In today's first reading, Jonah 1: 1-2: 2, 11, the Lord said to Jonah: "Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and preach against it; their wickedness has come up before me." The wickedness in today's world also comes up before God. Is it possible, as in the case of Jonah who fled to Tarshish "away from the Lord," that many people today are also fleeing from God, doing whatever possible to escape following God's will to address the corruption, the deception, the wickedness of sin-laden humankind? Is it possible that the turbulence in any part of the world--natural or man-made "storms" --are the result of our having abandoned God? Do we need someone, as did Jonah, to confront us with the question: "What are you doing asleep? Rise up, call upon your God. Perhaps God will be mindful of us so that we may not perish" in our wickedness!
With the psalmist, in today's responsorial psalm, we pray:
Out of [our] distress [we call] to the Lord,
and he [answers us];
From the midst of the nether world [of corruption, deception, and violation of law and of people's rights [we cry] out for help,
and you [hear our voices].for you cast [us] into the deep [of sin-infested behaviors], into the heart of the sea [of an abundance of lies and abuses of power],
and the flood [envelops us];
All your breakers and your billows
[pass over us].
Then I said, 'I am banished from your sight!
...When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
[Our] prayer reached you...'"
Lord, God, have mercy upon us who have strayed from the path of righteousness, truth and justice in the search for wealth or an abundance of material things and pleasures of all kinds, especially pleasure at the expense of the innocent. Forgive us, Lord, for wanting things our way instead of Your way and the way Jesus modeled for us!
Monday, October 7, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
God Does Not Disappoint!
In today's first reading, Habakkuk 1: 2-3; 2: 2-4, the prophet says to the Lord: "Lord, I cry out for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord. Then the Lord answered me and said: Write down the vision clearly upon tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash one has no integrity; but the just one, because of his faith shall live."
We may wonder as we listen to the news each night: Does God really care? When is all this strife going to come to an end, we might be out cry to the Lord. How many more children need be separated from their parents? How many more times need laws be violated? How many more treaties need be negated that were set up to protect us and Mother Earth? How many more atrocities need be committed by unjust governments, by criminals exploiting children and women for monetary gain? Are you listening, Lord?
Habakkuk reminds us that God is not deaf nor blind to what is happening anywhere in the world. He also reminds us that God's timing is perfect and that His vision for the world presses on to fulfillment. God's justice and God's truth will not disappoint. God's solution to the injustice, the corruption, the lack of truth, the scandals, the lawlessness, the violence of any kind that exist in any nation will not disappoint. Neither will God's timing be late, though we may think it is! And just as God freed the Israelites from the oppression of Pharaoh, so, too, will God free all of humankind from the oppression of dictators anywhere in the world. God knows better than we do how much Satan has deceived those who abuse their authority and those who support them; God is not blind or deaf to our cries for justice, truth and respect of law! God will act at the right time and the right place and through the people He chooses to act on His behalf and through His power! God will not disappoint ever!
I believe? Do you?
We may wonder as we listen to the news each night: Does God really care? When is all this strife going to come to an end, we might be out cry to the Lord. How many more children need be separated from their parents? How many more times need laws be violated? How many more treaties need be negated that were set up to protect us and Mother Earth? How many more atrocities need be committed by unjust governments, by criminals exploiting children and women for monetary gain? Are you listening, Lord?
Habakkuk reminds us that God is not deaf nor blind to what is happening anywhere in the world. He also reminds us that God's timing is perfect and that His vision for the world presses on to fulfillment. God's justice and God's truth will not disappoint. God's solution to the injustice, the corruption, the lack of truth, the scandals, the lawlessness, the violence of any kind that exist in any nation will not disappoint. Neither will God's timing be late, though we may think it is! And just as God freed the Israelites from the oppression of Pharaoh, so, too, will God free all of humankind from the oppression of dictators anywhere in the world. God knows better than we do how much Satan has deceived those who abuse their authority and those who support them; God is not blind or deaf to our cries for justice, truth and respect of law! God will act at the right time and the right place and through the people He chooses to act on His behalf and through His power! God will not disappoint ever!
I believe? Do you?
