The Gift of Angels

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael!  We are probably familiar with the fact that the Archangel Michael battled Lucifer when he was cast out of heaven and that it is to St. Michael, the Archangel, that we ask protection here on earth from the snares of the devil, praying:

Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and  snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou,O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

It was the Archangel Gabriel who was sent to Mary to announce that she was to become the Mother of God and would conceive a Son by the overshadowing of the Spirit: "In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary...'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus....'" 

It was the Archangel Raphael who heard Tobit's prayer for healing (Tobit 12: 12-15): "...[Y]ou must know that when you and Sarah were at prayer, it was I who offered your supplications before the glory of the Lord and who read them; so too when you were burying the dead.  When you did not hesitate to get up and leave the table to go and bury a dead man, I was sent to test your faith, and at the same time God sent me to heal  you and your daughter-in-law Sarah. I am Raphael one of the seven angels who stand ever ready to enter the presence of the glory of the Lord."

And, of course, we all know that God has given each one of us a guardian angel who is always at our side, guiding us, enlightening us and guarding us throughout every day and night of our lives here on earth.

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of angels in our lives!

Growing in My Knowledge of Jesus Christ

 In today's first reading, Job 1: 6-22, we read about all of the misfortunes that Job endured: The Sabeans raided his oxen and asses and killed the herdsmen protecting them. Lightning struck his sheep and their shepherds. The Chaldeans seized his camels and kills those tending them . And an horrendous storm collapsed the walls of a house in which his sons and daughters were gathered for a meal together. All were killed by the falling walls. Job's response to all of these losses was: "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

How do you/do I respond to the losses in our lives?  Are you/am I blessing God's name? or are we cursing it? Are you/am I thanking God for the misfortunes, the disappointments, the seemingly evil things in our world or are we, like the Israelites in the desert, grumbling against God for this "wretched food" (cf. Numbers 21: 4-5)?

We came into this world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing!  The way that we respond to losses throughout our lives may be the way that we respond to greater losses as we approach our deaths!  We will be asked to let go of everything. All that we will have left to boast about is Jesus Christ and Christ alone!  And we are told that "to know Jesus is heaven." How am I growing in my knowledge of Jesus Christ? What kind of a relationship am I, currently,  building with Jesus?

Honesty? Integrity? Trickery? Threat? Betrayal?

 In today's gospel, Luke 9: 43b-45, Jesus says to his disciples and to us:  "Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men."  This same message appears in Matthew 26:21: "'It will be Passover, as you know, in two days' time, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.' Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and made plans to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death."  Judas, as you know, is part of this whole plot, negotiating with the chief priests and the elders to reveal Jesus to them. The trick? Judas will walk up to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and kiss him on the cheek, handing him "over to men" "to be crucified." 

"Pay attention," Jesus says to his disciples,  for the  time has come when those who "were afraid of him because the people were carried away by his teaching" (Mark 11:18) and  who perceived Him as "a political agitator" (Luke 22: 13) were about to overtake Him. It was Caiaphas who, at Jesus' arrest, suggested to the Jews that "[i]t is better for one man to die for the people" (John 18: 14) than all of the the people to die at the hands of an uprising against the Jews by the Roman occupiers.

"Pay attention!"  There are "Judas'es" in our day, I believe, who are willing to destroy innocent persons and who have no conscience when it comes to having power and control over others.   There are,  I believe, people who are the "Caiaphas"of our time who feel threatened by men and women of integrity and will do anything to "rise" above them.

"Pay attention!"  Are you, am I,  a "Judas"? Are you, am I,  a "Caiaphas"? Or are you, am I, a person of integrity, a person who is honest and true to the values of the Gospel, to Jesus' teachings?

Right Timing

 In today's first reading, Ecclesiastes 3: 1-11, the author reminds us that there is a time for everything: 
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant....A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to  mourn, and a time to dance....a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate...." 

With the coronavirus spreading rapidly throughout the world, and especially in the U.S., this is a time to weep and a time to mourn the 200,000+ persons who have died of this virus in the U.S.. It is a time to mourn those who downplay the virus and make fun of those who wear masks and social distance to stop the spread of the virus. It is "a time to speak" out the truth of what is really happening in our country because of the explosion of hatred and violence. It is "a time to hate" how people are being deceived in so many ways by those in positions of authority.

As this passage also says:  there is a "time to embrace and a time to be far from embraces." How true literally right now, as we are asked to keep physically distant from one another. However, this also applies to embracing or not embracing different ideologies, philosophies, spiritualities and beliefs. Am I thinking through what I hear or simply accepting what ideology, philosophy or spirituality that is popular at the time, whether it is right or not for me?

May God give us the grace to discern wisely whether it is "time to plant" or "time to uproot the plant...[a] time to weep" or "a time to laugh; a time to mourn, [or ] a time to dance...a time to be silent [or] a time to speak, [a] time to love [or] a time to hate."

The "Now" Generation

Today's first reading is from Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11 in which the author reminds us that "All things are vanity!" The author goes on to ask the question: "What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?  Why such a question? Because, the author says, [o]ne generation passes and another comes...The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going. All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing. What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, 'See, this is new!' has already existed in the ages that preceded us. There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them."

If you weren't depressed before reading this passage, you might be now! My initial response was: What the heck!  I could say to myself:  "why do anything!"  But wait a minute! I have never been here before so, for me, there are new experiences for me! There are things for me to do and explore! Yes,"the sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises," and it has done so from one generation after another. And now it does so for me to see and praise the Lord. Rivers "go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. to the place where they go, the rivers keep going." And, now, because I have not  been here before, I can enjoy the running streams, even fish in them, ride  a boat in them, and sail out into the seas into which they flow!  Water shows and water sports are now mine to enjoy.

