A Just Judge is God

In today's first reading, Isaiah 11: 1-10, Isaiah prophesies about the Messiah.  "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide right for the land's afflicted." 

Women, in Jesus' culture, were treated unjustly, oppressed and poor--women and children counted as nothing in Jewish culture and still do in some Eastern countries.  God chose two women to hail the coming of the Messiah: Elizabeth, who gave birth to John the Baptist, the precursor of the Lord chosen to make way for the Messiah, and Mary, who gave a human nature to God Incarnate. Mary recognizes God's openness to the poor and the lowly in the Magnificat when she prays:  "....He [God] has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly [in this specific case, Mary and Elizabeth].  He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.....

In the Gospels, Jesus often points to the poor and lowly, seeks them out, dines with them, protects them.  If we want to enter Jesus' kingdom, He asks us to become like little children (children, along with the poor, such as shepherds, were discounted in Jesus' culture).  Another example of Jesus' openness to the oppressed is his response to the good thief on the cross: "This day you shall be with me in Paradise."  The poor, the oppressed, the outcasts have a special place in Jesus' heart! Do they in yours and mine?  What in me or about me, what in you and about you, do I, do you, oppress or treat unjustly, despise?

Jesus Wants to Know What You Want from Him

Today's Gospel reading, Luke 18: 35-43, presents the story of a blind man.  He heard a lots of noise and asked the crowd what was happening. When he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by,  the blind man cried out:  "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me."  The more the crowd told him to be quiet, the louder he became. Jesus stopped and ordered that the blind man be brought to him. Jesus asked him: "'What do you want me to do for you?' He replied, 'Lord, please let me see.' Jesus told him, 'Have sight; your faith has saved you."

Just as Jesus asked the blind man what he wanted Him to do for him, so, too, He asks each one of us the same question. I encourage you to take the time to tell Jesus what you want Him to do for you, for our loved ones, your spouse, your children.  Tell Him!

Jesus,  I want You to open my eyes to Your presence every day. I want You to draw me ever closer to You, so close that You and I become one heart, one mind, one soul! I want to know you, love you, trust you and rely on You all of the time.  I want to obey the promptings of your Spirit, even in the smallest things you ask of me!  Please, Lord, soften the soil of my heart, remove the "cataracts" from my eyes that prevent me from seeing you and the "wax" from my ears that block me from hearing your voice!  I ask this in Your name, Jesus! Amen!

God's Power to Save Those of Faith

Today we celebrate the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, apostles of the Church. In the first reading of today's liturgy, Acts 12: 1-11, St. Luke shares the story of Peter's arrest and imprisonment,  which immediately followed the martyrdom of St. James. Seeing the people's celebration of St. James' death, Herod believes that he will delight the people even more by killing Peter. The night before being brought to trial, an angel frees Peter, who is heavily guarded by four squads of soldiers and "secured by double chains".  The chains fall off, the locked doors of the prison open and Peter and the angel pass all of the guards unnoticed! Securely outside of the prison, the angel leaves Peter and he realizes that what happened to him was not a vision but reality!

Paul's story is as mind-bottling and miraculous, as he is on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians and bring them to Herod for imprisonment and most likely the same fate as St. James. The Lord God knocks Paul down, then known as Saul, and says to him: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Blinded by the light, he gets up and is told to go into the city.  There, he will be met by a man who will direct him on to what he is to do instead of co-operating with the plan of human beings to to wipe out the followers of Jesus.

God is no less real in your life or mine than in the life of Peter and Paul nor any less real in the world of our day than in the world of Peter and Paul's day. Forces rose up against truth then, and now. Immorality, killings, false imprisonments,violence against people of integrity, the slaughter of innocents and other criminal behavior abounded in Peter and Paul's culture and continue in our day with people supporting these kind of choices in the belief that they are doing what is right--even believing that people doing evil are divinely inspired and divinely appointed to lead us.

