Blessed Are Those Who Trust in the Lord

In today's first reading, Jeremiah 17:5-10, the Lord says to us through the prophet: we pray: "Blessed is the [person] who trust in the Lord, whose hope is the Lord. [That person] is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit...."  Those who trust rather in human beings or who put their trust in the flesh, "whose heart turns away from the Lord" is cursed, not blessed.

Those are strong words from the Lord but are they not true? How can there be any blessing coming to me when I turn away from the Lord? I then enter a desert, a parched land, and become distressed and anxious!  On the contrary when I turn to the Lord, seek His face, call upon Him for the help I need to meet the difficulties of the day, to get through the rough times, to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit, I then am unafraid. Why? I then realize that the Lord takes me by the right hand, leads me to right choices, and gives success to the work of my hands. I then bear fruit. I then stay "green," that is hopeful and experience the goodness and the kindness of the Lord!

God's Got Our Back!

Both readings of today's liturgy, Numbers 11: 4b-15 and Matthew 14: 13-21, speak of God providing food for His people. In the desert God sent manna from heaven each day.   "At night, when dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell." In the Gospel, the disciples ask that Jesus "dismiss the crowds so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves" as it was getting late. Jesus replies:  "There is no need for them to go away." The disciples discover that someone in the crowd of 5000+ people has five loaves and two fish. Jesus takes "the five loaves and two fish" and feeds the crowd of "about five thousand men, not counting women and children." We are told that "all ate and were satisfied."  In the desert, on the other hand,  the people complained about  God's choice of responding to their hunger by sending them manna to eat. They were angry about having no meat.

In the Gospel, the disciples could not believe that there was anything that could be done to feed a crowd of 5000+ people with only two fish and fives loaves of bread.  God's response to the Israelites in the desert and to the disciples gathered around Jesus, is one of patience. God had a plan then and does now in your life and mine!

In these two stories, we could be like the Israelites in the desert who are fed up with "manna" and complaining that life, in the past, was much better than it is now. Or we might identify with Moses, who goes to God and says:   "Where can I get meat to give to all these people? For they are crying out to me 'Give us meat for our food.' I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress."  Might we be like the disciples in the Gospel who want Jesus to send the crowd away and not be bothered to feed any of them?  Some of us might be like the person in the crowd willing to share the little he/she has, trusting that God will provide. And, finally and hopefully, many of us are like the people who are fully satisfied, at the end of any day, that God has generously met our needs this day so that, in turn, we can meet the needs of others as well.

Whoever you are in these stories, may you humbly go to God and share your story!

God, the Sower of Seed

In today's Gospel, Mt. 13: 1-9, Jesus speaks to us about the sower who went out and sowed a bunch of seeds. Some fell on a well-used path and was quickly consumed by hungry birds. Other seed fell on rocky, shallow soil. It sprang up quickly but with shallow roots had no way to survive.  Still other seed ended up in soil populated with thorns. The thorns multiplied and choked off the seedling plants; they died.  And, yes, some seed fell on soil rich and yielded a rich harvest.

As I reflected upon this passage, I thought of many people who, in my mind, do not fit the description of soil  that yields a harvest worthy of the Kingdom.  The soil that these people cultivate does not bear fruit that will last into eternal life.

As I prayed, the Lord reminded me not to judge anyone but to follow Him and that He is God; there is no other.  Furthermore, the Spirit repeated that God sows good seed and that I need to prepare the soil of my  heart to receive it, nurture it, and allow it to bear fruit that will last into eternal life. It is important, I was reminded, that I do not let worries about what is going in the political arena choke off the seeds that the Sower is sowing.  "Trust me," God said to me in prayer, "and cast your cares upon Me. I am God; there is no other. I am a Warrior God, I will fight for what is right. And at the right moment, all those choosing evil will fall into the traps they are setting for themselves. I will not stop them against their wills.  Choose Me, Dorothy Ann. Choose Truth. Choose Love. Choose Life, not death." 

God as Our Inheritance

The response to today’s responsorial psalm is “You are my inheritance, O Lord.”  Today we celebrate the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, who comes from a very wealthy Assisian family.  Her inheritance would have been huge.  She left it all, escaping the family dwelling at night to join St. Francis of Assisi to live a life of poverty.  She says to the Lord: “You are my inheritance, O Lord,” not the wealth of my family.  You are all I need in life, not earthly riches, not a life of luxury, not expensive pearls or other attractive jewelry and expensive clothing. You are enough for me. I need nothing else in this life but you.

How many families and/or marriages are stressed out over the inheritance being left them by their wealthy families.  How many wealthy families fight over their wealth.  Not Clare. God was all she wanted and needed. She left everything, even the wealthy suitor her parents secured for her marriage.”My Lord and My God, you are enough for me.” And she lived her entire life of consecrated poverty that way.

Those who have discovered the wealth of dependence upon God above all are truly wealthy, whether married, single or being members of a religious congregation!  Those who trust in God above all are truly secure.  Nothing on this earth can provide the security of our Lord and God! The Lord says to you and to me:   “Trust in Me and you shall be saved. Serve Me above all in your neighbor and you will know true joy.  Seek  Me above all and you will know a  peace the world cannot give you. Truly,” God says to us, "I am enough for you.”  Jesus, the Son of God,  says to us  in Matthew 6: 25-27: “…Do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more important [ to Me] than they? “

 St. Clare knew that and lived that! What about you and me?

