Reflections on the Gospel Reading for the Day
A little more on dealing with suffering…
“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 equal in any way to God.
God is not a being. At best we can say he is Infinite Act of Existence, he is, or as God told Moses, “I am who am” (Exodus 3:14). God did not create evil, he only created good. “God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good” (Genesis 1:31). The Devil, Satan, the one who opposes, was created good also, as a high arch angel, Lucifer, yet he chose to turn away from the will of God, and those angels who followed him are demons. God is greater than the Devil and his demons, and his good is greater than evil they sow.
Evil is not so much a created thing, but a deprivation, or distortion of the good. God does not create evil, but he does allow it, and even though we cannot understand the reasons why God allows or permits evil or suffering, it 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 to 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 alone.
To better be guided by God, to hear his voice in the silence of our soul, to be fulfilled, 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 experience God as did 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 and accepted that God was in control and he was not, and though he could not grasp everything, he trusted in the will of God for his ultimate good.
How do we deal with evil then? We need to surrender our pride and control over to God and acknowledge that he is in control and knows what is best for us. We need to choose to put God first above ourselves and everything. Our fundamental option, our telos, our end goal, is to be above all an embrace of the reality that we are striving to be in relationship with him. From the moment of our conception, we are a living, craving, hunger, and desire to be one with God and one another. This is true of the atheist and the mystic alike, whether we believe it or not. As we embrace this reality, put God first and focus on him, no matter what arises, we will begin to experience his presence in not only our everyday lives, but begin to feel his presence with us in the midst of our suffering. We will come to know that he is stronger than any pain or evil, and he will guide us through and give us what we need to endure.
Our loving God and Father has given us the means to understand suffering and evil especially in sending his Son to enter into our humanity, to suffer with us, even unto his unjust death on the cross. Our deepest prayer is when we willingly offer up our suffering, and enter into the Mystery of the Passion of Jesus. Jesus, the pure and innocent one, beaten and crucified, understands our pain and agony, 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 yours be done” (Lk 22:42).
In that acknowledgement, Jesus faced the utter evil, horror, betrayal, and injustice of humanity, his crucifixion. In taking upon himself the sin of the world on the Cross, he even felt his separation from the Father. Through his complete surrender into God forsakenness, into his death, and descent into hell, his willingness to die for us, Jesus made the Resurrection possible. He conquered suffering, evil, and death forever, he brought about a greater good, through the evil of the crucifixion. No matter what trials we face, the Father has the last word over sin, suffering and even our death.
We can deal with suffering and evil in our lives with our hope intact because we can trust that God hears our prayers and is present in our trials and tribulations. For our part, we need to be willing to be honest with him, even if we are angry, afraid, or doubtful. We will not find Jesus when we deny or run from our challenges, but we will find him with his arms wide open and waiting for us when we are willing to enter into and face our suffering and pain. “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” (Fr. James Martin, S.J.).
When we struggle or suffer, we are not alone. Let us resist running from our pain and instead bring our challenges to Jesus on the Cross. The strength of our faith is that we can trust in the knowledge that Jesus is present in the midst of our suffering. Jesus understands our pain because he experienced it on the Cross and experiences it with us now. Our hope is assured in that Jesus has already won the battle and he will give us the strength to endure.
May we call on the Love of the Holy Spirit who will be a light for us that shines in the darkness. No darkness can or will overcome his Love. God the Father has the last word on the matter and aligned with him, and willing to call on the name of his Son, Jesus, we will be victorious even in the face of the purest evil. Let us face whatever storm rises before us today with confidence and courage, as did Jesus, when he set his face toward Jerusalem. Hand in hand with Jesus, we shall overcome.
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Photo by Johannes Plenio from Pexels
The quote above, inspiration, and key points I shared regarding dealing with suffering come from Fr. James Martin, S.J. who answered a question on how we deal with suffering. You may access his answer on the You Tube video On Pilgrimage With James Martin SJ Fordham University. His response on dealing with suffering begins around the 1:30:00 mark. The whole video is well worth watching!
