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May we allow ourselves to be transformed by the truth and love of Jesus.
When I taught religion and theology, I have asked my students if Jesus ever sinned. Inevitably, someone referenced the account from today’s Gospel. In these verses, we read how Jesus, “made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area” (Jn 2:15). Jesus is not sinning here, rather, he is acting in line with prophetic tradition. Jesus is making a bold spectacle to drive home the point that the temple is not a marketplace but it is to be a place of worship and right praise to his Father.
Greater still than the temple, is the people of God. Further down in the text, when those present ask for a sign to justify this act, Jesus said: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). Clearly, he was pointing to his body as the temple of God and referring to his Resurrection to come.
The temple, the house of God, believed to be the corporal presence, the very seat of God among his people, Israel, was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. This left a tremendous spiritual, political, and social vacuum. Two groups that were intimately tied to the sacrificial cult of the temple, the Sadducees and the Essenes, very soon after the destruction, ceased to exist as a sect within Judaism. The Pharisees, who already were moving to a practice of home worship that mirrored the worship in the temple, would survive and be the ancestral root of different expressions of Judaism today. Another sect would also arise as the followers of the new way of Jesus which became the Church, the Body of Christ.
Each of us has a unique part to play in the Church. We are called to bear witness and practice, in our own unique way, our faith in our everyday experiences. We may be the only Bible someone ever reads. This call to put our faith into action is not an invitation to be overwhelmed by nor an excuse to assume a posture of elitism. We are no better than anyone else.
Pope Francis wrote: “Believers should not be presumptuous; rather, truth leads to humility. We know it is not ourselves possessing truth, it is truth that embraces and possesses us” (Costello 2013, 14). We are to seek and follow Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and allow his truth and his love to shape and transform our lives. When we are willing to encounter and walk together, we learn and grow from one another. We are also less apt to keep others at a distance and become more willing to draw close.
We need to resist all that contributes in any way to the dehumanization, hate, and violence by rooting ourselves in Jesus, the living Temple. In doing so, we will become aware that we ourselves are temples of the Holy Spirit. In spending consistent time in silence, prayer, meditation, study, worship, and service, we not only purify our temple, we better know God’s will, and will be conformed to and empowered by the love of Christ to be instruments of peace, contemplatives in action, and advocates for healing and reconciliation in a wounded and weary church, politics, country, and world.
Photo: Rosary walk during on of my final evenings back at the St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary mid June.
Costello, Gwen. Walking With Pope Francis: Thirty Days with the Encyclical The Light of Faith. New London, CT: Twenty Third Publications, 2013.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 9, 2024
Like with the saints, God calls us to pass on our faith in our unique way and in our unique time.
In the Parable of the Dishonest Steward, the steward who is on the block to lose his job for squandering his lord’s property comes up with a plan to settle his lord’s accounts. He lessened the amount owed with the intent to gain some support from those indebted to his master. Most likely he was giving up his own profits in settling these debts, much like a real estate agent or car salesman today would forego their commission to make a sale.
The prudence or cleverness of the steward is commended by the lord because the dishonest steward had utilized foresight, which was a better quality to develop than the original squandering that landed him in this predicament in the first place.
Jesus commenting on this parable also acknowledged those who were clever in worldly ways, thinking and acting with prudence. Being shrewd and having the foresight to navigate potential conflicts to acquire the desired goal is admirable. Jesus then shared the insight that we as “children of the light” ought to act with prudence as well. The difference being, the application is not for personal gain but applying cleverness in evangelization. As we spread the Gospel, we do so, not in a one size fits all approach. We are to be present and adjust to each person’s uniqueness.
Many in the Church have gone before us aware of the needs of those people in their midst and coming up with creative ways to minister to them. Often they too, utilized the model of the steward’s prudence in today’s Gospel, giving up their opportunity for immediate gain to provide for the needs of others.
St. Francis of Assisi, lived his youth, not as a faithful steward, but as a pampered troubadour, part of the social elite. Then as his transformation began to take hold, he began to sell off his father’s cloth and gave it to the poor. He would ultimately renounce his family name as well as all material possessions, and give all to follow Jesus.
St. Mother Teresa, left her home at eighteen, never to see her family again to become a missionary in India with the Loretto Sisters. She became a school teacher in Calcutta, by no means squandering what the Lord gave her, but she too was called to go deeper. She left the convent to serve the poorest of the poor in the streets, those in the most deplorable of conditions.
Jesus has a unique call for each of us. We too are called to be faithful stewards, to be holy, and to be saints. What needs do we see in our midst? In what ways can we be more prudent? Each of us is invited into a deeper embrace of the Gospel. “We experience faith and encounter God in our own particular time in history, and faith lights up our journey through time. Faith must be passed on in every age” (Pope Francis, 20). Jesus, please deepen our faith and help us to put it into practice in the unique way you call us to serve.
