God as Protector and Guide of our Families

In today's  Gospel, Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23, we are told that the magi completed their visit to Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus.  The holy family was, at that point, in danger, as Herod was seeking a way to kill Jesus. Why? Because he perceived Jesus, the Messiah King and Savior of the world, as a threat to his power and kingship. Watching over the holy family,  God sends an angel to direct Joseph: "'Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you'....Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed for Egypt....When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord [again] appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.'"

Just as God protected the holy family, so, too, does God protect our families!  God is as solicitous for us made holy by Jesus' death and resurrection as He was for the biological holy family of Jesus, Mary, His mother, and Joseph, his foster father! God elicits the help of each parent, grandparent, and other relatives to secure the protection of His children. How sad when we let Him down. God, I believe, weeps when we abandon our responsibility to secure the well-being  of a child, including a child in its mother's womb.  God, I believe, weeps over immigrant children in cages, separated from their parents or when families are turned away from countries in which they are seeking asylum so as to raise their children in  in what they believed would be safe places. He weeps over children who are trafficked and/or sold to slave labor camps and abused in so many other ways. 

God, help us, as you helped Mary and Joseph protect Jesus. May we, like Joseph, be listening to Your instructions. May we let You be our Guide and Protector and use us as your reliable and responsible partners. I ask this in Jesus' name.

Being a "Herod," or a "Joseph" or a "Mary" in Today's World--Who am I?

Today, in the Catholic Church, we celebrate the feast of Holy Innocents, those children slaughtered by Herod after he heard about the Messiah being born in Bethlehem and whose kingdom would last forever.  He perceived his kingdom and his power at risk and would have none of it!

Of whom am I, are you, jealous? By whose power, real or imagined, do I, do you, feel   threatened? Is there anyone who you are degrading verbally, putting down by demeaning images and, if so, why? How is that person a threat to you, even if an unconscious threat? Instead of attacking another, what if  you and I sent person/s a blessing, prayed for them and turned them, and ourselves, over to a merciful God for the graces he or she needs and that we need as well? What if you and I did not join those who pour out the poisonous venom of hatred, bigotry, misogyny, prejudice and other divisive stances and, instead, spread love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness as Jesus did? Or are we not serious about our faith in the Lord?  Are we, in truth, making the world a better place because of who we are and what we stand for? Or do we simply become part of the crowd of cynical, hate-filled mongrels afraid to look oneself honestly in the mirror and examine what attitudes have poisoned our minds?

Obviously, Herod did not face the truth about himself and simply went on a killing spree, totally out of control of the negativity, the jealousy, the selfishness and sinfulness within him. We, too, can be a "Herod" in today's world  by our words, our actions, our silence.  We can choose to teach others the dynamics of hatred, jealousy, envy, lust for power and control and other sinful attitudes. We can encourage others to seek superiority over others and express that delusional superiority in words and actions that put others down. On the other hand, we can choose to be a "Joseph", a "Mary", listening to God's call to be men and women of integrity who protect children from venomous environments and take them away from places of danger--physical or non-physical. Yes, we can be teachers of Gospel values or the values taught in any other religion--values of integrity, truth, love in both word and action.

Loving God and Letting God Love Us

As I was reflecting on the creche, I thought of God, the Creator of the universe, being "confined" to the body of an infant.  Such thoughts came out of being confined for several days because of a minor contagious illness. However, I also thought of those confined to a prison cell for years, even for life, for a crime they committed.  Regarding God "being confined to a body of an infant", the Lord responded to me in prayer, as follows:  I hid myself in an infant's  body to communicate God's approach-ability, God's tenderness, God's love.  Come to me, Dorothy Ann (insert your name);  do not be afraid.  I love you.  I want you to hold Me, your God.  Hold Me as I hold you in love, in compassion, in mercy.  Let us cuddle. I know!  Cuddling with God seems ludicrous to you but not to me.  As Your Good Shepherd, I seek you always when you go astray; I find you and bring you back to the fold, holding you, cuddling you, and triumphantly happy in holding you against my chest. Recall John, who laid his head on my chest. I cherished that touch and I cherish yours, especially when you touch Me by touching others in genuine love!

May you and I grow in our love of God, in knowing God's approach-ability and His desire to show us His love, to feel His love, to cherish His love and return it to Him personally and through our love for ourselves and others.

A Light Shines in the Darkness of our World

"What came to be through him [Jesus] was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it"  (John 1: 3). For more than 2000 years the light of Christ has not been dimmed but continues to shine brightly in the hearts of all who believe and are saved from the Evil One, the author of all sin that darkens the heart and the mind of sinners deceived by Satan, are unrepentant and do not acknowledge their sinfulness, however great or small ones sins may be!


Lord, come and enter into the dark areas of my mind, and soul and heart. May I turn to you, my Savior and my God.  I ask, Lord, God, that You turn the mind, the hearts and the souls of all men and women to Your Light.  In particular, may the Light of Christ penetrate the darkness of those who cling to deception, who vehemently and violently deny truth, and spread darkness by the corruption of their lives and the lives of those who defend them.  I ask this in Jesus' name!

Elizabeth's Persistence in What God Asked of Her

In today's Gospel, Luke 1: 57-66, we are presented with the birth of John the Baptist and the eighth day when he was brought to the temple for circumcision.  When asked what name they were to give him, Elizabeth says" John is his name." The people object, wanting to name him after his father Zachariah. Scorning Elizabeth, they turn to her mute husband, who writes: "John is his name."

Elizabeth persists in spite of the fact that the people reject her statement: "John is his name."    She is firm in her faith, knowing that that was the name the angel told Zachariah would be his. She stands up for what she believes in a culture where women were discounted, shoved into the background, disbelieved, as in many instances today. We still face opposition and put-downs because we are women.  Elizabeth would have none of it and persisted in what she believed and got her point across! She would not be shoved aside and overruled!  "John is his name."

What is God asking me or you to hold onto?  What is it that you, that I, know is true and needs to be made known, even though we may be shunned, discounted, shoved aside, or another's position counted over yours/mine? Do you and I remain true to what we are being asked to make known? Or do we hide ourselves and say nothing, do nothing?

Lord, help us remain faithful to what we know you are asking of us! Help us speak up when you are asking us to make known our thoughts, because we know what we are thinking is right and needs to be expressed!  Help us do what you are calling us to do, even if no one else is doing it!

God Alone Saves

In yesterday's first reading, Isaiah 7: 10-14, God asked Ahaz to ask for a sign. He refuses to do so, thought his kingdom is in great jeopardy. A foreign nation is about to attack Israel and destroy its treasured possessions.  Ahaz himself had given into to worshipping pagan idols, even sacrificing one of his children to a foreign god.  Israel deflected, as had Ahaz.  Part of Israel's history is deflecting to foreign gods, not trusting God on their way to the Promised Land.  As with Adam and Eve, the Israelites abandoned their covenant with God, but God did not abandon His covenant with them, or with us.  When things looked bad,. Israel lost faith. 


In yesterday's Gospel, Joseph is confronted with a situation that looks as though everything in his life had gone terribly wrong: Mary is pregnant.  Joseph plans to divorce her quietly, hoping, no doubt, that she will not be put to death, a practice in his culture in the case of a woman who conceives a child out of wedlock.  At night in a dream an angel appears to Joseph and, in effect, says to him: "You got it all wrong, Joseph.  Mary was not playing around with another man nor was she raped.  The child in her womb was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. That child is the Son of God assuming human form and He will save His people from their sins.  Do not be afraid to take Mary into your home as your wife."


You and I live in a world where everything seems to have gone terribly wrong. Pagan gods are worshipped everywhere, it seems and in every country of the world and every nation!  People seek salvation from their misery and emptiness in consumerism, materialism, power, prestige, popularity, wealth, relativism (anything seems to go--corruption, deception, violations of law). GOD ENTERS, as in Joseph's life and says to us:  "You got everything wrong. Turn to me and away from your idolatrous ways and thoughts.  As with Ahaz, our "cities," our "treasures" will eventually be destroyed. They have no power to save us. We have no power to save ourselves. Only God can save! And God comes to us, not in fire, not in an earthquake, but as an infant baby who wins the hearts of all, as does any infant.  God comes to us hidden in the consecrated host at every Catholic Mass. He comes to save us from ourselves, from our deception, corruption, selfishness, sinfulness. GOD ENTERS QUIETLY, HUMBLY, COMPASSIONATELY AND, DECEIVINGLY, WITH GOD-POWER TO MAKE US HOLY IN HIS NAME AND FOR HIS SAKE!

Nothing is Impossible with God

In today's first  reading, Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25, an angel appears to the wife of Manoah, who was barren. The angel says to  her: "'Though you are barren and have had no children, yet you will conceive and bear a son....It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines....[T]he boy shall be consecrated to God from the womb, until the day of his death'....The boy grew up and the Lord blessed him; the Spirit of the Lord  stirred him."

