Be assured that Jesus walks beside us each step of the way of our journey.
Jesus not only tells his disciples that he has not come to abolish but to fulfill the law, he constantly teaches how this is true, models how to put his teachings into practice, and empowers them to do so. In his Sermon on the Mount and Sermon on the Plain alone, we can see the development of his teaching and building on the foundation of the Torah. With his Beatitudes, such as, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, and his Six Antithesis including, “You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye,’ but I say to you offer no resistance to one who is evil”, we can see the further development of Jewish teaching on full display.
If we seriously take the time to read through Jesus’ teachings, we will see quickly how challenging they are. Jesus is not lowering the bar of discipline for his followers, but in fact, raising it. Jesus is not putting heavy burdens on us for burden’s sake, he seeks to make us holy. He himself lives what he preaches, but Jesus is no ordinary teacher or mentor. The principles that he teaches, forgiving seventy times seven times, loving our enemy, giving up all to follow him, these seemed impossible to his disciples then and to us today as well.
At face value, we may think that many of Jesus’ teachings are not possible to put into practice or very practical in our day and age. Attempting to do so with our willpower alone may lead to coming up short each time, and feeling more frustrated. Jesus does not expect nor desire us to accomplish living as his followers on our own efforts. We are to yolk ourselves with him and be open to the transforming power and love of the Holy Spirit acting through us. This happens when we daily invite Jesus into our lives and are humble enough to follow his lead.
We become a disciple of Jesus when we are willing to study his life, learn and put his teachings into practice, and surrender ourselves to his will through prayer, discipline, worship, service, and participation in the sacraments. Ultimately though, it is nothing we do, other than opening our hearts and minds to and allowing Jesus to live his life in and through us so that he may direct us to go outward to empower and serve others. In this way, we are transformed by his love and conformed to his life such that we can say with Paul, it is no longer I who live but Jesus who lives in me (cf. Galatians 2:20).
The path of faith is not a sprint or a one-time event, but a marathon, a journey. Each of us can be assured that Jesus is with us for the long haul, every step of the way. What we are experiencing now with the unpredictability of the Corona Virus can certainly tempt us to be anxious and fearful. But if we resist these temptations and refuse to make decisions from a reactive state, but instead lean into Jesus and each other, we will not only make healthier decisions, we will make it through each day together, no matter what arises.
Embracing the opportunity to slow down a bit, to appreciate simpler entertainment, spend some more time at home, connecting with those important to us, being aware of and providing aid to those around us, and reassessing what is truly important in our lives are some good responses to our present situation. Not knowing what tomorrow brings may help us to realize we never really did. We can take comfort in that emerging reality and trust more in the one who does know what tomorrow will bring.
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Photo: Torrey Pines State Park, La Jolla, CA 2014
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Jesus invites us to build bridges of forgiveness at each opportunity.
Forgiveness is a wonderful gift of grace and mercy. If we asked many people if they would like to receive forgiveness most would say yes. The number would most likely be less if we were to ask them how many would be willing to forgive others. If we were asked to forgive someone seven times, that number would shrink significantly, and if we were invited to forgive someone seventy-seven times, is there any among us who would say yes, any among us willing to consider doing so?
Why is forgiveness so hard for most of us? I do say most because there are those who have an openness to being forgiving. One reason could be that we have few role models. I would imagine those that are more forgiving have not only experienced positive role models but have received forgiveness themselves.
How often do we seek forgiveness from others when we have done something wrong, inappropriate, or made a mistake? We often seek to explain first, make excuses, justify, or ignore our behavior altogether. When we resist being humble, confronting our offenses, and do not seek reconciliation, we do not experience the healing balm of forgiveness. We are then less likely to be willing to offer forgiveness and more likely to hold a grudge or to seek revenge.
Yet, even if we receive the gifts of mercy and forgiveness, as the servant did in today’s parable (Mt 18:21-35), we may still choose to be unforgiving toward others. We may resist forgiveness because we have already created patterns of distancing ourselves, making someone else as other, somehow justifying the hurt and pain we feel. We think that by holding a grudge or offering another the cold shoulder, we are giving them just what they deserve.
Unfortunately, patterns of not seeking forgiveness for ourselves, not willing to forgive others, allowing ourselves to bear grudges, to distance ourselves, or project negative feelings on others to cover up our own inadequacies, not only perpetuate a climate of isolation and divisiveness, continues to fuel a fire of mistrust, division, that when continuing unchecked metastasizes into hatred and violence. Even in a case where someone has truly wronged us in some way, we are still invited to forgive, to make an attempt to understand why someone might act in such a way, and to shift the momentum away from the perpetual cycle of hurt and to seek to bring about healing and reconciliation.
