Advent, a glorious time of the year

Advent is a glorious time of the year, during which we are reminded through the prophets of the glorious things our God has and is doing! We are repeatedly made aware of the power of our God and that God's plan of salvation will not be thwarted.

In Jeremiah 23: 5-8, God says to us: "Behold, the days are coming...when I will raise up a righteous shoot" to rule the world. "As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security.  This is the name they give him: 'The Lord our justice'."

In his days, that is now, (insert a name)  shall be saved, (insert a name) shall dwell in security because the Lord our justice is at work in our world.  Just as, in Jesus' time, it did not look as though the Messiah had come, so, too, in today's world it may look as though God is not at work. In faith we know that He is, just as some of the Jews knew that Jesus was the Anointed One, the One sent by God to fulfill the covenant and build a Kingdom that will last forever, a Kingdom no one will destroy. Powers against Jesus were defeated--Jesus rose from the dead.  Powers bent on destroying God's Kingdom among us in our day will not succeed.  "Every valley will be filled in, every mountain and hill (the obstacles to justice and truth) shall be made low" the prophet tells us in today's first reading, Is.40:1-11.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

 

Note: this is the last posting on this site. This same message is posted on my blog in www.becomingasister.org.  Scroll down to "Blogs", click on that and my blog is the first one published there.  See you there! 

The coming of the Messiah

In Is 35: 1-10, Isaiah prophesizes about the fulfillment of God’s promise of sending a Messiah to turn the world back to God.  We know that, through Christ Jesus, we will be saved.  Satan, seemingly totally out of control in today’s world, will be overcome. Evil will be destroyed along with those who perpetuate evil and do not repent.  “Here is your God,” Isaiah says, “he comes with vindication” Is 35: 4),  All of us, in some way or another, long to be exonerated now. However, our justification might not happen until we enter eternal life, as it did not happen for Jesus until His resurrection.

Isaiah tells us that when the Messiah enters our lives and our world, our eyes and the “eyes of the  blind will be opened”, our ears and “the ears of the deaf will be cleared” (Is 35: 5).   Wars will cease between individuals, families, nations, cultures, men and women, rich and poor, homosexuals and heterosexuals; human trafficking and drug trafficking, and violence of any kind will cease. With the coming of the Messiah into our personal lives we will create a world in which the integrity of every human being will be honored, each one’s needs will be met.

Am I ready for this Messiah? Am I preparing a path in my life where Jesus is welcome, where the Spirit is heard and God’s instructions followed?  If so, how is that happening? If not, what do I need to change?

Come, Lord Jesus, Come

In today’s first reading, Is. 29:17-24, we read about the promised Messiah. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says to us:

                        In a very short time, Lebanon [the world] will become rich farmland,

and the rich farmland will seem like a forest.

At that time the deaf will hear the words of a book;

                        instead of having darkness and gloom, the blind will see.

                        The Lord will make the poor people happy;

                        they will  rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

                        Then the people without mercy will come to an end;

                        those who do not respect God will disappear.

                        Those who enjoy doing evil will be gone:

                        those who lie about others in court,

                        those who trap people in court,

                        those who lie and take justice from innocent people

in court (Is. 29: 17-21, The New Century Version or the Bible).

How seriously do we take this prophesy.  The prophet Isaiah is not only talking to the people of his day but to us as well.  Truly, the world as we know it will be changed.  God will open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. Blindness and deafness to the needs of the poor and oppressed; blindness and deafness to justice will be removed. Leaders throughout the world and in any segment of society, all peoples, great and small,  “shall hear the words” of the Scriptures, the Torah, the Hindu Vedas, the  Quran—the holy books of all religions. Yes, people without mercy will come to an end; those who do not respect God will disappear” (Is. 29: 20).

God has promised and God will do it!  May we not lose faith as we wait for the fulfillment of this prophesy in the world of today!  I believe it. Do you?

Trusting the Lord

In today first reading, Is. 26: 1-6, we are encouraged with words: "Trust in the Lord forever! for the Lord is an eternal Rock."  I am at our province headquarters in Oshkosh, WI.  I came here on the 3rd of Dec. and will be here until the 14th. I came to set up a vocation committee that consists of lay people, SSM Associates and some Sisters.  I said to the Lord on the way here: "Lord, this is a trust walk, an act of faith. I have no idea who I will be interviewing or whether the persons I asked for suggestions have any information for me. The first night at Franciscans Courts, our headquarters in Oshkosh, I went to the library around 7:00 p.m. and around 7:30 a sister who does chaplaincy work at Mercy Hospital in Oshkosh dropped by and gave me a list of names of persons she thought would be good committee members. On returning to my room, the phone rang. It was one of our Associates. She had a list of names for me.  I was overwhelmed. I had been praying the prayer; Lord, bless me this day and I will indeed be blessed!

I have 12 person interested in working with us to promote religious life and priesthood, to put forth effort to make SSMs known. I will be interviewing all of these persons and writing recommendations to the Council.
Our communication specialist who is also a marketing guru has offered to analyze my work and help me develop strategies for more effective use of social media and maintaining ongoing contact with inquirers.

"Trust in the Lord! for the Lord is an eternal Rock!"  How many times the Lord confirms this truth for me! What about you?

"Gotcha"

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle.  Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee, sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting a net into the sea. He yells at them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men [people]” (Mt 4: 18-22).  At once, they abandoned their nets and followed  Jesus.

