Ordinary persons who are "Companions of Jesus"!

In today's first reading, Acts 4: 13-21 the leaders, elders and scribes were amazed at what Peter and John had done, seeing them as simply ordinary men, "companions of Jesus"!  All they had to boast of in the eyes of these secular men was Jesus the Christ!  They were not highly educated men. They were fishermen. That is all in the eyes of people who had no faith in Christ Jesus! 

 When the elders, the leaders and the scribes sternly rebuked Peter and John and forbade them to speak of Jesus, their response was: "'Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to obey you rather than God, you be the judges. It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.' After threatening them further, they released them, finding no way to punish them, on account of the people who were all praising God for what had happened."

You and I have the same credentials as Peter and John. We are ordinary people and "companions of Jesus"!  Do we have the faith of Peter and John? Do we believe in the Christ as Peter and John did? It looked so simple: the crippled man was begging for silver and gold and Peter and John said to him: We don't have that to give you. What we do have, however, we do share with you. In Jesus' name, rise and walk! And the crippled man took Peter's hand, got up and walked, jumping around praising God for the healing power that overpowered his crippled state!

People in our lives are also freed of that which cripples them when we share God's love with them by loving, forgiving and lending help to them, when we encourage them to rise up to the occasion, support them in the good that they do, challenge them when they are allowing human weakness to hold them back from doing good and so on!  We may not recognize the "miracle" God is doing through us but that does not negate His work in us and in others!

Vulnerabilities of Human Nature

In today's first reading, 2 Sam 24: 2, 9-17, David orders a census taken of all the tribes in Israel that he may know their number.  He learns that there are 800,000 men fit for military service in  Israel and, in Judah, 500,000, a total of 1,300,000 men that he can employ in wars against Israel's enemies.  His pride and engaging in a task apart from God is an insult and an offense against God.  A prophet is sent to David with the instructions to offer David three alternatives to David, one of which God will inflict upon David:  three years of famine, a three-day pestilence upon the land, or that David himself flee from his enemies for three months. David chose the pestilence. Seventy thousand Israelites lose their lives as a result of this scourge upon the land.  David begs the Lord to spare the people, saying: Lord, punish me, not these people; I am the one who sinned against you.

How easy it is for us to play God, to engage in activities without consulting God, to go against God's wishes. By doing so we are saying to God: I don't need you! We may be surprised at King David, as he was the one who took on Goliath, saying that God would be on his side, as He was in sparing David's life from the lion when thrown into the lion's den by his enemies!  David, as God's chosen one had done both great things and things that revealed significant weaknesses and vulnerabilities to sin. And each time, confronted, David listens and repents of his wrongdoing.

None of us is exempt from the weaknesses of human nature, neither the rich nor the poor, neither those in privileged positions or those in positions considered lowly.  All of us need God and, at times in our lives, need God desperately as did St. Dismis, who, during his crucifixion, turned to Jesus and begged for mercy. 

May you and I, like King David and St. Dismis, acknowledge our sinfulness and turn to the Lord for His mercy and assistance.

Faith, Love and Forgiveness in Action

In Today's Scripture, 2 Sam 18: 9=10, 14b, 24-25a, 30-19:3, David learns that his son Absalom, who was out to kill him and take over his kingdom, is killed.  David is crushed and cries out:  My son Absalom! My son, Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, mu son, my son!"  The Incarnate Son of God does die in our places.  And He weeps when any one of us does not accept the gift of life He has given us by taking on human flesh, all its weaknesses, except sin, and is put to death in our places that we will inherit eternal life.  Nothing is more painful for God than the death of one unrepentant sinner.

This love of God is also revealed for us in the Gospel of today, Mark 5: 21-43.  One of the synagogue officials, Jairus by name,  approaches Jesus and begs him to go lay his healing hands upon  his 12-year-old daughter who is dying. Jairus' friends inform him that his daughter has died and that he should stop bothering Jesus. Jesus says to him: Disregard your friends' report. "[J]ust have faith." His daughter is healed!  Also, a woman suffering from an illness for 12 years touches Jesus' clothes, saying to herself:  "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."  As soon as she touched Jesus,  her affliction left her. Jesus knew that someone in the crowd had touched him and asked who had done so. The woman comes forward and tells Jesus her whole story and Jesus says to her: "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

Who am I in these Scripture stories of faith and love? Absalom filled with hatred toward a family member and out to kill this person? David, who grieves the loss of his son and does not condemn him for seeking to kill him? Jairus, a non-Jew who believes in Jesus and seeks His help to save his little girl? the woman who believe that in just touching Jesus' clothing she will be healed of an illness that plagued her for 12 years? Jesus, who responds to people in need, even persons not of  His religious beliefs?

