Giving birth to Jesus!

 Today's Gospel, Luke 1: 26-38, presents the Annunciation: The Angel Gabriel was sent  by God to visit Mary.  He greets her, saying: "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."  She is greatly troubled and the angel says to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold,  you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus."  How, Mary asks. I have not had a sexual relationship with a man!  And the angel responds:  "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."

WOW!  Imagine going about your morning's work and you are interrupted by an angel greeting you as he did Mary.  No doubt, like  Mary, you would be very troubled by such a visitation, in the first place, and, secondly, by the angel's greeting.  But do you realize that, by virtue of your baptism, first Communion, and subsequent Communions, and your service of sacrificial love for your spouse, your children, your grandchildren and others you encounter and serve, the Lord is truly with you, that you are full of grace, as  Mary was, and that by your life you, too, give birth to Jesus, make Jesus real for others!  And, in turn, others bring Jesus to you, give birth to Jesus in you, by their love, forgiveness, compassion, understanding and support.  "Angels" clothed in humanity visit you and communicate with you every day!

May your eyes be opened to the presence of "angels" in our midst and of God at work around us and through us every day!

A Caring God Who Walks with Us and Shares Our Pain

 In today's responsorial psalm, we pray as follows: "I will extol you, O my God and King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.  The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works." As you pray these words, who comes to your mind who needs to experience God's compassion because the compassion of one's spouse, child, parent, grandparent or any other relative has,  at this point in time, been denied them: their spouse threatens divorce,  a spouse has left them for what looks "like greener pastures" outside the marriage, a terminally ill child dies or one of their child has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, the breadwinner of the family has lost his/her job because of the pandemic and on and on and on! To top off one's misery, the person who means the most to oneself commits suicide!

How can this possibly be, we exclaim! In all of those scenarios, Jesus, who is one with us, suffers with  us, is crushed with us, is crucified with us, scourged with us, bullied with us, crowned with the thorns of mockery with us! And, yes, it is Jesus who, in the words of the psalmist, "is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness."  

In the opening words of today's first reading, Isaiah 41: 13-30, God reminds us, through the prophet, of who He is, saying:  "I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand."  God does not abandon us or let us walk through this valley of tears alone. He has our back and grasps our hand to keep us safe and protect us from that which could seriously harm us. God reinforces this message by further saying: "It is I who say to you, 'Fear not'...I will help you....your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. I will make of you a threshing sledge, a sharp, new, and doubled-edged. To thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff. When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel."  What a promise! And what God promises, God delivers!

"Nothing is Impossible for God!" (Luke 1: 37)

 Today we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In today's Gospel, Luke 1: 26-38, Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel.  he greets  her with the following words: "Hail, full of grace!"  Mary is taken aback. She was "greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be."  Noticing her fright, the angel says to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."

Recall that Mary is a teenager, perhaps 14, 15 or 16 years of age!  Put yourself in Mary's place. Imagine yourself going about your morning chores and all of a sudden, in front of you stands a heavenly visitor such as the angel Gabriel, who says to you: "Hail, full of grace!"  "What?  Who are you? And what does this greeting mean," you wonder out loud! And Gabriel responds: "Do not be afraid, insert your name, for you have found favor with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. He will be great and will be called son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." And Mary responds: "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"

Blustered! Confused! Scared!  Any one of these emotions would be an appropriate response to that experience!  We have all been there! God suddenly allows our lives to be turned upside down, so to speak. Our response: "How can this be?" "This can't be happening to us!  This can't be real!"  And, however or in whatever way God entered our lives, we know when it is about God, not about us!  No other explanation is possible! What is happening is happening through God' design! Period!  Because, as the angel Gabriel said to Mary when he told her that her elderly cousin was six month's pregnant: "Nothing is impossible for God."

Wait upon the Lord

 Today's psalm, Psalm 27,  encourages us to seek one thing: to "dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I am asked to pray "that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  Believe that you "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord."

Obviously we are given several choices by the psalmist! First, to "gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  In all of the circumstances of our lives, we have the choice to gave on God's loveliness and upon  God's temple and the one who dwells there, the Holy Spirit. Our eyes are veiled, however, from that loveliness when we choose to dwell on the difficulties or problems we are facing or have faced:  the pandemic, being quarantined, harsh words by another person, the crimes being committed in our world and so on! 

Second choice: to look for "the bounty of the Lord."  In one of the meal prayers, we pray: Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we receive from your bounty..."  The question is: am I looking for God's bountiful gifts or am I focused on losses or on my poverty and the poverty of those around me?

Third choice: to "wait upon the Lord with courage; [to] be stouthearted and wait for the Lord."  How easy it is to fall into the trap of doing it ourselves and forgetting to wait upon the Lord. And we know when we do that! When we wait upon the Lord, He is then there with us, guiding us, strengthening us and enlightening us to do what is right, to say what others need to hear and are able to hear, or we are wise enough to remain silent period!  When we wait jupon the Lord, the outcome is then positive; we walk away feeling blessed and at peace with ourselves.

With the psalmist, I pray: "Lord, you are my light and my salvation!"  Thank you!

Making rightful choices!

 Frequently, a person will say: "God is in charge."  As I reflect upon today's first reading, Isaiah 26: 1-6, that phrase comes to my mind. It is strong because, as  Isaiah reminds us, Yahweh that a "strong city have we; he (Yahweh) sets up walls and ramparts to protect us." The prophets asks us to "[o]pen up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith," faith in the Just One, faith in God, a warrior God, a God who saves.  God, Isaiah continues, sustains peace for a "nation of firm purpose," a nation that puts "its trust" in God.  "Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock,"  says the psalmist.  In whom do I put my trust? To whom do I open myself?  Who/what do I let in?

In the Gospel of today, Mt 7: 21, 24-27, Jesus tells us that a person who listen to His words, "will be like a wise [person] who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse."  The media, if we allow it, will flood our minds with false information, will fill us with despairing thoughts, negative thinking, thoughts of anger, resentments and revenge.  I can protect myself by prayer, holy reading, and solitude, resting in the Lord!  

God's Decrees Are Trustworthy

 In today's first reading, Romans 10: 9-18, St. Paul says to us: "No one who believes in him (Jesus) will be put to shame" and that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  I call upon your name, O Lord. Save me!  Save me from the snares that Satan sets for me: snares  that lead to imprudence, deceitfulness,  revengefulness, disgracefulness, disrespectfulness, impatience, stinginess,  pride, hatred, sloth, lust, covetousness, and unforgiveness!  Save me by giving me the gifts of prudence, honesty, forgiveness, mercy, respectfulness, patience, generosity, humility, detachment and love!

How often, Lord, do I  not encounter my humanity with its proneness to evil. Have pity on me, Lord. Help me, as Simon helped you to carry your cross to Calvary.  May I carry the cross, be nailed to the cross, suffer death on the cross and rise to new life, as You did on Calvary. Only by experiencing the  effects of sin and  dying to sin do I rise to holiness.  Through physical death I enter eternal life; through spiritual death to sin I enter a state of holiness here on earth!

And so we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 19:  "The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart," clothing the heart in holiness; "the command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye" to what is prudent, honest, generous, forgiving, respectful, loving and merciful!

Gabriel's Message to Mary and to Us

 Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent.  Let us enter Advent with Mary's attitude of reverence, humility, and surrender to the will of our God for us. Mary, our Mother who gave the Son of God his humanity, is told in Luke 1: 28 that she has found favor with God and that the Lord is with her.  The angel's message greatly troubles Mary. The angel says to Mary: "Do not be afraid, Mary."  Gabriel then goes on to say that Mary  "is to conceive in her womb and bear a son....[H]e will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."  A bit taken back, no doubt,  Mary asks: "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel explains that her conception of Jesus will be through the Holy Spirit:  "[T]he power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."  She is then told that her elderly cousin is six month's pregnant, "for "nothing is impossible for God." Mary's response: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word," and she conceives Jesus, the Son of God, in her womb!

And the waiting period, Advent, begins!  May your Advent, and mine, also begin with Gabriel's visit to us, remind us that we, too, have found favor with God through Jesus Christ!

