Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day
Boundaries, rules, and discipline provide the foundation for us to experience freedom for excellence.
Jesus reacted to the criticism of not observing ritual washing prior to eating that was leveled at him from the Pharisees and scribes by recalling the tradition of the Prophets through the words of Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mk 7:6). For Jesus, following the law for the law’s sake is an empty act. What is important is encountering God, experiencing his love and forgiveness, developing a relationship with him, being transformed by him and returning to his image and likeness, so as to be able to glorify him by serving others and inviting others into communion with him. Jesus challenged the hyper scrupulosity and exactitude of the rules that had nothing to do with being humble servants of God.
Just laws and practices are those that are enacted to build up and empower ourselves and others through discipline and clear boundaries. They help keep us away from our enslavement to sin and instead lead us to freedom for excellence, for fulfillment, and to experience a heart on fire with an ever-growing love that yearns for a relationship with God and each other, like a deer for running streams.
As with any game we play, there are rules and regulations, there are referees and officials to keep order. When the rules enforced encroach on the flow of the game, such that they inhibit the freedom of play, the game is stunted. When there is no enforcement, the game quickly devolves into chaos. When the rules are consistent, they provide the structure and boundaries that limit abuse, allow for the game to flourish, and the players to experience the freedom to actualize their potential, and as such, there is the experience of the true, the good, and the beautiful.
The first time I saw people skate, I was enraptured. I think I was seven. My father was working on a project at our local ice rink and even though we were not there to skate, I refused to leave until he took me on the ice. It didn’t matter that the only skates to rent that fit my feet were figure skates. It didn’t matter that my first attempt was a dismal failure. What mattered was I made it to the ice and the joy of that experience carried me as I learned the rules of balance, how to stop and what a toe kick was and was not for. Soon I had the freedom not only to skate but to join a hockey team. The freedom and joy I felt any time I skated or played hockey, I still carry with me to this day.
The Church, when we are at our best, is the same. We don’t lead with the rules and moralizing, but instead, we share our time, presence, and the joy of our faith. We empower and support one another as we enter into the play between our finite freedom and God’s infinite freedom. We are built for a relationship with God and one another and as our relationship matures, we start to learn and share the finer points of our life of faith. We experience the meaning of why we do what we do and why certain thought patterns and actions lead us either away from or closer to God.
Loving someone does not mean we allow them to do whatever they want, but in willing their good, we offer invitations, options, and establish boundaries that will provide opportunities for growth, maturity, and authentic freedom. We are going to make mistakes, I have made plenty. The key is recognizing that we are on a journey together. As we walk together, we support and learn from one another. In this way, the boundaries and rules we follow are meant to set a foundation for healthy relationships and actualizing who God invites us to be, joyful, human beings that are fully alive!
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Photo: About eight or nine, living the dream on the ice!
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Jesus calls us to “heal the wounds and warm the hearts of the faithful.”
“Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed” (Mk 6:56).
The people of Jesus’ time were in need of healing, hungry to draw closer to God, often searching, wandering, and wounded. This is just as true today. Though Jesus is not as visible to us as he was to those in the land of Gennesaret, he is just as present if not closer. We who receive Jesus in his Word proclaimed and we who receive his Body and Blood, we who receive his healing, mercy, and grace are sent forth to bring Jesus to others.
We are not to go home as if nothing of any significance just happened in our gathering as the Mystical Body of Christ at Mass. Jesus does not send us to walk around with an air of superiority over others, to judge and condemn people, to refuse to help people because we feel they deserve the condition they are in, that they are illegal, that they chose their lifestyle, that they are lazy and just need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Jesus was and is not indifferent to the plight of others.
Pope Francis was asked in an interview by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., in 2013, “What does the church need most at this historic moment?” And Pope Francis answered, “that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle.” We need to be “near”, in the same “proximity”, to bear Christ to one another: “The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all.”
Jesus, please help us to be present, to come near, and bring your love, mercy, forgiveness, and be willing to enter into the chaos of one another. Help us to resist the temptation to keep others at a distance and refuse to be indifferent to the needs of those you bring to us in their time of need. May we too, in the words of Pope Francis, go out to “heal the wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful” by being willing to accompany others in their sorrows, anxiety, trials, and tribulations.
