Truth and Wisdom

 In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 119, we pray:  "Your word, O Lord, endures forever; it is firm as the heavens. Through all generations your truth endures; you have established the earth, and it stands firm. According to your ordinances they still stand firm: all things serve you." 

What is God's truth that stands firm and through which all things serve God?  One, that all good things come from God and return to God; two, that God's being is in all and all in God; three, that God is for us and with us; and four, that all is made right in God--redeemed, justified and glorified for God and through God.  These truths may be difficult for us at times, especially when things do not turn out as we'd wish, when other people's decisions seem unreasonable or, in fact, are immoral and pose a threat to another's wellbeing. We may be asking ourselves the following questions: Where was God when my child was kidnapped? How could such evil be promulgated if God's will prevailed?  If God is God, why has my child abandoned the right path, gone astray, and/or engaged in behaviors that could easily lead to a treacherous outcomes? Why are gangs thriving and on and on!

How hard it is to live by faith under circumstances alluded to above! Yet, I know, and you know, that good will endure, not evil, that God detests evil and deceitful ways, thwarts the way of the wicked but protects the just! We also know that Wisdom, who is God, "can do all things and renews everything while herself perduring" (today's first reading, Wis 7: 22b-8:1).

Delighting in God's Law or Rejecting It

 In today's responsorial psalm (Psalm 1)  we proclaim: "Blessed are they who hope in the Lord." Underlying our choice to live lives of righteousness, as stated in today's first reading, Romans 6: 19-23, is the hope, I believe,  that we will become citizens of heaven. In Paul's words:  "...now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit that you have leads to sanctification, and its end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Today's responsorial Psalm spells out the details of  an individual who lives righteously, namely a person who:

• Does "not walk in the way of sinners"
• Does "not sit in the company of the insolent"
• "Delights in the law of the Lord"
• "Meditates on [God's] law day and night."

Such a person, the psalmist says,

• "Is like a tree planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.  
• Is successful/prospers in "whatever he does"
• Is watched over by the Lord day and night!

The opposite is true of the wicked who live lives that are the direct opposite of the just. In other words

they:

• Walk the way of sinners
• Sit in the company of the insolent
• Do not delight in the law of the Lord
• Do not meditate on God's law day or night
• Are like vegetation in a desert
• Fail in whatever he does, though his failures might be deemed successes in the minds of those who follow their ways
• The ways of the wicked are scorned by the Lord but the Lord adds days, even years to their lives, hoping for their return to the ways of the Lord!

In which group do I see myself? you, yourself? 

Being Prepared!

 In today's readings, Romans 6: 12-18 and Luke 12: 39-48, we are presented with the challenge to make choices: 1) between sin and grace and/or 2) being prepared or unprepared for when the Lord comes to show us the way He wants us to go or when He comes to terminate our time here on earth. Regarding sin, St. Paul says to us in Romans 6: 12-18, "...sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace."  The law, Paul tells us in another passage, condemns us. Grace, on the other hand, frees us from slavery to laws! Grace is love and love is freedom to follow Christ.  What choices am I making? Am I choosing grace, that is, do I follow the Spirit's lead throughout the day, doing good and rejecting evil, being detached to go with the flow of grace or attached and unprepared to follow the will of God as revealed to me throughout the day? 

In the Gospel, Luke challenges us to be prepared for the Lord when He comes to terminate our time here on earth--to be as prepared as we would be for a break in of a thief! We would not wait until it is too late and the thief  has robbed us of our significant possessions, including the money we would need to take care of our families, and/or, worst still, kill us and our family members to steal from us without any opposition. "Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

How often, on the nightly news,  have we not heard a person say of a dying family member: "I wish he/she would have gotten vaccinated."  Or the dying person him/herself  expresses regret of not protecting him/herself. It is then too late1 "The "thief" has broken in and the person/s were unprepared!

How am I preparing myself for the unexpected? How am I preparing myself or my family members for the day the Lord comes to take us to Paradise?

