When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. (Mt 14:14).

The feast of the feeding of the five thousand was quite different from the birthday feast of Herod Antipas (Mt 14:1-12). Herod’s focus was on himself, not the welfare of the guests attending his banquet. Herod’s pride was on full display, and it culminated in his ordering the head of John the Baptist to be served up on a platter.

Jesus was focused instead on those who gathered around him; “his heart was moved with pity for them”. Jesus was aware of their need, their hunger, not only for something to eat, but a deeper spiritual hunger. He made himself available to them. Jesus taught, healed, and when that time ended instead of sending them off to fend for themselves, in the multiplication of the bread and fish, he met their most basic need of nourishment.

There is a stark contrast between the attitude of Herod and Jesus. We can certainly see these two scenes playing out clearly in our country and world today. The question for us is do we close ourselves off, embrace an indifference to those who are in need, and let others fend for themselves, or do we make an effort to be aware of the needs of those around us. Mother Teresa said: “People are hungry for God. People are hungry for love. Are we aware of that? … Do we have eyes to see? Quite often we look but don’t see. We are all just passing through this world. We need to open our eyes and see” (Mother Teresa, 56).

We do not have to feed five thousand. The effort of putting our love into action for one person today is a good way to begin. Let us ask Jesus for the eyes to see that we may be aware, for a heart that is open that we may feel, and for a soul on fire with the Holy Spirit to reach out and be present to those in need in our midst. “We are collaborators with Christ, fertile branches on the vine” (56).

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Monday, August 7, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080717.cfm

Mother Teresa. No Greater Love. Edited by Becky Benenate, Joseph Durepos. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2001

Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. (Mt 17:1-2).

Peter, James and John certainly experienced Jesus’ profound teachings, his powerful signs and wonders, they also experienced his healing on the Sabbath, casting out demons, and forgiving of sins, which, alluded to the reality that he was the Son of God. I imagine Peter, James, and John, though acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah, still pretty much looked at Jesus as a human being. In the encounter of Jesus transfigured, Jesus revealed to his inner circle of Apostles not only a foretaste of what was to come in heaven, but a glimpse of his actual divinity.

Jesus is not 50% God and 50% human. He is fully God and fully man. This is the Mystery of the Incarnation; the reality that the second Person of the Trinity took on flesh and became human. This is an important reality, because in this very act of Infinite Grace, assuming humanity, God opened up heaven for us. The Son of God became one with us so that we can become one with him. Through participation in the life of Jesus Christ we can restore our relationship with his Father.

“By revealing himself God wishes to make [us] capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond [our] own natural capacity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2^nd ed., 52). As I have been sharing in prior posts, this reality of the invitation of communion with the Loving God and Father of all creation is for all. Our joy and fulfillment is achieved through developing a relationship with the God of Jesus Christ.

Many may say they are happy and living a good life without having a relationship with Jesus Christ or apart from God, and I would not disagree with them. I would only add that if we are honest with ourselves, there is more to life than the mere materiality before us. That if we slow down enough, we experience a yearning for more. Even with great achievement, mastery, and accumulation, there is still a lingering question, “Is this all there is?” We experience consciously or unconsciously a restlessness, we continually search to fill this unease with material and finite things, feeling satisfied for the moment, but eventually in short order, we are left feeling empty, time and time again. This unease is our soul’s yearning, our transcendent nature to long for more, and that longing is for the infinite that the finite cannot provide.

St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) articulates this desire and yearning so well in the opening chapter of his autobiography, Confessions: “You move us to delight in praising You; for You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.”

The Feast of the Transfiguration is an invitation, not to reject our humanity, but to embrace the fullness of what it means to be human, as the Son of God did through the Mystery of his becoming one with us. We are invited to embrace the fullness of our humanity; the reality that we are physical, emotional, intellectual, as well as spiritual human beings.  Our fulfillment and joy comes from a balance of nurturing each aspect of who we are in participation with Jesus.

