Listen, hear and put the words of Jesus into action!
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Mt 7:24).
Jesus speaks to us, in the Gospels, in the silence of our hearts, through our conscience, through the words of others, in our daily activities, and through creation which has been loved into existence through collaboration with his Father and the Holy Spirit.
We can be unaware of the words he speaks among us, we can hear his words but not listen, hear his words but ignore them, listen but not act upon them, or we can do with his words as Jesus encourages us to do. We can listen to the words of Jesus and put them into action. We can hear and let them come in through our mind and enter our heart, where we can then be transformed.
Jesus became one with us so that we can become one with him. Not one with us, so that we can know about Jesus. Not one with us, so that we can say that we prophesy, cast out demons, do mighty works, cite Bible chapter and verse to show our knowledge or justify our behavior in his name. One with us so that we can become one with him.
Jesus meets us on our level and leads us up to his. Jesus has been doing just that in his Sermon on the Mount which we have been reflecting on these past few weeks. If you are just coming in today or need a refresher, this gathering of teachings began at chapter five of Matthew and takes us up to today with chapter seven. Jesus presented us with the Beatitudes, that we are called to be salt and light, he built on the law and the prophets by giving us the six antithesis (You have heard it said, but I say to you…), he taught us to pray the Our Father, that we are to depend and place our trust in God and not the things of this world, we are to refrain from judging others, we are not to cast our pearls before swine, we are to do to others as we would have them do to us, we are to seek to enter through the narrow gate, and to be aware of false prophets.
These are but just some of the words of Jesus that we are to put into action if our house is to be built on solid rock. May we go back through chapter five, six, and seven of Matthew and see which teaching Jesus is leading us to ponder, meditate upon, and put into action.
If this list is a bit overwhelming, let us start with what St Irenaeus taught us. Jesus became one with us so that we can become one with him. Jesus entered our humanity so that we can participate in his divinity. Jesus invites us to be in relationship with him, to know him, so that we can know his Father, so that we can be one as Jesus and the Father is one. Jesus loves us as we are, and for who we are, right now at this very moment. Jesus loves us more than we can ever imagine. May we receive his love as we would receive a loving embrace, stay with it, savor it, so to return his love, by loving each other as he has loved us.
Photo: Building a firm foundation on the rock of Jesus!
Link for the Mass reading for Thursday, June 27, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062719.cfm
We come to know Jesus and false prophets by reading and praying with the Gospels.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will know them” (Mt 7:15-16).
So as not be taken in by false prophets within in our Church and society, and most importantly, so as not to be wolves in sheep’s clothing ourselves, we need to know the Shepherd. We need to know, as St Irenaeus (whose feast we celebrate on Thursday) described: Jesus, “who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself” (p. 526 Against Heresies, Book V, Introduction). Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, who entered and embraced our fallen and wounded condition to become fully human while remaining fully divine, came to shine a light on that which causes division and disunity. Jesus came to reveal those sinful acts which estrange us from God and one another. Jesus came to show us the value of our unique dignity as human beings, the wonder of God’s creation that we are, and empower us so as to restore our relationship with God and one another.
How can we know Jesus?
One way is that we can begin by following the lead of Pope Francis who has been encouraging us to read and prayerfully reflect upon the Gospels each day.
This does not mean that we just read the words on the page with the sole intent to finish it and move on to something else, so as to complete one more task. Instead we are to read slowly, reflectively, spending time with Jesus by mediating on a word or phrase from the Gospel that peaks our attention. We may receive an insight, an intuition, a confirmation, a sense of excitement, or a question as we are reading. We can also place ourselves in the scene as if we are watching a movie. In this way, allowing our senses to come alive and again pay attention to what arises.
Another gift of encountering Jesus in the Gospels, that some may not recognize as a gift, is that we will naturally be drawn to examine our conscience as we read and ponder the life and teachings of Jesus. As we are able to see those fruits of selfishness, greed, judgment, gluttony, lust, pride, indifference, sloth, envy, wrath, and/or any others that we are bearing. We can then seek God’s forgiveness so to begin to prune those branches within us that lead to such fruits. This discipline will provide more energy and nourishment for the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, chastity, goodness, generosity and self-control, to grow and mature in our life.
