The Healing of a Paralyzed Servant

In today's Gospel, Matthew 8: 5-17, a centurion, a Roman soldier, approaches Jesus and asks him to heal his paralyzed servant. When Jesus says that He will come and heal him, the centurion says to him:  "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed." And so it is!  Every time that you and I receive the Eucharist, believing that it is a personal visit from Jesus, that it is the body and blood of Jesus that we eat and drink when we receive Holy Communion, Jesus comes down and enters our house, the house of our souls. If, like the centurion we believe and ask for healing, we, too, are freed of whatever "demon" has imprisoned us in negative, sinful thoughts and/or behaviors and healed of those "diseases"--physical, mental, spiritual, psychological-- that are depriving us of the energies we need to choose good and avoid evil.

I believe! And I ask the Lord to strengthen my belief, to awaken me to His Presence in the Eucharist, in the Blessed Sacrament that resides in the Tabernacle in every Catholic Church, as well to His Presence in every person, in all of creation, in the universe itself, as God resides in the depth of all that exists in the world, in all that that takes its being-ness from the Being of its Creator.

God be praised! God be exalted! God be glorified in all of His Creation!

God Remains with Us Always!

In today's Gospel, John 14: 15-21, Jesus speaks about His returning to heaven. He ascend to His Father and send us the Holy Spirit, "another Advocate to be with [us] always, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees me nor knows him. But," he says to us, "you know him, because he remains with you and will be in you. I will  not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while," he says to  us, "the world will no longer see me, but  you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day,  you will realize  that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you."


What a promise! And how real! All around us and within us new life is emerging every day. We wake up renewed from sleep! Our life has been restored during sleep!  We wake up with new energy, a new zest for life, a new hope, new faith, deeper love because "another Advocate" has been sent to us in the Spirit, a "Spirit of truth" and life whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees the Spirit of God nor know God's Spirit.

How do we grow in knowledge of God's Spirit within us and around us? By spending time in solitude, seeking God's face within and around us and in others and in the events of our lives;  by spending time in prayer and in reflection upon the Scriptures--the Holy Bible--and the Scriptures of our lives and of the events of our lives!  God is in both and in all of life, hidden from the naked eye, from the eyes that simply look at problems and how to solve them without bringing them to God or asking for God's help!

Let us remember that Jesus is in God the Father and you and i are also in the Father, as St. Paul tells us: We live and move and have our being in God. Let us also remember that Jesus dwells in our very being itself and if Jesus dwells there so, too, does God and Father and God the Spirit, as they  are one in love and truth and life!

Coming from God!

In today's Gospel, John 3: 1-8, Nicodemus, a rule of the Jews, comes to Jesus at night, not wanting others to know that he was seeking Jesus.  There was much about Jesus that caught Nicodemus' attention and he acknowledged such:  "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him."  Jesus says to Nicodemus:  "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."  Jesus explains further when He says:  "Amen, amen, I say to you unless one is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit...."   You and I are "born from above," that is "born of Spirit," by virtue of our baptisms.  That birth empowers us to see God's Kingdom, to see the Spirit at work in the signs and actions of others, just as the Spirit worked signs and wonders through Jesus.  People were healed! Cripples walked again.  The deaf began to hear. The blind to see!

How often are you and I not awakened by the love and kindness, the forgiveness and generosity of a neighbor, a spouse, a child, a co-worker!  We have examples of the Spirit at work in thethousand and thousand of healthcare workers around the world risking their lives to save others from dying from the coronavirus. We have many people working in human service professions to help those struggling with mental illnesses find light again and a myriad of persons in the teaching profession encouraging students to believe in themselves and their capabilities to succeed in life!   Parents around the world sacrifice sleep to tend to their infant children or to a sick child or a child scared of "monsters" under the bed!  How many spouses, like Nicodemus,  have not said to their husband/wife: God sent you into my life; I am so blessed by you. Is that not like saying: "You come from God"?

God be praised and glorified and thanked for the many ways in which the Kingdom of God is revealed in our midst by others and by ourselves!

