The Infinite Mercy of God

In today's first reading, Micah 7:L 14-15, 18-20, Micah stands in awe of our God, asking: "who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance, who does not persist in anger forever, but delights in clemency, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt?"

The mercy of our God is brought home to us again in today's Gospel, Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32, in the story of the Prodigal Son.  That parable features a father whose son squandered his inheritance on a promiscuous lifestyle and faced starvation when a famine struck the land.  So "he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. ...[H]e longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here I am dying from hunger.'"  Desperate, he returns to  his father's house and is determined to say to his father: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as your would one of your hired workers."  His father sees him coming from afar and excitedly asks his servants to prepare a banquet for his son, to clothe him in the best of clothing, to put a ring on  his finger and slaughter a fattened calf. He welcomes him back with open arms and celebrates to the chagrin of his older son, who is furious at his father for showing mercy to his brother. When his father asks him to come in and join the celebration, he angrily says to his father: ""Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when you son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.'" 

How many of us are into rigid obedience to laws and use the law to condemn our brothers and sisters? The law does not save us; it gives us what we think is our right to judge others.  Jesus teaches otherwise. When a disciple asked Jesus what more he needed to do to enter heaven, Jesus answers him with the story of the Good Samaritan and says to him: "Go and do likewise. It is mercy that I want of you."

Behaviors and Speech That Reveal Love, Faith, and Purity

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus Christ is the Same Yesterday, Today and Forever

In today’s first reading, Hebrews 13: 1-8, St. Paul admonishes us to allow “love [to] continue, to “not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels. Be mindful of prisoners,” Paul says to us, “as if sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you also are in the body,” awaiting redemption, as they are.  “Let your life,” he challenges, “be free from love of money but be content with what you have,” for God “will never forsake you or abandon you”.

How fitting for our times, as millions of people seek hospitality, as they flee for their lives and the safety of their children and as they seek refuge in countries not ravaged by war-filled violence of undue proportions.  Millions of people are being ill-treated around the world, including in our own country.  More and more people within and outside of the U.S. face difficult times,  as one nation after another threatens the other with dire consequences if they make choices that threaten the security of us all.  With hatred peppering the speeches of world leaders and threats being hurled toward anyone who challenges leaders from pushing forth their personal agendas, it is likely that hard times lull in our futures. Paul invites us to “[r]emember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

God Working in All and through All

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus is asked which of the commandments is the greatest and Jesus responds:  “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

How many of us truly love ourselves?  How often I find myself being dissatisfied with this and that and the next thing about myself.  I have a tendency to drive myself crazy because of my need for perfection and order. There are times, it seems, when nothing is ever good enough for me. 

I was complaining to the Lord this morning because I did not follow a disciplined approach in organizing my day.  Instead of starting the day with an hour of prayer, I started it by reorganizing the vocation ministry library and looking for a bookshelf to accommodate a significant number of books being brought here from one of our houses. Anxiously, I pondered my options and did not sit down to pray until I felt satisfied with the decision I made to accept an offer from another person to give, not one, but two bookcases from the house she is leaving.

As I spoke to the Lord about my frustration, the following dialogue ensued:

Lord, I get so frustrated with myself when  I do not hold myself to a disciplined schedule, beginning the day with an hour of prayer and ending it with an hour of spiritual reading.

Dorothy Ann, let go of making schedules and disciplined rigidity your idols! And why is that the exploring you did this morning is not ok as the start of your work day?

Because I wanted to begin the work day with prayer.

You did! You prayed the divine office and participated in Holy Mass with your community.

Help me, Jesus, accept my humanness. I admit that I needed to come to a decision about the book-shelf offers that I originally rejected.

At times, you are a ball of nervous energy, Dorothy Ann, driven for perfection and order.

Jesus, I bring that energy to You!

I am always at work in you, Dorothy Ann. Your desire for perfection and order is a gift for you to cherish as is your desire for connection with loved ones and with what is happening in the world you live in and which you reach out to each evening , in part, through browsing Facebook entries and calling a friend. Remember, I am in all and work through all!  Recall what I told Peter:  Do not call anything profane of my creation.  I will speak to you, Dorothy Ann,  through any “vehicle”: disorganized or organized energy, emptiness and boredom or clarity and fullness of life that delights you.  Nothing do I reject or treat with disdain. I ask that you follow my example!  By loving yourself in this way, you will increase your love for your neighbor, the second of the commandments.

Tolerance and Wisdom versus Fear and Jealousy

In today’s Gospel, Mark 9: 38-40, the apostle John expressed his fear and jealousy that persons other than the apostles and disciples of the Lord are casting out demons. He does not yet possess the wisdom that would enable him to be relaxed, tolerant and accepting of others doing the same good works that he himself does. His view is narrow. The “law” he applies is rigid. Jesus, on the other hand, does not feel threatened or the least slighted that this man is casting out demons in His name. He does not question whether this man has the necessary credentials or the right educational background to be acting in His name. He recognizes his goodness and says to John: “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.” Every morning, I release to the Lord any personal feelings that other people’s beliefs, values or intelligence threaten me. That has had a powerful effect upon me: with the grace of God, I have significantly resisted the temptation to put others down and am no longer afraid of other people’s intelligence as I once was. My tolerance of other people’s opinions, decisions and actions has grown, as I realize that, they, too, are doing the good that they believe God is asking of them. I am not their judge. That lesson, I believe, is what Jesus is trying to teach John and those following His Way, His Truth, and His Life. That is a lesson that we, like the apostles and earlier followers of Jesus, may need to learn repeatedly. “Wisdom,” Sirach tell us, “…puts us to the test….With her precepts she puts us to the proof, until our heart is fully with her” (Sirach 4: 11-19). Jesus’ heart was fully with Wisdom! You and I, God willing and through the grace of God, will arrive at that same spot before we die. We see this Wisdom in many of our elders!

"Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5)

In  today’s Gospel, Luke 5: 33-39, the Scribes and Pharisees are again at odds with Jesus. Nothing Jesus does is right for them. This time, they confront him because his disciples do not fast or offer prayers like their disciples do.  The Scribes and Pharisees do not recognize that something New is taking place, that the Messianic Kingdom has arrived, that the Old Covenant is being replaced by the New Covenant.  As Jesus’ proclamation of the New Kingdom spreads by his healing of all who are brought to him with every kind of disease and demons are commanded to leave the area, and unjust practices are challenged,  the Scribes and Pharisees speed up their attacks on Jesus, trying to trick him, looking for ways to trap Him and find cause to put him to death.  They do not want their world of laws and rituals that have been in vogue for hundreds of years to be disturbed.  They do not want any change in their rituals or in their lives.  As Jesus says at the end of this Gospel: “…[N]o one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

The same scenario is occurring in the Catholic Church.  There are people among the laity, the clergy and women and men religious who vehemently cling to past rituals or traditions from of old, who do not want their lives disturbed by change of any kind.  The past, for some, is enshrined in gold.

How willing are you and I to accept the inevitability of change in  the Catholic Church, in the way we express our faith, in the externals of our religion, in ritual and sacramental changes; in short, in the way God works? How open are we to the changes that inevitably occur in our personal lives, our family lives, our religious community, our parish?