A time to give thanks
As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed,
returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him (Lk 17:14-15). Ten were healed from their leprosy and only one, a Samaritan, after realizing he was healed, returned to thank Jesus.
It is a good practice to spend some time each day to reflect on what we are thankful for. To see where God has entered our lives and provided assistance. At times when we feel a bit down and out, or in a bit of a funk, often the reason may be that we are focusing, on what we do not have instead of on what we do have. There is a quote, I am not sure of the source, that goes: “I cried because I had no shoes, and then I came upon a man with no feet.” We can be so bombarded by the mass appeal to the material, that we forget the truly important realities of this life that we have been given.
Times of family coming together can get a bit messy. There is all the cleaning, setting up and the prep for the big dinner, the travel, the unresolved issues of life, and there are the wonderful gifts of diverse personalities and points of view. If we can periodically stop, take a breath and be thankful for the fact that we have families and friends to be messy and grumble with, we might appreciate each other a bit more this day.
As Jesus reminds us, we do not know the time or the hour. Life is fragile in the best case scenarios, life is also finite. We will not be here forever. November is a time in the Church when we remember those who have joined the communion of saints. I know too many that have lost family members unexpectedly. May they be home with God and may we remember them through pictures and stories shared.
My thoughts and prayers are with you this Thanksgiving Day. May we feel the warm embracing arms of our loving God and Father reminding us that we are never alone and that he cares for our loved ones who have gone before us. Jesus, help us to remember that life is a gift, to appreciate and be thankful for our life and the lives of those near and far we are blessed to call family and friends. May we also remember and pray for those who may be alone, struggling, or without food and home this day.
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Photo: Thanksgiving toast with my maternal grandparents Bernard and Helen Morcus. Today they are toasting now, where we will one day be!
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, November 22, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112218-thanksgivingday.cfm
Let us pray for the discernment to know and act upon the gift God has given us!
In today’s Gospel we have available to us the same parable as The Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-30, though the Parable of the Ten Gold Coins from Luke 19:11-28 has some differences. A key opening point is that in Matthew’s account, we do not know why or where the master goes after entrusting three of his servants with talents; five, two, and one respectively. In Luke’s account the man is a noble and he “went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return” (Lk 19:12). He called ten servants to invest a gold coin he gave each of them. The theme is the similar in both accounts in that when the man returns, two of the servants have invested well and brought about a greater return on their investment for their master, and one hid what he was given out of fear.
Another added feature in Luke’s account was that there were fellow citizens of the nobleman that did not want the man to be king and openly opposed him. The nobleman after attaining his kingship and returning successfully, dealt harshly, to say the least with those who opposed him, having them slain. Those listening to the parable would understand this outcome, as it was not uncommon in the ancient Near East for a ruler to slay those who would oppose his rise.
The readings over this week continue in this vein of eschatological talk, references to the second coming of Jesus because we are in the final two weeks of the liturgical year. Each of the readings present us with the reality that there will be a judgment by God, but what Jesus makes clear is that we are not the judge and jury, though many appropriate this role for themselves. We are only accountable to the talent or gold coin we have been entrusted with.
We’ve got talent. But we can’t just sit on it.
There is a unique gift that God has given each of us, and we are called by the Lord to put this gift into action so to be a part of building up the kingdom of God. We need to resist burying this gift or rapping it in a handkerchief and hiding it away. Doubts, fears, and anxieties will arise in our hearts and minds. We may say to ourselves, “I don’t even know where to begin.” One place to begin is in prayer with the one who calls us to this work of encounter, solidarity, and accompaniment.
How we respond will be different for each one of us. May we ask God for his guidance regarding how best we can serve him, and may we seek the love of the Holy Spirit this day, that in the words of Pope Francis we may: “Have the courage to go against the tide of this culture of efficiency, this culture of waste. Encountering and welcoming everyone, [building] solidarity – a word that is being hidden by this culture, as if it were a bad word – solidarity and fraternity: these are what make our society truly human” (Pope Francis 2014, 61).
