Nothing is Impossible with God!

In today's first reading, Zachariah 8: 1-8, the Lord makes the following promise through the prophet:
"I  will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. ...Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts. Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts?"

What God says to the remnant of the people of Israel through the prophet Zachariah, He also says to the remnant of people who remain after their nations or countries have been destroyed by weapons of mass destruction or by devastating natural disasters.  "Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets [of these bombed out cities]. The city shall  [again] be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets."  Not only will materials things be restored, so, too, shall the faith abandoned by by people be restored.  Trust and truth and faithfulness will also be restored. 

You and I may believe that restoration is never going to happen, especially when countries and nations have strayed so far from the truth as seems to have happened here in our own country. And how, we ask, will war-torn countries such as Syria and other nations or cities destroyed by years and years of being bombed out by warring factions, and, sometimes, by their own governing bodies ever see life return to normal? God says to us, as He did to the Israelites, "[e]ven if this should seem impossible in [your] eyes..., shall it... be impossible in my eyes also?"

Lord, as I listen to the news each night or read about world conditions  I truly wonder whether we will ever return to being faithful to the way of life Jesus taught us during his public ministry.  I ask that you have mercy upon us, strengthen our faith and trust that you are God and there is no other and that your thoughts and your ways are not our ways. What you did for the people of old you can and will also do for us!  Your death and resurrection are not in vain! You overseer life now as you did in years gone farther back that any of us can remember.  Evil will not triumph--you destroyed it on the cross. Satan was defeated there Calvary's hill.  I believe that, Lord!  And when I am weak in my faith, please restore it. May I keep my eyes on you and not on the evil I see in the world. I ask through through Jesus Christ.

The Feast of God's Love Revealed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In today's first reading,  Deuteronomy 7: 6-11, Moses reminds the Israelites, and us, that we are "a people sacred to the Lord," our God!  God "has chosen" us,  to be "a people peculiarly his own."  God "set his heart" on Israel, not because it was the greatest of nations but because it was "really the smallest of all nations,"  hardly noticeable!  So too with you and me.  God sets his heart on each one of us, not because of our greatness, but because of our smallness,  not because we are awesome or great, but because, in slang, we are nothing to shake a stick at! It is because God loves us and because of God's "fidelity" to the oath sworn to our ancestors, to those who have passed the faith on to us!  In his faithfulness, Moses reminds the Israelites, God has "brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."  Faithful to the promises God made to our first parents, God has ransomed us from slavery to the Father of Lies, Satan, by dying upon the cross, nailing sin to the cross and taking Satan's power away from him. We are redeemed in Christ Jesus. Forever, God loves us even unto death on the cross, when from His heart blood and water flowed and continues to flow in baptism and in Eucharist and from all of the other sacraments that purify us and strengthen us in God's love.

May you and  know God's love today as we follow God unreservedly, seeking His presence in the events of our day and listening to His voice in those we encounter today and within the depths of our ow hearts!

A Faithful God

In today's first reading, Gen. 41: 55-57; 42: 5-7a, 17-24a, we are presented with the story of Joseph of Egypt as governor of that country during the famine that stretched over the then-known world. Joseph's brothers come down to Egypt for food. He imprisons them for three days and then releases only two of them to return to their father with the instructions to return with their youngest brother. The brothers realized that "what goes around comes around," so to speak. They believe that they are being punished for having sold their brother Joseph into slavery, ignoring his pleas for mercy.

Joseph teaches us to make good of a bad situation. He remains faithful to God through all of the ordeals of his life and God remains faithful to him. God also shows mercy to Joseph's brothers, whose family would have died of  starvation without Joseph's intervention. 

You and I, as sinners, fall short every day. God does not. At times we become the "Josephs" in other people's lives. At other times, we become the "victims" of other peoples' jealousy and anger, shortsightedness and pride, as happened to Joseph. Like Joseph, at times, we become "slaves" of some sort. At times, we find ourselves in situations that are painful, that demand faithfulness, creativity, and a commitment to the One who alone can save us and make right the wrongs in our lives.

Joseph rose to greatness not on his own power but in cooperation with others in his life and, paramount, in being faithful to God. So, too, with us. We need both God and others. When people we counted on fail us, we need to reach out to other people that God provides for our well-being. We need to, with the help of God and others, find ways to live fruitful lives, making "lemonade" when life throws us lemons, so to speak.   