Peter, James and John, as well as Augustine and the saints, embraced the invitation of Jesus and that has made all the difference. God invites us to do the same. To experience the wonder, to explore the full breadth, depth, and width of all that our reason and faith can open for us that we may draw ever deeper into the intimacy of a loving relationship with God, ourselves, and each other. I invite you to say yes to that same invitation today, tomorrow, and each day going forward, to experience the fullness of our humanity and through participation in Christ, our divinity!

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Sunday, August 6, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080617.cfm

Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.” (Mt 14:1-2).

After the death of Herod the Great (4 BC), one of his sons, Herod Antipas, was given a portion of his father’s kingdom by the Roman Emperor Augustus. Thus, Herod Antipas was the tetrarch, or prince, of Galilee and Perea from 4 BC to 39 AD. Herod, like, Pontius Pilate, held power as long as he was a faithful servant to Rome.

News of the ministry of Jesus gets back to Herod and he believes Jesus to be John the Baptist raised from the dead. What follows is the backstory of how Herod arrested and unjustly beheaded John the Baptist. John is killed for speaking truth to power, as happened often in the long line of prophets before him. Jesus would continue John’s ministry calling for repentance. He too would also suffer capital punishment at the hands of Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate. The Apostles and martyrs of the early Church also lived courageously and were bold witnesses of their faith even to point of giving their lives.

How are we living our faith  today? Are we faithful to the Gospel values that Jesus and the Apostles taught and were willing to die for?  Do we serve Herod Antipas and Pontius Pilate or Jesus the Christ? Do we serve fear or love?

It is important to stop and reflect on questions such as these from time to time, to examine our conscience and determine who it is that we are truly serving. God loves us more than we can ever mess up. We can only experience the fullness of his light, love, mercy, and forgiveness if we are willing to repent, to let him into the darkness of our failure of not putting into practice his will. In experiencing his forgiving embrace of love and mercy, we are more open to knowing his will, to knowing how he wants us to serve him. Empowered by his love, we can then begin again to take a step forward along the narrow path, recommitting ourselves to living as his disciple.

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Saturday, August 5, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080517.cfm

“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son?” (Mt 13:54-55).

Many people wonder what Jesus did from the age of twelve until he began his ministry around the age of thirty. Today’s reading gives us some insight into that question. Most likely, Jesus did nothing out of the ordinary realm of any other first century Palestinian Jew living in the small town of Nazareth, with a population of about 250 to 500 people.

Jesus most likely worked as a carpenter. This was rough, menial work, and a position that was looked down upon. We can even see evidence of this in the Gospel accounts. Mark describes Jesus as the carpenter, the son of Mary, Matthew portrays Jesus as the carpenter’s son, and Luke and John just refer to Jesus as Joseph’s son, leaving out all reference to carpenter altogether. Most scripture scholars believe Mark was written first, so we can see a progression in the biblical tradition moving quickly away from identifying Jesus as a carpenter.

Jesus’ return to his hometown and his teaching was first met with wonder, where did he get such wisdom and how did he work such mighty deeds? But wonder soon turned to judgment. Who is he? He is just the carpenter of Nazareth, no better than any of us. In effect, “Who does he think he is?” Not only does this show that Jesus probably lived a very simple peasant life, but that Jesus’ social status was set in stone.

The people’s hearts and minds were closed to Jesus, THEY KNEW who he was and there was no way someone like him could do what they had heard, so they “took offense at him… And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith” (Mt 13:57-58).

How many times have we judged someone, saying to ourselves, I know who he or she is. We box them in, not as they are, but as WE see them. We look at another individual not as a person with dignity, but as a two-dimensional cut out character to satisfy our own prejudices. We also do this to ourselves, chaining ourselves, limiting our potential by saying I can’t do this or that.

Jesus rebukes these limiting perspectives. Instead he seeks to do mighty deeds in our lives and so invites us to open our minds and hearts to rest in the depths of our soul where we can touch the love and power of the Holy Spirit, repent from our judgmental and prejudicial dispositions, so to be healed from the finite limitations of our brokenness and sin. Let us resist the temptation to limit Jesus, others, and ourselves.