Consequences of the Choices One Makes

 In today's first reading, 1 Mac 6: 1-13,  King Antiochus'  determination to capture Persia and all its wealth in gold fails.  He ends up a defeated man, a man of sorrows, a dejected person. When all collapses, the king withdraws in sorrow and states of himself: "I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave ordered that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying , in bitter grief, in a foreign land."

There are consequences to every choice that we make.  Bad choices lead to bad results whereas right choices bring gladness to our hearts. We witness this truth every day in the news of the day. Persons who court evil, who make choices that lead to violence and death to any one person end up facing judges and juries and the anger of persons effected by their poor choices. And even if the outcome of these court hearings acquit a person unjustly, they still need to live with the fact that they got away with murder!    They live chained to the truth even when truth was thwarted in the courts.  

In our heart of hearts, you and I know when we have done evil, when we have wronged another person or persons, when our lives are lives of lies! We may fool ourselves for a while but ultimately we will come face to face with what is our truth, even if that first occurs in the afterlife!  We are who we are before God and no other!  Persons fleeing truth are highly vulnerable to addictive behaviors used to camouflage the truth, to escape reality. Such persons easily become trapped in  addictive behaviors: compulsive spending, gambling, eating, drinking, sexing and so on!  Like King Antiochus, we can become "sick with grief because [our evil] designs [fail] us!"

Lord, may I have the courage, the prudence, and the wisdom to embrace my truth!

Truth and Wisdom

 In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 119, we pray:  "Your word, O Lord, endures forever; it is firm as the heavens. Through all generations your truth endures; you have established the earth, and it stands firm. According to your ordinances they still stand firm: all things serve you." 

What is God's truth that stands firm and through which all things serve God?  One, that all good things come from God and return to God; two, that God's being is in all and all in God; three, that God is for us and with us; and four, that all is made right in God--redeemed, justified and glorified for God and through God.  These truths may be difficult for us at times, especially when things do not turn out as we'd wish, when other people's decisions seem unreasonable or, in fact, are immoral and pose a threat to another's wellbeing. We may be asking ourselves the following questions: Where was God when my child was kidnapped? How could such evil be promulgated if God's will prevailed?  If God is God, why has my child abandoned the right path, gone astray, and/or engaged in behaviors that could easily lead to a treacherous outcomes? Why are gangs thriving and on and on!

How hard it is to live by faith under circumstances alluded to above! Yet, I know, and you know, that good will endure, not evil, that God detests evil and deceitful ways, thwarts the way of the wicked but protects the just! We also know that Wisdom, who is God, "can do all things and renews everything while herself perduring" (today's first reading, Wis 7: 22b-8:1).

Delighting in God's Law or Rejecting It

 In today's responsorial psalm (Psalm 1)  we proclaim: "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord." Underlying our choice to live lives of righteousness, as stated in today's first reading, Romans 6: 19-23, is the hope, I believe,  that we will become citizens of heaven. In Paul's words:  "...now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Today's responsorial Psalm spells out the details of  an individual who lives righteously, namely a person who:

• Does "not walk in the way of sinners"
• Does "not sit in the company of the insolent"
• "Delights in the law of the Lord"
• "Meditates on [God's] law day and night."

Such a person, the psalmist says,

• "Is like a tree planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.  
• Is successful/prospers in "whatever he does"
• Is watched over by the Lord day and night!

The opposite is true of the wicked who live lives that are the direct opposite of the just. In other words

they:

• Walk the way of sinners
• Sit in the company of the insolent
• Do not delight in the law of the Lord
• Do not meditate on God's law day or night
• Are like vegetation in a desert
• Fail in whatever he does, though his failures might be deemed successes in the minds of those who follow their ways
• The ways of the wicked are scorned by the Lord but the Lord adds days, even years to their lives, hoping for their return to the ways of the Lord!

In which group do I see myself? you, yourself? 

Being Prepared!

 In today's readings, Romans 6: 12-18 and Luke 12: 39-48, we are presented with the challenge to make choices: 1) between sin and grace and/or 2) being prepared or unprepared for when the Lord comes to show us the way He wants us to go or when He comes to terminate our time here on earth. Regarding sin, St. Paul says to us in Romans 6: 12-18, "...sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace."  The law, Paul tells us in another passage, condemns us. Grace, on the other hand, frees us from slavery to laws! Grace is love and love is freedom to follow Christ.  What choices am I making? Am I choosing grace, that is, do I follow the Spirit's lead throughout the day, doing good and rejecting evil, being detached to go with the flow of grace or attached and unprepared to follow the will of God as revealed to me throughout the day? 

In the Gospel, Luke challenges us to be prepared for the Lord when He comes to terminate our time here on earth--to be as prepared as we would be for a break in of a thief! We would not wait until it is too late and the thief  has robbed us of our significant possessions, including the money we would need to take care of our families, and/or, worst still, kill us and our family members to steal from us without any opposition. "Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

How often, on the nightly news,  have we not heard a person say of a dying family member: "I wish he/she would have gotten vaccinated."  Or the dying person him/herself  expresses regret of not protecting him/herself. It is then too late1 "The "thief" has broken in and the person/s were unprepared!

How am I preparing myself for the unexpected? How am I preparing myself or my family members for the day the Lord comes to take us to Paradise?

Doers of Good or Promoters of Evil? Which Am I?

 In today's first reading, Romans 5: 12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21, St. Paul reminds us our connectedness and the ripple effect of both good and evil, saying: "Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all..., inasmuch as all sinned.  If, [however,]  that one person's transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious  gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many..."   In other words, "how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ."

Jesus Christ shows us how to live life to the full as a human being.  All that we do--good or evil, that which is holy or that which is sinful--touches everyone, has an impact on other people's  lives!  The good we do multiplies grace upon grace! Unfortunately, there are those who teach others to do evil.  And sin, as St. Paul says in today's first reading, brings death to all!

An I one who fills the earth with goodness and teach others to do the same or am I one who propagates evil and teaches others to do the same?

Following the Spirit's Call or the Call of the Gospel

 In today's first reading, Wisdom 7: 7-11, the author prays for prudence and pleaded for the spirit of wisdom.  He says to us:  I preferred her more than power,  and I "deemed riches nothing in comparison to her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire. Beyond health and comeliness, I loved her, and chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep. ...[A]ll good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands."

Would you and I pray for wisdom and prudence beyond all else:  beyond secular wealth, power and prestige? beyond unneeded material things: a yacht, a second house in a popular tourist location, a luxurious vacation or for whatever we lust and do not really need to live a life of loving service, compassionate care, and justice?

In today's Gospel,  Mark 10: 17-30, a man ran up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" After a significant dialogue with the man, Jesus' final answer to was: "'Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will  have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions."  Further on in the passage, Jesus says to us:  "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in the present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."

Men and women have left "brothers or sisters or mother or father" in response to the Spirit's call, the call of the Gospel,  to embrace the single lifestyle or to  marry or to enter the priesthood or consecrated religious life or to become deacons. Or, they may have done so against the will of loved ones. Jesus response:  "Amen, I say to you...[you] will...receive a hundred times more now in the present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."
  

Authentic Listening to the Word of God

 In today's Gospel, Luke 11: 27-28, a woman, impressed by Jesus' preaching, calls out  to him: "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which  you nursed."  In response, Jesus says to her: "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."  Three things we might reflect upon: 1) Mary is truly blessed, as Jesus points out, because she was attentive to God's word, listened to the angel Gabriel, and acted upon God's word. Her fiat was not just words; it was action in accord with the message conveyed to her through the angel and/or through the circumstances of her life.  2) If someone saw you or I in action, as Jesus was observed, would the person give praise to God, saying: "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed"?  3) Would Jesus, seeing what you are doing today, or any day, say: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it"?  If not, why not and what changes do you, or I, need to make in our lives so that we are, in truth, listening to God and doing what He is asking of us?

Challenges to Follow the Precepts of the Lord

 In today's first reading, James 5: 1-6, St. James challenges the wealthy who are involved in lifestyles that are dominated by corruption. He says: "Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your  impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one...."

