Presenting Ourselves in the Temple of the Lord

Today, the Feast of the Presentation, "Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, 'Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord'"  (Luke 2: 22).  In the collect of today's liturgy, we pray: "Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure."

At our baptisms, each of us, like Jesus was by his parents, is presented to the Lord to be purified and consecrated to Him in the waters of baptism.  May we continue ti cooperate with God's grace as we live our our consecration to the Lord in our daily lives by living justly, loving tenderly and doing what s right in God's eyes.

That is my prayer this day for all of us, the least to the greatest, the richest to the poorest, the healthiest to the sickest in body, mind,  and soul. And may our minds continue to be made pure  through the Body and Blood of Christ, which we Catholics receive in Holy Communion at every Mass.  May we complete and become the Eucharist we celebrate by pouring out our lives every day in self-sacrificing love for the good of others.

A Heart that Overflows with Love

Today we celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a heart overflowing with love for all humankind. The Gospel of today's Mass, John 19: 31-37, recalls  the depth of God's love, the death of Jesus on the cross.  The Gospel passage notes that the time is fast approaching when the Jews need to remove the bodies from the cross, so that they do not violate Passover customs! So, executioners break the legs of those being crucified, depriving them of the means to lift themselves up to get any air into their lungs. Jesus is already dead so, instead of breaking His legs, they thrust a lance into His side, from whence flows blood and water. I immediately think of the priest pouring a drop of water into the wine prior to the consecration of the Mass when the Bread and Wine become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus and is offered to the Father in atonement of our sins and the sins of the whole world.  What a moment! Though Jesus does not ever die again, His sacrifice of love, I believe, is always before the Father.  Day and night, Jesus intercedes for us at the throne of God!  He awaits that day when you and I enter eternal life, a gift secured for us on the cross! Will you and I accept this gift in faith and love? Or have we already chosen our own gods, gods that cannot save us?

God Sends His Messenger

In today’s first reading the Lord shares the following promise with us through the prophet Malachi: “Lo,” the Lord says, “I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; and suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek, and the messenger of the covenant whom you desire. Yes, he is coming,…but who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye….He…will purify the sons Levi….”

That messenger is Jesus!  Suddenly, without fanfare, quietly, the Lord will appear in each of our lives.  God may visit us in the beauty of creation, in the sun and moon and stars; in the warmth of spring or the heat of summer and fall, in the smile of a child or the unconditional love of a pet.  God may also appear in the call from a friend or a family member, in a letter or an email that brings good news.  God may also come, Malachi tells us, “like the refiner’s fires, or like the fuller’s lye…He will purify” us.  That kinds of visitation may be in the form of an earthquake or in another violent way. God then comes to us hidden in the storm that could easily shatter our confidence, weaken our knees, bring a tremble to our voices.  God’s visitation may be in news of a serious illness, our own or that of a loved one.  Those kinds of visitations reinforce our dependence upon God, our need of God.  Acknowledging such, we are purified of pride and arrogance. 

Am I looking for God, as God searches for me?  In those situations that frighten me, God is there as anchor, as rock, as Savior, Comforter, and Confidante.  “Come to Me,” Jesus says to us in Matthew 11: 28, “all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

The Coming of Our God and Savior

In today’s first reading, Zephaniah 3: 1-2, 9-13, the prophet Zephaniah issues a warning to us, saying: “Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city!  She hears no voice, accepts no correction;  in the Lord she has not trusted, to...God she has not drawn near.  A time is coming when God "will...change and purify the lips of the peoples, that...all may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve [God] with one accord; from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia and as far as the recesses of the North, they shall bring [the true God] offerings.”  We could insert the following: "From north to south, from east to west, from one end of the world to the other, "they shall bring [the true God] offerings" and give up their "rebellious and polluted," in short their idolatrous, ways.

Zephaniah is speaking to each one of us. In what ways have I been rebellious, refusing correction? In what ways have I polluted myself with selfishness, narcissistic pursuits, pride-filled resistances, deceptive ways and other means of saying “no” to God? To whose voice am I listening:  God’s voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit, the voice of truth, justice, mercy, understanding, compassion and love? Or am I responding to voices that promote hatred, judgment, condemnation, hopelessness, faithlessness, mercilessness, and violence (spiritual, physical, emotional, verbal) that pollutes the blossoming spirits of the young, of children and the poor?

Zephaniah says to us that on the day  “that the Lord will change and purify  the lips of the people, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one accord…you  need not be ashamed of all  your deeds, your  rebellious actions against me; for then will I remove from your midst the proud braggarts, and you shall no longer exalt yourself on my holy mountain. But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord...”

Zephaniah gives us hope, as we face a violent world, a world of hatred, sexism, misogynism, racism, and bigotry; as we face a world of injustice, a world where narcissistic, boastful  men and women seek power and control and wealth at the expense of the poor, willing to destroy anyone in their path to what they define as greatness, publishing false stories, alluring and deceiving  people by their outward charm and preposterous promises.  God is warning us, through the prophet Zephaniah, that He will “remove from your midst… proud braggarts, and you shall no longer exalt yourself on my holy mountain, but I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge [in My name], the remnant of Israel. They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue...."

