Lent is a time to be found, 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 and 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 that same Father who is always inviting us to come home. The shepherd does the absurd in his outpouring of love, leaving ninety nine sheep to go to the find one, God does the same for us; the woman rejoices over finding one single insignificant coin, God rejoices when he finds one human lost in the midst of all the universe, God knows us better than we know ourselves; and watching for his lost son, looking for that moment when he was making those steps to return to him, God the Father runs to us in the same way as the father to his returning son, with compassion and love to welcome us home.
No matter the reason that we have strayed, that we have fallen from 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.
Painting: Rembrandt’s – The Return of the Prodigal Son
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, March 3, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030318.cfm
A good leader is a good steward.
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 criticism 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 is offering this parable as a mirror to the leadership, 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 a way of leading that we can aspire to from one of our brothers from 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).
Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew offer us a glimpse of authentic leadership. All of us on this earth are stewards, 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. 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.
Photo: Torrey Pines State Reserve, La Jolla, CA 2014 visit
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, March 2, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030218.cfm
Calming the mind storm of indifference
The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus that is offered for us today from the Gospel of Luke 16:19-31 is well worth the read. Through parables such as this one, Jesus often challenges the mindset of many. For the people of his time, those who had wealth and status in society did so, for the most part it was believed, because they were blessed by God. When the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, die, I am sure Jesus paused to allow his listeners to imagine what would happen to these two men. Many would not have predicted what happened next in the netherworld.
Lazarus was taken up “by angels to the bosom of Abraham” (Lk 16:22). The rich man found himself suffering from the torment of flames, such that he was parched, begging just for a drop of water from Lazarus (cf. Lk 16:23-24). Abraham, the model of faith and father of Judaism, was not sitting with the rich man, who must have always been seated at the highest places in his day, but now for eternity that seat, at the bosom of Abraham, was offered to Lazarus. There was no hope either for the rich man to cross over because of the wide chasm that separated them. An ironic subtlety was afoot as well in Jesus’ telling of the parable to the Pharisees. Lazarus the poor beggar is named, where as the rich man is not.
How does the rich man come to this hopeless state of suffering and separation? This is the life he lived prior to his death. He walked over or by Lazarus day after day not giving him even a second look. Lazarus would have been grateful even for the mere scraps that fell from the rich man’s table, just as the rich man now sought just a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus. The rich man committed the root offense from which sprouts much of our sin; he failed to bother, to care, to love his brother, to will his good.
Jesus states very clearly to us in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, as he did in Matthew 25:40, “whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” How we treat others matters. Failing to bother, to care, to reach out to those in need around is sinful. We, like those who first heard this parable, experience time and again, a wicked mind storm that swirls with reasons that attempts to justify why we do not reach out to help others. They are not valid for a follower of Jesus. We are invited to give, to love joyfully.
This Lent, may we start to care. Start small. The first step we take is being willing to be aware of those who are in need around us. This can be in our own home! Second, when we see someone in need and we feel the wind and the waves of our mind surging with reasons of why not to help, call on Jesus to calm the storm of our minds. Third, may we take a breath and stop. Let our eyes adjust so we can see the person before us, as a sister or a brother with dignity, value, and worth. Everyone wants to belong, to be a part of, to be loved. Finally, in that moment, seek the guidance of Jesus, allow him to work through us so that we may be present and allow God to happen.
Photo credit: Christy McKee from her visit to the Keys in 2011
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, March 1, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/030118.cfm
Are we seeking to be served or to serve?
Look at me, serve me, I want, are attitudes and dispositions that tempt us to varying degrees. Honor, power, prestige may be another way of making the same point, which is that we often have a hyper focus on self and self promotion. Social media only offers more of a platform to fuel this temptation. If we think this is something new with the advent of modern technology, we can look at today’s reading from the writer of Matthew to see that we have been operating from this posture for a very long time.
Jesus, for the third time, was attempting to prepare his disciples for his passion. He said:
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Mt 20:18-19).
The response of the mother of James and John (the two brothers make the request themselves in the Gospel of Mark) is actually not that surprising if we spend any time with people. She disregards what Jesus just mentioned about his imminent death and requests that when Jesus assumes his seat of power that her two sons will be given the prestigious place of sitting to his right and left. James and John will be Jesus’ number one and number two. Not to be outdone, the other disciples are indignant and I am sure quite the scene ensued!