The words of St. James applies to the world of today as well to the world in which he lived. Every day, as we listen to the news, we hear of God's precepts being discarded by those who bring harm to others or, in fact, commit murder, withhold wages or cheat their employees in any way, who turn against their loved ones by being unfaithful and/or by being irresponsible in some way, by persons involved in human trafficking, slave labor, and/or drug trafficking and other sin infected behaviors!  Blinded by Satan's lies, a person is likely to make choices that lead, eventually, to misery for themselves and their families. Some of these persons involve their children in sinful situations, as well. Jesus, in today's Gospel, Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48, says to them: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea."  In that same passage, Jesus speaks to his passion that persons make right choices, saying to us:  "If your hand [or your foot] causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands [or two feet] to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire."

How greatly Jesus must suffer when he sees any one of his children being deceived by Satan, who convinces them that doing what is wrong will bring them pleasure!

Lord, open our eyes to recognize Satan as the Father of Lies. Let us not get caught in his trap of lies and let us recognize when he is using another human being as his agent.

 

Mary's Assumption into Heaven and Her Message to Us Women

 Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother Mary.  I share with you one of my meditations on this feast in which I imagine Mary speaking to me, as follows:

I, Mary, truly am blessed among women but not above women.

I am God's handmaid, as are all women.

We've come to do God's will in the plan of salvation, as have all men as well.

And God accepted our surrender, and that of all persons,  to His will and to cooperate in the act of redemption.

And holy is His name!  

The lowly, God has raised up, making  us partners with Him in righting the wrongs done by Adam and Eve, our first parents' desire to do their own will and not submit to God's plan.

God raised us women from our lowly state to a state of dignity and honor:

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, bore Jesus, the Son of God, in my womb.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, gave birth to God made man.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, taught Jesus to walk and talk and pray.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, followed God's Son, and mine, to Calvary.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, stood beneath the cross, offering support in spite of the risk to my own life.

    And Mary Magdalen, a lowly woman, was the person God chose to proclaim Jesus' resurrection!

We, lowly women, discounted and miscounted in many cultures and by many people, especially in patriarchal religions, are lifted up by Jesus and for Jesus by God the Father and the Holy Spirit!

And holy is His name!

Sowing Bountifully

 In today's first reading, 2 Cor 9: 6-10, St. Paul reminds us that those who sow sparingly will reap sparingly and that those who sow bountifully will reap bountifully. Moreover,  St. Paul emphasizes, it is God who makes "every grace abundant" for us  to sow bountifully, doing the good work that Jesus would do if He were physically here Himself. And He is in us. And so we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 112: "Blessed the [person] who is gracious and lends to those in need."

Today, whose need for love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness did I meet?  Who needed my smile, my attention, today? Who looked to me, today, for guidance, encouragement?  Was I mindful of the Spirit speaking to me today to sow bountifully and not count the cost?  Or was I so preoccupied with what I wanted to do with my time that I did not notice my neighbor in need?

Recalling God's Goodness to Us

 In today's first reading, Dt 6: 4-13, Moses reminds the people of all the good God has done for them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt, "that place of slavery," and giving them "a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant...[T]herefore," Moses says to them, "take care not to forget the Lord," your God!

What is the good that the Lord has done for us? How many of us are surrounded by cities we did not  create, flower and vegetable gardens and fruit trees we did not plant, houses we did not build, lakes and streams and creeks we did not produce and so much more! How many times has God not brought us out of a "place of slavery"--an addiction to jealousy, anger, and/or selfishness; an addiction to food or alcohol or other drugs, an addiction to hoarding material things, an addiction to relationships, to sex, to technological gadgets and on and on and on? 

At the end of his admonition, Moses then asks the people to reverence the Lord, their God; "him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear."  Who am I, who are you, serving? By whom do you, do I, swear an oath of service?

Herod's Weakness to Please Others at All Costs: Is It Our Weakness, as Well?

Today's Gospel, Matthew 14: 1-12, presents us with the anger of Herod and his wife toward John the Baptist, who confronted Herod with the fact that his marriage to his brother's wife Herodias was invalid. Herod would have killed John the Baptist outright but, out of fear of the people, who regarded John the Baptist as a a prophet, had him imprisoned instead.  At his birthday party, Herod's daughter performed a dance for Herod that absolutely delighted him. He swore to give her whatever she asked for.  Prompted by her mother, she said, "'Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.'"  So Herod, not wanting to look bad to his guests, had John the Baptist murdered in his prison cell and his head brought to his wife on a platter, as she had requested! Herod's weakness to please others led him, in this case, to being complicit in the murder of John the Baptist.

How does our codependency upon others or our need to look good to others--to please them at all costs-- lead us to do that which is contrary to God's will for us?  In other words, in our compulsion to meet what we believe are other's expectations of us, how do we betray ourselves and do that which, otherwise, we would not do?  To what lengths are we willing to go to please another, even if it means violating our commitments to our family/our community/our parish/our employer?  Herod's codependency--his compulsion to please others--led him to be complicit in his wife's murder!

Lord, Your Spirit lives within us and guides us to the Truth. Help us be true to ourselves, to Your Spirit of Truth guiding us, and not be led astray by the desire to please another person not in tune with the truth of goodness within all of us.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Catholic Mass

 In today's first reading, Exodus 24: 3-8, the Israelites say to Moses: "We will do everything that the Lord has told us" to do. Moses puts this promise into writing and then, the next day, "he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel."  He offered sacrifices on this altar, pouring the blood of the sacrificed animals on the altar and some of their blood he sprinkled on  the people. As he sprinkled this blood upon them, he said: "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his".  At the consecration of the bread and wine during a Catholic Mass, the priests says:  "Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you" and "Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, (my emphasis) which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me." And so, in Holy Communion we do  (my emphasis) take and eat and take and drink of the body and blood,. the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and transformation of ourselves into Christ Jesus!

What a gift offered upon our altars in every Catholic Church during the Sacrifice of the Mass,  offered in memory of Jesus's sacrifice made for us on Calvary.

Being Open to the Truth That I Need to Hear

 In today's first reading, Amos 7: 12-15, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, commands the prophet Amos to leave Bethel. He does not want him prophesying in his land: "Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah!"  In other words, a prophet is not welcome in Bethel--"  "...[I]t is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple,"  Amaziah proudly tells Amos. 

A prophet is someone, in my mind, who comes to tell the truth about a situation to which I may be blind. Cozy in my comfort zone, I may not want to be disturbed and especially not from someone who is carrying a message that I need to hear!

To whom might I say: "Off with you, visionaries"?  Or to whom might I refer as follows:  "Tell those religion people to leave my property"!  Or whom do I avoid because I do not want to hear what they have to say because they are speaking a truth that I really need to hear? These are the people who may be messengers from God.

Lord, open my heart to the truth that you send to me through your "prophets": a neighbor, a spouse, a child, a member from my parish (the priest, the minister, the deacon, a fellow parishioner), a co-worker, a neighbor!

 

Our Need to Wake Up to our Dependence upon Jesus!

 In today's Gospel, Mark 4: 35-41, Jesus invites the disciples to go with him to the other side of the sea. As they are  making their way across the sea, a "violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was...filling up" with water. Terrified, they say to Jesus, who had fallen asleep on a cushion: "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"  They are not perishing, of course, but, in Jesus' eyes overreacting and revealing a lack of faith. Jesus wakes up at their bidding and says to the stormy sea: "Quiet! Be still!" Immediately the storm ceases. And then Jesus asks the disciples: "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"

Jesus is speaking to  you and to me, as well!  How often do our reactions to life's storm indicate a lack of faith in Jesus! How often are we not terrified and believe that we, too,  are perishing!  "Look, Lord," we seem to be saying to Jesus!  "We seem to be sinking in the depths of sin, immorality, injustice, hatred, lustfulness, greediness and unfaithfulness in serving you and in our service of others. We seem to be succumbing to idolatrous ways. We are 'out at sea' in waters that seem to be too turbulent for us to manage. Lord! Wake up and save us!"  And Jesus awakes, so to speak, and quiets the storms within our hearts, minds and spirits!