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Photo: An icon of prayer for discernment in solidarity and fraternity
Francis, Pope. The Church of Mercy: A Vision For the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, November 21, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112118.cfm
May we let go of grumbling and open our arms wide to healing.
Again, the crowd gets in the way of someone seeking access to Jesus. The wall of people does not appear to be overtly keeping Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus, as they may be so focused on seeing him themselves that they are not aware another cannot see. There is also the possibility that the people were aware, they knew Zacchaeus, and many judged him to be the sinner of sinners, as he was the chief tax collector of the area. Each time Zacchaeus nudged by to get through a gap to get a better look, the individuals may have time and again closed the gap such that Zacchaeus could not get through.
Zacchaeus though would not be thwarted in his effort to see Jesus. He climbed a sycamore tree. From his perch he was not only able to see Jesus, Jesus saw him and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house” (Lk 19:5). Jesus did not see a tax collector or a sinner, he saw a seeker. As with yesterday’s reading, the crowd only saw a blind beggar, and today they tried not to see the tax collector. Jesus saw Bartimaeus yesterday and today he saw Zacchaeus. He saw his brothers.
Jesus did not see the 99% and he did not see the 1%, Jesus saw people who were in need of compassion and mercy. Jesus did not meet Zacchaeus with judgment, but with love and acceptance as he was, and that made all the difference for conversion to happen. Zacchaeus responded to Jesus’ invitation with the words: “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over” (LK 19:8). Jesus did not judge Zacchaeus, he saw his open heart of faith. Zacchaeus is moved by Jesus’ acceptance of him as he is, as a person with dignity, and he repents as a response to the love he has received.
We need to follow the lead of Jesus and start seeing each other as human beings. One way to do so is to resist the temptation to “grumble”, to gossip, to pre-judge, to dehumanize one another, and to see beyond the exterior and to be willing to go deeper to the heart and character of the person. To do that, we need to be willing to encounter one another, to walk with one another, to accompany and spend time with one another.
May we move from a people who seek to define and limit ourselves by our identity, and instead seek to open ourselves up to being people of integrity. This means resisting the temptation of building walls that protect ourselves from others and instead building bridges of dialogue and embracing the gift of diversity. Integrity means that we will be aware, we will stand with and stand up for someone who is ignored, belittled, dehumanized, harassed, discriminated against, ridiculed, abused, objectified, persecuted, segregated, and prevented access no matter their gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, income level, class, political party, religion or none.
Life is hard enough, so let’s stop grumbling and start healing, let’s stop preventing access and start opening opportunities, and let’s stop closing ourselves off and begin to open our arms wide to embrace and accompany one another as we journey with Jesus.
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Photo by Tri Nguyen Trong from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 20, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112018.cfm
Let us not be blind to the need of others.
He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me” (Lk 18:38-39)!
The difference between the blind man who shouted to Jesus and the people walking in front of Jesus was that the man knew he was blind. Those preventing access to Jesus were not aware of their spiritual blindness. Luke does not say why the people were preventing access to Jesus, just as Jesus in his parable of the Good Samaritan did not say why the priest or the Levite did not help the man dying on the road to Jericho.
Why would the people prevent the man from having access to Jesus? Especially since he was asking for pity or mercy. One practical reason could be time. They were on the way to Jericho, their mind was set to get there, and stay on the schedule they would. Another could be that the man was a beggar. He was not seen to have dignity and worth, so they attempted to quiet him so he could go back to being invisible. The Jericho road was a dangerous road, maybe this was just a setup, a way to lure Jesus into an ambush.
Ultimately, we do not know why they prevented the man access. The more important question is how often do we prevent others from accessing Jesus for similar reasons? We do not have the time, they are other than us, so we too may not see their dignity and worth as human beings, and/or we are afraid of difference so we keep others at arm’s length. Could it be we are just indifferent to the suffering of others?