David's Reliance on God

In today’s first reading 2 Sam 15: 13-14, 30; 16: 5-13, King David is being pursued by those who want him dead, who are clinging to his past sin of adultery and murder and are convinced that all of the misery in their lives is due to David’s sinfulness.  As he flees his pursuers, a man follows him, leveling curses at him and throwing stones at him.  One of the men fleeing with David wants to kill the person who is harassing David. David’s reply: “What business is it of mine or of yours,…that he curses? Suppose the Lord has told him to curse David; who then will dare to say, ‘Why are you doing this?’” David maintains his peace.  He is well aware of his sinful past, has repented and returned to serving the Lord to the best of his ability, realizing that there are consequences to his sin against Uriah.

All of us are sinners.  That does not mean that we do not love the Lord or are incapable of doing good.  David teaches us humility and repentance, of the importance of  acknowledging our sinfulness and seeking reconciliation with our God.  No matter what our past, there is salvation for us in God (compare Ps 3 of today’s liturgy).  With David, we can pray as David did in Psalm 3 of today’s liturgy: “…[Y]ou, Lord, are my shield; my glory, you lift up my head!  When I call out to [you,] Lord, [you] answer me from [your] holy mountain. When I lie down in sleep, I wake again, for…[you,] Lord sustain me. I fear not the myriads of people arrayed against me on every side.”

This reminds me of the “myriads of peopled arrayed” against the Catholic Church “on every side,” holding the sins of the past, the sins of certain priests or bishops or popes, the weaknesses of the hierarchy against it, just as David’s son Absalom and his followers held David’s sin against him and were bent on destroying him and his followers. In both instances, people have taken their eyes off of God, our Creator, and Jesus, our Savior and are riveted on things they cannot change. Only God is unchangeable and perfect. No human being in any state in life is perfect, whether of the Church or outside of the Church, whether members of our own families or the families of others and, “no”, not even us. We all need God’s mercy. Let us keep our eyes on the Lord, not on his servants or kings or priests or bishops or even the Pope. We are all dependent on the mercy of God to accomplish God’s will. And God’s plan will not be thwarted even in the hands of the worst of sinners.

Lord, teach me to rely on you and you alone, to seek you and you alone!

God's Plan of Salvation

Today's first reading, Hebrews 2: 5-12, speaks of God the Father's plan of salvation. He sent His only begotten Son, the Word of God, through whom all things came to be, to whom all things are made subject and through whom all persons are consecrated, to save us from the Evil One, the One who tempted Adam and Eve in Paradise to mistrust the Lord God and tempts us repeatedly today to question God.  The One who consecrates us and those being consecrated all come from one Source and are returning to that Source. 

Jesus, fully human, has already returned to the Father and sits at his right hand in the inherited royal Kingdom that lasts forever and that Jesus has secured for us by His life, death and resurrection. Jesus, who was like us in all things but sin, learned obedience to the Father from what He suffered in assuming human nature and all that being human entails.  Jesus trusted God even to the point of death on the cross, whereas the Israelites failed over and over again to trust the Lord on their way to the Promised Land, worshipping idols and becoming like the pagan nations around them.  Through his trusting obedience, however, Jesus reconciled us to God the Father, reopened the gates of heaven to us, and secured our salvation and sanctification. 

Like Jesus, we are here to learn to trust God versus putting our trust in this world's idols. We are here to learn obedience from what we suffer, as modeled by Jesus.  Many times when I face hardship, encounter the painful realities of this life and find myself frustrated by the limitations of human nature, I am rebellious, disobedient and mistrusting of God. At those times I need Jesus to mentor me, comfort me and restore me to right relationships with God, with others and with myself.

Faith Alive

In today’s first reading, 2 Kings 19: 9b-11, 14-21, 31-35a, 36, we hear the story of how Hezikiah, King of Jud, handled the news of impending disaster.  Sennacharib, King od Assyria,  was planning to attack Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Israel, to do to them what had been done to the Northern Kingdom: disperse them, exile them from their inherited land and destroy the Temple, their place of worship.  Hezikiah went to the Lord and prayed:

“O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned upon the cherubim! You alone are God over all    

the kingdoms of the earth. You have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your

ear, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Hear the words of Sennecherib

 which he sent to taunt the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid

waste the nations and their lands, and cast their gods into the fire; they destroyed

 them because they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone.

Therefore, O Lord our God, save us from the power of this man, that all the kingdoms

of the earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

Hezikah’s prayer was answered and 185,000 men of Sennacherib’s army died that night. Sennacherib retreated.

Your response might be: “What magic!” It was not magic. Hezikiah was a God-fearing person, a man who lived by faith.  He expected to see God in the events of his day.  If we live by faith, we will  also see God at work in our lives and in the world of today. If we do not keep our covenant with God, if we do not rely upon God, if we do not look for God, we, obviously will not find Him nor will we see Him at work in our lives. Disaster will be disaster period and not something out of which God brings a good.  Chaos will be chaos and chaos alone, not something out of which order will emerge in God’s time with our cooperation and reliance upon God.