Mass Readings for Tuesday, July 30, 2019
We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
As with the Gospel reading from Luke on July twenty-first, we again in today’s Gospel reading from John read about Martha. Martha approaches Jesus with the same boldness as she had done in the last encounter when she questioned Mary sitting at his feet and allowing her to work all alone in the kitchen. This time the stakes are higher. Martha’s brother, Lazarus has died and Jesus was not present to help her and Mary in their time of need.
How many times have we been in Martha’s position? We felt that Jesus was not there when we needed him. Why does God allow suffering? Especially the suffering of the innocent, is an age old question. Part of the answer is that we live in a fallen world of sin. God does not bring about suffering but he does allow it because he loves us so much he is willing to give us the free will to reject him. The cost of our freedom means that there are consequences to our choices. Part of the consequences is that our sinful and hurtful choices do not just effect us, they affect not only those around us, but everyone.
The good news is that we are not alone in our suffering. Jesus with God, as God, sees not just the moment but the fuller context of God’s plan. In the midst of our suffering, Jesus helps to not only bring about a greater good, though it may take time to come to understand and see that greater good, he accompanies us in our suffering. This is true even in death.
Jesus came not only to comfort his friends Martha and Mary when he heard of the death of Lazarus, Jesus came to restore him to life, which would also be a foreshadowing of his own Resurrection, when he would not only be resuscitated as Lazarus, but conquer death and become the first born of the new creation. We need not fear even death, our own or our loved ones. Jesus has conquered death.
From the moment of the Wednesday of Holy Week, when my wife, JoAnn, and I heard the news that she had pancreatic cancer, we have been blessed with so much love, prayers and support from so many and above all, to feel the closeness of Jesus that Martha and Mary felt. We do not know the day or hour for JoAnn, but we believe with Martha, that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that has made all the difference for us (cf. Jn 11:25-27).
JoAnn and me at Echo Park a few weeks ago.
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 29, 2019
Jesus, teach us to pray as you taught your disciples.
Prayer is God’s initiative. Our very desire to pray is already prayer as it is an awareness of God’s invitation to relationship. By our very nature, we are prayerful beings because we are a living, craving, hunger and desire to be one with God and one another. Our very fulfillment and joy will only come from developing and deepening our relationship with God.
Yet, many of us, though we desire to pray do not know how to pray. This was true for the disciples as well. They saw something different about Jesus in his prayer. So we hear in the Gospel today from Luke: “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). Jesus then shared with his disciples the model and form of prayer which can help us today as well.
The first movement in our prayer is to acknowledge God’s invitation for dialogue, for relationship. If we pray, we often start and may only stay in monologue, our speaking to God, our imploring God for our needs. These often take the form of petitions for ourselves and intentions for others. Is this wrong? No. But if this is our only prayer, we will miss the very core of what prayer is and that is communication and relationship with God. If we approach our family and friendships only in this way, we can imagine the shallow relationships we would have.
Jesus teaches us to acknowledge and approach God first: “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” We recognize that God is holy, he is our Lord, we are not. We come to experience the God who has created all that exists, the God that transcends all of creation, time and space, loves us more than we can imagine, and wants to spend time with us. He wants to make his will known in our life and invites us to be collaborators in building his kingdom on earth.
As we come to know God, his will for our life, we will better know what to ask him in prayer, that which will be for our highest hope and good, such that our will becomes more aligned to his will. We will be lured less by apparent, material and finite goods and come to see how God provides for our daily needs and appreciate the simple gifts and wonders of life.
One of the greatest gifts that is found in Jesus’ instruction of prayer and living as his disciple is growing as people of forgiveness. For to forgive, one must be focused on willing the good of the other and not the self. We do not have to look far to recognize that we do not do forgiveness well. When we struggle with forgiveness, we can ask the Father, as Jesus did on the Cross, to forgive others through us. We need to go to God honestly and say, “God I am not willing to forgive this person, help me to forgive. Father forgive this person through me that I may come to forgive as well.” To forgive, we need to be people of prayer.