We always have choices: to do our best no matter what and empower others to do the same; to wallow in self-pity and bring others down to that level as well or to  lift ourselves and others up in faith, hope and love, becoming survivors in life. We have the choice of becoming revengeful or forgiving people; to go through life with a "chip" on our shoulders that weighs us down and surround ourselves with like-minded people, or to seek to be raised up by the Spirit of God and by persons who are supportive, who recognize our talent, our giftedness, our faithfulness, and to do the same for others, as did Joseph.

Which choices have you and I made in life thus far? Which choice will we make today?

Our Vulnerabilities and Weaknesses and God's Strength and Understanding

“…[S]teadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever,” is what we pray in today’s responsorial psalm.   In the Gospel, Jesus teaches us to pray, saying “Father, hallowed (blessed, sacred, holy) be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins (on a daily basis, Lord)….”  In the first reading, Galatians 2: 1-2, 7-14, Paul confronts  Peter for his hypocrisy, as he stops associating with Gentiles when his fellow Jews are around, protecting himself from their criticism. In this case, Peter is unfaithful to Jesus’ example of inclusivity out of fear of his fellow Jews. This is not new behavior on Peter’s part. When the “fire got turned up” following Jesus’ arrest, Peter denies Him. When he realizes his sinfulness, Peter sobs, repents and returns to the Lord for mercy.

God is always faithful to us sinners, is always our Father, always protecting us, always loving us no matter what we do contrary to what Jesus teaches us. This past week I found myself in Peter’s place.  I was unkind, unchristian and rude toward an airline agent who communicated the news that I would not be able to get a flight home (a flight was cancelled on my outgoing business trip and now again on my return home). I reacted poorly, berating the airlines and demanding that a way be found for me to return home that night.  “I had to get home tonight,” I angrily stated. I could have avoided this escalation of my anger had I said to myself:  “It would be nice to get home tonight but that is not possible. Go and enjoy a quiet evening reading in a comfortable hotel room, enjoy a nice meal and relax.”

 As time passed and I got settled in the hotel for the night, I came face to face with my sinfulness, my infidelity to Jesus, my vulnerability to human weakness.  However, not only did I berate the airlines and speak rudely to the agent, I now began to berate myself.  Jesus’ response, once I came to Him (initially I could not pray), was:  Dorothy Ann, you do not deserve to be verbally abused (any more than did the lady working at the airlines’ Customer Service Center). Your expectation of getting home was not met. Humanly speaking you are going to feel disappointed, frustrated….Stop berating yourself. Yes, sin in you rears its head from time to time to teach you your dependence upon Me, that, without Me, left to your own devices, you will succumb to your willfulness and selfishness.  The good you do, at any time, is the Spirit at work in you. The not-so-good-- the unkindness, selfishness, stinginess, the narrow-mindedness, the impatience—is weakness in you. You are vulnerable to that weakness at any time. At all times you are in need of grace.”

You Are Sacred to the Lord, Your God

Today we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a feast about love poured out without reserve. Jesus’ heart was pierced upon the cross. Blood and water flowed from His Sacred Heart, a heart so filled with love for humankind, for you and me,  that Jesus willingly accepted His passion and death to save us from eternal death.  In the first reading of today’s liturgy, Dt 7: 6-11, and from the cross, God says to us personally:

• You are…sacred to the Lord, your God
•   …[God] has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own
• …the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he has sworn to your…[ancestors] that he brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

On the cross, God brought you and me out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed us from the hand of Satan, from his lies and his determination to snare us in such a way that we alienate ourselves from God for all eternity.  No way would God allow that to happen. God  would go to any extent to save us from Satan's lies and from eternal damnation, sending His Son to show us God’s love and determination to keep us as His own!

Have I set my heart on God as God has set His heart on me? Do I realize that I am sacred to the Lord, my God?  Do I grasp the fact that God has chosen me to be peculiarly His own?  How grateful am I that God has sent His only begotten Son, who was obedient to the Father unto death, to save me from  my disobedience to the Father’s will?

A Reflection on Pentecost

Pleased God to give His only begotten Son to save us and through whom to send us the Spirit.

Every day God sends the Spirit to lead us to the truth.

Never does God stop loving us.

To this very moment God is imminent and intimately involved in every detail of our lives.

Especially in the midst of the turmoil of our lives, God is there to save.

Caringly, God watches over us.

Obediently, Jesus became sin for us that we might become the holiness of God in Him and through Him and with Him.

Standing by our side, the Trinity keeps us from the Evil One.

Truly, there is no God like our God, who complete Jesus’ mission with the sending of the Holy Spirit to be with us until the end of time.