Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day
We can bring about change when we love our enemies and pray those who persecute us.
The sixth antithesis may be the most challenging of them all. “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). The parable of the Good Samaritan provides a nice parallel to this verse. It can be found in Luke 10:25-37. For in that parable Jesus shows our enemy and our neighbor to be one and the same.
A good examination of conscience would be to read the above verse, ponder who would come up for you as an enemy, and then read the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Whenever the word Samaritan comes up, drop the word Samaritan and insert the person or persons who came up for you in reading the first verse. When we have finished this exercise, then, may we pray for the person or persons defined by us as our enemy, for if we only love those who love us, what makes us any different than anyone else? If we are to be disciples of Jesus, if we are to be children of our heavenly Father, we are not only to love those who love us, but we are to also love our enemies. We are to love those for whom there is little chance of being loved in return.
Jesus offers us the way to be able to accomplish this seemingly impossible feat of loving our enemies as follows: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). We are able to love our enemy as ourselves by being perfect. This is not much help unless we understand that the English word used here is translated from the Greek word telios, which means complete, whole, to reach one’s goal or purpose in life. As a Christian, our end goal, our purpose, our fundamental option, is to be in full communion with God our Father, who is Love. God the Father is not just loving, not just a lover, but the very embodiment of Love. God is Love.
God as the embodiment of Love, “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:45). We strive in our life to attain the end goal of being perfected by Jesus the Christ, when we, through an act of our will, allow ourselves to become transformed into becoming agents of his love. The most challenging of enemies is facing the enemy within. To love as God loves, we are to follow the words and actions of Jesus and the prophets.
Each day we are given a choice to make. We can choose to embrace our fear, seek revenge, dig in our heels, and embrace our ego, react in kind to negativity, and/or remain indifferent to the suffering in our midst. We may refuse to love our enemies, we may withdraw our love, but know when we do so, we contribute to the condition of sin, polarization, violence, and dehumanization that plagues our culture, nation, and our world.
We can choose instead to live out our inheritance as children of God and assist Jesus in the ushering in of the reign of our Father’s kingdom. This means speaking truth to power, using our access and means to advocate for the voiceless, or comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable. This means calling sin, sin, but doing so without falling into sinning ourselves. Calling out hate, with hate, we will only contribute to more hate.
We can instead choose to diffuse the power of hate by loving our enemies and being perfected by Jesus the Christ. We can choose to align ourselves with the will of his Father and collaborate with the Holy Spirit to be agents and models of love and forgiveness in our realm of influence. We can choose to love today, person to person, brother to brother, sister to sister, enemy to enemy.
Let us pray, provide support and understanding, while at the same time hold up mirrors to appeal to the consciences of those who would seek to harm, persecute, demean and dehumanize us and others. We need to refuse to lower ourselves into the darkness of fear and hate, and instead disarm our enemies with the light of Jesus as we will the good of and pray for those who contemplate, participate in, and perpetuate hatred, racism, and violence in all its forms. We need to continue to be open to being transformed and healed so to better channel our energies to promote justice, mercy, and peace.
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Photo: Pope St. John Paul II met, prayed with, and forgave Mehmet Ali Agca at Rebibbia prison on December 27, 1983, for shooting and attempting to kill him on May 13, 1981. ARTURO MARI/AFP/Getty Images
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Revenge is not the answer Jesus gives us to bring about lasting change to injustice.
Today we receive the fifth antithesis, in which, Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil” (Mk 5:38-39). The Mosaic law, an eye for an eye, that Jesus first addressed was an attempt to curb the emotive response of revenge. If someone had killed a clan or tribal member, there would have been those who would choose to retaliate by inflicting as much carnage as possible to the people responsible, even up to and including the death of the whole clan or tribe, even the women and children. The rationale behind this was that there would then be no one to come back for revenge. The idea of seeking instead an eye for an eye was to temper the retribution to a more measured response.
Jesus though is saying that “an eye for an eye” does not go far enough, and raises the challenge of being his disciple to a higher level, being that even the thought of revenge is not to be considered. Jesus is not seeking to lessen the cycle of violence, he is giving us the means to end it. Forgiveness is the cornerstone of the teachings of Jesus. Instead of seeking revenge, Jesus is commanding that we seek to forgive those who have harmed us. We who pray the Our Father or the Lord’s prayer, are to take to heart and be mindful of the words we pray them, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.“
The urge for revenge is powerful and primal. Revenge is wired into our survival instinct to protect ourselves. Jesus invites us to grow beyond our mere instinctual responses and survival instincts. He is calling us to be a people who do not merely survive, but thrive. Jesus is seeking to infuse us with his divine life so that we will be transformed. This is true not only for ourselves but for those who would seek to do us harm. Instead of striking back with revenge, we are to be flexible and adept enough to instead appeal to their conscience. We are to take all that others throw at us, and meet them with the courage to stand and receive their worst, and disarm them with the blinding light of the love and forgiveness of Jesus.