Jesus help us to recognize that the very desire to pray is already an acceptance of God in our life, reaching out to us, inviting us to build a more intimate relationship with him. Teach us to pray, to come to acknowledge God as our Father, to place God first in our lives and ask him to be the Lord of every aspect of our lives.
Jesus, open our minds and hearts to the love of the Holy Spirit such that we may better serve God through our brothers and sisters in need and so be collaborators in helping to build his kingdom on earth. Help us to discern the difference between our wants and needs, to embrace a simple life open to the wonder of the gift of life at every stage of development for all people and all of your creation. And each day Jesus, teach us to forgive as you have forgiven us.
Photo by Tim Gouw from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, July 28, 2019
Wheat or weeds, maple or poison ivy?
“’Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest” (Mt 13:27-30).
One of my favorite trees is the Maple. When JoAnn, the kids, and I moved to Florida twenty years ago, the thought did not cross my mind that Maples grew in Southern Florida. A few years after we moved into our home, I was walking in our backyard and thought I saw a maple leaf. I squatted down for a closer look and found that not only was it a maple leaf but a sapling with three leaves! I carefully cleared some of the weeds and grass growing among and around it, but otherwise let it be because it was so fragile. As it grew I cleared more around it. Today it is a fully mature Swamp Maple!
About a year ago, I saw a new Maple sapling emerging, though this time, some poison ivy was growing around it. I sprayed poison ivy killer, thinking I was carefully avoiding the Maple. Unfortunately, I must have gotten some of the poison spray on the Maple leaves because the sapling also shriveled up and died.
I can relate to Jesus’ parable today. The master warned his servants to let the wheat and weeds grow together until they were more mature at the time of the harvest, so as not to pull up the wheat with the weeds. Weeds in this verse is translated from the original “Greek [as] zizanion [which] refers to a noxious weed that in its early stages closely resembles wheat and cannot be readily distinguished from it” (Harrington 2007, 204). Both, in their immature state, were indistinguishable.
Jesus is calling us to resist the temptation of judging one another. Even when there are those who commit heinous acts of evil, we may feel justified in our judgment and condemnation. Jesus says no. We may convict the person of their action and we are certainly to hold each other accountable, but judge and condemn, no. The Father is the ultimate arbiter and judge.
All of humanity has been created in the image and likeness of God, each of us are a unique gift to this world, we have been created good, yet all of us fall short of the glory and grace of God. God the Father will judge at the end of time between the wheat and the weeds and only he knows the time or the hour. Let us leave the judgment to God, and let us instead be about following the teachings of Jesus, repenting, and encouraging each other in the maturation process which can include, convicting others when needed, yes, but condemning, no. As St Paul wrote: “We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves” (Romans 15:1).
We are to resist the temptation to spread the poison of judgment, gossip and condemnation, otherwise we are promoting division and a culture of death. We are to instead welcome, nurture and care for one another, promoting unity and a culture of life.
May we pray for patience, understanding, and the ability to seek forgiveness in our interactions, as well as be willing to forgive each other. Life, even when going well, is hard. We need the encouragement and support of each other if we are to mature and actualize the fullness of who God calls us to be. “Encourage each other while it is still today” (Hebrews 3:13).
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Photo: Our Maple tree back in Florida, much more mature than the little sapling I discovered about twenty years ago.
Mass readings for Saturday, July 27, 2019
Harrington SJ, Daniel J. “The Gospel of Matthew”. In vol. 1, Sacra Pagina Series, edited by Daniel J. Harrington. Minnesota, Liturgical Press, 2007.
Focused on Jesus, we can be free of the vines that threaten to choke us.
In the Gospel today, Jesus explains to his followers his Parable of the Sower. Many people of faith would fall into the third category: “The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit” (Mt 13:22). Jesus is a part of our life, we are growing in our faith, but our discipline and maturation, and so bearing of mature fruit is diminished. We are limited because Jesus is only a part of our life, not the core foundation. This is because we look to the world and its false promises to be our security and support.
Pope Francis questioned in his apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel: “How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality” (Francis 2013, 53). How often is it that the top voting issue in our national elections has to do with concern about the economy?
