Be Compassionate as God is Compassionate

In today's Gospel, Luke 6: 36-38, Jesus says to us: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will e pour into your lap. for the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

"Just as your Father is merciful!"   God models mercy and reveals his merciful self in Jesus!  Jesus challenges the sinner but does not condemn. In fact, in his own words, Jesus tells us that he came, not to condemn, but to save us, showing us how to love others as ourselves, how to be compassionate as God is compassionate, how, in short, to forgive ourselves and others.

Jesus reveals that His Father, and He himself, is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and quick to forgive. He does so on the cross when the good thief turns to him and says: "Remember me in your kingdom" and Jesus replies: This very day you will be with me in my kingdom.  When a woman caught in adultery is dragged before him and her accusers are ready to stone her according to the law of the nation of Israel, Jesus admonishes them, asking: Which of you is without sin, cast the first stone. No one stoned her! When a deaf man was brought to him for healing, and Jesus was asked "who sinned, the person or his parents", Jesus states clearly that no one sinned.  He indicated that misfortunes are not the result of our sinful behaviors. Jesus shows mercy and heals the deaf person.

God is about mercy, wholeness, and healing. He takes no pleasure  in people suffering in any way. That is not God's thinking but ours!

What attitudes do I need to change within myself? Am I quick to condemn, to judge, to find fault with another when misfortunes occur, when illness same to take possession of another, of myself? How caring am I? How loving am I? How forgiving am I? Does compassion direct my thoughts?

The Kingdom of God is at Hand!

In today's first reading, Hebrews 1: 1-6, St. Paul reminds us that in the past God  spoke to His people "in partial and various ways...through the prophets."  Today, which Paul calls the "last days", God speaks "to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe."  This Jesus, the Son of God, "is the refulgence of [God's] glory, the very imprint of [God's] being".  Jesus, the word of God made flesh, is the one who "sustains all things by his mighty word.  He sustains you and I.  "When he accomplished purification from sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as far superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs."  It is this Jesus who says to us in today's Gospel, Mark 1: 14-20, "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel."  Following that proclamation, Jesus passes by the Sea of Galilee, sees Simon and his brother Andrew and calls them to follow Him and become "fishers of men."  A little further on, he calls James and his brother John for the same purpose. All four men leave their fishing business to become Jesus' followers and take on a new profession, that of evangelists and apostles.  What role do you and I assume to spread the Word of God, the message of Jesus' Gospel?

In "these last days," you and I are called to follow Jesus. "This is the time of [our]  fulfillment.  The Kingdom of God is at hand" for us!  Are we heeding Jesus' voice?  Or are we too busy to take time to build our relationship with Christ and with others in love, forgiveness and justice?  Are we too busy with our own affairs to lead people to Jesus, as Simon, Andrew, James and John did? How, you ask, are you to do this? By living according to the Gospel, doing what Jesus did in his ministry to the people of his day: being just and compassionate, being loving and forgiving, healing the sick and infirm, welcoming all to the table, touching "lepers" and welcoming them to the Eucharist and to experience a heart full of love.

"The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel!"   Live it one day at a time!

Believing in Jesus and Loving as Jesus Loved

In today's first reading, 1 John 3: 22-4:6, St. John reminds us that the first commandment is as follows: "[W]e should believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us."  Jesus is the Son of God, who assumed human nature, remaining fully God and becoming fully human. Jesus was sent to show us God's unconditional love for us, a love revealed to us by Jesus' life, death and resurrection.  We are called to believe in the truth that the Blessed Trinity---three divine persons but one God--agreed to send the second person to become a human being like us in all things but sin.

All who came to Him, Jesus healed. He took the side of sinners, ate with them, forgave them and invited them to repent and sin no more! Even on the cross when the good thief turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered in paradise, Jesus said to him: "Indeed, I promise you...today you will be with me in paradise"  (Luke 23:43). It was from his cross that the good thief rebuked the other thief who had joined those mocking Jesus: "Have you no fear of God at all?  ...You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case e deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong." (Luke 23: 40-42).  

To believe in Jesus is to love as Jesus loved, rising above our suffering and pain. Loving as Jesus taught us to love means to reach out to others in need: forgiving, embracing and showing others the love of God within us, a love that holds nothing back!