Am I, are you, a person of faith like Jairus and the woman seeking healing? Am I, are you, a person of forgiveness and love like David?  And if I am like these persons and like Jesus, how does my faith translate into actions such as modeled in these Scriptures?

Wake Up; Call upon God

In today's first reading, Jonah 1: 1-2: 2, 11, the Lord said to Jonah:  "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me."   The wickedness in today's world also comes up before God.  Is it possible, as in the case of Jonah who fled to Tarshish "away from the Lord,"  that many people today are also fleeing from God, doing whatever possible to escape following God's will to address the corruption, the deception, the wickedness of sin-laden humankind?  Is it possible that the turbulence in any part of the world--natural or man-made "storms" --are the result of our having abandoned God?   Do we need someone, as did Jonah, to confront us with the question: "What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God. Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish"  in our wickedness!

With the psalmist, in today's responsorial psalm, we pray:

Out of [our] distress [we call] to the Lord, 
and he [answers us]; 
From the midst of the nether world [of corruption, deception, and violation of law and of people's rights  [we cry] out for help,
and you [hear our voices].for you cast [us] into the deep [of sin-infested behaviors], into the heart of the sea [of an abundance of lies and abuses of power],
and the flood [envelops us];
All your breakers and your billows
[pass over us].
Then I said, 'I am banished from your sight!
...When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord; 
[Our] prayer reached you...'"

Lord, God, have mercy upon us who have strayed from the path of righteousness, truth and justice in the search for wealth or an abundance of material things and pleasures of all kinds, especially pleasure at the expense of the innocent.  Forgive us, Lord, for wanting things our way instead of Your way and the way Jesus modeled for us!

Behaviors and Speech That Reveal Love, Faith, and Purity

In today's first reading  1 Tim 4: 12-16, St. Paul exhorts us to not "have contempt  for [our] youth, but to set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. "

Simple but profound teachings!  There is a psalm that says: Lord, I am not preoccupied with things too profound for me or beyond me.  Living a spiritual life, St. Paul says,  is about not showing contempt for oneself or anyone else, about not showing contempt for my life as a youth or any other time, not showing contempt for the elderly or poor or sick or lame, or mentally ill, the rich or the poor, immigrants or natives,  those whose skin is black or yellow, white or red.

Jesus, in today's Gospel,  Luke 7: 36-50, enters the house of a Pharisee. He is not greeted, as was the custom of Jesus' time, with the washing of his feet or the anointing of his head. A woman, a known sinner whose many sins were forgiven by Jesus, enters the house, knowing that Jesus is there, and, in profound gratitude,  washes Jesus' feet with her tears, anoints His feet with "an alabaster flask of anointment" and kisses them. The host is disturbed by what he sees happening and says to himself:  "If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner."

Contempt! The woman's behavior does not reveal contempt for herself or Jesus but love, purity and gratitude. The pharisee is definitely out of line, not setting an example "in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity." St. Paul by word and the woman by example challenge us to live a life of love, faith and purity. Our speech and our conduct are to reveal our faith in Christ Jesus, as did the conduct of the woman who anointed Jesus' feet.  Our words and actions are to reveal the depth, the breath, the width, and the height of  our love, our faith, our trust in Christ Jesus, in ourselves and in others.

If someone shadowed us today, what would our behavior or our speech reveal of us?

"By the Grace of God, I Am Who I Am" (1 Cor 15: 1-11)

In today's first reading, 1 Cor 15: 1-11, St. Paul hands on to us what was handed down to him, namely, that Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.  In grappling with his own history of persecuting the Church, he says: "[B]y the grace of God, I am what I am."  In today's Gospel, Luke 7: 36-50, a woman enters Simon's house, having found out that Jesus was dining with this Pharisees. Simon is upset and says to himself: "If this man [Jesus] were a prophet, he would  know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him."  Jesus reads Simon's thoughts and shares with him a story of two persons forgiven a debt, one of the debts is large and the other much  smaller.   Which man, Jesus asks Simon, will love the creditor more? "The one, I suppose, [responds Simon] whose larger debt was forgiven."  Jesus then turned to the woman and says to Simon: "'Do you see this woman?....[H]er many sins have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love'....He said to [the woman]: 'Your sins are forgiven....Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'"

Who am I/who are you in this Scripture passage?  Simon who is standing in judgment over others? the creditor who forgives the debt that others owe him? the persons owing debts to others? the sinner kneeling at Jesus' feet, kissing them, anointing them with expensive oil, weeping out of love for the Lord and, recognizing her sinfulness, grateful for being forgiven?