Hopefully you and I will be part of the “remnant” of people who have been purified of our pride, cleansed of our deceitfulness, and humbled and brought low before God; yes, people who have learned to “take refuge in the name of the Lord,” repentant of our rebellious ways!

The Transformation of the World and All within It

In today’s first reading, Isaiah 29: 17-24,  the prophet Isaiah gives us the following message of hope: in “a very little while, …Lebanon (insert any city anywhere in the world) shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. The lowly will ever find joy in the Lord, and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel (Jesus, our Savior). …[T]he tyrant will be no more and the arrogant will have gone; all who are alert to evil will be cut off, those whose mere word condemns a man (a person], who ensnare his defender at the gate, and leave the just man with an empty claim.”

May the tyrant, the arrogant, those courting evil, those whose words condemn others  and who make empty claims beware of the prophet’s warning. May those doing good in the world, acting justly and loving tenderly (compare Micah 6:8)  rejoice in this hopeful message  and call upon the name of the Lord in mercy. May Jesus, our Savior, purify all of us of any tyrannical intentions,  arrogant pursuits, evil motivations, condemnatory thoughts and empty claims—sin within us now and those we have committed in our past. Like the two blind men in today’s Gospel, Matthew 9: 27-31, may we approach Jesus in humble prayer, asking to be healed and freed of our infirmities, spiritual, physical\, or psychological. 

Jesus' Glorious Triumph: its Meaning

The Entrance Antiphon to today’s liturgy invites us to “sing to the Lord, for he has gloriously triumphed.”  We then pray: “The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation, alleluia.”  I was deeply touched by t he word “is”.  God is, not was or will be, but IS my strength and my might; He is my salvation.  The work of God is going on every moment of every day, in every circumstance of my life today and yours!  Jesus has “gloriously triumphed,”  that is He is gloriously triumphing over sin and death, over selfishness and greed, over deceit and jealousy, over anger and moodiness, over faithlessness and hopelessness, over hatred, blindness and deafness to the Spirit in my life right now, right here! Jesus is making a difference now!  I am overcoming evil in my life right now  because Jesus “has gloriously triumphed” in His resurrection, in the sacrificing of His life, in becoming sin for us on Calvary.

Yesterday I took a day off and went to see “Heaven is for Real.”  Heaven and earth are one in the resurrection of Jesus.  Heaven and earth are one in the Eucharist, when the Son of God descends upon our altars every single day to feed us with the Bread of Life, the Living Bread, that wells up into eternity making us more and more life Christ every day, reconciling us to the Father, cleansing the Temple of our souls with this Living Water, this Living Bread!  Alleluia!

God's gift of imperishability

"God formed [you, Dorothy Ann (insert your name),] to be imperishable" (Wis 2: 23).  That means that this earthly life will come to an end at a time chosen by our Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier.  At the moment that our sanctification here on earth is complete, the angel of death will come and we will be born into eternal life, where we will live forever with all of the redeemed.  God has ordained it so in Christ Jesus.  He loves us unconditionally to the point of His son being obedient to the Father unto death in order that the death of sin would have no lasting power over us.  Satan's ability to lure us into choosing our will over the will of God has been completely obliterated by Jesus' obedience to the Father's will--we are in the process of discovering this gift during our sojourn here on earth. We are on a journey to discover that where sin abounded in us, grace will abound even more through the power of Jesus' resurrection and the power of the Spirit interceding on our behalf  24/7. Our warrior God fights beside us, within us, ahead of us, behind us as God takes on Satan.  God wins ultimately in our battle with our disobedience, that is, our choosing our will over God's will.  And when our purification here on earth is complete, when we are ready to pass through death into eternal life, I believe that God comes to walk before us as we pass through the door of death into eternal life--a life prepared for us from the beginning of time.  God is faithful even in our unfaithfulness and His will will not be denied.

Repent and Believe in the Good News

In my morning meditation,  I continued to bare my distress to the Lord about a recent conversation that what awaits us following death is God’s  punishment for our sinful lives; namely, that we will suffer in the fires of purgatory and not enter heaven when we die.  It’s not that I do not believe in the importance of being purified before entering heaven; however,  there seems to be a contradiction with the following Scripture passages for those of us who repent and believe the Good News. In  Psalm 103:11, the psalmist proclaims: “[as] the height of heaven above earth, so strong is [God’s] faithful love for those who fear him. As the distance of east from west, so far from us does he put our faults”  and,  in Is. 1:18, God says to us through the prophet: “Though…[their] sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Is 1:18).  As explained in a footnote in the Jerusalem Bible on this passage, “the condition on which God insists is avowal of the sin and repentance…and the inner conversion that this implies.”  I believe that one who avows or admits his/her sins and brings his/her sinful behavior into harmony with the Holy Will of God is purified of that sin in the here and now through the sacraments of reconciliation, Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick.  Furthermore, did Jesus not say to the good thief on the cross “this day you will be with me in Paradise”?  He did not say” You will be with me in Paradise after you suffer in the burning fires of purgatory following your death.”  If his repentance and sincere sorrow, if his admittance of his guilt and his suffering united with the sufferings of Jesus’ on the cross were accepted  as his purification and readiness to be in the presence of God in eternity that very day, why is this not true for those of us  who sincerely repent and believe in Jesus’ words to us in this very moment and on our death beds: “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”  I believe it does. What is your belief?