If we are placing our hope and focus, if our primary source of building for ourselves a secure foundation is in the political and economic realm, we are going to be consistently anxious and stressed. Our faith is going to be choked, and worse our politics will be shaping the Gospel instead of the Gospel shaping our politics. We will justify and rationalize behaviors from our leaders that are contrary to living our life aligned with the teachings of Jesus as long as the economy is going well.
These subtle vines of false security also promote a privatization of our faith. If we seek to counter and challenge injustice, if we call for an awareness of those who are vulnerable and suffering, if we call out actions that are immoral, speaking out for the rights of the unborn, we can face the backlash of being accused of stamping on an individual’s personal rights; being called a socialist or a leftist, by seeking to keep migrant families together, to provide safe haven for asylum seekers or refugees. Taking the risk to be “God’s microphone”, to speak the Gospel publicly, is challenging today because: “The process of secularization tends to reduce the faith and the Church to the sphere of the private and personal” (Francis 2013, 64).
To live our faith is not just a hobby and means more than just doing so in our own home. If we are going to mature as disciples of Jesus, we are going to need to resist the false lures of riches and material security, we are going to need to be willing to face the anxieties of criticism and hostility for speaking the truth of our faith. The unfortunate part is that we may face a lot of push back from those of our brothers and sisters even within our own churches, the Body of Christ.
We can mature as disciples when we are willing to commit daily to reading the Bible, seeking resources to better understand his word, praying and meditating, pondering the teachings of Jesus, and so better have the eyes to see and ears to hear his Word and guidance. As we build our foundation on Jesus and his teachings, put them into action in our everyday lives, build a support group, we can share with others the trials and successes of our journey of faith. These small acts will make a tremendous difference.
Courage is a mark of feeling the fear and saying and doing what we are inspired by God to do anyway. Let us call on the name of Jesus when we are tempted to place our trust in anything other than God, may we call on the love of the Holy Spirit to give us the words to speak and the actions to impart, with understanding, and kindness, when we are in the midst of unjust, disrespectful, or dehumanizing words or actions.
We need to trust in Jesus’ invitation. He is calling all of us to deepen our relationship with him and to invite others to do the same. The road ahead, and the trials we will face will not be easy. But as we face them, with Jesus and one another, we become stronger. We begin to mature and bear fruit when we allow Jesus to be our constant source, our foundation. Sustained by his power we can then act with courage and put into practice what we learn.
When we are choked by the vines of temptation from apparent goods and false senses of material security that seek to lull us into complacency and indifference, when the tendrils of anxiety and fear squeeze at our heart and throat to keep us indecisive and unresponsive to God’s call for us to act and speak beyond our comfort zone, to step out in love to serve and accompany others in need, we are to remember that we are not alone. We need to call on Jesus, trust in him, reach out to our brothers and sisters in faith, so to cut away the vines and thorns, all that is not of God, that attempt to choke us.
Over time our soil will become richer, our roots will grow deeper, the Love of the Holy Spirit will increase in our hearts, minds, and souls, we will begin to see others through God’s eyes, we will become more human, more open to a maturing relationship of communion with our loving God and Father and each other, that bears the mature fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.
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Photo: Plant in our backyard back in Florida, a symbol for us who place our trust and build our foundation in Jesus, growing and maturing free of the vines that attempt to choke it.
Pope Francis. Evanglelii Gaudium: The Joy of the Gospel. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us, 2013. Link for online access:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html
Link for Mass readings for, Friday, July 26, 2019
Discipleship is not about getting ahead but walking with, side by side.
“The mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’ She answered him, ‘Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your Kingdom’” (Mt 20:21-22).
The context of this request from the mother of the sons of Zebedee, James and John, comes from reading a few verses before the quote above. Start reading at Matthew 20:17 and you will see that Jesus and his twelve apostles are heading toward Jerusalem. Jesus stops to share with them, for the third time, that he will be condemned and crucified.