People are really hurting all around us. Help us to let go of the need to fix them or fix their problems. Jesus, help us to be present, to listen, to hear, and be open to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through us at the appropriate time, so that, in the end, we do not prevent people from encountering Jesus, but provide a means for them to encounter the divine physician.
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Photo: Class of 2017 expressing nearness and proximity!
Spadaro, S.J., Antonio. “A Big Heart Open to God: An interview with Pope Francis”. America Magazine. September 30, 2013 Issue: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2013/09/30/big-heart-open-god-interview-pope-francis
Link for Mass readings for Monday, February 10, 2020
We will be the light that shines in the darkness when we allow Jesus to set us on fire with his love.
Our readings today embody the core of the Gospel message, in fact, the core of the written record of the Bible and our Tradition as Catholics and Christians. The Son of God became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. Jesus is the incarnation of the Son of God, he is God made man so that through our participation in his life we can become like God, we can be restored to the likeness of God that we were originally created to be and that has been lost to us through our sin.
Ultimately, what is Jesus saying to his disciples then and to us his disciples today when he said, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world”? Jesus is saying that we are called by him to be holy, we are to be deified or divinized. Our image is to become transformed, perfected in and by Christ and through the Holy Spirit our likeness, the glory of God will be returned.
We are a living, craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and each other. This is true for the atheist as well as the mystic. God did not create us just to survive and merely exist, to take up space and then die. He created us to be fully alive, to be loved and to love, and to collaborate with him to bring about his reign on earth as it is in heaven. Yet, we all fall short of the glory of God when we sin.
Jesus came to save us and opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed. God loved us into existence and loves us so much he is willing to risk that we will reject him. He wants us to choose him freely. Jesus shines the light in our darkness to reveal to us those ways in which we have said no to God and invites us to repent, to turn away from our sin and to restore our relationship with our loving God and Father.
Our yes to God is not a one time yes for all time. We need to make a daily, moment by moment yes to God in every aspect of our life. God loves us more than our worst mistakes, our greatest sin, more than we can ever mess up. He is just waiting for us to turn to him, so he can forgive us and release us from our bondage. God loves us so that we can receive his love, return to communion with him, and love others as he has loved us.
Jesus calls us to be salt, to preserve that which is good and holy in God’s creation. That means we need to be growing in holiness. Jesus calls us to be the light that shines in the darkness leading people to experience that which is good, true, and beautiful about being a human being fully alive. That means we need to be cleansed of our sin so that the light of Christ can shine through us to others.
On our own merits and efforts, this is impossible, but in union with Jesus all things are possible. We become holy by following the guidance of the psalmist. Our hearts are to be firm and steadfast as we trust in the Lord (cf Psalm 112: 8-9) and along with St. Paul we need to believe that we “rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God” (I Cor. 2:5). As we are more and more conformed to the life of Jesus, people no longer see us, but Jesus working through us. As we mature in our walk with Jesus we too will be able to say with Saint Paul that I have been crucified with Christ, yet it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (cf. Galatian 2:19-20).
We become salt to the earth and a light to the world, we become holy, when we accept the reality that God is God and we are not. When we willingly and with firm intent say yes to the grace, the free gift, of the invitation of Jesus. When we pray, meditate, and are willing to be led into contemplation by the Holy Spirit. When we slow down on a daily basis to hear the Word of God who speaks to us in the silence of our hearts and allow the love of the Holy Spirit to transform us, to purge from us all within us that is not of God.
Yet, our prayer is not for us alone. Prayer, meditation, and contemplation are where we become aware of the invitation to experience God vertically, where he calls us through the love of the Holy Spirit and sends us out on mission. This outward action directed toward others is our relationship with God horizontally. The two directions, vertical and horizontal, intersect as the trinitarian love of the Cross.
When we become people of prayer, allow our eyes to see the needs of our neighbor, and allow our hearts to feel again, we will hear with the prophet Isaiah: “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own” (Isaiah 58:7). We will also hear Jesus say, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Mt 25:35-36).