Photo: Image of St. Francis I have had with me since my time with the Franciscans in the early ’90’s.
Walking With Pope Francis: Thirty Days with the Encyclical The Light of Faith. New London, CT., Twenty Third Publications, 2013
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, November 8, 2024
Jesus never tires of forgiving and loving us.
Luke records Jesus being critiqued for eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus responds to the criticism from the Pharisees and the scribes by sharing three parables, two of which we read today, and the third, the Prodigal Son, which is often reserved for reading on Sunday during this liturgical cycle of readings.
The two parables we are given today display the love that God the Father has for his children. Though we may not find being compared to a sheep or a coin endearing, the imagery of the shepherd going to find the one lost sheep and the woman searching all over her house for the one lost coin is a message well worth meditating upon.
Someone hearing this parable might say, “Why bother looking for the one sheep when you have ninety-nine other sheep or why bother looking for one insignificant coin when you have nine other ones?” But if we reflect upon this parable for a bit we might recall a time or feel right now that we may be lost or insignificant. What Jesus is telling us is that we matter. That God loves us more than we can ever imagine, and he is constantly seeking us out. God is the creator of the vast expanse of the cosmos while at the same time he cares for each and every one of us. He cares for you as if you were the only person in the world.
We do not need to look for God so much as we need to just stop, be still, and notice he is already waiting for us. If we feel a bit worn, misunderstood, lost, lonely or underappreciated, rest assured. God cares. God is present, yes, even in the midst of any conflicts, challenges, trials and/or tribulations that we may be going through. Even if we have separated ourselves from him through our sin, Jesus loves us more than we can ever mess up and he is the shepherd that watches over us and seeks us out even when we walk away from him. Return to him and allow yourself to experience the healing balm of his forgiveness.
As we return, we can let go, breathe, and allow ourselves to experience the loving embrace of Jesus and allow ourselves to be loved, to be filled up, and so have more to share with someone we encounter who may also need to know that they matter, they have dignity, are not alone, and that they too are loved.
Photo: One of my favorite pencil drawings by Kathryn J. Brown, 1982
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, November 7, 2024
Jesus took up his cross and invites us to do the same.
I can visualize the opening scene of today’s Gospel in my mind’s eye. Jesus striding along with a gathering of people walking, talking, and moving about, and then he just stops and turns. Those closest to Jesus pull up to a stop with him, others continue right past, while at the same time others bump into and trip over those who had stopped before them. The subtle hum of random conversation then slowly comes to a halt, a stillness ripples through the crowd, and then there is silence. The dust begins to settle. Those closest have their eyes locked on his, while those further back are craning their necks, moving left and right to get a better look, while still others are cupping their ears to catch the sound of Jesus’ voice.
These crowds most likely consisted of some disciples, while the greater majority were those on the periphery gathering because of curiosity, intrigue, and maybe even wonder. Jesus then begins to speak, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife or children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life,…” and then, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me…” and then he finishes with “In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple” (cf. Lk 14:25-33).
Those who may be hearing these words second hand, as they were further away from the point of direct hearing, may not believe that the message was transmitted to them correctly. These words cut to the quick, just as surely as when Jesus shared about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and when he told another follower, who wanted to bury his father to let the dead bury their dead. Luke does not say, but I am sure that many of those gathered around him were just as shocked and began to walk away.
The familial bond for ancient peoples was strong. Though the invitation of salvation that Jesus offers is for all to be saved, he is not going to dumb down or sugar coat his message just to get numbers. Jesus presents, time and again, that the way to live a life of fullness and wholeness, to restore that which has been lost, is to put God first in our lives. God must be the primary focus, the primary relationship in our life, nothing else can have priority of place before him. When we do so, everyone and all other things will fall into their proper place.
Do we want to be an onlooker, just someone looking at Jesus from a distance, or a disciple, willing to be his servant sent forth to share the Gospel and invite others into relationship with him? Are we attached to any possessions, false substitutes, even members of our family, such that we place them before our relationship with God? Idols are anything that we put before God and will distract and divert us from the very flow of his life force that fuels our existence. If we are willing to walk the path of discipleship, we must be willing to surrender our will to God, place him first in our lives, take up our cross, and be open to being transformed by his love.
Jesus is the interpretive key that opens our understanding. All that which is material and finite in our lives find meaning in relation to him. Only when we are able to let go of the attachments to the things of this world will we then truly begin to be free. St. Francis embodied this in a radical way. One of his foundational prayers, which he sometimes would pray for hours was, “My God and my all!” And that is the life he lived and which Jesus invites us to live.