The Lord: Our Allotted Portion and Our Cup

In tomorrow's Entrance Antiphon, we pray: "O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.  For me the measuring lines have fallen on pleasant sites; fair to me indeed is my inheritance."

That inheritance is not something you and I deserve. The inheritance of life forever with God in heaven is an inheritance for which an immense ransom was paid: the human birth, life, sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  The Incarnate God poured out his blood, became the sacrificial lamb, for you and me! The "Lord [is our] allotted portion and [our] cup" at the price of Jesus' life and death on the cross.   It is a free gift of God's unconditional love for you and me!

Like Jesus, you and I pass "from death to life" in loving our brothers and sisters (compare tomorrow's first reading, 1 John 3: 11-21).  John reminds us that "[w]hoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother [or sister] is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him [her]. The way we came to know love was that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers [sisters]. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother [sister] in need and refuses him [her] compassion, how can the love of God remain in him [her]? Children," John says to us, "let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth."

John puts it on the line for us! And God Himself has written this law of love on everyone's heart. We have no excuses for walking by someone in need and not helping if we have the means to help, whether that be financial means, material means or spiritual/psychological means to make a difference in that person's life by acts of love, by caring, by acting compassionately.

How do you and I measure up to what God is asking of us?

Building the Kingdom of God

Today's Gospel, Mark 4: 26-34, speaks about the Kingdom of God and that such is "as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow,  he knows not how."   God's Kingdom "sprouts and grow[s]", day by day, night by night! How? By our loving and forgiving one another! By our honesty with one another. By our mercy! By our caring about one another, seeing other people's affliction,  hearing their cries for food, water, clothes; hearing other peoples' cries for justice and truthful living. We sow seeds of the Kingdom of God by, not just knowing what other people are going through but getting out of ourselves to do something that will enhance the life of a person in need. We see God's Kingdom sprouting, blossoming, growing as we witness husband and wife, a grandmother and a grandfather,  loving one another and pouring out that love in self-sacrifice for their children and grandchildren. We see this Kingdom growing by those who give us medical, dental, physical and emotional help; by those in public service who act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with their God (See Micah 6:8) as they provide honest and just service to others.

In what ways am I contributing to the growth of God's Kingdom: Am I sowing seeds of love and justice, mercy, truth, and forgiveness? Or am I living a life of lies, holding grudges, living a narcissistic life, a life of revenge, a  lustful life, a life lacking justice, a life without mercy or love?

As with Jesus, so with Us

In today's Gospel, John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30, we learn that Jesus did not want to go to Judea because the Jews were out to kill him.  However, given the fact that his brothers went up for the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, he also went to the city but in secret.  Some people recognized Jesus and raised the question: "Is he not the one they are trying to kill?" Yet no one attempted to seize Jesus. "Could the authorities," the bystanders wondered, "have realized that he is the Christ?" Can't be, they reasoned, because we know where Jesus has come from and, "[w]hen the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."  Jesus, hearing the conversation, cries out:  "'You know me and also know where I am from.  Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.' So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come."

"His hour had not yet come."   Whatever Jesus did, He did with the Father, as He and the Father are one.  "I do nothing except what the Father asks me to do," Jesus says to us in another passage in John. And the time of showing the depth of God's love by the ultimate sacrifice of pouring out His life on the cross had not yet arrived.

Having been baptized unto Jesus' death and having rose to a new life with Christ,  we are Christ's ambassadors sent into the world, also, by the Father to reveal the depth of God's love.  Like Jesus, we reveal the Father's love by a self-emptying, sacrificial love in our service of others. We reveal who God is by loving others as we love ourselves. God's love radiates through us, also, when we are  patient, compassionate, forgiving,  and obedient to what the Spirit is asking of us each moment to bring forth he best in others and in ourselves.

