Related to Jesus?
He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Luke 8:21).
There are many popular genetic testing kits that are advertised on TV and through the internet. People have asked me is it possible to be a blood relation to Jesus. Jesus’ reply today can help you to save some money. What is important is not blood relation, but “those who hear the word of God and act upon it.” God is to be first, even before family. We may experience a subtle shudder from this statement, but to those of Jesus’ time it would have been apoplectic. Family meant everything in the Ancient Near East.
Jesus is not making the point that we disregard family. Jesus is making the point that if we are to be authentically present to our family this will come about best by following the will of God. As we deepen our relationship with Jesus and put his teachings into action, we begin to bear the relational fruits of patience, understanding, kindness, love, joy, and peace. Would not our familial relationships be better if we were more patient, understanding, kind, loving, joyful, and peaceful with one another? Jesus taught and showed from his own life that the path to fulfilling and intimate relationships flourish when we put God first. For as we grow closer in relationship with him we also do so with those in our family.
Jesus’ point in today’s Gospel is that our “family” is to transcend bloodline, tribe, or nation. Any of “those who hear the word of God and act upon it” are spiritually akin to Jesus the Christ. The point is not that we may have a genetic, lineal relation with Jesus, but that when we live and act according to his Father’s will, we are part of the universal family of God’s grace and mercy and our relationship with him and one another grows as we continue to bear the fruits of the spirit. Instead of talking and shouting at one another, let us be willing to dialogue and seek to build bridges of a common accord with one another. As brothers and sisters, let us seek to be more understanding, to be more willing to walk and accompany one another. Let us love one another as Jesus has loved and loves us!
Link for today’s reading: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092518.cfm
Photo: My family in Christ, Edwin, at his installation as an acolyte this past Sunday, his wife Rosa, and Bishop William Wack, C.S.C.
Receiving and radiating Christ’s Light to one another
Jesus said to the crowd: “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light” (Luke 8:16).
God blesses us freely without cost, he gives himself to us. He has done great things for us and he is the source of our joy! We do not earn nor is there anything that we can do to gain God’s grace. But we can lose the gift we have been given. This happens either by refusing what has been offered, or once accepting and receiving, not doing anything with our gift. If we are people of faith in name only, but not followed by action, we are concealing the light we have been given.
Since our Golden Retrievers have passed away, our last of three, Lexi, just a little over a year ago, the little exercise I did walking with them is now almost non existent. Premature aging of my heart, weight gain, lower back and body ache, as well as a series of pulled muscles over the course of last year, were all subtle hints that my lack of attention to exercise was exacting a cost on my health. This past summer, I started to stretch daily and implement a series of exercises that, though not consistent, have been helpful and I have been able to see an improvement in my health.
The same can be said for our faith. If we do not exercise our faith, we will receive signs of spiritual atrophy. To not even acknowledge the presence of God in our life, the free gift of his invitation to be in relationship with him, we will experience some limitations in our life. For whether we believe in God or not, we hunger to be in communion with him and one another, so we will be looking for other apparent avenues of happiness that will fall short of fulfilling us. If we do accept that there is a God, yet don’t participate in worship, fellowship, service, and prayer, we are not much better off. I can believe that my car will get me to school in the morning, but if I do not put the key in the ignition, turn on the engine, put the car in drive, I will remain in our driveway watching the sunrise.
If we claim to be people of faith, we need to put our faith into action. May we daily: spend time in prayer, read Scripture, study our faith through spiritual reading, cd’s, dvd’s (I at first wrote cassettes and videotapes!) and/or podcasts. May we consistently participate in worship, the sacraments, and serve one another. May we reflect and so be able to see God at work in our everyday experiences and better collaborate with him in all we do. May we also resist the tendency to privatize our faith, while at the same time resist getting in someone’s face. Let us be present, care, understand, support, and accompany one another, even others of no or different faith traditions.
Jesus has given his life for us, and he continues to be present to us. May we be open to being conformed today and each day by his love and mercy. Let us resist the darkness of the temptations of sloth, indifference, prejudice and fear, and instead seek to encounter one another, to realize how much more we have in common than not. As Jesus is willing to enter the chaos of our lives, may we too be willing to do the same for one another. May we seek in each interaction to radiate the presence of Christ’s light, so to shine with patience, understanding, support, joy and hospitality in such a way that anytime we come together, God happens.
Photo: Johannes Plenio
Link for today’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092418.cfm
Jesus, set our soul on fire with your love, and burn away our sin.