The Law of Love Written on our Hearts

In today's first reading, Jeremiah 31: 31-34, the Lord says to us through the prophet that "the days are coming...when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah....I will place my law within them, and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  No longer will they need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord. All, from least to greatest, shall know me,..., for I will forgive their evil doing and remember their sin no more!"  You and I have the law of God--the law of love--written on on our hearts.  We know right from wrong and are reminded by the Spirit every time we ignore what God has engraved on our heart.

To confirm and reinforce this message of love and forgiveness, Jesus became sin for us upon the cross, putting sin to death and clothing us in a robe of righteousness, as St. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 5: 21:  God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."  In Ephesians, Paul says to us:  "...[P]ut  on [your] new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4: 24).

Have I forgotten God's love? Am I too busy attempting to find salvation elsewhere where God is not? Have the excitements of the world blinded me? Has my heart become so hardened that I no longer sense the spirit nudging me to return to the Lord, to offer Him a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, to give Him my heart in sacrificial love for the life of those with whom I live and work, pray and play?

God's Justice

Today's liturgy opens with the following antiphon:  Give me justice, O God, and plead my cause against a nation that is faithless. From the deceitful and cunning rescue me, for you, O God, are my strength (cf. Ps 43 (42): 1-2).  In light of those who have recently been stripped of their jobs , I paraphrase this antiphon as follows:  "Give them justice, O God, and plead their causes against faithless leaders. From the deceitful and cunning rescue them, for you, O God, are their strength."

In today's responsorial psalm, we pray to God as follows:  "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 sins cleanse me. A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me. Give me back the joy of your salvation, and a willing spirit sustain in me...."

May God have mercy on those unjustly firing their employees. May God have mercy on the "deceitful and cunning" and "in the greatness of [His] compassion wipe out [the offenses of those doing the unjust firing]."  It is more difficult to apply the rest of the psalm to the persons who dominate our news today, yet we know that Jesus forgave the good thief on Calvary when he turned to Him and asked to be remembered. "Remember me, Jesus, when You get to Your kingdom" and Jesus responded: "This very day you shall be with me in my Kingdom."  Jesus does not rejoice in even one sinner, you or me or anyone else, being lost. All sin was destroyed on the cross and all sinners saved. I pray for this salvation and for God's saving graces to transform the evil we are seeing in our own lives and in the world of today!  God, have mercy on  us all!

God's Mercy

In today's first reading, Jonah 4: 1-11, Jonah describes God as "a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, rich in clemency, [and] loathe to punish."  Knowing that truth, Jonah is reluctant to carry out God's command to warn Nineveh of impending disaster, if they fail to repent.  Nineveh repents and Jonah is angry with God.  It's like Jonah says to God: "I knew you would relent and not punish Nineveh. That is why I did not follow your command, in the first place. And sure enough, You showed them mercy when they put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, fasting and praying for forgiveness. I knew I should not have delivered your message!"  Angry, Jonah withdraws and pouts.

How often do we not act just as Jonah did!  God is merciful to the persons whom we believe, beyond a doubt, deserve to be destroyed. Those persons repent and go their merry way, rejoicing in the Lord. We were sure that these persons deserved punishment but were spared. And we pout, more often than not, and feel the pain of being embarrassed, as we spouted out the evil against the penitents!

May we have the humility to come to the Lord ourselves and say: "Be merciful to me,  O Lord."

God's Justice

In today Gospel, Matthew 18,  21-19:1,  Peter asks Jesus how many times does he need to forgive those who sin against him: "As many as seven times?"  Peter asks.  Jesus responds: "Not seven times but seventy-seven times," Peter. Jesus then goes on to describe the Kingdom of heaven in terms of a king settling accounts with those who owe him money.  The king has a debtor brought before him  who owes way more than he could ever pay off. The debtor's master, therefore, orders that this person's "wife, his children,  and all his property be sold as payment."  The poor man, totally distraught, begs his master to have pity on him. "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full." The master dissolves the debtor's entire loan. He owes nothing, nothing at all.