Jesus is very clear that if we are not willing to forgive we will not be forgiven. This is true because we are closing ourselves off from the healing invitation of God’s grace and mercy. When we separate ourselves from one another, we are also separating ourselves from the love of God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a gift of healing, and a pattern of regular confession helps us to receive the healing and forgiveness of our loving God and Father. As we develop a regular practice of examining our conscience, experiencing contrition, true sorrow for our sin, confessing our sin, and are absolved and forgiven, we will experience healing. We then will come to the realization that we need to put God first, instead of ourselves.
From this awareness, we can encounter one another with more understanding and more of a willingness to forgive. Jesus invites us to resist the temptation of building walls of separation to keep others out and instead invites us to forgive, yes even seventy-seven times. We can do so by asking Jesus to forgive through us, one person, one handshake, one hug at a time. In doing so, we will be builders of bridges of forgiveness!
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Photo: accessed from pexels.com
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Jesus came to bring glad tidings not to a select few, but to all who would receive him.
The people in Jesus’ hometown synagogue in Nazareth are incensed, rise up to drive him out of town, “and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong” (Lk 4:29). What got Jesus’ hometown crowd so twisted and contorted? Not only did he stand up earlier in the account of Luke and proclaim that he, the carpenter, was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, but it was to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah came and Naaman the Syrian that Elisha healed.
All three of these points may be a big ho-hum to us, but they were a big deal to his people. Being a carpenter, more likely a simple day laborer was not high on the social status ladder even in a poor town like Nazareth. The gospel writers even show the sensitivity of this. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is mentioned in this scene as “the carpenter” (6:3), in Matthew, “the carpenter’s son” (13:39), and in today’s Gospel of Luke, “Joseph’s son” (4:22). By the time we get to Luke’s account, Jesus is not even associated with the trade of carpenter, how could someone of such simple and humble means assert the mantle of Messiah?
Jesus does not go quietly in the night as the people’s wonder at his words turn to doubt and consternation. Jesus instead gives two seemingly obscure examples of people who receive God’s blessings. There were many widows and lepers in Israel, but it was to the widow of Zarephath that Elijah came and from Elisha that Naaman the Syrian received healing. The significance of these two people was that they were Gentiles, they were other, they were not part of the chosen people. Jesus is aligning himself in the prophetic tradition and the universalism of God’s salvation. Jesus is invoking a choice that will consistently ripple throughout the remainder of his public ministry. People will either embrace his universal ministry or they will oppose it.
Jesus said to his own people, from his hometown, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place” (Lk 4:24). We may look and wonder why Jesus would say such a thing and why after speaking of the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian that these same people were “filled with fury” and sought to throw him headlong out of town.
Yet if we resist domesticating Jesus and allow ourselves to hear his words echoed today from our podiums and ambos, we might feel some of the same angst the people of Nazareth felt. Jesus most likely not bring up the widow of Zarephath or Naaman to us, but instead, those considered as other in our society, the oppressed of today that he might mention could be Dreamers, immigrants, refugees from Syria or from south of our border, as well as the homeless, hungry, and addicted in our own communities. Jesus might come to proclaim liberty to those in our jails, prisons, on death row, as well as those detained by I.C.E officials.
Jesus might come to bring healing, to accompany, and be present to recover the sight of those blinded by prejudice, bigotry, paternalism, misogyny, racism, violence, arrogance, elitism, and nationalism. Jesus could come to return dignity to the unborn, the LGTBQ community, those impoverished in our urban, rural, and reservation communities. He could shine his light on the darkness of human trafficking, domestic violence, molestation, child abuse, pornography, war, terrorism, hatred, and violence in all its forms.
As we imagine ourselves sitting and receiving his message, to whom might we bristle at Jesus reaching out his healing hand. Would we embrace his message or begin to cross our arms and seeth? Would we too want to rise up and reject Jesus outright or worse do our own thing in Jesus’ name which has nothing to do with Jesus in actuality? If we are humble this Lent, we can walk up to Jesus and ask him to heal us of our own prejudices and biases, we can come to realize what gifts he has given us, and ask him to show us what ways we can be engaged in bringing glad tidings of his universal message to those in our communities. The choice is ours to make. Are we willing to receive the same Spirit that fills Jesus to overflowing to also fall afresh upon us?
