love
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
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 lights the path for us to come together in community.
One of those at table with Jesus said to him, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.” He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready'” (Lk 14:15-17)
Today or if you are reading this evening, tomorrow, will be the final chance to vote. We seem to be cut right down the middle and unity and striving to form a more perfect union seems to getting further apart.
Judaism was far from unified during Jesus’ time as well. The Sadducees, Pharisees and scribes, Samaritans, Zealots, and Essenes all felt they were the authentic expression of Israel. Jesus not only addressed this division by sitting down to break bread with as diverse a population as possible but he also shared parables around the same idea of the invitation to share in the celebration of a feast, as we read today.
Each encounter that we are blessed to partake in is an invitation to experience communion. We have the opportunity to interact in person, face to face, or through the myriad of social media outlets. With each opportunity, we can choose to demean, degrade, dehumanize, gossip, and defame or we can embrace the opportunity to treat each other with dignity, respect, kindness, and understanding, yes, even when we disagree.
We all have wounds. Each of us have suffered or are suffering, and we have or are experiencing pain in some form or fashion. We all seek to belong, to be a part of, and to be accepted. We need each other. When we acknowledge this reality we can begin to heal and be more understanding toward others. Yet, as Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, writes, “If you’re a stranger to your own wound, then you’re going to be tempted to despise the wounded.”
Jesus provides a mirror for us to notice our own suffering as well as a light to reveal the path to our own healing. Being willing to see our own wounds and to be open to healing, we can be more present. When others are not respectful, we can choose instead to be patient and understanding. When someone is shares harsh words, we can resist the defensive response and instead ask if there is any way we can help. Let us strive to be a conduit of love, to will each other’s good, and to be a healing presence in our interactions with one another. Everything is now ready. Jesus invites us to the feast of community and sharing, are we willing to attend?
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Photo: Rosary walk through Riverside Park, Vero Beach.
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 5, 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
Love is the narrow gate that we enter to grow closer to Jesus and one another.
He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Lk 13:24).
Jesus offered this answer to the person who asked him, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” Jesus’ parables about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven (cf Mt 19:24) and the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:19-31) also reveal to us that what we say and do in our lives regarding the welfare of others matter. Are we building walls or bridges regarding our relationship with God and one another, are we including or excluding?
There are many distractions, diversions, and temptations that pull at us. When we give in to them, we can strain or even break our relationships. Jesus said many will not be strong enough, and on our own he is right. St Paul also realized this, for he wrote, “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil that I do not want” (Romans 7:19). How many of us could say the same?
Relationships are not easy in the best of circumstances, this is true on the human level as well as the spiritual. St Teresa of Avila, the 16th-century Spanish saint and doctor of the Church, shared openly and honestly with Jesus once after being thrown from a carriage into a mud puddle, “If you treat your friends so poorly, it is no wonder that you have so few!” I relate to the honesty of this quote. My maternal grandparents had the same kind of open, unfiltered relationship with each other. To an outsider looking in, they would have missed the depth of love they had developed for one another for over sixty years and which continued to grow into their last days.
Authentic relationships demand that we go through the narrow gate of love. Love is more than mere sentiment, emotions, or feelings. We must grow in our willingness to sacrifice, be committed, understanding and forgiving, present, patient, willing to risk being vulnerable, honest, to respect boundaries, and share who we truly are with one another, free of any pretense or masks. On our own, we are not strong enough to persevere, but with God, we will remain faithful.
My grandmother told me to take the time we needed to get to know each other, but once we knew, not to wait too long. We didn’t. JoAnn and I were married six months after we started dating. Each of us brought our own baggage, wounds, and made plenty of mistakes, to our relationship, yet each year was better than the one before because we remained committed to God and to each other. We became more patient and understanding, we empowered and were there for each other. At each of the crossroads that arose over our twenty-three years, we chose the narrow gate. We loved Jesus and each other and that made all the difference.
Jesus is the relationship we need to develop first and foremost and he will then help us to properly order our relationships as well as all aspects of our lives. He will be our foundation and strength as challenges arise. Jesus continually invites us with his tender chords of love to draw closer into relationship with him so better to grow closer into relationship with one another.
Photo: Jesus at the center of our relationship may all the difference.