This is no easy task, especially when we experience ongoing injustice and needless loss of life. To put into practice such teachings as the turning of the other cheek, we need to start small. We need to resist the immediate thoughts of revenge that arise for the smallest of offenses. When someone makes a snide remark, and/or offers demeaning or dehumanizing comments directed at us or others, we resist retaliating in kind, yet, we do hold them accountable, and remind the person of our dignity and/or the dignity of the person they seek to demean with the intent to lead them away from the perception of another person as being somehow other, to one of being a brother or sister.
To be a disciple of Jesus, to be a peacemaker, we need to be contemplatives in action even and especially in today’s current climate of unrest and dis-ease. We need to ground ourselves in prayer, return to these hard teachings of the Beatitudes and antitheses often, believe in them, meditate on them, keep them at the forefront of our mind and, with the courage and guidance of the Holy Spirit, put these teachings into action and practice. We will best be able to do so when we resist reactionary and hyperbolic responses so we are better able to see the truth and root of the challenges we face and then we can begin to bring about accountability, reconciliation, and structural change.
Some would say this is naive and impossible. It is true that we will not be able to resist thoughts and acts of revenge and walk the path of forgiveness on our will power alone. We need to surrender our ego and pride to Jesus, who as the Son of God became one with us so that we can be one with him. As we do so, he will begin to transform us as he forgives and loves in and through us.
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Photo: After Mass on the grounds of St Peter a few weeks ago
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 15, 2020
Jesus through your Body and Blood, please help us to be instruments of healing, peace, and reconciliation.
We celebrate Corpus Christi Sunday each year to remember why we celebrate the Eucharist. We remember that we really are receiving Jesus. Though he is in the appearance of simple bread and wine, Jesus is substantially present, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Jesus promised that he would not leave us orphans. This is why he returns to us during each consecration of the bread and wine at each Mass in such an intimate way that as we consume him we are transformed into his Mystical Body. This is why we are encouraged to receive him as often as possible, at least each Sunday. If we truly believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God and that he is present here at Mass such that we can receive him into our very being to become one with Him who became one with us, why would we stay away?
Jesus loves us and desires a relationship with us so much so that he makes himself food for us. This wonderful gift of himself is not just for us alone. We are dismissed at the end of Mass to go and announce the Gospel of the Lord, to bring Jesus whom we have received to those who are in need of his love.
We are to carry the light of Jesus into the suffering we are experiencing from the ongoing effects of the pandemic, polarization, and racial unrest in our country. Jesus calls us not to add fuel to the fire of that which seeks to divide and separate us but instead he invites us to provide his healing balm and to be instruments of his peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding to those in our realm of influence.
Jesus, please heal us from our own prejudices, biases, and contributions to divisiveness and give us the courage to stand up to racism in all its forms. Please, help us to experience the fullness of your true presence in the Eucharist on this Solemnity of Corpus Christi so that we can be more open to experience the beauty of the uniqueness and diversity you have given each of us, the dignity you have endowed us with, and regardless of our race, ethnicity, creed, gender, or political party, help us to see others as you see us, as your children made in your image and likeness. Amen.
Photo – July 24, 2013 – Getty Images: “In the Eucharist, he offers himself as spiritual strength so as to help us put into practice his commandment – to love one another as he loved us – building communities that are welcoming and open to the needs of all, especially the most frail, poor and needy people.” – From 2017 Corpus Christi Homily by Pope Francis
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, June 14, 2020
Honesty is still worth pursuing and putting into practice.
In today’s Gospel, we read about the fourth antithesis where, Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all (Mt 5:33-34). Jesus is guiding us not to make any false oaths, but especially not to do so by taking the Lord’s name in vain. This means that when someone would tell a lie they would justify it by invoking an oath to make it more believable. “I swear on my mother’s grave that I did not…, I swear on our friendship that I did not…, or I swear to God as my witness that I did not…”
We are to resist the temptation to swear an oath at all. We are, to tell the truth in all circumstances, to be people of integrity, and stand on what we say as the truth on its own merits. We are definitely living in a time period in our country where the ability, to tell the truth, is certainly being called into question. Lies are becoming common-place in the public square but it is also present in our day to day interactions with one another.