God sent Jesus into this world, not to condemn it, but to save it. God sent angels, His messengers, to people like Mary and Joseph, Zachary and Elizabeth, Peter and others. He spoke to Pilate through his wife, who warned Pilate to "have nothing to do with this man," meaning Jesus whom the people desired to be be put to death by crucifixion. In this day and age, God continues to send warnings and also to intervene for us. Are we aware of these interventions?  Or are we too enamored by those yielding power and control and wanting that kind of power ourselves that we go right along with them, even believing that they are of divine origin?

Lord, I pray, open our minds and eyes and ears to the evil around us!  May we recognize the "Herods"  of today--persons as determined  as was Herod in Jesus' time to seize absolute power over others and to do whatever necessary to secure that power, including destroying men and women of integrity, men and women of faith, men and women committed to what is true, right and just!




 

The Need for Holy Mentors and Holy Mentoring

"In God I trust; I shall not fear," we pray in today's responsorial psalm.  In the first reading, 1 Sam 18: 6-9;  19: 1-7, Saul's son Jonathan cautions David to hide--"[m]y father Saul is trying to kill you.  ...[P]lease be on your guard tomorrow morning." So David hides! Jonathan positions himself close to his father that morning so that he can intercede on behalf of David. Jonathan knows that his father is jealous of David, whom, upon his return from killing Goliath and 10s of thousands of Philistines out to harm the nation of Israel, is lauded for his accomplishment.  In the process, the people credit Saul for killing less of Israel's enemies.

Jealousy is a powerful force and gone unchecked can lead to disastrous results. People can lose their lives and murderers their freedom. Chaos abounds for all in this web of jealousy. God protects his servant David as well as his servant Saul, using Jonathan, Saul's son, to challenge him.  "Let not your majesty sin against his servant David, for he has committed no offense against you, but has helped you very much by his deeds."  Saul listens and David is now safe in his service to Saul.

Like Saul, you and I may, at times, need someone who will intervene for us when  jealousy or other unruly passions consume us and we are out to berate another: bring harm to them by verbally   For some of us that is a spiritual director, a confessor, a dear friend, a sibling, a school counselor, a teacher). For all of us, thank God, Jesus is that person. Jesus is always on our side. Jesus will destroy "death" in us and "bring life to light [within us] through the Gospel"  (Today's gospel Acclamation).

God, forgive me when I let jealousy or any other human passion get the best of me and rule my thoughts and actions. I pray for the grace to be open to the person/s You send to me to challenge my thinking when I am off base.  May I also be open to holy reading that will redirect my thinking, to taking time to sit in Your holy  presence in a church or chapel or in my room gazing into your face upon the cross and allowing You to gaze upon me in love and mercy, transforming whatever disorder has taken hold me and purifying my heart of sinful inclinations!

Childlikeness and Teachability

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 11: 25-27, Jesus gives praise to His Father for revealing the mysteries of the Kingdom--things hidden from the wise-- to those who are childlike.  Things divine are being revealed to those who are teachable, open to learning, eager to listen, whose hearts are filled with wonder and awe as they discover new things about creation, about others, about the universe and all that is in it.  Am I teachable? Or am I a know-it-all?  Am I open to learning or am I the person who does not believe she has more to learn from anyone or anything?  Am I eager to listen or is my hearing blocked because of my prejudices, my arrogant attitudes, my fears, my busyness about “more important” things upon which my eyes are riveted? Do I let go of my agenda long enough to be open to the new, the unexplored, the risky, the uninviting aspects of a given day?  Am I willing, for instance, to hang out with children and teens to learn from them, to listen to them, to get to know them? Am I willing to spend time with the lonely, the elderly, the forgotten, those imprisoned in mental illness, in an addiction, in a chronic, debilitating, terminal disease, to those who feel hopeless and unloved to discover  the mysteries of Kingdom within these populations?

“You have hidden these things from the wise…and revealed them to the childlike” (Matthew 11:25).  Am I one of those childlike persons? If not, what do I need to change within myself to become childlike?