It is important to sit with the encounters we experience from a reflective and meditative reading of the Gospels and not just blow off what arises. We need to pay attention, meditate for a time on that word, phrase, insight or other experience that has arisen, and then return to ponder them at different moments during the day. Through a daily commitment of praying with, meditating upon, and allowing Jesus to speak to us through the Gospels, we will not only know about Jesus, but come to encounter and know him and his voice as his disciples did. We will also see the fruit that Jesus bears and encourages us to bear through our thoughts, words, and actions.
As we come to know Jesus and his voice, we will begin to recognize, through the fruits that others bear, those false prophets who seek to lead us astray, and so be better able to resist their temptations, as well as our own temptations within. We will better know the truth of who we are and who God calls us to be. More importantly, we will no longer lead others astray, but as we bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit we will lead others through word and deed to experience the Shepherd in their lives.
Photo: The Bible I received for my confirmation.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 26, 2019:
Let us take the hand of Jesus and allow him to lead us through the narrow gate.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are true” (Mt 7:13-14).
Jesus meets us where we are in our present state of life. He accepts us as we are in this very moment. At the same time, Jesus does not want us to just settle, to be minimalists and merely get by, surviving day by day. Instead he guides us to be fully actualized. He calls us to perfection, to holiness, to be saints! He sees in us, as he did in his disciples and apostles, the promise of our potential and who his Father calls us to be. We each have a unique gift or gifts to offer to the world, each and every one of us.
Entering the narrow gate means that we need to say no to those apparent goods and half truths that will in the end, burden us, weigh us down, and ultimately lead us to emptiness. To pass through the narrow gate, we need to say yes to that which will truly bring us happiness, fulfillment, and freedom and this means we need to say no to supporting our false ego and our slavery to sin; to fear, anxiety, and worry such that we turn in on ourselves. We need to instead be willing to expand and go out from ourselves and will the good of and accompany others.
Let us spend some quiet time in prayer today with Jesus, seeking and discerning his will and listening for his guidance. Allow those burdens of worry, anxiety, or fear; pride, judgement, or prejudice; sinful actions, habits, or addictions to surface, so we can say no and begin let go of them. This will not be a one time, done now for all activity, but a daily, disciplined commitment. We also will not be able to enter the narrow gate and stay on the path alone.
We need to continually open our heart to the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to do so. In our time of prayer, imagine placing our hand in Jesus’ hand and allowing him to lead us off the broad road that leads us to sin and destruction, so to pass through the narrow gate with him that will lead us to experience the love, mercy, and grace of our loving God and Father. What Jesus leads us to do, he will also give us the strength and resources to bring to completion, which ultimately will be a life of communion with God and one another.
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Photo credit: Photo by Rene Asmussen from Pexels
The Mass reading for Tuesday, June 25, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062519.cfm
Identity gives us our roots, but integrity gives us wings to fly!
“No. He will be called John” (Lk 1:60).
With these simple words three inter-related points arise. First, Elizabeth is beginning to shift the momentum of original sin. Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat of the fruit that God had told her and Adam not to, yet she did. Adam did not support her in her dialogue but remained silent in the face of the pressure placed upon Eve, both of them slipped into sin, by not following the will of God.
At the time of the birth of Elizabeth’s son, there was even more cause for celebration, for Elizabeth was past child bearing years. The day had come to have him circumcised and named, her relatives and neighbors had gathered around with great excitement and there appeared to be a unanimous decision to name the boy after his father. Elizabeth did not, like Eve, cave to the pressure and temptation. Unlike Adam who lost his voice at the time he needed to speak up, Zechariah found his voice, had Elizabeth’s back and followed the will of God. Both Elizabeth and Zechariah knew what God wanted them to do, and were faithful to follow through.
The second point is already alluded to in the first, and that is how Elizabeth and Zechariah were faithful to God even amidst the familial and social pressure placed on them. We may be removed by such social pressure when naming a child, although some of us may still have experienced this pressure. Elizabeth held her ground and stood firm that the boy would be named John. Ignoring her, the people deferred to Zechariah, the boy’s father, thinking he would have more sense, but he, ignoring the paternal cultural pressure, supported Elizabeth. The point here is not so much the name, but the following of the will of God in the face of pressure to do the opposite.
This brings us to the third point and that is the maturation in moving from identity to integrity. Culture and traditions are not sacred, but God is. Elizabeth and Zechariah faced a lot of familial and social pressure to conform, yet they chose to be true to God, to be true to themselves, and they chose integrity over their identity.
