Direct Us, Lord, and Deliver Us

My prayer today is that of the author of Psalm 25: 1-8,  entitled “Prayer in danger”:

Adoration I offer, Yahweh,

to you, my God.

But in my trust in you do not put me to shame,

let not my enemies gloat over me.

Calling to you, none shall ever be put to shame,

but shame is theirs who groundlessly break faith.

Direct me in your ways, Yahweh,

and teach me your paths.

Encourage me to walk in your truth and teach me

since you are the God who saves me.

For my hope is in you all day long—

Such is your generosity, Yahweh.

Goodness and faithful love have been yours for ever,

Yahweh, do not forget them.

Hold not my…sins against me,

But remember me as your faithful love dictates.

Integrity and generosity are marks of Yahweh

for he brings sinners back to the path.”

I offer this prayer for the U.S.A. I am afraid that we have abandoned integrity, goodness, and faithful love. We have left the path, I am afraid, of truth and need God to save us: “Direct [us] in your ways, Yahweh, and teach [us] your paths.”  Also, Lord, “let not [our] enemies gloat over [us]. Be with us, Lord, as we pass through the darkness and chaos that is likely to lie ahead. I ask this in Jesus’ name.

Salvation from a Merciful God

In today’s responsorial psalm, Ps. 37, we pray that “the salvation of the just comes from the Lord.” St. Paul, in today’s first reading, Titus 2: 1-8, 11-14, tells us why this is so.  He says:   “For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.”

You and I have had nothing to do with this. Salvation is a gift freely given.  It is ours to reject or accept. God eagerly awaits the moment when He will open the gates of heaven to all who accepted deliverance “from all lawlessness.”   God eagerly awaits the moment when He will swing open the doors of heaven to rescue us from Satan’s determination to devour us in disobedience.  For those of us who humbly repent and recognize our total dependency upon grace, our “cleansing” is secured by the One who became sin for us. O, how great and loving and caring and merciful is our God! 

 Everything about our being “eager to do what is good” is a gift from God, for “the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope” of our eternal  salvation .

I accept this gift from God and want to live it humbly, knowing that, apart from God, I can do nothing that is good. And when I experience my sinfulness, I pray for the gift of repentance.

What about you?

Being a Slave of God and an Apostle of Christ

In today’s first reading, Titus 1:9, St. Paul introduces himself to  Titus as “a slave of God and Apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God’s chosen ones and the recognition of religious truth, in the hope of eternal life that God…promised before time began….”   Paul also tells Titus what he wants to see in a presbyter, a bishop, that is, in one who is a steward of God. Such persons, Paul states, must be blameless, humble, gentle, sober, generous, moderate, unconcerned about material gain,  lovers of goodness, hospitable, temperate, just, holy, self-controlled, and persons who hold on to the truth of sound doctrine. 

By our baptism, we are all reborn into persons of righteousness, persons who are to become lovers of goodness, who are to grow in such virtue as being  hospitable, temperate, just, holy, self-controlled and learners of the truth of sound doctrine. We are, in Paul’s words, by virtue of having died and rose with Christ in our baptism, slaves of God and apostles—that is followers, messengers, disciples-- of Jesus Christ .  Some are ordained into these ministries as adults but all are commissioned by baptism to live as disciples and messengers of Jesus, as slaves of Christ. We belong to the Lord. We have been bought by God in the outpouring of His Son’s blood on the cross.

Do I take seriously my baptismal call to be a messenger of Christ by the way I live my life? Do I realize that, by my baptism into Christ, I, too, am called to be generous, just and holy, to live moderately, temperately and hospitably? Or do I shrug off these, and other Christian, challenges as applicable only to ordained bishops and cardinals, ordained priests and deacons?

From Lowliness to Glorification

In today’s first reading, Phil 3: 17-4:1, St. Paul reminds us that Jesus  “will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified Body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself.”   This lowly body of mine, and yours as well, will be glorified, that is exalted, deified, elevated!  We have all been made in God’s image and that image will shine forth in a way that will reveal Christ in us!  Our glorified bodies will shine like the stars in the sky, brilliant like our Savior’s!  Sin will no longer have any power over us! The veil will be removed that now hides our true self created in the image and likeness of our God. 

What if we remembered that every day as we walk through this valley of tears, as we Catholics pray in the “Hail, Holy Queen.”  Our hope would soar! Nothing would bring us down or lower our spirits! It is mind-bottling, also, to realize that Jesus, at every moment, is bringing “all things into subjection to himself.” He is doing that now. Everything, in my life and yours, Jesus uses to transform us into Himself, to purify us, to make us holy, to exalt us as THE redeemed!