James, from our second reading today, asks a question that unfortunately needs to be asked in every generation.
Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
James gives us a place to start:
Beloved: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.
Conflict and division come from the disordering of our thoughts, desires, passions, words, and actions. There is something a bit off kilter with us. This disorder or dis-orientation is caused by our choosing our self over God. This stance of turning in upon ourselves, saying we are the center of the universe and all is to revolve around us comes from the condition of Original Sin which weakens and wounds our human nature. This condition is grounded in the belief that we can save ourselves.
We seek the truth, we seek to be happy and we seek to be fulfilled but we follow false promises, substitutes that are apparent goods that appeal to our egotism, our pride and our fear. St Thomas Aquinas, the thirteenth century Dominican doctor of the Church, categorizes these four substitutes or temptations that lead us astray from our proper orientation to God. These are:
Pleasure, Wealth, Power and Honor
In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these four, but when we make any or all of them into an idol, when we pursue them as a means to provide our stability, satisfaction and fulfillment, we will be led astray.
Pleasure feels good, it brings us instant gratification. The problem is that once the external agent or stimulus of the pleasure ends, so does the experience, and it leaves us empty and wanting more.
Wealth promises us that if we just have enough money we can get whatever we want, do whatever we want, we can be safe and secure. But again, we will still experience that deep hunger within us that cannot be fed by that which is finite or material.
Power has the promise of access, of controlling the unpredictability of life’s challenges, yet, as the Catholic historian and moralist, Lord Acton, wrote: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Honor, closely linked with power, we played out in our present day, the tremendous cult of celebrity that is sown into the very fabric of our society. So many seek their fifteen minutes of fame, no matter how they can get it.
We witness the Apostles in today’s Gospel, the closest to Jesus and his teaching, falling for the temptations of power and honor as they argue among themselves who is to be the greatest among them. The even deeper sadness of their debate is that they are engaged in it, just after Jesus has explained to them that he will be handed over and killed. The Apostles are so ensnared in the hierarchical structure of the society of their time that they fail to have the empathy and compassion to be present to Jesus as he shares with them his horrific fate. We too fall into indifference, lack of empathy, and slowing down enough to be present and accompany others.
We witness time and again, from the ancient times to today, the effects of Original Sin. The English convert to Catholicism, GK Chesterton, wrote that, “original sin… is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved” (Orthodoxy). We can see it in the streets, we can see it in the news, we can see it looking back at us in the mirror.
Original Sin is real and we ignore or deny it at our own peril. We must resist its lure and acknowledge that we cannot save ourselves, we cannot find happiness, security, joy and fulfillment in any finite or material pursuit. While at the same time, we can also acknowledge that even though Original Sin is real, even though we have been wounded and battered by its effects, we have not been overcome, we are not totally corrupt or destroyed by it.
We have been created good by God, and the embers of that goodness remain in each and every one of us. The embers still smolder, just awaiting to be stoked and set ablaze.
God has created us as a living, craving, hunger and desire to be one with God and one another and this is true for the atheist and the mystic alike.
The antidote to the poison of Original Sin is Jesus the Christ. He, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, who became one with us so that we can become one with him. In our Baptism we are cleansed from the condition of Original Sin and are indelibly marked, we are conformed to the very being of Jesus. We become part of his Body.
Yet, while freed from the bondage of Original Sin by our Baptism, we are still tempted to return to the place of our slavery, like the Hebrew slaves yearning for Egypt, like Lot’s wife looking back to Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to keep our eyes focused on looking ahead, to the that which is above. Jesus shares with his Apostles in today’s Gospel that we are to turn the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, power, and honor on its head when he states that: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Only a relationship with God will bring us happiness and fulfillment.
We begin our path of walking as disciples by becoming like the small child that Jesus brought into their midst. The child in ancient Palestine was nothing. He had no status, no significance, no wealth, power, or honor. Each child was completely dependent on their parents. This is to be our starting point in being a disciple. We need to reject the notion outright that we can heal ourselves and admit that we need Jesus to restore us to our relationship with our Father and place our sole dependence in him for everything. God, not self, is to be our end goal.
As James wrote, “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.”
May we support and accompany one another as we seek to deepen our journey with Jesus. May we be willing to serve, to give of our time, talent and treasure to build up the Kingdom here on earth. May we be willing to gather and join a small group, so that we can feel the support and encouragement so to realize that we do not have to walk alone. May we be open to pray to the one who created us, read the Bible to enter into those who have experienced turning away from and encountering God, and read the lives of the saints, those who are now where we seek to one day be! May we participate in the sacraments and life of the Church, and above all, share our stories of faith with those in our realm of influence and invite others to join us on our journey.