Jesus shares directly with the brothers that to give them a place at his right and left “is for those for whom it has been prepared for my Father” (Mt 20:23). He addresses them all by letting them know that the preeminent place in his kingdom, whoever is to be first, is the one who serves his brother and sister.
Jesus is encouraging us this Lent to resist the temptations of power, honor, seeking praise for ourselves, and/or seeking to be in the front and center. He is also guiding us to contemplate about: the subtle ways in which we believe that participating in certain activities are beneath us, the slight prejudices which we allow to guide us such that we feel we are better than others, why we don’t associate with certain people because we consider them as other, and/or believing in the mindset that someone owes us.
From this honest assessment, we can then adjust our perspective and follow the lead of Jesus by seeking out opportunities to give of our time, talent, and treasure, to serve our brothers and sisters. Let us ask ourselves what talents and gifts Jesus has given us and how we can put them into use to help others. May we treat each person we interact with today with respect, such that, we act in ways that honor the dignity of each person. We can make an extra effort to be more patient, understanding, and present to others, especially with those who in the past we have kept at arm’s length. We can take the suggestion of Pope Francis to heart: “Yet I would also hope that, even in our daily encounters with those who beg for our assistance, we would see such requests as coming from God himself.” In this way we can live as Jesus who came, “not to be served but to serve” (Mt 20:28).
Photo: My classmate Deacon Henry and me during our ordination. Prostration during the rite symbolizes our unworthiness for the office to be assumed and our dependence upon God and the prayers of the Christian community. First time I noticed the reflection of the Crucifix on the floor between us!
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, February 28, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022818.cfm
Jesus is our model and source to live faithfully.
There are many polls, surveys, and discussions about why there are fewer people participating in formal faith traditions, while at the same time many people are still hungry for God. More people are identifying themselves as spiritual but identifying less with organized religion. There are a handful of causes why, but two Jesus discusses in today’s Gospel from the writer of Matthew: “For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them” (Mt 23:3-4).
We have an innate sense that alerts us to hypocrisy and when many seek for something deeper in their life and they get slapped in the face with leaders and practitioners in faith traditions preaching one way in public and living another in private, it is damaging. The Catholic Church is still reeling from not only those clergy who have abused children, but those bishops who have covered up the abuse. This certainly is the height of hypocrisy in that those entrusted to shepherd the people of God are preying on their own flock.
As horrific as these acts are, there are so many other ways we are not practicing what we preach. It is easy to give up and walk away and say this is not my problem, to point fingers and justify our own acts of hypocrisy by saying well at least I am not that bad. Yet even this evil within the Church does not change the truth that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the source of our being and fulfillment.
We are followers of Jesus, and that means the standard we strive for is how he lived his life. Jesus always pointed the way to the Father. We as human beings are finite, are going to make mistakes and sin. So ultimately, Jesus is our model, but even more, the source for our living faithfully to his teachings. Through his love working through us and directed out toward others we are capable of standing up for the dignity of those entrusted to us within our realm of influence.
If we want to guide someone in the ways of our faith traditions it is not enough to say this is what you need to do, and live accordingly. We need to practice and live what we are guiding others to do, be willing to accompany, assist, and walk with someone along the way. Just giving someone the Bible and say there you go, that’s all you need, is not enough. If we are telling people you can’t do this or that, and are not willing to lift a finger to help them, we do more damage than if we said nothing.
Jesus in the last two days has invited us to resist judging and condemning, to love our enemies, to be forgiving and merciful. Powerful actions to live up to, heavy burdens to lift indeed, but he lived them out. Jesus will give us the power and assist us to live them out too. He challenges us more than the scribes and Pharisees, but is willing to help us carry the load. We need to be willing to see where we fall short of the goals he sets for us, ask for forgiveness, and his help going forward. From our own experiences of living faithfully, falling down and getting back up, we are better able to help others to be disciples, by guiding, modeling, and walking with them. The most important guidance we can give is to lead people to have an encounter and experience of Jesus for themselves, so they will not carry the weight alone, even when we fall.
