Let us bring our burdens to the Lord!

In today's Gospel, Matthew 11: 28-30, Jesus invites to bring our burdens to him:  "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

Let us bring to the Lord the burden of seeing the coronavirus "march" through our communities, threatening the well-being of our loved one, of ourselves. Let us bring to the Lord our labors to bring this pandemic to an end. Let us bring to the Lord our efforts to get people to understand that this virus is deadly and not a hoax!

We bring to you, Lord, those on the front lines in our emergency rooms and our ICU departments.  Many are at the breaking point physically and emotionally as they do everything possible and yet lose a patient. We bring to you, Lord, the burden of not being able to be at the side of a loved one dying of the virus out of fear of ourselves being stricken and being the next victim. We bring to  you, Lord, the burden of seeing individuals resort to violence when asked to wear a mask in public. Yes, Lord, we are exhausted and need to find rest in You. Our strength is running low.

In the responsorial psalm, Psalm 102, of today's liturgy, the psalmist says: "From the heavens the Lord looks down on the earth."  In confidence, we say to the Lord: "You will arise and have mercy on Zion (insert the name of your city), for it is time to pity her. For her stones are dear to your servants, and her dust moves them to pity. The nations (insert the name of your country, your nation) shall revere your name, O Lord, and all the kings (governors, presidents, prime ministers) of the earth your glory, when the Lord has rebuilt Zion (name your city, your country)and appeared in his glory; when he has regarded the prayer of the destitute, and not despised their prayer."  We are those destitute people, Lord!

We thank you, Lord, for You "have looked down from [your] holy height, from heaven [you] beheld the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoners [us], to release those [us] doomed to die" (Psalm 102).

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?

God's Got Our Back!

Both readings of today's liturgy, Numbers 11: 4b-15 and Matthew 14: 13-21, speak of God providing food for His people. In the desert God sent manna from heaven each day.   "At night, when dew fell upon the camp, the manna also fell." In the Gospel, the disciples ask that Jesus "dismiss the crowds so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves" as it was getting late. Jesus replies:  "There is no need for them to go away." The disciples discover that someone in the crowd of 5000+ people has five loaves and two fish. Jesus takes "the five loaves and two fish" and feeds the crowd of "about five thousand men, not counting women and children." We are told that "all ate and were satisfied."  In the desert, on the other hand,  the people complained about  God's choice of responding to their hunger by sending them manna to eat. They were angry about having no meat.

In the Gospel, the disciples could not believe that there was anything that could be done to feed a crowd of 5000+ people with only two fish and fives loaves of bread.  God's response to the Israelites in the desert and to the disciples gathered around Jesus, is one of patience. God had a plan then and does now in your life and mine!

In these two stories, we could be like the Israelites in the desert who are fed up with "manna" and complaining that life, in the past, was much better than it is now. Or we might identify with Moses, who goes to God and says:   "Where can I get meat to give to all these people? For they are crying out to me 'Give us meat for our food.' I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress."  Might we be like the disciples in the Gospel who want Jesus to send the crowd away and not be bothered to feed any of them?  Some of us might be like the person in the crowd willing to share the little he/she has, trusting that God will provide. And, finally and hopefully, many of us are like the people who are fully satisfied, at the end of any day, that God has generously met our needs this day so that, in turn, we can meet the needs of others as well.

Whoever you are in these stories, may you humbly go to God and share your story!

An Invitation Worth Noting

Today’s first reading, Isaiah 1: 10-17, opens with the following invitation:

Hear the word of the Lord,  princes of Sodom (insert your city, country)!

Listen to the instruction of our God,

People of Gomorrah (insert your city, country)!

What care I for the number of your sacrifices?

says the Lord.

I have had enough of whole-burnt rams

And fat of fatlings;

In the blood of calves, lambs and goats

I find no pleasure.

 May we realize that the prophet Isaiah is addressing us, the people of the U.S. and other nations.

Has God not had enough of the blood of persons killed in war, in our streets, cities and homes and in the wombs of parents murdering their unborn children? Has God not had enough of the “blood” spilled by slanderous accusations and untruths of all kinds proclaimed in order to get ahead of another person and secure power and control  by whatever means?  “I find no pleasure” in your sacrifices or in the “fat” of your wealth and power used to exploit the poor and helpless.   “Trample my courts [others] no more,” God says to us through the prophet Isaiah (Is 1: 12).  “Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow” (Is. 1: 16-17).

