"It is the Lord!"

In today's Gospel, John 21:1-14, the Risen Jesus, that is Christ, appears to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.  Peter and his friends were out fishing all night long.  As they approach the shore at dawn, Jesus is standing there and asks: "Have you caught anything" and they answer "no"!  He then suggests that they cast their nets on the right side of the boat and the catch is extremely large.  At the large catch, the disciple who Jesus especially loved says: "It is the Lord."   As they come ashore, they notice a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Yes, Jesus is in the process of making them breakfast and ask for some of the fish they had just caught!

Christ is alive in each one of us!  And, yes, this morning He made breakfast for us through the love and care of our spouse or for others through our own care, or through our employees if we live at an assisted living or nursing home facility.  God is always at work in those who live by faith! Christ has no hand or feet but ours. His love and care, His compassion and understanding, His response to those in need comes to others through our generosity, our caring, our noticing the needs of another and responding with love! Jesus provides shelter for the homeless through our generosity. He heals others through the healing touch that is given them through us. He comforts a child or a grieving person through us.  He lifts burdens through our willingness to do so! 

Let us be the hands, the feet, the heart of Christ in a broken, wounded, hurting, needy world of persons who rely on our generosity, our love, our caring, our understanding, our forgiveness, our dying to selfishness and pride and greediness.

Imitate God in His Holiness, Compassion, Justice and Love

Today's first reading, Leviticus 19: 1-2, 17-18, exhorts us to "[b]e holy, for I, the Lord, your God am holy."  How? By  following the counsel given in this same passage:  "Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. ..[L]ove your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." Paul, then, in the second reading, 1 Cor 3: 16-23, asks us the question:  "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the the Spirit of God dwells in you?  ...[T]he temple of God, which you are, is holy,."  In the Gospel, Jesus amplifies the teaching of Leviticus, saying to us:  "[L]over your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." And he exemplifies this calling when, on the cross, Jesus prays for his enemies, asking the Father to forgive them for they know not what they are doing!

Holiness is not just something to talk about or read about.  It must be lived by us by the way we treat each other, especially those who hurt us, treat us poorly, gossip about us, hold us in disdain, refuse to greet us or who have nothing good to say to us or about us. In today's Gospel, Mt. 5: 38-48,  Jesus challenges us to imitate His Father, who shines the sun on the good and the bad and orders the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.  You and I are also to shine the "sun" of love, of grace and of goodness and justice upon those who sin against us.  We are to radiate God's holiness within us upon everyone, especially upon those we do not particularly like or who do not like us. If we greet only to those who cherish us, Jesus is then speaking directly to us us when He says:   ...[I]f you greet your brothers [or sisters] only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."  Be compassionate just as God is compassionate. Be caring just as God is caring. Love just as God loves!

Choose Life

In today's first reading, Dt. 30:15-20, we are told that God has set before us life and death. "Choose life,...that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, our God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him."  Yesterday a young man chose death by killing 17 young men and women. This young man is allegedly mentally ill.  He was allowed to legally purchase an automatic weapon and was determined, according to a face book message, to become a professional school shooter.  Why, I ask, are automatic weapons sold to anyone and are we not choosing death by allowing such purchases to occur?  Automatic weapons certainly are not used to kill deer or other animals sought for food!  They are used to kill people! I ask myself the following questions: So what goes here? Is it that producing and selling weapons of mass destruction puts millions of dollars in the pockets of the rich? Is it that allowing every human being to possess a gun, for any reason,  also creates millions of dollars of profits in corporations that produce these weapons? Is it that gun lobbyists promise millions to politicians who, in turn, refuse to pass gun legislation lest substantial donations diminish? I also wonder whether we are refusing to learn from, and listen to, other countries where only those in law enforcement, those in the military and those hunting game for food possess guns and where there is nothing of the violence we see in our country?  I ask: is it that citizens in those countries are a priority, not making millions and making the rich richer at the expense of the poor and at the expense of victims of gun violence,  both those who lose their lives and families and friends who mourn these losses?

In today's first reading, Dt. 30: 15-20, Moses says to us:  "Today I  have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord,  your God, which I enjoy on you today, loving him [by loving and protecting others], and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statues and decrees [do not kill and, I would say, do not promote killing],...the Lord, your God will bless you...If, however, you turn away your hearts [from what is right] and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods [greed, consumerism, materialism, gluttony, lust, wealth accumulated illegally, through deceit and corrupt choices, and at the expense of the poor, etc.], I tell you now that you will certainly perish...."

Is the United States on the path of destruction, courting death and doom, promoting death, intentionally or unintentionally? Am I, or you, on a path that depletes life by our disobedience, our refusal to follow the voice of good spirits prompting us to do God's holy will,  to love as God loves, to be compassionate as God is compassionate? Are we on a path that shows a lack of concern for the rights of all people, all races, all genders, all nationalities, the rich and the poor, immigrants and non-immigrants, the young and the old? Am I, are you, living lives of rebellion against what we know puts us in right relationship with God, with self and others?

"Chose life...by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him" (Dt. 30:19).)

Storing One's Wealth for Personal Use Only or Sharing It?

In today’s Gospel,  Luke 12: 13-21, Jesus reminds us that our lives do not “consist of possessions,” not that possessions are bad but that such is not what life is about.  Life is about love, loving, and being loved; about caring and showing others that we care, about compassion and being compassionate, about understanding and being understood, about consoling and being consoled, about forgiving and being forgiven. It is all about relationships, about modeling our relationships on the relationships of the Trinity, where all share equally in the Trinitarian resources,  where each in included in the activity of the other and equally contributing, equally rewarded and compensated;  where each Person of the Blessed Trinity is of one in mind, one heart and one spirit, committed to doing good and being goodness in the lives of all humankind, reconciling us to our Creator God.  The Trinity models love.

The core realities of life spiritually, I believe, are faith, hope and love--love of God, love of self, and love of one’s neighbor.  The expression of love is the richest of life’s experiences and transcends all of life.  Of faith, hope and love, only love lasts eternally. Am I using my surplus to show love and concern for others, or am I hoarding it? The use of wealth for the benefit of others enhances love. The accumulation of wealth for its own sake, to “build larger” storage spaces to “store” one’s good, and then say to oneself, as the rich man in today’s Gospel, now I have”so many good things stored up for many years,” I  will rest, eat, drink and be merry” the rest of my life. (cf the parable in Luke 12: 13-21) can be a source of hardening one’s heart toward another’s plight and need for compassion.

What do I do with the wealth with which I am blessed?