Photo: The crucifix hanging above our altar in our temporary place of worship in our hall, Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach, FL.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Let’s vote and then be about the work of healing, reconciling, and loving one another.
When all the votes are in and counted, may each of us be ready, willing, and able to read and ponder today’s words from St. Paul. At least in the Church, may we commit again to seek God first. May we be “of the same mind” believing in Our Father who art in heaven and that his named is hallowed. May we recognize each other as his beloved children, brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ.
May we let go of the temptation to demonize and dehumanize one another and instead be willing to greet each other “with the same love” and be “united in heart, thinking one thing.”To love, is to will the good of the other. If we can start there with a willingness to, instead of seeking the worst, respect one other as human beings, seek the best for, speak and listen to, and spend time with one another, we might grow again to like one another.
Instead of placing ourselves first and foremost before God and everyone else, let’s place God first, seek to follow his will, and see each other from his eyes. Instead of tearing each other down, may we make a commitment to respect and be more understanding. We can accomplish this when we are willing to: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;” and “rather, humbly regard others as more important than ourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others” (Philippians 2:2-4).
No matter who is elected, may we: be willing to work together to promote the common good, seek healing and reconciliation, respect the dignity of each person from he moment of conception until natural death, love each other by willing each other’s good, so we can help God’s kingdom to come, and his will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Photo: E pluribus unum, out of many one.
Link for the Mass readings for Monday, November 4, 2024
Loving one another can start with a smile.
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:29-31).
How do we actually live out this great commandment given to us by Jesus? How do we love God that we cannot see?
Our first step is to understand better the love that Jesus is talking about. St Thomas Aquinas teaches us that to love, is to will the good of the other. This is more than an emotion, mere sentiment, or a feeling. To love means to accompany, encourage, and be present to one another. The love that God offers us is unconditional, it is about service and sacrifice.
Jesus doesn’t just want us to maintain the Church, our family, our friends, or our ourselves, he has always called us to be a missionary Church, to go out from ourselves and love others as he loves us. The greatest joy of God is that his creation, his human beings are fully alive!
Many inside and outside of the Church have been wounded, yet her heartbeat is strong, because the lifeblood that flows through her veins comes from her Son, Jesus the Christ. So many of our brothers and sisters are walking away from the Church, but her children still hunger to be loved and to love, they still hunger to belong, to be a part of who God has created them to be. They have a curiosity and desire to learn and they want to know, to have their questions answered, and to find meaning and fulfillment.
If we are to be of help, we start by saying yes to the invitation of Jesus to receive the love of his Father. We are to kneel in his presence, sit at his feet, and allow the transforming love of the Holy Spirit to conform and shape us, to sculpt us in love. At the same time, we are called to learn and know our faith, recognizing that our belief is grounded in both faith and reason, so that we can share who we are as a child of God, and share what we have learned with others, with love, with joy, even in the midst of scandal and crisis. This is not a time to run away, but to stand up for what we believe in, to show, through our own life and commitment, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus Christ is the center of the Church. He is present in the Word proclaimed, in his Body and his Blood that we receive, in the Sacraments, and he is present in each and every one of us. If we are struggling to see or experience God, the best way to begin is to reach out toward another in love.
We are brothers and sisters in Jesus. We hunger and crave to belong to God and one another, whether we are aware of this hunger and thirst consciously or unconsciously, and this is true for the atheist as well as the mystic alike. Jesus invites us to be his disciples and we do so by loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and by loving our neighbor as ourself.
Being a disciple of Jesus is about surrendering ourselves to the love of God, receiving, embracing and being shaped by his loving hands. We are then to share his love and joy with others through invitation, hospitality, welcome; meeting our brothers and sisters where they are, as they are, with understanding, convicting when necessary although never condemning, being patient, and present. “Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired” (St. Mother Teresa).
God loves us more than we can ever mess up. God helps us to see and know that we are not defined by our worst choices or mistakes. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. When we make the time to breathe deeply and slowly, we can receive, rest, and abide in his love. Allowing ourselves to be loved by God allows us to begin again and again.
Each person that we meet today, we will then have something to share; the love we have received. Not sure how or where to start? The easiest way I learned from Mother Teresa is that when you catch the eye of another, share a smile. In that very simple act, we say to another you matter to me, you have dignity, worth, value, you are important, and I love you.
Photo: St. Mother Teresa not only loved through her smile, but in her words and actions. We can be like her not by doing great things, but little things with great love.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 3, 2024
“Everyone who seeks the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.”
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who seeks the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:40).
This is our hope and what we believe, that we who encounter Jesus and believe in him shall have eternal life. God’s will, what he created all of us for, is to be in communion with him and one another in this life and the next. A word of assurance that I often lean on is from the book of Wisdom from our first reading today, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us utter destruction. But they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3).
