Hide not your face from us, O Lord!

In today's first reading, Numbers 21: 4-9, we meet the Israelites on the Red Sea road, a road taken to bypass the land of Edom.  "...[W]ith their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, 'Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in his desert, where there is no food or water? we are disgusted with this wretched food!"   God's anger is aroused, so to speak and in "punishment sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died."  Acknowledging their sin against God, the people repent and ask God to take the serpents away from them.  Moses prays on their behalf and God instructs Moses to "make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live."

We are being "bitten" by the coronavirus throughout the world. And, no doubt, some people are complaining bitterly against God and praying: "Remove this "saraph serpent" from our midst.  Let us look to Jesus upon the cross as the Israelites who looked up at the mounted serpent after being bitten and lived.With the psalmist in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 102, we pray:

O Lord, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you. 
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily....
Let this be written for the generation to come, 
and let his future creatures praise the Lord: 
'The Lord looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
to hear the groaning of [those affected by the coronavirus]
to release those doomed to die.'"

The Importance of Prayer and of Needing Assistance from Others

In today's first reading, Exodus 17: 8-13, we are given the story of the battle the Amalekites had come to wage against the Israelites.  Moses then ordered Joshua to choose certain men and engage the Amalekites in battle. He promised to enter into prayer:  "I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand....As long as Moses kept his hands raised up [in prayer], Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses' hands, however, grew tired; so [Aaron and Hur, who were with him,] put a rock in place for [Moses] to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported  his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands, remained steady till sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword."

What do we learn from this Scripture passage?  First of all, that in no way are you and I able to wage battle against the enemies of our souls without the help of others. We need to choose the right people to assist us in the battle against Satan.  Alone, we will lose the battle! and if we surround ourselves with the "wrong" persons, we are also in danger of succumbing to temptation.  Secondly, intercessory prayer and our own recourse to prayer is essential to our success in overcoming temptations.  "As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight."  Thirdly, weariness is not an excuse to abandon prayer. If  necessary, sit down and rest but do not stop praying. Fourthly, engage partners to assist us in praying for God's mercy and strength to sustain the battles we face on our way to eternal life! Fifthly, pray for the humility to ask for help, to acknowledge our need for prayer partners.

Lord God, forgive us when we forget the importance of prayer and of asking for help to wage war against Satan.  Forgive us when we let pride dominate our attitudes and thus fail to acknowledge that we need others to help us in the battles we face that threaten our resolve to do good and avoid evil.

Knowledge and Understanding of God's Will

In today's first reading, Colossians 1: 9-14, St. Paul tells the people that he has been praying for them from the day that he first heard about them.  The same is true of Jesus' first meeting of us as His baptized son/daughter. Every day, Jesus intercedes for us asking, as St. Paul did for the Colossians, that you, insert your name), "may be filled with the knowledge of  God's will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, so as to be fully pleasing, in every good work bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father,. who  has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light."

The only way that we know God's will is through God's gift of "spiritual wisdom and understanding."  With Jesus as our intercessor, nothing will deprive us of the wisdom and understanding of what God is asking of us at any given time in our lives!  So why is it that we do not always do what God asks of us. Our failure is not that God is not doing His part!  God is always there with the wisdom and the understanding we  need to walk in a manner worthy of Him and in a way that we fully please Him in every good work bearing fruit.  The problem may be that we are too busy trying to please others and meet their approval, not God's!

St. Paul prays, as does Jesus, that we be strengthened  "with every power, in accord with [God's]
 glorious might."  However, we might be blind and deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit because we are obsessively and compulsively seeking the power and glorious might the world promises us through this world's billionaires or popular pseudo gods. No way, then, would we  be interested in  sharing the  "inheritance of the holy ones in light," an inheritance in which we begin to share even here on earth when our choices are in harmony with God's will for us here and now: knowledge of God, spiritual wisdom and understanding, God's glorious might working through us, and a joy and a peace which the world cannot give.

Living Christian Lives

In today's Gospel, Luke 4: 38-44, Peter's mother-in-law is seriously ill with a severe fever.   Peter and others in the household intercede for her and Jesus heals her!  Immediately following the healing, she proceeds to wait upon Peter and his guests. 

Notice that the healing takes place very quietly within the home and as the result of the family interceding for the sick family member. Take notice of three things: 1) That family matters and each member plays a significant part in the well-being of the other members, 2) That intercessory prayer is important and effective, and 3) That simplicity and humility are essential characteristics of disciples of Jesus. Following the healing, Peter's mother-in-law simply gets up and humbly waits upon the family and their visitors, immediately assuming the ordinary duties of the one who provides hospitality.  She could have, on the other hand, expected to be waited upon and treated with "kid gloves," so to speak, given how sick she had been.  Or she could have expected a lot to be made over her because she was the recipient of a sudden cure by Jesus!  Either position would not have been the fruits of simplicity and humility but would have flowed from pride!

