Treating all people well

 This morning as I enjoyed my morning coffee out on the deck, I was blessed with reading “The collected wisdom of Michelle Obama” in the Reader’s Digest,  Dec. 2011/an 2012.   What caught my eye was the statement: “You have to practice  success.  Success doesn’t just show up. If you aren’t practicing success today, you won’t wake up in 20 years and be successful, because you won’t have developed the habits of success, which are small things like finishing what you start, putting a lot of effort into everything you do, being on time, treating people well.”

 The Spirit challenged me about treating all people well—all people: those who  help us with mechanical problems we are unable to solve, those who keep our cars running smoothly, our computers updated, our printers top notch machines, those who assist us when we travel, city workers, firemen/women, pastors, garbage technicians, etc.   

The thought stayed with me: God is not going to ask you, Dorothy Ann, how busy you have been or even how successful you have been, but how loving and caring and compassionately you have treated anyone with whom you interact on any given day! 

Plugging into the bigger picture

In this morning’s meditation from The Word among Us, April 2-May 31, 2012, we are reminded to focus on the bigger picture, namely that God is with us until the end of time, that God dwells within us and is nearer to us  and more conscious than we are  of who we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking, what is blocking us from realizing our potential and doing the good we are called to do and what needs to change in us to bring us into harmony with the will of God.  Jesus prays for us, as noted in today’s Gospel, John 17: 20-26, saying to His Father:  “….may all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you,…. and that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”  It is so easy to get stuck in negativism, in brewing upon that which seems wrong in our lives and in the lives of others, in the life of the Church, in our families, in our religious communities that we lose sight of the big picture! 

I began my prayer this morning with a list of complaints, judging myself harshly for a mistake made yesterday. Any wonder, then,  that I felt depressed, discouraged, and out of sorts!   Those negative feelings flow from my negative way of thinking and a negative view of my reality. If I change the way I am thinking, I will change the way I am feeling.  Feelings are energy in motion.  To move lightly, lovingly, confidently through this day, I need to be fueled by positive thinking, by believing, for instance, that God is with me, goes before me, loves me into the moment and sends His Spirit to counsel me wisely and caringly and that the Spirit’s power enters into all that which is weighing me down.  It is up to me to “plug into this kind of outlet” that increases my energy and does not have the power to deplete it. God is a God of abundance, not scarcity!                  

Jesus' prayer for His disciples

In today's first reading, Acts 20: 28-38, Paul says to the church of Ephesus and to us:  "Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the Church of God that he acquired with his own Blood.  I know," Paul says to us,  "that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.'"  In today;s Gospel, John 17: 11b-19, Jesus begs His Father, and ours, to "keep...[us] in...[His] name," to "keep...[us]  from the Evil One," and to "consecrate...[us] in the truth."

The Lord, through St. Paul, is reminding us that, as Church, we are a garden purchased by Jesus' Blood  and by His surrendering His life to the Father even until death on a cross.  The Holy Spirit, Paul tells us in Acts 20: 28-38, has appointed each of us as a gardener.  We have been given the task of cultivating this sacred garden, lovingly tending to it, nurturing it with love, purifying it with forgiveness of self and others and by repentance of our sins, strengthening it with the Word, the sacraments and prayer, and fertilizing it with obedience and trust in our God, our Father, , as Jesus trusted the Father even to death, death on a cross.

Knowing how difficult it would be for us to cultivate this living garden of faith, Jesus, just before going to the Garden of Gethsemane to surrender to his killers, prayed for us.  He asked His Father to keep us in His name and to keep us away from the Evil One, that is from "savage wolves" that would enter the Garden of the Church, that is, that would descend upon our lives. He also asked the Father to consecrate us in the truth, in the Word of God.  God the Father will not disappoint His Son.  Every day He preserves us in His name, guards us from falling into Satan's traps, and consecrates us in truth!What an awesome God!