The very simple account of Elizabeth and Zechariah naming their child John in opposition to the familial and societal pressure offers for us a way to counteract the rising tide of polarization and conflicts that we face in our own country today. Identity provides safety, support, and security. It fuels one of our deepest hungers and that is to belong, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We can find our identity in family, friendships, our religious traditions, culture, political affiliations, common interests, clubs, activities, and hobbies. But our identity, which provides us with security, can also be a trap.
We want to belong so much, the drive is so strong, that we may have made decisions, acted in ways, and supported others, that go against who we are, just so we can belong. We may have known what God wants from us, heard the whispers of his voice in our conscience, yet were pulled by the louder voices of our group. We are sometimes so engrained by our identity that we are being strangled and suffocated by it.
In today’s Gospel account, Elizabeth and Zechariah were true to the will of God even in the midst of challenging their family and neighbors and people were happily amazed. More often though, being a person of integrity does not go so well. Their own son, who would grow to be John the Baptist, would lose his life, challenging the priesthood of his day and by speaking truth to power.
John would also show his integrity when he said, “I must decrease and he must increase” (cf. John 3:30). John was talking about Jesus who embodies the moral courage that we all need today. Though more than just a model of a life well lived, more than just a word on the page, Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is present to us now, to guide and lead us, to empower us with the same love that he embodies, such that when we invite him into our life, we too can be transformed to live a life of truth, moral courage, and integrity.
Becoming less and allowing Jesus to work through us, we can act and speak up when there are those that are being belittled, demeaned, and/or dehumanized, no matter who it is that is doing so. May we be willing to treat each other with dignity and respect, whether we are in the same “group” or not.
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Photo: accessed from http://www.pexels.com
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 24, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062419-day.cfm
With Jesus there is a way.
Luke records how Jesus had been teaching and healing a large crowd of five thousand men. As the day was drawing to a close, the Twelve approached him and said, “Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here” (Lk 9:12). The disciples appear to show concern for the many gathered. Yet the response of Jesus may reveal otherwise.
When Jesus tells them to, “Give them some food yourselves” (Lk 9:13), the disciples are stymied, for all that they had, five loaves and two fish, would be just enough to feed themselves. The disciples first sought to send the people away, then could see nothing but the limited resources they had, they saw lack.
What follows is the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and the fish such that everyone present had enough to eat. “They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets” (Lk 9:17). This miraculous account is recorded in all four Gospels. Time and again, throughout the Gospel accounts, Jesus is able to provide a way where there appeared to be no way.
How many times have we given up not knowing had we just persevered a bit more we would have accomplished what we sought out to do, how many times have we been overwhelmed before we even began a task so did not even begin, how many times have we not reached out to help because we wondered if we really could make much of a difference any way, and how many times have we seen lack instead of a way?
If you are like me, and can answer in the affirmative to any and all of the above, we are in the same place as the disciples just before Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish and fed the five thousand. We saw lack, where Jesus saw a way. We are finite human beings living in a finite world, yet we are not alone. Jesus, fully human and fully divine, is still with us, present to us, just as he was with his disciples. Apart from him we are limited, we cannot do much if anything alone. Yet, with Jesus all things are possible, he will provide. With Jesus there is a way.
Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, June 23, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062319.cfm
Today, refuse fear and division, encounter one another, and embrace diversity and unity.
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, Jesus draws a direct correlation between our level of worry and our faith. Having faith is a common theme throughout Jesus’ teaching. How many times have we read or heard, “O you of little faith” (Mt 6:30). At its core faith is that we trust what Jesus says is true. If we are feeling anxious or worried our focus is dwelling on the past, rehashing something we did or did not do, not sure if we made the right decision, or if we are anxious about the future, our minds plague us often with the worst case scenarios of what might be or what could happen. We also may react to another’s actions or words, not fully understanding the context or source of the hurt or struggle they may be going through that caused those words or actions. We stay focused, stay fixated on our own reaction, and/or stay stuck in our emotions of the situation, instead of seeking to understand the other person.
In each of these occasions we are not focusing on God, we are not trusting in him, we are exercising little faith because our focus is on our self. Jesus is telling us that, “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6:24). Either we place our self first or we place God first. Jesus is guiding us to put God first in our lives and to trust in him.
Anxiety, worry, and fear, can be debilitating and paralyzing. Many of us deal with these feelings at some time and to some extent. What many families are now experiencing though, those fleeing their homes, making the perilous journey to get to what many believe to be a land of promise and hope, then to find that they are turned away, arrested or separated, children not knowing if they will ever be able to see their parents again, or that their parents will be deported is terrifying and traumatic. The anxieties, worries, and fears I have experienced in my life pale in comparison.
