God Chooses Us

In today's first reading, Ezekiel 37: 21-28, the Lord tells His chosen people through the prophet that He is going to bring them back from exile, that they will no longer be two nations, but one, that the Temple will be restored; in fact, God's sanctuary will be with them forever. "No longer shall they defile the selves with their idols, their abominations, and all their transgressions. I will deliver them from all their sins of apostasy, and cleanse them so that the may be my people and I may be their God...[T]here shall be one shepherd for them all....My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 

WOW! God is not only speaking to the Israelites. He is speaking to you and me!  You and I, by virtue our baptism, when we died and rose with Christ, belong to God. We were delivered from becoming slaves to sin. We were cleansed of our sinful inclinations--sin has no ore power over us. Like Jesus, who fell many times and got up and continued on to Calvary where He triumphed over Satan and destroyed the power of death, so, too, we, through Christ and in Christ and for Christ get up when we fall into sin, rise to new live in Christ over and over again. God dwells in us, just as God dwells in the land of Israel, in the sanctuary restored in Jerusalem when the people returned from exile.

God in us; we in God, just as Jesus lives in the Father and the Father lives in Him!  We are God's dwelling place!  As "possessions" of God, God changes us, redeems us, transforms us, cleanses us, purifies us, makes us holy, as He Himself is holy.  Every time we fall into sin, God picks us up and restores us to Himself! Never does God abandon us.

Lord, may I not abandon You. May I stay close to You always, taking time out of each day to seek Your face above all, to be restored to grace, to be strengthened by You in the Eucharist, in basking in Your love in quiet time with You, in times of quiet prayer and reflection upon the Scriptures and in growing in love of my neighbor, my family members, the members of my religious community and fellow sojourners on the way to everlasting life with You. I ask this in Jesus' name! Amen!

God Desires Life and Wellness

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 30,  we thank the Lord because He "changed my mourning into dancing."  In the Gospel, Mark 5: 21-43, Jesus did just that for the woman "afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years" and for Jairus, a synagogue official, whose  twelve-year-old daughter was dying.   Both were healed and restored to life and wellness. The faith of the woman, Jesus tells her, "has saved you." And he says to the distraught father: "Do not be afraid; just have faith."

God does not delight in you or I, or anyone, contracting a disease; nor does he rejoice in any one's death! We are told in today's first reading, Wisdom 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24, that "God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living....But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it." 

Jesus' actions reveal the truth that God desires our well-being and delights in each one of us being fully alive.  Jesus does not hesitate to restore individuals to robust health, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. He delights in inviting us into make choices which lead us to greater wholeness and to deeper communion with one another.  Choices that fragment us or cause us to be separated from one another cause God as much pain as they do us. God weeps with  us when we make such choices and stands by to rescue those who call upon Him.

Lord, do not let my enemies--Satan and his helpers--rejoice over me. "Preserve me from going down into [any] pit" (Psalm 30) that causes me to lead a fragmented, separated life that defies that I have been created to live life in a way that fosters union with others and leads to ever greater and greater wellness and wholeness!

To what choices am I being invited today that will lead to deeper union with others, especially with family members--one's spouse, children, grandchildren, relatives--community members, coworkers, parishioners, persons of other cultures, races religions? Which choices am I making that are causing division and fragmentation?

Choosing according to God's Counsel, Wisdom and Enlightenment

In today’s first Scripture reading, 1 Samuel 16: 1-13, God asks Samuel to go to Bethlehem to meet Jesse, “for I have chosen my king from among his sons.”  Samuel is frightened.  “How can I do that? Saul will kill me,” is Samuel’s response.  How often do we not use a similar excuse” “I can’t do that, Lord!  So and so will kill me.”  “I can’t do that Lord! What if so-and-so hears about it; my name will be mud!”  “What will so-and-so think if he/she hears what I’ve done?”  “No, Lord! No way; I will get into trouble if I do that. I will lose friends.  I will lose that promotion. I will be looked upon with disdain,” and so on and on we go with excuses of why we cannot follow the Spirit’s lead!

When Samuel gets to Bethlehem and meets Jesse’s sons, he is awed by the ones Jesse presents.   In fact, he is so enamored by the appearance and lofty stature of the first of Jesse’s sons, Samuel is convinced that he is the one God has chosen. But God lets Samuel know that it is not so. “Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.” Among the seven sons Jesse presents none is the one God has chosen for His anointed. So Samuel asks:  “Do you have any other sons?”  And Jesse says “Yes, my youngest son is tending sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel orders. It is the youngest son, the one excluded, the one assigned menial tasks, the least likely humanly speaking that is chosen to be anointed the next king of Israel.  Samuel anoints him “and from that day on, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.”

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, Mark 2: 23-28, is also doing the unthinkable. He and His disciples are traipsing through someone’s wheat field and, not only that, stripping the wheat of its grain! Furthermore, they are doing so on the Sabbath!  Jesus ignores two rules: 1) you do not create a path through a neighbor’s wheat field nor do you strip the ripe grains and 2) you do not work on the Sabbath!  For Jesus, there is a human need that must be met: His disciples are hungry and need something to eat to continue the journey.  And furthermore, as He tells those objecting to His behavior, the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath!

What might we learn from these readings? 1) that judging by appearances is usually off base, 2) that it is the Spirit of the Lord that empowers one, including me and you,  to do what God is calling us to do,  3) that, sometimes, the unthinkable is the right thing to do and 4) that the objection  “what will others think of me” can be Satan’s cunning way of luring us into the temptation of choosing human will over God’s will!