The Seriousness of Our Covenant with God

In today's first reading, Deuteronomy 26: 16-19, Moses reminds the people that they have made a covenant with the Lord. "Be careful, then," he reminds them, "to  observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the Lord; he is to be your God and you are to walk in  his ways and observe his statues, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the Lord is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God, as he promised."

Take note of the seriousness of this covenant and that it is a mutual agreement between the Chosen People and God Himself. You and I have entered into that same agreement with God at our baptism. It was then that we were made "sacred to the Lord," our God.   If we are faithful to our part of the agreement, that is, keeping God's commandments, statues and decrees and heeding God's voice, then, God Himself " will...raise [us] on high in praise and renown and glory"  now and when we enter eternal life. Note: God does the raising, not us in boastful pride of our accomplishments. Furthermore, it is not about our accomplishments, though those please God, but that we are made children of God and rich in grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ, who took our sins upon Himself and restored us to our right relationship with God.  We rose on high with Him in His resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Made Sin for Us to Save Us from Sin

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 51, we pray:  Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my  guilt and of my sin cleanse me.... A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.....Give me back the joy of your salvation...O Lord, open my lips, and my  mouth shall proclaim your praise."

God did that for you and me on Calvary. St. Paul tells us in today's second reading, 2 Cor 5: 20-6: 2, that God, for "our sake made [Jesus] to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."  Think of the most heinous of crimes. Those were put on Jesus. He became sin itself in all its ugliness, repulsion and heinousness: the sins of hatred and murder, the sins of deceitfulness, cheating, and corruption; the sins of lust and gluttony, of envy and jealousy, of sloth and avarice, of pride and covetousness, of indifference, disobedience, and disdain and any other sinful act of which you and I are unaware.   As sin, Jesus was crucified, proclaimed a sinner and put to death as a criminal.  He took upon himself the sins of the entire world and everyone in this world and set us free.  "[I]n the greatness of [God's] compassion, [God wiped] out our offenses, [t]horoughly [washed us] from [our] guilt and of [our sins cleansed us]. A clean heart [God created] for [us. He gave us] back the joy of [His] salvation!"  And for that reason, our "lips and [our mouths] shall proclaim [God's] praises."  We Catholics do so especially in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass when, in memory of Jesus and with all of the angels and saints in heaven, we offer Jesus' body and blood--the consecrated bread and wine--to God in atonement for our sins and the sins of the entire world.

In our prayers and fasting, this Lent, O Lord, we bring our sins and the sins of the entire world to you and beg your forgiveness, your mercy and compassion.  Be merciful to us sinners and restore us to your friendship this day and every day of our lives. And may we, in turn, be merciful, compassionate and understanding of one another, taking time to reconcile with each other, as You reconciled us to the Father.

Christ as One Who Ends All Divisions

In today's second reading,  Ephesians 2: 13-18, St. Paul reminds us that Jesus "came and preached peace to [us] who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we [all] have access in one Spirit to the Father."   Paul was speaking to Jews and Gentiles, peoples who were at odd with one another, divided by different faiths. In Jesus, divisions cease between persons, cultures, nations.  Jesus "is our peace, he who made both [parties-- whether individuals or nations, different races or nationalities] one and  broke down dividing wall/[s] of enmity, through is flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create  in himself one new person [nation, race, culture, religion] in place of the two [or three, four, five, etc.] thus establishing peace, and might reconcile [all] with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it."

God sees us at war with those we consider inferior to us; He witnesses us at odds with different cultures, races, nationalities, countries. God, not only sees the divisiveness and the animosity that exist among us, but also takes action, sending us the graces we need to end divisions, to reconcile with one another as persons, as countries in opposition to one another, as persons  hostile toward those who may worship God differently than we do.  We have God on our side to help us accomplish the mission of reconciliation and to move toward greater union and deeper love in our relationships on all levels of existence: familial, interpersonal, societal, ecclesial, national, international.

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?

