God Partnering with Us and We with God

In today's first reading,  Exodus 3: 1-8a,  13-15, Moses sees a bush burning but not being consumed. he approaches the bush and from it  God calls him: "Moses, Moses!"  He replies: "Here I am!"  "Come no nearer," God says to him. "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."   God then proceeds to tell him that he is aware of the suffering of his people as slaves to the Egyptians. "I have...heard their cry of complaints against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.  Therefore, I have come down to rescue them...and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey."  The catch: God needs Moses to work with Him in leading the Israelites, Moses' people, out of slavery into freedom!

God does not work alone. He partners with us and equips us to partner with Him! Are you ready? Am I?

We know from more of the story, that Moses argued with God, indicated that he was not equipped to do what God was asking of him. God did not accept his refusal and assured him that He would be with him and, in fact, that his brother Aaron would also assist!  Furthermore, God gave Moses detailed instructions of how to proceed!

God does the same with us: He reassures us, sends us help from other people and from Himself, and directs us on how to proceed! He takes us by the right hand, walks beside us, ahead of us and behind us, doing whatever needs to be done for us to accomplish His will!

We are free, of course, to co-operate  and bear fruit, freeing ourselves and others from slavery; or we can choose to walk away and "dry up," as did the fig tree in today's Gospel, (Luke 13: 1-9).  In the Gospel story, a person checks on a fig tree for three years and finds no fruit and instructs the gardener to chop it down. "Why should it exhaust the soil?"  The gardener intercedes and ask that it be spared another year while he cultivates and fertilizes it to see whether it will produce. And so the fig tree is given a second chance to bear fruit, for which it exists.

What are you and I doing with the second and third and fourth chances that God gives us to turn our lives around, to make choices that bear fruit that will last?  What are we doing to walk away from apathy, selfishness, barrenness, sloth, and other behaviors and attitudes that block grace that would empower us to cooperate with God's call to partner with Him?

Called by the Lord and Dedicated to God for Life

In today's first reading, 1 Sam 1: 24-28, Hannah brings Samuel to the Temple, saying to Eli: "'Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request.Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord.' She left Samuel there."

I immediately thought of my parents. They, too, in faith, blessed me when I told them, at age 14,  that I wanted to be a Sister. In their blessing of me, they endorsed my being "dedicated to the Lord".  I entered the convent high school run by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother and following high school graduation entered the postulancy of this community. My parents drove me to their high school (some 160 miles from home) and left me there! In 2019 I will celebrate my 60th jubilee of being "dedicated to the Lord"!  Praise the Lord!  With Mary, in today's Gospel, Luke 1: 46-56,  "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked upon his lowly servant!"

In what ways have your parents blessed your calling in life, endorsed your dedication to the Lord, be that in marriage, religious life, priesthood, or the single life? Are you willing to bless your children/grandchildren and dedicate them to the Lord in the particular vocation to which they are called  to serve the Lord: be that the priesthood, religious life, marriage or the single life? Or do you put obstacles in their way, making them choose what you want for them, not what they want for themselves or that vocation to which God is calling them?

Remember God is the One who called you and and the One who calls your children or grandchildren, just as He called Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth and every other person throughout salvation history.

The Message from Jonah

In today’s first reading, Jonah 3:1-10, Jonah enters the city of Nineveh.  He delivers God’s message to this city, telling the residents that “[f]orty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.”  The people took heed of Jonah’s message, believing that, in truth, God would destroy their city because of its wickedness. A fast was proclaimed.  The “great and small put on sackcloth.” The king and his nobles issued a decree, saying: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand. Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not parish.” And God “repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.”