We are one Body in Christ. All of us want to be happy, fulfilled, to belong and to be a part of something greater than ourselves. This is who God created us to be. St Augustine realized this when he wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O God, and we are restless until we rest in you.” It is never too late to come to realize that God loves us more than we can ever mess up. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. God is our hope, he is our goal, he is the answer to our deepest desire.
Let us cast off jealousy, fear, pride, and selfish ambition, and instead prepare our hearts, minds and souls to receive Jesus in our time of prayer, service, in his very real presence in the Eucharist celebrated today at Mass, so to be forgiven, healed, renewed, reconnected, and find the fulfillment we have been created for. And once we receive and experience his unconditional love, may the embers of our soul ignite with the flame of his love such that we can recognize the wonderful diversity of the Body of Christ in those we encounter and be willing to embrace and respect the human dignity of one another in each and every one of our interactions this week.
Photo by Jennifer Moore from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, September 23, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092318.cfm
Bearing mature fruit from the seeds of God’s Word!
“The seed is the word of God” (Lk 8:11).
Jesus expressed in his parable of the sower the ways in which we lose the germination opportunity or coming to bear fruit of the seed that has been sown. The devil “comes and takes away the word from their heart that they may not believe or be saved.” This can be observed with those who fixate on mere scientism or empiricism, and so denounce any spiritual or transcendental experience as a coincidence, or dismissed as offering no empirical substance, no proof, thus explaining away any trace of spirit.
Others “receive the word with joy but have no root.” Some encounter God, experience deep emotion and connection in the moment, but once the emotion wanes, once the pleasure experienced ends, they move onto other pursuits, other experiences. Still others receive for a time God’s word, come to a place of germination and even sprouting, experience new growth, but “are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit.”
Each of us at different times fall prey to each of the above examples Jesus offers in his parable from today’s Gospel. Are minds and hearts can be closed, we can be distracted, we are busy, we seek merely accomplishing and moving on to the next activity or item on the list, anxieties and fears can keep us caught in indecisiveness, we are lured by temptations and apparent goods, but if we ever want to experience mature fruit, we must “embrace [the word] with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”
Do we read a book just to get done, do we go to church just to say we went, do we visit or call relatives, friends, to say we have accomplished our duty, do we go to work or school just to get to Friday? To be fully alive we need to be present in the experience of what we are doing, we need to embrace a mindfulness and deeper experience of what we do. To do that we need to slow down a bit more and breathe. Then maybe we can read and hear, so to come to understand and put into practice what has been presented to us. This is true for good fiction as well as non-fiction, and poetry. This is even truer when we are reading the Bible. We need to meditate and contemplate, not just read a passage, close the cover and move on as if nothing ever happened.
When we go to church, in person or online, may we absorb one or two lessons, from a prayer, a hymn, the word, or preaching, that we can take with us and think about and apply in the coming week. In this way, when we leave we are not just leaving, but going forth to proclaim the Gospel in our lives. When we communicate and visit with friends and family, may we be present, and open to their needs, willing to hear their stories, their experiences. May we also be willing to be present to those friends and family we have not yet met and in the past have just walked by or over. In our work, our dedication to school as a student, our entry into retirement, let us resist the attitude of just getting through the day and instead seek meaning in what we do. Let us embrace the joy of the gift of life we have been given.
May we actually stop this Saturday, take some deep breathes, be still and know that God is present, waiting for us to do so. Allow him to speak to us in the depths of our hearts. Maybe by doing so, we might be a little more present and mindful throughout the course and events of today. Maybe we will be a bit more aware of the seeds, God’s Word, that he has sown in our lives. When we are, may we nurture them, be patient with the process of germination and growth, and fertilize them with our perseverance and discipline of prayer, worship, service, this coming week and the weeks to follow.
From this simple beginning of a little quiet rest with God, the roots of our relationship with him will have an opportunity to go deeper and take a firmer hold in our lives. Soon we will begin to experience the first sprouting, buds, then maturing fruits of love, patience, goodness and kindness to harvest from those seeds God has sown in our lives!
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Photo: Mature strawberries from our picking them with Christy in California during our 2014 visit.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, September 22, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092218.cfm
We belong to God and one another.
“While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples” (MT 9:10).