Nothing is impossible with God then or now! Like with the son of the woman in today's Scriptures, you and I are God's handmaidens/sons.  We have been sent to this world with a mission that no one else will carry out. If you and I do not carry out the mission for which we were sent, that mission remains unfulfilled.  We may not have been consecrated to God from the womb, but we were consecrated to God in our baptisms. That anointing remains firm until our deaths.  We, like the son of this woman, are blessed. The Spirit of the Lord stirs us. Do we listen? Do we do what the Spirit of the Lord is nudging us to do?

Lord, have mercy on us when we fail to heed the Spirit's stirrings!

"Sharing in the Glorious Freedom of the Children of God" (See Romans 8: 18-250

In today's first reading, Romans 8: 18-25, St. Paul asks us "to consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed  for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We  know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies."

Each of us lives in hope of a future glory, the redemption of our bodies.  We know not the day nor the hour when we will be set free of our physical  bodies and be clothed with immortality, entering eternal life with the Lord and all those who have gone before us. When anyone of us is sick unto death, Jesus says to us what he said about Lazarus:  "This sickness will not end in death but in God's glory and through it the son of God will be glorified" ((Jn 11: 4).  Jesus himself said to those who were upset with him when he spoke of his upcoming death,  "Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell  you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest."  In faith and hope, we know that our loved ones in heaven are at work and yielding a rich harvest in accord with God's will for humankind.  As St. Paul says in today's first reading, "we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance," for that time, when, we, too, will, in eternity, continue to yield a rich harvest with all of the angels and saints before the throne of God.

Until that time, let us use the moments when we are called to die to whatever hinders God's will from being realized in our personal lives or in the lives of others.

Being in Christ Jesus!

In the first line of today's first reading, Romans 8: 1-11,  St. Paul reminds us that "there is no condemnation for  those who are in Christ Jesus."  Let us rewrite that to read:  "Dorothy Ann (insert your name), there is no condemnation for you because, in baptism, you died with Jesus and were raised to new life in Him"  Why such a gift? Because in His assuming of human nature and in His
death and resurrection from the dead, Jesus put sin to death in us and in the world.  Does that mean that you and I do not succumb to sin by being deceived by Satan? No! Like Peter, who sank when he took his eyes off Jesus, we, too, are likely to succumb to sin when we take our eyes off Jesus.  The power of choosing the good over evil, truth over deceit, kindness and love over hatred and jealousy, compassion and mercy over judgment and condemnation come from God's dwelling within us!

By our becoming a member of the Kingdom of Jesus in our baptisms, by being born anew in baptism, we now are empowered to "live according to the spirit"  and to be concerned each day with the things of the spirit: love and justice, peace and harmony with God's holy will and with what is right and just and caring in our relationship with others and ourselves.  As St. Paul says to us:  the concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace. For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But," Paul reminds us, " you are in the spirit..."

Thank you, Lord, for being born in the spirit through our baptisms, confirmation, Eucharist, all of the sacraments  and by the love we receive and give to others, by living lives of integrity, honesty
 and fidelity to the ways Jesus taught us and the Scripture embody!

Jesus' Eagerness to Find Us Ready When He Comes for Us

In today's gospel, Luke 12: 39-48, Jesus tells us that we "must be prepared"  for His coming, for God will come like a thief in the night, that is, "at an hour[we] do not expect."   Jesus wants us to be ready when the Lord comes to take us home to heaven, that is, engaged in doing what the Lord commissioned us to do at our baptisms, our confirmations, our marriages, our profession of vows as men/women religious, as priests, as parents and husbands/wives, as sons/daughters and/or as single men and women involved in careers by which we do good for others and make the world a better place in which to live.  How sad if, on the contrary, we are found wanting, not engaged in doing the good we were sent here to do and, on the contrary, being irresponsible, indifferent, uncaring, unloving, dishonest, corrupt, abusive stewards, engaged in sinful practises, distant from the Lord and fellow human beings, unaware of unmet human needs,  and, in fact, not even knowing who the Lord is, who our neighbor is and who is in need of our compassion, love, and caring hearts!  "That servant who knew his master's will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall"  receive the consequences one justly deserves. Likewise, the servant who embraces the will of his/her Master will be justly rewarded for the good in which he/she engaged while waiting for his/her Master's return . 

We need to realize that God does not sent us on a mission and then not give us the graces we need to carry out that mission.  He equips us with the wisdom, the strength, the courage, the ability to live a disciplined life whereby justice is served, love between one another grows, forgiveness is rendered and mercy and compassion flourish!  God also gives us the graces needed to tend to the "weeds" in our garden in such a way that the will of our Father in heaven is not thwarted!

What a generous, caring, loving Master!  How can we not be vigilant for His return, knowing that, before His ascension into heaven, He promised to come back to us and take us with Him and that He would be with us until the end of our time here on earth!

The Explosion of Grace through Jesus Christ

Today's first reading, Romans 5: 12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21, explodes with the awesomeness of God's grace and the gift of salvation. Paul states that "death came to all...inasmuch as all sinned,"  when Adam, the first human being, sinned.  That may appear incomprehensible to us. However, let us think of the body of Christ--one body, the Body of Christ. We know that if any part of our personal bodies is diseased, the whole body is diseased. So, too, with the Body of Christ. If one body of the Body of Christ is diseased by sin, that is, by disobedience to God, each member of that body is, in fact, diseased by sin, as we are one body in Christ.  Paul goes on, however, to remind us that just as, through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death,..." so,too, through one man did grace and righteousness enter the world:  "If by that one person's transgression [that of Adam] how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many....For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Think of what Jesus gave us by His obedience to the Father unto His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, His triumph over death and His nailing of sin to the cross!  On that cross, where Jesus poured out the last drop of His blood for our salvation, Jesus tricked Satan and all of us. Satan may have believed that he had won the war in his seeking our demise and his efforts to block us from ever knowing eternal life with Jesus. He is the one who failed, not Jesus! And for us who may look upon Calvary as a failure, we, too, have been fooled. What looks like failure to the naked, human eye, is, in fact, our salvation. It is from the cross that "grace overflowed all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace, also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Empowered by Faith and Convinced of God's Promises

In today's first reading, Romans 4: 20-25, we read about Abraham's faith: "Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God and was fully convinced that what God had promised he was also able to do. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness . But it was not for him alone that it was written that it was credited to him; it was also for us, to whom it will be credited, who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification."

May I, Lord, like Abraham, not doubt your promises to me: the promise of salvation, of being justified, of being made righteous by the Blood of Jesus!  May I not doubt the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out upon me at baptism and confirmation and reconfirmed throughout the events of each day when I call upon you for the help of the Spirit, that is, for the gift of wisdom, courage, prudence, understanding, counsel and fear of the Lord; and for the gift of piety.  May I not doubt your presence, Lord, at the core of my being and existent in every human being.  Every human being is an image of you; may I see your image in each person. Also, Lord, may I seek you in all that is, including the universe and all in it!  May I not doubt your promise to set me free and that you will save me from all of my enemies, especially those within me: pride, fear, envy, avarice, lust, covetousness, greediness, selfishness, and anything that blocks me from surrendering to Your will and serving you and others in faith, hope and love.  May I not doubt your mercy, compassion, and unconditional love.  May I not forget that you are forever freeing me to "worship you without fear" (Luke 1: 75) and that, in your sight, I am holy and righteous, made so by the blood of Jesus!  I ask for these graces in Jesus' name and through the intercession of  Mary, the mother of Jesus and my mother, too. Amen.

The Importance of Prayer and of Needing Assistance from Others

In today's first reading, Exodus 17: 8-13, we are given the story of the battle the Amalekites had come to wage against the Israelites.  Moses then ordered Joshua to choose certain men and engage the Amalekites in battle. He promised to enter into prayer:  "I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand....As long as Moses kept his hands raised up [in prayer], Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses' hands, however, grew tired; so [Aaron and Hur, who were with him,] put a rock in place for [Moses] to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported  his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands, remained steady till sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword."

What do we learn from this Scripture passage?  First of all, that in no way are you and I able to wage battle against the enemies of our souls without the help of others. We need to choose the right people to assist us in the battle against Satan.  Alone, we will lose the battle! and if we surround ourselves with the "wrong" persons, we are also in danger of succumbing to temptation.  Secondly, intercessory prayer and our own recourse to prayer is essential to our success in overcoming temptations.  "As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight."  Thirdly, weariness is not an excuse to abandon prayer. If  necessary, sit down and rest but do not stop praying. Fourthly, engage partners to assist us in praying for God's mercy and strength to sustain the battles we face on our way to eternal life! Fifthly, pray for the humility to ask for help, to acknowledge our need for prayer partners.