Were they nuts? They were, probably, successful fishermen!  What happened to the boat and the net and the fish?  And this guy who was simply walking by and says “Come, foillow me. I will make you a different kind of fisher,” who was he? Why follow him and abandon a business? And we know that Andrew and Simon did not look back. They stayed with Jesus for three years and beyond, were at the Last Supper, suffered through Jesus’ crucifixion by Romans who occupied their country, witnessed his Ascension into heaven, were present at Pentecost when tongues of fire came down from heaven and rested on them, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, changed from cowardly men to bold proclaimers of the Word, of the Resurrection and of the Kingdom of God in our midst, a Kingdom that Yahweh told the Jewish people would never be destroyed.

 So what happened? How could this be, you ask?  The fact is that once we encounter Jesus personally, nothing in this world is seen in the same way.  The Real is not what the world offers, though advocates of the world’s goods believe so and want us to believe so as well.  Our egos “chase success, power, a good name, achievements, and all the other stupid things we race after. God will always get…[us] on the run,” as He did Andrew and Simon (Rohr, Richard, OFM, Jesus’ Plan for a New World,” St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, OH, 1996, p. 38).  As we chase after the things the world offers, not that we do not need those things, “once in a while…[we] glimpse out of the corner of…[our eyes] what really matters. Gotcha” (Ibid.)”

God: the Victor

Today’s first  reading, Revelation 18: 1-2, 21-23; 19: 1-3, 9a, continues with John’s vision. This time he sees a “mighty angel [pick] up a stone like a huge millstone and [throw]  into the sea and said: ‘With such force will Babylon the great city be thrown down, and will never be found again….Because your merchants were the great ones of the world, all nations were led astray by your magic potion.’”  After this scene of the destruction of Babylon, John heard “what sounded like the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying: ‘Alleluia! Salvation, glory, and might belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.’….Then the angel said to me, ‘[Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.”

You and I live in a world that has, in many ways, led people astray.  Extreme efforts to destroy the faith of its inhabitants are exerted by the powerful and mighty in every nation on this planet.  Desolation is spreading throughout the world: natural disasters, wars, violence of every kind, moral abominations, idolatry (worshipping sex, material fortunes, “freedom,” pleasure, power and control, etc.).    “…Flee to the mountains,” we are told in today’s Gospel, Luke 21: 20-28, that is, take refuge in God.  Pray, pray, pray for the conversion of this world.

 

I know in faith that the “Babylons” of this world will be destroyed. I also know in faith that there is a remnant of people in the U.S., in Europe, Asia, in Africa and other parts of the world, as in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., who will remain steadfast in worshipping the one true God, who will follow the Lamb wherever He goes and are called to the eternal wedding feast. May I be among those chosen few who keep the faith, no matter how bad it gets before Jesus’ return.

Participating in the Victory Jesus Secured for Us

Today’s first reading, Revelation 15: 1-4, shares with us more of John’s vision. He sees “something like a sea of glass mingled with fire. On the sea of glass were standing those who had won the victory over the beast and its image… They were holding God’s harps, and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb [Jesus, the Lamb of God].

‘Great and wonderful are your works,

Lord, God almighty.

Just and true are your ways,

O king of the nations…

….You alone are holy.

All nations will come

and worship before you,

for your righteous acts have been revealed.’”

 

You and I, as Christians, participate in the works of God. The prayer that opens today’s liturgy asks that the wills of the faithful be stirred up so that we will strive more eagerly to bring God’s “divine work to fruitful completion.”  What a grace that has been earned for us by Jesus’ shedding of His blood and surrendering His will to the will of the Father, which is that we are victorious over the beast!  Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit so that we have everything we need to reverse the tendency within us to rebel against God, to choose our own will over God’s will, to make a name for ourselves as Adam and Eve attempted to do by eating of the fruit of the tree of good and evil in the middle of Paradise, what the people attempted to do in building the tower of Babel, what the Israelites attempted to do in worshipping the pagan gods of the countries that they had conquered on the way to the Promised Land.  We face the same temptations of those who have gone before us. We also are armed, however, with the same graces with which others have been armed and through which they  “won the victory over the beast and its image.”  If we cooperate with the graces we are given today,  we will “bring [God’s] divine work to fruitful completion.”  Yes, we will win “the victory over the beast and its image” because God’s work in us is “great and wonderful.”   I believe that! What about you?

Your Royalty as God's Child

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of Christ, our King.  This morning in prayer I imagined the following conversation with the Lord. It went like this:

 

                I am King.

                You are a King’s daughter.

                You are royalty!

                You are the recipient of my inheritance,

eternal  life in my Kingdom.

                I secured that inheritance for you

 by my obedience as Son of Man to My Father’s will

—your salvation and the salvation of the whole world.

When I was nailed to a cross,

 when I crushed the head of Satan,

all nations, all kingdoms of the earth, all languages (cf. Daniel 7: 13-14)

were brought under My rule and reconciled to My Father.

As Daniel prophesied, “all peoples, all nations and languages

serve [God].

[ M]y dominion is an everlasting dominion

that shall not be taken away.”

(M]y kingdom shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7: 13-14)

 

Look, Lord, at the world!

 

The world as you know it is passing away!

God shall reign forever.

God reigns now and has reigned before this world ever came into existence and will reign eternally.

Hope Eternal

In today’s Gospel, Lk 20: 27-40, Jesus tells us that those who have passed through the door of death “can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

 

That is the hope to which all believers cling. It was the hope to which the 130,000 Vietnamese martyrs clung (we celebrate their victory today) when they were tortured and killed for their faith.  No matter how difficult or horrifying life becomes for those who believe in God, adhere to the values of the Gospel and stand up for what they believe, we know that our “crucifixions,” our dying with Christ is followed by a rising with Him.  Throughout this sojourn on earth, the Lord, as stated in today’s responsorial psalm, “trains [our] hands for battle, [our] fingers for war” (Psalm 144).  It is God at work in our lives who will give us the same victory He gave to David, his servant, and to Jesus, son of David and Son of God, who assumed human nature and was obedient to God even unto death for our sakes. 

