corner of CT before our move to Florida in the summer of 1997.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 3, 2019
As disciples of Jesus, we are to rely on God as children do on their parents.
“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me” (Mt 18:4-5).
Children during the time of Jesus were seen if at all, to have little worth. They were vulnerable, had little if any, status in society. They were under the radar, nothings, nobodies, and thus completely dependent on their parents for survival. Jesus invites a child to come to him, identifying himself with the child, as a response to the disciples’ question as to who would be considered the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
Jesus taught his disciples and he teaches us today that we need to be completely dependent on God our Father, as a small child is totally dependent on his or her parents. What leads us to greatness in the Kingdom of heaven is our turning away from the temptation to curve in within ourselves, resisting the urge to feed our ego, and as St Thomas Aquinas taught, resisting the cultural lures and substitutes for God: power, pleasure, honor, and wealth. We are to reject the image that we are supermen and women that need no one as we strive for complete autonomy and self-sufficiency. We are to place our complete dependency and trust in God and rely on him for everything.
Participating in the reign of God is not one of lordship over another, but instead of assuming the humility to accompany and walk along with each other along our journey in this life. We see this in the reality of Jesus, who as the Son of God entered into our human condition. While remaining fully divine, he became human when through the power of the Holy Spirit was conceived in the womb of Mary, developed through his period of gestation, and was born into our world. As an infant and child, he was completely dependent on Mary and Joseph and God his Father.
As Jesus continued to grow as a young child, he experienced the fullness of the human condition. He laughed, he cried, he got sick, he was tempted, he felt pain, he experienced heartache and joy. Throughout his life, and especially during his public ministry, he met people where they were and as they were. He understood their suffering and weakness from his own experience of being human and so accompanied them and loved them by willing their good and pointing the way for them to rely wholeheartedly on his Father.
We are to do the same by resisting to put our self-interests first, by surrendering ourselves in prayer to God and give of ourselves in our service to one another. We are able to do so when we acknowledge our dependence on God and others. We are not self-sufficient and we need to be humble enough to accept and ask for help. Our guardian angels, whose memorial we celebrate today, are at the ready awaiting our call.
When we realize that we are not alone, and experience some supernatural support, we may be more willing to be present and accompany those who are in our midst. We are not alone in our everyday struggles or in celebrating our successes. We are called to help others to realize that they are not alone either. We can be a shoulder to lean on, provide an ear to hear, we can offer a smile, a hug, a voice that speaks for the voiceless, a soul open to praying with others, and we can help to remind others to invoke their guardian angel’s assistance.
St Mother Teresa embodied the discipleship Jesus calls us to when she picked up that first dying man in the street. She did not ask his religion, was not concerned if he was of a different race or nationality, was not afraid to risk illness or injury by attending to him. She knelt down and was present to him in his time of dire need. May we follow Jesus and St Mother Teresa by placing our dependency in God’s hands and accompany others in doing little things with great love. When we do so, we say to another, you exist, you matter to me.
Photo: accessed from pexels.com
Link for Mass readings for Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Jesus can help us to grow together instead of apart in each of our relationships.
“Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village (Lk 9:54-56).
James and John’s request of Jesus ought to be recognizable to many, if not all of us. How many times when feeling slighted or disrespected do we want to act in kind or offer some retribution to our perceived offender? Many times, we do not even think we just react overtly back or we engage in our own tumultuous internal maelstrom.
Jesus rebuked James and John’s request immediately and moved on. He did not allow the rejection of the Samaritans to deter his course for even one second.
The most helpful response to today’s Gospel is to affirm that Jesus is correct in his response to the Samaritan’s lack of hospitality and James and John are wrong. If we can agree with that as our starting point, then we can seek to understand what Jesus can teach us when encountering others.
First, our approach to others extending unkind behavior is to be one of understanding. We are all dealing with a lot, and much of what others are dealing with are unknown to us. If we approach another’s unkind or disrespectful action from a place of understanding instead of seeking revenge, we will have a better chance of not reacting in kind and also possibly being able to help another to get in touch and reveal something they are struggling with.
Often a negative response may come from misunderstandings. Our first response ought to be one of giving the person the benefit of the doubt to explain their understanding of what happened in a given situation. We are not mind-readers and we also are not the best of communicators so resisting jumping to rash conclusions is a better course of action.
A third approach is to receive a critique with humility. Maybe, we have done something to cause hurt toward another, intentionally or unintentionally. By taking responsibility for that which we have done and apologizing for it, we create a better bridge for reconciliation.
We are only responsible for our actions. We cannot dictate or change the behaviors of others. We are not to be doormats for another’s abuse nor take on their stuff either. But we are to approach conflict and obstacles with patience, understanding, a willingness to bring clarity, and humility for acknowledging what we have done and what we have failed to do, but if another is not willing to hear reason, we move on.