Stumbling Blocks to Faith in Christ Jesus

In today's Gospel, Luke 4: 16-30, Jesus returns to his home town and participates in the synagogal services.  He opens the scroll to the book of Isaiah, where it is written: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."    The people are astounded by His explanation of the Scriptures.  He spoke with authority, unlikes the Scribes and Pharisees.   They say to one another: we know this man's brothers and sisters and mother. We know that he is Joseph's son. Where does he get all this wisdom and the power to heal the sick and raise the dead to life and restore sight to the blind--miracles they know he has done in other places.  He then tells the people that he cannot do these things here in Nazareth, his home town,  because of their lack of faith.

Imagine Jesus visiting you or me  and saying to us: I am unable to proclaim liberty to you, am unable to restore your sight or free you from  that which oppresses you because of your lack of faith.  And then tells us that He has been able to do so among those people whom we consider inferior to us, less worthy than us and certainly not the ones we recognize as God's beloved. Faith in Christ Jesus demands absolute surrender to the Lord, a sincere acknowledgement that we are totally dependent upon God, that God is our Lord and Savior, the Creator of our being, the One who sustains us, mentors us, prepares the way for us to do good in this world.

Faith also demands that I recognize Jesus in others.  Jesus' home town folks rejected Jesus, wanted to throw Him off the cliff.  He slips out of their grasp.   The people said of Him: "Who does He think He is? We know his mother and brothers and sisters. We know he is Joseph's son."  Who do I reject because "I know who he or she is?  I know from where he or she comes?  No way will I listen to him or her."  

God's Coming in a "Dense Cloud"

In today’s first reading, Exodus 19: 1-2,9-11, 16-20b,  we read:  “I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also.”  Is it not true that most days God comes to us in “dense clouds?”  Only through faith, do we see and hear God. Many times,  we don’t see him and  don’t hear his voice.  Concerning His speaking to the crowd in parables, Jesus says to His disciples in today’s Gospel (Matthew 13: 10:17):  “This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.”

Is that not true of you and me at times; namely that 1) we look at people but really do not see their beauty and goodness as a child of God and 2) that we hear what they are saying but are not really listening or understanding? Our eyes can be blinded by our prejudices or by whatever preoccupies us. Past hurts that we have suffered from them can cause us to automatically turn them off or prompt us to walk away from them.  Things we heard about them from others can also blind us to their goodness, their beauty, their authentic person-hood.  Our ears hear but we may not be truly listening or understanding anything they are saying, though we may pretend to be listening and understanding.

However, there are also times when the Lord reveals “the mysteries of the Kingdom” through these very people we have blocked out. Our eyes and ears are opened by the Lord’s forgiveness and our own. We see differently. We truly listen, putting our personal issues aside, and understand. O, the grace of Almighty God—each one of us grows into being “hearing, listening, understanding” individuals. Christ in us increases and the ego-self decreases (cf.John 3:30).

Jesus' Visit to our "Nazareths"

In today's Gospel, Mark 6: 1-6, Jesus visits his hometown, Nazareth, and speaks in the synagogue where He worshipped as a child.  The people are astounded by His wisdom, by the mighty deeds that He has performed. They take offense at Him:  "Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" 

Every day Jesus comes to visit us in our homes, our "Nazareths". Are our hearts open? Or are they closed by our jealousies, our prejudices, our discriminatory attitudes and behaviors toward those of different beliefs, different color, different sexual orientation, different cultures, greater or lesser intelligence, greater or lesser educational backgrounds, careers we look down upon or up to?  Are we closed to the persons in which Jesus disguises Himself, through whom Jesus sends His messages of love, mercy, wisdom; through whom Jesus challenges us?  Is Jesus unable to work His miracles in our lives for the reasons given here?

Openness to the Spirit: Paying Attention

In today’s first reading, Acts 16: 11-15, Paul and Silas travel to several cities: Troas, Samothrace, Neapolis and Philippi. Outside the city of Philippi, they sat and talked with the women, one of whom was Lydia, described as a business woman, “ a worshiper of God, who listened.”  Paul states that “the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what [he] was saying [about Jesus].   She and her household were baptized by Paul and Silas. Following her baptism, she says to Paul: “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home."  “…[S]he prevailed on us, “ Paul states.