Photo: Painting, Christ Blessing by Italian artist Antonello da Messina, 1465
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, February 26, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022718.cfm
Antidote to Polarization: Mercy
Polarization, division, and finger pointing seem to be the order of the day on the national level. Unfortunately, it is taking a firmer hold at the community and familial level as well. Instead of looking for someone to blame for the cause of this situation, we need to look in the mirror and honestly assess how we are contributing to division instead of seeking to uphold the motto of the United States of America – E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many One, instead of upholding the motto of our faith – “That they may all be one” (John 17:21).
We need to take a step back, take a breath, and examine our conscience and honestly acknowledge how we are contributing to divisiveness and polarization in our own thoughts, words, and actions. Then we will be in a better position to act instead of react. We can disagree and offer different points of view, seek different approaches to solve problems, but we can do so with an openness to work together when we begin by respecting the dignity of the person we encounter.
Luke 6:36-38 records what Jesus offers as significant steps to help us turn the momentum away from disunity and polarization toward respecting the gift the diversity of our humanity and embracing unity. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Fr. James Keenan, S.J. defines mercy as the willingness to enter into the chaos of another. Instead of imposing our point of view on another, mercy is the willingness to accompany, to come to know, and make an effort to understand another. Instead of prejudging someone, mercy is a willingness to hear first and assess thoughtfully what has been said, even when the message conveyed is heated, derogatory, and inflammatory. There may be some truth in the maelstrom of what has been spewed.
Jesus also guides us to stop judging and condemning each other. We are limited by our own finite natures as it is. We are not God and are not capable of fully reading another person. In most cases we do not know another’s struggles, anxieties, fears, traumas, and experiences. When encountering one another we need to resist the knee jerk reaction, and listen first, allow someone to vent without taking offense, and without thinking how to “fix” them or the problem, then seek to hear what is being said behind the words and ask what they are needing.
Jesus also reminds us to forgive. As God forgives us we also are invited to forgive others, to let go of grudges. Not to do so means allowing the poison injected into us to spread, instead of seeking the healing antidote of forgiveness. The one who has wounded us has walked away and if we are not willing to forgive we continue to do harm to ourselves as we allow that wound to fester.
We are given a choice today, to promote disunity and polarization or to reassess, admit our participation, and choose to correct our behavior. May we follow the guidance of Jesus and seek to be merciful, willing to encounter others as they are and accompany them. May we resist the temptation to judge and condemn, but instead be willing to convict, to respectfully hold up the same mirror we held up for ourselves, help others to see how their thoughts, words, and actions have been inappropriate and divisive. May we also be willing to forgive, to heal, and to lead others to forgiveness.
It is much easier to stay in our shell or bubble, but that is only an apparent good. Staying in our bubble suffocates us, stunts our growth, and limits our potential as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. May we turn to Jesus with our shortcomings, sin, weakness, prejudices, and failures so to experience his conviction not condemnation, his acceptance of who we are as we are not judgment, his forgiveness and his mercy. Having experienced these gifts of grace we can then go forward and share them with those in our realm of influence.
Image: Painting of Divine Mercy by Robert Skemp, 1982
Link for Mass readings for Monday, February 26, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022618.cfm
Jesus on the Cross transforms us by his love.
Our life can be an experience of desolation and consolation. There are ebbs and flows in which we suffer from trials and also celebrate joys. The key to living a life of faith is to see God in both experiences. Jesus today provides an opportunity for Peter, James, and John, the inner circle of the Twelve, to experience an expression of his divinity as “he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them” (Mk 9:2-3). Jesus revealed his divine nature to his disciples in a powerful display to prepare them for the Passion that he was about to enter into. The experience is also a foreshadowing of the Resurrection.
Jesus invites us to experience the Transfiguration, the Passion, and the Resurrection in our own lives. We can miss a transfigured moment, when we assume a posture of pride, not acknowledging God’s leading by believing we achieved or arrived at our present station in life on our own merits. We can experience moments of transfiguration when we acknowledge that God breaks into our lives at that moment when we needed him the most and recognize the assistance he has given us, and/or when he has revealed to us the path and direction we were to take. The natural response is to offer prayers of thanksgiving, recognizing that we don’t go it alone, that God and those he sends to help us are a tremendous support.
We have to be careful to also see that Jesus is present in our desolations. Many of us run from our suffering, we are afraid of the cross. But it is through the cross that we come to experience the resurrection. We may not be aware, but when we run away from our suffering we are running away from Jesus who awaits us with arms wide open in our suffering, to comfort us, heal us, and transform us. But to embrace Jesus, we need to be willing to embrace our suffering.