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of redemption! Thank you, Jesus, for sending us the Holy Spirit to bring us to the Truth, to open our minds and hearts to know you, the one true God! May every  breath I take give you thanks. May every step I take praise you!

Seeking to Know Jesus above All Else

“Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord,” we pray in today’s responsorial psalm, Psalm 105.  For what am I searching?

In the first reading,  Philippians 3: 3-8a, we encounter Paul at a time in his life when what matters above all else was knowing Jesus. Nothing else mattered to him. “I…consider everything as a loss,” Paul says to us,  “because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” What a grace when, in our lives, we, too, have come to the realization that knowing Jesus is the supreme good. Nothing in this world matches or beats achieving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Nothing! Nothing!

There was a point in Paul’s life when he persecuted Christians, brought them in chains to the leaders of the Jewish religion.   He says in Phil. 3: 3-8a: “…in zeal I persecuted the Church, in righteousness based on the law I was blameless.”   As we read in this same passage, Paul belonged “to the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew parentage, in observance of the law a Pharisee.”  On his way to seeking out Christians in order to send them to prison in chains, Jesus confronted Paul: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me”  (Acts 22: 7)?  From that moment on, Paul's life changed forever. He was no longer a persecutor of the Christian faith but a believer who gave his life for Christ.

Jesus knew Paul. He created Paul. He watched Paul and saw his passion for what was right. He intervened when Paul was obviously following a path that was contrary to the will of God.  Jesus knows you and me also. He created us. He watches us. He sees our passion for what is right and knows when we are marching down a path that is a dangerous one that leads us far from the Truth.  He knows when we are searching for God where God cannot be found.  He will stop us at the right moment, as He stopped Paul and turned Paul away from evil. He will do the same for us at a time chosen by the Lord!

The Feast of All Souls

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls, that is, we remember all of those who have gone before us, all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and who, in Christ Jesus, will be brought back to life in eternity.  All of the just are in God’s hands, the author of Wisdom tells us in chapter 3: 1-9.  We certainly grieved their passing and may even have thought that their deaths were a tragedy or absolute foolishness.  Some believe that their loved ones are dead, period!  And that nothing exist after our deaths.   But, no, there is life after death. Jesus died and rose. In our baptism, we died and rose with Christ. Our final resurrection will happen at the end of our lives, as it did for Jesus.  

You and I walk this earth, undergoing a chastisement, a purification, as we grow in intimacy with the Lord.  At the appropriate time, God’s time, we will leave our earthly life for a heavenly one, having been “found worthy” of God, Wisdom tells us. “As gold in the furnace, [God proves us], and, [in death] as sacrificial offerings [God takes us] to himself. In the time of [our] visitation we] shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble…and the Lord shall be [our] King forever....[The] faithful shall abide with [God] in love: because grace ad mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.”  You and I, through our baptism, are God chosen ones, God’s elect. Death will have no more power over us than it had over Jesus.  St. Paul says to us in Roman s 6: 3-9:  “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.  For we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”    Yes! With Jesus, we shall overcome death and, like Jesus, rise to new life in our own resurrection!

I believe! How about you?

Feast of All Saints

Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints, those in heaven who have been canonized and the majority of persons who  have not been canonized.  They are, for many of us, our parents, grandparents, siblings and other relatives  who may or may not have preceded us into eternal life. They  are our mothers who live or lived lives of quiet, dedicated, loving service to their families, making birthdays and feast days or holidays special, prepared our school lunches and our morning and evening meals, kept our clothes clean, our beds impeccable and, yes,  even made us shirts and skirts, dresses and vests,  slacks and coats. They canned vegetables, fruit, and, in the olden days, meat. They planted large gardens and harvested everything in them.  They are our fathers who work or worked 40+ hours a week on the farm, in the woods, in  factories, in offices or classrooms or involved in civil service jobs to keep our streets and roads in repair or removing snow in winter, fixing plumbing or heating appliances and so on. They are or may have been doctors or lawyers, teachers and nurses, doctors and medical technicians, firemen or police officers or hard workers in any kind of profession, bringing home pay checks that covered all of our expenses and met all of our needs. They are our fathers and mothers and grandparents caring lovingly for each other, for the children God entrusted to their care, being involved in their  children’s  and grandchildren’s academic and social  lives, and participating  in their parish, faithful to their baptismal call to sharer the Good News of Christ in whatever way possible—preaching the Gospel with the way they live their lives and using words only if necessary.