Jesus’ statement of his imminent suffering and death appears to be ignored by the mother of James and John. The other ten are indignant, not because of the apparent lack of acknowledging Jesus’ statement, but about who is the greatest among them! It is easy to imagine how the chaotic scene ensues! As Saint John Chrysostom wrote: “See how imperfect they all are: the two who tried to get ahead of the other ten, and the ten who were jealous of the two” (Chrysostom 1975, 1552)!
This event is recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Mark has James and John speaking for themselves, not their mother, as in Matthew. Luke does not even record the initial request of James and John at all, but comes in at the point of the apostle’s dispute. What all record, including the Gospel of John, is Jesus’ interjection where he made it clear to his apostles that he came to serve, not to be served. To follow Jesus meant, not that James and John would be given positions of honor, the sitting at his right or his left, but that they were to serve as he served, to love as he loved.
As disciples of Jesus, one of the most powerful ways we can serve, the most powerful ways we can love, is to be truly present, done most effectively when we actively listen. This is done when we look at each other, resist the temptation of thinking about our own needs or thinking about what we are to say. We need to put the book down, set the work aside, turn off the tv, put away the cell phone, disengage our thoughts, and instead look at and listen to what the person before us has to say.
Today, make the time to stop, be mindful, present, and listen to Jesus, to our family, our children, our parents, friends, colleagues, and those to whom, in the past, we may not have given the time of day. Jesus came to serve, to love, to listen. May we too give of ourselves with our time and undivided attention directed toward another. If you are in need of a little help on this memorial of St. James, ask for his intercession, “St. James, pray for us.”
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Photo: Laughter, a fruit and gift of listening 🙂 photo credit Jack McKee
Chrysostom, St John. Homily. The Liturgy of the Hours: According to the Roman Rite. Vol. 3. NY: Catholic Book Publishing, 1975.
Parallel Gospel passages to review:
Mark 10:35-45; Matthew 20:20-28; Luke 22:24-27 and John 13:12-17
Mass readings for today, Thursday, July 25, 2019
The seed sown does not have to be stolen.
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up” (Mt 13:4). With these words Jesus begins his Parable of the Sower. We read later in verse 19 Jesus’ explanation that: “The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what is sown in his heart.”
The kingdom of Heaven begins small like a seed. The beginning is an invitation by God to participate in his life. God meets us in our present moments and experiences, but the key is are we aware? Many times there are moments in our life that we pass off as mere coincidence, when in fact God is at work, planting a seed, yet our minds and hearts are closed such that we do not allow that seed to be received. The moment passes and the seed is stolen by the evil one.
A path is a worn area of land not suitable for growth because it is hardened by much foot traffic. When we are hardened to life such that we cannot weep, cannot feel our emotions, the seed, who is Jesus, has no place to germinate in our life. We often do not feel compassion for the needs of others because we would rather hold onto our pride and bear a grudge, we would rather be unforgiving because we would rather be right, and we allow ourselves to be governed by our fears such that we find protection in our prejudices.
In allowing our hearts to be hardened, we close ourselves off to the source of our life, our very being, and we allow the evil one to steal the gift of life that God offers. God the Father has sent his Son to dwell among us. He seeks the cracks and places that have not been hardened, where there is some loose soil, the places in our being that are still open to faith, hope and love.
Jesus, may the seed of your Word come into our lives today to reveal your truth so that we may understand who we are and who your Father calls us to be. Send your Holy Spirit to dwell deep within our hearts and to take root in every aspect of our lives such that we begin to feel compassion again, we begin to hope again, we begin to have faith again, and we begin to love again.
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Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, July 24, 2019
God first equals healthier relationships.
What Jesus proposes is not an either/or statement, but is meant to be a both/and statement. The end goal of our life is to be in communion with God. To attain that goal, we need to not only acknowledge that God exists but also come to know and follow his will. As Jesus said, “For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Mt 12:50). The challenge is that there is so much that pulls at us for our attention, so much that reaches out to divert us, people, activities, material pursuits are all vying for first place for our minds, hearts, and souls.
The challenge and demands of family life are tremendous. We often read, hear, and experience ourselves, how much the family is being challenged in our modern age.