Fear gives way to awe, as we search for and find God in the Scriptures and at work in our lives in steady and powerful ways: at work in the lives of our partners/spouses, our children and grandchildren, our parents and teachers, our community members, our priests and deacons, our employers and coworkers, our president and vice president, our governors and leaders throughout the world!  As we seek the Lord and pray to the Lord, we discover the promises Jesus made to us when He said:

• "Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time" (Matthew 28:20).
• "I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high" (Luke 24:49).
• ""...[I]t is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will  not come to you; but if I do go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7).
• "When the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth" (John 16:13).
• "I shall see you again, and your hearts will be filled with joy, and that joy no one shall take from you" (John 16 22).

So, on this journey to our eternal home, let us keep our focus on Jesus and know that He is  not asleep but awake, especially when "violent squalls" come upon us! It is those storms that wake us up, not Jesus. He is always awake, waiting for us to depend upon Him.

God's Love for Us Is Eternal; the Bond Cannot be Broken!

"...[G]reat in  [our] midst is the Holy One of Israel," the God who calls us daily out of the place of slavery, the God who teaches us to walk in His ways, the God who carries us in His arms; who draws us to himself "with bands of love"; who fosters us "like one who raise[s] an infant to his cheeks. Yet, though God stoop[s] to feed [us, we do not] know that [God is our] leader."  That lament from Hosea 11: 1, 3-4, 8c-9, is as true about us today as it was for the Israelites to whom Hosea was speaking.  God is a God of love, a God who watches over us as a shepherd guards his sheep!  A God who gave  His life as the Son of Man, who, on the cross, drew all of us to Himself and redeemed us from Satan's forces of evil--the evil spirits--that roam the earth looking for someone to destroy! Jealous of our inheritance of heaven, a gift of being ransomed by Jesus, Satan is tireless in his efforts to keep us our of heaven. He will succeed as, in a baptism, Jesus took  us as His own. His Sacred Heart was pierced on the cross and blood and water poured  forth, filling our baptismal fonts and our chalices with the blood of the New Covenant. We belong to God forever!

God's Transforming Us in the Stillness

 In today's first reading, 2 Cor 3: 15-4:1, 3-6, Paul reminds us that "all [who gaze] with unveiled face[s] on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit."  In Psalm 46, God says to us "Be still and know that I am God." In the stillness, as we gaze upon God in the Scriptures, in nature, in the core of our being, in the heart of our loved ones--spouses, children, babies--God is at work transforming us into other Christs!  

Paul tells us that the "Gospel is veiled...for those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."  There is the belief that more and more people do not believe in God, that more and more people have walked away from the Eucharist and that more and more of our churches are empty when religious services are being held, though our priests and our ministers, as Paul reminds us, "do not preach [about themselves] but Jesus Christ as Lord, and [themselves] as slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in [their] hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ."

Are you, am I, present at religious services? Do you, do I, take being still in the presence of our God, a God who lives within all of creation, who dwells in the core of our hearts, who is present in the Eucharist in every tabernacle in our Catholic Churches. Do you, do I, seek the "light [that] shine[s] out of darkness, [that shines] in our hearts to bring the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ" to our attention and thus to the attention of our children, our spouses and anyone we encounter?  Or are you, am I, "blinded" by the "god[s] of this age," money, material things, pleasure, sex, and other substitutes that we seek to fill the emptiness that only God can fill?          

Growing Stronger in Our Faith

 In today's first reading, Acts 16: 1-10, Paul travels to several place and in one of them is introduced to Timothy, a Greek and a Jew. He is so impressed by this man that he invites him to join him in spreading the good news of Jesus' resurrection.  On the way, the Spirit leads them. Sometimes the "door" is open to a certain place and at others times closed as Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, tells us: the Holy Spirit "prevented [them] from preaching the message" in certain places. Paul and Timothy followed the Spirit's lead each time. As a result, "the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number."

What about you and me? Do we follow the Spirit lead? Do we recognize when "a door" is closed or do we force our way into the heart of another person? On the other hand, do we recognize when "the door" is open and take advantage of the situation? The open or closed "door" might even be our own hearts. Do we recognize that situation, as well, and take the needed steps to become open to the Holy Spirit at work within us?  If not, what do I need to do to soften the soil of my hardened heart? Seek silence? Take a walk in nature? Stop in before the Blessed Sacrament and wait upon the Lord? Speak to a loved one? Play with a child? Complete a responsibility that I have been avoiding?

May we take the time to grow in the faith, that is, to strengthen our faith!

Jesus, Our Good Shepherd!

 Jesus  reveals himself in today's Gospel, John 10:11-18, as our good shepherd, saying: "I  AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD."  He then goes on to describe the qualities of a good shepherd, telling us that a "good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep....I know [my sheep and they] know me, just as the the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep....I lay down my life in order to take it up again." This power, Jesus tells us, he received as a command from His Father.

A good shepherd watches his flock carefully, looking for any danger that may be lurking in the area.  He also carefully watches each sheep, lest it stray from the herd and put itself in danger. So, too, does Jesus do so for us.  Jesus knows when we have strayed off the path that leads to eternal life. He knows when we have put ourselves in dangerous situations. He watches and brings us back to the Way, the Truth and the Life, that He is!  As our Good shepherd, Jesus offered His life for our redemption, pouring forth His blood upon the cross to give us eternal life with Him in heaven.  No greater love than this does anyone have for another except God for each one of us individually!

Sharing My Faith and My Strength with Others

 In today's first reading, Acts 9: 31-42,  Peter is visiting Lydda and comes upon a paralyzed man, Aeneas,  confined to bed for eight years. He says to him:   "'Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed!' He got up at once. All the inhabitants of Lydda  and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord."  A similar miracle happens when Peter is invited to Joppa, where a disciple of the Lord named Tabitha, a woman who was "completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving," fell ill and died. When Peter arrives in Joppa he is taken to the place where Tabitha died. He enters her room where her body is and says to her: "Tabitha, rise up" and she "opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up, and when he called the holy ones and the widows, he presented her alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord."

WOW!  Similar miracles happen, I believe, every day some place in the world. Suddenly, a dying person takes the turn for the better and survives a serious illness because of medical intervention (not unlike Peter's interventions). An aging grandparent or an ill parent or spouse or child recover from an illness that led to long-term hospitalizations or residencies in a nursing home--recoveries made possible by the compassionate care delivered day in and day out by medical personnel and the persistent prayers and love of family members!

Who, today, needs my faith, as Aeneas needed Peter's faith? Who, today, needs my encouragement and faith in Jesus as Tabitha needed Peter to say:  "Tabitha, rise up?" Who, today, needs me to extend a helping hand, as Peter "gave his hand" to Tabitha, raising her up and presenting her to her loved ones?

Lord, Let Your Face Shine on Us! (Psalm 4)

 In today's first reading, Acts 3: 13-15, 17-19, Peter contrasts God's actions with the actions of the people as follows:                                                                   l

The people:

• Ignorant of God's will
• Denied Jesus
• Demanded that Jesus be put to death
• Killed the Author of Life 
• Freed a murderer, that is, one who destroyed life

God:

• Fulfilled the divine will that we be saved from eternal death
• Fulfilled the prophecy that Christ would suffer to restore us to life
• Raised Jesus from the dead
• Glorified Jesus

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 4, we pray:  "Lord, let your face shine on us!"  Without God's face shining upon us, we will continue to be ignorant of God's will. We will, without grace, continue to deny Jesus! In the psalm prayer, we  beg for mercy, thus heeding the call in today's first reading: "Repent...and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away!"  We say to God through the psalmist: "When I call, answer me, O my just God, you who relieve me when I am in distress; have pity on me, and hear my prayer!" The psalmist, then, says to us: "Know that the Lord does wonders for his faithful one; the Lord will hear [you] when [you] call upon him...[the Lord puts] gladness  into [your] heart. As soon as [you] life down, [you] fall peacefully asleep, for [the...Lord brings] security to[your] dwelling."

What an incredibly humble God! What a merciful God! What a compassionate God! What a loving God! God stoops down to us who have denied Jesus, condemned Jesus, demanding the release of a murdering and shouting to Pilate when he asked what we wanted him to do with our King, the Author of Life, and we responded: "Crucify him, crucify him!"