Photo: Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth from Jesus of Nazareth, Franco Zeffirelli film, 1977
Link for the Mass reading for Monday, March 16, 2020
We too can experience the love of the Holy Spirit by experiencing Jesus in each other.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (Jn 4:31-32).
The disciples of Jesus had just returned with some food, but Jesus was already fulfilled from his encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Though one of the longest readings we will experience during Mass, save the Passion narrative, it is one of the most powerful.
From the beginning of this retelling, Jesus again does not recognize social taboos. He engages a woman at the well at noon who is also a Samaritan. None of these three details are in any way minor. Devout Jewish men did not speak with women in public, and they surely did not engage in discussions with Samaritans male or female. The most subtle of details, that the woman is by herself at the well around noon, may well be missed by us who do not frequent many wells.
The most common time to gather water would be the early morning or evening when it was cooler. This would also be an opportunity for social interaction with others doing the same. This woman coming at this time of the day would be sure that she would be alone. This Jesus picks up on when he asks her, “Go call your husband and come back” (Jn 4:16).
From the beginning of the conversation that Jesus initiates to the time she heads back to her village, Jesus engages her and leads her to a higher level. He does not judge her but loves her. He meets her where she is, engages her as she is, but seeks more for her. The blessing is that she is willing to follow his lead. By the end of the conversation, she has gone into her town with the courage of any of the earliest martyrs.
This woman, who came to the well at noon to avoid being seen, now left to return to the people of her village to proclaim that she had encountered the Messiah, a Jewish man. Her witness must have been powerful for the people who most likely had judged her and made certain that she was on the peripheries, came to see Jesus because of her testimony, and then they encountered Jesus for themselves and believed.
Jesus entered the Samaritan woman’s life through her door but she went out of his door. So many of the conversion stories in the Gospels happen in this way. The transformation happened in the lives of people because Jesus made the time to be present with them, he loved and accepted them as they were, and then lead them to realize there was so much more to life than the limited-expression they had experienced. Jesus also helped so many to be free from the self-imposed outsider status from within or exteriorly from the community without.
Jesus seeks to encounter us in the same way and once we have encountered his acceptance and love we are to resist holding on to this gift for ourselves alone, but to go forth to proclaim the good news we have received as did the Samaritan woman. We are to treat those in our realm of influence in the same way as Jesus treated so many.
Evangelization of the Good News is not about Bible-thumping and condemnation. Proclaiming the Gospel is about engaging in and building relationships, being present, and willing to accompany others in their lives and allowing God to be engaged through our relationships. This is when we are at our best and when we too are willing to be engaged and able to allow Jesus to work through us the love of the Holy Spirit is present. Then we too will be able to experience the satisfaction and fulfillment Jesus had with his encounter with the Samaritan woman who was lost but had now been found.
Painting: Closeup of Samaritan woman by the well – The Benedictine Sisters of Turvey Abbey
God loves us more than we can ever mess up. Lent is a time to remember that and return home to the Father.
Those who edited the lectionary readings for the day chose to present the parable of the lost son and skip the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin. This trilogy of parables is all found in Luke chapter 15. Reading the three together allows us to get a better sense of what Jesus is showing. There is great joy in finding what has been lost, there is great joy in being found! Maybe we can recall something or someone that had been lost and then found, or have we ever experienced a time where we have been lost or separated, have we experienced a time of reconciliation?
I was somewhere in the age range from about six to eight when I came to the realization that I was separated from my parents in the Enfield Mall. I believe it was close to Christmas and we were in the toy store. I must have become distracted by something interesting, and stayed to investigate, while my parents and sister continued on. At some point, I became aware of that fact. It did not take long for the anxiety and fear to rise within me and the tears to well up. I walked through a few isles with no success in finding my family and then I headed toward the entrance that led out into the main mall.
Before continuing on I remembered my mother telling me that if I ever got lost, that I was to stay where I was and she would find me. As I stood indecisively and wondering what to do, a woman noticed my predicament and led me to a stone bench outside the store. We sat and she stayed with me until my parents returned. I am sure the time of separation seemed a lot longer to me than the actual time, and much of the memory is fuzzy, but the anxiety of separation had an impact on me as did the relief and joy of reconciliation!
