Stop running from Jesus. Run instead into his open arms waiting to embrace us.
Jesus recognized that the scribe, who asked him about which commandment was the greatest, “answered with understanding,” and then he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (Mk 12:34). What is it that the scribe understood?
The scribe understood that God “is One and that there is no other”. God is the true source of our being, our very existence. We have been created with an innate desire to be one with him. This is the longing we all feel in the depths of our soul, this is why nothing that is finite or material will ever fully satisfy us, why we are always wanting more. This is as true for the mystic as it is for the atheist and everyone in between.
God is “One and no other” also means that we are not God, we are his created beings. God is not just one being among many, not even the supreme being. This orientation is important for we can only see from our limited perspective. What we think or believe we might need, may in fact not be a true good or benefit for us, the shimmer may be an apparent good, a distraction, a temptation, that will lead us away from the authentic fulfillment and meaning in life that we seek. God will guide us away from any unhealthy want, he will lead us away from temptation, if we are willing to seek his guidance over and above our own. God will give us what we truly need, he will lead us to that which is in reality true, good, and beautiful.
Once we come to believe that God is God and we are his created beings, then we can take the next step and surrender: “to love him with all [our] heart, with all [our] understanding, with all [our] strength”. In our surrender to God and his will we become capable of receiving his love and so are able to love him in return. We all long to be loved and to love. Experiencing the love of God helps us to unconditionally love “our neighbor as our self” because, through our surrender to his will we allow God to love others through us.
God invites us to open our minds and hearts to receive his love, to love him in return, and to love others as he has loved us. To love God then is like any other relationship, we need to spend quality time with God in stillness, to be present One on one, as well as in our everyday activities. We are to resist compartmentalizing God and instead seek his presence in everything we do. The sacrifice he seeks is that we are willing to allow him to love others through us, especially those for whom we do not have a warm and fuzzy feeling for, as this is not the unconditional love God loves with. We are to will the good of the other as they are.
Each of us are prone to sin, are wounded, and are broken. God loves us as we are, he forgives our sins, he heals our wounds, and he transforms us, if we allow him to. We need to stop running away from him and start running to him. The quickest way we can do this is to love our neighbor as our self. Going out of our self and giving to another breaks down the walls of separation we build up around ourselves because of our fears.
Jesus’ arms are wide open before us in our neighbor. May we surrender all our heart, soul, mind, and strength into his loving embrace, to receive his love and love him in return, and to embrace loving our neighbor and our self in the same way. As we do so we too will hear Jesus say to us, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
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Photo: Side altar of St Augustine Parish, Culver City, CA, taken last week.
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 29, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032919.cfm
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it may be, but it is also so much more!
In the Gospel reading today, Jesus is accused of being an agent of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, because he was exorcising a demon from a man that was mute. Jesus addressed the critique and showed the polarizing nature of the onlookers who were unwilling to see the healing before them for what it was. Jesus then stated the obvious: “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house” (Lk 11:17).
If Jesus was an agent of the prince of demons, he was not a very good one. Satan seeks to sow discord and division. Jesus seeks to bring about unity. Now it is true, that five verses later in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is recorded as saying: “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Lk 12:51). Anyone feeling a bit confused? Welcome to the wonderful world of the Bible!
To understand Scripture, we need to understand the context of the whole of Scripture, not just isolated verses. Throughout the ministry of Jesus, he seeks the unity that all may be one as he and the Father are one (cf. John 17:21), yet he has consistently experienced those that rejected his message and healings as witnessed in today’s Gospel account.
Jesus demands a choice, we need to decide if we are either going to be for him or against him (cf. Lk 11:23). The division Jesus is talking about results from those who choose not to recognize that Jesus is who he says he is and reject him and those who accept him for who he is. This choice continues to cause division within households, families, and friends even today.
The greater take away from this verse and Jesus’ teachings as a whole, is that when we are unified, embracing the gift of our diversity, we are stronger than when we are divided by limiting ourselves to mere labels. In our modern context, labels, such as liberal and conservative are not helpful, whether they are being used in a political or religious context. Life is not as black and white as many would like it to be. It is certainly easier to cast labels, but interactions with people and developing relationships are much more nuanced. We are not mere cardboard cut outs, or caricatures.
To better understand the essence of who we are as human beings demands greater time and experience of each other than an outward appearance or isolated statement may portray. Many more of us, if we shake off any label for a moment, could honestly admit to believing in and supporting issues that are important to us from both sides of the so called left or right.