That is us, folks!  Because of our sins, we owe God a debt that, in no way, are we able to pay off. In his mercy, God resolves our debt entirely through the passion, death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, whom He sends into the world to reveal God's love for us! Jesus pays our debt! emus is our ransom!

Will we, by the way we live our lives in justice, love, mercy, and forgiveness accept God's pardon?  Or are we squandering God's gift of salvation by doing what the forgiven man did: treating others mercilessly?  "Should [we] not have...pity on [our] fellow servant[s], as [God] has pity on [us]?

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?

Choice of Virtue or Sin

Today’s readings,  Ez 18: 21-28 and Mt. 5: 20-26, both address the importance of choosing virtue, of righting the wrongs we have done towards others and ourselves, of turning away from sinful attitudes towards others and ourselves—of letting go of our resentments and our grudges that we hold against one another or against ourselves, of no longer holding others or ourselves in disdain.  Ezekiel tells us that if a sinner, turns away from all the sins he [she] has committed, if he [she] keeps all [God’s] statues and does what is right and just, he [she] shall surely live, he [she] shall not die.”  On the other hand, if a virtuous person “turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kinds of abominable things that the wicked…does, can he [she] do this and still live? None of his [her] virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he [she] has broken faith and committed sin….”

Those are strong words and, from time to time, each of us is both the sinner and then, again, the virtuous and repentant one. From time to time, each of us turns away from sin to virtue and then, again, away from virtue to sin.  With the psalmist in today’s responsorial psalm, we pray:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;

Lord, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

to my voice in supplication.

If you, O Lord, mark iniquities,

Lord, who can stand?

But with you is forgiveness,

that you may be revered.

I trust in the Lord;

my soul trusts in his word.

My soul  waits for the Lord

more than sentinels wait for the dawn.

Let Israel [let each of us] wait for the Lord.

For with the Lord is kindness

And with him is plenteous redemption;

And [God] will redeem Israel [and each of us]

From all their [our] iniquities.

Compassion and Forgiveness: God's Saving Gifts

In today’s first reading, Ephesians 4: 32-5:8, Paul states clearly what the Lord asks of us, namely, to be compassionate and forgiving of others as God is of us.  We are asked to imitate Jesus, who gave his life for us. For whom am I giving my life today? Whom will I uplift today through my acts of love and forgiveness? Will I be a source of strength, hope and love for others today or will I burden others today by attitudes of selfishness, stinginess and disdain or  by deceitful ways and speech, through gossip and the like?  Paul goes on to say: “Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving.”  Just in case we do not get it, he says furthermore: “No immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.”

My thoughts immediately went to what we witness during the campaigns for presidency of the U.S.  But that, in itself, draws Paul’s rebuke, as am  I not  engaging in silly talk about our politicians. Am I not then being divisive, looking at a “them versus us” categorization?   Is such talk not dragging others down to the level to which I lowered myself? Today’s Scripture opens with the invitation to be “kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God  has forgiven you in Christ.”  My thoughts then would be: “Lord, forgive me my trespasses as I forgive others theirs.”  I would, like the republican in Sunday’s Gospel, be saying to the Lord: “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18: 14). 

May you and I heed Paul’s admonitions and follow the way that truly leads us to the “inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God,” that Jesus won for us by His death on the cross for our salvation and salvation of the entire world, including the politicians of today and forever!

God's Instructions through Today's Scripture Readings

What, Lord, is your message to me in today’s readings, Proverbs 3: 27-34 and Luke 8: 16-18?

Dorothy Ann (insert your name), live a life of truth, justice, love and forgiveness. My light will then shine through you, as Jesus says in the Gospel.  Keep your focus on me, not on those who are plotting evil against others, who slander others in their quest for high positions, who lord it over others in the hopes of securing control of a situation that is beyond them.

Seek Me, above all else. Put your house in order and do not try to order the houses of others. That is theirs to do. 

Take the beam out of your eye and do not waste energy trying to remove a splinter in the eyes of another.  That is not the reason I created you. I am God, not you. If you were a parent, it would be your responsibility to remove a splinter from the eyes of your children, while simultaneously removing the beam out of your own eye, but you are not a parent! I am your Parent! You are my child!

You will maintain your peace if you do that which is highlighted in today’s first reading, Proverbs 3: 27-34:

               “Refuse no one  [on one, Dorothy Ann—insert your name--no one]

                the good on which he [or she] has a claim

                when it is in your power to do it for [that person].