Challenges to our Faith

In today's first reading, Daniel 3: 14-20, 91-92, 95,  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are asked to sacrifice to a golden statue that the king set up:  "Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I have made.....[If you don't", he says to them,] "you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace;and who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?"  When the three men refuse, the king has the furnace "heated seven times more than usual and had some of the strongest men in his army bind" them and throw them into the furnace.  The King is amazed as he peers into the furnace and sees four men unbound walking around in the furnace.  He asks his nobles:   "'Did we not cast three men bound  into the fire?' 'Assuredly, O king,' they answered. 'But,' he replied, 'I see four men unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.'"  The king then praises God!

I can imagine the king raging against these three men. "How dare they refuse what I ask of them?" As his anger mounted, he increased the heat of the furnace and called forth his strongest men to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Is that not what our egos do when someone refuses to "worship" us and do what we ask of them? Does not our ego, at that point, become like this furnace heated 7xs greater than usual?  In some cases does not the rage lead to violence of some kind, even murder?

This passage also challenges us to look at the faith of the three men who stand up against the king and do not flinch in the face of death, a horrible death in fact! "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up."

How strong is our faith in the face of danger? temptation? bullies? wickedness? Do we stand  so firm in our faith that all we need to do is calmly state our position; or do we need to loudly defend ourselves?

"Be Not Afraid"--Jesus Is in the Boat with Us

Today's Entrance antiphon reads:  "The waves of death rose about me; the pains of the netherworld surrounded me" (Cf Ps 18 (17): 5,7].  How true!  The waves of death caused by the coronavirus rises around all of us throughout the entire world. "The pains of the netherworld [surround us]."   With the psalmist, we pray: "In anguish [we call] to the Lord, and from his holy temple [God hears our voices]".  As Pope Francis said to us yesterday from a live-streamed reflection at noon our time:  "Be not afraid. Jesus is in the boat with us."  And just as he calmed the fears of the disciples and stopped the storm that was threatening to kill them, so, too, will he calm our fears and assist us in stopping the spread of the virus that could kill us.  He has power over the coronavirus just as he had power over the storm that scared the disciples to death!

In the first reading of today's liturgy, Jeremiah 11: 18-20,  Jeremiah acknowledges that he knows "their plot because the Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings."  We know the plot of the coronavirus. We know what the coronavirus is doing to thousands of people around the world.  As those hatching plots against Jeremiah, and later against Jesus, so, too, it seems is the coronavirus determined "to destroy the tree in its vigor"  and to cut us "off from the land of the living."  However, the coronavirus will not have the last word any more than death had the last word in Jesus' life or the life of Jeremiah.  And just as the cases of those who were healed by Jesus revealed the glory of God, so, too, will the glory of God be revealed in today's world ravaged by this evil. Good comes from evil now as it did in Jesus' time when He was with us physically.  He is with us now in Spirit and in Life!

May our faith and trust be strengthened in this storm of life.  May we keep our eyes on Jesus and look to Him for the help that we need!

God's Dwelling among Us

In today's first reading, 1 Kings 8: 1-7, 9-13, "the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place beneath the wings of the cherubim in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple....When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the Lord's glory had filled the temple of the Lord. Then Solomon said, 'The Lord intends to dwell in the dark cloud; I  have truly built you a princely house, a dwelling where you made you may abide forever."

I look outside at the beautiful freshly fallen snow--8 inches of it covering the ground. The snow sparkles outside my window!  God's glory radiates from all of creation, just as God's glory shone forth in the temple. The Chosen people recognized God's presence in the cloud. Do you, do I? Or do we recognize God only in that which shines brightly, only in the glorious events of our lives and the lives of others? Do you, do I  realize that God is also present in the "clouds" of our lives, in the dark moments that we encounter in life?

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.

God's Presence

In today's first reading,Exodus 40: 16-21, 34-38,  Moses, following God's commands, erects a Dwelling for the Lord. A "cloud covered the meeting tent, and the glory of the Lord filled the Dwelling...Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the children of Israel would set out on their journey. But if the cloud did not lift, they would not go forward;only when it lifted did they go forward. In the daytime the cloud of the Lord was seen over the Dwelling; whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud by the whole house of Israel in all the stages of their journey."

God is also with us "in all the stages of [our] journey"--sometimes as a Cloud and sometimes as Fire, even when our eyes are veiled from seeing God clearly or not at all!  We could learn from the Israelites to not go forward when "a cloud" hangs over our life but to wait until the cloud lifts. "Wait upon the Lord" and we shall be saved, we are told in the Scriptures.