Glorifying God and being glorified by God

Today’s Gospel, John 17:  1-11a, opens with the phrase:  “Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you….’”  All of us shave been in positions where the dreaded hour has arrived for us to face a situation or an encounter that we would have preferred to avoid.  Perhaps we can learn a great deal from what Jesus said to His Father.  He brings the situation to His Father’s attention, first of all, and then  asked  that  glory be given to himself.  He’s asking to come out of the situation in triumph, not in defeat; glorified, not demonized, not belittled, not shamed.  Imagine going into a situation that is scary with the frame of mind of Jesus. We would certainly approach it with confidence. Also, notice Jesus’ reasoning, namely that he may glorify the Father.  Do I approach the difficulties in my life in order to glorify the Father or do I enter into a difficult situation hoping to defeat the other person/s involved in the situation, to triumph over them and bring defeat to them?  I might want to ask myself “What is my motivation?”  

Your hearts will rejoice

In today’s Gospel, John 16: 20-23, Jesus  says to us:  “…you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you are in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

What an image; namely, that you and I are in anguish as we give birth to the image of Christ within us, as we are being reborn into Christ.  There will come a day when you and I will be more Christlike than we now are.  There will come a day when you and I will be more free than we now are,  more patient, more loving, more caring, more prudent, more courageous, more honest, etc.—perhaps  as courageous as St. Paul and all of the apostles who overcame their fear of persecution following Pentecost. Sometimes we triumph because we have let go of our fears and prejudices, our biases and doubts, our angers and resentments  and  no longer put ourselves down  or consider others stronger than ourselves, smarter than myself,  more competent than ourselves as an excuse to not develop our own potential. There will come a day when we won’t care, in the good sense of not caring, and will do whatever the Spirit calls us to do in His name, no matter what the consequences. Yes, we are in anguish, as we truly want to become the persons God has called us to become before we die. Each of us will arrive at that point where we allow no one to take away the joy of doing God’s will, no matter how difficult or how painful that might be. And though we wonder if we will ever be like a Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a St. John the Baptist, a St. Thomas More,  a Dorothy Day, a Nelson Mandella, a Martin Luther King,  a Kateri Tekawitha, or a Mary Magdalen,  or whomever we want to emulate, each of these persons, at one time or another, were where we now are in our transformation.  We are in the process of becoming one with Christ and our efforts will not go unrewarded. “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice.”

Going up to the Temple of the heavenly Jerusalem

In  2 Samuel: 7:4, God tells David not to build Him a Temple, saying: “Would you build me a house to dwell in? ... and I will establish his kingdom. ... establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” 

Jesus, a descendant of the royal throne of David and whose Kingdom is eternal,  returns to the glory of His Father today and is seated at the right hand of God.  The eternal Kingdom promised David is fulfilled. The doors to that Kingdom were opened for each one of us by Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.  We are heirs of that Kingdom by God’s choice. It is freely given. Will we accept it and what is asked of us as faithful followers of Christ?

Jesus as the everlasting King, the ruler of the Kingdom of God, is prophesized in 2 Chronicles 36: 22 by Cyrus king of Persia:  “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—to fulfill the word of Yahweh through Jeremiah—Yahweh roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publically displayed throughout his kingdom:  ‘Cyrus king of Persia says this, ‘Yahweh, the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up.’” Jesus goes up to that eternal Kingdom today, from which He came to earth when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, the Mother of God.

Jesus’ promise to prepare a place for us is also the promise to make us into a Temple for God. We are being built into that dwelling place every single day. Those of us who believe in Jesus, repent and are converted into Christ will take our places in heaven on the day that Jesus returns to take us where He is.

What an awesome, loving, kind, compassionate, merciful God!

Unknowingly worshipping the one true God

In today’s first reading, Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1, Paul says to the citizens of Athens (and to us):  “You Athenians (substitute your nationality),  I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as  we walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.”    At the very core of our beings is an insatiable thirst for God. The more one denies one’s  thirst and hunger for the Sacred and fails to quench it at the Fountain of Living Waters and at the Living Word of the Eucharist and the Scriptures, the stronger and wilder that thirst and hunger become.  Addictions to anything and anyone grow stronger.  People frantically try to quench the human thirst and hunger for the Divine by that which is not God. Without realizing it, when we are compulsively seeking life apart from God we are, in fact, seeking God, who is the One in whom we live and move and have our being.