Lord God, forgive us when we forget the importance of prayer and of asking for help to wage war against Satan.  Forgive us when we let pride dominate our attitudes and thus fail to acknowledge that we need others to help us in the battles we face that threaten our resolve to do good and avoid evil.

"Justified Freely by His Grace" (Romans 3: 22)

In today's first reading, Romans 3: 21-30, we are reminded that the righteousness of God is a reality for all who believe in Jesus Christ, that is, it is manifested "apart from the law and the prophets," though the law and God's prophets give testimony to it.  There is no distinction, St. Paul reminds us, between those who serve and know God's righteousness through the law and those who serve God "through faith in Jesus Christ..., as well as through observance the of the law. "[A]ll have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God."  And all "are  justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his Blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins...."   To this very day God, those who believe in Jesus Christ are made righteous and justified by Jesus' pouring out every drop of His blood for the redemption of all peoples.

I invite those reading this blog and myself, as well,  to apply St. Paul's message to ourselves personally, hearing St. Paul say to each of us:  Dorothy Ann (Insert your name)        , though you have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God, you "are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as an expiation  [of your sins] through [your faith] by his Blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of [your] sins."  Jesus, the Righteous One, has justified you and restored "the glory of God" in you, Dorothy Ann (insert your name),  by shedding every drop of His Blood, beginning with His circumcision, His sweat turning into drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, His scourging, His crowning with thorns, His loss of blood on the way to Calvary, nails being driven through His hands and feet, and His side being pierced on the cross.

You cannot, Dorothy Ann (insert your name),  boast of saving yourself--you are saved only through Christ Jesus' obedience to the point of death. St. Paul states: "What occasion is there...for boasting? It is ruled out.  On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith....God is one and will justify  the circumcised on the basis of faith (the Jews)  and the uncircumcised (the Gentiles) through faith."  "There is no distinction."  The glory of God is restored in all peoples--every Jew and every Gentile--without any exceptions through the Righteous One, Jesus Christ!

God Has No Favorites

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 62,we praise God, saying: "Lord, you give back to everyone according to his works."   In the first reading, Romans 2: 1-11, St. Paul reminds us that God has no favorites. Anyone who does evil will reap accordingly and those who do good, as well. Whether Greek (Gentiles) or Jews, whether rich or poor, whether persons who hold high offices or "low", whether this race or another, this nationality or another, whether black or white or any other color,  whether Native American, African American, Chinese or Japanese, Russian or European, Scottish or Danish, and so on:  God "will repay everyone according to his [her] works, eternal life to those who seek glory, honor and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness."  No exceptions for anyone in any state of life or any nationality or any culture or any status!  To emphasize, St. Paul states: "Yes, affliction and distress will come upon everyone who does evil, Jew first and then Greek. But there will be glory , honor, and peace for everyone who does good. Jew first and then Greek. There is no partiality with God."

Oh, the mercy of our God so admirably revealed to us on the cross when Jesus said to the good thief, who rebuked the thief beside him who was mocking Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him when he got to His kingdom. "This day, Jesus said to him, you will be with me in paradise."  Because of God's mercy toward us, Jesus says the same thing to you and me when we acknowledge him as Savior and God and repent of our sinfulness: "This day you will be with me in paradise," not that we earned it but because Jesus secured it for us when he triumphed over sin and death through His resurrection from the dead.

Thank  you, my Lord and my God, "my rock and my salvation, my stronghold" (Psalm 62)!

God's Revelation of Himself

In today's first reading, Romans 1: 16-25, St. Paul says to us (I am personalizing the message, using "I" and "me" as the one to whom the passage is addressed):

"The wrath of  God  ("wrath" indicates how serious sin is) is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their  wickedness."  Whenever I resort to sin or intentionally give into the temptation to turn away from God, I suppress the truth that I am, by the grace of God, empowered to choose otherwise. When I sin, then the truth of the power of the Holy Spirit at work within me is suppressed. I grieve God!  Paul goes on to say: "...[W]hat can be known about God is evident [to me] because God made it evident to [me].  Since God makes Himself and His way known to me, I am, when I sin, that is, when I intentionally obey Satan or any other evil spirit, suppressing this truth about God, who is Truth itself. God's eternal power and goodness, God's divinity and eternal holiness, which God shares with all humankind and with me, exists within me as a thirst for holiness and goodness. I betray that thirst for God and for holiness when I intentionally engage in that which is evil.  Paul says: "Ever since the creation of the world, [God's] invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made." God has made every human being and all that exists in the universe, and the universe itself. All of creation embodies the "invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity." Therefore, St. Paul tells me, I "have no excuse; for although [I] knew God [I] did not accord him glory as God [by following the direction of good spirit and the Holy Spirit within me]...Instead [I] became vain in [my] reasoning, and [my] senseless mind was darkened. While claiming to be wise, [I] became [a fool] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man  [which I do when I choose God substitutes or even treat myself as above God.

Vanity of vanities! Lord have mercy on me when I make idols of material things, other human beings,  myself or the universe itself.  You and you alone are God!  You and you alone are Good! Righteousness and Truth and Freedom come from you and return us to You for all eternity. May I choose that path and no other!

God Has Made His Salvation Known (Ps. 98)

,In today's first reading, Romans 1: 1-7, St. Paul describes himself as follows:

• A slave of Christ Jesus
• One called to be an Apostle, that is given the grace of apostleship
• One set apart for the Gospel of God
• One who is to bring about the obedience of faith among the Gentiles for the sake of Jesus' name

Who am I? Who are you?  In one of the Gospels, Jesus says that He no longer calls us slaves but friends because He has shared everything with us that the Father had given to Him.  We are persons called to servant-hood as well as called to a relationship with the Most High, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God Himself.  What a noble vocation!. What a graced relationship!  By our servant-hood and our friendship with Jesus, we, like Paul, are commissioned to bring about the obedience of faith in others whom we encounter in life.

As we pray in the responsorial psalm, Psalm 98, of today's liturgy, "The Lord has made known his salvation" to us through the Gospels and those who preach the Gospels to us in word or in deed. We, in turn, by our calling to be God's servants and friends, make the Lord's salvation known to ourselves as well as to others.  All of this is possible because of the wondrous things God the Father has done through His Son, Jesus, whose "right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm. The Lord has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice."

Lord, I think you for the wondrous things you have done and are doing in the lives of each of us!  Thank you for making your salvation known to me every single day of the year, in good times as well as in bad times, in every season of my life!  Thank  you for the call to be your servant and your friend.  Thank you for setting me apart and consecrating me to you in my baptism, confirming that gift in the sacrament of Confirmation and through any other sacrament that I am privileged to receive through your love for me. I offer this thanksgiving to you through Your Son,  Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

The Kingdom of God is at Hand

In today's Gospel, Luke 11: 15-26, the crowd accuses Jesus of casting demons out by Beelzebul, by the devil himself. Jesus, unafraid of the crowd's badgering him, Jesus responds:  "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house." If Satan, therefore, is casting out Satan, if evil spirits are casting out evil spirit, they Satan's kingdom of evil is going to collapse. No kingdom attacking its own power, its own inhabitants and the work they do, will stand. However, Jesus says, if "it is by the finger of  God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you."  

Each of us had good and evil spirits at work within us. We need to,  with God's assistance, discern between good and evil within, between urges to do good and those prompting/tempting us to engage in evil actions or to entertain unkind, deceitful, corrupt, depraved intentions by which we harm others and ourselves.  As we draw closer and closer to God, Satan becomes more cunning in his ways of tempting us to do what is wrong and hurtful. So, too, do we need to become more astute in recognizing Satan's depravity and deceitfulness. Remember, also, that God is always with us. The Spirit is always at work within us and within others providing us with the Wisdom to know good from evil and the ways these spirits function within our humanity.

May our eyes and hearts and ears, Lord, be evermore attentive to Your voice, the voice of Wisdom!

Reverencing the Lord and Following His Way

In today's first reading, Malachi 3: 13-20b, the prophets speaks about those who boast of defying the Lord and His will and those who respect the Lord and serve Him . Concerning those who "fear [reverence] the Lord and trust in  his name...shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my own special possession, on the day I take action. And I will have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. Then you shall again see the distinction between the just and the wicked; between the one who serves God, and the one who does not serve him. for low, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch."

In our pride, our rebellion, our defiance, our wickedness, we may now boast of being independent of the Lord and continue choosing our wills over God's but the day of reckoning will come upon us as a thieves in the night!  God is God; there is no other. Whom are we serving? Of what are we boasting? Do we avoid being humble and recognizing our dependence upon God, choosing to do whatever we please, even when we know that we are walking away from God, our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sanctifier?