Let us pray for the grace to learn to wait for the Lord's directions. Let us call upon the Lord to show us the way when "the cloud or clouds" fog our vision, making impossible for us to see which way to turn, or what decision to make.  May we have the humility to know when we don't know and to avoid pretending that we do know when in fact we do not have a clue!

See the Saving Power of God!

The response to the responsorial psalm, Psalm 98, states that "[a]ll the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God."  "All the ends of the earth": every continent and every country and State, city and village, in each continent has seen the saving power of God.  Knowledge of God has been spread throughout the world. And, in fact, the law of God has been written on every heart. Furthermore, "everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him" (1 John 2:-3:6).  St. John then says to us: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are!"

Each of us is a child of God! Each of us, if open to God's revelations and presence in our personal lives and in the world, "have seen the saving power of God." We have seen God's love being poured out, for instance,  by little children who cling to their parents, who rest their tiny heads on their shoulders, who give their art pictures to mommy and daddy, who kiss their baby brother/sister, who want to help mommy and daddy with chores or with baking Christmas cookies, and the parents who respond lovingly to their child's needs and comfort them when they are distressed.  We see God's saving power at work in the reconciliation of spouses, of grown children with their parents, of long-lost relatives being found, in criminals remorseful of the ways in which they have hurt others, in persons who risk their lives to save others from disaster, and on and on!  This evening on the CBS news we have seen God at work through a little boy who has found "forever homes" for 1400 dogs confined to kettles in animal shelters. We see God's love and saving power at work in strangers helping strangers in need, in children making sandwiches for homeless persons and, with parents, distributing those sandwiches. Human being partnering with God, allowing God's power to flow through them, is endless and happens throughout the world!

"Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done [and is doing] wondrous deeds" (Psalm 98) around the world,  in our back yards and in our families!

A Weeping God

In today's first reading, Jeremiah 14: 17-22,   God, through the prophet Jeremiah, tells us that He sobs,"without rest, over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over here incurable wound.  If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword..."  What God sees today, I believe, are those slain by automatic rifles, machine guns, chemicals, and war machines of all kinds.  God goes on to tells us through the prophet that, as He walks around, He sees "those consumed with hunger"--hunger, I believe, for justice,  honesty, integrity; for compassion, patience, reconciliation, acceptance; hunger for hope and love and forgiveness! 

Humankind, Jeremiah says,  also responds to God in desperation:  "Have you cast Judah (put in the name of any nation on earth) off completely? Is Zion (or other peoples) loathsome to you? Why, [we complain,] have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace [and justice and integrity], to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead."   Every night, as we watch the news with you, Lord, we hear of ongoing corruption, destruction, violence and hatred spreading across our land, our country and other countries!

With Jeremiah, we "recognize...our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers [and our own guilt]; that we have sinned against you," O Lord.  Have mercy on us, Lord. Open our eyes to the evil in which we may be involved.  Also deepen our awareness of colluding with others in their evil intent, especially when another's eyes are blind and ears deaf to the wickedness of their ways.

"Let Not Your Hearts be Troubled"

In today's Gospel, John 14: 1-6, Jesus says to His disciples: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith in me."  Jesus says this when He is gathered with His disciples at the Last Supper. He knows that Judas will betray him that very night. He knows that He will be arrested and condemned to death and crucified like an hardened criminal because  jealousy will have consumed the leaders of Jerusalem with the disastrous result of murdering the One of whom they are jealous."Do not let your hearts be troubled."

Think of a time when  your worst nightmare is about to occur and Jesus says to you: "Do not let your hearts be troubled."  First of all,  Jesus knows about which he is talking. He has been there, that is, at the threshold of his worst nightmare.  Second of all, Jesus is God and will walk through that nightmare with you, just as the Father and the Spirit were with Him that night and the next horrible days and raising Him to new life in the resurrection on Easter morn.  Jesus, the Son of God with the Father and the Holy Spirit--the three are one--will take you by the hand, hold you in their arms, comfort you, strengthen you and awaken a courage within you that you never knew you had. You will come through the ordeal and be risen to new life in a way you could never imagine, as you trust in the Lord.  Have you ever said of yourself: "I don't know where I got the strength"? Or, "I have no idea how I ever did that?" An Invisible God was with you, guiding you, upholding you, enlightening you, strengthening you, and loving you!