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Not God, “What will you to do for us?” but instead, “What are we to do for you?”
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:45).
As fully God and fully man, Jesus taught and modeled for his disciples a contrarian view of how to live in our world. He rejected the pursuit of worldly honor, power, pleasure, and wealth during his earthly ministry. Jesus redirected any attention drawn to himself to his Father. He epitomized the exact opposite of the cult of personality by emphasizing that what is most important is developing a relationship with God and following his will by serving the needs of others, even to the point of suffering and dying to open up access to heaven for us.
On our own, we cannot achieve this freedom of service. James and John showed that they did not understand Jesus’ call to service. Instead, they were looking for seats of honor and power. Though they had experienced, studied, and were mentored by Jesus, it was not until experiencing his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, and in remaining true and faithful despite their own failures, that they came to a place of transformation through their openness to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They came to understand that Jesus called them to serve and not be served. They then fulfilled what Jesus first saw when he called them to leave their boats and follow him.
This is true for us as well. Jesus sees not just our impulsiveness, pride, and selfishness, our wounds, and our sins, but who God has called us to be from the beginning and still is yet to be actualized. Jesus calls us to a way of life that embraces loving and serving as he loved and served, yet in the unique way and charism that our loving God and Father has planted in us. He has sent the Holy Spirit to guide, empower, and to transform us by his love, so to draw us deeper into the Mystery of God.
May we be willing to be led, as James and John were, away from our attitude of: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”, which is never a good question to ask the Son of God because in so doing we are feeding our E.G.O. We are Edging God Out of the picture and placing ourselves front and center. Instead let us open our heart and mind as Jesus did and embrace the inner disposition of a servant that asks, “God, what do you want me to do for you? How do you want me to serve? Not my will, but your will be done.”
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Photo: A time of quiet and thanksgiving looking at our new but temporary sanctuary in our parish hall. I was blessed to be able to greet and celebrate Masses this weekend together again with my Holy Cross family. We are beginning again and seeking God’s will on how to best move forward.
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, October 20, 2024
The Holy Spirit is ready, willing, and able to help us, unless we say no.
“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).
This verse is often referred to as the “unforgivable sin” and it can be difficult to understand. Also, if you have been reading this blog regularly you may have read more than once my writing that God forgives us more than we can ever mess up, so, how is it that we can’t we be forgiven for blaspheming the Holy Spirit?
When I was a junior or senior in high school, one of my teachers commented that if we thought Stephen King wrote amazing tales, then we might find reading the book of Revelation from the Bible interesting. This was not a Catholic but a public school. As a reader of Stephen King and at that time I think he had only written seven to eight novels, that phrase stayed with me, and a few weeks later, I purchased a King James Bible from our local bookstore, Waldens, which I am not sure exists anymore (Waldens not King James). I don’t remember if I read it at all, I must have thumbed through it a time or two, but then placed in on my shelf, next to my a copy of The Stand.
A month or two passed and I remember being at a party and not having much fun, so I left. When I arrived home I had the urge to open my newly purchased Bible and when I did my eyes found not the words from the author of Revelation but Luke. He shared: “Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows” (Lk 12:7). After reading the section leading up to this verse, I felt God saying to me that I would not ever win the lottery, but like the sparrows, he would take care of me. He would provide me with the opportunity and the ability to work. He has continued to be true to his word through all the ups and downs of my fifty-nine years so far. God not only provided work, but has continued to provide something even more, an awareness of his presence in my life. These beginning stepping stones have led to others that would ultimately pave the way to me typing these words to you today. Because of each successive yes to the invitation and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and confessing those times that I did not, I placed myself in a better position each time to recognize and hear the word of God.
Now, that experience could have taken a different turn. I could have resisted the initial curiosity that welled up within me from my teacher’s discussion and instead of going out to purchase a Bible, I could have stayed home that day and opened up my copy of The Stand and given it a second read. Thus denying that invitation of the Holy Spirit, I would not have had a Bible when I went to that party. I could have followed through on the first urging to purchase a Bible but then resisted the second urge to leave the party. Choosing to ignore either or both promptings would have led to a higher probability of my not hearing God’s voice that night. Say each step did happen up to and including hearing God’s voice but then I denied that I heard God, instead attributing the experience to some bad pepperoni pizza from the party. Each one is an example of how I could have closed myself off to God’s invitations.