Choose Life

In today's first reading, Dt. 30:15-20, we are told that God has set before us life and death. "Choose life,...that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, our God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him."  Yesterday a young man chose death by killing 17 young men and women. This young man is allegedly mentally ill.  He was allowed to legally purchase an automatic weapon and was determined, according to a face book message, to become a professional school shooter.  Why, I ask, are automatic weapons sold to anyone and are we not choosing death by allowing such purchases to occur?  Automatic weapons certainly are not used to kill deer or other animals sought for food!  They are used to kill people! I ask myself the following questions: So what goes here? Is it that producing and selling weapons of mass destruction puts millions of dollars in the pockets of the rich? Is it that allowing every human being to possess a gun, for any reason,  also creates millions of dollars of profits in corporations that produce these weapons? Is it that gun lobbyists promise millions to politicians who, in turn, refuse to pass gun legislation lest substantial donations diminish? I also wonder whether we are refusing to learn from, and listen to, other countries where only those in law enforcement, those in the military and those hunting game for food possess guns and where there is nothing of the violence we see in our country?  I ask: is it that citizens in those countries are a priority, not making millions and making the rich richer at the expense of the poor and at the expense of victims of gun violence,  both those who lose their lives and families and friends who mourn these losses?

In today's first reading, Dt. 30: 15-20, Moses says to us:  "Today I  have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord,  your God, which I enjoy on you today, loving him [by loving and protecting others], and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statues and decrees [do not kill and, I would say, do not promote killing],...the Lord, your God will bless you...If, however, you turn away your hearts [from what is right] and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods [greed, consumerism, materialism, gluttony, lust, wealth accumulated illegally, through deceit and corrupt choices, and at the expense of the poor, etc.], I tell you now that you will certainly perish...."

Is the United States on the path of destruction, courting death and doom, promoting death, intentionally or unintentionally? Am I, or you, on a path that depletes life by our disobedience, our refusal to follow the voice of good spirits prompting us to do God's holy will,  to love as God loves, to be compassionate as God is compassionate? Are we on a path that shows a lack of concern for the rights of all people, all races, all genders, all nationalities, the rich and the poor, immigrants and non-immigrants, the young and the old? Am I, are you, living lives of rebellion against what we know puts us in right relationship with God, with self and others?

"Chose life...by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him" (Dt. 30:19).)

Faith and Love

In today's first reading,  James 1: 1-11, St. James reminds us that God gives "generously and ungrudgingly."   Therefore, James says to us, "if you lack wisdom, ...ask [and it] will be given [to  you]...[A]sk in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a [person] of two minds, unstable in all  his ways."

Am I a unstable person, a person "of two minds," one moment believing and the next moment doubting?  Or am I strongly rooted in Christ Jesus, my God and Savior? Knowing who Jesus is, I will stand firm in my faith!

In today's Gospel, Jesus is upset with the Pharisees who begin an argument with Him and want a sign from heaven to test him. "Why," Jesus asks, "does this generation seek a sign?"  Imagine the frustration Jesus is experiencing!  Why a sign? Perhaps we will understand this passage better by likening it to a family situation.  Imagine a family member--spouses and/or children--constantly demanding a sign of love. No matter what the other does or does not do, the demands keep coming! Such demands, such doubts in each other and in God can destroy faith and poison marriage and family relationships!  On the other hand, if I am working at deepening my love for God, others and self--if I am doing all that it takes to deepen love for others, God, and self-- then  I do not need a sign! And for sure, I do not need to test others by arguing with them about who they are, from whence they have come and whether or not their love and intentions are pure, as did the  Pharisees repeatedly challenge Jesus!

Love, Loving, Beloved!

Today we celebrated a "Resurrection" Mass for a Sister who died a few days ago. This woman religious was full of Jesus, as I and so many others experienced her!  Joy radiated from her very being, no matter what! There is the saying: "So and so did not have a mean bone in his/her body."  I spoke to a the niece of this Sister this morning and she stated her experience of her Aunt, saying: "She did not have any evil in her." At times she was made fun of or spoken to harshly and her friends wanted to return the abuse.  Sister would say: "No; love that person!"

When others interact with us, do they leave us feeling blessed as persons did when they met this Sister?  If not, why not? If "yes," what graces has God given you/me to be a source of blessing to those with whom we live and work, pray and play and give the fullness of life to while  we are on our way to our heavenly home, as she was?