The other side of the coin, are the anxieties, worries, and fears that have and contribute to this situation. Throughout the history of our country too many have placed their trust and faith in anxiety, worry, and fear. Native Americans, African Americans, Irish, Germans, Catholics, Japanese, and now Latinos have been demeaned, dehumanized, and feared, instead of heard and encountered. Difference and diversity, terrorists, increased violence, job loss, out right self interests, prejudice and bigotry have fed and continue to feed the dark side of our fallen nature.
Jesus’ life, words and actions provide a starting point for shifting the momentum of the cycle of enslavement to our anxieties, worries, fears, and prejudices. In each of our individual circumstances and situations, we need to be aware of, identify, and turn away from them and instead, “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:33).
On a national level, with another call for mass deportations, there is a way that we can bring about immigration reform, without politicization and dehumanization, but we must begin by acknowledging that those seeking to come to our country, as well as those who are already here are human beings, we need to trust that God will provide for all who have need, and lead us to live together in community.
One of the greatest perpetuations of injustice is that too many of us isolate ourselves from one another. We turn within ourselves or in our own tribes and camps, we resist embracing the gift of our diversity and thus do not get to know one another, we give in to the fears that support our prejudices, we don’t want to rock the boat or deal with conflict head on, so we don’t speak up or out, we want someone else to fix the problem. When the storm comes we tend to want to run away from it. Instead we need to be like the buffalo that used to roam the great plains in vast numbers. When the storm was building over the plains, they would run into the storm, and would get through it quicker.
May we embrace our faith in Jesus so to face our own storms of anxiety, worry, and fear when they arise, trust in God, and together face them. In this way, we will better be able to resist division and instead work for unity, resist the language of dehumanization and hate, and instead promote solidarity and love. May we trust and embrace the courage to come out from hiding in the shadows of our anxiety, worries, and fear, and instead hold high the flame of the Holy Spirit so to light a path of hope that is grounded in our faith, and come to recognize that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters we do to Jesus. May we begin today to embrace our mutual gift of humanity and diversity.
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Photo: My first communion preparation class, Bronx, NY early 90’s.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, June 22, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062219.cfm
We are called to be co-redeemers with Jesus in this life so to prepare for eternity in the next!
Last summer at this time, we are in the midst of house renovations. It is amazing how fast the time went. We moved into our newly built, Florida home which was newly built in 1999. Within the past twenty years, how much updating our house needed and is still in need of! Over the past year we tore up rugs, sealed leaks and filled cracks in the floor, dusted, spackled, sanded, and painted, put in new flooring and kitchen counter tops. At the same time, as we had to move items around, we realized how much we have been weighed down with that which we gathered, saved, and held on to, more than is necessary and so in addition to the above improvements over the past year we began to purge, sell, and give away items.
Over the past twenty years, our three children have all grown and are now all living in California. Also, on a sadder note our three Golden Retrievers are no longer with us, JoAnn’s mother and two of her aunts, and all of my grandparents have also died and as of the Wednesday of Holy Week, my wife, JoAnn was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. We are now living in Los Angeles to be closer to our adult children so to enjoy our time together while we can.
These opening thoughts are a sketch of the practical reality expressed in my life that highlights the words of Jesus from the first section of our Gospel from Matthew this morning: Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:19-21). Jesus is helping his disciples then and us today to be aware of the reality of our world. All that exists is finite and material. Each thing, each being, has a beginning and an end. We need to resist the temptation to be attached to anything, even to our family and friends, because in this life nothing lasts forever.
There is a good in non attachment to material things as long as we do not embrace the opposite extreme of placing no value in created things, thinking that we can destroy and abuse the environment, exploit each other, because neither will not last anyway. We can also be tempted to see all things not spiritual as corrupt and bad, even our material reality as human beings, such that our soul is imprisoned until we die. This extreme will not bring us happiness, joy or fulfillment either.
Living a life directed by the Gospel is to embrace a more balanced life of recognizing that all that is material and finite is good, yet each has a time and a season. We have the opportunity and invitation to be participants in God’s eternal plan of salvation, while we embrace and enjoy the wonders and gifts of his creation without holding on too tight.
It is better to resist grasping at and clutching anything material and finite, so to be less weighed down by them. In this way, we can be freer to embrace the steady movement of the Holy Spirit, which is ever fresh and anew. The Holy Spirit seeks to lead us to change and to mature in our relationship with our loving God and Father and one another, so to store up our true treasure which is in heaven.