God invites us to share in his life in a myriad of ways. With each invitation, no matter how small, we can say yes, or we can dismiss these “encounters” as mere “coincidences.” With each denial, we further limit ourselves to the possibility of acknowledging an encounter with God. We can even begin to doubt and/or come to a place of denying that he even exists. We could then develop “a mentality which obstinately sets the mind against the Spirit of God, and as long as that obstinate mindset perdures, God’s forgiveness cannot be accorded to such a person” (Fitzmeyer 1985, 964).
God loves us more than we can ever mess up, so much so, that he gives us the freedom to reject him. He does not impose his will upon us. John the Baptist and Jesus got this, and this is why their emphasis on repentance was so preeminent in their preaching. If we turn to God with humility and contrition, true sorrow for our sins, God will forgive us and we will receive his healing touch.
The danger of a consistent and obstinate disposition against God is that like a muscle that is not used, it will atrophy, and so will our ability to see God working in our lives. We will become less and less able to notice his gentle stirrings and invitations. We will become spiritually blind and our hearts will become hardened. Now that does not mean God stops communicating. He continues to reach out to us in an infinite number of ways, but we are less and less able to receive the forgiveness he so thirsts to give us when we close off ourselves to even the mere possibility of him doing so.
Jesus, in becoming one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity, opened up the opportunity for us to experience the Holy Spirit, who is the Love that is shared between himself and God. Opening up the Bible, as I did so many years ago, opens us up to the living Word of God. The more we say yes to his guidance and leading, the more we will experience him, the more we will begin to recognize his voice, the more we will participate in his forgiveness and love, and the more we will be nourished and strengthened. I do not believe in coincidences, but God-incidences!
Photo: Blessed to be back at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary for the Friends of Seminary Gala. Some quiet time of prayer after the Mass in the chapel, where I have been blessed to have been touched and guided by the Holy Spirit many times, and again this night!
Fitzmeyer, Joseph A. The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV in the Anchor Bible. NY: Double Day, 1985
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, October 19, 2024
We receive God’s key of knowledge to open the door to his love for ourselves and each other.
Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter” (Lk 11:52).
We all yearn to be loved, to belong, to be accepted, and fulfilled. God knows the depth of our yearning better than we know ourselves. For he sees past the apparent goods that we cling to and he invites to take steps into his light that we might see the truth of his love and our fulfillment that can only happen in our relationship with him. From that core communion all else in our lives can be properly ordered.
To willingly prevent access, to those who seek, as did those for whom Jesus points to in today’s Gospel, is an egregious offense. Especially in the way that Jesus describes. They themselves have the key to enter, do not avail themselves of the gift they have received, and worse, prevent others from going in! I remember a time in eighth grade where I had wanted to ask a girl out to the school dance. I confided this hope with someone but of course, the word got out. A few days later in math class, the teacher announced to the whole class that I was the first one he had ever heard of being rejected before I could even ask them out. I wanted to melt into the floor.
Teachers, like religious leaders, are to open up greater access and care for those who have been placed in their trust. When they do the opposite by denying access, betraying that trust, belittle, or worse abuse those they are charged to empower, they slam doors in the faces of those who seek to be loved and belong. We are to resist any temptation to demean, dehumanize, or crush the spirit of anyone and instead seek to be understanding, kind, and present. The “key of knowledge” Jesus wants to share, is to open, not lock others out of their access to Jesus and his truth.
Each of us is hungry for God. Not only are we to seek him but also to help others along the journey to experience him. We are to love and support one another, even when they express their hunger in not the most pleasant of ways. Here it is even more important that we resist reacting in kind and slipping into a defensive posture. Instead, let us be patient, understanding, and willing to listen with our spirit instead of our ego for what their need truly may be. May we not be a closed door but one that is open to share the healing love that we have received from Jesus.
As Pope Francis said: “Each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing new walls! Let us dialogue and meet one another in order to establish a culture of dialogue in the world, a culture of encounter.”
Photo: Making time to be still and quiet can help us to feel God’s peace and help us to be more patient with one another.
Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, October 17, 2024
Spiritual Stepping Stones 