Lord, take possession of our beings, as You did of this Sister. Like her, may each of us be so inundated with You,    being one with the Trinity as each of You is one with each other as lovers, as loving and sharers of your love with every human person here on earth and in heaven above, so that we exude your Love with every one we meet, even those who are harsh with us! As with this Sister, may our response  to those who "trespass against us" be: "Love that person!"

An Abundance of Graces from our God

St. Paul reminds us in today's first reading, 2 Cor 9: 1-10, that "God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work....The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness." Engaging in good works means dying to selfishness, pride, greed, and so much more that blocks graces that God wants to give us in "an abundance", as we are reminded in today's Gospel, John 12: 24-24, where Jesus says to us:  "Amen, amen, I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me."

In what good works was I involved today?  In what ways did God supply the seed I needed or multiply the good I did today?  How did God "increase the harvest of [my] righteousness" today? To what, today, did I die in order to produce the fruits of honesty, humility, kindness, compassion and love?

Making Right Choices

Choose life, we are asked in today’s first reading, Dt. 30: 15-20, by turning your hearts to the Lord, listening to God and not allowing yourself to be “led stray and adore and serve other gods.”  Moses reminds the Israelites that he has “set before[the]  life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.  For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers/[mothers] Abraham [and Sarah], Isaac [and Rebecca], Jacob [and Leah and Rachel].”

The questions you and I need to ask ourselves are: Am I choosing life? Am I choosing blessing? Am I choosing to love the Lord, our God, with my whole heart, mind, soul and will?  Am I heeding God’s voice and holding fast to the Lord? Or am I making choices that are not life-giving? Am I holding fast to promises that are not in line with what God is asking of me?  Am I serving idols, non-gods, God-substitutes? Am I seeking security in wealth, money, an accumulation of material things, sex—running from one relationship to another and another and giving sacrificial love to no one? 

In today's Gospel, Luke 9: 22-25, Jesus says to us:  If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily..."  Am I refusing to take up the cross of serving others, making sacrifices for others in my love for them,  of being faithful to the vows I have taken in marriage or in religious life?

God Beckoning Us as a Lover Beckons His Bride

In today’s first reading, Song of Songs 2: 8-14, we encounter our Lover God and God, our Beloved,  beckons and  encounters us:  “Hark! My lover—here he comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills. My [L]over is like a gazelle or a young stag. Here [God] stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattices. My [L]over speaks; he says to me, ‘Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!....O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”

Today we buried one of our Sisters and I could not help but think of Sister seeing her Beloved “springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills,” coming to take her into Paradise. I also imagined the Lord saying to her: “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come! O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.” And vice  versa, I would hear Sister saying the same thing to the Lord.

Are you and I ready for that day or night when our “Lover…comes springing across the mountains, leaping across the hills…like a gazelle or a young stag”?  Yes, I believe, that God stands behind the walls we build to protect ourselves from taking risks to love as God loves, to forgive as God forgives, to be His hands, His feet, His mouth caring for others in need.  I believe that God holds out His hands beckoning us to take that step that we are afraid to take, to trust that we will be given the graces we need to meet whatever challenge frightens us, including the challenge of death itself. I believe that God gazes through the windows, peers through the lattices of our souls, seeking to enter our hearts and minds and lives with an abundance of graces we most need. He says to us, as we say to God: “O my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the secret recesses of the cliff, let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely.”

Jesus: The Good Shepherd with a Heart Full of Love

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a heart that is full of love for all of humanity. Today’s readings, Ez 34: 11-16 and Luke 15: 3-7, speak to us about God as our shepherd.  We are  the sheep of God’s flock.  The Lord claims us as His own.    “I myself,” God tells us through the prophet Ezekiel, “ will look after and tend my sheep.   As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep.  I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark….I will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.”

Who am I in Jesus’ flock? Am I injured  or sickened by sin and selfishness, by pride and lust, by arrogance and abuse of power, by rejection and  hatred (my own or that of others)?  Am I in the dark, confused by what I see around me and hear on the news each night? Have I been scattered—put out to pasture in places that do not really give life or do not make me feel secure?  The Lord knows where I am and will rescue me. The Lord sees my wounds and will bind them up with love and mercy and forgiveness. Have I strayed? “The lost,” the Lord says, “I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back…”

“I tell you,…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” (Luke 15:7).