A Human Will Embracing God's Will

In today's Gospel, Luke 1: 57-66, we witness Elizabeth and John rejoicing in the birth of their son.  When the eighth day to circumcise him was upon them, those conducting the ritual wanted to name him Zachariah after his father. Elizabeth says: "No. He will be called John." The presiders objected: "There is no one among your relatives who has this name." Not being able to communicate with Zachariah because of his muteness, the presiders made signs to him.  Zachariah asks for a tablet and writes: "John is his name." Immediately, Zachariah's ability to communicate is restored!

Wow! Talk about God revealing His will and His power, both in the birth of John the Baptist and in restoring Zachariah's ability to speak!  God also wills for His plan to be fulfilled in us and that we, too, become His mouthpiece, conforming our wills to His!  Whatever within ourselves that we have distanced from God, God brings near to Himself. Whatever is  barren, God makes fruitful. And whatever part of our hearts has become hardened, God softens so that the will of God in our lives can be realized, as it was within Elizabeth and Zachariah.

Reconciling with a Person Who Hurt Us

In today's Gospel, Matthew 18: 15-20, Jesus tells us that if someone has sinned against us we are to personally go to that person and tell him or her how we have been hurt by their behavior.  We are also reminded that "whatever [we] bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever [we] loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."  By going directly to the person who hurt us and sharing our feelings, identifying the behavior on the other person's part that has hurt us we then free that person and ourselves.  By not reconciling with the person who hurt us we keep that person, whether a citizen here on earth or in heaven, and ourselves bound.  Jesus did not say that the act of reconciliation would be easy but it is important for our freedom and the freedom of the other person, if that person is open to being reconciled or humble enough to acknowledge his/her wrongdoing. And even if our effort to become reconciled is not accepted, we free ourselves.

What am I willing to do to bring about reconciliation?

The Cup of Blessing

In today's first reading, 1 Cor 10: 14-22,, Paul asks us: "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of
Christ? Because the loaf of bread," Paul states, "is one, we, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one loaf."

The bread that we break at a Catholic Liturgy is Jesus' body broken for us on the cross.  The blood that we drink is Jesus' Blood poured out for us on Calvary.  In our participation in the Eucharist, Jesus becomes one with each of us and we become one with one another: one Body of Christ, one Body in Christ. It is the Risen Lord who, in the Eucharist,  visits us, hidden in the consecrated bread and wine. The bread and the wine before consecration is not bread and wine after the consecration. It is the Risen Christ who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit--one God, three divine persons; one God, undivided unity and Trinity.  As Jesus, the Father and the Spirit are one with each other, so, too we are to become one with others.  We are to live with others as Jesus lives with and in the Father and the Spirit, giving, loving, creating the good in all, for all and through all in God's name and reconciling all to His Father through His death and resurrection.

In what ways do I strive for unity with those with whom I live and work and pray? In what ways to I give, love, and create the good in all, for all and through all in God's name? And in what ways am I divisive?  And, if divisive, what do I do to bring about reconciliation?

Disciples of Jesus: Persons of Reconciliation

St. Paul, in 2 Cor 5:19, reminds us that God was and is reconciling the world to himself in Christ Jesus and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  As quoted in today’s Gospel, Mt 12: 14-21, the Prophet Isaiah prophesies Jesus’ way of reconciliation:  “A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

The first reading of today’s liturgy speaks about the 430 years that the Israelites were slaves of the Egyptians and how God freed them, brought them to the promised land.  We, too, will encounter suffering in our lives, as did the Israelites, as did Jesus.  With the Lord, we will walk the road to Calvary, be scourged by burning, scorching words,  by injustices and heartbreaks. We will be “nailed” to crosses of pain and suffering from which there is no escape except death. We will be crowned with the thorns of verbal and emotional abuse (many times coming from the way in which our self-messages lack compassion). The very pain we suffer with, in and through Jesus will lead to resurrection, to being reconciled with ourselves and others. When we peer into our pain and suffering, look for lessons we need to learn, only then will “a bruised reed... not break, a smoldering wick... not [be] quench[ed]." In seeking wisdom from what we suffer, we are enabled to bring "justice to victory". We then open the way to experiencing the resurrection, that is, newness of life, new hope and new ways of loving self and others.