What sacrifices am I willing to make for my faith, for the wellbeing of my family, my religious community, the good of the country, the civic and church community in which I live?

Rightful Relationship with God

Yesterday, for me, there was something very sacred about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, a little taste of heaven, a giving thanks to God through bands, music, dances, and artistic displays of gigantic helium balloons and millions of people, in the midst of dealing with the destruction of Hurricane Sandy, gathered together to enjoy this expression of gratitude.

In this week’s liturgical readings, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, chases the money changers out of the Temple (those using religion for financial gain) and is Himself being pursued by those who want to kill him.  We, too, have within ourselves two opposing forces: those that want to give God His rightful place within our lives and within the world and those forces that want to silence God, want God removed/out of sight/destroyed. Knowing that Satan roams the world seeking someone to devour by his deceit and his rebellion against God, Jesus stays with us in the Eucharist,  in the Scriptures, and, yes, hides Himself in the details of our lives.  By savoring God’s Word, memorizing Scripture passages, reflecting on the daily liturgical readings—“hanging on his words,” as did Jesus’ disciples as related in today’s Gospel, Lk 19: 45-48)—we arm ourselves against those evil forces, i.e. against Satan’s helpers bent on not allowing heaven and earth to be recreated as a place where God’s voice is not silenced.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Honor God’s name!
Acknowledge God’s presence!
Prepare God’s way!
Probe God’s messages!
Yes, know that God is always speaking Truth, seeking Truth, and inviting us to Truth!

The Lord is King!

Halleluiah!
Always present is my God! Halleluiah!
Now and forever near to those who seek Him,
Knowing my comings and goings and my thoughts from afar!
Sound the trumpet! God is near!  Halleluiah!
Give glory and honor and praise to God’s holy name!
In times of darkness and of light, in sorrow and in joy, in life and in death
Verify that God is God,
Invisible and infinite,
Never far from the brokenhearted is our
God and Savior!

In today’s first reading, Rev. 4: 1-11, we are told that there are creatures before the throne of God who, day and night, praise God, saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.”

The author of the book of Revelation sits in awe of who God is.  Awe is a form of praise. It is also humility, a holy respect of self, God and the other.  Praise draws us closer to God and God to us. Authentic praise of self and others creates intimacy.  Praise sanctifies us, cast out negativity and fills us with positive energy (cf. The Word among Us, November 2012, p. 40).  When we genuinely praise another, it has the same effect.  Praise is the antithesis of sin in us.  The author of the meditation for Nov. 21, 2012 in The Word among Us, p. 40, writes:

                “To understand this truth, reflect on these words of Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa,

               preacher to the papal household:

                 ‘Praise is, par excellence, anti-sin. If, as St. Paul has said, the

                             mother-sin is impiety, that is a refusal to glorify and thank
                             God, then the exact opposite to sin is not virtue but praise!....’”

It behooves us each day to develop the art of gratitude. We might do that at the end of each day by asking ourselves the following questions:  for what today am I grateful? What today has my spouse, my children, my co-workers, my fellow religious done that has been music to my ears, put a song in my heart and lifted my spirit? Keeping a gratitude journal, so to speak, will change your life!  Expressing gratitude--looking for the good each person in your life does each day--will also change the environment in which you life.

"Hot" Discipleship

Both of the readings in today’s liturgy, Rev. 3:1-6, 14-22 and Lk 19: 1-10, are invitations to conversion, to a change of heart and mind.  In Revelation, God tells us that He will not settle for “lukewarmness,” for apathy,  lethargy, or  half-hearted discipleship. “I wish you were either cold or hot…[B]ecause you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” 

Am I caught in an “I don’t care attitude” when another invites me to commit to Christian living--to being honest and upright, to being transparent in a spousal relationship,  to being loving and caring, forgiving and respectful, to building relationships within community if I am a member of a religious community? 

Zacchaeus, a tax collector, working for the Romans, was known  for extorting money from his fellow Jews. He was, in short, a crook, one engaged in cheating, in being deceitful and conniving.  He was also a man who must have heard about Jesus and wanted to see him. Being short in stature and knowing Jesus was coming down the road, Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree in the area. Jesus spotted him and invites him “to come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” Jesus invites. Zacchaeus accepts the invitation.  As a result of his encounter with Jesus, Zacchaeus is converted totally—no half measures anymore. He repents of his sinful ways, makes restitution for his crimes against his fellow Jews, and  promises Jesus to give back 4xs the amount he extorted from others in the payment of taxes to the Romans.

That kind of transformation is what happens in our lives when we truly let Jesus, our Savior, into our “houses.”  Am I willing to risk a visit from Jesus? Am I willing to have my lukewarmness, my apathy, my half-hearted discipleship transformed into full discipleship?  Am I willing to have my indifference transformed into being  “hot” in building the Kingdom of God here on this earth, in the world that I occupy: my home, my workplace, my parish, my community?

Fidelity to the Call to Reach out to Others

Today’s first reading, 3 John:  5-8, begins with the phrase: “Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters, especially for strangers; they have testified to your love before the Church.”  Immediately, I thought of the Foundress of my religious community, Venerable Mother Frances Streitel, and the young women who dedicated their lives to the Gospel as Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother between the years of 1883-1895.  From 1888-1895, many of these young women were sent to the U.S. from Europe, beginning in 1888. In 1889, 1890, 1891, 1893 and 1895 hospitals, orphanages, schools and a health resort were opened to attend to the needs of immigrants, of the sick and the poor and parentless and uneducated children.  These young women religious left everything to follow Jesus.  Strangers could count on these women to respond to their desperate need.  These acts of heroism continue to this day by men and women religious and by lay men and women who leave their homelands in search of ways to support their families and to respond to brothers and sisters in Christ.