Many times, once we have cast a label, we believe that we have “defined” the person. They are classified in their box and tied up in a neat and pretty bow, and woe to the person who resists being boxed and bowed. I remember reading from one of the books from the tracker, Tom Brown, Jr., in which he described how many people when seeing a bird, such as a blue jay, robin, or crow, are often satisfied with the label, the naming of it, and move on from that sighting self-satisfied. They think that in that simple identification they now have come to understand all that there is to know about that particular species of bird. So much of the essence of one of God’s amazing creatures is missed by such a simplistic and limiting classification!
Unfortunately, we do the same with each other. We make a prejudgment on a person or group of people because of a word, statement, stance on a particular issue, or particular belief. We then falsely believe we know everything there is to know about that person or group. This is a very limiting and divisive approach. Jesus invites us to encounter the person, to accompany, spend time, and break bread with people. In spending time with one another and being open to dialogue, the caricatures can be filled in with some substance and we can come to know a little better the person beyond the prejudgment.
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it may very well be a duck, but it is also so much more than its classification. This is so much truer for us as human beings as well.
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Photo: One of the visiting ducks at Cardinal Newman as I was getting into my car to go home, reminding me to spend some quiet time enjoying the wonders of God’s creation.
Link for the Mass reading for Thursday, March 28, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032819.cfm
Jesus is with us on our journey of faith for the long haul.
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 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 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-seven times, loving our enemy, giving up all to follow him, these seemed impossible to his disciples and so do to us as well.
On face value, we may think these and many of Jesus’ teachings are not possible to put into practice. Attempting to do so with our will power alone is not a strategy for long term success, for we will come up short each time. Jesus does not expect nor desire for us to accomplish living as a follower of his 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 life.
To be a follower of Jesus is to learn his teaching, study his life, and surrender our self to his will through prayer, discipline, worship, service, and participation in the sacraments. Ultimately though, it is nothing we do, other than putting ourselves in a position of being open to and allowing Jesus to live his life in and through us and direct that which we receive outward toward others. In this way, we are transformed by his love and conformed by his life.
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. We are habitual creatures, may we, in collaboration with Jesus and infused by his grace, create some habits of holiness this Lent, with the intent that Jesus will make us holy as he is holy!
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Photo: Torrey Pines State Park, La Jolla, CA 2014
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, March 27, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032719.cfm
Let us build bridges of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a wonderful gift of grace and mercy. If many were asked if they would like to receive forgiveness most would say yes. The number would lessen when we were invited 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 hard for most of us? I do say most because there are those who have an openness to be forgiving. One reason could be that we have few role models. I would imagine those that are more forgiving have not only positive role models who they have not only witnessed practicing forgiveness, but they 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, 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, these 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, but we continue to fuel a fire of mistrust, division, that if continues 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.
Jesus is very clear, 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 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 are healed. We then will come to the realization that we need to put God first, instead of ourselves.
From this awareness, we can go forward to model forgiveness in our lives with others, we can encounter one another with understanding and 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 so doing 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 26, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032619.cfm
Are we willing to say yes as Mary did?
Why celebrate the Annunciation at the beginning of the third week of Lent? Simple math. If we celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25, it is logical to celebrate his conception nine months earlier on March 25.
Gabriel, an angel, a messenger of God, a spiritual being, interacts with a human being; though Mary is not the first one to experience such an encounter. There are personal encounters with God and his messengers throughout the Bible. This is how the God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ acts, person to person, through invitation, either directly himself or indirectly through one of his angels.
We can read such encounters going back to Genesis. God invited Abraham to be the father of a people that God would call to be his own. This reality would come to be with the birth of Isaac, while Sarah was well past child bearing years. Jacob would wrestle all night with an angel and become the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, during the time of the Judges the mother of Sampson and Hannah, the mother of Samuel, both barren women would encounter angels bearing the message of men born unto them that would lead the people Israel in their time of need. Moses, the judges, David, and the prophets all would hear and answer God’s invitation. Zechariah had an encounter in the temple and his wife Elizabeth, also barren and older, would give birth to John the Baptist. God has communicated and reached out to his created beings in history, in time, and place.
With Mary this announcement and encounter was different, for at this appointed time, the Son of God himself would become, while remaining fully divine, a human being in the womb of Mary. The God who is. Period. Full stop. He is not a being, not a human, or even a supreme being. He is Infinite Act of Existence who took on flesh and dwelt among his created beings. This is the message that Mary receives, and we can understand why she might be troubled. Yet Mary, the model of discipleship, pondered what this might mean as Gabriel said to her:
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God” (Lk 1:30).
Mary, who knew the arch of salvation history as briefly sketched above, knew of the encounters God had with his people, her ancestors, knew of the promised coming of the Messiah, would now be the bridge between heaven and earth, the bridge between the old and the new covenant, the bridge between a people lost and a people found. Mary in her fiat, her yes, would become Theotokos, the God bearer.