Saturday, October 5, 2019
God Listens to the Poor
In today's first reading, Baruch 4: 5-12, 27-29, Baruch reminds the people that they "were sold to the nations not for [their] own destruction... [but]because [they] angered God...[Y]ou provoked your Maker with sacrifices to demons, to no-gods; You forsook the Eternal God who nourished you....[C]all out to God. He...will remember you. as your hearts have been disposed to stray from god, turn now ten times the more to seek him; for he...will, in saving you, bring you back enduring joy."
The responsorial psalm, Psalm 69, reminds us that "[t]he Lord listens to the poor--[that is, to those who know their weaknesses and their need for God's help and ask for that help.] See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not." And all of us are in bonds that only God can loosen, as Jesus loosened the bonds that bound Lazarus, for instance.
The message of Baruch applies to us today. Like the Israelites, we, too, have sacrificed to demons-- greediness, selfishness, jealousy, gluttony, envy, narcissism, sexism, prejudice, hatred and so on--and to no-gods (wealth, hedonism, consumerism, materialism, sexism, and so on); we forsook the Eternal God who nourishes us in the sacraments, in the blessings of each day, in the love we give and receive from family and friends, in acts of altruism, generosity to the poor and oppressed, in honest living, and in faithfulness to what God asks of us in the ten commandments, in the Scriptures, through the Church and through the Holy Spirit at work in all of the events of our lives.
May we come back to Jesus, serve the Lord and others in self-sacrificing love, in fidelity to our faith, and in building up the Kingdom of justice, love and truth. If we do so, as did the seventy-two disciples (see today's Gospel, Luke 10: 17-24), we will hear Jesus say to us as He said to them on their return from the mission Jesus sent them on: "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy..." Do we believe that Jesus has given us this power? Or have we stopped believing in the power of the Spirit given to us in baptism and confirmation, in any of the sacraments?
The responsorial psalm, Psalm 69, reminds us that "[t]he Lord listens to the poor--[that is, to those who know their weaknesses and their need for God's help and ask for that help.] See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the Lord hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not." And all of us are in bonds that only God can loosen, as Jesus loosened the bonds that bound Lazarus, for instance.
The message of Baruch applies to us today. Like the Israelites, we, too, have sacrificed to demons-- greediness, selfishness, jealousy, gluttony, envy, narcissism, sexism, prejudice, hatred and so on--and to no-gods (wealth, hedonism, consumerism, materialism, sexism, and so on); we forsook the Eternal God who nourishes us in the sacraments, in the blessings of each day, in the love we give and receive from family and friends, in acts of altruism, generosity to the poor and oppressed, in honest living, and in faithfulness to what God asks of us in the ten commandments, in the Scriptures, through the Church and through the Holy Spirit at work in all of the events of our lives.
May we come back to Jesus, serve the Lord and others in self-sacrificing love, in fidelity to our faith, and in building up the Kingdom of justice, love and truth. If we do so, as did the seventy-two disciples (see today's Gospel, Luke 10: 17-24), we will hear Jesus say to us as He said to them on their return from the mission Jesus sent them on: "I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy..." Do we believe that Jesus has given us this power? Or have we stopped believing in the power of the Spirit given to us in baptism and confirmation, in any of the sacraments?
Friday, October 4, 2019
Heeding the Voice of the Lord
In today's first reading, Baruch 1: 15-22, the Chosen People realize that the evils of the past cling to them. Acknowledging their sinfulness, the exiles in Babylon pray: "Justice is with the Lord, our God; and we today are flushed with shame, we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem, that we, with our kings and rulers and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors, have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him." The Israelites grieve the fact that "we have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God, nor followed the precepts which the Lord has set before us...[W]e have been disobedient to the Lord our God, and only too ready to disregard his voice."
We certainly can repeat those truths, as we, too, have often paid no attention to the voice of our God. We, too, have many times been disobedient to the Lord, our God. Evil seems to cling to us, as the Chosen People realized had become their reality. We can look back to Adam and Eve who followed their own wills, not the will of God for them. Also, instead of owning their personal truth, Eve blamed the serpent--the devil made me do it--and Adam blamed Eve--it was her fault. Neither accepted responsibility for the pit into which each had fallen.
How often do we deny our personal responsibility for the "pits" into which we have fallen. How often, that is, do we not blame someone else for our sinfulness, as Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve. This behavior, and other ways in which the voice of the Lord goes unheard, abounds in our world today, in spite of the fact that we have Jesus in our midst! Will Jesus say to us what he said to the people of Choazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum: Woe to you...For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgement than for you. And as for you Capernaum, 'will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.' Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
To whom am I, are you, listening?