And Jesus says: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do unto me (Mt 25:40).

These strangers testify, today,  before God in eternity “to the love of these young women religious who had  given their all to meet unmet need with the wealth that consumed them: God’s love, God’s compassion, God’s mercy.  They had little of nothing of this world’s goods but like Peter and John before the poor man sitting at the door of the Temple they could say: We have no money, but in the name of Jesus, we give you God’s love,  God’s compassion and God’s mercy. 

These heroic deeds on the part of women and men religious and parents who sacrifice everything to give their children what they need—that is, God’s love, God’s compassion and the good that comes from sacrifice  and learning to give of their all  to help others—continue to this day.

 

What role are you and I playing in this world so much in need to selfless giving for God’s sake?

The Kingdom of God is among You

In today’s first reading, Philemon 7-20, we have such phrases as “…do what is proper,…out of love,” may “the good you do…be…voluntary,” return to those who know you as a mature person “in the Lord,”  “may I profit from  you in the Lord,” and “[r]efresh my  heart in Christ.”  Each of those phrases affirms Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel, Lk 17: 20-25, when He says to us:  “The Kingdom of God is among you”; don’t go looking for it anywhere else.  It’s the reason Jesus also said to John the Baptist:   the blind see, the deaf hear, the poor have the Good News preached to them (not necessarily in words but through the good that is done), the lame walk, the sick are healed and the dead (not just physically dead) come to life.  The same is true today.  You and I make God’s Kingdom visible in the good that we do. We refresh hearts in Christ by our love and forgiveness, by our conversion and repentance.  By the fruits of our lives, we  will be known as mature women and men in the Lord, as was Paul’s friend Onesimus (See Philemon 7-20). 

 

O Jesus, may all of this be true for all of us today and every day.

The kindness and generosity of our God

In today’s first reading, Titus 3: 1-7, Paul reminds us that “…when the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because  of [God’s] mercy, [God] saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life” (Titus 3: 1-7).  Without this intervention and because of original sin, our minds remain darkened and our wills weakened. So when invited by grace to “…be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise, …to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone’ (Titus 3: 1-7), we easily choose opposite behaviors and  give in to impulses and compulsions enticed by the Father of Lies, who places doubts in our minds of trusting the Holy Spirit of God prompting us to do good and avoid evil.   “…Though I walk  in the dark valley,” the psalmist reminds me, “I  fear no evil; for …[God is] at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage” to be obedient, to be open to every good which the Spirit invites me to embrace, “to be peaceable, considerate,” and “gracious” toward all those I encounter today.

Growing in the faith

"Increase your faith," the apostles plead with Jesus in today's Gospel. Jesus reminds them that if they have faith the size of a mustard seed, they would ask a mulberry tree to uproot itself and plant itself in the sea and it would obey their command. And I want to say: "Oh, come on, Lord, do you really mean that?" The answer is: "Yes, he does," figuratively speaking. We know that a mustard seed has everything in it to become what it is intended to become. Within you and me, a seed from our biolgoical fathers planted into our biological mothers had everything in it for us to become fully functioning, productive, human beings. More awesome yet, however, is the seed of faith planted into us by the Holy Spirit with we were baptized and confirmed in the faith. Everything in that seed of faith makes it possible for you and me to reach our fullest spiritual living out our faith and to develop our spiritual potential to love as Jesus loved, to trust God as Jesus did and to believe in God's plan for salvation as Jesus did.

You Are God's Temple

Today’s readings, Ez 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Cor 3: 9c-11, 16-17; Jn 2: 13-22, all speak about the temple, a holy place where God dwells in a special manner.  St. Paul reminds us in 1 Cor that each of us is God’s temple. Jesus, in Jn 2: 13-22, speaks about Himself as the temple which, though destroyed on the cross, He will “raise…up in three days.” 

 In the first reading, an angel brings the prophet Ezekiel to the entrance of the temple, where he sees “water flowing out [not only] from beneath the threshold…toward the east” but from the south and north as well. That flowing water refreshes the salt waters and gives life to “every sort of living creature,” “abundant fish,” “fruit trees of every kind,” whose” leaves” never fade and whose “ fruit” never fails. You and I, baptized into Christ, filled with the glory of God through the sacraments, are made holy by Christ’s death and resurrection. Through our baptism, we have been missioned and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be ambassadors of Christ in the world in which we live. That means that through us, the purifying, reconciling waters of our baptism are to be flowing in such a way as to refresh life, produce fruit and “fish” in abundance.  What a gift and responsibility of being church in the secular world.

The Gospel retells the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple, chasing out those who violated the purpose of the Temple, that is, those who made His “Father’s house a marketplace”.  Does Jesus, living within the Temple of our being, find us violating God’s Temple? What in you and me needs to be cast out so that we truly are a refreshing presence of God  in our world, a source of God’s abundance, a bearer of fruit that will last, and persons through whom “fish” exist in abundance. In other words, to what extent are we “fishers of men/women,” persons who bring people to Christ and Christ to people by our faith, hope and love?