Immersed in God's Love and Directed by His Spirit

God is all around us, within us, within the universe, residing in the core of every human being. St. Paul tell us: In God we live and move and have our being. In today's first reading, 1 John 4: 11-18, St. John says to us: " No one has ever seen God."  God is as hidden from the naked eye today as He was as an infant in Bethlehem and as He is in the Sacred Host and Precious Wine,  consecrated on the altar during a Catholic Mass.  I know Him present and hidden by the eye of faith.

St. John goes on to say that  "if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us."  What a gift love is. I was born to love and be loved, to give witness to God, who loved me first and enables me to love as He did and does: giving of myself selflessly for the salvation wrought by God Himself and communicated through humans and all of creation, as God's continues to work in silence and in disguises.

This morning I was going to address a situation that is troubling to me. God's response, as I complained to Him about a specific situation: "My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts." And then He counseled me: "Do not fix what is not yours to fix!"    In faith, I did not write the email I had intended to write!

If we take time with the Lord, if we  bring our issues to the Lord, if we seek God's counsel every day, in all of the day's circumstances, if we bring our concerns to the Lord with an open mind and heart and will, God will, in truth, direct us and spare us untold sufferings that come from acting alone!

"Creatures of the World Are Wholesome" (Wisdom 1: 13-15)

In today’s first reading, Wisdom 1: 13-15; 2: 23-24, the author says to us:  God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, and there is not a destructive drug among them, nor any domain of the netherworld on earth, for justice is undying.

As I reflect on that passage,  I cannot help but think of my brothers and sisters in Christ who are lesbians, gays, transsexual and bisexual.  They are not, in my opinion , “a destructive drug” among us. No, they are “creatures of the world [who] are wholesome,” and who, like heterosexual persons,  fall in love with one another.  St. John says to us in 1 John: 10: “The man [or woman] who continues in the light is the one who loves his brother [or sister]; there is nothing in him [or her] to cause a fall. But the man [or woman] who hates his brother [or sister] is in darkness. He [or she] walks in shadows, not knowing where he [or she] is going, since the dark has blinded his [or her] eyes.”

God, the author of Wisdom, tells us, does not “rejoice in the destruction of the living.  Have I assumed attitudes, beliefs, that destroy other human beings who are different from me: whose sexual orientation, from birth, is different from mine; whose skin color is different from mine, whose culture is different from mine?  Am I living “in shadows”;  has “the dark…blinded [my] eyes”?  

In the Gospel, Mark 5: 21-43 Jesus heals the woman of a hemorrhage, touched the deceased little girl and tells her to get  up.  According to the law of Moses, both the woman and the deceased were considered unclean and untouchable and, if Jesus touched them, He, too was considered unclean.  Jesus ignores the law and brings life/healing to both the woman and the little girl.  In the early Church, Peter was told in a vision: “What God has purified you are not to call unclean” (Acts 10: 15). A law is challenged that the Jews clung to with heart and soul.  Laws are just laws made by humankind and, therefore, can be changed and will be changed as persons comes to different understandings not known when certain laws were created, as in the case, also, concerning the  the law of slavery, a law that St. Paul promoted in his writings.  The letter of the law kills, the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6). Are we holding on to laws that kill other human being’s hope, faith, love?

Love Challenged

In today’s Gospel, John 21: 15-19, Jesus asks Peter three times do you love me.  Each time Peter says “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  He is deeply hurt when Jesus asks that question the third time, yet Peter needs to know how painful it was for Jesus to be denied three times by him in the hour of His greatest need for support. The Lord’s response to each of Peter’s “yeses” is : Feed my lambs, Feed my sheep (said 2xs).  It’s  like the Lord is saying: “Feed both the young and the old and everyone in-between.” His service is not to be exclusive, nor is his love. 

When his life got really tough following Jesus’ arrest, Peter falters.  His love wanes or wavers. “I don’t even know the man,” he replies to those challenging him.  When we encounter “rough waters,” it is easy to abandon ship, to walk away from the conflict, deny knowing anything of whatever is painful to process or endure. Like Peter we have both tendencies: fierce loyalty and strong fears  that can lead us to abandon all.