We pray for and respect the dignity of the person whether we agree or disagree with the outcome while holding them accountable at the same time. Jesus is very clear that we are to love, meaning that we are to will each other’s good and we need to be willing to forgive, to love each other through our mistakes and sin.
None of these steps are easy. Human relationships are difficult in the best of scenarios, but still well worth the effort. Neither JoAnn nor I were perfect, but we did our best to follow these principles and others, such that our conflicts became opportunities that helped us to grow closer together rather than further apart. Above all we need to seek the guidance of Jesus and those who we trust and are willing to hold us accountable such that we can grow and mature as the disciples of Jesus that he calls us to be.
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Jesus brought JoAnn and me together and putting him first in our lives helped us to grow in our relationship with him and each other.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Let us hear the word of God and do it, as well as work with others willing to do the same!
The Apostle John attempted to prevent someone from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not one in their “company”, he was not on the inside. This person casting out demons in Jesus’ name was not like Simon the Magician (see Acts 8:9-25) who sought to buy the power of God from the Apostles to perform feats to boost his own fame and ego, this person was doing what the apostles were doing and in the proper way, by invoking the name of Jesus.
Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you” (Lk 9:50). The important part about being a disciple is surrendering ourselves into and following the will of God. This was a consistent point Jesus pointed out to his followers time and time again. Being a disciple of Jesus had nothing to do with whether or not someone was in or out of their company, or whether they were related to Jesus, as is recorded just in the last chapter of Luke 8:21, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, is pointing out the danger of groupthink for its own sake. This is something we desperately need to get in our present-day and age. What is important is not putting our self, our family, our tribe, our party, our nation first. What is important is putting God first.
The man in today’s Gospel did not rely on his own strength or will power but called on the name of Jesus to cast out demons. John was getting hung up that this man wasn’t one of them, wasn’t in their company, and he was doing what they were called to do. John may have also been a bit miffed that this man was doing a better job of it as well.
I say the more the merrier! There is much that needs to be done, there is too much pain and suffering in the world, and we are losing precious resources and hours by fighting amongst ourselves, instead of actualizing the unique and diverse gifts each of us has. We have much more in common with one another than we have differences.
There are ways to diminish the growing polarization and division within and without of the Church and the best way to begin is we need to be willing to cast aside our protective and defensive postures, make a commitment to respect the dignity of each person we encounter and strive ourselves to be people of virtue, integrity and strive to be holy. Whoever is not against us is for us.
Photo by burak kostak from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, September 30, 2019
We are interconnected, need to be aware of and care for each other.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table” (Lk 16:19-21).
Two key points stand out right from the beginning of today’s Gospel regarding the two main characters of Jesus’ parable. The first is that rich man has all he needs and is quite comfortable, and in his wealth, there is no evidence that the rich man ever even took notice of the need of the man Lazarus who sat at his door presumably for some time for the implication is that he dies from neglect.
In sharing this parable, Jesus is not just pointing out something new, but echoing the prophet Amos who said “Woe to the complacent in Zion” (Amos 6:1). The man is complacent, indifferent to the need of Lazarus who is right at his door. How many times did the rich man just walk by him paying him no notice?
The second point in this account is that the poor man, Lazarus, who was most likely unknown to the rich man or anyone in his circle of family and friends is named, and the rich man who most likely many in his community knew goes unnamed. For ancient people’s those without a name were those that had no status, were outcasts, lost. The rich man is not named while alive but also remains so after his death, and there is a wide chasm between him and Abraham.
The man’s indifference and complacency toward those in life, those he kept at arm’s length, created separation between them instead of the unity God calls for and Jesus clearly is showing that he and others who follow the same path will be judged accordingly.
The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus that Jesus shared speaks truth to us today as much as it did in his time. Jesus again is showing the importance of our interconnectedness and call to build relationships with one another. We are not called to change the world. We are invited to meet each other, person by person, and respect the dignity of each other in each encounter.
I was blessed yesterday to have spent the morning and early afternoon at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. We as Christians can learn a lot from our Buddhist brothers and sisters. They gathered in the early afternoon to discuss their commitment for the coming three months. This is to be a time when the Sangha, or community, makes a commitment to deepen their practice individually, to the center, and to the community.
One of the four core commitments offered was to be more mindful of participating in acts of social justice on a personal and individual level. Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, abbot emeritus, emphasized that each person was to be open to being aware of the needs of those people in our everyday experiences and reaching out with small acts of kindness. A discussion followed on exploring ways we each could commit do just that.