Embracing the reality that our time here on earth is limited, Jesus calls us to resist taking one another for granted or worse belittling, demeaning, and dehumanizing one another. As disciples, we are to empower and show greater appreciation for each other, strive to be present and accompany one another, seek to be kinder, more supportive, and encourage one another. We need to let the petty things go and embrace the love that Jesus inspires us to live, so to be there for one another through thick and thin.
What has helped JoAnn and me during this time when her days on this earth are even more limited is that we have become thankful and more appreciative of the time we have together. We are setting our sights on the promised land of heaven, and our true vocation of Matrimony, which is to support each other in embracing the truth that we are called to be co-redeemers with Jesus, so that we may help and be there for one another now in this life, while we prepare for the next. As we journey together, we are preparing to “store up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:20).
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Continuing to support one another!
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 21, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062119.cfm
One, two, three of mindful prayer: examine our conscience, sign of the Cross and pray mindfully the Our Father
Prayer is not so much about bending God’s will to our will, but it is about our transformation and conformation, a freeing ourselves from the sole focus on ourselves as the center of the universe. The world actually does not revolve around us. We are invited to build a relationship with the One who is the creator and sustainer of all that exists.
Jesus guides his disciples on this point when he teaches them how to pray. Jesus said to his disciples: “In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:7-8). Jesus is sharing that words matter and have meaning in everyday life as well as in prayer. The words that we speak are to be transformative, not just mindlessly evoked or invoked. Formulaic expressions and the mere volume of words means very little compared to a few words said with clear intent, focus, and in a mindful way.
Jesus is helping us to understand that the form or the words do not so much matter as understanding why we pray. We pray to deepen and develop our relationship with the trinitarian communion of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The very desire to pray is a prayer in itself, because we are hearing the invitation of God to be one with him. The first step is to acknowledge this invitation and then to turn our heart and mind to God. Thomas Dubay, in his book, Fire Within, paraphrases St. Teresa of Avila, the 16th century doctor of the Church, in saying that “one vocal prayer, even so little as one petition of the Our Father, if well said, is better than many recited thoughtlessly or hurriedly” (Dubay 1989, 76).
Reciting the Our Father, or Lord’s Prayer, that Jesus shares with his disciples in today’s Gospel of Matthew, can be a struggle, because the biggest challenge to a life of prayer is taming, what Buddhists call, the “monkey mind”. Our thoughts can be actively engaged or random, and we can be easily distracted away from our intended course when undisciplined. To overcome this challenge we can return to St Teresa again.
When we begin to pray, St. Teresa of Avila suggests that we begin “with self-examination and the sign of the Cross” (Dubay 1989, 77).
In this way, we can bring to awareness some issues, struggles, temptations, and sins that we have been dealing with. We can settle into them, instead of run from them and seek God’s help to be healed and reconciled. In making the sign of the Cross, we bring our self, as we are, into the presence of the Trinity. We receive and experience the love, acceptance, and mercy of God and recognize that we are loved as we are, and that we are not alone because we belong and are a part of this infinite community of love. In this simple gesture we are also uniting our body, mind, and soul with the One who will lead us in our prayer.
The next step is to imagine that Jesus is with us to guide and lead us in our prayer, just as he did in today’s Gospel account (Mt 6:9-15). “Imagine that this Lord Himself is at your side and see how lovingly and how humbly he is teaching you” (Dubay 1989, 77). By mindfully engaging in examining our conscience and making the sign of the Cross, we slow ourselves down from our pace of running from ourselves, we become still, we are able to breath, and allow ourselves to experience the presence of Jesus.
Next, we can imagine Jesus teaching us the Our Father as if for the first time, as he did his disciples. Going slowly, one word, one verse at a time, allow Jesus to not only share his words with us, but we can also pause and add our own words. In this way we begin to discipline and turn our mind to God such that we can enter into a dialogue with God and receive the blessing of his mercy and love. “Focusing on the indwelling presence, says Teresa, is for wandering minds ‘one of the best ways of concentrating the mind’ in prayer” (Dubay 1989, 77).
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Photo: James Tissot, The Lord’s Prayer by Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2006, 00.159.167_PS1.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10904489
Dubay, S.M., Thomas. Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel on Prayer. San Francisco: Ignatius, 1989.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 20, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062019.cfm
Spiritual Stepping Stones 