The U.S.A. is Nineveh!   Do we, as a nation, not need to repent of and turn away from “evil…and from the violence” being leveled upon immigrants, refugees,  the unborn, and persons who are victims of human traffickers, drug traffickers, and of the slave industry?  Do we not need to rethink government proposals to line the pockets of the rich, to create more billionaires and to perpetuate the arms race? Is it possible that millions of people may be without health insurance and millions of immigrants may be deported (a deportation that may separate children from their parents) all because of the high probability of false information upon which many legislative actions are being promulgated? Are we citizens of the U.S. not in danger of believing lies that are broadcasted over and over again and which will likely bring disaster to ourselves and our neighbors?

Is it possible that unless we sincerely repent of our wrongdoing, cry out to the Lord for mercy and forgiveness and right our wrongs, that we, like Nineveh, could be destroyed?

"The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand" (Matthew 10:8)

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 9: 35-10:1, 5a, 6-8, Matthew recalls his experience of Jesus. He tells us that  “[a]t the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.’ Then he summoned his Twelve disciples [Matthew would have been one of those twelve) and [authorized them] to...go make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Jesus is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow!  To this very day, He is “moved with pity,” seeing millions of people without  proper instructors, without sufficient guidance, without being loved or cared for properly. In fact, in this 21^st century, Jesus sees millions of children, young adults and, in many cases,  women being abused spiritually, physically, emotionally, verbally. Jesus sees children and adults sifting through garbage dumps looking for something to eat. He sees homeless persons begging for help to survive homelessness.   He sees children and young adults used as sexual slaves and slaves in factories and various industrial sites where clothes and other commodities are produced by cheap labor and sold by companies that makes billions of dollars  of profit selling merchandise produced as cheaply as possible off the backs of poorly paid workers. 

On the day of reckoning, the Lord will bind up “the wounds of his people, he will heal the bruises left” by abusers(see today’s first reading, Is 30: 26); and,   yes,  on that day  “the tyrant shall be no more and the arrogant will have gone. All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,”  the prophet Isaiah warns us in Is. 29: 17-24.

“The time is fulfilled,” Jesus says  to us, “and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent , and believe the gospel” (Mark 1: 15).

May each one of us have the humility to heed Isaiah and Jesus' messages!  May we beg God's mercy for all of us, those doing good in the world and those perpetuating evil.

Reading Signs of Our Need for God

In today’s first reading, Ephesians 4: 1-6, Paul addresses us from his prison cell, urging us “to live in a manner worthy of the call” we have received, “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another [and ourselves] through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit though the bond of peace….”  Sometimes the most difficult person toward whom to be patient and gentle is ourselves. We make good intentions and break them. We pledge to do better and break that pledge. We get up in the morning determined to accomplish far more than we may be capable to accomplish  that day and, sure enough, the physical energy or emotional stamina is lacking.  We promised to not be obnoxious or demanding or controlling and, guess what, we are obnoxious, demanding and controlling when we do not want to be. Or we desire to be assertive and to stand up for ourselves and we slide right into being submissive and demeaning of self when we need to be strong on our own behalf. 

The challenge? To realize that our weaknesses are God’s strength, that our failings are a reminder of our dependence upon God, and that, when our fallen nature raises its head, we are to remember that God’s grace is sufficient for us. God, in fact, uses all of the circumstances of our lives to bring us salvation.

May we be graced to read human nature in the light of how God sees us and may we become as proficient in reading human nature as we are in reading the conditions of the weather.  As Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel, Luke 12: 54-59:  “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain—and it does,”  so when you see how weak and fickle you can be, may you say immediately: “My weakness, O Lord, is your strength!  I need your help, O Lord!”

God's Call Heard in the Ordinary Events of Life

Both of today’s Scriptures, 1 Samuel 9: 1-4, 17-19; 10: 1a and Mark 2: 13-17, are about being called by God.  Saul was out looking for his father’s donkeys when he was called by Samuel and anointed for the purpose to which God was calling him, that is, to be king of the Jews or, in the words of 1: Samuel 10: 1a,  “commander over his heritage.”  Levi was collecting taxes and, yes, pocketing some of the money, when Jesus walked by his station and called him to be one of the apostles.  God calls us in the ordinary events of any given day.  Am I listening? Do I hear God’s call, whether that be one’s vocation in life, a career choice, the choice of a college, to risk dating so-and-so or the challenge to reconcile with someone or an ordinary every-day decision such as doing a particular chore? Do I respond affirmatively or do I simply ignore Him and go my own way?