Following the meal, as the sun is setting, people of the village bring their sick to Jesus for healing.   "He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting 'You are the Son of God.' But Jesus rebuked  them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ."    Jesus them goes off to a quiet place, most likely to commune with the Father. He does not hang around expecting Peter and his family or the villagers to applaud Him for the healings he performed in His Father's name.

Both Jesus and Peter's mother-in-law are models of simplicity, humility and service.  As disciples of Jesus, we, too, are called to live simple and humble lives of service and, like Peter and his family, be intercessors for others in need!

Growing Close to or Distancing Oneself from God?

Today's first reading, Exodus 32: 7-14, tells us the story of the chosen people's worship of the golden calf, believing that it was through the power of this molten image that they were brought out of Egypt, where they had been treated as slaves. Concerning the molten image, Aaron says to the people: "This is your God,  O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." 

Imagine God's anger! How insulting to God, who had worked multiple wonders to free them from being slaves to the Egyptians.  How could they abandon God so quickly?  How could they turn away from Him and sacrifice to a molten image? In His anger, God says to Moses, His confidante and personal friend: "I see how stiff-necked this people is. Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation." Moses intervenes! So God relents "of the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people."

To this very day, God is abandoned, turned away from, in a variety of ways.  Who, today, invites you to turn away from God, to worship false gods?

With what, I need to ask myself, do I occupy my time in such a way that I abandon building a relationship with God, nurturing my faith life, growing in love with both God and my spouse, my children, my community members?  What dominates or controls my life, to what am I a slave, to the degree that I abandon being a responsible spouse, parent, grandparent, community member, family member, priest, deacon, student, employee?

God's Desire for His Healing Power to Flow into and out of Us

In today's first reading, Isaiah 35: 1-10,  Isaiah says to us: "Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save [us]. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing....A highway will be there, called the holy way; no one unclean may pass over it, nor fools go astray on it. No lion will be there, nor beast of prey go up to be met upon it.  It is for those with a journey to make and on it the redeemed will walk. Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will  meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee."

I read that with intense gratitude for God's graciousness to us, His immense love.  God held nothing back to secure salvation for those who believe!  God showed His love to us in Jesus' life, death and resurrection!  In today's Gospel, Luke 5: 17-26,  the love of God for His people is shown in Jesus' healing all those  who personally sought Him out or of those brought to Him by others, including the paralyzed man dropped in front of Him through the roof of the house in which Jesus was sitting. The people who brought this paralyzed man to Jesus would let nothing stop them from getting this man the help for which he longed. They were as persistent to receive God's gift of healing as God is persistent to give us this gift, be it physical, psychological, or spiritual healing.

I believe! What about you?

Intercessory Prayer

In today's first reading, 2 Thes 1: 1-5, 11-12, Saint Paul thanks God for the people of Thessalonia, praying: "[G]race to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Let us offer that same prayer for all of the people of the U.S. and throughout the world, persons serving our country in foreign wars, in governmental positions, those who are ministering to us through our churches--any denomination. Let us also pray for parents, children, grandparents,  grandchildren, teachers, students,  counselors, clients, and all health care professionals, public servants in all of our cities and counties, clerks of all kinds and in all professions and states of life.  With Saint Paul, let us "thank God always for [our brothers and sisters in Christ], as is fitting, because [their] faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of [them] for one another grows bigger. [Let us] boast of [our fellow travelers on the way to eternal life for their] regarding endurance and faith in all [the]...afflictions [they] endure," especially those who endure afflictions imposed by government officials, by those prejudiced against immigrants, foreigners, persons of other cultures, religions, races and genders.

As with Saint Paul, we pray that God will make all of us "worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us] and [we] in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus."

Is St.Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians a prayer that I truly pray for others in my time and place and which you pray for persons in your time and space?

God's Providence in Each Person's Life

In the collect of today's liturgy, we pray:  "O God, whose providence never fails in its design, keep from us, we humbly beseech you, all that might harm us and grant all that works for our good."  We might reword this as follows: "O God, whose providence never fails in its design, keep from (insert any one's name, especially someone with whom you might be having problems) we humbly beseech you, all that might harm (this person's name) and grant all that works for (this person's) good."  Note how praying for this other person in this way changes your heart, and mine!