"Nothing is new under the sun" except for those who have not been part of a past generation. For the "now" generation, everything is new when seen and experienced for the first time. What has been, has been. What will be, will be. What is, is!

And, furthermore, the author of this passage, reminds us that "[t]here is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them." The bottom line is that God is the Almighty One, the Immortal One, the All Holy One, in whom each of us lives and moves and has his or her being.  To God be the glory!

Standing Beneath the Cross with Mary, our Sorrowful Mother

 Today, we Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, celebrate the Feast of the Sorrowful.  Mary, our Mother, stands beneath the cross of her dying Son. Imagine a mother beholding her son being crucified, a death preceded by a scourging that, in some cases, causes death itself. The pain and the  loss of blood from the blades in the whips cutting through the flesh is horrendous.Flesh is  torn away from the body.  Mary saw her sons bleeding body nailed to the cross, His head crowned with thorns, mocking Jesus as King of the Jews!  When Mary presented the child Jesus in the Temple shortly after His birth, the prophet Simeon prophesied that a sword would pierce Mary's heart.  This is the fulfillment of that prophecy.  

Strong in her faith, Mary, with her Son, surrenders to what is happening to her Son, who in turn surrenders His life to the Father, offering His death for our sake!  Mary supports Jesus in his pain, as she also supports us, stands by us, and teaches us to let go and trust that God is with us in our sufferings, as He was there for His Incarnate Son.

May you and I stand with others in their pain, give them our support, and, with them, surrender to that over which they have no control, especially when, in death, they are returning to their home in heaven!

 

Natural Bodies and Resurrected Bodies: What is Different?

 In today's first reading, 1 Cor 15: 35-37, 42-49,  St. Paul speaks about our resurrection from the dead, answering the questions: "How are the dead raised? [and] "With what kind of body will [we] come back?"   He is flustered by the questions coming from the Corinthians, and perhaps from us as well!  ""You fool," he says to his listeners, "What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.....It [the natural body] is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.  It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.. If there is a natural body; there is also a spiritual one."

Think of the seeds that you sow in  your garden: carrot seeds or pumpkins seeds, for instance, or seeds that produce flowers of all kinds. What you sow is a tiny seed. What that tiny seed becomes is totally different from what was sown. So, too, the difference between our earthly bodies and and our resurrected bodies.  What is sown here on earth, our natural bodies, St. Paul tells us, is corruptible, weak, dishonorable and natural. while our resurrected bodies, he says,  will be incorruptible, glorious, strong and spiritual! And he certainly is right! 

Toward the end of this passage, St. Paul tells us that "The first man, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first, rather the natural and then the spiritual." Here on earth, I believe that  I am both a natural and a spiritual body. The seeds of incorruptibility, of God's glory, of God's honor, and of God's power, I believe, exist within me through baptism and all of the sacraments and through the outpouring of grace into our hearts in our loving and being loved, in our forgiving and being forgiven!  Already here on earth, I believe,  we bear the image of Jesus, the second Adam, as, in baptism, we died and rose with Jesus. We rose to new life, a life of grace, imaging Jesus in all that we do that is of God: loving, forgiving, sharing, comforting, supporting, being present to others in their pain and suffering, doing that which is right and just, being truthful in all of our dealings with others.

And, as we pray in the liturgy's responsorial psalm: "...I know that God is with me. In God, in whose promise I glory, in God I trust without fear; what can flesh do against me? I am bound, O God, by vows to you; your thank offerings  I will fulfill. For you have rescued me from death, my feet, too, from stumbling; that I am walk before God in the light of the living" (Ps 56).

The Power of the Eucharist

 In  the first reading of today's liturgy, 1 Cor 10: 14-22, St. Paul reminds us that we are one in that we all share in "the cup of blessing,...the Blood of Christ,...and the bread,...the body of Christ."  By partaking of Holy Communion, we are, in fact, unified as the Body of Christ.  We are made one with our spouses, our children and grandchild, our community members or members of our parish. That which destroys our unity is, in itself, destroyed, so to speak, and we are reunited in love, in peace, in forgiveness.  In the Eucharistic meal, Jesus restores us, makes us whole, reconciles us to one another.  

In this same passage, Paul goes on to warn us of sacrificing to idols, that is to demons.  To demons, you ask? Yes, to demons, to anything to which we cling as God substitutes or to anyone whom we "worship" in place of God, the Almighty One, the Ultimate Forgiving One, the Infinitely Merciful One, our Savior God above all gods.  To whom, in your life do you, and to whom, in my life do I seek "salvation" and leave God out of the picture? To whom and to what do we repeatedly go for a sense of peace, security, a settling down, so to speak, and shut God out?

What may help us is to realize is  that God patiently waits for us to come to Him with all of our problems!  He is there for us and ready to help us resolve whatever issues are troubling us. God wants our peace! God wants us to feel secure with Him! Whenever I am troubled and I come to the Lord and pour out my troubling thoughts, laying before His feet that person or situation about which I am upset, God restores my peace of mind. Turning people, things and myself over to the Lord, as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, gives me the strength to carry whatever cross I was agonizing about.  I can get up, as Jesus did, and face whatever disturbed me. Yes, I am then able to go to the "Calvary" of my life, die to that which I need to die to--usually changing an attitude within myself--and am then able to experience a resurrection. The "stone" is then removed from the "tomb" in which I had buried myself and I can then live  differently from that which was blocking new life in me.