We as the Church, we as followers of Jesus, still have much to learn from Jesus. Today’s reading provides another wonderful example. Once Jesus begins his public ministry he is constantly on the go. Going where? Meeting people where they were, in the midst of their daily lives. And what is the response to Jesus calling Matthew, a tax collector, and then partaking in table fellowship with other tax collectors and sinners? The Pharisees question the disciples about his practice and curious onlookers follow at a distance. But to those who have, maybe for the first time in their lives, been respected as fellow human beings, feel hope. Hope that there actually may be a path from the peripheries. Hope that they no longer have to be on the outside looking in. Hope that they, for the first time in their lives might finally belong.
Jesus is shown time and again in the Gospels to be about encountering the person as they are in their present circumstance and chaos of their lives. He welcomes, is present, embraces the person as they are. He invites people to be part of something greater than their self, to actualize their potential and embrace a life of meaning and purpose. The only requirement is to be willing to be loved, to be willing to be human, to be willing to be free, and once experiencing this encounter, willing to share what they have received with others.
Do we: deny or mask our own fears, stoke our pride believing that we can take care of ourselves without the help of anyone else, seek false truths and the glittering lures of power, wealth, pleasure, and honor for our security and satisfaction, that in the end leave us empty, attached, and/or addicted? Or are we willing: to have the humility to recognize our sinfulness, our need for Jesus and willing to receive his love, so to let go of our bondage to false illusions of security, and realize that we are, at the deepest core of our being, a living, craving hunger and desire to be loved by God and others, so to love in return?
If we are willing to risk, to be vulnerable, to open our heart to Jesus we will experience the love, fulfillment, and belonging we seek in the very depths of our soul. This is the fulfillment that no other pursuit or person can bring. We do this best as Jesus did, by being willing to enter into the lives of others, by resisting judgment and accepting another as they are for who they are, being present and willing to accompany our fellow brothers and sisters. For as Jesus said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Mt 12:7). Mercy, as I have quoted Fr. James Keenan, S.J. before, “is the willingness to enter into the chaos of another.” Jesus is willing to do so for us. Are we willing to be loved by him, to be called by Jesus like Matthew, so we can love others in the midst of their chaos?
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Painting: The Calling of St. Matthew, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1600
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, September 21, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092118.cfm
Bathing the feet of Jesus with tears of contrition
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment (Lk 7:37-38).
Logistically, to our modern minds, the setting of this verse may appear to be confusing. How could this “sinful” woman be standing behind Jesus such that her tears would fall on his feet? This could be confusing to us because when we think or imagine someone sitting and eating, they do so by sitting in a chair. Thus the feet would be toward the front of the person.
During the time period Jesus lived, the customary practice when eating was not to sit at all but to recline. Thus, the woman was standing behind the feet of Jesus as he reclined, and her tears fell on his feet. She then knelt down, dried his feet with her hair, and then anointed Jesus’ feet with the ointment she brought for him.
This is a simple but powerful scene of contrition. This is the posture we are to approach Jesus when we have sinned. We are not to rationalize, deny, ignore, or come grudgingly forward when we are caught and held accountable for our sin. We are to feel true contrition, sorrow, for the sins we have committed because the healing presence of Jesus leads us to a place of compassion and understanding for the hurt we have caused to God and others through our sinful actions.
Unfortunately, there are too many leaders in our secular as well as our church leadership who assume the posture of Simon the Pharisee in this account. They puff up their chests in righteous indignation over the sins of another or others, while not being transparent and forthcoming with their own sinful choices and behavior. Using instead their means of power, prestige, and places of honor, not to serve and empower others, but to hide behind and justify or rationalize their own weakness and vices.
Imagine where our Church would be right now if those who have used their positions of power and privilege to abuse children and at risk adults would have instead assumed the posture of the woman in today’s Gospel.
How about this? How about all those who have abused, covered up, or contributed in any overt act or omission, that lead in any way to the abuse of anyone, invited those they have abused, along with their families, to the church sanctuary. When the honored guests arrived, they would be escorted to sit in the front pews to participate in a Mass offered for their healing and reconciliation from the pain, horror, shame, and anguish that they have suffered and endured.
After today’s Gospel from Luke 7:36-50 is proclaimed, the abusers would then come down from the altar, take off their chasubles and stoles, place them at the feet of those they had abused, bathe their feet in tears of sorrow for the sin they committed. Next they would wipe and anoint their feet with the holy oil that the priests and bishops hands were anointed with at their ordination. Then they would offer their letter of resignation from public ministry to those they abused and ask for forgiveness.