These words are not easy to hear nor to put into practice, but the Word of God is the kindling we need to ignite the embers of our soul. Our “light will shine before others” (Mt 5:16) when we ponder these words and are willing to allow the Fire of the Holy Spirit to burn the dross of our sin, pride, and selfishness from within, and allow ourselves to be ablaze by the Love of God. When we allow Jesus to live in and through us we will no longer be shaped by the world, but we will set the world on fire with his love.
We become “the light of the world” (Mt 5:14) when we have the moral courage as a Democrat to stand up for the dignity of the unborn and as a Republican to grant safe and humane passage to our neighbors outside our borders seeking refuge. We are the light of the world when we no longer allow our politics to shape the Gospel but when we allow the Gospel to shape our politics. We are the light of the world when we recognize that what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters in each and every encounter, we are doing to Jesus.
Be not afraid of this present age. Be the light of Christ that shines in the darkness.
Photo: Praying in the St Peter chapel yesterday before 8 am Saturday Mass.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, February 9, 2020
Enjoy a five-minute retreat today.
After hearing the accounts of the missionary trip of the apostles, Jesus invites them to step away from the crowds “to a deserted place [to] rest awhile” (Mk 6:31). Jesus is showing the apostles the importance of balance. There are times to serve and times to recharge, to reconnect, and spend some quiet, and reflective time with him. Jesus is our model, our guide and teacher, but he is at the same time more than that. Jesus is the source and sustenance of who we are as a living craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and one another. As the deer longs to refresh itself from the waters of a running stream, we long to be nourished by the living water, Jesus, and this is true for the atheist as well as the mystic, for each and every one of us, whether we are aware of this reality or not.
Our thirst for communion can be stifled because it is so easy to be busy, there is so much that needs to be done, and at the same time, there are so many distractions and diversions that vie for our energy and attention. In today’s Gospel, the intent of Jesus is to escape with his apostles for some rest and renewal. They get in a boat to do just that, yet the crowd that they thought they had left behind has arrived on the other side before they did! “When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things” (Mk 6:34). So much for being able to “rest away for awhile”! Or maybe the boat ride across was that moment of rest.
Choosing five to ten minutes to be still, to rest in the Lord, may not seem like much but can make a huge difference. Our challenge is to be able to discern and develop a healthy balance that becomes fruitful through aligning our will with Jesus. When we intentionally put God first and make the time each day to spend with him, often there is a serendipitous alignment that we experience in our day, that we did not think possible at the outset. This often happens when we consciously make time for stillness, for prayer, even and especially, during the moment when we may feel we just don’t have the time.
Give yourself a five-minute retreat today. Step into the boat with Jesus and his disciples. Breathe in deep, let your head fall back to feel the breeze of the Sea of Galilee, feel the warmth of the sun on your face, and experience the rhythm of the boat on the water. Does Jesus remain silent and rest with you? Does he begin to teach, what does he share? In your time of quiet, do you have questions for him, what do you ask, and what is his answer? Enter into the experience, and when the boat comes to shore, go forth into the day renewed and blessed by Jesus so to go forward with a heart and mind able to be moved with compassion to serve others. Such that we embrace interruptions instead as encounters and opportunities of service.
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Photo: On the ferry to Coronado Island, CA, June 2014. Enjoying a little downtime.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, February 8, 2020
Jesus, please grant us the courage to stand up for the dignity of one another.
The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her (Mk 6:26).
The king referenced to here and in today’s Gospel is the tetrarch, Herod Antipas, one of the sons of Herod the Great. He reveals the weakness of his character when he calls for the beheading of John the Baptist. He made a decision regarding the life of another person to protect an oath that he should never have made to the daughter of his wife, and ought to have stood up and shared that the dignity of the life of John the Baptist was worth more than his foolish promise.
We, unfortunately, have seen too much of this kind of leadership on the secular as well as the religious stage. People who are in positions of power from the smallest to the highest levels of governance have made choices that are not in the best interest of the people they are to serve nor have they sought to stand up for and empower the dignity of the person but instead have chosen to protect self-interest, seek self-preservation, or sell out to immediate expediency.