May we be the blessed ones that the Psalmist speaks about in today's responsorial psalm: "Blessed the [person] who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night....For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes" (Psalm 1).

Lord, forgive me when I acted defiantly, disdainfully, and proudly followed those who were making poor, even sinful choices. Forgive me, when I have chosen the easy road  and threw discipline and sacrifice to the winds, refusing to be bothered with walking the straight and narrow!  Lord, have mercy!

"Be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46)

In today's first reading, Jonah 4: 1-11,  we learn that God, indeed, had mercy upon the Ninevites and, because they repented, did not carry out the threat that the city would be destroyed in 40 days.  Jonah says to God:  "I beseech you, Lord, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled at first to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish".  God did other things about which Jonah also got angry, "angry enough to die," Jonah says to God.

God is no different in how he deals with us today! God is "slow to anger, rich in clemency, loathe to punish" and so we wonder where God is as evil seems to triumph!  God, I believe, is giving people time to repent. He is in no hurry to punish! He will wait as long as he desires for us to turn from sinful ways and come back to Him to follow the Spirit's lead and accept His merciful love.

It is very obvious as we read and reflect upon Jonah 4: 1-11, that God is in charge of every detail of Jonah's life! God's control is obvious in the shade tree that sprung up to protect Jonah from the beating heat of the sun and, also, in the tree's demise, leaving Jonah to battle the sun's heat.  It was God who responded mercifully to the Ninevites, opposite what Jonah wanted God to do.

As with Jonah, God also takes control of every detail of our lives, using us as instruments in executing His plans, providing shade and protection for us when we need it, correcting us when we fail to understand that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts not our thoughts!  Yes, God is at work even when things do not go the way we want them to go!

Lord, I ask forgiveness for the times, like Jonah, I got angry when you did not do things my way and challenged me to know that You are God and I am not!  Forgive me, Lord, when I dictate to You, telling You what to do, rather than seeking Your will! May I have a change of heart and mind to conform to Your ways, Your thoughts and Your will.  I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen!

Recognize Wrong Paths and Turn Around as did the Ninevites!

What an incredible God! Today's first reading, Jonah 3:1-10, tells the story of how God saw the wickedness of the Ninevites and did not allow them to continue without being confronted and given a chance to repent.  He cared! He acted by sending Jonah to warn them that they were gong down a path that would lead to their destruction. The Ninevites listened, repented and changed their lives for the better!

God does the same for us, sending us warnings and inviting us to repent of our wrongdoing and change our lives for the better. He does so for individuals,  communities, municipalities, families, churches, nations , countries,  businesses, governments, and so on.  God is at work when creation groans against us as the result of being abused or sinned against. Other persons rise up to confront us when we harm them. Nations confront one another. God uses whatever instrument is available and whoever accepts his/her responsibility to be the eyes and ears of Christ to call for repentance, just as God used Jonah.

Am I listening? What in my life do I need to change to become the person God calls me to become in Christ Jesus?  What attitudes need changing? Which of my behaviors do I need to challenge as not being in conformity with Gospel teachings?  Is pride, gluttony, avarice, greediness, selfishness, hatred, prejudice, judgmentalism, sexism, envy, jealousy dominating my behaviors? Or am I following the Spirit's Wisdom and cooperating with grace to act as Jesus acted: generously, humbly,  lovingly, compassionately, patiently, honestly, caringly, mercifully? Do I , like Jesus, pray for my persecutors: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing"? Do I conform my will to the will of my Creator God? Or am I following evil spirits whom St. Michael and the good angels  cast out of God's presence and who, now, are determined to keep us out of heaven as well?

Wake Up; Call upon God

In today's first reading, Jonah 1: 1-2: 2, 11, the Lord said to Jonah:  "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me."   The wickedness in today's world also comes up before God.  Is it possible, as in the case of Jonah who fled to Tarshish "away from the Lord,"  that many people today are also fleeing from God, doing whatever possible to escape following God's will to address the corruption, the deception, the wickedness of sin-laden humankind?  Is it possible that the turbulence in any part of the world--natural or man-made "storms" --are the result of our having abandoned God?   Do we need someone, as did Jonah, to confront us with the question: "What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God. Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish"  in our wickedness!

With the psalmist, in today's responsorial psalm, we pray:

Out of [our] distress [we call] to the Lord, 
and he [answers us]; 
From the midst of the nether world [of corruption, deception, and violation of law and of people's rights  [we cry] out for help,
and you [hear our voices].for you cast [us] into the deep [of sin-infested behaviors], into the heart of the sea [of an abundance of lies and abuses of power],
and the flood [envelops us];
All your breakers and your billows
[pass over us].
Then I said, 'I am banished from your sight!
...When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord; 
[Our] prayer reached you...'"

Lord, God, have mercy upon us who have strayed from the path of righteousness, truth and justice in the search for wealth or an abundance of material things and pleasures of all kinds, especially pleasure at the expense of the innocent.  Forgive us, Lord, for wanting things our way instead of Your way and the way Jesus modeled for us!

God Does Not Disappoint!

In today's first reading, Habakkuk 1: 2-3; 2: 2-4, the prophet says to the Lord:  "Lord, I cry out for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not intervene.  Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at  misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith shall live."

We may wonder as we listen to the news each night: Does God really care? When is all this strife going to come to an end, we might be out cry to the Lord.  How many more children need be separated from their parents? How many more times need laws be violated? How many more treaties need be negated that were set up to protect us and Mother Earth? How many more atrocities need be committed by unjust governments, by criminals exploiting children and women for monetary gain? Are you listening, Lord?

Habakkuk reminds us that God is not deaf nor blind to what is happening anywhere in the world. He also reminds us that God's timing is perfect and that His vision for the world presses on to fulfillment.  God's justice and God's truth will not disappoint. God's solution to the injustice, the corruption, the lack of truth, the scandals, the lawlessness, the violence of any kind that exist in any nation will not disappoint. Neither will God's timing be late, though we may think it is! And just as God freed the Israelites from the oppression of Pharaoh, so, too, will God free all of humankind from the oppression of dictators anywhere in the world.  God knows better than we do how much Satan has deceived those who abuse their authority and those who support them; God is not blind or deaf to our cries for justice, truth and respect of law!  God will act at the right time and the right place and through the people He chooses to act on His behalf and through His power!  God will not disappoint ever!

I believe? Do you?

God Listens to the Poor

In today's first reading, Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29,  Baruch reminds the people that they "were sold to the nations not for [their] own destruction... [but]because [they] angered God...[Y]ou provoked your Maker with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods; You forsook the Eternal God who nourished you....[C]all out to God. He...will remember you. as your hearts have been disposed to stray from god, turn now ten times the more to seek him; for he...will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy."

The responsorial psalm, Psalm 69, reminds us that "[t]he Lord listens to the poor--[that is, to those who  know their weaknesses and their need for God's help and ask for that help.]  See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."  And all of us are in bonds that only God can loosen, as Jesus loosened the bonds that bound Lazarus, for instance.

The message of Baruch applies to us today.  Like the Israelites, we, too, have sacrificed to demons-- greediness, selfishness, jealousy, gluttony, envy, narcissism, sexism, prejudice, hatred and so on--and to no-gods (wealth, hedonism, consumerism, materialism, sexism, and so on); we forsook the Eternal God who nourishes us in the sacraments, in the blessings of each day, in the love we give and receive from family and friends, in acts of altruism, generosity to the poor and oppressed, in honest living, and in faithfulness to what God asks of us in the ten commandments, in the Scriptures, through the Church and through the Holy Spirit at work in all of the events of our lives. 

May we come back to Jesus, serve the Lord and others in self-sacrificing love, in fidelity to our faith, and in building up the Kingdom of justice, love and truth. If we do so, as did the seventy-two disciples (see today's Gospel, Luke 10: 17-24), we will hear Jesus say to us as He said to them on their return from the mission Jesus sent them on: "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy..."  Do we believe that Jesus has given us this power?  Or have we stopped believing in the power of the Spirit given to us in baptism and confirmation, in any of the sacraments?

Heeding the Voice of the Lord

In today's first reading, Baruch 1: 15-22, the Chosen People realize that the evils of the past cling to them.  Acknowledging their sinfulness, the exiles in Babylon pray:  "Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him."  The Israelites grieve the fact that "we have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord has set before us...[W]e have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and only too ready to disregard his voice." 

 We certainly can repeat those truths, as we, too, have often paid no attention to the voice of our God. We, too, have many times been disobedient to the Lord, our God.  Evil seems to cling to us, as the Chosen People realized had become their reality.  We can look back to Adam and Eve who followed their own wills, not the will of God for them.  Also, instead of owning their personal truth, Eve blamed the serpent--the devil made me do it--and Adam blamed Eve--it was her fault.  Neither accepted responsibility for the pit into which each had fallen.

