Challenges to our Faith

In today's first reading, Daniel 3: 14-20, 91-92, 95,  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are asked to sacrifice to a golden statue that the king set up:  "Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I have made.....[If you don't", he says to them,] "you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace;and who is the God who can deliver you out of my hands?"  When the three men refuse, the king has the furnace "heated seven times more than usual and had some of the strongest men in his army bind" them and throw them into the furnace.  The King is amazed as he peers into the furnace and sees four men unbound walking around in the furnace.  He asks his nobles:   "'Did we not cast three men bound  into the fire?' 'Assuredly, O king,' they answered. 'But,' he replied, 'I see four men unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.'"  The king then praises God!

I can imagine the king raging against these three men. "How dare they refuse what I ask of them?" As his anger mounted, he increased the heat of the furnace and called forth his strongest men to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  Is that not what our egos do when someone refuses to "worship" us and do what we ask of them? Does not our ego, at that point, become like this furnace heated 7xs greater than usual?  In some cases does not the rage lead to violence of some kind, even murder?

This passage also challenges us to look at the faith of the three men who stand up against the king and do not flinch in the face of death, a horrible death in fact! "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter.  If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up."

How strong is our faith in the face of danger? temptation? bullies? wickedness? Do we stand  so firm in our faith that all we need to do is calmly state our position; or do we need to loudly defend ourselves?

God's Delight in His Children's Return to Him

Today's Gospel, Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32, presents the story of the prodigal son, who, after his father "divided the property between [his two sons],...collected all his belongings and set off for a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation..... A severe famine struck the country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, 'How many of my father's hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you."

We know the rest of the story:  The father sees his son returning and is absolutely elated. He embraces him, kisses him and orders that a feast be prepared to celebrate his son's return. Royal clothing and a ring is put on his finger.  Meanwhile his older brother returns from the fields, hears the music and inquires what is going on. He is indignant and refuses to join the celebration. His father pleads with him and tries to figure out why he is so angry when, all the while, everything the father possesses has been his all along.

All of us can relate to this story in some fashion. We may be the prodigal son/daughter or the one who has been faithful all along but resent a family member who squanders everything and when returning to the family is welcomed back as though nothing happened.  We may say: "No way will I have anything to do with him/her" or, to one's parents or siblings,  "How can you have anything to do with him/her when he/she treated you and us so badly."

Lord, open our eyes and hearts to those who have gone astray, who have caused us, or anyone else, intense suffering, alienating him/herself from others by their sinful behaviors. May we be willing to welcome back those who turned from evil and embrace the good. Let us celebrate their return to grace. Let us not stand in judgment over them but, like the father of the prodigal son, rejoice in their return to You. And, Lord, thank you for treated each of us as the father in this parable treated his wayward son.  Thank you, Lord, for you compassion, love and mercy and for waiting for us to return. Thank you, also, for searching for us when we squander your goodness to us in a life of selfishness and sin. I offer this prayer in Jesus' name! Amen.

Our Vulnerability and Need for God's Help

In today's Gospel, Mark 6: 14-29, the evangelist shares with us the tragic story of King Herod, his daughter and his wife Herodias, all involved in the murder of John the Baptist.  Mark tells us that "Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, 'It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.'" Herodias held a grudge against John the Baptist and wanted him killed. She got her chance when Herod, on  his birthday,  held a banquet, to which he invited "his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. At this party his daughter danced in his honor. Herod was so delighted in her dance that he offered her anything she wanted, including half his kingdom.  She asked her mother what she should request and her mother said: "The head of John the Baptist." Not wanting to go back on his promise of giving her anything she wanted, he ordered John the Baptist murdered in prison and the head brought to his wife on a platter, just as she had requested!