Doers of Good or Promoters of Evil? Which Am I?

 In today's first reading, Romans 5: 12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21, St. Paul reminds us our connectedness and the ripple effect of both good and evil, saying: "Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all..., inasmuch as all sinned.  If, [however,]  that one person's transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious  gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many..."   In other words, "how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ."

Jesus Christ shows us how to live life to the full as a human being.  All that we do--good or evil, that which is holy or that which is sinful--touches everyone, has an impact on other people's  lives!  The good we do multiplies grace upon grace! Unfortunately, there are those who teach others to do evil.  And sin, as St. Paul says in today's first reading, brings death to all!

An I one who fills the earth with goodness and teach others to do the same or am I one who propagates evil and teaches others to do the same?

Following the Spirit's Call or the Call of the Gospel

 In today's first reading, Wisdom 7: 7-11, the author prays for prudence and pleaded for the spirit of wisdom.  He says to us:  I preferred her more than power,  and I "deemed riches nothing in comparison to her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire. Beyond health and comeliness, I loved her, and chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep. ...[A]ll good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands."

Would you and I pray for wisdom and prudence beyond all else:  beyond secular wealth, power and prestige? beyond unneeded material things: a yacht, a second house in a popular tourist location, a luxurious vacation or for whatever we lust and do not really need to live a life of loving service, compassionate care, and justice?

In today's Gospel,  Mark 10: 17-30, a man ran up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" After a significant dialogue with the man, Jesus' final answer to was: "'Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will  have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.' At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions."  Further on in the passage, Jesus says to us:  "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in the present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."

Men and women have left "brothers or sisters or mother or father" in response to the Spirit's call, the call of the Gospel,  to embrace the single lifestyle or to  marry or to enter the priesthood or consecrated religious life or to become deacons. Or, they may have done so against the will of loved ones. Jesus response:  "Amen, I say to you...[you] will...receive a hundred times more now in the present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."
  

Authentic Listening to the Word of God

 In today's Gospel, Luke 11: 27-28, a woman, impressed by Jesus' preaching, calls out  to him: "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which  you nursed."  In response, Jesus says to her: "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."  Three things we might reflect upon: 1) Mary is truly blessed, as Jesus points out, because she was attentive to God's word, listened to the angel Gabriel, and acted upon God's word. Her fiat was not just words; it was action in accord with the message conveyed to her through the angel and/or through the circumstances of her life.  2) If someone saw you or I in action, as Jesus was observed, would the person give praise to God, saying: "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed"?  3) Would Jesus, seeing what you are doing today, or any day, say: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it"?  If not, why not and what changes do you, or I, need to make in our lives so that we are, in truth, listening to God and doing what He is asking of us?

Challenges to Follow the Precepts of the Lord

 In today's first reading, James 5: 1-6, St. James challenges the wealthy who are involved in lifestyles that are dominated by corruption. He says: "Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your  impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one...."

The words of St. James applies to the world of today as well to the world in which he lived. Every day, as we listen to the news, we hear of God's precepts being discarded by those who bring harm to others or, in fact, commit murder, withhold wages or cheat their employees in any way, who turn against their loved ones by being unfaithful and/or by being irresponsible in some way, by persons involved in human trafficking, slave labor, and/or drug trafficking and other sin infected behaviors!  Blinded by Satan's lies, a person is likely to make choices that lead, eventually, to misery for themselves and their families. Some of these persons involve their children in sinful situations, as well. Jesus, in today's Gospel, Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48, says to them: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea."  In that same passage, Jesus speaks to his passion that persons make right choices, saying to us:  "If your hand [or your foot] causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands [or two feet] to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire."

How greatly Jesus must suffer when he sees any one of his children being deceived by Satan, who convinces them that doing what is wrong will bring them pleasure!

Lord, open our eyes to recognize Satan as the Father of Lies. Let us not get caught in his trap of lies and let us recognize when he is using another human being as his agent.