The Nearness of our God

In today's Gospel, John 6: 16-21, the disciples of Jesus decide to  get in a boat and row across the lake to Capernaum.  They go without Jesus. It is a dark stormy evening and the waters are turbulent. When get 3-4 miles out, they see Jesus walking on the water toward them.  Immediately He says to them: "It is I. Do not be afraid."

It is not unusual for the "waters" of our lives to become turbulent for many reasons: a sick child, a threatening illness in ourselves or any family members, economic problems, job-related issues, the trauma being played out in our politics and so on.  Everything, so it seems, looks "dark" for us. Hear Jesus say to you through a loved one, a concerned relative, a parish priest or the minister of the church you attend: "Do not be afraid".  Jesus is always present no matter what might be frightening us.  He takes us by the hand and will walk with us through the turbulence, calming our fears and assuring us that He will not abandon us, no matter what. Darkness is not dark to the Lord. He will, therefore, show us the way and guide us through the turmoil in a way that strengthens our faith and our hope and draws us closer together to our loved ones. When God seems far away, He is especially close to us, even if our eyes and ears remain closed.

These are my beliefs. What are yours?

"Behold, the Lamb of God" and Listen to God's Call

In today's first reading, 1 Sam 3: 3b-10, 19, God calls Samuel three times during his sleep. He thinks it is his master calling him, so he goes to Eli each times until Eli realizes that it is the God calling Samuel. So, he instructs Samuel to let the Lord know that he is listening. In the Gospel, John 1 35-42, John sees Jesus passing by and he says: "Behold the Lamb of God."  Upon hearing this, two of John's disciples follow Jesus, who turns around and says to these two disciples: "What are you looking for?"   In turn, they ask Him where he lives and Jesus responds: "Come and see!"  One of these disciples first goes to  his sibling and says  to him: "We have found the Messiah."

Notice the role of others in bringing people to the Lord or in listening to the Lord calling us by name, as He called Samuel. You and I also need others, at times, to intervene so that we learn both to listen and to go to the special places where Jesus lives (in our Catholic Churches where Jesus resides in the Tabernacle, where consecrated hosts are stored--a red light in a church's sanctuary means Jesus is there in person in the consecrated bread). The bread does not look like "the Lamb of God," but is. God's voice, also,  may sound like any other voice--Samuel thought he was hearing Eli call. It was the Lord.  In John's case, as Jesus walked by, the two disciples of John who were standing there probably just saw another man walk by and, not until John said "Behold the Lamb of God," recognized this man as just another person in the area.  Some Catholics, I am told, in receiving Holy Communion, think they are just eating a wafer of bread, not as the Son of God--body, blood, soul and divinity--come down from heaven to visit them in person!

Deepen my faith, Lord,  in your presence, as Eli did that for Samuel and John the Baptist did it for his disciples.  Like Eli  and like John the Baptist, may I take time to grow in the faith by taking time to pray and to reflect upon the Scriptures as well as doing what is right and helping my neighbor in need so as to grow in intimacy with you.  By living my faith may I, at the right moment, be ready to direct young people to make right choices when you call upon them and as you walk quietly among them.  Like John the Baptist, who recognized you passing by, may I grow in my openness to the unseen God in my midst and direct people to follow Him.

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thank you, Lord, for all of the graces and blessings of this past year.

How wonderful, Lord, are the blessings you send us every moment of every day, beginning

with waking us up to new life after strengthening us through a good night's sleep.

And, thank you, Lord, for the gift of your Presence that envelopes us throughout the day.

Never may we forget that You wrap your arms of love around us as we journey through life here  on earth.

Kindly, Lord, continue to walk beside us, behind us, and in front of us, even when we forget our need of your protection. 

So in need of you throughout the day, especially as we encounter obstacles and difficulties, we call upon you for your protection on a daily basis.

Grant us, Lord, a heart full of gratitude, knowing that without you we will go astray, giving in to temptations too forceful for us to overcome alone.

In your mercy, Lord, save us, especially when internal enemies wage war against the good within us.

Very often, Lord, our weaknesses have had the best of us, when, like Peter on the waters, we have taken our eyes off you.