O God, have mercy on us!  Every day, we continue to crucify you in unjust killings, in homicides committed in the name of self-defense, people murdered out of jealous rage, thousands dying of covid-19 because of refusals to take measures to lessen the spread of this disease; children dying of starvation and so on!  "Lord, let your face shine on us" that we might be saved from eternal death and restored to life!

                                                                                                 

"Do not be afraid; it is I" (John 6: 20)

 In today's Gospel, John 6: 16-21, "the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. the sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. when they glad rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But he said to them, 'It is I. Do not be afraid.'"

At all times, Jesus knows where we are! He knows when we are in darkness and comes to bring us light. He knows when we are being blown about by a storm and are in danger. The storm might be anger or depression or mental or physical illness that is taking control of our lives, tossing us about  wildly, destroying our peace of mind, playing havoc in our relationships, in our marriages, in our communities and/or our priestly lives.  Jesus approaches. Jesus finds us wherever we are and comes to bring light, to calm the storms, to bring peace. "Do not be afraid," He says to us, "It is I."

What storm is overwhelming us? Where do we need Jesus?   With the psalmist in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 33, we pray:   "Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you." 

To Whom, or to What, Am I Obedient? Where Do My Loyalties Lie?

 In today's first reading, Acts 5: 27-33, the Apostles are brought  to the Sanhedrin and reprimanded for speaking about the Risen Lord:   The high priest questions them: "'We gave you strict orders did we not, to stop teaching in [Jesus'] name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man's blood upon us.'  But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, 'We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.'"

Who am I in this passage? The high priest objecting to other people who live by their faith?  Or am I Peter, who boldly gives testimony to his faith in Christ Jesus and His teachings by word and deed? To whom am I obedient?  God or human beings?  

Jesus, we know, was obedient to God His Father even unto death.  He was hung on a tree, left to die. However, "God...raised Jesus and exalted him at his right hand...to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins." Repentance and forgiveness of sins are also offered to Gentiles, to you and me.  We are called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to repent of our sinfulness and to be obedient unto death: death to sin on a daily basis and accepting our final death when God calls us to return to our eternal home. Especially in our final dying to life here on earth may we be witnesses to our faith, as Jesus was on the cross!

Being Drawn Up to God by the Spirit of God

 In today's Gospel, John 3: 7b-15, we read: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, he Son of  Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent  in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."  Who, we might ask, believes in him and therefore is destined for eternal life?  The answer to that question might be what was said in the beginning of this passage:  "The wind blows where it wills,"  the wind of the Spirit, that is! But, John tells us,  we "do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it  is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."   We are born of the Spirit of God when we are baptized.  The majority of us did not choose baptism; it was chosen for us by our parents or our guardians!  A coincidence? Or a providence of God?  And in our baptism, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon us in the anointing that is part of the sacrament of baptism. We did  not see where the Spirit came from nor did we see the Spirit Herself/Himself enter into us.  In faith, though, we believe! And where did our faith come from? We saw that neither. But we know it in ourselves. We simply believe and continue to believe in God the Spirit, God the Son and God the Father: the Trinity--three persons in one God!

"Receive the Holy Spirit"

 In today's Gospel, John 20: 19-31, on the evening of the first day of the week,  following Jesus' resurrection from the dead, the disciples had locked themselves in a building out of fear of the Jews. Would the leaders of the Jews seek them out and put them to death as they did Jesus was their fear.  All of a sudden the Risen Lord appears in the locked room--no one had unlocked the door but there was their Master. He says to them: "Peace be with you!" And he shows them his pierced hands and side. the disciples are all excited. Jesus then says again:  "'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'  and when he has said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.'"

Imagine that morning!  Afraid of the Jews, these disciples have locked themselves away from the public and, suddenly, there stands in front of them Jesus. Wow! The words of the psalmist are fulfilled: "I will turn their sadness into joy!" But God does more than that: He changes their fear into courage and their weakness into power! Jesus does not come to them emptyhanded, nor does He to us!  He comes with peace: "Peace be with you!" He comes with a purpose: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you!" And He comes with power: "Receive the Holy Spirit." God never asks us to do something without giving us the means to do it!

Thank You, Lord!

In Jesus' Name

 In today's first reading, Acts 4: 13-21, the leaders, elders, and scribes are amazed at Peter and John's boldness in speaking in the name of Jesus. Everyone was aware that the man standing with Peter and John had been healed in the name of Jesus, which Peter and John preached.  Not long prior to this incident the apostles hid from the Jews, locking themselves in rooms out of fear of being put to death. Here they are no longer afraid of being seen as companions of Jesus. In today's Gospel, Mark 16: 9-15,  people who report seeing the Risen Jesus are not believed, much less do people voice amazement at Jesus' risen presence and continued healing of the sick through intermediaries.

Jesus, Paul tells us, is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow!  Do I believe? Am I proud and unafraid of being recognized as a companion of Jesus, Jesus' friend?  Is my faith as strong as Peter and John's that I, like them, heal others through my preaching in the name of the Lord or my witnessing to Jesus' presence in my life and the life of other believers?  On the contrary,  am I afraid to be recognized as a companion of Jesus? If so,  of what am I afraid?   Do I hesitate to call upon the Lord's name for the healing of the sick? If so,  what is stopping me from doing so?

Jesus: A Revelation of Who God is for Us!

 In today's Gospel,  John 21: 1-14, Peter and his friends go fishing! What else do you do when you may be bored and not sure what the next step is!  Your loved one is out of sight! Yes, they have seen the Risen Christ. He appeared to them behind locked doors. Scared the heck out of them. They thought He  was a ghost until He said: "Fear not! It is I. Peace be with you!" And then vanished! 

They fished all night and caught nothing!  As they approached the shore that morning, Jesus is standing there, but they do not recognize Him. He asked them: "'Children, have you caught anything to eat?' They answered Him, 'No.' So he said to them, 'Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.' So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish." One hundred and fifty-three large fish were in that net and the net was not torn!  John immediately recognizes Jesus and says to his fellow fishermen: "'It is the Lord.' When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he...jumped into the sea." The other disciples rowed to shore and noticed that Jesus was preparing them breakfast!

Jesus reveals who God is: a caring God , a compassionate God, a God who is concerned about our successes, failures, disappointments, whether or not we have a meal, and so on!  God is a hands-on God, as in Jesus preparing the disciples a meal! God walks with us! "Fishes" with us!  Anticipates and meets our needs!  God also hides from us, as in the disciples not initially recognizing Him;  but God does not hide Himself permanently!

What an intimate God, a trusting God, a loving God! And He is that for every single one of us, no matter our past. 

Our Emmaus Moment

 In today's Gospel, Luke 24: 13-35, two disciples are on their way to Emmaus, having left Jerusalem following Jesus' death. They are discussing and debating all that happened "when Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him."  Jesus asked the two disciples what they are discussing as they walk along. Downcast, they say to Jesus: "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?"  Still remaining incognito, Jesus asks: "What sort of things?"   "The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.  But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive."  Jesus is exasperated at the foolishness of these two disciples and proceeds to explain all of the Scriptures to them that pertain to Him, beginning with Moses and all the prophets.  When Jesus finished, the disciples invited Him to stay and have a meal with them. And he did. In the breaking of the bread, the eyes of the disciples were opened and they recognized the risen Lord.   He then  left them.  Astounded, they said to one another: "'Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?'  So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the  Eleven and those who were saying, 'The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!'"  The two disciples then when on to tell the Eleven what happened to them on their way to Emmaus and how the risen Lord "was made known to them in the breaking of the bread."

Amazing! Jesus joins them on their walk to Emmaus and asks them what they are discussing, as though he did not know!   He acts dumb! "What things," He asks!  And the two disciples respond: "What? You don't know? You must be the only visitor to Jerusalem this weekend who is ignorant of what took place!"  Imagine that scene!  But also know that what happened here between the two disciples and Jesus happens between Jesus and us and our friends. When we are debating our faith or troubled about what is going on in our lives and around the world, Jesus joins us, as well. He is interested in what troubles us, what causes us confusion, what is difficult for us to understand.  "What things are troubling you," Jesus asks. "What don't you understand?" 

