The Power of Faith

In today's Gospel, Mark 7: 24-30, a Gentile approaches Jesus asking that he heal her daughter of a demonic possession. His response to her is that the Chosen People come first. She is referred to as a "dog". She comes back with: "Even dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table." She insists. Nothing is going to deter her from getting the help for her daughter that she is seeking. She will not be turned away from the gift of healing that Jesus is capable of giving. She's heard of His miracles and she is going to be a recipient of such. Jesus sees her faith and says to her: "...[G]o [home]. The demon has gone out of your daughter." Wow! would I have that kind of faith. If I had been called "a dog," I would have felt insulted, especially coming from Jesus. I have difficulty when someone I consider older than I, more powerful than I, having more authority than I, insults me. I shy away and leave that person's presence, usually sulking and need time to think things through before I resurface with the confidence needed to address the situation in my favor. May each of us learn, however, to stand up for ourselves, as this woman did. Jesus certainly will help us become our own person and remain persistent and patiently, respectfully and kindly ask for what we need, as did this woman. She went away filled with gratitude and knowing that what she was asking of Jesus was the right thing to do. May you and I approach Jesus and others with that same confidence, that same kindness, that same persistance and patience in time of need, our own or that of others.

The Wisdom of Solomon

In today's first reading, 1 Kings 10: 1-10, the queen of Sheba comes to visit Solomon to test his wisdom. Is he truly as wise as others have said he is, she is wondering. To her astonishment, she discovers a wisdom greater than she has ever encountered in the past and more profound than the reports she has heard. Solomon, as a young man, a boy, perhaps, when entrusted with the throne, asked the Lord for wisdom. "O Lord, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David, but I am a mere youth.... Give me, your sevant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong"(See 1 Kings 3: 4-13). Note Solomon's humility, his recognition of being God's servant and his request for wisdom. Do I realize that I, too, am God's servant and do I recognize the importance of asking the Lord to give me a wise heart? Frequently, in the Gospels, Jesus takes his apostles aside to teach them wisdom. For instance, in today's Gospel, Mark 7: 14-23, he teaches them that what enters a person's body is not what makes one unclean but what comes out of one's mouth defiles: envy, jealousy, greed, unkindness--abusive, disrespectful, demeaning, murderous, adulterous, deceitful, arrogant words--are what make me unclean in the sight of God and my companions on the journey of faith. I pray, Lord, for this wisdom--the wisdom You taught your apostle and which you also teach me. May I wisely take time each day to allow You to take me aside and explain the Scriptures so that my heart becomes one with Yours.

God Dwells among Us

In today's first reading, 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30, Solomon is amazed that God, the Creator of the Universe, has entered the Temple. How, he wonders, does God, whom the highest heaven cannot contain, dwell in a temple built by humans. More than that, however, God becomes a human person Himself. He takes on human flesh as the Son of Man, God Incarnate. He becomes one of us and experiences everything about being human, except sin. He is acquainted with sadness and sorrow, rejection and acceptance, joy and gratitude. Because he became human, he knows firsthand what it is like to be treated rudely, arrogantly, abusively, to be spoken to disrespectfully,to be looked down upon with disdain. His feelings have been bruised by sarcasm and ridicule. He's been abandoned, left to die--yes, he has been the man left for dead on the roadside, having been beaten and robbed. He is our homeless and immigrant population, the so-called alien person that people want deported, cast out of their countries, their towns and cities, their parishes and their homes. How can it be so? That is God's love for humanity, a love that is infinite.He is elated when we experience the best of what it means to be human. He grieves when we experience the worst of what it means to be human, when we allow sin in us to have the upper hand over grace. For that reason He became human, died and rose from the dead that we, too, will rise from all that creates death in ourselves and in others. What a great God we have, one like us in all things but sin so that we, too, can become the very holiness of God and realize the best version of ourselves.

Resting in the Lord

The apostles were all excited about the success of their mission experiences. People were being healed, demons driven out, and the Kingdom of God proclaimed. They returned to the Lord and reported all they had done. Jesus listened and then invited them to "[c]ome away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." How difficult to do that a times, at least for me.I have a tendency to always want to keep going, to seek the applause, the attention of others: "Look at what I did," is a natural human desire. A part of me, for sure, only wants the glory for the Lord but another part wants to be recognized. "Come away...to a deserted place," Jesus says to me. I need to learn over and over again that the Lord is in charge. That whatever good I do is from the Lord at work within me. The glory truly is His and I need to withdraw into prayer and solitude to give the praise to the Lord, to thank Him, and be purified.

God's love, affection and desire for our safety

Both of the readings of today’s liturgy, 2 Sam 18: 9-10, 14, 24-25, 30; 19:3  and Mark 5: 21-43, speak of the bond of love, affection, and concern members of a family have toward one another and God toward His family, us, his children. In the first reading, David is inconsolable when he hears that his son Absalom was killed, even though Absalom was hunting down his father to murder him.  In the Gospel, we experience the tenderness, the love, and the affection of God/Jesus toward the woman who touches the hem of his garment, the official of the synagogue whose 12-year-old daughter is dying, and the little girl herself.  God, a God of tenderness, compassion, and love, wants to heal us and make us whole.

David  and Absalom reflects God’s relationship with us. Though we may turn against God and choose our will over His, as Absalom turned against his father and David chose to commit adultery and murder, God does not stop loving us or wanting the best for us. He desires that no harm come to us .  His healing power flows into us, also,  when we, like the woman suffering from an illness for 12 years and at the end of her “rope,”   but touches the hem of Jesus’ garment, when we but come to Him in faith as did Jairus, asking that his little 12-year-old daughter be brought back from the gates of death.  God’s only response to our faith and trust is love and healing, tenderness and forgiveness, no matter how far we have distanced ourselves from Him. God does not ever walk away and, like David, Absalom’s  father, wants no harm to befall us. His will is to bring us safely back to our eternal home.  What is yours?

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!

Jesus Shares in Blood and Flesh to Secure our Freedom

In today's second reading, we are given the following message:  "Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all their life" (Hebrews 2: 14).  "Who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all their life," what could that possibly mean? People scramble here and there, for this or that, compulsively consuming drugs and alcohol to the point of becoming unconscious, delirious, numb. Other people slavishly seek one experience after another, get involved in one sexual encounter, then another and another and another; run here, run there, seeking more and more material goods, larger paychecks, more yachts and summer homes, more and more expensive vacations, more clothes, more gadgets. Others are desperate to look younger and younger, going under the knife for face lifts and tummy tucks and what have you to defy age, to remove wrinkles and liver spots. Are we, in fact, afraid of death, afraid of advancing toward eternal life, afraid of going to Jerusalem with Jesus, unsure that our resurrection will be glorious?

St. Paul says to us in 1 Cor 2: 7-11, "It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, which God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. None of the rulers of the age recognized it; for if they had recognized it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but it is as scripture says: 'What no eye has seen or ear has heard, what the mind of man[woman] cannot visualize; all that God has prepared for those who love him, to us, though, God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God."

Is it that we are failing to explore the depths of life that we live on its surface only, living to get drunk or to numb out with material things, tummy tucks and face lifts or whatever the world offers as THE way to be fulfilled, actualized, made popular and powerful? Are we ignorant of THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, and thus slaves to a fear of death?