Triumphantly Victorious in Christ Jesus

In today’s first reading, Romans 8: 31-39, St. Paul raises several questions:   “If God is for us, who can be against us?  Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts? Who,” Paul asks, “can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice who can condemn? Are we not sure that it is Christ Jesus, who died—yes, and more, who was raised from the dead and is at God’s right hand—and who is adding his plea for us. Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ—can hardship, distress, or persecution or lack of food or clothing, or threats or violence….No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us.”

Those words are deeply consoling for me following a recent conversation about the afterlife and the belief of many that we will be separated from God for awhile because of the punishment due our sinfulness and our need for purification following death.  I have a difficult time perceiving God as a judge preparing meticulously to hold our sin against us, just waiting for us to enter eternal life so he can punish us as we deserve.  This is not my God.  And furthermore, I believe that I will come through this life “triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who [loves me]!”

What if, however, I do Ieave this life unprepared to enter into God’s presence? How will I become purified, since, after I die,I am no longer able to prepare myself. That is part of my mission here on earth. Once I die, I am then totally dependent on the prayers that are said for me by the church militant, those still on this earth on their way to heaven.  I do believe I shall be purified—however long that purification period is after I die. It is not God punishing me, however; it is the choice I will have made if I leave earth unreconciled, unrepentant of my sins and not trusting in God’s infinite mercy and unconditional love.

Make Haste to Help Me, Lord

In this morning’s meditation, my eyes were riveted on the entrance antiphon: “Forsake me not, O Lord! My God, be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation.”  My thoughts quickly reversed the words to read: “O Lord, may I not forsake You. May I not be far from You in how I think, in what I do and what I plan to do this day.  May I hasten to seek Your help for You are my secure and ever-present salvation.” I prayed that God would purify my heart, my mind, my will, my entire being; that He would pour out His precious blood upon me to heal me and transform me into Christ. I prayed that, like Jesus who came to served not  to be served (compare today’s Gospel, Lk  20:   17-28), would  give me the courage and the wisdom to let go of anything that would lead me to wanting to be glorified in God’s place rather than being God’s servant here on earth.

James and John, in today’s Gospel, approach Jesus, asking to be given the honor of sitting one at his right and the other at his left in the Kingdom—we can be seeking “kingdoms” here as well.  Their petition was not in accord with God’s will for them. How often, I asked myself, to do seek something that is not in accord with God’s will for me, or for another.  What God promises is that when I meet the events of my life that bring me suffering, when sin in me is being purified by God’s grace, He will send angels to me as He did to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and He will give me the strength, the courage and the peace of mind and heart that He gave Jesus in Jerusalem, where Jesus was betrayed by Judas and handed over to those determined to destroy Him. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus tells us in Mt 10:28, “of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.”  And remember, as Jesus tells us in Jn 15: 20-21, a “servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too…[I]t will be on my account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the one who sent me.” Remember, too, that Jesus is at our side and that before He went to Jerusalem to face death He prayed for us, asking His Father to “protect us from the Evil One” (Jn 17: 15).

Discipline from a loving God

In today’s first reading, Heb. 12: 4-7, 11-15, St. Paul reminds us that God treats us as sons/daughters and therefore, like any wise parent, disciplines us by what we suffer.  He also reminds us that none of us “struggle with sin…to the point of shedding blood.”  The Gospel, Mark 6: 1-6, tells us how disappointed Jesus is in the people of his own home town. Because of their attitude towards Him and their lack of faith, Jesus cannot and does not work  miracles there. I asked the Lord what I needed to learn from these lessons and the following counsel was given me: 

 
Dorothy Ann, remember that I love you. It’s because of my love for you that you are painfully made aware of your sinfulness and how  stubbornness and pride sometimes trip you up from growth in humility, kindness and love.  It is why miracles are not worked through you in some instances: miracles to which a humble person is privy, miracles that occur when a person does not need to be right, miracles that occur when a person apologizes to another even when the raucous seems to be the other person’s fault, miracles that occur when a person remains calm and patient toward, or walks away from, a ranting “manic,” miracles that occur when a person speaks the truth reverently   
and respectfully to another, miracles that occur when a person takes time to listen without              condemning, without being critical, without needing to set the other right, without needing
to come out on top, etc.

 

Living these Gospel values, Dorothy Ann, is countercultural. It is what led to My death and will lead to yours, not physically but the death of the ego that, at times, wants to dominate, control and hold on to being right when the other is wrong.  Many times you have to walk away and swallow your pride, as I did in today’s Gospel, Mark 6: 1-6).

Taking up one’s cross and following Jesus to death and resurrection is costly!