In a 2014 episode of his show, Dr. Phil, gave a list of reasons researchers offered as to why people lie: People lie to take what is not rightfully theirs, to escape accountability, to create a fantasy/false self-esteem to escape their mundane life, to avoid punishment, to inflict pain, to feel better in the moment, steal admiration, and to gain an advantage so to exploit others.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is a very good place to start. Lying destroys the very foundation of relationships which is trust. Once trust has been broken, it is very hard to come back from and rebuild. Lying also supports our false self of the ego, so even if we do not get caught in a lie, we know, and our conscience convicts us of that fact. There is an ache in our soul because we are not being true to who we really are.
Covering up lies expends a lot of energy because we have to remember what we said in the first place and then one lie often leads to another, and as we weave a web of lies we continue to feel sick inside because we have not been created to be deceitful and dishonest. We have been created good, to be people of integrity.
We also need to be careful not to confuse making a mistake with telling a lie. This happens when we make an honest mistake and say, “Sorry, I just lied.” This is important because the intent of a lie is deceitful and dangerous. By equating a mistake with a lie clouds the seriousness and inadvertently waters down the seriousness of lying.
Examining our conscience is a good daily practice, and being humble enough to admit where we have truly lied is the next best step. In the beginning, when we are first working on undoing a habit of lying, we can visualize ourselves apologizing to the person we have lied to and imagine how we could have handled the original situation in a more honest way. Then we can actually reach out to the person, apologize, and move toward reconciliation.
When we see that there is a deep-seated pattern or area in which we habitually lie, then the Sacrament of Reconciliation is an opportunity to experience the grace of Jesus and receive his healing and strength to confess that pattern and habit of sin. Going forward, at the instant we begin to form a lie in our mind, we can call on Jesus’ name for strength, so it does not come to fruition in our words. In time, we can transform our habits of deceit into a new virtue of honesty as we strive to live by Jesus’ command to make our, “‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and [our] ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one” (Mt 5:37).
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Photo credit: Sunset – Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA last November visiting my step-daughter Mia
Link for the clip of the Dr. Phil list for why we lie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qQ0vT_47ms
Link for the Mass reading for Saturday, June 13, 2020
It is possible to live a chaste life in 2020.
Jesus continues to speak up for the dignity of human beings in today’s Gospel with his second of six antitheses: “Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:27-28). Again, by disciplining our mind we can have more control over our actions.
Too many people today believe that our sexual urge is too powerful to channel and direct in chaste ways. In fact, to even attempt to do so, some would say it is damaging to our development. The Church has lost some credibility in this area in directing and guiding us because of those within her number who have not only abused children sexually but also those who have turned a blind eye to warning signs, as well as those bishops who have covered up the abuse.
Yet, even these horrific acts by a few do not change the fact that Jesus still calls us to embrace our sexuality, yet channel it positively through the respecting of others as people endowed with dignity. Our sexuality is a powerful gift that has the potential to participate in creating new life, and it is not to be misused to objectify women, children, or men, as has been done throughout the ages and continues into our own day.
To be able to discipline and channel our sexual desire in healthy ways, we have to begin by choosing better what we put into our minds. If the majority of our reading, our music, what we watch, what we think and fantasize about, are erotic and evocative, then yes, being chaste is not a realistic goal. Since we live in a culture that is hyper-sexualized, such that there are large support and normalization of acting out sexually at a younger and younger age, enticing advertisements on TV, the computer, billboards, pornography, and the like, again, this is no easy task. To counter this momentum, we do not literally have to tear out our right eye as Jesus offers in his hyperbolic word display. But we do need to follow Jesus’ guidance so to help us recognize the seriousness of an undisciplined approach to our sexuality.
We need to realize that we can be disciplined with our thoughts and actions. If Jesus’ starting point is that we are not to look at another with lustful thoughts, then that is where we ought to begin and realize that this is possible with his help and a change of lifestyle. We need to resist seeing each other as objects for our own fantasy and pleasure and instead look to one another as people endowed with dignity, not to be objectified but respected.
The normalization of lust, pornography, objectification of another must be countered with healthier and chaste ways of living our lives. We figuratively tear out an eye or cut off a hand that leads us to sin by recognizing that any of these three or any variations of them are not acceptable thoughts or actions to entertain. Nor are we to fall into the puritanical, opposite extreme, that our sexuality and all things human are bad. Suppressing our sexuality is not a helpful practice either. God created us good, and our sexuality is good when we integrate it into the wholeness of the physical and spiritual aspects of our humanness.