This is why we celebrate this feast each year: The Son of God has been born to us because Mary said yes. Yet, her yes is not in isolation. It is made possible by so many who had gone before her. Joachim and Anna, Mary’s parents who provided care and guidance, as well as the many named above and not named through out the Biblical tradition who said yes to God and played a part in making this moment possible. Mary is not alone in the Annunciation, not alone in this definitive moment. This is the distinctive feature of Judaism and Christianity: We cannot save ourselves. We are not God. Our very life as created beings is a gift from God and we are in need of constant help and support from God and one another (cf. Lohfink, 254).
God invites us, not just today as we celebrate the feast day of the Annunciation, but every day. Each day is a day to ponder, to wonder, to be still, to be in awe. The Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, loved us so much, more than we can ever imagine, more than we can ever even begin to conceive, that he became one with us so that we can become one with him. Us, you reading this, me writing this, and each unique person taking a breath on this earth.
No matter how much we have messed up, no matter how distant we feel we may be from him, no matter how confused, overwhelmed, disillusioned, he is present for and with us. The question is not whether we are worthy, for none of us are worthy, the question is, “Are we willing?”
We are invited to play our part in the ongoing drama of salvation history. Mary’s answer to this invitation was: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). This is her definitive yes. We too are called and sent by God. What will our response be?
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Painting: Henry Oswana Tanner, The Annunciation, 1898
Lohfink, Gerhard. No Irrelevant Jesus: On Jesus and the Church Today. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014.
Link for today’s readings for Monday, March 25, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032519.cfm
Jesus, prune us that we may bear your fruit abundantly!
In today’s Gospel, Jesus presented the importance of repentance, of changing our mind and heart. This means we need to acknowledge anything that we put before God. Anything that keeps us from allowing God into any part of our life will prevent us the sufficient sustenance to grow, mature, and bear fruit.
Jesus provides for help the parable of a man who has some concern about one of his fig trees that did not bear fruit for three years. The owner of the orchard debates with the gardener about whether this tree ought to be uprooted and another one planted in its place. The gardener responds: “Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down” (Lk 13:8-9).
The gardener sees the potential of the fig tree and that it needs some care. Jesus, as he did with his disciples, sees the same potential in us. Jesus does not define us by our worst mistakes, yet he also recognizes that we cannot just go along and do whatever we want on our own terms. Jesus has come that we may be one with him and his Father. This means Jesus meets us where we are, loves us as we are, and then cares for us and empowers us to become who we are called to be. Are we willing to receive his love, his nourishment, and his pruning?
Jesus is not only willing to prune those aspects which separate us from God, but he will also cultivate the soil of our soul and fertilize us with his divine life. Jesus will not leave us alone in our growing and maturation, but we need to repent from our self centered reality. We need to repent, surrender our control, and trust totally in Jesus, to allow him to shape and conform our will to his.
Jesus, help us to recognize that your grace is sufficient and builds upon our nature. May we trust in you as our Divine Gardener to: prune our pride, that we may bear the fruit of love; our despair, that we may bear the fruit of joy; our anger, that we may bear the fruit of peace; our impatience, that we may bear the fruit of patience; our cruelty, that we may bear the fruit of kindness; our meanness, that we may bear the fruit of goodness; our cruelty, that we may bear the fruit of gentleness; and our impulsiveness, that we may bear the fruit of self control.
Photo by Kaboompics.com from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, March 24, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032419-yearc.cfm
God loves us more than we can imagine! Lent is a time to come home!
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 are 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 observe, 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 of 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, tears still rolling down my cheek, 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 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, he runs to his son without hesitation. This act is no small thing, for an elder to run to a younger family member was not done. He was breaking this social taboo, most likely to redirect the focus off 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 a reckless abandonment of love to embrace his son. The jaw dropping and echoes of gossip would rise in chorus about the father’s actions not the son’s past actions.
God is watching and waiting, seeking opportunities to run to us with compassion and love to welcome us home. God is the shepherd who does the absurd in his outpouring of love, leaving the ninety nine sheep to go and the find the one stray, for we are the one he seeks; God is 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 temptation and distraction, 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 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 23, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032319.cfm
Lent is a time to replace “consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity…”
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 in those they serve, they 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 be served? Another important attribute in a leader is are they open 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 covenant relationship 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 Paul VI has stated. We have an intimate relationship with our brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham and are also given the responsibility of being good stewards.
Pope Francis offers us a prescription that we can aspire to 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 open to receive 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
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 22, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032219.cfm
