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!

God's Mercy Is Forever

In today's first reading, Ezra 9: 5-9, the prophet comes before the Lord filled with shame and too confounded to lift his eyes to the Lord.  Why? Because, he says, "our wicked deeds  are heaped up  above our heads and our guilt reaches up to heaven."  Ezra acknowledged God's mercy, leaving a remnant of the people to rebuild the Temple.  "For slaves we are," Ezra says, "but in our servitude our God has not abandoned us; rather he has turned the good will of the king of Persia towards us. Thus he has given us new life to raise again the house of our God and restore its ruins...."

As we listen to the news each night and also examine our own consciences, it is obvious, if we are honest with ourselves and about the news we hear, that our wickedness also "reaches up to heaven."  We, too, throughout any given day, become slaves to sin and selfishness, to being unjust and deceitful in how we deal with our neighbors here or abroad.  As with the Israelites, God is merciful toward us, as well!  Every day, God gives us life anew and new opportunities to rebuild the "house of our God," to restore the ruins created by unjust, deceitful, greedy, selfish actions towards others, all of creation, and the earth itself. And God comes to us in His mercy in many ways throughout the day and especially at every Catholic Mass, when we offer, in the the Holy Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ  to God the Father in atonement for our sins against humanity and the Earth. Yes, God's mercy comes down to us every single day, as it did in the day of Ezra , the prophet.

Thank you, God, for your awesome Presence among us!  Thank you for being merciful to us! Thank you for not abandoning us in our efforts to rebuild the house of God, that is, to restore the beauty of each human being, Temples of the Holy Spirit, that,  by our selfishness, greediness, injustices and deceitfulness have been wounded.

"Seeing the Bounty of the Lord in the Land of the Living" (Psalm 27)

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 27, we acknowledge our belief that "the Lord is  [our] light and our salvation,...[our] life' s refuge."  We ask the Lord for the the favor to "dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of [our lives and to]...gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  We then, at the close of the psalm, express our belief that we "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living."  In order to experience any of the graces expressed in this psalm, however, the psalmist tells us that we  need to "wait for the Lord with courage....[B]e stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!"

"The Lord is our light." In order to know the Lord as our light, we need to experience darkness, as did the man in today's Gospel, Luke 4: 31-37. Think of the joy he experienced when Jesus, His Savior,  delivered  him from the power of an unclean spirit that had taken possession of him. To truly know joy, as this man did,  we need to experience the darkness of  sorrow. To deeply know the strength of our faith, we need to go through the darkness of doubt! To bask in the joy of being healthy we need to live through the dark times of an illness!  The man in today's Gospel, I believe, would have gone through all of these experiences! Even Jesus as a human being was not exempt from experiencing darkness, the most awful of which was His crucifixion and death upon the cross! He passed through death, however, to the glory of the resurrection!  We will, as well!

In Psalm 27, we pray to "gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  How might that happen? I believe that the loveliness of the Lord resides in every human being and that all people and all of creation are God's temple. God, I believe, lives in each one of us and in creation itself. As temples of God and dwelling places of God's loveliness, we are called to make known God's loveliness and to build God's temple by co-operating with God's grace.  We have examples of this in creation. Everything in the universe reveals God's brilliance, God's loveliness, God's beauty, God's love for us!  As persons with free will, we may or may not cooperate with grace in revealing the loveliness, the beauty, the brilliance of God, the love of God within us and supporting and nurturing the God-life in others. 

The choice to live in the Light or in darkness is ours to make each day, as is the choice to move through "death" to resurrection or to new life each day!  If we choose life and reject death each day, we truly "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living."

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 as Builder and the One in Charge

In today's first reading, 2 Samuel 7: 4-17,  God reminds David of all that He has done for Him and specifically tells David that he does not need him to build him a house. "In all my wanderings everywhere among the children of Israel, did I ever utter a word to any one of the judges whom I charged to tend my people Israel, to ask: 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'"
Then, through Nathan, God reminds David, further, that God is the One in charge of his life, that He is the One who called him to shepherd the Israelites, that He is the One who has "been with you wherever you went, and I  have destroyed your enemies."  I am the One, God tells David, who "will make you famous like the great ones of the earth."  In other words, God is saying to David: You do not have to make a name for yourself by building Me, your God, a Temple.

Neither do you and I need to make a name for ourselves. God is doing that for us. God brought us into His Body, the Church, in Baptism.  God has given us an inheritance, His eternal Kingdom, through the blood of the Cross.  God feeds us  with the best of wheat in Holy Communion,  the Body and Blood of His Son Jesus Christ, by whom our redemption continues. For those who live justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with God (cf Micah 6:8),  repent and believe in the Gospel, the Kingdom of heaven awaits them on the last day.

God's Dwelling Place

St. Paul reminds us in today's first reading, Ephesians 2: 19-22, that we are "no longer strangers" nor are we "sojourners," that that we are "being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."  What does all of this mean? First of all, we are not strangers to the Lord. A stranger would not take time to visit, would not enter a stranger's house, would not be known  by the other. On the contrary, to God, we are a friend.  We have permanent residence with the Lord, existing in the very core of God's Being, held in the palm of His hand. We are friends who are always welcome, persons God confides in, speaks to heart to heart.  We are part of "structure "held together" and growing "into a temple sacred in the Lord."