Too many are ready to protect their ego, institutions, party, tribe, at the expense of the dignity of the unborn, children, immigrants, those of a different gender, race, ethnicity, and/or class. Jesus did the opposite. Jesus called children, who were being prevented to come to him to be healed, he raised the daughter of Jairus back to life, Jesus offered hospitality to the tax collectors, Matthew and Zacchaeus, Jesus acknowledged the faith of the Canaanite woman, the woman with a hemorrhage, and stood up for the woman caught in adultery.
Time and again, Jesus showed the moral courage to stand up for and empower those who were considered as other, those on the peripheries, those considered somehow less. He ultimately did so again for all of humanity, when he was willing to be nailed to the Cross for each one of us, to die and conquer death, that each one of us might have life, and have it to the full. May Jesus empower us to grow in moral courage so we too will stand up for the dignity of the person at all stages of development from the womb to the tomb, and implore that our leaders do the same.
Painting: “Forgiven” by Yongsung Kim, Jesus showing his moral courage in standing up for the woman caught in adultery.
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, February 7, 2020
Summoned and sent two by two on mission.
The rejection of Jesus by those in his hometown did not slow down his mission. We can imagine that Jesus knew what he was going to do already, but en route wanted to stop by to see if any from his “native land” would like to participate in his public outreach. Apparently, no one did, so without missing a beat, Jesus went ahead and, “summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits” (Mk 6:7). Jesus summons us and sends us out as well.
At the end of each Mass, we are sent, just as the Apostles, to proclaim the Good News! All of us as the Body of Christ, believers in Jesus the Christ, the baptized, are to live as his disciples and bear witness to how Jesus has transformed our lives. This is best done by acknowledging that God is the center of our lives and recognizing, empowering, and standing up for the dignity of each person that we have been given the grace to encounter. This is to be foundational in the way we think, speak about, speak to and act toward one another. Our call of evangelization is also unique, for each one of us has a particular charism and gift that the Holy Spirit provides.
Jesus is the one who calls, sends, and empowers us for mission. We are sanctified, made holy, when we say yes to his will, participate in the sacramental life and in his life of service. Jesus not only teaches with authority, but he also calls and sends us with that same authority. We are to rely on the divine providence of our Father, meaning he will prepare us and provide that which we need to accomplish the task he has given us, and he will also send the Holy Spirit and others to provide help, aid, guidance, and support. We see this over and over again in the lives of the saints.
At first sight, we may not agree with God’s choosing, his choosing us, or the others he sends to help us! Yet, we only need to recall what he accomplished with the Apostles, remembering the simple beginnings they came from and the wonders they accomplished in Jesus’ name. We also need to remember that God does not see as we do, for we are often misled by appearances “or lofty stature” but God sees into the depths of the heart. He sees the character and potential of each of us (cf 1 Samuel 16:7).
Let us be about building up the reign of God, be willing to be empowered by Jesus and those he brings into our lives, as well as be willing to empower, encourage, and support others. May we pray and be open to what God is calling us to do to serve him, to be willing to encounter others and will their good without seeking anything in return.
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Photo: Two Crusaders, young men of integrity, preparing to be sent two years ago!
Link for Mass readings for Thursday, February 6, 2020
Wonder expands the more we embrace faith AND reason.
Today’s Gospel reading is a sad account. Jesus preached and taught in his “native place”, but for the most part, his words were not received, he did not perform healings, exorcisms, he was not able to bring those who knew him for the greater majority of his life into deeper communion with his Father. The whole reason that he came was to bring light to a world suffering in darkness, and those closest to him refused the invitation such that: “he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6:6).
Is our world today becoming more and more like Jesus’ “native place”? Do we take Jesus for granted, if we pay attention to him at all? Many expend more energy on cynicism, taking care of number one, and an uncritical acceptance of empiricism or scientism. Again, a sad state because science is an awesome gift. Science and faith come from the same source, our intrinsic ability to embrace wonder! These two are not incompatible. Authentic faith seeks understanding. A questioning and searching mind are the ingredients for a living, relevant, and vibrant faith and life.