Many of us strive to put family first in our lives. That ought to and needs to be a priority as healthy relationships require commitment, love, sacrifice, and persistence. What Jesus offers then seems to be counter intuitive. Jesus is approached, in the midst of is teaching, and told that his mother and brothers were there wanting to see him. We would think he would say, “Great! Bring them right in, I have a place reserved for them front and center!” Yet, his comment, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers” (Mt 12:49), raised a few eyebrows and hackles.
Jesus was not choosing his disciples over his family, he was clarifying that the primacy of place of God his Father is to be first and foremost. “For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:50). Families come in many different shapes and sizes, one size indeed does not fit all. Building our relationship with our heavenly Father is the foundation toward striving toward healthier relationships.
God first means that we become less and his Son becomes more in our life, this means we come to truly experience the love of the Holy Spirit: sacrifice, willing to give of ourselves to each other, willing the good of each other, and making time for each other. As we deepen our relationship with God, balance will come into better focus. This is even truer for those in our family who say no to the invitation of building a relationship with Jesus. We need to resist the temptation of becoming defensive, imposing our will and God’s will on others. Instead, continually invite, but ultimately live our faith authentically, and others will see the transformation in us. Just as important, is that we will be able to be more present to our loved ones, be better equipped to accompany them, encourage and support them as they need us.
Putting God first in our lives, will indeed help us with our family relationships. As we grow closer and deepen our relationship with Jesus, we mature and begin to experience the fruits of our relationship with him, which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (cf. Galatians 5:22-23). As we are putting these values into practice toward one another, we will be more present to and develop deeper relationships with our own family, while at the same time coming to experience a larger extended family, the Church, the Body of Christ, the poor in our midst.
Who was the closest relationship Jesus had? Mary. Not because she gave birth to him, but because she was the premier model of discipleship. Would you like to deepen your relationship with your family? May we follow Jesus’ invitation and with Mary begin our day today and often throughout it by saying, “May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).
Photo: Leaning on God and each other!
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Mary Magdalene, model of hope and perseverance
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her (John 20:18).
Mary is the Apostle to the Apostles! Though before she announces this proclamation, the foundation of our faith that Jesus is risen, we find Mary weeping outside the tomb. She is crushed by the death of her Lord and his body appeared to have been taken away. Peter and John, following Mary’s initial lead, ran to the tomb, saw it empty, and “then the disciples returned home” (Jn 20:10).
Mary stayed, she remained still, experiencing her doubt and growing despair.
How many times have our hopes been obliterated, what pain have we or do we endure, what horrors do we continue to witness in our lives, throughout our communities, country and world? When Jesus first speaks to Mary, she does not recognize his voice, thinking him to be the gardener. Are we like Mary, that we are so weighed down by our sorrow that we are unable to recognize Jesus in our midst?
Mary was willing to weep, to experience and not run from her sorrow, and deep down held on to hope. Even after seeing the tomb empty, even after Peter and John had left, she still looked in the tomb again. Despite a growing doubt and despair, even after encountering two angels, she did not leave the empty tomb. In the midst of her disillusion, Mary recognizes the risen Jesus when he calls her by name!
May we not lose the ability to weep but also hold on to hope. Both are part of our humanity. To lose our capacity to weep, is to reject our humanity, and then risk the slide into the temptation of indifference to our own hurt and the agony of others. Hope is a cornerstone of our faith. Jesus is present in the midst of our brokenness. When we are willing to be still and experience our emotions, resist the temptation to run away, while at the same time embracing hope, we too will encounter Jesus.
May we experience Jesus in the midst of our trials or sorrow, as well as our joys, for Jesus is present to us through the full range our human condition. And when we encounter Jesus, like Mary, may we go boldly forth with joy, to proclaim what he tells us! May we share our stories of Jesus active in our lives, so to be a living Bible to others. Our stories shared may be the only Bible someone else ever reads.
Mary of Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, pray for us!!!
Painting: The Resurrection by Peter Adams, 2018 – hanging in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, CA