What would our Church be like if this was the response to our present crisis? May we all remember and live by Matthew 25:40 “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers [and sisters] of mine, you did it for me.”
Photo: Reconciliation scene before the altar at Our Lady of Florida Retreat Center
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, September 20, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092018.cfm
Jesus Christ – the celebration of the human and the divine!
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not weep'” (Lk 7:31-32).
Jesus was convicting those who held a narrow view of who was a true follower of God. He illustrated this by sharing the above example that there was no pleasing the listeners, for when the flute was played no one danced, when times of joy arose, there was no celebration, and when the funeral dirge was sung, they did not weep, they did not mourn. Jesus expanded the analogy to his present condition where there were those who did not accept the ascetical practices of fasting and the call to repentance from John the Baptist, nor did they accept the inclusive table fellowship of Jesus.
We also have encountered those that are not pleased beyond their own narrow focus and who suffer from tunnel vision. Anything that hints at even a slight variation of change sends tremors of discontent. And if we are honest, we all have some resistance to change. But if we are to authentically live the Gospel, Blessed John Cardinal Newman’s quote is an apt barometer: “To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
The Church, at her best, is a balance of the rock foundation of our core beliefs, such as the Nicene Creed, which provides stability, assuredness, and identity, while at the same time being open to the life giving movement of the Holy Spirit. Each generation must make the Gospel relevant in our own time. We must be flexible and resist rigidity, legalism, and clericalism, so to avoid molding the Church in our image, but being authentic to renewal, integrity, and embracing the Mystery of God’s movement such that we are molded, transformed, and conformed in the image and likeness of Jesus, who is the embodiment of Love, the Trinitarian communion of which we profess in the Creed.
We can live a life of joy when we are not threatened by those who are different. The gift of Catholicism is the universal call and invitation of Jesus which is open to all of humanity. Embracing, the gift of unity AND diversity, the foundation of the deposit of faith AND variety of cultural expression, the divine and the human, is messy, but this both/and not either/or approach is what Jesus guides us to participate in. Is this challenging? Yes. Hard? Yes. Impossible? On our own, and from our own egoistic perspective, yes. When we are willing to surrender our will to the Father, our heart and mind to the Son, and allow our soul to be led by the Holy Spirit, all things are possible!
Photo: Our daughter, Christy, on her first day of arrival, celebrating her move about five years ago to California and trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit!
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, September 19, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091918.cfm
Let us pray that the compassion of Jesus fills our souls.
When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise” (Lk 7:13-14).
Jesus saw a widow and her only son in a casket. In the time of Jesus, this woman would have had little means to support or protect herself. Jesus’ immediate response for her was pity or compassion. The original Greek word used was splanchnizomai, meaning that Jesus was moved from the very depths of his bowels. The emotional depths to which Jesus was moved to reach out and help the widow of Nain, shows us his humanity. Jesus’ healing of the widow’s son, bringing him back from the dead, shows us his divinity. The entire event shows us the best of who we ought to aspire to as his followers.
Instead of fear, judgment, prejudice, or indifference, may we seek to understand, to place ourselves in the shoes of those who feel vulnerable, misunderstood, and find themselves on the margins. May we be moved from the very depths of our innards with the same compassion of Jesus toward those, who, like the widow, are vulnerable, at risk, and on the peripheries. We in the Church need to be welcoming, hospitable, willing to walk with others, to share their journeys. We also need to go out beyond the walls of our churches, and be present, be willing to listen to the stories and needs, the pleas, and seek, in collaboration with those who we encounter, to discover options to address those needs. At each step of the way we need to do so such that we respect and empower those we walk with as human beings created in the image and likeness of God.
Does anyone come to mind? Let us take time this day to pray that God may open our hearts and minds to see the vulnerable among us, to be aware of those in our midst, maybe even in our own families, those who are in need, those needing someone to be present, to be understanding. Especially, those who we may have in the past discounted, or have come up with rationalizations of why they ought not to receive any help, even if not from us. If someone or a group of people come to mind and you are unsure what to do or how you can help, begin by praying, praying for someone to help, praying that we can come to see those who come to mind as human beings like the widow that Jesus had compassion for. If we can see others as human beings, as brothers and sisters, not as somehow less or other, but with dignity, we will be moving in the direction of being able to act with the compassion of Jesus.
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Painting: “The Resurrection of the Widow’s Son at Nain” by James Tissot, 1890, online collection of the Brooklyn Museum
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, September 18, 2018:http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091818.cfm