We certainly can repeat those truths, as we, too, have often paid no attention to the voice of our God. We, too, have many times been disobedient to the Lord, our God. Evil seems to cling to us, as the Chosen People realized had become their reality. We can look back to Adam and Eve who followed their own wills, not the will of God for them. Also, instead of owning their personal truth, Eve blamed the serpent--the devil made me do it--and Adam blamed Eve--it was her fault. Neither accepted responsibility for the pit into which each had fallen.
How often do we deny our personal responsibility for the "pits" into which we have fallen. How often, that is, do we not blame someone else for our sinfulness, as Eve blamed the serpent and Adam blamed Eve. This behavior, and other ways in which the voice of the Lord goes unheard, abounds in our world today, in spite of the fact that we have Jesus in our midst! Will Jesus say to us what he said to the people of Choazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum: Woe to you...For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgement than for you. And as for you Capernaum, 'will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.' Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
To whom am I, are you, listening?
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Call to Faithfulness
In today's first reading, Nehemiah 8: 1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12, Ezra, the scribe, gathers all the the people together--men, women and all children capable of understanding--to listen to a reading of the Law of Moses. The ;people, having returned from the Babylonian exile, having rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem and also having built a sturdy wall around the city fell into serious violations of the law, forcing "fellow fellow Jews to sell sons and daughters into slavery and overlook[ing] the hungry" (Carroll Stuhlmeuller, C.P., Biblical Meditations for Ordinary Time--Weeks 23-34, Paulist Press, Ramsey, New Jersey, 1984, p. 85). As the people, from the rising of the sun until noon, listened to the scribe read, explain and challenge the people in their wrongdoing, they wept in sorrow and shame and repented of their sinful behavior.
Like the Israelites who needed to repent, so, too, do we. Nations throughout the world have rejected the Commandments of the Lord and engaged in activities that denies people their basic human rights to food, safe shelter, adequate health care and necessary education to secure jobs that enable them to provide for their families. So, too, today, the hungry are ignored. The people seeking refuge from danger in their own countries are abused and blocked from seeking asylum in countries they deem safe havens to raise their children. To make ends meet, some parents sell their children to the slave of agricultural camps and hostels where children are used to make money by human traffickers. the list of violations of the Gospel message and the en commandments goes on and on!
Repent and believe; the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, Jesus tells us in the Gospels!
Will we, like the Israelites, recognize our having gone astray? Will we listen to those proclaiming the Scriptures and explaining the Commandments of the Lord? Or will be simply, pridefully, and sorely continue to miss opportunities of grace that lead us back to being faithful to our baptismal commitments and the disciplines necessary in living Jesus' way? Will we as a nation, as individuals, continue to reject God's way to the point that we will suffer the consequences, not just here on earth, but also in eternity?
Like the Israelites who needed to repent, so, too, do we. Nations throughout the world have rejected the Commandments of the Lord and engaged in activities that denies people their basic human rights to food, safe shelter, adequate health care and necessary education to secure jobs that enable them to provide for their families. So, too, today, the hungry are ignored. The people seeking refuge from danger in their own countries are abused and blocked from seeking asylum in countries they deem safe havens to raise their children. To make ends meet, some parents sell their children to the slave of agricultural camps and hostels where children are used to make money by human traffickers. the list of violations of the Gospel message and the en commandments goes on and on!
Repent and believe; the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, Jesus tells us in the Gospels!
Will we, like the Israelites, recognize our having gone astray? Will we listen to those proclaiming the Scriptures and explaining the Commandments of the Lord? Or will be simply, pridefully, and sorely continue to miss opportunities of grace that lead us back to being faithful to our baptismal commitments and the disciplines necessary in living Jesus' way? Will we as a nation, as individuals, continue to reject God's way to the point that we will suffer the consequences, not just here on earth, but also in eternity?
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Our Guardian Angels
Today we celebrate the feast of our Guardian angels. God has given every human person a guardian angel, a messenger from heaven. As a child, I was taught the following prayer: Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule and guide. Amen.