Knowing Christ: the supreme good

Paul had everything going for him. He was a Jewish Rabbi of significant renown.  His zeal for his Jewish faith motivated him to arrest Christians who, in the Jewish tradition were perceived as traitors to the faith. Nothing was too much for Paul to protect his heritage or his religious upbringing.  His loyalty and commitment to Judaism was undeniable.  God, however, had other plans for Paul’s talent, strength, and loyalty.  Miraculously, Paul’s eyes were opened to God’s salvific plan for all God’s people.  Through grace, Paul was introduced to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.  In today’s first reading, Phil 3: 3-8a, Paul tells us that, following his personal encounter with Jesus, he considers “everything as a loss  because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

What about me and you? Do we consider knowing Christ and developing an intimate relationship with Him as the supreme good of each day of our lives? If not, why not? And, if so, what efforts do I make each day to get to know Jesus?

God's Gives Us the Work We Need to do Each Day

The statement in today’s first reading, Phil. 2: 12-18, that touched me is “…God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work” and the phrase in the responsorial Psalm, Ps. 27, which reads:   may I “gaze on the loveliness of the Lord…”  This evening, as I reflected upon the challenges of today, I realize deeply that it is God who put the desire in me to do the work of this day and also presented today’s work.  This leaves me feeling humbled, as I frequently wonder what the day’s work might be, as vocation ministry is not like going to a classroom every day or going to a counseling center to work with clients every day.  No, it is not that structured nor am I guaranteed that anyone will inquiry about religious life or be knocking at the door to become a Sister of the Sorrowful Mother.   Yet every day, God puts within me the desire to work in His vineyard and presents the day’s work to me as the day unfolds.

 

The second statement “may I gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord” touched me as I was beginning to complain about issues to myself.  “Wait a minute,” I said to myself. “What about seeking the loveliness of the Lord today instead of focusing on some negatives. What a difference the day might make”, I said to myself. And how true for me today. It truly unfolded with many surprises within it—gifts from the Lord, including the discipline to take on a challenging task!

 

May the Word of God continue to shape my life and yours.

The Humility of God

In today’s first reading, Philippians 2: 5-11, St. Paul puts before us Jesus’ model of humility.  “[T]hough he was in the form of God, [Jesus] did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.”  Every day, false sacreds emerge for us. Those might be anyone or anything we elevate to the level of the Sacred, anything or anyone we put on a  sacred pedestal, as the serpent elevated the fruit on the tree in Paradise. “Eat of it, devour it, possess it, and you will be like God,” Satan insisted.  This temptation surrounds us every day. Someone gets an award; we do not.  Our mouths water! Someone is given recognition or praised in our presence while we stand in the background, hardly noticed, if acknowledged at all.   Our hearts ache.  Someone outperforms us, or we imagine being outperformed. We feel a twinge of jealousy or envy. If only we were this person or that person, if only we had this job or that job, this degree or that degree, these opportunities or those opportunities, we tell ourselves; then, we, too, would accomplish great things! Etc. Etc. Etc.

 This is not the path Jesus models for us. It is not what religious life is about nor what being a Christian is about. Jesus, Paul reminds us, “…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and, found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”  He wasn’t here to show us how to gather accolades.   All of those  aspirations to be “Kings” and “Queens”  in our own right, to belong to an exclusive club, are deaths to which we  must die and rise with Christ in humility and love.  Jesus calls us to repentance and to conversion. Are we open today to being transformed by Christ and reconciled with God in the depth of our being, not on the pedestal of something/someone  we elevate to replace the Divine in our lives. What a challenge! Something only grace can accomplish in us.

Living a life filled with love and gratitude

In today’s first reading, Eph 4: 32-5:8, St. Paul asks us to “[b]e kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ…[L]ive in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us…Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving.”  What if I consistently lived thankfully, looking for that in any other person for which I could sincerely say “Thank you.”  What if I looked for things for which I sincerely said to the person I live with each day: “I truly appreciated….”  As a former parent trainer, I recall the first lesson of Commonsense Parenting, which encouraged parents to look for things for which to praise their children and/or affirm their efforts to do well and to do so consistently every day.  Of course, there were other skills parents needed to practice, such as setting limits, following through with consequences for unacceptable behaviors, which transformed the family situation tremendously. 

So, what if I were a truly grateful person instead of a critical one? What if, instead of concentrating on what I don’t like, I would spend my energy focusing on what I do like about myself, about others, about anything and everything!  Yes, what if I lived in love as Christ loves me and handed himself over for me (cf. Eph. 4: 33). Perhaps I would be so busy looking for ways to be for the other and ways of easing the burdens of life, that I would readily notice others bent over by life’s hardships, as Jesus noticed the woman in today’s Gospel unable to straighten up for 18 years. Without a word from her or even eye contact, Jesus healed her, touched her with the compassion of God.  He did not see an elderly, weak, crippled woman  but a human being held in high esteem by her God and worthy of love and compassion, a person whose self-esteem needed to be restored and whose brokenness needed to be made whole.  The same opportunities are given to each of us each day. How am I going to respond?

Being Co-heirs of Jesus' Promises

As I reflect on today’s first reading, Eph. 3: 2-12, I am awed.  Paul reminds us that we Gentiles are “co-heirs, members of the same Body, and co-partners” in Christ’s promises given in the Gospel. What does Christ promise us in the Gospel? The first thought that comes to me is his promise to Dismis on the cross when He says to him: “This day you will be with me in paradise” ((Lk 23:43).  The second thought that surfaces for me is Jesus’ prayer “Consecrate them in the truth” (Jn 17:17), that they may all “be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (Jn 17:21).  The  third thought that sprung up in me is Jesus’ statement  in John 14:12  that those who believe in Him will do the works that He does  and will do greater things than these because Jesus is returning to the Father.

Wow! What promises! And each of us who believe in Jesus will realize these promises in our lives!