May we instead accept the invitation of our loving God and Father to embrace the infinite possibilities that will arise when we participate in his Life and Love. This invitation is for each and every one of us, no matter our race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religious, political, economic, social, immigrant, or migrant status. Let us accept the invitation of the Holy Spirit who seeks to free us from the shackles that bind us, the limitations imposed upon us, and those we impose on ourselves and others. May we follow Jesus the carpenter who calls us to conform our life to his, so that we will actualize who he encourages us to be, and better be able to empower others in our realm of influence to do the same.

———————————————————————–

Picture credit: Darrel Tank/GoodSalt.com used with permission

Mass Readings for today, Friday, August 4, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080417.cfm

Parallel Gospel accounts: Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55, Luke 4:22, and John 6:42

Jesus said to the disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind.” (Mt 13:47).

The invitation of God is universal and we are all lured by his invitation of love and intimacy. We long to belong, our very substance and essence as human beings is the reality that our ultimate fulfillment can only be reached in communion with the God who created us. Yet, though drawn, we resist being caught.

St Augustine (354-430) came to a point in his life where he realized that the flame of his desire for wealth, fame and pleasure was dimming. He clearly felt moved toward “the one reality that cannot decay, from which all other realities are derived.” Though he was caught in God’s net and being pulled in, Augustine still sought to wriggle free, for: “Though drawn to the Path, who is my savior, I shied from its hard traveling” (162).

How many of us could echo Augustine’s dilemma? We have experienced God in our lives and feel the invitation to go deeper, yet, we want to wriggle free. We are attracted to God but our attraction to fame, pleasure, power, or wealth still has a stronger hold. At a baser level, we may believe that the minimalist approach is easier. God’s path is too hard.

Living apart from God is actually more work. It is like one who is caught in a rip tide swimming against the current. Eventually, exhaustion and death is the end result. Instead may we surrender to the current and draw of the Father’s Love, and allow ourselves to be drawn into his net of Grace. At first, anxiety and fear will arise, because the pull, we may feel, appears too strong, but as you experience his love, the anxiety will wane, and you will indeed be free to swim again. Eventually, exhilaration and life will be the end result.

Lord bless us and draw us close to you!

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Thursday, August 3, 2017:

St Augustine. Confessions. Translated by Gary Wills. NY: Penguin Books, 2008.

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44).

God is hiding in plain sight. He is in our midst, present to all of us, a wonderful treasure just waiting to be found. God’s eternal love and grace is ever reaching out to us. Our soul hungers, yearns, and seeks for that love, whether we know it or not. It is when we seek satisfaction, filling this deepest of our desires in material pursuits alone, that we miss the mark. We sin, create idols, seeking apparent goods, that block our access to the very union we seek. God even acts in our everyday events of life, but we may limit the experience to saying that happening was just a coincidence.

The saints and the mystics are those who have found this treasure of God’s love. They have encountered the living God in the midst of everyday and given all to be immersed in his communion. They “are amplifiers of every person’s more hidden life of faith, hope, and love. Their lives help us to hear the interior whispers and see the faint flickers of divine truth and love in ourselves and others. The Christian mystics point the way to fully authentic human life by illustrating what it means to be a human being, what life means: eternal union (which begins here) with the God of love” (Egan, ix-xx).

Today, make some time to be still to hear God’s whisperings. May we open our hearts and minds to recognize his presence, the faint flickers, present in those we encounter and the experiences we have today. May we continue to seek Christ by reading and meditating on his Word. I also invite you to read the lives of the mystics and the saints who are our mentors: St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St John of the Cross, St Ignatius of Loyola, or St Therese of Lisieux; so many leading us to that rich encounter and experience of the loving God of Jesus Christ.

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Wednesday, August 2, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080217.cfm

Egan, Harvey D. An Anthology of Christian Mysticism, Second Edition. Introduction ix-xx. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996.

“Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom. The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.” (Mt 13:36-39).

In this parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus is addressing the ancient question of why does God allow evil and how are we to deal with it? Why do bad things happen to good people? As a starting point, we need to recognize that God is God and we are not; meaning we are not capable of reading the mind of God. Any answer to justify how and why God allows suffering then will be insufficient. A second reality is that the Devil exists, though he is a created being. An angelic being, yes, but not in an equal genus with God. Ultimately, there is no genus of God, because God is not a being, at best we can say he is Infinite Act of Existence. He is. “I Am,” as he said to Moses. God did not create evil, he only created good. The Devil, Satan, the one who opposes, was created good, the high arch angel, Lucifer, yet he chose to turn away from the will of God, those angels who followed him are demons. God is greater than the Devil, and good is greater than evil.