"Gross," you and I say. "How could he/she/they do such a thing? How horrible.  What depravity! What immorality! What kind of persons were they?" And all we have to do each day is turn on the news and some where, some place, at some time, this same scenario is played out before our very eyes! Some times the issue is romantic involvement with another person, that is coveting another man's wife or woman's husband. At other times, its greed for money or coveting material possessions that belong to another person! Or some other incomprehensible reason also conjured up by distorted thinking and out-of-control passions.

I pray: Lord, save me from myself; save us from ourselves!  How vulnerable we can be to the very emotions that blinded and deafened Herod, Herodias and their daughter!  We are not immune to harboring anger. We can become consumed by our grudges and resentments. And these can lead us to hurting others, maybe not to the extent of the persons in today's Scripture reading, but, nonetheless, to doing that which we will deeply regret.

What kind of thoughts am I, are you entertaining, and are they such from which we need to be saved!  Let us call upon Jesus to save us from ourselves.  I did that today, as I was focusing on negative  issues: a relationship problem, the state of our country and government, my fatigue and my lack of energy, and some health issues. I needed to change course. So I asked Jesus to save me from myself! By days end God helped me turn my focus back to Him!

Peace of God Be with You

In today's Gospel for Tuesday of the fifth week of Easter, John 14: 27-31, Jesus says to his disciples, that is, to you and me, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid...I am going away and I will come back to you....I am going to the Father; ....I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me...."

"The ruler of the world is coming"!  The ruler of the world is Satan, who sows discord, jealousy, anger, prejudice, hatred, and division. Jesus says: "He has no power over me!" Neither does he have power over those who stay focused on Jesus, seek Jesus and follow Him unreservedly. We are able to do just that because  Jesus prayed for us.  He prayed that we would be one with Him as He and the Father are one and that we would carry on the work He did.  That is why He gave us His peace, saying: "My peace I give to you.....Do not let your hearts be troubled."  Filled with the peace of Jesus and of the Spirit, we are empowered to overcome fear and hatred, jealousy and anger and division.  Our union with others deepens as we foster our relationship with God in prayer and in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist. Our union with God also deepens as we give our ourselves in  self-sacrificing love to one another throughout a given day!

Meeting God in Unexpected Places

In today’s first reading, 2 Kgs. 5: 1-15b, a little slave girl, an Israelite captured in a Aramean battle with the Israelites, believes beyond a doubt, that Naaman, the army commander of the King of Aram, would be cured of leprosy if he were willing go to the prophet in Samaria, willing to go into enemy territory.  Naaman goes and when he presents himself to the king of Israel, he encounters an angry, suspicious king. “I’m not God.  He just wants to pick a fight with me.” No faith there!  Openness to a miracle? Are you kidding!  He’s too caught up in his own importance. Naaman leaves the king and goes to
Elisha, the prophet of Israel. When the prophet sends out a messenger, Naaman is angered: “He doesn’t even come out to meet me in person and denies me the respect  I, commander of the Aramean army,  deserve.” Naaman is also insulted by the message: go bade 7xs in the River Jordan. “What? We have rivers in my own country. Why should I bade in your river?”  Naaman’s friends challenge him:  “Set your pride aside. If the prophet had asked you to do something extraordinary, you would not have hesitated. But because he only asked that you bade 7xs in the River Jordan,  you refuse. Go now and do as he suggested that you might be healed of your leprosy.”  Naaman listens to his friends.

 Many times what God asks of us seems ridiculous, even insulting, repugnant.  We dig in our heels and refuse to follow God’s lead because it didn’t come to us in the form we wanted it.  “I deserve better,” we reason.  “What kind of a request is that,” we angrily ask.  Coming from her? Coming from him? In the River Jordan? In Nazareth?   We can very much be like Naaman, like the angry, suspicious king, or like the people in the Gospel who, when they realized Jesus was challenging their lack of faith, attempted to destroy Him. Or we can be like the little slave girl and the prophet Elisha. And, yes, we can be converted by listening to those who point out our irrational thinking patterns and point us in the right direction.