How often do we deny our personal responsibility for the "pits" into which we have fallen. How often, that is, do we not blame someone else for our sinfulness, as Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve. This behavior, and other ways in which the voice of the Lord goes unheard, abounds in our world today, in spite of the fact that we have Jesus in our midst! Will Jesus say to us what he said to the people of Choazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum:  Woe to you...For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and  Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgement than for you. And as for you Capernaum, 'will you be exalted to heaven?  You will go down to the netherworld.' Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." 

To whom am I, are you, listening?

Call to Faithfulness

In today's first reading, Nehemiah 8: 1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12, Ezra, the scribe, gathers all the the people together--men, women and all children capable of understanding--to listen to a reading of the Law of Moses.  The ;people, having returned from the Babylonian exile, having rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem and also having built a sturdy wall around the city fell into serious violations of the law, forcing "fellow fellow Jews to sell sons and daughters into slavery and overlook[ing] the hungry" (Carroll Stuhlmeuller, C.P., Biblical Meditations for Ordinary Time--Weeks 23-34, Paulist Press, Ramsey, New Jersey, 1984, p. 85).  As the people, from the rising of the sun until noon, listened to the scribe read, explain and challenge the people in their wrongdoing, they wept in sorrow and shame and repented of their sinful behavior.

Like the Israelites who needed to repent, so, too, do we. Nations throughout the world have rejected the Commandments of the Lord and engaged in activities that denies people their basic human rights to food, safe shelter, adequate health care and  necessary education to secure jobs that enable them to provide for their families.  So, too, today, the hungry are ignored. The people seeking refuge from danger in their own countries are abused and blocked from seeking asylum in countries they deem safe havens to raise their children. To make ends meet, some parents sell their children to the slave of agricultural camps and hostels where children are used to make money by human traffickers. the list of violations of the Gospel message and the en commandments goes on and on!

Repent and believe; the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, Jesus tells us in the Gospels!

Will we, like the Israelites, recognize our having gone astray? Will we listen to those proclaiming the Scriptures and explaining the Commandments of the Lord?  Or will be simply, pridefully, and sorely continue to miss opportunities of grace that lead us back to being faithful to our baptismal commitments and the disciplines necessary in living Jesus' way?  Will we as a nation, as individuals,  continue to reject God's way to the point that we will suffer the consequences, not just here on earth, but also in eternity?

Our Guardian Angels

Today we celebrate the feast of our Guardian angels. God has given every human person a guardian angel, a messenger from heaven.  As a child, I was taught the following prayer:  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. Amen.

When I think of my guardian angel, I think of the many times I hear the words: "Watch out." "Do this!" Don't do that." "Good job!" "Try harder." "You can do it!"  I also think of the times that I was saved from death, as happened one night out on a dessert road with no lights anywhere around.  I car was following me (I had two other passengers in my car).  Frustrated that the car being me left its brights on, I let it pass me. A short ways up the road, coming over a small hill, was a car in our lane. We were traveling about 60 miles an hour. There was no way for the driver in front of me to get out of the way. They hit head-on and two women in the car were killed outright.  My guardian angel and those of my passengers, I believed, were at work that night!

Other people have told me similar stories of "miracles" that occurred as the result, they believed, of their Guardian Angel protecting them.

Lord, thank you for giving each of us a Guardian Angel.  May we be more aware of your generosity and that of our Guardian angels, who are at our sides "to light, to guard, to rule and guide.

Union with Jesus

In today's Gospel, Luke 9: 51-56, Luke tells us that Jesus is "resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him."  On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus enters a Samaritan village "to prepare for his reception there."  He is not welcomed "because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.

You and I are also on our way to "Jerusalem", to union with Jesus in his sufferings, death and resurrection.  Everything in Jesus' life mystically pointed to Calvary, to his returning to the glory of eternal life with the Father. Jesus was relentless in pointing to His Father, whom He left in glory to become a human being like us in all things except sin, and to whom He would return in glory at the close of His life here on earth.  We, in turn, will follow Jesus.  We came from God and will return to God the same way Jesus did, through the door of death, through the sufferings and joys of this life.
We have a foretaste of eternal life in the "resurrections" to new life that you and I experience every time we die to sin and rise to holiness, die to selfishness and rise to self-sacrificing love for the sake of another, die to deceitfulness and rise to honesty,  die to pride and rise to humility in how e relate to others.

We die and rise with Jesus every time we allow ourselves to die to sin and rise to that which is holy in how we deal with the vicissitudes of life.  The sufferings we endure in these processes are united with the sufferings of Jesus and through that union we are given the power to make right choices, to choose "resurrection" moments, moments that are holy!

As with St. Therese of the Child Jesus, whose feastday we celebrate today,  the Lord leads us and teaches us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle spreading its wings, the Lord takes us up and bears us on his shoulders. In those holy moments of life each day, the Lord alone guides us. (
(Compare The Entrance Antiphon of today's liturgy).

Nothing is Impossible with God!

In today's first reading, Zachariah 8: 1-8, the Lord makes the following promise through the prophet:
"I  will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. ...Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts. Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts?"

What God says to the remnant of the people of Israel through the prophet Zachariah, He also says to the remnant of people who remain after their nations or countries have been destroyed by weapons of mass destruction or by devastating natural disasters.  "Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets [of these bombed out cities]. The city shall  [again] be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets."  Not only will materials things be restored, so, too, shall the faith abandoned by by people be restored.  Trust and truth and faithfulness will also be restored. 

You and I may believe that restoration is never going to happen, especially when countries and nations have strayed so far from the truth as seems to have happened here in our own country. And how, we ask, will war-torn countries such as Syria and other nations or cities destroyed by years and years of being bombed out by warring factions, and, sometimes, by their own governing bodies ever see life return to normal? God says to us, as He did to the Israelites, "[e]ven if this should seem impossible in [your] eyes..., shall it... be impossible in my eyes also?"

Lord, as I listen to the news each night or read about world conditions  I truly wonder whether we will ever return to being faithful to the way of life Jesus taught us during his public ministry.  I ask that you have mercy upon us, strengthen our faith and trust that you are God and there is no other and that your thoughts and your ways are not our ways. What you did for the people of old you can and will also do for us!  Your death and resurrection are not in vain! You overseer life now as you did in years gone farther back that any of us can remember.  Evil will not triumph--you destroyed it on the cross. Satan was defeated there Calvary's hill.  I believe that, Lord!  And when I am weak in my faith, please restore it. May I keep my eyes on you and not on the evil I see in the world. I ask through through Jesus Christ.

Compete Well for the Faith

What an incredible God we have! In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 146, we praised God as the  One who sets captives free, gives sight to the blind, gives food to the hungry, raises up those who are depressed, loves the just, protects strangers, sustains those who are widowed or orphaned, and blocks the way of the wicked.

We might take the time today to reflect on how God has done these things for ourselves.   How has god fed our hunger for Him, for strength to endure a difficult situation at work, in our homes, concerning our health? How often has God not lifted up up in down times?  How often have you or I been in need for being set free from an addiction that led to our neglect our families: our children or grandchildren, our spouse, our elderly parents, or our fellow Sisters/Brothers in a religious community?

St. Paul, in today's second reading, 1 Timothy 6: 121-16, urges us to ";pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith,"  St. Paul says to us.  If that would have been the goal of the rich man in today's Gospel, Luke 16: 19-31, he certainly would have not ended up as he did when he entered eternal life. Caught up in, addicted to, good times, good food and the comforts his wealth afforded him, he neglected the poor, and, in particular, a sick man named Lazarus "lying at his door...covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table."

For what am I competing?  For that which is just? To what am I devoted: my family, my fellow community members, especially those who are significantly limited by physical and cognitive limitations?   Am I competing to increase my patience with others' and my own weaknesses, limitations, imperfections?  Am I growing in love, in devotedness to those in need, in being gentle in the face of life's harsh moments? Or do I escape these faith challenges by "gluing" myself to computer games, gambling trips, excessive and unnecessary shopping, nonstop TV watching or other distractions?

Lord, help us to take the words of these Scriptures seriously and have the change of heart that we need!

"Take Courage...and Work!"

In today's first reading, Haggai 2: 1-9, Haggai recalls the memory of the Temple built by Solomon and destroyed by the Babylonians and the Lord  asked the people through the prophet Haggai: 

Who is left among you 
that saw this house in its former glory?
And how do you see it now?
Does  it not seem like nothing in your eyes? 
But now take courage...and work!"

Haggai then recalls the covenant God made with the people when they left Egypt and began their journey to the promised land. Through the prophet, God said to the Israelites: "I am with you...This is the pact I made with you when you came out of Egypt. And my spirit continues in your midst; do not fear!"