The Scriptures of our lives refer to Jesus as well as to us! So, Jesus  walks beside us, sits at table with us, and waits for the right moment to open the Scriptures for us, both the Scriptures that reveal Jesus Himself and those that reveal God at work in our lives! All we need to do is give Jesus an opportunity to talk with us and sit at table with us! In His timing, He will open our eyes and reveal Himself to us. 

Holy Saturday: Reflection--Number 2

 Holy Saturday!

Only silence!

Left with an empty feeling!

Yet we know that death has no power over You, Lord!

Seeped in sorrow, we wait in faith! 

And, knowing that we will see You again, we do not lose hope!

Tomorrow, we tell ourselves, You surely will reappear,

Undaunted by evil around You!

Ready are You, O Lord, to again calm troubled seas,

Dry up tears of sadness

And remind us of what you said before your death: "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days" and "Be not afraid of those who can destroy the body but of those who can destroy the soul."

Yield not to that person, the Devil, for "I am with you always until the end of time" to protect you from the Evil One!    

Holy Saturday: Reflection Number 1

 Holy Saturday:  a day that seems empty! A desert! A wilderness!

"What now," we ask!

Our Master has been slaughtered!

He opened not His mouth!

He offered no resistance!

He did not walk away as He had done other times when the crowd tried to kill Him!

Why not this time?

Why did He surrender?

What was he submissive?

No anger!

No wrath!

No shouting!

No condemnation of their murderous behavior, their killing of an innocent man!

Mary, Your mother, and a few other women, as well as Your beloved disciple John, follow You to Calvary. All  Your other disciples fled out of terror of what was happening to You and could happen to them!  Matthew, wearing only a loose cloth wrapped around himself and grabbed by one of the Romans, fled naked! Judas, thinking his sin was unpardonable, went out and killed himself. A murderous crowd sneered at You on the cross, taunted You and shouted: "If you are the Son of God come down from that cross! Then we will believe."  And a few loyal disciples with Mary, Your Mother, stood beneath the cross in awe as You surrendered Your life to Your Father and prayed for your executioners and us!

And now, Holy Saturday,  You are gone, out of sight!

O God, have mercy!

Christ, have mercy!

Lord, have mercy!

The Good Friday's Scripture Readings

In the first reading of today's liturgy, Isaiah 52: 13-53:12, Isaiah prophesizes about Jesus, the Messiah, saying that He was:

• "Spurned"  and "avoided by people"--people hid their faces from Jesus because he looked so awful
• "Held in no esteem"
• "Had no stately bearing to make us look at him"
• "Had no appearance that would attract us to Him"

Yet, Isaiah reminds us in this same passage that Jesus:

• "Bore our infirmities"
• "Was crushed for our sins"
• Was chastised "to make us whole"
• "Pierced for our offenses"
• Scourged "for our healing"
• Bore "the guilt of us all"
• "Justified" us
• "Won pardon for us our offenses"
• "Took our sins away"

And, according to the prophet Isaiah, Jesus:

• "Was silent"
• "Opened not his mouth"
• "Submitted"
• "Gave His life as an offering for sin"
• "Surrendered himself to death"
• "Accomplished the will of God"--our salvation
• Showed us the depth of God's love for each one of us individually

 And what did we do:

• "Cut him off from the land of the living"
• "Assigned him a grave among the wicked" and "a burial place with evildoers"

In today's second reading, Hebrews 4: 14-16; 5: 7-9, St. Paul says to us:   "[L]et us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help" because "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin."

GOOD FRIDAY: THE DAY OF JESUS' CRUCIFIXION

 GOD INCARNATE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR OUR SALVATION

OH,THE PAIN JESUS SUFFERED FOR US!

OH, THE UNBELIEVABLE AGONY OF THE CRUCIFIXION!

DAILY, JESUS SHOWS US THE DEPTH OF GOD'S LOVE FOR US!

FREELY, JESUS SURRENDERED TO HIS EXECUTIONERS' CRUEL TREATMENT!

REELING WITH EXCRUCIATING PAIN ON THE CROSS, JESUS SAID: "FATHER, FORGIVE THEM. THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY ARE DOING!"

IN PAIN BEYOND BELIEF, JESUS CRIED OUT:   "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME!"

DEMANDING HIS CRUCIFIXION, THE CROWD DELIVERED JESUS TO HIS EXECUTIONERS. THEY LED HIM AWAY TO CALVARY.

ALREADY WEAK FROM THE LOSS OF BLOOD FROM THE SCOURGING, JESUS FELL SEVERAL TIMES ON THE WAY TO CALVARY.

YIELDING TO THE HORRIBLE NAILING OF HIS BODY TO THE CROSS AND LIFTED UP TO DIE, JESUS GAVE UP HIS LIFE TO RANSOM US FROM DEATH, SAYING: "INTO YOUR HANDS, FATHER,  I COMMEND MY SPIRIT!"  HE THEN SAID:  "IT IS FINISHED" AND  BOWED HIS HEAD AND DIED.

Judas' Betrayal: The Initiation of the Passion and Death of Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God

 Today is Holy Thursday.  It was the Passover, the time when the Jews celebrated being set free of Egyptian slavery. It was the night of the tenth plague--the angel of death would slay the first born of both man and beast--this plague would be what led Pharaoh to agree to let the Israelites leave Egypt. The other nine failed to move Pharaoh's heart to cooperate with God's plan. 

The Jews were instructed to kill a lamb, either of the goats or the sheep, and sprinkle its blood on their door posts. Seeing the blood the angel of death would pass over the houses of the Israelites. That night, the people were to eat the Passover meal and be ready immediately to flee Egypt. God would part the Red Sea so they could pass on the dry river bed.  As this is happening, however, Pharaoh changed his mind and and sends his army to pursue the Israelites. As the Egyptian warriors are driving their chariots and charioteers through the Sea, the waters rush back and all of the Egyptians are drowned!  The Israelites are safe and  free from being Pharaoh's slaves!

In celebrating the Passover with his disciples this night, Jesus institutes the Eucharist: He takes bread in his holy and sacred hands, blesses it, gives thanks and says: "Take and eat of this; this is my body given up for you. He then takes up the cup of wine and says: Take and drink of this; this is the blood of the New Covenant poured out for you. Do this in remembrance of Me", which we were doing this night at the  Holy Thursday Sacred Liturgy and which we Catholics do at every Liturgy!  

At the Last supper, "after psalms had been sung, [Jesus and His disciples] left for the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, 'You will all lose faith in me this night, for the scripture says: I shall strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered,  but after my resurrection I shall go before you to Galilee'" (Mt 26:30-31).   Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing that His time had come to be glorified by His Father and to give His life as a ransom for the many, for you and me, to save us from our slavery of sin, from Satan who is out to destroy us of living in grace. Sorrowful to the point of death, Jesus, in His agony, prays: "My Father, if this cup cannot pass by without my drinking it, your will be done" (Mt 26: 42)!  

Judas, who betrayed Jesus this night 2000+ years ago,  had left the Last Supper after receiving Communion from Jesus--Satan had entered him and it was night, the Scriptures tell us (See  John 13: 27-30).  In the Garden, Judas approaches Jesus and says: "Greetings, Rabbi," and kissed Him" (Mt. 26: 50)--this kiss was the sign to the soldiers that this was the one they were plotting to kill. Judas, in short, was saying to the chief priest and elders who came to out to the Garden that night: Arrest Him. And Jesus was led away in chains!

Made God's "Polished Arrow" and Hidden in God's Quiver

 In today's first reading, Isaiah 49: 1-6,  the prophet speaks of his calling, telling us that "the Lord called  [him] from birth, from [his] mother's womb he gave [him his] name.  He made of me," Isaiah says to us,   "a sharp-edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me. You are my servant, he said to me...through whom I show my glory." 

What an affirmation of being God's servant and, obviously protected by God as a prophet who would come under attack for speaking in God's name, challenging injustice and sinful ways.  He would be "a sharp-edged sword,...concealed...in the shadow of [God's] arm,"  uprooting evil. As he carried out his mission as God's prophet and servant, God's glory would be shown through him!