                Say not to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come again,

                tomorrow I will give,’ when you can give at once.

   “Plot no evil against your neighbor,

                against one who lives at peace with you.

                Quarrel not with [a person] without cause,

                with one who has done you no harm….”

Lord, I trust that you will give me the grace to do these things one day at a time in your name.  When I fail, I ask for your forgiveness and the humility to start over again.

God's Promises and Deep Concern

In today’s first reading, Jeremiah 31: 31-34, the Lord says to the Chosen People, “The days are coming…when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers:  the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord.”

Has the day come when the Lord, our God, has to show Himself the master of the U.S. and of the world? What will it take for us to realize that God has placed His law within us, that God has written His law on our hearts because He is our God and we are His people? As I listen to the news each night I do not get the impression that we act as people of God!  In this passage, the Lord God says: “All, from least to greatest, shall know me,…, for I will forgive their evil doing and remember their sin no more.”  Much of what is broadcast to the world in the evening news  is the evil doing of people rebelling against God and one another. Is it time for God to “show [Himself] the master” of us all, “to take [us] by the hand to lead [us] forth from the land of Egypt,” yes, from that place of slavery into which we have fallen: slaves to satanic behavior, slaves to power and control over others, slaves to idolatrous positions, acting as though we humans are gods, not servants of the one True God?

God's Compassion and Mercy

In today’s first reading, Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20, the prophet Micah prays to God as follows: 

Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance.…, as in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs. Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins; You will show faithfulness to Jacob,[Leah and Rachel], and grace to Abraham[and Sarah], as you have sworn to our fathers/[mothers] from days of old.

That message is given to us today as well as to the people of old.  We are “the flock” of God’s “inheritance.”  The land of Egypt symbolizes the places and times when we, like the Israelites, were/are victims of, or perpetrators of, sin:   selfishness, abuse of power and control, the sins of oppression and injustice, the exploitation of the poor and oppressed, persons engaging in deceitful behaviors and so on.  In today’s world slavery abounds, as it did in Egypt when God rescued His people. Today’s slavery includes  slave labor, making children and women slaves of the sex industry, of  drug trafficking, of those abusing their power, and so on.

Micah reminds us that when we lower ourselves to evil schemes and sin against others and against ourselves,  God “will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt.”  God does not condone our sinful behaviors but He does pardon us, has compassion on us, and, yes, “cast into the depths of the sea all of sins.”  This does not mean that we will not suffer the consequences of our sinful, selfish actions whereby the rights of others are trampled upon.  It does mean that, when we turn to God in repentance, God is merciful and forgiving!

With the psalmist in today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 85,  we pray: “Restore us, O God our savior, and abandon your displeasure against us….Show us, O Lord, your kindness, and grant us your salvation.”

Earthly or Material Strongholds Will Not Save Us

In today’s first reading, Hosea 14: 2-10, the prophets prays that God will “forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls [whatever we offer in sacrifice and praise to our God].   Assyria,” Hosea reminds his fellow Israelites, “will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; we shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you [in God] the orphan finds compassion.”  The people are then reminded that God “will heal their defection,… [and that God] will love them freely.”

Hosea says the same to us today.  We are in need of being forgiven our iniquities—whatever they may be—and receive what is good for us as individuals, as a society, as a family,  as a church.  For what good do we long?  Is it something that will bring the best out of ourselves and out of others?  Is it a good that builds up the Kingdom of God—a kingdom of justice and truth, a kingdom of righteousness and joy? Is it a good that makes us stronger in God’s love, in loving ourselves as children of God and thus loving others? Is it a good that leads us to be respectful of ourselves and our neighbor? Or is it a false good, an inauthentic good, namely that which promotes disharmony and hatred, that pits us against them, that feeds attitudes of superiority and inferiority, that alienates us from others and from our God?

Do we realize that “Assyria” will not save us, that we do not have horses to mount but that we need to come off our “high horses” and mingle with the poor and the lowly, the needy and the orphans of our land, realizing that we are not different from other human beings in need of salvation and mercy, love and forgiveness?