God says the very same things to you and me on our journey of faith to the Promised Land of eternal life. Number 1: Do not fear! Continue to work in building the Lord's Temple that each of us is.  Do our lives, our choices, we might ask ourselves, radiate God's glory, as in the lives of those who have gone before us?  Number 2: God's spirit continues in our midst by the way each of us follows God's Son Jesus the Christ!

In today's Gospel, Luke 9: 18-22, Jesus asked the disciples who people are saying he is. The disciples tell Jesus that some people believe that he is John the Baptist come back from the dead, others believe that he is Elijah, while still others believe that he is some ancient  prophet.  "'But who do you say that I am?'  Peter said in reply, 'The Christ of God.'"  You and I need to answer Jesus' question, as well!  Who do you (who do I) say Jesus is?

For me, Jesus is God who dwells in our midst and who dwells in the very core of my being. Jesus is the Son of God Incarnate whom I receive in Holy Communion at every Catholic Mass or Liturgy. Because God dwells among us in the Eucharist, in all of creation, and in the core of our beings, for that reason, you and I are able to reflect God's glory here on earth.

What covenant has God made with you?

"A Bag with Holes" or a Life that heals "Holes"

In today's first reading, Haggai 1: 1-8, the Lord, through the prophet Haggai, asks us to consider our ways: 

     "You have sown much, but have brought in little;
     you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;
     you have drunk, but have never been exhilarated;
     you have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed;
     and whoever earned wages
     earned them for a bag with holes in it."

Sound familiar?  If I sow little, I will reap little, the Scriptures tell me.  If my sowing does not include seeds of love, compassion, mercy and reconciliation, then I will experience dissatisfaction,  an abundance of down times, and a cold heart! Like Herod, in today's Gospel, Luke 9: 7-9, I will be perplexed about Jesus, His teaching and the deeds He is doing: healing the sick, welcoming and forgiving sinners, raising the dead to life, and challenging the teachers of the law. The "wages" Jesus earned were sinners returning to the Father, the dead being raised, the deaf hearing and the blind seeing, cripples walking, lepers cleansed, the sick being healed!  He was not filling "a bag with holes in it"; He was healing "holes" that left people vulnerable to physical and spiritual illnesses!  He was a being-for-others and that way of living is full of grace, satisfies, exhilarates and wraps us in the warmth of God's Spirit.

God's Mercy Is Forever

In today's first reading, Ezra 9: 5-9, the prophet comes before the Lord filled with shame and too confounded to lift his eyes to the Lord.  Why? Because, he says, "our wicked deeds  are heaped up  above our heads and our guilt reaches up to heaven."  Ezra acknowledged God's mercy, leaving a remnant of the people to rebuild the Temple.  "For slaves we are," Ezra says, "but in our servitude our God has not abandoned us; rather he has turned the good will of the king of Persia towards us. Thus he has given us new life to raise again the house of our God and restore its ruins...."

As we listen to the news each night and also examine our own consciences, it is obvious, if we are honest with ourselves and about the news we hear, that our wickedness also "reaches up to heaven."  We, too, throughout any given day, become slaves to sin and selfishness, to being unjust and deceitful in how we deal with our neighbors here or abroad.  As with the Israelites, God is merciful toward us, as well!  Every day, God gives us life anew and new opportunities to rebuild the "house of our God," to restore the ruins created by unjust, deceitful, greedy, selfish actions towards others, all of creation, and the earth itself. And God comes to us in His mercy in many ways throughout the day and especially at every Catholic Mass, when we offer, in the the Holy Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ  to God the Father in atonement for our sins against humanity and the Earth. Yes, God's mercy comes down to us every single day, as it did in the day of Ezra , the prophet.

Thank you, God, for your awesome Presence among us!  Thank you for being merciful to us! Thank you for not abandoning us in our efforts to rebuild the house of God, that is, to restore the beauty of each human being, Temples of the Holy Spirit, that,  by our selfishness, greediness, injustices and deceitfulness have been wounded.

Competing for the Faith

In today's first reading, 1 Tim : 2c-11, St. Paul reminds us that "the love of money is the root of evil."  Note that he says "the love of money,"  not money itself.  How does the love of money become the root of all evil in the life of some people? Because in their desire for money some individuals "have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains."  What pains? The pains of being unjust, promiscuous, corrupt, deceptive, narcissistic, hate-filled, envious, conceited, arrogant, divisive, contentious, to name a few of the traps Satan sets for men and women enslaved to money.  Persons whose idol is money will do anything , it seems,  to increase their bank account: engage in human trafficking, slave labor, the sale of  illegal drugs; aborting or killing a child in the womb, cheating the poor of a just wage or not paying employees at all by declaring bankruptcy, engaging in unfair price setting and on and on and on!  Yes, when money becomes an idol, sin abounds and eventually the money lover becomes a slave and slavery eventually becomes extremely painful!

St. Paul says to Timothy and to all men and women of God, to you and to me: "Avoid all this. Instead, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of witnesses."  You and I were called to be men and women of God when we were baptized and confirmed in the faith.

What are you, am I, pursuing: Righteousness? Devotion? Faith? Love? Patience? Gentleness?  In what are we competing?

Behaviors and Speech That Reveal Love, Faith, and Purity

In today's first reading  1 Tim 4: 12-16, St. Paul exhorts us to not "have contempt  for [our] youth, but to set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. "

Simple but profound teachings!  There is a psalm that says: Lord, I am not preoccupied with things too profound for me or beyond me.  Living a spiritual life, St. Paul says,  is about not showing contempt for oneself or anyone else, about not showing contempt for my life as a youth or any other time, not showing contempt for the elderly or poor or sick or lame, or mentally ill, the rich or the poor, immigrants or natives,  those whose skin is black or yellow, white or red.

Jesus, in today's Gospel,  Luke 7: 36-50, enters the house of a Pharisee. He is not greeted, as was the custom of Jesus' time, with the washing of his feet or the anointing of his head. A woman, a known sinner whose many sins were forgiven by Jesus, enters the house, knowing that Jesus is there, and, in profound gratitude,  washes Jesus' feet with her tears, anoints His feet with "an alabaster flask of anointment" and kisses them. The host is disturbed by what he sees happening and says to himself:  "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner."

Contempt! The woman's behavior does not reveal contempt for herself or Jesus but love, purity and gratitude. The pharisee is definitely out of line, not setting an example "in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity." St. Paul by word and the woman by example challenge us to live a life of love, faith and purity. Our speech and our conduct are to reveal our faith in Christ Jesus, as did the conduct of the woman who anointed Jesus' feet.  Our words and actions are to reveal the depth, the breath, the width, and the height of  our love, our faith, our trust in Christ Jesus, in ourselves and in others.

If someone shadowed us today, what would our behavior or our speech reveal of us?

The Church--the House of God and the Family of the Living God

St. Paul, in today's first reading, 1 Timothy 3: 14-16, speaks about the Church as"the household of God", the "pillar and foundation of truth," the "Church of the living God."  God is alive, active, caring, loving. God is parenting, mothering, fathering. God is actively disciplining us as his daughter/son. God is guiding us, celebrating us, comforting us, coaching us, counseling us!  As members of the Church we are members of God's household where truth reigns, justice abides, grace abounds.  We are members of a household where love grows, peace abounds, good thrives, differences are accepted, talent is given an environment where it is developed and expanded.  In God's household, each person is cherished, loved, understood, lifted up, challenged, made strong in weaknesses, led to his/her truth, taught to cope with difficulties and confront that which is evil and unwelcome!  No one in God's family is left to be bullied, abused or shamed--bullying, shaming, abusing of one another is brought to a halt and replaced with that which accepts another as a work of art in process, as one on the way to the eternal Kingdom, as one dear to God and possessed by God, the Potter molding the clay, strengthening the person as a vessel of grace, and making one a manifestation of God's image here on earth!

We are members of the household of God, a spiritual palace, where the work of God may remain invisible to some but not to others, a place where each person is listened to, where each person's needs are met and the Spirit reigns supreme!

What a gift, Lord, Thank you for making a place for each of us in Your Kingdom here on earth, the Church, your household, your family and being our Shepherd here on earth until we come to our place in your eternal Kingdom!

Faith Demonstrated by the Centurion

In today's Gospel, Luke 7: 1-10, we learn of the centurion whose slave is at the point of death. The centurion sends Jewish elders to Jesus, asking that he come to heal his slave whom he valued highly.  The elders beg Jesus to respond to the centurion's request because he "deserves to have you do this for him, because he loves our nation and he built a synagogue for us."  As Jesus is approaching the centurion's house, the centurion says to him,  "Lord, do  not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I do not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed. For I, too, am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

Jesus is absolutely amazed by this man from Rome and heals his slave.  He's never met such a person in all of Israel with the faith of this centurion.  Would Jesus say this of you, of me?  Have you, have I developed the kind of character this centurion has developed?   