God's Restorative and Reconciling Presence in our World

In today’s first reading, Nahum 2: 1, 3; 3:1, 6-7, the prophet  vividly describes the horror that descended upon the Israelites through their enemies.   “Woe to the bloody city, all lies, full of plunder, whose looting never stops! The crack of the whip, the rumbling sounds of the wheels; horses a-gallop, chariots bounding, cavalry charging, the flame of the sword, the flash of the spear, the many slain, the heaping corpses, the endless bodies to stumble upon!....”  Sounds like recent descriptions in our evening news: bodies piling up in Palestine, in Syria, in the Ukraine, in our city streets; children abandoned at our borders, persons dying of Ebola and other diseases, Christians driven out into deserts  left to die by Iraqis.  Many times, we wait to hear what the Israelites heard from Nahum when God delivered them from the violence and destructive forces of their enemies: “Celebrate your feast, O Judah, fulfill your vows! For nevermore shall you be invaded by the scoundrel; he is completely destroyed. The Lord will restore the vine of Jacob, the pride of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined the tendrils [vines].”   
 
All of us, obedient to God’s laws,  striving for justice, loving tenderly, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8), will experience God’s restorative powers, the reconciling love that unites us with our compassionate, loving, merciful God. Already, we have been made one with the Father through Jesus’ death and resurrection.  As we journey through this “vale of tears” there are times when we experience this union, especially when we receive the Eucharist or are Eucharistic people to others, giving of ourselves in love in our own brokenness to bring healing to others, to comfort those in pain. We will also know the fullness of being one with our Creator when we pass through the doors of our suffering and death and enter into eternal life, as did Jesus in His resurrection from the dead.
 
Praise and thanks to our God!

Continuous pain, Incurable woundedness

In today’s first reading, Jer 15: 10, 16-21, Jeremiah laments about having been born, sees himself as a person “of strife and contention.”  He complains that he neither borrows or lends yet “all curse me.”  He cries out in his pain, saying to the Lord: “Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?”  How many people, I thought, are in that state of mind, tortured by emotional and psychological pain, traumatized by the violence of war, sitting in refugee camps, and so wounded by past traumas of sexual, physical, verbal and emotional abuse that their psyches remain, it seems, incurably wounded. 

The Lord responded to Jeremiah, asking him to repent of any wrongdoing and bring Him “the precious without the vile.”  Each and every person is the precious one in God’s sight. Before God, none of  us is despicable, wicked or loathsome.  In Christ Jesus we have been made clean, purified, healed and made whole.  Jesus Himself took our vile with Him when He entered Gethsemane. His agony was our agony,   as Jesus, the Son of God, lives in the Eternal Now.   Not only His agony in the Garden but also His crucifixion on the cross and his resurrection are our sufferings, our crucifixions and our resurrections, as, in Baptism, we died and rose with Christ. Before willingly going into His final hours,  Jesus prayed to His Father, and ours, that we would all be made one in Him as He and the Father are one. His prayer would not have fallen on deaf ears. You and I, if not now, later will know this oneness with the Lord and with one another. Vile will not separate us from the Lord.  On the cross,  Jesus set us  free us from that which defiles us, saying to the Father: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” when they commit evil or go astray. Jeremiah repented of any wrongdoing he might have done. 

May you and I repent of all that defiles our thinking or choosing or interacting with others and believe in the resurrection, accepting the grace of being set free.

