Blessings on you!

The message to all of those who read this blog comes from today's first reading, Numbers 6: 22-27:

"The Lord bless you and keep you!
The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Happy New Year!  May 2019 be the best year of  your life! 

The Almighty, All-Knowing, All-loving, All-Good God

"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne and from the Lamb,"  we read in today's first reading, Rev 7: 2--4, 9-14.  Being saved, being made whole, being healed, being restored to the fullness of life is a gift from God, our Savior.  We see this process of being made whole, of striving for a restoration to wholeness, happening when we cut ourselves, for instance.  Our bodies naturally heal.  We see death and dying all around us this fall, as the leaves fall to the ground, disintegrate and become fertilizer for new life to burst forth in spring.  The never-ending cycle of birth and rebirth are daily examples of restoration to new life, to wholeness, to returning to fullness of life as God's gift to us.

It is not, I believe,  just when we enter eternal life and receive a new body that we know God's gift of salvation. We know it now here on earth in situations described above and in relationships that are restored when we co-operate with grace, seeking forgiveness after we have brought pain into another person's life.  Cyclically, beginning with the Trinity in the relationship of Father to Son to Holy Spirit and in the Trinity's relationship with each one of us and us with each other, the creative and healing powers of God flow, bringing us, every day,  to a new level of wholeness, to an ever-expanding level of fruition,  and to a sharing more and more in the fullness of life Jesus promises us in the Scriptures.

Truly, "[b]lessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might..." (Rev 7: 2-2, 9-14) belong to the Almighty,  the all-knowing, the all-loving, the all-good God, who put into existence these creative energies, beginning with the start of creation--humankind part of the ongoing process of creation--and extending to eternal life.

Blessings and Encouragement

In today's first reading, 2 Corinthians 1: 1-7, Paul greets the people of Corinth by saying: "[G]race and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."   That same greeting is given to us today wherever we are and whoever we are.  Also in  this passage, Paul proclaims that our God is a God "of all encouragement," a "Father of compassion," one  who "encourages us  in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God."

Here in this life you and I are an extension of God. We are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others. We are encouraged by God in our suffering,  pain, and challenges of life in order that we, in turn, will encourage others as they encounter realities of this life that leave them baffled, confused, hurting or traumatized, not because God wills life's calamities but that, in them, we may seek the Lord, discover God's presence and rely on God's power to bring about our salvation.  

The psalmist, in today's responsorial psalm, invites us to "taste and see the goodness of the Lord."  With the psalmist, may we be able to say at the end of the day: "I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears."  May I also accept the invitation of the psalmist to "[l]ook to him [God] that...[I] may be radiant with joy, and ...[my face] may not blush with shame."    May I "glorify the Lord,...extol his name", and take "refuge" in the Lord" in every circumstance of life and especially in the difficult times.

Choices that Lead to Abundant Blessings

In today’s first reading, DT. 30: 15-20, God says to us: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom…..Choose life…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….If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, …you will certainly perish.”

Every day you and I are faced with choosing to listen to the Lord, our God, to heed His voice and follow his ways or follow the ways of the world and get caught in the snares of Satan—secularism, narcissism, individualism and relativism, to name a few, and the gods these serve.   However, when we choose the fullness of life Jesus speaks about in the Gospels and which God offers, we will prosper, not necessarily according to the standards of the world  but definitely according to the Holy Spirit who readily bestows the following life-giving gifts:   inner peace, inner joy, the strength of the Spirit, God’s abundant love active within our choices and God’s light in the dark moments of life.  

The choice of  “life and prosperity, [heeding the voice of the Spirit],  death and doom [ignoring the Spirit’s lead]”  is ours to make. If I choose my will over God’s, my choices will block the blessings God is prepared to give in abundance.

Which choice will you make?