Living a chaste life is possible by recognizing that we and other people deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. We need to put into practice the cardinal virtue of temperance, which is the disciplining of our mind such that we weed out at the roots those thoughts and actions that will lead us to sinful actions. While at the same time we replace them by making a firm decision to live chastely.
We then communicate that decision with friends and family, we surround ourselves with those people who will support our decisions, respect our boundaries, and help to keep us accountable. We need to establish a healthy and moderate diet and be engaged in an exercise program that will help us channel that energy on the physical level. We also need to seek the help of Jesus, especially through his presence in the sacraments of the Eucharist and Reconciliation, to develop a consistent practice of meditation and prayer, and participate regularly in worship in a community. It is also helpful to be engaged with other people in acts of service and in healthy activities through work, hobbies, and interests.
In these ways, we will be better able to build chaste relationships that are more stable, have more meaning, and are mutually encouraging as we support one another to live lives of holiness and participate with Jesus in guiding one another to actualize the fullness of who God is calling us to be. One last point, we are not to equate lust with love. The sole pursuit of lust is to objectify another for our own self-gratification. The sole pursuit of the love that Jesus calls us to is to will the good of the other as other.
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Photo: From Gallery Quotes – catholic-link.org
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 12, 2020
When we are willing to spend time with and get to know one another, relationships happen.
The Sermon on the Mount was most likely not one long discourse, but a gathering together of Jesus’ teachings. Just as with itinerant preachers, speakers, and lecturers of today, this material recorded in Matthew was not only shared one time. Jesus probably shared different segments of these teachings at different locations throughout his ministry, and in slightly different ways depending on the group he was speaking with. Also, the Gospel writers would want to highlight different aspects of his teachings for their audiences.
As was presented yesterday, Jesus made it clear that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets but he came to fulfill them. With the beatitudes, Jesus offered practical ways in which we can find fulfillment and happiness. In today’s account, he introduces the first of six antitheses. With these apparent contrasting statements, Jesus is providing for his disciples the way to avoid the trap that some of the religious leaders of his time fell into: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).
Those scribes and Pharisees that Jesus was talking about were those who believed that they were following the letter of the law, but their hearts were not changed. They may have been adhering to the external provisions of the law, but were not changed themselves, their hearts were hardened, they were focused more on their own access to honor and power. They were also imposing strict adherence to the law without providing the support or means for others to achieve what the law imposed. The law became more important than the dignity or value of the person. Jesus recognized the law, but also realized that it was in place to help to provide guidance and discipline so one could better resist the temptations of our fallen nature. The law was to be a foundation to be built upon, not the end goal in and of itself.
Just as children need clear boundaries and structures in place to provide a clear path toward healthy development, so this is true for those of us growing and maturing in our faith. We need to learn to crawl, to build strength and balance before we can take those first wobbly steps. With continued support, we are then able to walk and soon run. Jesus is not only providing the means to go through each of these stages in our faith life, figuratively teaching each of his disciples and us today to not only crawl, walk, and run but also to also be able to fly!
The Beatitudes and six antitheses are challenging because each one of them goes counter to much of the way the structure of our fallen world has been governed for centuries. If we are to catch the fire that Jesus has come to set, we need not only to read, pray, meditate, and contemplate upon on the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, we need to also see their relevance and practicality to our time and place today, and begin to put them into practice. As Christians, our faith ought not to be shaped and informed by our culture, but we are to be shaped and conformed by the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, so to shape and inform our culture.
Today we start with the first antithesis: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna (Mt 5:21-22). The seeds of anger begin to sprout in our mind from our knee jerk reaction to a perceived or actual threat, from our hearts hardened by prejudgments, prejudices, and/or a reflection of our level of spiritual immaturity.
Jesus addresses the known provision against murder. He then builds a hedge around the Torah. If one does not want to break the law, another is imposed so as to protect one from even getting close to breaking the first. If we can resist the temptations of our reactions and instead make decisions based on mindfulness and loving one another, such that we resist the temptation to criticize, judge, demean or dehumanize another, then there is little chance for our anger to grow into wrath, that left unbridled could lead to murdering someone.