The goal of his prophetic ministry was that "Jacob may be brought back to [God] and Israel gathered to [God]. There were times, Isaiah tells us, when he thought he "had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly spent [his] strength."  How did he keep going when the times got rough?  He says:  "[M]y reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God."   Telling himself that truth, I believe,  gave him the strength he needed, especially when he wondered whether he was working "in vain, uselessly[spending] his strength."

Like Isaiah, you and I were also called from our mother's womb to be a servant of the Lord, to be someone through whom God's glory would be revealed.  In challenging times, God, as He did with Isaiah, hides us 
"in the shadow of his arm."   When going into warfare, that is, fighting spiritual battles against Satan, God makes us " a polished arrow!"  We win the spiritual battles we face on our way to eternity because God is at our side as a Warrior God, stronger than Satan. When God is with us--and He always is--Satan does not have a chance to win any battle we face as God's servants or God's prophets in this world!

God Sets Up His Sanctuary Among Us Forever

 In today's first reading,  Ezekiel 37: 21-28, the Lord promises that there will "be one prince" for the Chosen People and that "never again shall they be two nations" and neither shall they ever again "be divided into two kingdoms.."   God promises that he will deliver them from "their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that they may be my people and I may be their God.....I will...put my sanctuary  among them forever. My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus the nations shall know that it is I, the Lord, who make Israel holy, when my sanctuary shall be set up among them forever." In the responsorial psalm, Psalm 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13, the same promises are stated in the words: "He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, he guards them, as a shepherd his flock...he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror....I will turn their mourning into joy, and I will console and gladden them after their sorrows."

In the Gospel, John 11: 45-56, we are told that the chief priests and the Pharisees are afraid that, because Jesus' popularity is growing in leaps and bounds and more and more people are coming to believe in Him,  the Romans will come and take away both their land and their nation."  In the midst of all of that turmoil,  Caiaphas prophesizes that "Jesus is going to die for the  nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to kill him."  Truly, the promise made by Ezekiel that God will deliver us from our "sins of apostasy and cleanse [us]" becomes a reality--God makes us holy.   When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, dies and is risen to new life, we, too, are risen to new life in Christ Jesus! At our baptisms, we truly become God's sanctuary; God dwells with us forever!

"Behold the Handmaid of the Lord!"

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation! Mary says "yes" to God's plan for our salvation--your salvation and mine! Yes--the salvation of the entire world: saint and sinner, criminal and law-abiding citizens of every nation on earth, men and women of every race, of every nationality, of every ethnicity!

Imagine being a 13 or 14 year-old Jewish teenager engaged to her future husband, Joseph!  Suddenly, standing before her is an angel "sent from God," Luke tells us in today's Gospel. Mary was greatly troubled, Luke tells us!  Coming toward her, the angel says: "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."  Mary, I imagine, must have said to herself: "What's going on here? Am I going crazy? Am I hallucinating? Help."   Seeing Mary's reaction, the angels says to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." And Mary simply asks "How will this happen? I have had no relations with a man!" And the angels responds: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God...."  Hearing the angel's response, Mary says: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to hour word." What faith! What humility! What courage! Mary knows that in her culture that a woman pregnant outside of marriage could be stoned to death!  So, how does she handle this possibility? How does she tell Joseph  to whom she is engaged? How does she tell her parents and her friends?  We do not know the answer to those questions but we do know that Mary had faith and faith moves mountains, even the mountains of possible death!

Grant it, I am not Mary, But  what if, as I am doing my chores, I look up and there, not only stands an angel but he says to me: "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!"  Thoughts such as the following might flood my mind:  "What? Am I going crazy? Am I hallucinating? What's going on?" And the angel says: "Do not be afraid...for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and  bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus...."  My thoughts: "Wait a minute! I've not had no relations with a man! Get pregnant? These have got to be auditory hallucinations!  I need help!" But the angel reassures me when I asked how any of this could possibly happen. The angel responds: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...."

You and I, like Mary, have faced difficult situations, have been asked to do things that, no way, could we have accomplished without divine intervention!  God does not asks us to do anything that He does not equip us to to or that He does not remove  the obstacles to the tasks being accomplished in His name, we we, too, are God's handmaidens and sons!

Trusting the Lord

 In today's first reading, Daniel 3: 14-20, 91-92, 92,  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship a golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar set up as his god. The king was enraged with anger when the three men said to him:  "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from  your hands, O king, may  he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up."  The men were bound up and thrown into a furnace that was heated seven times more than usual. To the king's amazement, when he looks into the furnace, he sees four men walking among the flames.  "Did we not  cast three men bound into the fire? ...I see four men unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God." None of them is harmed by the flames.  

May you and I, as did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, trust God whenever we encounter "furnaces" in our lives and, in faith, embrace the challenge to do what is right. May we never forget  that God stands by waiting of us to call upon Him for the strength we need to do His will. He is always at our side protecting us from being harmed by the Evil One. 

Jesus: The I AM

 In today's Gospel, John 8: 21-30, Jesus says to us:  "...[I]f you do not believe that I AM you will die in your sins....When you lift up the Son of Man, they you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to  him."

Recall Moses' question to the Lord when sent to lead the people out of the land of slavery to the Promised Land. "Who do I say sent me, Moses asked God.  What is your name?" And God replied: "Tell them "I AM sent you."  The New Moses is Jesus, who leads us out of the slavery of sin and opens the door to eternal life!

If I do not believe in Jesus, if I do not come to realize and believe that Jesus is the I AM, that is, God in the living flesh, I am left in my sin of disbelief. 

Think of the following facts about what the Chosen People who lived in Jesus' time witnessed about Jesus: the dead were raised to life, the sick were healed, the blind enabled to see and the deaf to hear, demons were cast out of persons, fierce storms were quieted, 1000s and 1000s of people fed with five loaves and two fishes, women were spoken to and included in His ministry just like men were (the apostle to the apostles was a woman and it was a woman who was the first to proclaim Jesus' resurrection from the dead in a culture where women had no voice or no place in public life); sinners were forgiven and shown mercy (recall Jesus' mercy toward the woman caught in adultery--the Jews of Jesus' time claimed that they had a right to stone her to death); children were received with open arms in a culture where, like women, were not counted.

What happened? The leaders of the people had had enough and were determined to put Jesus to death and so they did! He was turned over to the Romans who occupied Israel at the time and was cruelly crucified as a criminal! And one Roman soldier who looked upon the crucified Jesus said, in effect: "Truly, He was the Son of God!" And one of the thieves crucified with him turned to him as both were dying on the cross and said: "Remember me in your Kingdom, Lord," recognizing that Jesus was truly the Son of God, the I AM,  whose Kingdom was not of this world. The other thief made fun of Jesus upon the cross: "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us, meaning release us from these crosses, take us off theses crosses and let us walk away free,. You are the Son of God, aren't you?"

Do you/do I believe that Jesus is the I AM?

Jesus Learned Obedience through Suffering

 In today's second reading, Hebrews 5: 7-9, we are told that Jesus "learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." 

What amazes me is the statement that Jesus "learned obedience from what he suffered."   Jesus is the Son of God!  Why would He need to learn obedience from the sufferings He endured?  Is it that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and through Jesus we learn to obey God through the sufferings we endure, especially those sufferings that result in our disobedience, the sufferings that are the consequences of our walking away from God and doing things our way, not God's?  Jesus in our teacher! Jesus is our Way! Jesus is our Truth! Jesus is not an exception but the example of what being a brother or a sister to Jesus/to God means!

In today's Gospel, John 12: 20-33, Jesus says that "the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." Jesus' death and resurrection continues, to this very day, to bear fruit in the life of believers.

Unlike Jesus, whose ego died to the spirit's obedience to the Father's will, our ego wants to be in charge of our lives and opposes the One who is truly in control of our lives.  When we die to the ego's way of doing things and follow the will of God for us--that we love as He loves us--it is then that we "bear much fruit."  We find life, John tells us, by losing life, that is by dying to selfishness and narcissism, to  "I'll-do-it- my-way; thank-you" stance or to defiantly proclaiming that "nobody-tells-me-what-to-do" that we truly bear fruit that will last!  By dying to selfish attitudes we are truly glorified. That hour to be glorified approaches whenever we are faced with the call to serve others in self-sacrificing love:   a baby cries or a child asks for help, a teen wants to learn to drive,  a  spouse needs us to share the responsibility of running a household. Or, if we are members of a religious community, a community member needs us to drop what we are doing to help an elderly, sick member or to listen to someone who is grieving a significant loss: the loss of independence, the loss of hearing, the loss of memory, the loss of a close friend or family member, the loss of a sense of belonging and so on!