The Beatitutes' Blessings

Mt 5: 1-12: The Beatitudes: “Blessed are you, (your name), the Kingdom of heaven is yours when you realize your dependency upon me, when you know that you are my creation, my possession; when you realize your creatureliness and my transcendence, imminence and indwelling, when you are obedient to the directions of the Spirit that I whisper from within you and around you and through others. The Kingdom of heaven is yours when you assume a listening, respectful stance toward others and are sensitive to the feelings of others, the fragility of the esteem of another, the other’s need for affirmation and support. The Kingdom of heaven is yours when you do not lord it over others, are meek and humble of heart.    

Blessed are you, (your name) when you mourn when others are suffering loss: the loss of a loved one, the loss of valued possessions, the loss of dignity and respect, the loss of self-esteem and support, the loss of freedom.  Blessed are you, (your name),  when you mourn these  things and take steps to restore loss self-esteem, offer support to “weakened knees” raise up fallen heart and allow others to grieve their losses.

Blessed are you, (your name), when you are meek and humble of heart, you will inherit “solid land”; you will not sink into the “mud” of a disgruntled, angry, proud heart.

Blessed are you, (your name,) when you show mercy; mercy will be shown to you.

Blessed are you, (your name), who are pure of heart, when the purity of the Spirit within you transforms that about you that is less than what God intends it to be. As your heart grows in purity, so, too, do your eyes see more clearly where and when God is present or absent. Yes, you will see God at work when your heart is pure.

Blessed are you, (your name),  when you keep the peace by being peaceful within and without, when you seek to resolve conflict peacefully rather than avoiding it or pretending peace has not been compromised by your behavior or speech or negative attitudes. When you strive to restore peace peacefully, people will then call you a woman/a man of God.

Blessed are you, (your name), when, standing up for what is right, when acting justly, when showing mercy, when being forgiving, when acknowledging Me, you are persecuted, ridiculed, “stoned” with disparaging words, your reward in heaven for speaking the truth and doing what is right will be great.

Blessed Are You/Woe to You

Today’s Scriptures for Wednesday of the 23^rd Week in Ordinary Time are filled with wisdom, beginning with the first reading, the responsorial psalm and the Gospel.  In 1 Cor 7:25-31, Paul says to the Corinthians and to us:  “…the world in its present form is passing away.”  Therefore, he says,  when you buy something do so “as not owning” it and use “the world as not using it fully.”  The only thing that truly matters is “faith, hope and love” and “the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). Is love the dominating force in my life, the ultimate motivator of my choices and the actions in which I engage?

Jesus says to us in the Gospel, Luke 6: 20-26, “Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.”  Poor, that is, in realizing our total dependence upon God; humble and meek as we stand with Jesus, interacting with others humbly, lovingly, justly and thereby being a source of their healing and trust in the Lord’s goodness. Why?  because of the choices you and I make on their behalf.  Jesus goes on to say: “Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you shall be satisfied.” Hungry for what? Right relationships, justice and acting justly, love and loving tenderly, humility and acting humbly as a servant of God; for living honorably and respecting life, for truth and holding to truth.

Jesus also says to us: “Woe to you who are rich,” that is rich in self-righteousness, rich in pride, filled to overflowing with disregard for others, disdain of any discipline, looking down on the less fortunate and clinging to “anything goes” and to “I do what I want when I want, where I want, how I want with no regard for the welfare of others, the common good, truth, justice and love.”  “…You are filled now,” for you will be hungry later when you stand before God without a heart filled with virtue that lasts forever.

Special people, blessings

We just celebrated several birthdays of sisters with whom I minister here in NJ. There are several of
SSMs celebrating birthday this month. This led me to thank God for His creation of us and of
 of people who cross our lives. One such person in my life is Amalia Frances Rose Streitel, aka Mother Frances, the Foundress of my religious community. Amalia was born on November 24, 1844. It was a dreary, gray day.  As was the custom, she was baptized that same day. In spite of no sun, the room lit up like a Christmas tree and the priest quoted Scripture, asking: “What will this child turn out to be?”   As mind-bottling as her baptism is her life with God. The same is true of each of us, even if the room in which we were baptized did not burst into unexplainable light! More tomorrow!