Faith without reason, as well as reason without faith, leads to a more limited understanding of the vast expanse of creation. Scientism is limiting the very gift of science itself because it stops when the questions get really interesting, when the exploration goes beyond the measurable, the sensate experiences as we know them. Faith without reason can devolve into mere superstition.
May we resist setting limits, settling for a minimalist or cynical approach, and the hardening of our hearts, and instead open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities God opens up before us! There is so much to experience in God’s creation if we just slow down and are still enough to experience the wonder of our everyday moments all around us. The Holy Spirit works through each of us when we resist keeping each other at a distance and are willing to encounter and accompany one another. We can experience so much more by embracing our faith and reason, and opening our hearts and minds to the wonder and glory of God, which is the human being fully alive!
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Photo: Fort Funston Beach, San Francisco, CA this past Thanksgiving
Link for the Mass reading for Wednesday, February 5, 2020
“Do not be afraid, just have faith.”
“Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who has touched my clothes'” (Mk 5:30)? The woman could have slipped away, she could have stood still and said nothing, no one knew. His disciples were bewildered that Jesus asked such a question with so many pressing about him. But the woman approached with “fear and trembling” and told him the truth. Jesus did not admonish her for breaking a social taboo but publicly acknowledged her faith.
All the while as this scene transpired, Jairus must have been in agony. He knew how close his daughter was to death, and every second counted. Jesus took that limited precious time and engaged with this woman. Just as they were about to resume their journey, and he began to breathe again, the terrible news came that his daughter had passed away.
What might have flashed through his mind at that moment? The time Jesus took to talk with the woman, could that have made the difference? He was a synagogue official and would have known the taboos she crossed to reach out and touch Jesus in public, he knew that in doing so she would make Jesus unclean, she was a woman considered the lowest of low. She was frail and pallid from her condition, at death’s door herself, yet she had mustered more courage and faith than he had.
Jesus said to the man, “Do not be afraid, just have faith” (Mk 5:36). Jairus had just witnessed such faith with the woman healed from the hemorrhage, probably someone until this very moment who he would have shown disdain for. Maybe just maybe, if he could muster the same faith as her, Jesus could bring his daughter back to life. A light shone in the darkness of his despair and the darkness did not overcome it. Jesus indeed healed his daughter, by taking her hand and commanding her to rise and walk, she came back to life.
How many of us have ourselves or have ever known someone who has experienced such great needs as did Jairus, whose daughter died and was brought back, or the woman who had been suffering for twelve years with hemorrhages and received healing? How many of us have experienced the opposite? No healing that we prayed for. We wondered where Jesus was or why didn’t he bother to help? The truth is Jesus is present, though he may or may not have brought about the outcome we seek.
February 2 marked five months since JoAnn died. She was not healed as was the woman with the hemorrhage nor while I lay by her side awaiting the funeral home to pick up her body did Jesus raise her from the dead. Sometimes, I feel like JoAnn will walk through the door like this has all been a horrible dream though I know that will not happen. Yet through each stage, Jesus has been and continues to be present with me as he is with each of us through our pain and suffering, whether we feel his presence or not. Sometimes he allows the unthinkable to happen, of which we cannot even comprehend at the time, to bring about a greater good. Often, we are not able to see that until a later date, when some time has passed, and we have gained some perspective from healing.
I still do not see a greater good at the moment. Ultimately, faith is placing our trust in our God and Father who loves us, who is present to us, and carries us in our darkest hour. Are we willing to be carried? He sent his Son Jesus to us, to walk with us. Are we willing to walk with him? Death is not the final answer. Jesus has conquered death and become the firstborn of the new creation. In this truth there is hope. I trust in the words Jesus spoke to Jairus, “Do not be afraid, just have faith (Mk 5:36). There are miracles in our lives and when we experience them we need to be thankful to God and those who journey with us. In our times of trial and sorrow, it is important to lean into Jesus and one another a little more. And when needed, allow God to carry us for a time.
Photo: JoAnn my heart and our intercessor from across the waters.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, February 4, 2020