In times when we foolishly believe that we can journey through difficulties on our own powers, send someone into our lives to redirect us to the Truth.

Never, Lord, may we abandon our trust and faith in You as our Lord and Savior.

Grateful for your Love and Mercy, we pray with Mary: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit finds joy in you, O God....God, you who are mighty, have done great things for me. Holy is your name" (cf Luke 1: 46-49).

God's Messengers: Are We Listening?

In today's first reading, Gen 28: 10-22a, Jacob leaves Beer-sheba and proceeds toward Haran. He comes upon a shrine there and stops for the night. He has a dream: "a stairway rested on the ground, with its top reaching to the heavens; and God's messengers [angels] were going up and down on it. And there was the Lord standing beside him and saying: 'I, the Lord, am the God of your forefather Abraham [and foremother Sarah] and the God of Isaac [and Rebecca]; the land on which you are lying I will give to you and your descendants. These shall be as plentiful as the dust on the earth, and through them you shall spread  out east and west, north and south. In you and your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing. Know that I am with you; I will protect you wherever you go, and bring you back to this land. I will never leave you until I have done what I have promised.'"

To this very day, I believe, that angels continue to descend and ascend from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven, bringing messages to us from God and from us to God, as well! Are we listening? Are we tuned into heaven or too busy with messages from our iPods, iPhones, Internet, and other electronic devices to hear God speaking to us through His messengers?  Quietly, the angels instruct us to make that phone call, to do this or not do that, to close the iPad, to shut down the iPod, to turn off the TV or radio or the Internet and become quiet.  Only then will we be prepared to hear the Holy Spirit or one of God's messengers revealing God's will to us.

"Know that I am with you," God says to Jacob and to us. God is also with us, standing beside us, walking on our  left and our right!  God never leaves us anymore than He left His chosen people as of old. His promises to us--as shared with us through His Son Jesus and written down by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--God will never break!

Those are my beliefs! What are yours?

The Hand of God Was with Them and Is with Us

In today’s first reading, Acts 11: 19-26, we learn that those who had been scattered by the persecution that followed the murder of Stephen did not cowl in fear but went forth to other places to proclaim “the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them,” the author of Acts, tells us, and “a great number who believed turned to the Lord.” Barnabas was sent to Antioch and, when he arrived, he “saw the grace of God,” and  rejoiced and encouraged the people to whom he had been sent to “remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart.”

Wow! What testimony! What courage! And what a commitment to the Lord God! Would you and I, I ask, after witnessing a disciple of the Lord being stoned to death and fleeing persecution continue to “proclaim the Lord Jesus”?  Would we, in arriving at a new city/town/country recognize “the grace of God” working in strangers? Do we recognize God at work in those with whom we live? Within those with whom we worship each Sunday? Within our co-workers? 

May we, every day, take time to reflect upon the Scriptures of the daily liturgy, or any other Scripture or spiritually-uplifting reading. Doing so, we will grow in our awareness of God at work in others, and in ourselves. We will awaken our ability to rejoice and encourage others in their faith development and in using their faith to bring others to Jesus!

Jesus' Message to Us: "Be Not Afraid; It is I"

In today’s Gospel, John 6: 16-21, we have the story of the disciples, after a busy day in ministry, going down to the sea, getting into a boat, and travelling across the sea to Capernaum.  They do this in spite of the fact that it is dark and a storm is ravaging the waters. They are out on the sea about 3-4 miles and see Jesus walking on the waters toward them. They are scared out of their wits! Aware of their fear, Jesus says to them: “It is I. Do not be afraid.” 

 Who is this man, they must have been asking themselves? He’s walking on the rough sea and not sinking!  The disciples want to take Jesus into the boat with them, but the “boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.”  “Immediately?”  “Really,”  I ask. Did Jesus not only calm their fears but miraculously bring them to the safety of the shore, I wonder.

Jesus shows us the face of our God: a God of mercy and compassion, a God who is concerned about every detail of our life, a God who knows when we are in “perilous waters,” a God who calms our fears—is aware, in fact, when we are afraid  and of what we are afraid.

