The Works of God Made Visible through the Events of Life

In today's Gospel, John 9: 1-41, Jesus sees a man who was born blind from birth.  His disciples are stunned by this fact and ask Jesus: "'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.'"

We may wonder who sinned that the entire world is infested with the coronavirus. Perhaps Jesus' response to that question is the same as His response to His disciples: The pandemic of the coronavirus "is so that the works of God might be made visible through" this pandemic. God is at work through every human being tending to those who have contracted the disease and all who are taking measures to stop the spread of this disease. Good will come and is present in this evil that has affected the entire world. People all over the world have risen to the occasion in efforts to help those who have become ill. We are being transformed into better human beings, more conscious of the needs of others, of our own vulnerability and our dependence upon God as the result of this pandemic.  We are being brought to our knees in prayer, begging God to have mercy, to bring healing and protection to all.

God will never abandon us.  His Son Jesus became one of us to be in solidarity with us, to show us the Father's love and the way to the Father.  He was fully human and suffered all that we suffer, including being vulnerable to that which can destroy life and, in His case, fellow human beings jealous of and threatened by Him. In suffering death He destroyed death's power. Death had no power over Him. He rose from the dead and entered the glory of heaven through death's door. Death will have no power over us either, as it will also be the door through which we enter  eternal life, as Jesus did.  Is death easy? Of course not. It wasn't easy for Jesus either and, humanly speaking, a source of incredible grief for His mother and closest friends! He knows how devastating the coronavirus is on those dying of the virus and those losing loved ones to this virus. He suffers with all who are suffering. Our pain is His pain. Our grief is His grief. May we keep our eyes on Jesus and depend upon Him for help through this crisis.

The Lord, Your God Wills Your Holiness/Wholeness

In  today's first reading, Leviticus 19: 1-2, 11-18, the Lord says to Moses and to us:   "Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy." How, we ask, are we to be holy as the Lord, our God, is holy? Is that not impossible? For us, on our own, yes. For us, with God, no!  God can do all things and that includes putting us on the path to holiness when we stray!

I was getting caught in a pattern of thinking that is detrimental to grace.  As I recognized the pattern, I began to pray the mantra:  "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me, a sinner."  As soon as my mind drifted back to negative thinking, I returned to the mantra.  I woke up refreshed, consulted a friend, who set me right and reminded me of what my mission is and how I allowed myself to get pulled into issues that are not my responsibility to resolve and over which I was obsessing. How free I felt and grateful for God's grace at work in me as soon as I turned to the Lord for help and realized how right my friend was in her counsel of me! And, yes, God had put me back on the path of holiness and wholeness!

What do you do when you recognize that you are on a dangerous path, one that will lead you away from what God wants of you?  What helps you experience the freedom and the peace that only God can give? What puts you back on the path to holiness, that is, to wholeness and becoming the person God intends you to become?

Manipulator and the Manipulated

In today's Gospel, Luke 12: 13-21, someone approaches Jesus and asks Him to "tell [his brother] to share the inheritance with [him]."   Jesus' response is classical:   "Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator"?  Smartly, Jesus does not allow this person to get away with manipulating him!

How easy to thrust one's responsibility onto another person and to do so with finesse!  When it is done to us, or at least when someone does that to me, I initially experience shock! If I am not on my toes, I get sucked into the other's manipulative schemes! Only through a strong prayer life  and by recognizing our dependence upon the Lord are we prepared to recognize the moments God puts into our path to strengthen us in setting firm boundaries and to seeing the teachable moments before us, as did Jesus. Immediately Jesus sees the greediness of the person asking him to intervene. "Take care," Jesus says to the person, "to guard against all greed, for though you may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."

We are called to be"rich in what matters to God," not to pile up possessions for possession sake! By pursuing material things as the goal of life, we miss the purpose for which God put us here on earth. We are here to build the Kingdom and to be concerned about what God wants of us, that is, to repeatedly fall in love with the Lord, with others and with ourselves.  We are here to help others in need, to alleviate suffering--physical, spiritual, psychological--thus growing in love.  We do what God wants of us when we strive to be of one mind with the Lord and when we seek to obey the greatest of the commandments, that is, loving the Lord, our God, with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and our neighbor as ourselves (cf   Luke 10:27).