God's handiwork

In today’s first reading, Eph. 2:1-10, St. Paul reminds us that we are God’s “handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”  Each of us, you and I, are “God’s handiwork,” not anyone else’s creation.  God’s and God’s alone! He created us, St. Paul says “in Christ Jesus,” not in gold, not in some precious metal, not in oil paints, or whatever other kind of material an artist would use, but “in Christ Jesus,” the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the human race. Imagine God saying to you personally: “I created you in My only begotten Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” God chose that which is most precious to Him to be the material of His re-creation of us.   How awesome is that fact!

Add to that realization, the fact that God has created each one of us “for good works that God has prepared in advance.”  Which of those good works have you and I realized thus far in our lives?  We learn from today’s Gospel that the good works that God has prepared for us in advance is not the accumulation of possessions or the building of hefty retirement accounts so that we can rest on our laurels, priding ourselves in needing larger warehouses in which to store our wealth. If we have been deceived along those lines and believe the lies the world hands to us,  God says to us through today’s Gospel, Lk 12: 13-21:  “You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?”  Luke goes on to warn us  that “[t]hus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself [herself]  but is not rich in what matters to God.”

Am I engaged in the “good works that God has prepared in advance” for me?  Am I “rich in what matters to God”? Am I rich in love and charity?  in mercy and forgiveness? in serving others out of love? in being there for others in need?  in gentleness and patience?  in humility?

Sign of Jonah

“This generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign and no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah…”  (Lk 11: 29-32). The Ninevites had violated the covenant God had made with them. Jonah was a sign to them that disaster would befall them if they did not repent.

We are all familiar with signs: a stop sign, a  yield sign; a green, yellow and red traffic light. We also know what a tunnel cloud means or what thunder means. Some of us are also very skilled at reading body language. All of us read signs all of the time.  Why do we miss the signs that signal God’s will for us or signs that warn us that we are out of  sync with what the Spirit is asking of us? Have we numbed ourselves to God’s voice? Have we become deaf to the voice of the Spirit? Are we blind to spiritual realities? Do we dismiss the “Jonah’s” in our lives that God sends to warn us that we are on the wrong path or on a path that will lead to our disaster? For whom or for what are we looking?

Perhaps you are the “Jonah” God has sent to another person to warn him or her that she is headed for destruction and needs to turn back to God. Have you, as did Jonah, attempted to avoid that mission?

“If today you hear his voice,” the psalmist says to us in today’s liturgy, “harden not your hearts.”

"Clothed" in Christ

"...all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ" (cf. Gal 3: 22-29).  This clothing is not exterior to the person each of us is.  No, it is an interior clothing of the mind and heart and will of Christ.  We are being transformed into Christ each day, each year of our lives.  We are becoming the handmaid par excellence of God, as Mary was, and the obedient son of the Father as Jesus was.  Being clothed in grace is to be clothed in the radiance of the Son’s obedience and the brilliance of Mary's fiat.  We are in the process of becoming one with Christ as Jesus and the Father and the Spirit are one.  To be clothed in this way is far beyond what we can imagine of beauty.  No piece of clothing that we admire here on earth matches it.  The price we pay for this "clothing" has been paid for us by the blood of Christ outpoured on Calvary--it was not paid for in cash but in the very life of Jesus.  We, too, are empowered to give our lives in love to one another because we are clothed in grace. We are capable of doing great things in this life to make the world and all in it one with its Creator because we have put on Christ in baptism. We died with Him and rose with Him to new life in which, as Paul says, there is neither Greek nor Jew, male nor female: all are one in the Lord working for the greater good, building the Kingdom of God on earth.  This union of minds and hearts and wills  will happen in the world, in the Church, in every nation, in every family, in all cultures and between all of the diversity of peoples throughout the world.  Barriers to this transformation will be overcome in Christ Jesus.  This is our hope. This is our faith in Christ Jesus.

Good Challenged and Tested

In today's Gospel, Luke 11:15-26, the crowd accuses Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons. Jesus comes back with: "If I drive out demons by Beelzebub,by whom do your own people drive them out (Luke 11: 19)?  We know that Satan will not prevail and that Jesus will cast Satan out of existence.  Just as Jesus, while he walked this earth and confronted injustices of all kinds, was tested by crowds who challenged the source of His work, so, too, will we be tested and challenged by others who are threatened by the good we do and by who we are.  We need to hold fast to our faith, as, in today's first reading, Gal. 3: 7-17, Abraham held fast to his faith. He did not succumb to idolatry, to the evil around him.  He trusted God even to the point of sacrificing his son--a practice by the pagan nations of his time. God did not sanction this pagan practice. So when Abraham was about to follow this practice, God intervened and, with power, commanded Abraham not lay a hand on the boy.  Isaac lived!  Truth prevailed. There are things going on today that God does not sanction either--things Jesus challenged in his own culture and for which he was put to death--his ways, his truth threatened the powers that reigned during his time here on earth. There are truths today that threaten powers that be. The truth  that comes from the Spirit of God will prevail in the long run, however.  All evil will be put to death, even evil disguised as a good, will be crushed. 

Year of Faith

Today, the 50th Anniversary of Vatican  Council II, begins a Year of Faith announced by Pope Benedict XVI.  Our faith in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is being challenged in today's world, it seems to me.  The question is: am I being swept away by this world's denial of the existence of God and more specifically by the world's rejection of Christ, the Son of God, sent into the world, not to condemn it but to save it?  When I was baptized into Christ, I was put on a path of  communion with Christ. I began a journey of being transformed--body, mind and spirit--into the Body of Christ and into the mind and heart of God.  Each day is an opportunity for me to put on Christ, to become Christ, that is, to be salt for the earth and light for the world, illuminating the path to union with the Trinity.  Each day, through grace and my cooperation with grace, I am being transformed into the image of Christ--a transformation that will take place until my birth into eternal life when my union with God will be complete.