Jesus calls us to make the same commitment each day to being more aware of those around us and resisting the temptation to be indifferent as was the rich man, but instead following through on assisting those in need even if we start by just acknowledging the presence of another with a smile, a sharing of names, a few minutes of time and conversation. If we are willing to encounter one another as human beings to start, we may be more willing to accompany and help each other out.
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Photo: St Mother Teresa understood the Gospel: “I see God in every human being.” May we also!
Link for the Mass for Sunday, September 29, 2019
Our horizon is the same as Jesus’ – the Cross.
The term horizon is often defined as where the earth and sky meet. This is actually an apparent horizon or sensible horizon because we see an apparent plane based on our observation point. If we are able to broaden our viewpoint and look beyond the present location we are standing at on the earth, say from the space shuttle, we could then experience a rational or celestial horizon: where the great circle of the celestial sphere whose plane passes through the center of the earth is parallel to the celestial horizon of a given position. Journeying deeper into space we could discuss event horizons, the boundaries marking the limits of black holes.
Before delving any deeper and getting lost in space, let’s return to earth and today’s Gospel where Jesus stated: “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men” (Lk 9:44). What Jesus is doing with this statement is presenting the horizon of the cross, the place where heaven and earth meet, where the physical and the spiritual, where the finite and infinite meet.
Many of Jesus’ followers were and still are confounded by the cross. As Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 22-23).
Paul echoes what Jesus was talking about in today’s Gospel and that was his imminent fate and our ultimate horizon, death. None of us will be able to avoid the result of our mortality. Jesus taught both through his words and in his death that to be truly free we need to be willing to lose our life to gain it. We have to face and walk through our deepest fears to grow. Our life is not lived until we give it away.
I have come to experience that the more willing we are to face the reality of our own death, the less likely we are to take the time we have for granted, and the better we can live our lives here and now. The past four months with JoAnn were more experience of grace because we faced the reality that her time was near, we embraced the gift of the time we had together, and through the prayers of so many, we experienced the infinite presence of the love of God in our midst. A part of me died with her, yet something was also born anew that will take time to grow.
There is so much we can experience and enjoy through the world around us, but if we only limit ourselves to the merely empirical, only to that which we can experience with our physical senses, we limit ourselves. We are transcendental beings. We have a rational soul that allows us to encounter and experience a different plane of existence, that of the spiritual. What makes us fully human, alive, and fulfilled is an embrace of both the physical and the spiritual, an embrace of both faith and reason, the horizon where the finite and infinite meet, where heaven and earth are one. This union happens in Jesus Christ and those who die with him so to rise with him.
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Photo: by Josh Sorenson from Pexels
Link for today’s Mass readings for Saturday, September 28, 2019:
We are to empty ourselves so to serve others as did Jesus on the Cross.
Jesus asked his disciples about who people said that he was and Peter, through the revelation of God answered, “the Christ of God” (Lk 9:20). Jesus then responded that “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Lk 9:22).
Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Yet, that meant many things to many people who were awaiting the coming of the Messiah. For most, they were hoping for a military leader to come to lead them and overthrow the Roman occupiers. As soon as Peter made his statement, Jesus clarified what kind of Messiah that he would be, a suffering servant.
The reality that the Messiah, Jesus, was the suffering servant, willing to give his life on the Cross for all of humanity and creation, is also true for all who have followed him and would walk the path following him today. If we seek to be a disciple of Jesus, our steps will also lead us to the Cross. We must be willing to be martyrs, witnesses of our faith, in our everyday experiences and encounters. This does not necessarily mean that we will give our life, but it does mean that we are to empty ourselves so as to be more available to the needs of others.
Our discipleship will be ultimately expressed in love, in our willing the good of the other who is in need. We must resist the temptation to turn in on ourselves such that we embrace our ego, our anxiety, fear, prejudices, and biases. Instead, we are to keep our mind and heart open to the leading of the Holy Spirit who will reveal to us the ways, no matter how small, that we can love and serve.
We also need to resist seeking to conform God to our will and our image. Jesus calls us not to contract but to expand, to go out from ourselves to love God with our whole mind, heart, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This dying to self, to be crucified with Christ, is to be expressed in all aspects of our lives. We are not to be one way for one hour at Church on Sunday and the rest of our time live like Sunday never happened. We are to surrender ourselves to Jesus and be Jesus for others in every action, decision, and encounter we engage in. Christianity is not about compartmentalization, but it is about transformation and conformation to the Body of Christ!
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Photo: Rosarian Academy Auction some time ago. Keeping Jesus, the crucified Messiah, at the center of our lives helped us to grow in our love for God, each other and those he sent us to serve.
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, September 27, 2019
Spiritual Stepping Stones 