Mary, the Mother or all Sorrows

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sorrowful Mother. Can any sorrow be greater or deeper than the sorrow Mary endured as she stood beneath the cross and witnessed her son's agony and painful death.   Also think of Mary hearing of Jesus' arrest and then meeting Him on the road to Calvary, carrying the heavy cross, bleeding from the wounds of the scourging and from the crown of thorns on his head and kicked and whipped when He fell beneath the weight of the cross. Furthermore, think of what pain must have pierced her heart, knowing that Jesus was carrying the cross to the hill where he would be cruelly crucified like a common criminal and hung up naked for all to see struggling to breathe.

It's hard enough to see a loved one die of a dreaded disease or a fatal accident but how much more difficult must it be to see a loved one put to death in a public place, stripped of his clothing, nailed to a cross, hung naked to die an agonizing death, and sneered at, mocked, made fun of during the dying process!  Any other mother, I suspect, would been sobbing and screaming at those putting their child to death:  "Stop! That's my beloved son/daughter! Stop!"  Not Mary! She stood beneath the cross, sharing her Son's suffering, supporting Him in His agony and, with Him, I believe, praying:   "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23: 34).  Jesus also cried out upon the cross: I thirst." So, too, I believe, did Mary thirst for all to come to believe in her son as the Son of God, who came to this world to reveal the Father's love and compassion for each of us, dying that we might live forever with Him in Paradise.

How ready are you and I to say with Mary and Jesus, at any time in our lives:  Be it done unto me according to your will? And for what do we thirst?

Rejoicing in Knowing that What We Endure Brings about a Good for Others

In today's first reading, Colossians 1: 24-2:3, St. Paul tells the Colossians that he is rejoicing  in the sufferings that he is undergoing for their sake.  Sounds like parents who are  filled with joy that the sufferings that they are enduring will result in their children growing up in the faith, will empower their children to make good choices and, in turn, become good parents and good providers for their own children,.  Nothing, then, is too much for a parent to endure! 

That is God for us! Nothing, absolutely nothing, is or was too much for Jesus to endure for our sake. That was true for the Son of Man, God incarnate, who as a man lived in Capernaum for a time and is true for Jesus now.  Christ lives in us--that is the mystery Paul is talking about in this passage to the Colossians.  The fact that Christ lives in us means that whatever suffering we are going through Christ also is enduring for our sake and the sake of the Church yet to be borne into eternal life.

"[W]hat is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of ...the Church" is what Paul states he is filling up in his flesh.  That suffering Jesus in filling up by His dwelling within us and suffering what we are suffering, thus transforming such into redemptive graces for ourselves and the whole Church.

Furthermore, St. Paul says "I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God."  The word of God is sent to us to bring about the purpose for which God sent it, our salvation.  Paul worked slavishly for the Colossians, and all to whom God sent him, so that they would come to Jesus, believe in Jesus and carry out Jesus' plan of salvation for them.  So, too, does Christ come to us in the sacraments, in the Scriptures and in the good works we do--all meant to bring about our salvation and open the gates of heaven for us in Christ Jesus and through Christ Jesus and for Christ Jesus, who loves us unconditionally and acts continuously for us to know and accomplish His Father's will!

Reconciled by God in Christ's Body

In today's first reading, Colossians 1: 21-23, St. Paul reminds us that we "once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds." 

Notice that our being alienated from others or from our deepest self, where truth and peace reside, where the Trinity dwells, results from the evil we do or think, and not from God or others.  When we are feeling hostile towards ourselves or others, it is because of the choices we make to engage in  evil acts!  Hostility in ourselves feeds hostility in others. If we react with hostility then we are likely to receive such from the other person. On the other hand, if we return good for evil and peace for hostility, the reaction is different, because we, then, are cooperating with God's grace of reconciliation.

The grace to reconcile with others or with our true self is always offered to us by God, as St. Paul reminds us:  "God has now  reconciled you in the fleshly Body of Christ through is death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him [and before others], provided that [we] persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the Gospel..." which we hear at every Mass or Liturgy.  If we live the gospel, we will then be persevering in the faith and firmly grounded in our belief that God is calling us to be agents of reconciliation.

Lord, help us live our faith today, knowing that in every situation that we will face you will have prepared the way for us to be agents of reconciliation, ambassadors of peace, and instruments of Your love!

Knowledge and Understanding of God's Will

In today's first reading, Colossians 1: 9-14, St. Paul tells the people that he has been praying for them from the day that he first heard about them.  The same is true of Jesus' first meeting of us as His baptized son/daughter. Every day, Jesus intercedes for us asking, as St. Paul did for the Colossians, that you, insert your name), "may be filled with the knowledge of  God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father,. who  has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light."

The only way that we know God's will is through God's gift of "spiritual wisdom and understanding."  With Jesus as our intercessor, nothing will deprive us of the wisdom and understanding of what God is asking of us at any given time in our lives!  So why is it that we do not always do what God asks of us. Our failure is not that God is not doing His part!  God is always there with the wisdom and the understanding we  need to walk in a manner worthy of Him and in a way that we fully please Him in every good work bearing fruit.  The problem may be that we are too busy trying to please others and meet their approval, not God's!

St. Paul prays, as does Jesus, that we be strengthened  "with every power, in accord with [God's]
 glorious might."  However, we might be blind and deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit because we are obsessively and compulsively seeking the power and glorious might the world promises us through this world's billionaires or popular pseudo gods. No way, then, would we  be interested in  sharing the  "inheritance of the holy ones in light," an inheritance in which we begin to share even here on earth when our choices are in harmony with God's will for us here and now: knowledge of God, spiritual wisdom and understanding, God's glorious might working through us, and a joy and a peace which the world cannot give.

Living Christian Lives

In today's Gospel, Luke 4: 38-44, Peter's mother-in-law is seriously ill with a severe fever.   Peter and others in the household intercede for her and Jesus heals her!  Immediately following the healing, she proceeds to wait upon Peter and his guests. 

Notice that the healing takes place very quietly within the home and as the result of the family interceding for the sick family member. Take notice of three things: 1) That family matters and each member plays a significant part in the well-being of the other members, 2) That intercessory prayer is important and effective, and 3) That simplicity and humility are essential characteristics of disciples of Jesus. Following the healing, Peter's mother-in-law simply gets up and humbly waits upon the family and their visitors, immediately assuming the ordinary duties of the one who provides hospitality.  She could have, on the other hand, expected to be waited upon and treated with "kid gloves," so to speak, given how sick she had been.  Or she could have expected a lot to be made over her because she was the recipient of a sudden cure by Jesus!  Either position would not have been the fruits of simplicity and humility but would have flowed from pride!

Following the meal, as the sun is setting, people of the village bring their sick to Jesus for healing.   "He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting 'You are the Son of God.' But Jesus rebuked  them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ."    Jesus them goes off to a quiet place, most likely to commune with the Father. He does not hang around expecting Peter and his family or the villagers to applaud Him for the healings he performed in His Father's name.

Both Jesus and Peter's mother-in-law are models of simplicity, humility and service.  As disciples of Jesus, we, too, are called to live simple and humble lives of service and, like Peter and his family, be intercessors for others in need!

"Seeing the Bounty of the Lord in the Land of the Living" (Psalm 27)

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 27, we acknowledge our belief that "the Lord is  [our] light and our salvation,...[our] life' s refuge."  We ask the Lord for the the favor to "dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of [our lives and to]...gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  We then, at the close of the psalm, express our belief that we "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living."  In order to experience any of the graces expressed in this psalm, however, the psalmist tells us that we  need to "wait for the Lord with courage....[B]e stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!"

"The Lord is our light." In order to know the Lord as our light, we need to experience darkness, as did the man in today's Gospel, Luke 4: 31-37. Think of the joy he experienced when Jesus, His Savior,  delivered  him from the power of an unclean spirit that had taken possession of him. To truly know joy, as this man did,  we need to experience the darkness of  sorrow. To deeply know the strength of our faith, we need to go through the darkness of doubt! To bask in the joy of being healthy we need to live through the dark times of an illness!  The man in today's Gospel, I believe, would have gone through all of these experiences! Even Jesus as a human being was not exempt from experiencing darkness, the most awful of which was His crucifixion and death upon the cross! He passed through death, however, to the glory of the resurrection!  We will, as well!

In Psalm 27, we pray to "gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  How might that happen? I believe that the loveliness of the Lord resides in every human being and that all people and all of creation are God's temple. God, I believe, lives in each one of us and in creation itself. As temples of God and dwelling places of God's loveliness, we are called to make known God's loveliness and to build God's temple by co-operating with God's grace.  We have examples of this in creation. Everything in the universe reveals God's brilliance, God's loveliness, God's beauty, God's love for us!  As persons with free will, we may or may not cooperate with grace in revealing the loveliness, the beauty, the brilliance of God, the love of God within us and supporting and nurturing the God-life in others. 