Be Still and Know that I am God (Ps. 46: 10)

“Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46: 10).  Every morning I begin my hour of prayer in stillness, using the mantra: “Listen to the stillness. God is at work” or “Be still and know that I am God.”  This morning the thought came to me that when I am talking—sometimes incessantly, rambling on and on, as in the case of political issues—I need to tell myself to be still in order to know that God is God.  As in the Old Testament--through Exodus, the wanderings in the desert, through the divided kingdom (The Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel), through the Exile, the Return from Exile, the Maccabbean Revolt and  in the New Testament through Jesus’ death-- God prevailed in building His Kingdom and remaining true to the covenant He made with Adam and Eve, namely that the serpent’s (Satan’s) head would be crushed. Sin would not prevail. God’s plan will be accomplished and no one will stop that from happening. Even in our day, in our present circumstances, as we listen to the wrangling of the Democratic and Republican parties, the debates, God’s will shall prevail.  I may not realize it but God is at work.  I simply have got to be still and listen. God says to me in Jeremiah 29:11 I have “plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope…”  God has those same plans for the United States, for the world, and it cannot get worse than it did for Israel in Egypt, in Exile, or during the Maccabbean Revolt, nor for Jesus in His passion, death, and resurrection. God has a plan that will not be impeded.

The Good Samaritan's Example

In today’s first reading, Gal. 1:6-12, Paul challenges the Galatians and us to remain true to the Gospel that is preached to us, that which we read and reflect upon in the daily and/or weekly liturgies and that which we ponder as we personally open the  Scriptures in our private prayer. Paul describes himself as “a slave of Christ” and for that reason does not seek to please people.     In today’s Gospel, the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10: 25-37, the person who stops to help the man who fell victim of robbers is one who seeks to please God. The priest and the Levite, on the other hand, seek to please themselves. They pass by the injured man, ignore him. In fact, they go to the very opposite side of the road in order to avoid him and keep themselves pure according the Mosaic Law. They are slaves to the letter of the law.  They do not show compassion and mercy. They do not heed the words in today’s Gospel to “love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

We, too, on a daily basis, are challenged to love as Christ’s loves. To show mercy as Christ shows mercy.  When we tenaciously cling to the letter of the law, we are striving, most times, to please ourselves, not God. “Look how great I am doing,” our egos boast to ourselves, even if that boast remains in our unconscious, that is, we remain blind to what we are really doing  and why we are doing it. Obeying the letter of the law kills the law of the Spirit. How easy for us to live on this superficial level!  And how difficult, but obviously not impossible, to live according to the Spirit. “Good Samaritans” throughout history show us the way. Who are the “Good Samaritans”—the most unlikely of persons—in your life who show you  how to love, how to show mercy, in short, how to be the hands and feet, the mind and heart of Christ in your world?

Blessings instead of Entitlements

All week long the first reading of the Liturgy centered on the story of Job.  Job lost everything: all of his possessions, his sons and daughters and even his own health.  Through all of this, Job maintained his faith, his trust and his respect of God. Never once does he speak disrespectfully of God or abandon God.  His friends confront him, believing that he must have seriously and severely offended God.  “God must be punishing you,” Job’s friends reason with him.  Job does wonder why God is allowing so much evil to happen to him.  Satan, we learn, has challenged God concerning Job, saying: “Of course, he is loyal to you . You have blessed him and protected him from evil. If calamity strikes, he will not remain reverend and faithful.”  So God gives Satan his wish to try Job. Job wins out and God stops Satan from continuing to torture him.

How easy it is when tragedy strikes to believe that the country, the nation , the people, the person or even ourselves as individuals deserve to suffer.  This belief runs through both the Old and New Testament. When Jesus heals the man born blind from birth, for instance, the Pharisees insist that either the man or his parents sinned gravely and deserved this hardship. “Not true,”  says Jesus. The physical impairment, in this case, is an opportunity that will reveal God’s greatness, God’s power, God’s mercy and God’s love, as is the potential within all of the tragedies of this life. Magic does not remove the vicissitudes of life, the difficulties and challenges of being finite human beings. Not even Jesus escaped life’s traumatic, problematic situations nor death itself.

In Job’s case, his response was: “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  What if I, when confronted with suffering, hardship, disappointment and of a situation that denies me what I want or what I think is my right, I  would respond with “Blessed be the name of the Lord,” instead of ranting and raving of how unjust life is and how unfair people can be. Maybe, sometimes,  I need to try Job’s way instead of the way of entitlement.

God's Charity, Poverty and Humility

In the Franciscan Office for today, one of the readings is St. Clare’s Fourth Letter to Agnes of Prague, who became a poor Clare, leaving all of her wealth to follow Jesus. St. Clare writes:   “At the surface of the mirror [of the Cross], consider the holy  humility, the blessed poverty, the untold labors and burdens that Jesus endured for the redemption of the whole human race. Then, in the depth of this same mirror, contemplate the ineffable charity that led Jesus” to suffer excruciating pain and unutterable torture throughout his passion and death.  Consider God’s charity in hanging naked on the cross dying a shameful and humiliating death for our sakes.

As I contemplated God’s charity, poverty and humility, I was brought to my own knees.  Here is the Creator of the Universe nailed shamefully and cruelly on this tree of torture, giving up His very life for my sake, for the salvation of us all. What do I do when I am asked to give up something for the sake of the other, for the common good of the family, the community, the mission of the Church? I had to admit my own shortcomings, weaknesses, and, yes, even sinful selfishness when it comes to letting go, not of my very life as Jesus did, but of my addiction to work, my clinging to my way, my unwillingness to sacrifice for a good greater than myself.