Evil is not so much a created thing, but a deprivation, or distortion of the good. Because we cannot understand the reasons why God allows or permits evil or suffering is not a sufficient reason to say that God does not exist. This is especially true if we are seeking to grasp spiritual realities and truths from purely physical and rational means alone. We are indeed rational beings, who seek to know and understand, but we are so much more. As human beings, we are physical and spiritual, so need not limit ourselves to the merely sensate and empirical realm.

Our hearts and minds need to be open to the will of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are called to be people of prayer. As we mature spiritually and deepen our relationship with God we will come to the same posture as Job: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful to me, which I cannot know” (Job 42: 2-3). In essence, Job acknowledged that God was in control and he was not.

How do we deal with evil? We need to surrender our pride and control to God and acknowledge that he is in control and knows best. Choose to put God first. Our fundamental option, our telos, our end goal, is to be above all a striving to be in relationship with him. To recognize that as we put God first and focus on him, no matter what arises, we will be able to trust that he is present with us in the midst of our suffering, he is stronger than any pain or evil and he will give us what we need to endure.

If we want to understand suffering and evil we need to enter into the Mystery of the Passion of Jesus. Jesus, the pure and innocent one, beaten and crucified, understands our pain and suffering, our cry for the horrors of injustice, and he understands the presence of evil. Jesus himself, asked not to be crucified, though he relinquished in saying, “Not my will but your will Father.” In that acknowledgement, Jesus faced utter evil, horror, and the injustice of his crucifixion. Jesus made the Resurrection possible. He conquered suffering, evil, and death forever. The Father has the last word over sin, suffering and death.

We deal with suffering and evil through prayer and that prayer must be honest. We will find Jesus when we call on him in the face of our suffering and pain, not when we run from it. We need to trust in him in the midst of our storms, and hold on tight to our faith in him knowing that he, the one who rose from the dead has the final word. “Suffering is never the last word. Life is stronger than death, love is stronger that hatred, hope is stronger than despair, nothing is impossible with God” (Martin).

If you are struggling today, take your suffering to Jesus on the Cross. The strength of our faith is that we can trust in knowing that he does not leave us alone, and that he is present in the midst of our suffering, because he understands our pain. Our hope is assured in that Jesus has already won the battle and he will give us the strength to endure. His love is a light that shines in the darkness and no darkness can or will overcome it. Jesus has the last word on the matter. Let us face whatever rises before us with confidence, as Jesus did, when he set his face toward Jerusalem. Hand in hand with Jesus, we shall overcome.

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Tuesday, August 1, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080117.cfm

Martin, S.J., James. You Tube video On Pilgrimage With James Martin SJ Fordham University. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVtA_d7NwKE&t=5s His talk on dealing with suffering begins around 1:30:00.

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.” (Mt 13:31-32).

God can do so much with so little. This is so because even the smallest detail is important to God. Just think of the immensity, not only of our solar system and galaxy, but the whole universe. Despite the grandiosity and massive expanse of all creation, not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without the notice of God. Even all the hairs of our head can be counted (cf Mt 10:29-30). Our life, who we are, and who we are becoming matters to God.

God sows his seeds of divine grace, a movement of his love, reaching out to us in a joyful way. He watches us, his children, and shares his life with us. We can accept or reject this Love that falls afresh upon us. Our first step is to accept the reality that God loves us as we are. Then we are in a position to receive his love and share his love.

Our smallest thought, word or deed makes a difference, because they reflect our yes or no to the invitation of God. May we think, speak and act today as children of our loving God and Father. A smile, a word of encouragement, a hug, or attentive presence with someone today, no matter how small a sharing of God’s love with another, can do more than we can ever imagine.

———————————————————————–

Mass Readings for today, Monday, July 31, 2017:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/073117.cfm