What, today, have I done to "guard against greed," whether that be accumulating unnecessary material resources or guaranteeing that I am #1 and/or that I triumph over others? Seeking either of those "possessions" does not stores up treasure for oneself in heaven (Luke 12:21).  What have I done today to open myself up to the Lord, recognizing my need for His Spirit to arm me, protect me, and enlighten me to being manipulated by others or to being the manipulator?

Asking for God's Mercy

In today's responsorial psalm, Ps. 51, we pray for God's mercy, asking God, in His goodness and compassion, to wipe out our offenses. We acknowledge that it is against God whom we sin; that we have done evil in God's sight. We also share with God our realization that God is justified in whatever sentence is put upon us for our sinfulness and insistent turning away from God to our idolatrous ways. Standing before God in our sinfulness, we beg God to create "clean hearts" within us and to renew within us, also, "a steadfast spirit." Cast us "not off from your presence and your Holy Spirit take not from [us]."

To triumph over evil  or any destructive force that might overwhelm us, we are totally dependent upon God. In Numbers 12: 1-13, the first reading of today's liturgy, Aaron and Miriam are confronted by God when they level complaints against Moses. Hearing of Aaron and Miriam's complaints, God summons them, along with Moses, to the meeting tent.  He makes it clear to Moses' sister and brother that Moses "bears [God's] trust: face to face I speak to him; plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the Lord he beholds.  Why, then, did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses?"  

As with Aaron and Miriam,  God knows when we sin against one another and will call us to repentance.  Like Aaron, may we have the humility to say to God, at some point, "Ah, my lord! Please do not charge us with the sin that we have foolishly committed!"

God as Our Inheritance

The response to today’s responsorial psalm is “You are my inheritance, O Lord.”  Today we celebrate the feast of St. Clare of Assisi, who comes from a very wealthy Assisian family.  Her inheritance would have been huge.  She left it all, escaping the family dwelling at night to join St. Francis of Assisi to live a life of poverty.  She says to the Lord: “You are my inheritance, O Lord,” not the wealth of my family.  You are all I need in life, not earthly riches, not a life of luxury, not expensive pearls or other attractive jewelry and expensive clothing. You are enough for me. I need nothing else in this life but you.

How many families and/or marriages are stressed out over the inheritance being left them by their wealthy families.  How many wealthy families fight over their wealth.  Not Clare. God was all she wanted and needed. She left everything, even the wealthy suitor her parents secured for her marriage.”My Lord and My God, you are enough for me.” And she lived her entire life of consecrated poverty that way.

Those who have discovered the wealth of dependence upon God above all are truly wealthy, whether married, single or being members of a religious congregation!  Those who trust in God above all are truly secure.  Nothing on this earth can provide the security of our Lord and God! The Lord says to you and to me:   “Trust in Me and you shall be saved. Serve Me above all in your neighbor and you will know true joy.  Seek  Me above all and you will know a  peace the world cannot give you. Truly,” God says to us, "I am enough for you.”  Jesus, the Son of God,  says to us  in Matthew 6: 25-27: “…Do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more important [ to Me] than they? “

 St. Clare knew that and lived that! What about you and me?

Facing Evil in our Lives

In today’s first reading, Esther C: 12, 14-16, 23-25, we learn of Esther’s desperate prayer for God’s help. “…[S]eized with mortal anguish, [Esther] had recourse to the Lord. She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, and said: ‘God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand.’” She was determined to approach the King of Persia. To enter his presence without an invitation could mean death.  She says to the Lord: “Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy [the enemy of the Jewish people], so that he and those who are in league with him may parish. Save us from the hand of our enemies; turn our mourning into gladness and our sorrows into wholeness.” 

How apropos are those words for today.  We, too, face an enemy, a hatred, we alone are not able to overcome. We need divine intervention, as did the Israelites as we face Isis, Al-Quaeda, those bent on destroying Christians and Jews and others whose beliefs differ from their own.  We also need God’s help in facing the enemies of truth and justice, right doing and right being, all of which are being attacked by immoral practices, unjust judgments, and misguided actions by those who promote human trafficking, drug trafficking, abortion on demand, sex trafficking, slave labor and consumeristic, materialistic, and narcissistic pursuits at the risk of destroying the poor, the vulnerable, the helpless and immigrant populations in our midst.

With Esther, let us have recourse to God day and night. Let us ask for persuasive words in the presence of “the lions” of hatred and evil that we may courageously stand up to those forces in our society that will destroy our children and grandchildren and bring all of us to ruin spiritually.  And with Jesus on the cross, let us thirst for good in this world to triumph over evil.