What about you? Ever find yourself face to face with this challenge of selfless giving, of being poor for the sake of the other, of needing to ask forgiveness for a pouting stubbornness and entrenched selfishness that reveals itself in your withholding love, being unwilling to turn off the TV, put down the cellphone, turn off the computer in order to help another?

The Gift of a Guardian Angel

“Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here.  Ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide.”  What a gift! God, out of His infinite love, has assigned one of His angels to guard us day and night. This messenger from God does not ever leave our side.  Those whispering messages,  which our Guardian Angel sends  us often,  warn us, protect us, and shield us from harm. It is this Angel that encourages us to resist temptation and choose the good. It is our Guardian Angel who prompts us to take care of ourselves and others. It is that same angel who invites us to love with our whole being, our whole mind, our whole heart and our entire will, holding nothing back. Today, let us give thanks for God’s awesome love in the gift of our Guardian Angel.

Job: Strengthened through Suffering

Today’s first reading, Job 1:6-22, at first was very disturbing to me!  I said to myself: “How can God give Satan permission to attack Job, a righteous person, destroy his possessions and take the life of his children. What cruelty!  God? God as I know God?  No way!”   I vehemently oppose this image of God. I reject it!

Jesus does not present God to us as a cruel God. On the contrary, Jesus shows us that God is compassionate, heals the brokenhearted, binds up wounds, makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, and gives vision back to the blind, spiritually and physically blind.  The lame walk and the dead are restored to live, physically and spiritually.  Satan is cast out, confronted, thrown into the swine.

So what does Job teach us? Not that God is cruel but that God shields us from that form of destruction that is eternally fatal: the lost of our souls, spiritual death.  Job remains strong in his faith and in his trust of God, because God did not abandon him at all.  Job’s love for his Creator God never wavered because of God’s power at work in the depth of his being.  Job comes through the sufferings of his life stronger than ever. Why? Because God never left his side.

We learn this same lesson from Jesus, who also did not escape the sufferings of this world either.  Like Job and Jesus, each of us will rise from the “ashes of death,” whatever form death takes. Who we really are and what really matters—our eternal salvation, our faith and trust in the Lord, our love for God, others and ourselves—is strengthened and purified as gold tried in fire, as we pass through this “valley of tears.”  None of us, who believe in Jesus, who cling to God, is diminished by the difficulties of this life. No our true selves emerge, as it did for Job!

There Is a Time for Everything

“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens” we read in today’s first reading, Eccl 3: 1-11.  How difficult for us to comprehend the Wisdom of God. I don’t understand, for instance,  why my mother was taken from the family when four of my siblings were still in grade school and I was still a teenager. I don’t understand why evil persists in the world, why men and women struggle desperately and still face foreclosures; why children, adolescents and young adults are kidnapped and sold into the sex slave, drugged and raped. I don’t understand why women are treated like second class citizens, less than male counterparts  in the world and in the church when Jesus did not treat women that way.  I don’t understand why earthquakes, famines, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires and other natural disasters strike so often.  Perhaps the answer is in the reason God was crucified, tortured and made subject to death. That seems senseless, too, to a faithless heart.  Faith tells us, however, that Jesus’ death was the key to life, eternal life, salvation and a restoration of our relationship with God and with one another. Time takes on infinite meaning in the Timeless One. So all those things I don’t understand contain the Seed of Timelessness, the Seed that will bear new life in time.  In all the incomprehensible facts of life,  God’s work is being accomplished with us not knowing, most of the time (cf.  Eccle. 3:1-11).  As Soren Kirkegaard  once said: Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.  And how challenging it is to live with life’s mysteries, especially the mysteries of our faith and the mystery of persistent injustices in the world and in the church, especially  among men and women who profess to be following the way Jesus modeled for us.

For Whom/What Are We Looking? and Why?

In today’s Gospel, Luke 9: 7-9, Luke tells us about Herod the Tetrarch, who is concerned that John the Baptist, whom he beheaded has returned to life.  John was a threat to Herod—“Don’t tell me he is back,” Herod must have wondered. “I want to see him.”  He is motivated by fear, jealousy, envy.  Jesus is an enemy as was John the Baptist who confronted his immorality.

You and I are not different from Herod. When you and I have made choices that we know are wrong, we, too, fear being exposed.   We know when our ambitions are false, based on jealousy, envy and pride.  In those times, the ego avoids confrontations.  We do not want to be put in a position where we come up short. That is human nature at work, not the work of the Spirit.

Jesus knew Herod’s heart.  When they came face to face in court, Jesus had nothing to say to him. Herod’s heart was hardened. His eyes blinded. His ears deaf to the Word of God, to Truth. He had already compromised  his integrity in the worst possible way: taking the life of a human being to save face. And nothing had really changed—hence the fear of John the Baptist returning to haunt him in the person of Jesus.

We may ask ourselves: are we using religion, religious life, priesthood, marriage, our job or positions for the wrong reasons? Do we want to see Jesus out of curiosity? Do we want to be or do whatever to advance our personal  agendas?   To know the answer to those questions, we need to  be honest with ourselves in the solitude of our hearts. We need to be willing to expose ourselves to grace, to THE Word of God, to lay bare my innermost thoughts before God and allow God to change us.  The agendas we push forward with God are the same agendas we push forward in our day to day affairs  (cf. Mt 25: 31-46--“Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.” That translates into “However you approach your brother and sister, you approach me”).

 

Yes, living religion sincerely, living our lives with integrity,  is very challenging. It involves total transformation into the mind of Christ. Our personal agendas need to be set aside for God’s agenda.  That is hard to do and can only be done through the Spirit working within us freely.