Jesus is saying that our words matter, that they have the power to destroy or to create. Look at the example Jesus gives. He says that calling someone Raqa, Aramaic for a block-head or idiot, and then calling someone a fool, would “be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:22). Just think of how far from those two words we have fallen with the use of our language directed toward one another. How polarized we have become as a country, the level of demeaning words, tone, and language that is condoned, supported, and justified are unacceptable. This has a ripple effect that poisons our culture and society. We then wonder why we have so much violence, hateful rhetoric, and prejudice in our country.
We can change for the better when we are willing to spend time with and get to know each other. Our first step is to recognize that our words and our actions matter. Jesus still challenges us in today’s Gospel to encourage, empower, and respect the dignity of each person. When we resist a pharisaical approach to the law and instead recognize the value and dignity of each person, we will have a better chance of building relationships and so be more willing to serve, support, and empower one another. We will also be more apt to reform policies and structures that are not just for a select few but that respect the dignity of each person in the womb, after birth, and at each stage and condition of life until natural death.
May we all take some time today to reflect on Jesus’ teaching about how we think, speak to and about, and act toward one another. May we examine our conscience and seek forgiveness for those times we have thought, condoned, or justified thoughts, words, and/or actions that have been belittling, dehumanizing, and demeaning that have come directly from us or others and we said nothing to hold others accountable.
Jesus, please impart within us your infusing power of justice, love, and mercy so that we will be more inspired to live out your teachings in our daily lives. Help us to strive to build bridges of relationships grounded in mutual respect, support, empowerment, and accompaniment with our brothers and sisters, no matter our race, ethnicity, creed, or gender, and to commit to building a culture of life and dignity for all, not in some abstract utopian way, but in the concrete moments of our everyday experiences, one person and encounter at a time.
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Photo: Living the Gospel by building a bridge of friendship
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 11, 2020
Jesus invites us to repent from our fear, selfishness, and prejudices and to love others as he loves us.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17). Jesus was a devout Jew, he grew up practicing and understanding the law and the prophetic tradition. We see evidence of that when, at twelve, he is found by his parents among the teachers and scholars discussing, with understanding and wisdom, the law. Jesus in his public ministry very much speaks on behalf of God, calling the people of Israel back to the law, both those who have turned away from God as well as those who used the law as a bludgeon and for building a wall to keep others out.
Jesus shows time and again that being true to Torah is about building relationships with God and others. He extends his hand, person to person, as a bridge for people to come to God, and he calls out the religious leaders who have utilized the law to build walls, to keep people out. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, Jesus forgave sins, Jesus touched lepers and he ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners, those on the peripheries, not because he was being willy-nilly with the law, but because he was showing by his lived example that the greatest commandment of the law was to love God with all his mind, heart, and strength and to love his neighbor as himself.
This practice goes right to the foundation of who God created us to be. All of humanity has been created in God’s image and likeness. By that very fact, each of us is endowed with dignity by the very fact that we exist as a son and daughter of God. In Jesus, we see that the highest observance of the law of God is to love. Jesus met each person where they were and accompanied them. That also meant calling out those who misused the law by keeping others at arm’s length. Jesus did the opposite. As the Son of God, Jesus became one with us in our humanity, so that we could become one with him in his divinity. Jesus offered others his arms extended outward, inviting others to enter into his loving embrace. He would show this fully on the cross, where he opened his arms wide to embrace all peoples of every race, ethnicity, and gender.
Jesus built on the law and the prophets, because he was the fulfillment of them, and in doing so, he gave the law its greater context. The foundation of the law and the prophets were founded in Love, meaning its highest expression, which is to will the good of the other as other. This means that the law is not like a stagnant pool, where we grasp onto the law and tradition for its own sake, but the divine law of God is rather like a running stream, it is always fresh and being renewed by the Holy Spirit.
What Jesus ushered in, was the reign of God, which was possible through the foundations laid by those who had gone before him: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the judges and prophets, David, and those who answered the call of God to serve in his name. From a person, Abraham, to a clan, a loose gathering of twelve tribes and then a nation, Israel, God called a people to himself to shine the light of his will to others. Then at the appointed time, he sent his Son, to be one with the people he called to draw all nations to himself so that all created in his image and likeness were invited to come to be one with him, the God of all creation.
Our joy and fulfillment take shape as we are transformed by the love of God. As we build on the traditions of our faith that give us a solid foundation, we must resist holding on to them so tightly that they strangle us and suck the life out of us. That which leads us to encounter and renew our relationship with Jesus in love is what we are to embrace and preach. That which has become stagnant and no longer is an avenue for affirming life must be pruned.