Our dialogue with Jesus might sound something like the following:

Do you love Me, Jesus asks!

Yes, Lord, I do love you.

Do you love Me, Jesus asks, as we shiver in our boots in front of an irate person.

Yes, Lord, I do love you.

Do you love me, Jesus asks, enough to stay in the stormy situation, listening calmly, quietly, compassionately to the person venting his/her anger?

Ugh, Lord, I’ scared. I want to flee.

Do you love Me, Jesus asks, when things go wrong, your patience is worn thin, and your ability to understand is clouded with anger and confusion and hurt?

But, Lord, it is so hard to hang in there, just loving You. Many times I want to fight back, argue, put down  the person or thrash the machine responsible for the mess I am experiencing.

Do you love Me, the Lord asks me.

Yes, Lord, I do love you.

That is all I ask of you. Love me. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Serve others. Do good for others. Anchored in my love, your boat will not be rocked by ranting, raving individuals, by situations that strip the less strong of their patience, their compassion, their understanding, their strength to stay calm, ‘yes, their humility in the face of being powerless to quiet another person or repair a broken down machine instantly.

Just love me; that is all I ask of you in all of the vicissitudes of life, in the good and evil, in the pleasant and unpleasant, in the challenging and the rewarding. Do you really love me?

Remain in my Love

Today is the 58^th anniversary of my mother’s burial, our putting her body to rest and beginning an acute grieving process, as she left four children still in grade school. I think of a sibling’s life-after-death experience, when she “died” and went to heaven, experienced the profound peace of being in the Light and then hearing  a voice,say to her: Go back, your time is not yet. She had 7 children to yet raise. Why was it not her time but it was my mother’s, who, likewise, had small children yet to raise? My question remains unanswered. I will continue to be mystified by this reality of my life. 

“Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved!”   Jesus’ death certainly baffled many. Why would the life of our Messiah end so tragically? Look at the good Jesus was doing? Pilate says to the crowd when they demand His crucifixion: “Why? What wrong has he done?”  Jesus’ life is ended at age 33! My mother’s life was ended shortly after she turned 50 years of age.  Perhaps “why” is the wrong question to ask.  Perhaps I need to look at the what of my mother’s life.  The lessons she taught us children did not die with her.   Perhaps I need to look at  the “how” whereby each of us found strength to move on, to  make good of the tragedies of our lives, and the ways in which we cope with realities that are disquieting, perturbing, horrifically distressing.  From whom did we learn to look to our Savior?  Who taught us to “remain in [Jesus’] love? Perhaps that is why her mission was complete at age 50!

What legacy am I going to leave those who might be baffled by my death when it comes?

Storing One's Wealth for Personal Use Only or Sharing It?

In today’s Gospel,  Luke 12: 13-21, Jesus reminds us that our lives do not “consist of possessions,” not that possessions are bad but that such is not what life is about.  Life is about love, loving, and being loved; about caring and showing others that we care, about compassion and being compassionate, about understanding and being understood, about consoling and being consoled, about forgiving and being forgiven. It is all about relationships, about modeling our relationships on the relationships of the Trinity, where all share equally in the Trinitarian resources,  where each in included in the activity of the other and equally contributing, equally rewarded and compensated;  where each Person of the Blessed Trinity is of one in mind, one heart and one spirit, committed to doing good and being goodness in the lives of all humankind, reconciling us to our Creator God.  The Trinity models love.

The core realities of life spiritually, I believe, are faith, hope and love--love of God, love of self, and love of one’s neighbor.  The expression of love is the richest of life’s experiences and transcends all of life.  Of faith, hope and love, only love lasts eternally. Am I using my surplus to show love and concern for others, or am I hoarding it? The use of wealth for the benefit of others enhances love. The accumulation of wealth for its own sake, to “build larger” storage spaces to “store” one’s good, and then say to oneself, as the rich man in today’s Gospel, now I have”so many good things stored up for many years,” I  will rest, eat, drink and be merry” the rest of my life. (cf the parable in Luke 12: 13-21) can be a source of hardening one’s heart toward another’s plight and need for compassion.

What do I do with the wealth with which I am blessed?