O the Love of our God

A reflection on today's reading from Isaiah 50: 4-7.  In this passage, Jesus says to you and me:

Because I love you, (insert your name), I did not flee  from my persecutors.  I deliberately, willingly and courageously entered Jerusalem this day. I knew what lay ahead for me, even though palm branches were strewn on my path and people shouted "Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord."  I went to Jerusalem for you,  (insert your name). I have not rebelled against suffering. I have not grumbled against my persecutors.  I gave my beard willingly to  those who plucked it. I gave my face to those who spit upon  me, mocking me, making fun of me: "Look at him. Spit running down his his face. How disgusting is this man."  I gave my head to those who pushed a crown of thorns upon it, mockingly saying "Behold the King of the Jews." I gave my back to those who viciously beat me with whips laced with razor blades. I cried out in pain but not in curses toward those torturing me.

My Father was there helping me and I felt no shame. I did not feel disgraced, though I took on the shame and disgrace of all sinned against and those abusively sinning against others.  I took all your shame upon me, insert your name, to free you from its burdens!

O Lord, our God, have mercy on us!
O Lord, our God, thank you for your love.

O the Love of our God!
O the tenderness of our God!
O the courage of our God!
O the compassion of our God!
O the strength of our God!

God, be praised!
God be glorified!
God be thanked!

Faith, Trust,Obedience

Today's first wading, Gen. 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18, we are told the story God testing his servant Abraham.  He asks him to take his only begotten son to the land of Moriah and there "offer him up as a holocaust o a height that I will point out to you.  My initial reaction is one of horror!  Then I read on to realize that God was only testing his servant.  After Abraham had prepared the altar, bound his son, and was about to slaughter him, God intervenes, calling out: "'Abraham, Abraham!....Do not lay your hand on the boy...Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.' As Abraham looked about , he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.....[B]ecause you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly ad make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing--all this because you obeyed my command."

Wow! What faith! What trust! What obedience!  You provided the ram for the holocaust! No way did you intend Abraham to kill his only begotten son!  But it seemed like it at first! I was appalled, Lord! Appalled! "How could you?" I asked myself!  And you really didn't! How truly you can say to a me: "My thoughts are not your thoughts nor are my ways your ways."

How many times when things get tough do I not lose faith and trust and, yes, obedience! How often do I not abandon going to the "Moriahs" that God asks me to go to, testing my faith, my trust, my obedience!  And how often I fail the test! I forget at those times who God really is--a God filled with compassion, love, mercy, a God who has got my back! He had a plan for a holocaust that would save me forever: His only begotten Son death and resurrection. As Jesus climbed the hill to Calvary carrying the wood, as Isaac carried the wood up the hill in the land of Moriah,  He was the lamb to be sacrificed. There was no other!  It was Jesus' obedience unto death, Jesus' trust in the Father unto death and into the resurrection, Jesus' love even through death that restores my obedience, my trust, my love of God. In Jesus' death, I, too, die; in His resurrection, I, too, rise to new life!

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?

Christ: Our Salvation

“…now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, … and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him, not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption for us. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement and they restore the holiness of their outward lives (emphasis mine); how much more effectively the blood of Christ, who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to God through the eternal Spirit, can purify our inner self (emphasis mine) from dead actions so that we do our service to the living God” (Hebrews 9: 11-14).

 The Old Covenant was but a shadow of the New. God’s power in saving the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians—all who sprinkled their doorposts with the blood of the slaughtered unblemished lamb were saved from death--was but a foreshadowing of God saving us by the blood of His only begotten Son from the slavery of Satan, a slavery far more devastating than any kind of slavery here on earth by human beings enslaving other human beings.  Satan roams the world in search of souls to cast into everlasting fire, separated from God for all eternity. The slavery that we endure here on earth never separates us from God, as God’s connection with us is eternal, is of the spirit and can never be severed by what can happen to us physically. Spiritually, God has secured our eternal redemption in Christ Jesus, the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away sin and who sits at the right side of His heaven Father in heaven interceding for us.

Steep me, O God, in this mystery of redemption and the price it cost your Son to save me from the slavery of sin.

Blessed from our Mother's Womb

In today’s first  reading, Judges 13: 2-7, 24-25a, we are presented with the story of the angel of the Lord appearing to the wife of Manoah, to announce to her that, “though you are barren and have had no children, yet you will conceive a son….”  The author of Judges then affirms that “the woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up and the Lord blessed him; the Spirit of the Lord stirred him.”  In the Gospel, Luke 1: 5-25, we are told the story of the angel announcing to Zachariah that “your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John,” and that “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” 

Just as with Samson and John the Baptist, so, too, was God involved in the conception of each one of us. God chose our parents for us, prepared our coming to birth, determined our purpose in life, as He did Samson’s and John’s  from their mother’s womb. As the Spirit stirred Samson and directed John throughout their lives, so, too, the Spirit stirs us.   In the responsorial psalm of today’s liturgy, Psalm 71, we say to the Lord: “On you  I depend from birth; from my mother’s womb you are my strength.”   

May we, Lord, be aware of this heritage of grace. May we recognize God’s Spirit stirring us to realize the purpose for which God created us, the purpose for which we are where we are, with the persons with whom we share life this day, involved in the world and the Church in the ways that we are.

Mary's Visit to Elizabeth: A Model of a God-centered Life

Feast of the Visitation of Mary:  Inspired to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth, Mary does so.  Both Mary and Elizabeth recognize the great things God is doing in their lives. Elizabeth greets her 14-or-15-year-old cousin with: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen… that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greetings reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”  Mary responds: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name.”

Neither of these women is self-centered. Both are focused outside of themselves, one praising Mary and standing in awe of what the Lord has done for her cousin and the other praising the Lord and standing in awe of what God has done for her and the implications of that fact.  Both women are affirmative, positive, humble, and overwhelmed with gratitude. Both respond from a faith stance.  God is the center of both women’s lives.

Lessons modeled by both Mary and Elizabeth:

·         The  courage to follow the Spirit’s promptings and going/doing what the Spirit inspires

        us to do, without question
·         Living life from a faith stance—there is always a God-dimension functioning in our lives,
       a dimension made known to those who seek God above all else  and who look for God
       at work in the other and in oneself
·         Acknowledging God’s work in the depth of our beings
·         Being a blessing in our encounters with others and blessing others in those encounters
·         The humility of putting others first and reaching out to meet their need.

To which of those lessons do I need to give serious attention today?

God's compassion and blessing

September 7—Today’s responsorial psalm reminded us that God is compassionate toward all of His works. That means that God is compassionate toward you and me. God understands the challenges we face as human beings to live as Jesus lived: being nonjudgmental; caring toward the oppressed, those who are crippled emotionally and/or physically, the hearing impaired, the mentally challenged, the needy, ourselves, children and adolescents when they test our patience.  Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” We might translate that into “Blessed are you when you know how dependent you are on me.” To be compassionate as Jesus was we need His intervention; we need grace.  Neither do we develop a sense of compassion without being in relationship with others. Therefore, to put on Christ, we need one another as much as we need God. We do not grow spiritually in a vacuum or by isolating from others and from the challenges of life.  Being poor in spirit and therefore blessed means that we depend upon the Lord and one another, that we believe in the goodness of God, in our own goodness and the goodness of others.  For me, this brings me to the foot of the cross, begging for God’s mercy and His help and thanking Him for the grace of redemption .