Where were you when God called you to the vocation you have chosen, whether that is marriage, religious life, priesthood, or the single life?  I was in eighth grade and, out of the blue, I knew that I was called to be a Sister.  At age 20 that call became a reality for me when I made first vows as a Sister of the Sorrowful Mother; five years later I made that commitment permanent.   Many years later I found out the origin of my call. After being a full-fledged Sister of the Sorrowful Mother for many years, and perhaps when I was in my 30s or 40s,  I heard in prayer from my identical twin sister (who returned home to heaven at age 2 ½) that my religious vocation was a gift from her. She wanted me to experience the intimacy with God that she enjoys.  And religious life provides all kinds of opportunities to grow in that intimacy. I have been truly blessed.  I cherish the vocation to which I was called, not that it is better than any other vocation but it is God’s will for me.  It’s choosing that vocation to which God is calling you that will give you the fullness of life, the peace, the joy, that God wills for you.

Which vocation is right for you?

The Sacredness of Each Vocation: A Personal Call from God

This morning I met with 130 children--kindergarten through 8^th grade--to talk about vocations: to religious life, to priesthood, to marriage or to the single life.  Each vocation is a call from God that is unique to each of God’s sons and daughters.  75% of our youth are called to marriage and/or the single lifestyle and 25% to priesthood and/or to religious life.   Fulfillment , reaching one’s potential in life as well as being happy, at peace and filled with joy comes with responding to God’s will in terms of vocation and routine decisions that are made every day.  Are you tuning in to that quiet voice at the core of your being to hear God’s call to you and do you have the courage, both in big decisions, such as a vocation in life, and small decisions, like shutting off the TV and doing your homework, to follow that inner call.  It is heard only by you, as God talks directly to each person.   Below is a picture of the newest members of my religious community. Happiness and joy radiates from their faces because have listened to God’s call in the inner depths of their being. T May you tune in—God is calling you all of the time to the path that is right for you in significant and less significant choices that you face each day.

People Fishing for the Eternal Kingdom

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle.  Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee, sees two brothers, Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting a net into the sea. He yells at them: “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men [people]” (Mt 4: 18-22).  At once, they abandoned their nets and followed  Jesus.

 

Were they nuts? They were, probably, successful fishermen!  What happened to the boat and the net and the fish?  And this guy who was simply walking by and says “Come, foillow me. I will make you a different kind of fisher,” who was he? Why follow him and abandon a business? And we know that Andrew and Simon did not look back. They stayed with Jesus for three years and beyond, were at the Last Supper, suffered through Jesus’ crucifixion by Romans who occupied their country, witnessed his Ascension into heaven, were present at Pentecost when tongues of fire came down from heaven and rested on them, and, filled with the Holy Spirit, changed from cowardly men to bold proclaimers of the Word, of the Resurrection and of the Kingdom of God in our midst, a Kingdom that Yahweh told the Jewish people would never be destroyed.

So what happened? How could this be, you ask?  The fact is that once we encounter Jesus personally, nothing in this world is seen in the same way.  The Real is not what the world offers, though advocates of the world’s goods believe so and want us to believe so as well.  Our egos “chase success, power, a good name, achievements, and all the other stupid things we race after. God will always get…[us] on the run,” as He did Andrew and Simon (Rohr, Richard, OFM, Jesus’ Plan for a New World,” St. Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, OH, 1996, p. 38).  As we chase after the things the world offers, not that we do not need those things, “once in a while…[we] glimpse out of the corner of…[our eyes] what really matters. Gotcha” (Ibid.)”