In my story as well as each of these parables, there is a great joy for that which has been lost and found. How many of us are not even aware of our separation from God or each other? While I was in my own world of material wonder, I was left behind. The son who had squandered every bit of the inheritance he asked of his father before his death, realized not so much that he had really messed up, but that he was in a dire situation, and he made the right decision to come back home. His father never stopped looking for him, he actually saw his son returning “while he was still a long way off” and “filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him” (Lk 15:20).
This father is not seeking his son to bow before him and prove his repentance, his loyalty, and allegiance. The father runs to his son without hesitation. This act is no small thing, for an elder to run to a younger family member was unheard of and simply not done. He was breaking this social taboo, most likely to redirect the focus away from his returning son; the one who had betrayed his father, the son who would receive glares and snide remarks. Instead, the father rushed out in reckless abandonment of love to embrace his son. The jaw-dropping, followed by echoes of gossip surely rose in chorus about the father’s present actions, not his son’s past actions.
God is watching and waiting, seeking opportunities to run to us with compassion and love to welcome us home as the father did in the parable of the prodigal son. God is also like the shepherd who does the absurd in his outpouring act of love, leaving the ninety-nine sheep to go and find the one stray. God seeks each and every one of us just like that shepherd. God is represented by the woman who rejoices over finding one seemingly insignificant coin, for God rejoices in our turning back to him because not one of us is insignificant to him. We are all precious to God, each in our own unique way, and he loves us more than we can ever imagine.
No matter the reason that we have strayed, no matter the temptations and distractions we have fallen for, and/or how far we have wandered away, God loves us more than we can ever mess up. Lent is a season to open our eyes and recognize where we are in our relationship with God and with each other, to recognize the separation our choices have caused, and begin to turn back to God and those we are estranged from within our lives. There is indeed great joy in the healing of relationships and reconciliation! Lent is a time to be found, Lent is a time to come home.
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Painting: Rembrandt’s – The Return of the Prodigal Son
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, March 14, 2020
May we be better stewards of the earth, God’s creatures, and each other.
A foundational quality of a good leader, whether he or she be a political or religious leader, would be that they are seeking the best interest of those they serve. They also seek to be good stewards. Unfortunately, self-interest is a tremendous temptation. For how long are they willing to approach the position as one who is willing to serve instead of being served? Another important attribute in a leader is their openness to critique and guidance when they are in need to hear it.
Jesus in today’s parable presents a landowner who turns his vineyard over to tenant farmers. They are to oversee the crops to bring about a productive yield of grapes come harvest time. Unfortunately: “When vintage time drew near, he [the owner] sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned” (Mt 21:34-35). Eventually, the owner sends his own son, and the tenants kill him.
Jesus offered this parable as a mirror to the tenants of his time, the chief priests and Pharisees, of Israel. The vineyard is an image used to represent Israel. Clearly, the owner is God, and the tenant farmers are those in leadership positions overseeing the care of Israel. We do not know which leaders hearing this parable took it to heart and changed their minds, repented from their self-centered focus. We do know that there were those who carried out exactly what Jesus laid out in the parable. There were those, who following political and religious leaders of the past, persecuted, beat, and killed the prophets, and would do the same to Jesus.
Jesus called for the people of Israel in his time to rise up and actualize the potential of their covenantal relationship with and faithfulness in serving God. He still does so today. We are a part of this heritage. We who bear the name of Christian are “spiritual Semites” as Pope St. Paul VI has stated. We have an intimate relationship with our brothers and sisters in Judaism and are also given the responsibility of being good stewards.
Pope Francis offers us a prescription that we can aspire to that comes from one of our brothers in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Bartholomew, the Patriarch of Constantinople: “He [Bartholomew] asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which ‘entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed, and compulsion'” (Laudato Si, 9).
This is a way we are to follow and to model. All of us on this earth are stewards awaiting the return of the Son of the Land Owner, whether people of faith or no faith, and we need to resist the temptation of the tenants from today’s parable who sought to grasp at what was not theirs and embraced the deadly sin of envy and greed. Instead, may we be more open to receiving what we have been entrusted with and care for the gift of the earth, all life upon it, and one another.
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Photo: View from Griffith Observatory, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA last year during spring break.
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 13, 2020
Jesus, please calm the waves of our minds that we may see clearly those in our midst who are in need.
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus that is offered for us today from the Gospel of Luke 16:19-31 is well worth the read. Jesus challenges us through parables such as these. For the people of his time, those who had wealth and status in society did so, it is believed for the most part because they were blessed by God. When the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, die, I am sure Jesus paused to allow his listeners to imagine what would happen to these two men. Many would not have predicted what happened next.
