God Redirects Saul's Life and Ours

Saul, a zealous Jew, was on a mission to arrest Christians, men and women the Jews believed were traitors to their Jewish faith.  God saw his zeal, his determination, his commitment to his Jewish faith.   It was like god said to Himself: "I need that man to spread the Word about who My Son truly is, to proclaim the death and resurrection of My Son Jesus.  Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians when Jesus stopped him: "Saul, Saul, why are go persecuting me?"  The bright light knocked Saul to the ground. Saul responds to the voice of Jesus, asking: "Who are you, Sir?"  "I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting." "What am I to do, Sir?"  "Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do."  Blinded by the light, he needed to be led into Damascus. There God had arranged for a committed Christian to reveal God's will to him.

Notice how Jesus gets Saul to reflect upon his actions, leads him to where he needs to go and gives him the instructions he need to change the course of his life and come on board with Jesus.  Jesus does the same for for you and me!  He does not come to condemn when He finds us off track.  He uses people ad events to redirect us, as He did for Saul. He saves us from choices that are contrary to the will of God for us.

God knows you and me through and through, as He knew Saul.  He has a mission for us to fulfill in building up God's Kingdom and spread the Good News of our redemption, to bring hope to those who are hopeless and faith to the despairing by introducing them to Jesus and His Way of Life, the Gospels.

To know God's mission for us, we need to take time to sit at Jesus' feet,  especially when we know that we are off track.  Especially at those times, we need to come to Jesus, listen to His voice, and be open for His instructions. I had to do that tonight when I ranted and raved about a meeting that was called and that I felt interfered with what I wanted to accomplish tonight. In the solitude of prayer, Jesus asked me: "Why were you against that meeting?"  My response: "I was afraid that I would not get my hour of prayer in."  Jesus' response to me:  "My desire for you is that you do my will, not yours. And my will is that you co-operate with those who have the authority to call a meeting."  Jesus did not condemn me but he definitely redirected me!  Like Saul, I need to be redirected from time to time.  What about you?

The Wisdom of Solomon

In today's first reading, 1 Kings 10: 1-10, the queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon to test his wisdom. Is he truly as wise as others have said he is, she is wondering. To her astonishment, she discovers a wisdom greater than she has ever encountered in the past and more profound than the reports she has heard. Solomon, as a young man, a boy, perhaps, when entrusted with the throne, asked the Lord for wisdom. "O Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David, but I am a mere youth.... Give me, your sevant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong"(See 1 Kings 3: 4-13). Note Solomon's humility, his recognition of being God's servant and his request for wisdom. Do I realize that I, too, am God's servant and do I recognize the importance of asking the Lord to give me a wise heart? Frequently, in the Gospels, Jesus takes his apostles aside to teach them wisdom. For instance, in today's Gospel, Mark 7: 14-23, he teaches them that what enters a person's body is not what makes one unclean but what comes out of one's mouth defiles: envy, jealousy, greed, unkindness--abusive, disrespectful, demeaning, murderous, adulterous, deceitful, arrogant words--are what make me unclean in the sight of God and my companions on the journey of faith. I pray, Lord, for this wisdom--the wisdom You taught your apostle and which you also teach me. May I wisely take time each day to allow You to take me aside and explain the Scriptures so that my heart becomes one with Yours.

Waiting upon the Lord

In today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 27: 1, 4, 13-14, the psalmist reminds us that we “shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living.”  He then encourages us to “[w]ait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted and wait for the Lord.”    Waiting can be very challenging for those of us who have a difficult time when things do not happen in our timing, when answers are not forthcoming at the moment that we want them to be or in the manner that we think the answers should be revealed to us.  “Come on, Lord,” we may say. “Where are you? I can’t wait any longer!” So, what do some of us do? Take charge! Do our own thing or jump in and try to fix what seems very wrong, not that “fixing the wrong” is not the right thing to do but sometimes we jump ahead of God.  When we do that, either in  “fixing a wrong” or making a choice prematurely, we are likely to cause more problems.  Readiness is important. Timing is important. God’s time, many times, is not our timing.

Think of parents  with young children. One of the children lies down on the floor and proceeds to have a temper tantrum in the middle of a store.  If the child is not hurting anyone, wise parents wait until the child is finished screaming, kicking; those parents let the child vent. When the child is finished, a parent picks up the child, comforts him or her and moves on.  Another parent may interfere, demand that the toddler’s temper tantrum cease, yell at the child to stop the screaming and kicking, even hit the child or call the child names, labeling him/her a bad child. Consequently, the temper tantrum escalates and the calming down takes longer, not to mention the long term effects of the name-calling: a memory that can stay with the child long into adulthood.  God is like the wise parent. When we “lose it,” He simply looks on and watches us with patience, waiting for us to calm down before intervening. He knows that we are not capable of hearing Him while we are ranting and raving.  He also knows that getting one’s anger out without hurting another person or ourselves is an important step in being open to counsel and to experiencing “the bounty of the Lord”.

That Lord’s   “bounty” opens up to the person who, when calm,  humbly and courageously reflects upon the “temper tantrum” experience, seeks God’s counsel or counsel from another, and is willing to learn whatever lesson is hidden within the event. Furthermore, the person who bares his/her soul to the Lord, sharing the incident and feelings about the incident that led to the meltdown, prepares the soil of his/her heart to receive the “rain” of grace. By humbly and courageously waiting upon the Lord, the soft, gentle “rain” of grace soaks  the heart’s soil and, yes, God’s bounty burst through the formerly hardened soul.