The miracle of Jesus raising the daughter of the Roman official, Jairus, embodies these verses from Wisdom. As Jesus entered the home of the official many were “making a commotion” and Jesus dismissed them stating: “Go away! the girl is not dead but sleeping.” He was ridiculed by the crowd but paid them no heed. He went to the girl, took her hand, “and the little girl arose” (cf. Mt 9:18-26).
Jesus assured his followers as he assures us today that the will of his Father is that all will be saved. Experiences like the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow from Nain, and Lazarus, were not only seeds of hope planting the promise of his resurrection to come but a foretaste of the raising of humanity on the last day. His disciples witnessed Jesus’ actions and words, and not only kept these experiences in their hearts but shared them.
Through the Gospels we are able to enter into and experience the encounters Jesus experienced with others again and again. We also experience Jesus each time we pray, participate in the sacraments, communal worship, and in our willingness to love one another. In each of these moments, we are conformed and shaped into who we have been created and called by God to be in this life and the next.
This All Souls Day we celebrate the gift that Jesus was victorious over sin and death, not only for himself but for all of us. Unlike those he raised from the dead and died again: “We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him” (Romans 6:9). The difference between All Saints yesterday, and the commemoration of all souls today, is that we pray for those who have died still in need of the purifying fire of God’s love. Just as “gold in the furnace” (Wisdom 3:6) is purified, so God purifies those in purgatory. Let us pray for them today that they may be freed from any stain of sin so to also join the communion of Saints!
“Merciful Father, hear our prayers and console us. As we renew our faith in your Son, whom you raised from the dead, strengthen our hope that all our departed brothers and sisters will share in his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever” (Prayer for All Souls, from the Liturgy of the Hours).
Photo: Rosary walk a few weeks back, Riverside Park, Vero Beach, FL.
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 2, 2024
May we, like the saints, take the hand of Jesus and Mary and allow them to lead us through this life and into the next.
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4).
From a theological reference point, we might suggest that Jesus shared these words from the perspective of the eschatological event, his second coming at the end of time. We can rely on the hope that Jesus died for us all and we will rise with him on the last day. The saints are those who will rise with him.
This is certainly our hope and for those of our loved ones who have died, our hope is that this is true. I also believe that Jesus was also speaking about our day to day experiences as well. Jesus said, as is recorded in Mark 1:15, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” Jesus, is the kingdom at hand, just an outstretched arm away. Those of us who mourn will be blessed, will find comfort when we resist running away, or denying the agony and pain that threatens to overwhelm us and instead allow ourselves to experience the grief and the suffering of our loss. It is in the very embracing of our pain and suffering that we come to encounter Jesus with his arms wide open.
By experiencing the depth of our sorrow and allowing ourselves to grieve and mourn in the loving embrace of Jesus, we can release this unbearable weight and begin to heal. If we ask God or anyone near us why someone dies we may not receive a sufficient answer. His Son though, who suffered the agony, loss, pain, and hurt as we do, understands what we are feeling. His presence and closeness will be the strength we need to guide us through the many ups and downs, fits and starts, of our emotional roller coaster. Just like having a surgical amputation, our life will never be the same, but we will heal and be able to live again.
On this solemnity of the Communion of All Saints, we celebrate all those for whom we believe are now in heaven. This observance began with the holy martyrs who were willing to give their lives for Jesus. There are also those saints throughout the ages who witnessed their faith openly, lived their lives courageously, and to the full. Both have gone before us to the true land of promise, our heavenly home. There are also those unnamed saints who day in and day out quietly lived their faith.
They are all now where we one day seek to be and from there they cheer us on, encourage, and intercede for us that we will one day be with them! The saints are our inspiration, guides, and untiring support. We, like the saints, need not fear death because through our life in Jesus, death no longer has any power over us. Yes, we mourn the loss of those who are no longer with us in this reality, yet we also rejoice in their new life in Christ.
This is the tension. Let us not run from but enter into our pain, grief, and sorrow. Let us allow ourselves to mourn so that we may experience God’s comfort, peace, healing, and yes, even blessing and happiness that will come. At the same time, let us remember and celebrate the lives of those we hold close to our hearts and have gone before us. The veil between heaven and earth is very thin, especially during the Mass where Jesus is made present again. This is the time of fulfillment, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Let us reach out our hands to Jesus and Mary, each of them who daily said, “Yes.” to the Father, and allow them to lead us to repentance and a holy life that will ultimately lead us to heaven to enjoy eternity with all the saints!
Photo: JoAnn shared that she was just changing her address. May it now be 144 All Saints Way, Heaven!
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, November 1, 2024
Spiritual Stepping Stones 