Let us remind ourselves that God's providence "never fails in its design" for this other person or for ourselves.  God has a plan for the good of other persons and our own good. When we think of others in this way, especially persons with whom we are having some kind of difficulty, our attitude changes from thinking ill of them, perhaps, to seeing them from God's perspective.  Also, when the problem I am having is that I want to help where I am unable to help, God reminds me that He is that person's Savior, not me. And that whatever is happening in this other person's life that I am finding problematic is of God's design and will bring about some good for this person to which I am not privy!  In other words, God is God and I am only one of His created beings just like the person with whom I am troubled!

The Power and Need of Intercessory Prayer

In today's Gospel, Mark 7: 24-30, a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, begs Jesus to heal her daughter, who is possessed of "an unclean spirit."  Initially, Jesus dismisses her, calling her a derogatory name given to non-Jews of His time, much like, in our days, foreigners are dismissed and help is first given to U.S. citizens, not to undocumented immigrants.  The woman, however, is not put out. She insists that Jesus help her daughter. When Jesus says to her: "Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs," she retorts with "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."  She is not put off! It is like she says to Him: "Please, Lord, have some pity for humankind. My daughter deserves a healing as much as Jews do!"  Jesus is amazed at the faith of this woman and her persistence.  He heals her daughter, making her whole, freeing her of the "unclean spirit"!

Do you and I believe in the power of intercessory prayer, as did this Syrophoenician woman?  Do we have the self-confidence of this woman who is not deterred by derogatory remarks to persistent in what we believe is our responsibility to stand up for another and/or for ourselves?

We have many examples that testify to the power of intercessory prayer: persons healed at the shrines of Fatima and Lourdes, people like St. Augustine who are converted through the prayers of a mother/father, and many others miracles that have taken place throughout history.

As we reflect upon this Gospel, we might also ask ourselves:  Of what "demons" do you and I need to be freed? What healing do we need from Jesus? Are their persons in our lives in need of healing and do you and I realize how important it is to prayer for them?

Facing Evil in our Lives

In today’s first reading, Esther C: 12, 14-16, 23-25, we learn of Esther’s desperate prayer for God’s help. “…[S]eized with mortal anguish, [Esther] had recourse to the Lord. She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, and said: ‘God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand.’” She was determined to approach the King of Persia. To enter his presence without an invitation could mean death.  She says to the Lord: “Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy [the enemy of the Jewish people], so that he and those who are in league with him may parish. Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.” 

How apropos are those words for today.  We, too, face an enemy, a hatred, we alone are not able to overcome. We need divine intervention, as did the Israelites as we face Isis, Al-Quaeda, those bent on destroying Christians and Jews and others whose beliefs differ from their own.  We also need God’s help in facing the enemies of truth and justice, right doing and right being, all of which are being attacked by immoral practices, unjust judgments, and misguided actions by those who promote human trafficking, drug trafficking, abortion on demand, sex trafficking, slave labor and consumeristic, materialistic, and narcissistic pursuits at the risk of destroying the poor, the vulnerable, the helpless and immigrant populations in our midst.

With Esther, let us have recourse to God day and night. Let us ask for persuasive words in the presence of “the lions” of hatred and evil that we may courageously stand up to those forces in our society that will destroy our children and grandchildren and bring all of us to ruin spiritually.  And with Jesus on the cross, let us thirst for good in this world to triumph over evil. 

The "Jonahs" and "Ninevehs" of Today's World

In today’s first reading, Jonah 3: 1-10, Jonah reluctantly goes through Nineveh prophesying that in forty days Nineveh will be destroyed unless they repent of their wrongdoing, stop doing the violence they intended to do, cease doing evil and return to the Lord.  As far as Jonah is concerned these are a hardened people bent on evil, wicked to the core and not deserving of God’s mercy.  In fact when they do repent, put on sackcloth and enter into a severe fast—partaking of neither food nor water—and calling loudly upon the Lord for mercy, God relents of the punishment he was going to inflict upon them. Nineveh is not destroyed and, as we know, Jonah vents his  anger at God for being compassionate.  How could He be merciful and kind to such a wicked lot, Jonah must have reasoned.

As we look upon our world this day, we may be today’s “Jonahs,”  saying to ourselves: “How, Lord, can you show mercy to Isis, Al-Quaeda,  Putin, Assad,  those who are engaged in human trafficking, drug trafficking, human slavery of any kind, and/or all forms of violence. How, Lord? Warn them? Why, Lord? They are a wicked people bent on evil.”  We may be thinking that they deserve to be destroyed for all eternity.    God, however, does not give up on no one, not even you and I in our sinful way of thinking. Every human being is a child of God, created to further the Kingdom of God here on earth, sent here to accomplish a good, to carry out, in His name, a specific mission entrusted to no one else. Each of us is precious in God’s eyes, a son or a daughter made in God’s image and likeness.  In agony, Jesus intercedes for each of His Father’s children and asks us to do the same, to never give up. It may be those last moments of life that “the thieves” of this world become the “good thieves” and beg for God’s mercy,  as they “hang” on the cross of their death and turn to God because of the power of your  intercessory prayer.  May it be so! May it be so, is my prayer!  What is yours?