Jesus responded differently to the call of the beggar in today’s Gospel account. He stopped and had the blind man brought to him. He made the time, saw him as a fellow brother with dignity and worth, and he took the risk to reach out to someone in need, and healed him. As Pope Francis has said, “[Jesus] understands human sufferings, he has shown the face of God’s mercy, and he has bent down to heal body and soul. This is Jesus. This is his heart” (Francis 2014, opening page).
This is to be our response as well. Even if we do not understand the suffering of another, Jesus does. We are invited to stop, to be present, to enter the chaos of another, and trust that Jesus will be present through us to provide mercy. May we resist indifference and fear and instead see each person we encounter, not as other, but as a fellow human being. We do this best by making the time and being present with others. May Jesus heal our blindness that we may see the dignity and worth of each person that we meet so that those we encounter see in us the face of God’s mercy.
Photo: Healing the Blind Man by Yongsu Kim
Pope Francis. The Church of Mercy: A Vision for the Church. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2014.
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, November 19, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111918.cfm
Respectful dialogue can diminish dehumanization and division.
There are only two weeks left of the liturgical year, and so our readings will focus on the eschatological or end times. These writings are also called apocalyptic because they unveil or reveal hope to a people in dark times of oppression. They are addressing the issue of where is God in the midst of our suffering.
Their focus is not that we are to know the exact time and hour of the end, as Jesus revealed in the Gospel: “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mk 13:32).
The focus instead is, as recorded in our first reading from Daniel: whose name is written in the book (Daniel 12:1)? and in Hebrews10:12, that Jesus took his seat at the right hand of God forever.
What our readings reveal for us today is that what is important is relationship. We are not written in the book of life by some predestined oracle such that we are merely pawns on God’s chessboard. We are written in the book of life because we have been saying yes to the invitation of building our relationship with Jesus and his Father through the love of the Holy Spirt.
Today, we, as have those in the times of the Bible, are experiencing division, polarization, abuse, and violence, such that it appears like our church, society, and government are coming apart at the seams.
Yet we do not have to give in to indifference, cynicism, despair, or retaliate with hate or violence. We need to remember our first love. We need to deepen our relationship with Jesus who conquered death and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. We need to be open to building relationships with each other.
Viktor Frankl in his book Man’s Search for Meaning wrote:
“We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in numbers but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of his freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’
The answer to the growing and present darkness is not to curve in on oneself, to hide in our shell, to put our head in the sand. We can choose to reach out, be present and accompany one another.
Jesus built the Church one person, one relationship at a time. We are to do the same. At our parish, St Peter, for the past two years we have been implementing this model of building small groups of relationships. In these small weekly groups, we come together to learn more about our faith and share our journey together.
A strength of our small group is that we respect the diversity of our own viewpoints. We each see issues in our unique perspectives and do not always agree with each other but we afford one another the opportunity to share our various viewpoints freely and openly, while respecting and loving each other in the process.
By engaging in authentic and respectful dialogue, we can vent, listen, encourage, provide support, share advice, and lean on each other with each of the struggles that we face and the joys we experience. As we do so, we dismantle walls of division and dehumanization and instead build bridges of encounter by broadening our experience, vision and perspective. Daniel shared in our first reading:
“the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.”
We shine like stars in the growing darkness of division and polarization by living out our baptismal call, by listening to, caring for and serving one another, by building relationships of love and support.
Photo: Engaged in dialogue with my brother, mentor and friend Dr. Sixto Garcia.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 18, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111818.cfm
Persistence in Prayer is a virtue.
Jesus told his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary (Lk 18:1).
Persistence in prayer is not changing God. We are not wearing him down like the woman did with the judge. God does not need us, we need him. Our persistence, our daily habit of prayer, changes us, helps us to develop our relationship by interacting with him more consistently. Things happening in our lives help us to see that we are fragile and vulnerable and in need of help. Our persistence in prayer, especially when we are in need, helps us to become more patient and to become more aware that, sometimes, what we believe is a crisis is not that much of one when some time passes. Also, when we are dealing with a crisis or very real trauma, our persistence and faithfulness in prayer will help us to experience the closeness of Jesus in our midst as he accompanies us through our suffering.