The Punishment of Reconciling Fell on Jesus

Good Friday:

“By 3:00 p.m. today, Lord, you will have been put to death. Your returning to the Father will occur very soon. Your journey back to the Father will include being tortured, scourged, spit upon, slapped, crowned with thorns, kicked, shoved, stripped naked, nailed to a cross and “hung up" to die.  Isaiah described you as “inhumanly disfigured” (Is 52: 14), that you “no longer looked like a man—so many nations will be astonished and kings will stay tight-lipped before…[you], seeing what had never been told them, learning what they had not heard before. Who,” Isaiah asks, “has given credence to what we have heard?...[You] had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts; …[you were] despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard. Yet ours were the sufferings …[you] were bearing, ours the sorrows …[you were] carrying, while we thought of …[you] as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God; whereas …[you were] being wounded for our rebellion, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on…[you], and we have been healed by…[your]  bruises.”

“My bones were not broken,  Dorothy Ann (insert your name). My heart was.  I saw and experienced the ugliness of sin and its torturous effect on all of creation, male and female, humans and animals, all of the earth. It was not pretty. It was repulsive to look at, as was I on the cross.”

The Kingdom of God is Here

The Kingdom of God is here. Jesus did not establish his Kingdom with military might.  Jesus came in peace to proclaim the Gospel, Good News.  Peace be with you was a frequent greeting of Jesus, especially  after the Resurrection. That same greeting may be gleaned from the Angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary: "Be not afraid; you have found favor with the Lord."  God says the same to us: "Be not afraid; you are favored by the Lord God, who comes, in Christ Jesus, to restore us to the Father, to right our relationship with God, to crush Satan, whose goal is to lure us away from all that proclaims God's goodness, His compassion, His love.  Jesus comes to draw us to the Lord in love by the goodness of God revealed by his good deeds among us.  The blind see, The deaf hear. The sick are healed of all kinds of diseases, the Gospel tells us today. The lame walk. Those possessed of demons are freed.

Yes, come back to God. The Kingdom of God is here making all things new, righting all wrongs. That is God's nature and yours and mine as well in Christ Jesus.

The Power of Friendship

In today’s first reading, 1 Samuel 18: 6-9; 19: 1-7, we read of Saul’s jealous rage toward David and his fear that he would take over his kingship.  Upon his return of slaying the Philistine, David and Saul are approaching the city and are greeted by women “from each of the cities of Israel…singing and dancing, with tambourines, joyful songs, and sistrums. The women played and sang: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’. Saul was very angry and resentful of the song, for he thought: ‘They gave David ten thousands, but only thousands to me. All that remains for him is the kingship.’ And from that day on, Saul was jealous of David” and planned to kill him.

Each of us has a Saul, a David, and a Jonathan within us.  For instance, at times, like Jonathan,  as friends of another, we may be called upon to intercede for that person, making efforts to bring sense to a raging member of the family, a parishioner, a coworker, a neighbor, a person in authority who is determined to harm a friend of ours.   We can learn a lot from Jonathan, who says to his father:  “Let not your majesty sin against…David, for he has…helped you very much by his deeds.  When he took his life in his hands and slew the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel through him, you were glad to see it.” Jonathan  does not approach his father in  anger but in wisdom. He’s thought things through before confronting Saul.  Saul listens and Jonathan's friend is saved. 

 May we, too, when called upon to do so, have the courage to stand up for our friends, for anyone in trouble. May we, like Jonathan,  bring about peace by first pointing out the good in the person “at war” with  the other, ready to act out his/her jealous rage or out-of-control anger. May we have the courage to speak up to authority on behalf of another who will harmed if the contemplated action is not  thwarted.  Gently, caringly and firmly, may we challenge choices that could lead to disaster, pain and hardship, and, yes, even death.  

Nelson Mandella: A Person Faithful to the Spirit's Guidance

In today’s first reading, Isaiah 29: 17-24, Isaiah prophesies that Lebanon shall be changed into an orchard, and the orchard be regarded as a forest! On that day [of salvation] the deaf shall hear the words of the book [the book of life itself]; and out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see.”