We are "being built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." What building materials is the Lord using?  God uses the materials from my life: its mud, its cement, its clay, its brilliant and dull colors, its woodiness, its softness, its pearls and diamonds--everything that makes me who I am in my strengths and weaknesses, my successes and failures, my ups and downs! Everything! The "mud" God changes into grace. The earthy elements into diamonds and other pearls of great price. He uses my vulnerabilities and weaknesses and creates strengths that support me to become pillar of truth and goodness needed in situations lacking these "pearls."

You and I need to bring these mundane materials to the Lord to be transformed by grace.  Nothing is "not good enough." God never disapproves of what I bring Him.  And, yes, all I have to bring are my weaknesses and my sinfulness. God uses these to grow me into the best version of myself, into "a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."

Growing into a Temple Sacred to the Lord

Today’s first reading, Ephesians 2: 19-22 reminds us that  we“… no longer strangers or sojourners, but are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.  Through him,” we are told, “ the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him…[we] also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

That Lord is saying:     (your name),  you are no longer a stranger or an alien. You are one of the family and not an ordinary family but the family of God.  Moses spoke to God face to face, had an intimate relationship with the Lord and so, too, did all of the saints that have gone before you.  “I,” the Lord say to you and me, “have an intimate relationship with you and my heart is in anguish until you discover this intimacy, my nearness to you, my love for you and realize that I desire you above all. I gaze upon you every moment of every day with eyes of love.”

You and I, St. Paul tells us, are God’s temple, “built upon the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone…,” the one through whom  “the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord.”  All of us “are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

All of us have, perhaps, visited churches that have taken our breath away because of their beauty. And those buildings are built by human beings!  The Temple that St. Paul is talking about is being built by the Lord. It is being put together as a “dwelling place of God.”  Its beauty will far outshine the beauty of anything built by human hands. And into that Temple, every day or every week, the Son of God, Christ Jesus, says to us through the priest:  “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, happy those called to the Supper of the Lamb” and we respond: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”  Jesus enters our Temple, as He entered the Temple when he was on His way to Jerusalem and cleansed it. In Holy Communion, He does the same for the Temple into which we that we are being built.

I believe,” Lord, “help my unbelief!”                                             

Companions on the Journey

In today’s first reading, Eph 2: 19-22, St. Paul reminds us that we “are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone [and] that through him, “the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him…[we] are also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

My mind is filled with awe as I think of the fact that I am a companion on a journey to life in Christ Jesus, each of us individually and all of us together, being built into a Temple for the Lord.  I share this journey into God’s Kingdom being built here on earth and within each of us with those with whom I live, with those with whom I have difficulty, with those I love in Christ Jesus but actually do not like, with those whom I perceive as my enemies, as enemies of the U.S., of the Church, of my religious community.

Do I truly realize what this means? And if did, would I be less bothered by those whom I would love to change into “my image,” yes, my image, though I might believe that I want them transformed into the image of Christ!  If I truly believed that God is holding “the whole structure…together” and that it is, by the action of the Holy Spirit within it, growing “into a temple sacred in the Lord,…a dwelling place of God in the Spirit,” would I not be more free, less afraid, less worried and anxious when I come face to face with sin in myself, in others, in the world, in the church, in society? Would I not be more willing “to let go and let God,” as the people in AA and in Al-Anon are encouraged to do?
 

You Are God's Temple

Today’s readings, Ez 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12; 1 Cor 3: 9c-11, 16-17; Jn 2: 13-22, all speak about the temple, a holy place where God dwells in a special manner.  St. Paul reminds us in 1 Cor that each of us is God’s temple. Jesus, in Jn 2: 13-22, speaks about Himself as the temple which, though destroyed on the cross, He will “raise…up in three days.” 

In the first reading, an angel brings the prophet Ezekiel to the entrance of the temple, where he sees “water flowing out [not only] from beneath the threshold…toward the east” but from the south and north as well. That flowing water refreshes the salt waters and gives life to “every sort of living creature,” “abundant fish,” “fruit trees of every kind,” whose” leaves” never fade and whose “ fruit” never fails. You and I, baptized into Christ, filled with the glory of God through the sacraments, are made holy by Christ’s death and resurrection. Through our baptism, we have been missioned and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be ambassadors of Christ in the world in which we live. That means that through us, the purifying, reconciling waters of our baptism are to be flowing in such a way as to refresh life, produce fruit and “fish” in abundance.  What a gift and responsibility of being church in the secular world.

The Gospel retells the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple, chasing out those who violated the purpose of the Temple, that is, those who made His “Father’s house a marketplace”.  Does Jesus, living within the Temple of our being, find us violating God’s Temple? What in you and me needs to be cast out so that we truly are a refreshing presence of God  in our world, a source of God’s abundance, a bearer of fruit that will last, and persons through whom “fish” exist in abundance. In other words, to what extent are we “fishers of men/women,” persons who bring people to Christ and Christ to people by our faith, hope and love?