In fact, the practice of stopping everything and praying for five minutes when a crisis arises, often helps us to resist slipping into a fight or flight mode, helps us to resist reacting, and some breathing while praying helps us to act more prudently than impulsively. We may also come to see that what we thought was a crisis, was more of a problem to be solved than something catastrophic. Our instant reactions to perceived crisis can often escalate an issue rather than de-escalate one.
In the greater scope of things, God does answer all prayers of petition or intercession by saying yes, no, or not yet! Most seem to fall in the not yet or not the way we originally intended category. Remaining patient and faithful can help us to move away from seeking to conform God to our will and instead allowing God to expand our hearts and minds to his will. Our persistence in prayer also helps us to move away from seeking instant gratification to one where we trust in God’s will and timing. Sometimes we become grateful for what appears to be unanswered prayers because with time, hindsight, some distance, we find the original request was more an apparent than an actual good. As Garth Brooks sings, “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.”
Persistence in prayer is also a discipline that deepens the roots of our relationship with God. Ready access through our modern technology, higher internet speeds, one click access, overnight shipping can offer plusses, but we have to be careful that this mindset does not shape our mental, psychological, and spiritual growth. Physical fitness, wisdom, or spiritual maturity does not happen in an instant. Development as human beings takes time, experience, discipline, prayer, and trust in God’s plan.
Patience, persistence in prayer, freeing ourselves from attachment, developing an authentic relationship with God and one another are all worth the time and effort. May we take some time to breathe deeply, slow down our pace, discipline ourselves to resist even small acts of instant gratification today. Let us look back upon those experiences in which what we initially sought from God in prayer actually changed over time to something better than our initial request, and be grateful for trusting in his guiding hand instead of our impulsiveness.
May we also recall those experiences where we wanted to give up but instead were persistent in prayer and that persistence brought about fruitful results! Reflecting in this way can also help us to see where God has not abandoned us in our time of suffering, but was accompanying us through it. God has our back, we can trust in that.
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Photo: Stopping by the chapel at St Thomas University to pray before a workshop last month.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 17, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111718.cfm
Do we realize the Kingdom of God is at hand?
In today’s Gospel account, Jesus is continuing his answer to the Pharisees’ question about “when the kingdom of God would come” (Lk 17:20). Jesus reminds them about how during the time of Noah and during the time of Lot many were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, buying, selling, planting, building (cf. Lk 17:26-29). In effect, other than Noah and Lot, and those few listening to them, no one else had any clue about the impending calamity. They were so absorbed in their own pursuits and desires they did not heed the warnings of Noah and Lot.
Another focal point was on those who were attached to material and finite things. When the final hour came, people on the rooftop or in the field were directed not to go back and get their possessions. Jesus pointed out succinctly, “Remember the wife of Lot” (Lk 17:32). Lot left Sodom with his wife, she did so physically, though she could not resist looking back, she was too tied to what she was leaving behind, and so she lost herself to her attachments.
Spending time speculating when the end will come is a pointless pursuit. What is important is to be aware of the kingdom of God in our midst, developing a relationship with God now. Matthew shared in his gospel account that Jesus stated only the Father knows the time or the hour as to when the end will come (cf. Mt 24:36). If we are only going to prepare at the final hour, we may be too late.
Asking, “When will the kingdom of God come?” also misses the point of what Jesus is teaching us. There is an intrinsic value in developing a relationship with God and one another, growing and maturing as a disciple, instead of fulfilling our own self interest. Jesus shared this truth in the first words of his public ministry, that the kingdom of God is at hand. All we need to do is reach right out and grasp his hand and walk with him.