The love and mercy of God extended to us by the presence of Jesus among us is not a watering down of the law and the prophets. I would argue that it is not only the fulfillment of them, but they are harder to put into practice and demand a closer walk with Jesus. This is so because we cannot fulfill a life of love and mercy on our own. We can only fulfill Jesus’ invitation to love and be able to enter into the chaos of another if we are transformed by his love and continue to allow Jesus to be present to others and love them through us.
God’s love invites us out of the darkness of our own sin and withdrawing into our own false sense of self-control. We become healed when we are humble enough to trust the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives, are willing to confess how we put our own self-interests, fears, and prejudices first and become contrite – to acknowledge the sorrow of the hurt we have caused others, and become less drawn to making excuses and protecting the false self of the ego. Through participating in the life that Jesus invites us to, we drink from the living stream of his love, we come to grow into the freedom of being true to ourselves and who God calls us to be. This is not for ourselves alone. Jesus calls us to be a light for others who are experiencing the shadows of a life of half-truths and/or are immersed in the darkness of a false and/or empty life that we ourselves are emerging from.
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Painting: by Melody Owens – The original painting is 11″x14″ gouache.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Catch the eye of another today and offer them a smile.
We have returned to the season of Ordinary Time. The focal point of this season expressed in the readings chosen from the Gospels will be on the life and teachings of Jesus. Our series of readings for the next few weeks will be a return to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In today’s account, Jesus encourages his disciples to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (cf. Mt 5:13-16).
This call continues to ring true for us today as his disciples. We too are to be “salt” and “light”. Salt has two major properties, preservation and flavor. Jesus emphasizes the aspect of salt being seasoning that one puts on food, which enhances its flavor. Light allows those to see in the darkness. How then can we be salt and light?
We begin by remembering that we are an Alleluia people, meaning that we are a people grounded in hope and joy because we who die with Christ will rise with him. Also, our faith is not just for us alone, we are to go out and share it with others, we are to bring Jesus to others. Pope Francis, in the very first line of his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, writes: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, emptiness, and loneliness.”
The Pope is not saying that when we accept Jesus into our lives and develop a relationship with him that all will go our way, there will no longer be conflict or pain and that our life will now be perfect. What he means is that Jesus is the very embodiment of love and the light that leads us away from the darkness of our sin. Jesus is present and accompanies us in our pain and sorrow, and assures us that we are not alone. Jesus is the one who fulfills the longing of our heart’s deepest desire, he reveals to us our meaning and vocation in life. Jesus brings us hope and offers his hand to lead us through our darkest nights of despair and trauma.
We who have experienced the healing balm of the presence of Jesus in our life, have grasped his hand for strength, have leaned on his shoulder to cry on, and experienced the joy of our encounter with him, are to be present to others in the same way. We are to be salt by bringing the joy of Jesus to all those we encounter. Too many who claim to be Christian, walk with a cloud of gloom around them, they have become salt that has lost their flavor. Instead of drawing others to the gospel, they have withdrawn within themselves and push people away.
A simple, yet genuine smile can work wonders for someone who begins to believe that no one cares or has the time of day for them. This is true for the recipient as well as the giver. If you have felt like you have lost some of your flavor or if you are not sure how to be a light for others, next time you catch the eye of another, smile.
I am not the most extroverted of people and was more introverted in my youth. In my freshman or sophomore year of college, I heard a talk on cassette given by St Mother Theresa. On the tape, she mentioned reaching out to others with a smile. I still remember the first time of risking to smile at someone after hearing Mother’s encouraging words. I was walking up the sidewalk toward the parking garage on campus. I do not remember if the person I smiled at returned the smile, yet I do remember that day as a key moment in my faith journey. Having heard of how to share the light of God’s love with another, and then to follow through with the courage to do so, filled me with joy, and it continues to make a difference in my life and hopefully, the lives of others.
How can we be salt and light in our everyday experiences? I would recommend beginning by smiling at those we encounter. This we can do even from six feet away and it need not only be limited to those we feel comfortable with or like either. We can share a smile with those we may have had conflicts with and even those for whom we may feel a bias or prejudice. This is only a small beginning, but it draws us out from our own self-centered focus and directs our attention toward willing the good of another.
In this small act, we also say to the person on the receiving end of our smile that we care enough to notice them, that they are loved just for being present in that moment. They have worth and dignity just for who they are. A simple, sincere smile can bring a little flavor to someone in a sour mood, as well as a little light to someone in a very dark place. These days we can certainly use a few more smiles.
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Photo: A smile for your day, may you receive it and pass it on!
Mass readings for Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Spiritual Stepping Stones 