 

We may not see Jesus walking on the treacherous waters of our lives, as these disciples did, but He, along with the Father and the Spirit,  is there. The Trinity is always at our sides, walking along side us, dwelling within us, watching over us day in and day out, throughout the “nights” of our lives. God is the light in that darkness, the strength in our weaknesses, the courage in our fearsome moments, the love in our less-loving moments, the forgiveness in our moments of resentment, waiting to be recognized.  God waits, as, in Jesus He was waiting for the disciples in the boat to see Him approaching them on the stormy waters.

Today's first reading, Hebrews 6: 10-20, reminds us that "God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones."   God knows the good you and I do each day in your work as a parent, as an employee, as a husband/wife, as a fellow Sister to your companions in religious life and/or priesthood.  God also sees our efforts to do good. When we fail or fall, God is there, not to scold, but to pick us up, show us compassion and encourage us in moving on.  God does not rejoice when we fail to reach our ideals as a Christian, as a person,  as a member of our families, as mother/father, as husband,wife or as a fellow religious or fellow priest, as a pastor or as a parishioner.

As a fellow human being, Jesus knows our weaknesses and sympathizes with us. He knows the difficulties we face as human beings.  God is always assisting us in the "baby steps" we take in our efforts to love as He loves, to forgive as He forgives, to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with Him as our Guide, our Comforter, our Sanctifier!  Paul encourages us "who have taken refuge [in Christ Jesus]...to hold fast to the hope that lies before us," the hope of eternal life. Jesus has already, Paul reminds us, "entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."  Our salvation is guaranteed by Jesus' life, death and resurrection. And our salvation begins here as we struggle to grow in holiness!

Where One's Joy and the Happiness Lie

In today’s  first reading, Jeremiah 15: 10, 16-21, the prophet cries out to the Lord: “Woe to me…that you gave me birth!”  He is upset that others are cursing him, though he’s done them no wrong.  He then reminds the Lord that “[w]hen I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, because I bore your name, O Lord, God of Hosts….Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?....Thus the Lord answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece….I am with you, to deliver you and rescue you, says the Lord. I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.”

What a message!  God is always on our side ready to deliver us from evil, ready to protect us from wicked schemes, waiting for us to repent of our wrongdoing rather than complaining about what we judge as the wrongdoing of others.  Am I doing my part? Am I devouring God Word from the Holy Scriptures?  Is my joy and happiness rooted in the fact that I bear God’s name, that I have been created in the image and likeness of God, that I have been baptized into Christ and will rise with Christ as I die to anything that is not of God within my being: attitudes of pride, hopelessness, faithlessness, prejudice, envy, jealousy, hatred, and so on.  If I do these things, I truly, according to today’s Gospel, Matthew 13: 44-46, have found the pearl of great price, as I will then “sell all” that is not of God and clothe myself in grace.

A Non-slumbering God is the Lord

 In the first reading of today’s liturgy,  1 Kings 17: 1-6, Elijah tells Ahab that as long as he was serving the people, “there shall be no dew or rain except at my word.”  Imagine the uproar once the people heard Elijah’s proclamation. And what might have been their reaction at hearing that Elijah was  nowhere to be found.  The author of 1 Kings tells us that the Lord commanded Elijah to leave and “go east and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.” There, God tells him, “[y]ou shall drink of the stream, and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”  Elijah follows God’s command. As he settled by the Wadi Cherith, ravens “brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening and he drank from the stream.”

How can this be, I ask myself!  I may rant and rave:  “How unfair to the people he was serving!  And God protects him! What about the people whose land is being ravaged by drought?” 

Life is unfair, so it seems! Like Ahab and his people, we sometimes face drought (or flooding or fire) that destroys the land's ability to produce or, we ourselves are in an accident that deprives us of our ability to provide for ourselves or our families. At other times, like Elijah, we, too, have to relocate to protect ourselves and our families.  Sometimes, we do not know from where our next meal will come, yet it does. Someone reaches out to help us when we least expect it.  Sometimes, we are the ones helping others who have encountered tragedy.  When disaster strikes out of nowhere, it seems, God provides, as He did for Elijah.   As today's responsorial psalm says, the “guardian of Israel” neither slumbers or sleeps” (Ps. 121).

Lord, may I look upon life through the eyes of faith, knowing that you are beside me at my right hand (see Ps. 121). And may I remember this truth especially in "bad" times.  And, as important, may I remember that you have no hands or feet but mine. At times I am the "raven" you command to "feed" the hungry!