For the Pharisees, this meant letting go of their own power and prestige and instead participate in the living reality of God in their midst. So many of us are caught up in the day to day affairs of existing, we are so busy, that we are barely living. We can be so distracted by false lures and attractions of security and gratification, wealth, power, pleasure, and honor, that we miss what is for our highest hope and good. Jesus is inviting us to wake up, to breathe deep, to slow down, and to be aware that he walks among us. Jesus calls us, as Lot called his wife, to keep our focus on God and the things of heaven.
Lord Jesus, help us to recognize when we are caught up in the busyness of life, when we are choosing to put our self first, and where we are attached and bound up to empty pursuits. Guide us, such that we, in the words of Pope Francis, “understand what faith means when we open ourselves to the immense love of God that changes us inwardly and enables us to see our lives with new eyes” (Costello 2013, 12). Eyes that see the kingdom of God in our midst.
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Photo: JoAnn, Jack, and Christy hiking ahead of me during our California visit with them in December 2015
Costello, Gwen. Walking With Pope Francis: Thirty Days with the Encyclical The Light of Faith. New London, CT: Twenty Third Publications, 2013.
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, November 16, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111618.cfm
Jesus, the Kingdom of God in our midst
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17:20-21).
Many of the Pharisees were scrutinizing Jesus’ every word and action, unfortunately, with a hard heart. They were closed to the reality present before them because they were looking for ways to accuse him, to catch him, to have cause to show him to be a fraud. They were closed to the actual events happening around Jesus that the blind saw, the deaf heard, the lame walked, lepers were healed, the dead had arisen, and the poor had the good news proclaimed to them (cf. Matthew 11:5).
They missed the very reality that the Kingdom of God was in their midst. We see this very much today through a mental posturing of “scientism”, the belief that the only reality is that which can be measured empirically, through the five senses. Scientists have brought about many advances and innovations that we enjoy today, yet there is a reality beyond the physical. This is the spiritual, which transcends time and space, transcends the three dimensional reality that we experience and are aware of through our senses. We understand the world around us best when we embrace both the physical and spiritual, as well as our reason and faith.
If our mind is closed to an idea, a reality, and/or a belief we will not only resist believing, we will also seek rationalizations to explain it away as did some of the Pharisees. From a hyper sensitivity to only the physical, we can brush off acts of synchronicity as mere coincidence. While if we are open to a spiritual reality of interconnectedness beyond that which we can measure in a finite way, these incidences can be termed God-incidences.
We cannot solve or prove God like a problem because God is not in the genus of being, he is not an animal, a human, an angelic, spiritual, or even a supreme being. There are no words to adequately describe him. We can say more about what he is not than what or who he is! The best attempts we have are in the phrasing of St Thomas Aquinas, that God is an Infinite Act of Existence. Or as God said to Moses, “I am, who am” (Exodus 3:14). God is completely transcendent, beyond categories, beyond genus, beyond the grasp of our finite minds, yet we can experience him because God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.
The most unique and powerful way we come to know God is through Jesus, who is fully divine as the Son of God and fully human, born of Mary. Jesus reveals the Father to us. As we spend time with Jesus, in personal prayer and communal worship, through the hearing and study of his word, in the sacraments, through our interactions and service with one another, and allowing ourselves to meditate and contemplate in his presence, we come to know Jesus. We also come to know God his Father, and the love shared between them, the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said to Philip, “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).
The Kingdom of God is among us because Jesus is who he said he is. Jesus is the Godman in our midst. This calls for a change on our part. We need to let go of anything that prevents us from coming closer to him. May we allow Jesus to be Jesus and resist the temptation to compartmentalize, overanalyze or to limit who Jesus is.
May we be still before his presence so to allow him to free us from our own limitations, sins, fears, doubts, and anxieties. May we not so much seek to bring down, confine and limit him to our finite perspective, but pray for Jesus to expand, our minds, hearts, and souls so our awareness can be broader and deeper such that we experience his presence in our daily life.
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Photo: Roberta Veracruz Mexico by robygfurber at cathopic.com
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, November 15, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111518.cfm