 God continues to say to us through the prophet Isaiah (Is 1: 18-20): “’ Come, let us talk this over,’ says Yahweh. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.  If you are willing to obey, you shall eat the good things of the earth. But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall eat you instead—for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken.’”

Are we listening?

Our God: A Merciful God, a Generous God, a Forgiving God

Today’s liturgy opens with the following entrance antiphon from Wis 11: 24, 25, 27:  “You are merciful to all, O Lord, and despise nothing that you have made.  You overlook people’s sins, to bring to repentance, and you spare them, for you are the Lord our God."

I was reminded that this is true for each of the campaigners and for me as well, as I am deeply troubled by what I see in the campaigns for being our next president.  I asked the Lord to open my eyes to His Way, my mind to His thoughts. He did so in the following feedback:

Dorothy Ann, I know that you are disappointed about the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, that persons would win who vilify others with words, who attempt to sway votes by publishing obscene messages about their opponents on social media, who attempt to rise up by putting others down. You are seeing humans acting badly. You are seeing ambition at its worst—the search for power and control being out of control. As I said to Samuel when the Israelites wanted a king like other nations around them:  give them what they want.   I will not usurp free will.  If acting foolishly, if making poor decisions, people will suffer the results of those decisions.

Sometimes I allow the worst to happen to teach humankind that they are not God and to each you that you are not God. I right the wrongs. I put people on the straight path when they give me a crooked one!  I am God. There is no other! And I am at work even when you do not recognize me.

Come to the Banquet of Love and Forgiveness

Yesterday we had the beautiful reading from Isaiah 25: 6-10a, reminding us that on the “mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.  On this mountain,” Isaiah explains, “…[Yahweh] will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations; …[God] will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face; the reproach of his people …[God] will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken. On that day it will be said: ‘Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is the Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!’ For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain.”  Every Sunday and any day of the week when we participate in the Catholic Mass, we come to this mountain and are provided “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines,” becoming the body and blood of Christ in the transubstantiation.  We are made one with the Lord, who comes to save us, to destroy death for us, to wipe away our tears, to remove the reproach of Satan and of the law from us and from the whole earth through his death and resurrection.  

Yes, Jesus invites us to the banquet (Mt 22: 1-4).   Will we come? Will we look to the one who can save us? Are we willing to put on the wedding garment of good deeds, of honesty and integrity, of humility and repentance, of love and forgiveness of ourselves and others?

Come, follow me

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Andrew , the Apostle.  Jesus spots him in his boat with his father and calls out to him: “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of people.”  Andrew immediately drops everything, leaves his father and his fishing industry to follow the Lord. He is so excited about Jesus that he finds his brother Peter and says to him: “We have found the Messiah.”  Peter, also, immediately leaves  his fishing boat to follow the Lord.

What was it about Jesus that attracted the apostles? What was it about his voice, his demeanor? 

Ever meet someone whom you could not wait to introduce to your siblings, your friends, your family?  That excitement pales, no doubt, in face of the experience of Andrew. It was the Lord, the Son of God, the Anointed One sent to this world to bring us the Good News of our salvation.  He was the one born of the Virgin Mary, of whom Mary said to the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do whatever He tells you,” when she invited her Son to respond as only He could. By her invitation, Mary reveals who Jesus is to all those attending the wedding. Mary knew that her Son was no ordinary person.  He was the one sent into the world to transform it, to reconcile all humankind to His Father. He was the visible manifestation of God the Father, a God of compassion and love, a God of mercy and forgiveness—a forgiveness that would be won for us by Jesus’ obedience to the Father unto  death.

Yes, Jesus was the revelation of God, our Creator, whose plan for our salvation and the salvation of the entire world was being revealed right before Andrew’s eyes.  Come, Andrew said to his brother, I have found the Messiah!

How excited am I about Christ? Do I see in Christ the redeemer of the world? Do I see the Father reflected in the Son? And, as a baptized Christian, do I, in fact, reflect God to the world? Or are my attitudes and behaviors such that God’s light does not shine through them?