Lazarus was taken up “by angels to the bosom of Abraham” (Lk 16:22). The rich man found himself suffering from the torment of flames, such that he was parched, begging just for a drop of water from Lazarus (cf. Lk 16:23-24). Abraham, the model of faith and father of Judaism, was not sitting with the rich man, who must have always been seated at the highest places in his day, but now that seat, at the bosom of Abraham, was offered to Lazarus. There was no hope at this moment for the rich man to cross over because of the wide chasm that separated them. An ironic subtlety was afoot as well in Jesus’ telling of the parable to the Pharisees. Lazarus the poor beggar is named, whereas, the rich man is not.
How does the rich man come to this hopeless state of suffering and separation? This is the life he lived prior to his death. He walked over or by Lazarus day after day not giving him even a second look. Lazarus would have been grateful even for the mere scraps that fell from the rich man’s table, just as the rich man now sought just a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus. The rich man committed the root offense from which sprouts much of our sin; he failed to bother, to care, to love his brother, to will his good.
Jesus’ parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, echoes very closely Matthew 25:40, “whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” How we treat others matters. Failing to care, to reach out to those in need around is sinful. We, probably like those who first heard this parable, experience time and again, a wicked mind storm that swirls with reasons, rationalizations, and justifications as to why we do not reach out to help others. The majority, if any, are not valid. We are invited to give and to love joyfully from a natural, not a hesitant disposition, to provide aid and support.
Almsgiving is one of the three pillars of Lent. The first step is to be aware of those who are in need. This can be in our own home! Second, when we see someone in need and we feel the wind and the waves of our mind surging with reasons of why not to help, call on Jesus to calm the storm of our minds. Third, may we take a breath and stop. Let our eyes adjust so we can see the person before us as a human being, as a sister or a brother with dignity, value, and worth. Everyone wants to belong, to be a part of, to be loved. Finally, in that moment, seek the guidance of Jesus, allow him to work through us so that we may be present and allow God to happen.
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Photo credit: Christy McKee from her visit to the Keys in 2011
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, March 12, 2020
Following Jesus means we seek not to be served but to serve.
Look at me, serve me, I want, are attitudes and dispositions that tempt us to varying degrees. Fame, honor, power, prestige may be another way of making the same point, which is that we often have a hyper-focus on self and self-promotion. Social media offers more of a platform to fuel this temptation. If we think this is something new with the advent of modern technology, we can look at today’s reading from the writer of Matthew to see that we have been operating from this posture for a very long time.
Jesus, for the third time, was attempting to prepare his disciples for his passion. He said: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Mt 20:18-19).
The response of the mother of James and John (the two brothers make the request themselves in the Gospel of Mark) is actually not that surprising if we spend any time with people. She disregards what Jesus just mentioned about his imminent death and requests that when Jesus assumes his seat of power that her two sons will be number one and number two. The other disciples were quite indignant and I can imagine what followed was not a pretty sight.
Jesus shares directly with the brothers that to give them a place at his right and left “is for those for whom it has been prepared for my Father” (Mt 20:23). He addresses them all by letting them know that the preeminent place in his kingdom, whoever is to be first, is the one who serves his brother and sister.
Jesus is encouraging us this Lent to resist the temptations of power, honor, seeking praise for ourselves, and/or seeking to be front and center. He is also guiding us to contemplate about: the subtle ways in which we believe that participating in certain activities are beneath us, the slight prejudices that we allow to guide us such that we feel we are better than others, why we don’t associate with certain people because we consider them as other, and/or believing that someone owes us.
From this honest assessment, we can then adjust our perspective and follow the lead of Jesus by seeking out opportunities to give of our time, talent, and treasure, to serve our brothers and sisters. What talents and gifts have been given to us by Jesus and how can we put them into use to help others? Can we treat each person we interact with today with respect, such that, we act in ways that honor the dignity of each person? Can we make an extra effort to be more patient, understanding, and present to others, especially with those who in the past we have kept at arm’s length?
The suggestion of Pope Francis is a good orientation to assume this Lent: “Yet I would also hope that, even in our daily encounters with those who beg for our assistance, we would see such requests as coming from God himself.” In this way, we can live like Jesus who came, “not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28).
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Photo: My classmate Deacon Henry and me during our ordination. Prostration during the rite symbolizes our unworthiness for the office to be assumed and our dependence upon God and the prayers of the Christian community.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 11, 2020