                                                                                                                                                                                            

The Power of Intercessory Prayer

In today’s first reading, Ex 32:7-14, we learn of how fed up God is with His people and is ready to eliminate them from the face of the earth.   Did God forget the covenant He made with His people following the flood when He said that He would never destroy the people again? Or is God simply voicing the depth of His disappointment in the Chosen People?  Imagine, they have made a golden calf and are worshipping it, stating that this is the god who saved them from the Egyptians.  Can they be that stupid, I ask?  A golden calf? A God? Are they crazy?

Before I go too far, let me stop and think!  When I depend totally upon myself or another human being or something another person or I have created to save me from my despair, am I not doing the same thing?  When I forget who has the power to transform that which is contributing to my frustration and anger, that which is rendering me hopeless and forlorn, am I not also forgetting the God who brings me out of the “Egypts”  of my life?

How often do I not look to things not of God to “make my day”! 

The author of Exodus 32: 7-14 reminds me that, through the intercessory prayer, in this case, of Moses, God relented of “the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.”   Moses cries out to the Lord, “Let your blazing wrath die down!”  And it does!  All of us are brought back into God’s graces by the intercessory prayer of others and vice versa. Let us never forget the importance of asking for prayers and being an intercessor for people around the globe.  Let us, too, remember that Jesus is continually interceding for us and, when we do not know how to pray, the Spirit prays within us in accord with God’s holy will for us (Rom 8:26).

No wonder miracles of grace continue to surface throughout the world of today. Open my eyes to them, Lord!

The Power of Intercessory Prayer

In today’s Gospel, John 4: 43-54, Jesus returns to Cana.  A royal official heard that Jesus arrived there from Judea and went to intercede on behalf of his dying son.  He asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus responds, it seems, rather harshly, saying : “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” This did not deter the royal official. He came to Jesus on behalf of his dying son and he was not to be turned away.  “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  Jesus says to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

Do we realize the power of intercessory prayer, whether that prayer is for a person who is dying physically or a person who has gone astray?  In My Utmost for His Highest,  Oswald Chambers says to us, in the meditation for March 11, “If we are not heedful and pay no attention to the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other people are failing, and then we take our discernment and turn it into comments of ridicule and criticism, instead of turning it into intercession on their behalf.” That statement hit me between the eyes, so to speak. It was as though Jesus was saying  to me directly:  “Dorothy Ann, when God shows you where another person is failing, that is a call to make intercession for that person, not an invite to engage in ridicule or criticism of that person.”
Just as this father had an obligation to seek Jesus’ healing for his dying son, so, too, do you and I have an obligation to intercede for another when God opens our eyes to how that person is falling into sinful patterns. That act of charity on behalf of another is as crucial as it is that others pray for you and me when we, too, have landed into one of Satan’s snare. Our welfare and that of others depends on the power of prayer, on God’s mercy. And God, who hears all prayer, acts on behalf of the person for whom we are praying, just as He interceded for the royal official’s son at his father’s request.

God's Infinite, Loving Knowledge of Us

Today’s responsorial psalm, Ps 139, reminds us that God searches us and knows us.  “…You understand my thoughts from afar,”  as He did, for example,  the thoughts of Peter, John and James; Mary of Magdala, his own Mother Mary, the woman who touched the hem of His garment and was healed, the woman he met at the well and told  that her present husband was not her husband.  Yes, God knows you and me intimately.  “Even before a word is on…[our] my tongue[s],” God knows it all. God knows when our thoughts are negative or positive, critical or accepting; yes, even venomous or generously kind and merciful like His own.  God loves us no matter how wayward or holy our thoughts might be.  God guides our thinking to the way God thinks.  God directs us to thoughts that generate positive energy, that deepen our hope and our faith and the hope and faith of others.

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Monica. For thirty years she prayed for Augustine, her wayward son, a child living an immoral life, a child who had turned away from Christ.  God knew her agonizing thoughts, saw her weep over her son’s disobedience to God’s Commandments to love God above all (the first three commandments) and to love his neighbor as himself (the other seven commandments).  Through her, Jesus interceded for Augustine.  Her waiting upon the Lord was richly blessed, as her son converted, abandoned a life of sin and consecrated his live to the Lord as His priestly servant.

To what is God calling you and me? In what ways are we in need of conversion in our thoughts and in our actions? And for whom are we praying?