The choice to live in the Light or in darkness is ours to make each day, as is the choice to move through "death" to resurrection or to new life each day!  If we choose life and reject death each day, we truly "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living."

Jesus' Mission Statement and His Anointing of Us

In today's Gospel, Luke 4: 16-30, Jesus is attending the synagogue service, as He always did on the Sabbath.  He stood up to read and opened the Scriptures to the passage in Isaiah that spells out His Mission Statement:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the  oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord!

Let us hear Jesus' message to you and me:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon  you, (insert your name), because I have anointed you at your baptism and every time you receive the Eucharist, the sacrament of  the Anointing of the Sick or any other sacrament. I also anoint you every day with love.  Why? So that you become a Good News person and are able to make a difference in the lives you touch. I anoint you so that My love grows in  you and you can be a blessing of love to those I send into your life each day or to those to whom I send you.  I anoint you each day so that you can be a person who empowers others to know freedom from oppression, negative views of themselves and know that they are loved.  I anoint you with the oil of the Spirit, an oil that never dries up but multiplies when you anoint others with love and they anoint you."

"I anoint you because I have chosen you to go forth and bear fruit that lasts and that fruit is love."

How great is the Lord, our God!

Humility: Resisting the Temptations Pride Puts before Us

Hear the Lord say the following to you through the author of today's first reading, Sirach 3: 17-18, 20, 28-29:

(Insert your name), what I ask of you is to maintain a humble heart.  Resist pride's desire to be noticed or your ego's need to be set upon a throne to be worshiped.   

Seek Me, not accolades!

Rely on Me to comfort you and give you strength in hard times.  I am there for you always and I am enough for you.  Trust that truth!  I am God; there is no other. 

Be still. Be reverent and respectful of others and you will find Me.

Clothe yourself in humility and you will be surrounded by My peace within and without.

Seek my peace, a peace the world and those in it cannot give you.You find my peace in solitude. Avoid noise and unnecessary stress that comes from the ego's insistence on being No. 1 and being on its throne as king/queen!"

Thank you, Lord. I ask for those graces today!

Holiness: What is it?

In the first reading, 1 Thes 4: 1-8, St. Paul exhorts the Thessalonians in the the name of Jesus to conduct themselves in ways that please the Lord. "For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.  This is the will of God, your holiness: that you refrain from  immorality, that each of you know how to acquire a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion as do [those] who do mot know God; not to take advantage of or exploit a brother or sister in this matter..."

You and I also know that God's will for us is our holiness, nothing less than that!  What does holiness look like? It may be a father playing basketball with his teenage son, a mother coloring with her seven-year old daughter, a husband helping his wife prepare the evening meal, a wife tending to her paralyzed husband, grandparents babysitting their grandchildren, an adult being a faithful, dependable employer; a family attending Sunday worship services,  persons making choices that improve their physical, mental and spiritual well-being (choices that lead to wholeness or holiness), and on and on!

What is holiness for you? What, obviously, would you not describe as holiness?

Abounding in Love

In today's first reading, 1 Thes 3:7-13, St. Paul tells the Thessalonians that he is praying that God may increase their love for one another and that they will abound in love for one another as well! Imagine Jesus saying to you:

"(Insert your name), I ask you that your love for others increases and that you abound in love so that you will be blameless in holiness when, with all the saints, you enter my Presence eternally.  That necessarily means that I want you, also, and above all, to increase your love for yourself. Why? Because without loving yourself, you will be unable to extend love to others. Healthy love of self is a prerequisite to loving others.  When you thrive in love for yourself, you are nonjudgmental of yourself, gentle, caring, and understanding of self.  You then, also, care for yourself with appropriate eating, exercising, relaxing, and sleeping and also by developing supportive relationships. Healthy self-love is also reflected in the way you dress.  Self-respect, an essential part of love, abounds and, so, too, then, does respect for others.  I want all of this of you!

"When you enter my Eternal Dwelling Place in heaven, I will give you a glorified body, revealing that my love for you, then and now, is plentiful. In short,  I want you to imitate me on earth in how you relate to yourself and others. And my love for you is unconditional. So, too, must yours be!"

St. Augustine: From Sinner to Saint

In today's first reading, 1 Thes 2: 9-13, St. Paul exhorts and encourages the Thessalonians to "walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his Kingdom and glory!"    "The word of God," which St.Paul preached, "is...at work in [those hearers] who believe," then and now!

Like the Thessalonians, you and I are also called to enter God's Kingdom and glory.  We received that call at our baptisms.  St. Paul asks us to "walk in a manner worthy of... God."  Who, we might ask ourselves, comes to our mind when we think of someone who walks in a way worthy of God?  In today's feast, that of St. Augustine, we are given an example of two persons--St. Augustine himself and his mother, St. Monica. Both walked worthily of their calling to enter God's Kingdom and glory.

"Walking in a manner worthy of the God who calls us into his Kingdom and glory" does not, obviously, mean always living an exemplary life! It does mean, however, turning from evil and choosing good, which St. Augustine did!  Before his conversion, St. Augustine's life was anything but saintly.  And some aspects of his life following his conversion have also been difficult to swallow, so to speak, namely, his use of "force to compel orthodoxy; his tendency to disdain sexuality, the body, and women's body, in particular" (Ellsberg, Robert, All Saint, the Crossroad Publishing Company,  New York, 2004, p.372) taint his saintliness.

However, if Saint Augustine can turn from evil and do good, so, too, can you and I!  Sinners, we all are!  We are on a journey of faith, knowing that  the "word of God is at work in those who believe."  Isaiah tells us that God's Word does not return to God until it has done the work God sent it to do, that is, to turn our hearts from evil to good and to deepen our intimacy with the Lord.  God waited for Augustine to turn to that which truly saves, God himself who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God-substitutes do not work!

Consciously Seeking God in Silence or Solitude

In today's responsorial psalm, we ask God how we can escape His spirit.  The answer is that it is impossible to escape from God. God is everywhere:  in the heavens above and the earth below,  in the light and in the darkness, in the day and in the night, in the nether world and in the farthest limits of the sea, in the core of every human being, in all of creation, and in every situation we encounter here on earth!

Human beings try to escape God's sight and God's presence by keeping super busy. What the compulsive activist does not realize is that he or she is actually searching for his/her God!  There is an insatiable hunger within each one of us to know God, find God and be with God.  To achieve that goal, as far as humanly possible,  one needs to withdraw from frenetic activity and enter into solitude.  "Be still and know that I am God," God tells us in Psalm 46:10--The Jerusalem Bible).

When was the last time, you or I sat down quietly and listened to the stillness found, for instance, in nature, in churches, in a quiet place in our homes or on our decks, a place where we are not distracted by TV, i-phones, i-pads, computer games or any other gadget or addictive activity that we grab onto to escape the emptiness within and around us.

Let us, each day, choose to be quiet for 5-10 minutes to know that God is God and we are not! One of my retreat directors said to me: There is nothing more like God than solitude.  Let us ask God for the grace to consciously seek Him above all in 5 or more minutes of solitude each day!

Chosen to a Life of Faith, a Labor of Love and Endurance in Hope

In today's first reading, 1 Thes 1:1-5, 8b-10, St. Paul says to the people: We give  thanks to God always for all of you,... unceasingly calling to  mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,...knowing...how you were chosen.  For our Gospel did not come to you in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.  ...In every place your faith in God has gone forth...."

As I reflect upon those words, I think of my parents. They, too, "were chosen."   Like the people of Thessalonia,  "the Gospel did not come to [them] in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction."  Their faith was alive and well. It was powerful and changed their lives.  They endured all that they encountered in life with the same faith that Jesus had in God's will for Him and thus they were survivors, not victims of suffering. The sufferings that my parents endured in their lives deepened their faith and dependence upon God and one another. 

How do you and I cope with suffering? Is suffering a catalyst that nurtures our faith and dependence upon God and each other, making us spiritually strong individuals? Or do we use suffering to feel sorry for ourselves, to vent our anger upon others, and to play the "poor me" role in life? Suffering itself is not harmful. It is the way we cope with pain and suffering that can harm us or others.  The choice is ours!

It is also important to remember that God does not send us pain or suffering. Such comes to us through sin. Jesus Himself suffered, as all of us do, because of sin in the world, in his case because of sin in the leaders of his time who were jealous of Him and therefore determined to put him to death. He was a threat to their power and therefore they found a way to destroy Him, so they thought, in death.  Jesus teaches us to approach suffering and death in faith, knowing that these realities of life here on earth do not have the last say. God does and God gives new life in spite of and through that which causes us pain and leads to a dying and rising--new life here on earth or to eternal life in heaven!