Each of the persons in this account are listeners, followers, open to the Spirit. Paul and Silas follow the Spirit’s lead to visit these cities,  to take time to talk to the women gathered outside the city of Philippi,  to baptize Lydia and her household and to accept her invitation to stay at her home. Paul and Silas also recognize the Spirit at work in Lydia. That kind of awareness  takes a lot of openness, first of all,  on any one's part, and second of all, on the part of these two men in a culture that  paid no attention to women, discounted them—in fact excluded them completely.  Lydia, on her part, allows the Spirit to touch her heart deeply. First of all, she is free of prejudice against Paul, who had been known as a staunch Jew who persecuted Christians and here he was preaching about Jesus. Second of all, she was open to hearing about Jesus whom  her own people had put to death.  And third o fall, she is open to the voice of the Spirit directing her to open her home to these missionaries.

How open will I be this day to the Spirit’s invitations,  whatever they might be?  Will I pay attention? Will I be generous? Will I open up to a world to which those around me are closed? Will I be true to who I am and to who I am being invited to become?

Jesus' Knowledge of Our Thoughts and Behaviors

In today’s Gospel, John 20: 19-31, we are given the story of Jesus appearing to the apostles and, this time, Thomas is with them. Jesus greets the apostles and then says to Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Without anyone informing Jesus of Thomas’ earlier comment that he would not believe unless he touched the wounds of Jesus, Jesus brings it up to Thomas. Jesus knows our thoughts and actions from afar. He knows them before we even share them with Him.  Some people contend that because God knows us through and through and knows what we have done, have said or planned to do or say, that there is no need to tell him, to be honest with Him and reveal ourselves to Him. The truth is that Jesus, in most healings, asked the person what he/she wanted of Jesus. He waited for the person to tell his/her story before He intervened. He did the same with the disciples on the way to Emmaus. When the disciple expressed his frustration at Jesus seeming to not know, Jesus asks “What things?”  We need to be honest with Jesus, bare our souls to Him, for our sakes, not his.  It is our openness that prepares the way for God to pour forth the needed graces. We have to open the door by open communication.

Becoming Authentically Human

“The Lord God said: ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him’” (Gen. 2: 18).  None of us is meant to live in isolation or to isolate ourselves from others. We need one another in order to grow in the truth and be set free.    Adam needed Eve and Eve needed Adam.  Cain needed Abel; Abel needed Cain. When Cain killed his brother, he faced the truth about himself when God communicated with him.  We all need to be in communication with others, men with women, women with men, both men and women with God in order to grow spiritually, that is,  to grow in openness and to achieve freedom’s potential.  

Feedback and self-disclosure to another human being/human beings are essential to spiritual growth.  That is why God did not leave Adam alone. That is why God created humans, male and female, to complement each other and be each other’s helper in becoming authentically human.  We might better understand this reality by reflecting upon the Johari window.  Ian Miller ( Ian Miller @thenursepath) writes in “The Nurse Path, on November 11, 2013:  “The Johari window was developed in the 1950′s by two psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. It can be used as a tool for developing self awareness…

“The Johari window is divided up into 4 quadrants. Each quadrant represents the knowledge, skills, values, attitude and feelings of an individual.The area covered by each quadrant reflects to what extent this information is shared or hidden from others, or from oneself.

“The 4 Quadrants:

1. what is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others – open area, open self, free area, free self, or ‘the arena’
2. what is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know – blind area, blind self, or ‘blindspot’
3. what the person knows about him/herself that others do not know – hidden area, hidden self, avoided area, avoided self or ‘facade’what is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others – unknown area or unknown self. 
4. what is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others – unknown area or unknown self." 
   

As we grow spiritually, we grow in openness: to God, to self and others. The  “open area”  is enlarged by feedback, shared discovery, self-disclosure and self-discovery.  Let the blind see, Jesus tells us in the Scriptures. And, in eternity, what is not known, that which is hidden, will come to light. We can begin this process right here and now!