The older I get, the crucifix becomes more and more a consolation for me, this icon of Jesus, his body broken emptied out for us on the cross. It represents how he entered the full range of our human condition, he assumed our sin, our anxiety, fear, and selfishness, and transformed the worst of our fallen nature through his love such that we are redeemed. The crucifix is not a sign of despair, but of hope, reminding us that no matter what we go through Jesus has experienced it and will be present with us. Looking at Jesus on the Cross has provided me moments of transfiguration, giving me the courage that I do not have, to face the conflicts and trials before me. As he looks down from the cross he continues to love me despite my sin, my weakness, and failures, and is willing to lead and accompany me through my trials and tribulations, so that I may be transformed, renewed.
Jesus invites us to spend some time with him today, to immerse ourselves in his ever-present love. Here is a picture for us to meditate on. May we spend some time looking at Jesus while he looks at us. Let us allow him to love us so we may love ourselves and others into and through our consolations and the desolations.
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Photo: Crucifix in the main sanctuary of Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Retreat Center, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, where the deacons and wives were invited yesterday to a powerful Lenten Day of Reflection led by Fr. Ducasse Francois, pastor of St Juliana Catholic Church.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, February 25, 2017:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022518.cfm
Pray for those who persecute us? Raising the bar of discipleship.
“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (Mt 5:43-45). With these words, Jesus continues to raise the bar of discipleship and outlines what the pursuit of love truly is.
For many people, as Bob Dylan wrote and Joan Baez has sung, “love is just a four letter word.” The love that Jesus calls us to is not romantic or mere emotional love, though this is healthy in that when we have feelings of infatuation we are drawn out from ourselves to another, but this kind of love has no depth and is based on physical or emotional attraction, and if it is to be real must mature to the level of friendship.
The bond of friendship and family go beyond mere attraction and are built through shared interests and experiences. Through sharing our lives with others, working through conflicts, trust is built, and relationships will hopefully grow and deepen. Jesus, though, is calling us to mature in our growth of loving even beyond friend or familial ties. If we love those who willingly love us in return, greet only our brothers and sisters, only those in our clique, group, tribe, or political party, what is the recompense or satisfaction in that? Agape, in Greek, loving without conditions, with little or no chance of mutual exchange, is what Jesus is calling us to strive for.
Many of us could not conceive of loving our enemy or someone who is persecuting us, because we have, at best only experienced doing no overt harm to others and loved our friends and family. But do we risk going outside of our group, our like minded safety net? Life is hard enough and it is often safer, we believe, not to take a risk. We continue to operate from a concept of love as an emotion or feeling, because it feels good, even though without something deeper this love will not last.
How can Jesus ask us to love an enemy or pray for someone who persecutes us? St. Thomas Aquinas can be of help. He defines the love that Jesus describes as willing the good of the other as other. We make an act of the will, a free choice to accept the person as they are, to see them, not from our limited finite perspective but as God sees them, as a person with dignity, created in his image and likeness. Can we pray for, embrace thoughts of support for, assume a posture of understanding, visualize positive interactions with, actively offer kind words, and resist reacting toward those who we consider as different than us? Can we resist judging and labeling others? Can we resist gossiping? Can we convict and hold accountable dehumanizing words and actions without condemning the person?
On our own we may not even conceive of the possibility, but we can be assured that if Jesus has asked us to strive for this height and depth of love, he will provide the support. We love others unconditionally by allowing Jesus to love others through us. We love one person at a time and strive to reach the summit of loving our enemy, our persecutor. Even if we fall short, how much better would our country and world be if we sought this as our goal? Let us engage in an act of the will to love another today.
Photo: President elect Trump with President Obama – I couldn’t think of a better Rorschach test. If we can come to will the good of and sincerely pray for each president through this picture, that doesn’t mean we have to agree with all their policies or what they say, but seek to respect the office, the person, we might start to send ripples of reconciliation for healing the polarization of our country.
Photo accessed from: https://www.diariolasamericas.com/eeuu/traspaso-la-casa-blanca-la-calma-antes-del-terremoto-n4107509
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, February 24, 2018:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022418.cfm
Spiritual Stepping Stones 