Healing, Forgiveness and Mercy

In today’s Gospel, Matthew  9: 1-8, people bring a paralytic person lying on a stretcher  to Jesus. This person is dependent upon others to bring Him to the Lord.  Jesus sees their faith and says to the paralytic: “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.”  Bystanders are disturbed and, in their thoughts, are accusing Jesus of blasphemy, that is of profanity, sacrilege, wickedness, and/or irreverence.  What an accusation. Jesus knows their thoughts and asks them: “Who do you harbor evil thoughts?”  To prove a point of His authority, he says to the paralytic: “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

You and I are both the paralytic and a bystander. We are paralyzed by our sinfulness, our selfishness, our pride, our judgments against others and other sinful behaviors and attitudes.  Our unresolved hurts and angers towards persons who harmed us throughout our lives, easily and many times unknowingly,  blocks our ability to rise to new life and new opportunities to be a source of new life deeper trust, and renewed faith for others.  As bystanders, we are prone to judging others, not helping them, empowering them or ourselves to incarnate God in our midst as Jesus did.

Lord, I bring to you my own paralysis, my own evil thoughts and ask for healing.

“Courage,” Dorothy Ann (insert your name), your sins are forgiven. Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home” to spread the Good News of your salvation and to be a source of saving graces for others by your work, your faith, your love and your merciful forgiveness of others and yourself on a daily basis."

Be Merciful and Compassionate; Put on Love

In yesterday's first reading, Col 3: 1-11 Paul outlines a life that is contrary to God's will; namely, that in our "nature [which] is rooted in earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and that lust [for power over others achieved by deceitful and coercive means, wealth that is hoarded at the expense of the poor, material things accumulated as God substitutes, and so on],which is idolatry."  In today's first reading, Col 3: 12-17, we are given "the recipe," if you will, of synchronizing our will with the will of our Father/Mother God, our  Creator:  "Because you are God's holy ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another; forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord as forgiven you. Over all these virtues put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect."

We have examples of persons who clothed themselves in the virtues Paul mentions: Nelson Mandela,  who forgave his enemies, lived a life of kindness toward those who had him imprisoned for 26 years for working for the equality of all peoples;  a woman who pinned a prayer on the lifeless body of a child killed by terrorists that read: "Remember, Lord, those of good will and those of evil will. Do not hold the evil against those who did this but may all of the fruits born of this evil deed  be their forgiveness"; Mother Frances, the Foundress of my religious community, who forgave those who, in her absence, deposed her from the office of Superior General, replacing her with another person; and, above all, Jesus on the cross, who said to His Father: Father, forgive  them for they do not know what they are doing.

In  what ways am I, are you, taking seriously Paul's message?

A Faithful God

In today's first reading, Gen. 41: 55-57; 42: 5-7a, 17-24a, we are presented with the story of Joseph of Egypt as governor of that country during the famine that stretched over the then-known world. Joseph's brothers come down to Egypt for food. He imprisons them for three days and then releases only two of them to return to their father with the instructions to return with their youngest brother. The brothers realized that "what goes around comes around," so to speak. They believe that they are being punished for having sold their brother Joseph into slavery, ignoring his pleas for mercy.

Joseph teaches us to make good of a bad situation. He remains faithful to God through all of the ordeals of his life and God remains faithful to him. God also shows mercy to Joseph's brothers, whose family would have died of  starvation without Joseph's intervention. 

You and I, as sinners, fall short every day. God does not. At times we become the "Josephs" in other people's lives. At other times, we become the "victims" of other peoples' jealousy and anger, shortsightedness and pride, as happened to Joseph. Like Joseph, at times, we become "slaves" of some sort. At times, we find ourselves in situations that are painful, that demand faithfulness, creativity, and a commitment to the One who alone can save us and make right the wrongs in our lives.

Joseph rose to greatness not on his own power but in cooperation with others in his life and, paramount, in being faithful to God. So, too, with us. We need both God and others. When people we counted on fail us, we need to reach out to other people that God provides for our well-being. We need to, with the help of God and others, find ways to live fruitful lives, making "lemonade" when life throws us lemons, so to speak.   

We always have choices: to do our best no matter what and empower others to do the same; to wallow in self-pity and bring others down to that level as well or to  lift ourselves and others up in faith, hope and love, becoming survivors in life. We have the choice of becoming revengeful or forgiving people; to go through life with a "chip" on our shoulders that weighs us down and surround ourselves with like-minded people, or to seek to be raised up by the Spirit of God and by persons who are supportive, who recognize our talent, our giftedness, our faithfulness, and to do the same for others, as did Joseph.

Which choices have you and I made in life thus far? Which choice will we make today?