What "death" am I being called to embrace in order to know new life, to experience a resurrection?  What suffering, today, will teach me obedience?

Letting God Direct us, as Joseph Did

 Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, the Mother of God and the foster father of Jesus. In today's Gospel, Matthew 1: 2q6, 18-21, 24a, we learn that Joseph found Mary pregnant prior to their marriage and decides to divorce her privately so as not "to expose her to shame."   An angel intervenes and says to Joseph in a dream: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."  Joseph  did "as the angel of the Lord had commanded him..."   When Jesus is born out in the cold in a manger where animals took shelter and after being visited by Magi from the East, the Lord again appears to Joseph in a dream at night and says to him: "Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell  you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.'"  Joseph does as the Lord commanded him. In Egypt, after Herod's death, the Lord again appears to Joseph in a dream at night and says to him:  "'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.'"  Joseph does as the Lord asks of him.  As he approaches the land of Israel, Joseph learned that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judea. Joseph is afraid to enter that land. "[B]eing warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee" instead and settled in Nazareth.

May you and I be as attentive to the warnings that God sends us, as Joseph was. May we, like Joseph, recognize God's voice and the ways in which He directs us, protects us from evil, and guides us to make choices that are safe and which enable us to thrive as we care for others!

God Makes All Things New

 In today's first reading,  Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12, an angel brings Ezekiel to the entrance of the temple of the Lord. he sees water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east and from other directions as well.  He wades through the water until it is waist deep and a river is flowing through the waters and too deep to wade through.  The angel then had Ezekiel sit down on the bank of the river and said to him:  "This water...empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh. Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creatures that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh. Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow; their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by he flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine."

Wonder from where your freshness comes? The water Ezekiel saw, I believe, flows in the form of grace throughout our days, grace that promotes life in the entire universe. Day in and day out, you and I have the freshness we need to bear fruit in our encounters, our endeavors, our efforts to do good and confront evil!  Every day, birds are singing, animals prancing, fruit trees and gardens bearing products that give us nourishment! 

All things are made new each day by the "river" of God's creative love flowing in abundance throughout the lands in which we live.  May God be praised morning, noon and night for His goodness to us!

The Other: A Mirror of Myself!

 In today's first reading, Isaiah 65: 17-21, the Lord gives us the following message through the prophet Isaiah:  "Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness in what I create; for I create Jerusalem to be as joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people." 

We are approaching spring and all things will be recreated: the bare trees, the leafless bushes and the brown laws will become green again.  Birds will lay eggs and a variety of animals and fishes will mate.  New life will appear throughout this spring season!  God's creative power of love is forever bringing forth new life within the universe and within ourselves, even when we do not see the newness.   

And as at the first creation, God looks upon His creation and says: "It is very good!"  In this passage from Isaiah, God says:  "...I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight!"  Yes, God, says to you and to me: I have created you "to be a delight; I...exult in my people,"  that is, I exult in you, (insert your name)!

What keeps you/me from realizing that God exults in us? What keeps you/me from exulting in another person? Am I/are you, in fact, looking for the good in another, in ourselves or are we focused on weaknesses and faults in the other, in ourselves?  What if we changed our focus and looked for the good in another person and in ourselves each day! It is important to remember that what bothers me about another person is that that same weakness/sin exists in me! What I despise or condemn in another person is what I despise and condemn in me!  And the good I admire in another, also, exists in me!

God's Law of Love

 In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 19, we praise the Lord for having "the words of everlasting life,"
 and for the fact that His law "is perfect,...refreshing the soul,...giving wisdom to the simple,...rejoicing the heart,...[and] enlightening the eyes."  

God's law is written on our hearts, a law that Jesus summarizes into two parts. The first part is: "Love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, your whole soul, and your whole mind."  The second part of the law is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."    In short, the law that God has written on our hearts is the law of love!  And even more amazing is the truth that God does not ask us to do anything without giving us the ability and the grace to do it!

You and I might think: how foolish is God to write the law of love on the hearts of humankind! From the very beginning of the Scriptures, we prove how foolish and weak humankind is! Our first parents succumb to temptation and are cast out of paradise. Cain kills Abel and the earth that received Abel's blood rebels, making it difficult for humankind to cultivate crops without encountering thistles and weeds and rocks and parched, and sometimes, land overly saturated with rain! Bringing new life into the world is also painful and risky! Yes, the history of humankind's inhumanity to humanity flourishes throughout the Scriptures and into this mess God sends His only begotten son, who, in turn, is crucified by men in authority jealous of Him and threatened by Him, even during His infancy when Herod vowed to kill Him even then.

In today's second reading, 1 Corinthians 1: 22-25, Paul reminds us, however, that "the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."  In eyes without faith, however,  God's plan seems crazy!  We may argue with God that our history proves how fickle we are, how irresponsible and prone to evil and that it is not safe for the Son of God to become one of us.  And God says, perhaps: It is not about safety as you define it but for your eternal safety, your salvation. My Son will show you how to deal with  man's inhumanity to humankind: how to live in a way that you grow strong in grace, in a way that you experience the power of my resurrection/my triumph over evil.

As with my Son, God says to us, I will show you how to surrender to My plan for your salvation. You will learn that I have "the words of everlasting life," and that My law of love "is perfect,...refreshing the soul,...giving wisdom to the simple,...rejoicing the heart,...[and] enlightening the eye."

O Jesus, may I learn this truth over and over and over again!

Lessons from Today's Liturgy

In the Entrance Antiphon of today's liturgy, Saturday of the first week of Lent, , we pray: "The law of the Lord is perfect; it revives the soul. the decrees of the Lord are steadfast; they give wisdom to the simple"  (cf. Ps 19 [18]: 8). How absolutely true! Whenever I  do what the Spirit directs me to do,  even in the smallest of things, my soul is revived. I am uplifted and energized by following the Spirit's inspirations in something as insignificant, perhaps, as keeping my plants watered--insignificant, that is, in regard to tasks to be done but certainly not insignificant to the plants that depend upon my charity towards them!  In the Collect of today's liturgy, I am reminded 1) to turn my heart to God, my eternal Father, and 2)  to always do the one thing necessary: carry out works of charity and that doing so dedicates me to the worship of God, my Creator! Yes, even watering the plants is an act of charity pleasing to the Lord, my God, and an act of worship!

Being obedient to the Spirit is also addressed in today first reading, Deuteronomy 26: 16-19. In this passage from Deuteronomy Moses says to the Chosen People, and that includes you and me:  "This day the Lord, your God, commands you to observe these statues and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them," Moses says, "with all your heart and with all your soul," not haphazardly, by any stroke of the imagination!  God wants our all! This agreement "to walk in [God's] ways...and to hearken to his voice," includes a stipulation and a promise from God Himself.  God says to us through Moses: "You are to be a people peculiarly his own...and, provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God, as he promised."

Being risen on high in praise and renown and glory is yours, and mine, as we have been made "sacred to the Lord" through the blood of Jesus poured out for us on Calvary. Through God's mercy poured out upon us in Jesus' death on Mount Calvary, you and I have been raised high with  Christ.  Like Him, we, too, following our death, will rise to new life in our resurrection. Death will have no power over us anymore than it had any power over Jesus.  We belong to Him, and to Him alone. We truly are "peculiarly his own."

Being "peculiarly his own" means that we are expected to step up to the plate in terms of following Jesus' example. In today's gospel, Matthew 5: 43-48, Jesus spells out what that means: "You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust." Yes, as Jesus did on the cross in praying for His executioners, not condemning them but forgiving them and welcoming the sinner into eternity, we, too, are to intercede for and wish our enemies well, treating them the same way we treat our friends!