When I think of my guardian angel, I think of the many times I hear the words: "Watch out." "Do this!" Don't do that." "Good job!" "Try harder." "You can do it!" I also think of the times that I was saved from death, as happened one night out on a dessert road with no lights anywhere around. I car was following me (I had two other passengers in my car). Frustrated that the car being me left its brights on, I let it pass me. A short ways up the road, coming over a small hill, was a car in our lane. We were traveling about 60 miles an hour. There was no way for the driver in front of me to get out of the way. They hit head-on and two women in the car were killed outright. My guardian angel and those of my passengers, I believed, were at work that night!
Other people have told me similar stories of "miracles" that occurred as the result, they believed, of their Guardian Angel protecting them.
Lord, thank you for giving each of us a Guardian Angel. May we be more aware of your generosity and that of our Guardian angels, who are at our sides "to light, to guard, to rule and guide.
When I think of my guardian angel, I think of the many times I hear the words: "Watch out." "Do this!" Don't do that." "Good job!" "Try harder." "You can do it!" I also think of the times that I was saved from death, as happened one night out on a dessert road with no lights anywhere around. I car was following me (I had two other passengers in my car). Frustrated that the car being me left its brights on, I let it pass me. A short ways up the road, coming over a small hill, was a car in our lane. We were traveling about 60 miles an hour. There was no way for the driver in front of me to get out of the way. They hit head-on and two women in the car were killed outright. My guardian angel and those of my passengers, I believed, were at work that night!
Other people have told me similar stories of "miracles" that occurred as the result, they believed, of their Guardian Angel protecting them.
Lord, thank you for giving each of us a Guardian Angel. May we be more aware of your generosity and that of our Guardian angels, who are at our sides "to light, to guard, to rule and guide.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Union with Jesus
In today's Gospel, Luke 9: 51-56, Luke tells us that Jesus is "resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him." On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus enters a Samaritan village "to prepare for his reception there." He is not welcomed "because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem.
You and I are also on our way to "Jerusalem", to union with Jesus in his sufferings, death and resurrection. Everything in Jesus' life mystically pointed to Calvary, to his returning to the glory of eternal life with the Father. Jesus was relentless in pointing to His Father, whom He left in glory to become a human being like us in all things except sin, and to whom He would return in glory at the close of His life here on earth. We, in turn, will follow Jesus. We came from God and will return to God the same way Jesus did, through the door of death, through the sufferings and joys of this life.
We have a foretaste of eternal life in the "resurrections" to new life that you and I experience every time we die to sin and rise to holiness, die to selfishness and rise to self-sacrificing love for the sake of another, die to deceitfulness and rise to honesty, die to pride and rise to humility in how e relate to others.
We die and rise with Jesus every time we allow ourselves to die to sin and rise to that which is holy in how we deal with the vicissitudes of life. The sufferings we endure in these processes are united with the sufferings of Jesus and through that union we are given the power to make right choices, to choose "resurrection" moments, moments that are holy!
As with St. Therese of the Child Jesus, whose feastday we celebrate today, the Lord leads us and teaches us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle spreading its wings, the Lord takes us up and bears us on his shoulders. In those holy moments of life each day, the Lord alone guides us. (
(Compare The Entrance Antiphon of today's liturgy).
You and I are also on our way to "Jerusalem", to union with Jesus in his sufferings, death and resurrection. Everything in Jesus' life mystically pointed to Calvary, to his returning to the glory of eternal life with the Father. Jesus was relentless in pointing to His Father, whom He left in glory to become a human being like us in all things except sin, and to whom He would return in glory at the close of His life here on earth. We, in turn, will follow Jesus. We came from God and will return to God the same way Jesus did, through the door of death, through the sufferings and joys of this life.
We have a foretaste of eternal life in the "resurrections" to new life that you and I experience every time we die to sin and rise to holiness, die to selfishness and rise to self-sacrificing love for the sake of another, die to deceitfulness and rise to honesty, die to pride and rise to humility in how e relate to others.
We die and rise with Jesus every time we allow ourselves to die to sin and rise to that which is holy in how we deal with the vicissitudes of life. The sufferings we endure in these processes are united with the sufferings of Jesus and through that union we are given the power to make right choices, to choose "resurrection" moments, moments that are holy!
As with St. Therese of the Child Jesus, whose feastday we celebrate today, the Lord leads us and teaches us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle spreading its wings, the Lord takes us up and bears us on his shoulders. In those holy moments of life each day, the Lord alone guides us. (
(Compare The Entrance Antiphon of today's liturgy).
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