Out of the 27 years spent in the darkness of an 8’ by 8’ prison cell, Nelson Mandela’s efforts to confront the injustice of apartheid in South African were finally realized.  Out of gloom and darkness, the injustices  imposed by wealthy whites upon the people of color, a light had shown. The justice of God shown through Nelson Mandela.  As the prophet Isaiah prophesied, the “lowly” found “joy” in the Lord working through Mandela. The “poor” were led to rejoicing in the Holy One of Israel at work in South African through a faithful son, a beloved brother, who was willing to die for justice, integrity and right relationships between whites and blacks, between the rich and the poor.  Through Nelson Mandela, the people of his country witnessed the power of reconciliation and forgiveness, in that Mandela forgave his oppressors, his jailers, those who condemned him to life in prison. Why? Because he stood for truth, justice and right relationships. Grace triumphed over the evils he fought against because of Christ’s victory on the cross where Satan’s head was crushed, where evils were rendered powerless. Because Mandela cooperated with the Spirit of God directing him from within, “Lebanon” was “changed into an orchard, and the orchard [is now] regarded as a forest—an “orchard”, a “forest”  where the dignity and the rights of all people, black and white, are respected.

In cooperation with the absolute and limitless graces of salvation won for us by Christ on the cross in His triumph over death, physical and otherwise, and out of respect for Nelson Mandela ,  may we, too, stand up for the rights of  all people.  May we, like Nelson Mandela,  turn our weapons into plowshares, using reconciliation and forgiveness as weapons  instead of nuclear bombs, drones, and threats of violence. May we have the courage to stand up for truth, justice and the rights of all people even to the point of dealing with the opposition of those who are oppressors of the poor and lowly in the world, in the church, in our societies, in our workplaces; in short, in our personal, familial, ecclesial, social, civic and governmental realities.

Jesus: God's servant

In today's Gospel, Mt 12: 14-21,   Jesus withdraws from the area where He had been doing ministry because the Pharisees were plotting "to put him to death."  He continues elsewhere quietly going about the work His Father had given Him to do.  "I have come, not to condemn the world, but to save it,"  Jesus tells us in Jn 12:47.  As quoted by Matthew in today's Gospel, Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah, saying that He "will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.  A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench,  until he brings justice to victory. And in his name the Gentiles will hope."

Jesus comes as our servant, showing God's love, compassion and mercy as we see in His response to the woman caught in adultery, in the parable of the prodigal son, from His first words on the Cross ("Father, forgive them"), and his response to the good thief ("This day you will be with me in Paradise") as well as through His total ministry here on earth.

You are I are called to follow Jesus, to do as Jesus did, to serve others, to show others God's compassion, mercy, love and forgiveness; in short, to carry on His mission of reconciliation.  Do I protect the "bruised reed," the "smoldering wick," show mercy to the sinner (including myself), welcome back a prodigal son/daughter (including being welcoming to myself when I make a mistake), bring "justice to victory," and hope to the situation in which I live?

Dealing with Painful Eruptions

In today’s first reading, Acts 22:30; 23: 6-11, Paul is brought into court. When he explains his situation—‘My brothers,…I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead”—a dispute erupts. Ever been in a situation where you described what was/is going on for you, or you shared a dream of yours concerning something new and exciting,  and strong emotions exploded? My reaction, in those situations, is one of disbelief that I am not understood, not supported, not affirmed.  I feel hurt, discombobulated, confused. “What’s happened here,”  I wonder. “Where did I go wrong,” I question.  “Why are people reacting so angrily at what I said or did?”  In my hurt, I either flee or fight. It takes me time to come back and discuss the situation calmly and when I do and am able to apologize, then the door is open to move toward reconciliation. My point of view may still not be understood or supported or affirmed but the relationship has changed from antagonism, hostility, and rejection to acceptance.  The possibility of moving to even deeper levels of understanding  and reconciliation now exists.  A significant part of coming to this place of forgiveness includes waiting upon the Lord. Restoring of relationships and asking forgiveness (even though I may not see where I went wrong, so to speak) depends on grace. It happens in God’s time and in God’s place.  “Wait upon the Lord and be saved,” the psalmist tells us. And in Isaiah 30:15, the prophet says to us:  “By waiting and by calm, you shall be saved; in quiet and in trust your strength lies.”