A Caring God Who Walks with Us and Shares Our Pain

 In today's responsorial psalm, we pray as follows: "I will extol you, O my God and King, and I will bless your name forever and ever.  The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works." As you pray these words, who comes to your mind who needs to experience God's compassion because the compassion of one's spouse, child, parent, grandparent or any other relative has,  at this point in time, been denied them: their spouse threatens divorce,  a spouse has left them for what looks "like greener pastures" outside the marriage, a terminally ill child dies or one of their child has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, the breadwinner of the family has lost his/her job because of the pandemic and on and on and on! To top off one's misery, the person who means the most to oneself commits suicide!

How can this possibly be, we exclaim! In all of those scenarios, Jesus, who is one with us, suffers with  us, is crushed with us, is crucified with us, scourged with us, bullied with us, crowned with the thorns of mockery with us! And, yes, it is Jesus who, in the words of the psalmist, "is gracious and merciful; slow to anger, and of great kindness."  

In the opening words of today's first reading, Isaiah 41: 13-30, God reminds us, through the prophet, of who He is, saying:  "I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand."  God does not abandon us or let us walk through this valley of tears alone. He has our back and grasps our hand to keep us safe and protect us from that which could seriously harm us. God reinforces this message by further saying: "It is I who say to you, 'Fear not'...I will help you....your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. I will make of you a threshing sledge, a sharp, new, and doubled-edged. To thresh the mountains and crush them, to make the hills like chaff. When you winnow them, the wind shall carry them off and the storm shall scatter them. But you will rejoice in the Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel."  What a promise! And what God promises, God delivers!

"Nothing is Impossible for God!" (Luke 1: 37)

 Today we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In today's Gospel, Luke 1: 26-38, Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel.  he greets  her with the following words: "Hail, full of grace!"  Mary is taken aback. She was "greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be."  Noticing her fright, the angel says to her: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God."

Recall that Mary is a teenager, perhaps 14, 15 or 16 years of age!  Put yourself in Mary's place. Imagine yourself going about your morning chores and all of a sudden, in front of you stands a heavenly visitor such as the angel Gabriel, who says to you: "Hail, full of grace!"  "What?  Who are you? And what does this greeting mean," you wonder out loud! And Gabriel responds: "Do not be afraid, insert your name, for you have found favor with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. He will be great and will be called son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." And Mary responds: "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"

Blustered! Confused! Scared!  Any one of these emotions would be an appropriate response to that experience!  We have all been there! God suddenly allows our lives to be turned upside down, so to speak. Our response: "How can this be?" "This can't be happening to us!  This can't be real!"  And, however or in whatever way God entered our lives, we know when it is about God, not about us!  No other explanation is possible! What is happening is happening through God' design! Period!  Because, as the angel Gabriel said to Mary when he told her that her elderly cousin was six month's pregnant: "Nothing is impossible for God."

Wait upon the Lord

 Today's psalm, Psalm 27,  encourages us to seek one thing: to "dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I am asked to pray "that I may gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  Believe that you "shall see the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord."

Obviously we are given several choices by the psalmist! First, to "gaze upon the loveliness of the Lord and contemplate his temple."  In all of the circumstances of our lives, we have the choice to gave on God's loveliness and upon  God's temple and the one who dwells there, the Holy Spirit. Our eyes are veiled, however, from that loveliness when we choose to dwell on the difficulties or problems we are facing or have faced:  the pandemic, being quarantined, harsh words by another person, the crimes being committed in our world and so on! 

Second choice: to look for "the bounty of the Lord."  In one of the meal prayers, we pray: Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we receive from your bounty..."  The question is: am I looking for God's bountiful gifts or am I focused on losses or on my poverty and the poverty of those around me?

Third choice: to "wait upon the Lord with courage; [to] be stouthearted and wait for the Lord."  How easy it is to fall into the trap of doing it ourselves and forgetting to wait upon the Lord. And we know when we do that! When we wait upon the Lord, He is then there with us, guiding us, strengthening us and enlightening us to do what is right, to say what others need to hear and are able to hear, or we are wise enough to remain silent period!  When we wait jupon the Lord, the outcome is then positive; we walk away feeling blessed and at peace with ourselves.

With the psalmist, I pray: "Lord, you are my light and my salvation!"  Thank you!

Making rightful choices!

 Frequently, a person will say: "God is in charge."  As I reflect upon today's first reading, Isaiah 26: 1-6, that phrase comes to my mind. It is strong because, as  Isaiah reminds us, Yahweh that a "strong city have we; he (Yahweh) sets up walls and ramparts to protect us." The prophets asks us to "[o]pen up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith," faith in the Just One, faith in God, a warrior God, a God who saves.  God, Isaiah continues, sustains peace for a "nation of firm purpose," a nation that puts "its trust" in God.  "Trust in the Lord forever! For the Lord is an eternal Rock,"  says the psalmist.  In whom do I put my trust? To whom do I open myself?  Who/what do I let in?

In the Gospel of today, Mt 7: 21, 24-27, Jesus tells us that a person who listen to His words, "will be like a wise [person] who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse."  The media, if we allow it, will flood our minds with false information, will fill us with despairing thoughts, negative thinking, thoughts of anger, resentments and revenge.  I can protect myself by prayer, holy reading, and solitude, resting in the Lord!  

God's Decrees Are Trustworthy

 In today's first reading, Romans 10: 9-18, St. Paul says to us: "No one who believes in him (Jesus) will be put to shame" and that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  I call upon your name, O Lord. Save me!  Save me from the snares that Satan sets for me: snares  that lead to imprudence, deceitfulness,  revengefulness, disgracefulness, disrespectfulness, impatience, stinginess,  pride, hatred, sloth, lust, covetousness, and unforgiveness!  Save me by giving me the gifts of prudence, honesty, forgiveness, mercy, respectfulness, patience, generosity, humility, detachment and love!

How often, Lord, do I  not encounter my humanity with its proneness to evil. Have pity on me, Lord. Help me, as Simon helped you to carry your cross to Calvary.  May I carry the cross, be nailed to the cross, suffer death on the cross and rise to new life, as You did on Calvary. Only by experiencing the  effects of sin and  dying to sin do I rise to holiness.  Through physical death I enter eternal life; through spiritual death to sin I enter a state of holiness here on earth!

And so we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 19:  "The decree of the Lord is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart," clothing the heart in holiness; "the command of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eye" to what is prudent, honest, generous, forgiving, respectful, loving and merciful!

Gabriel's Message to Mary and to Us

 Tomorrow is the First Sunday of Advent.  Let us enter Advent with Mary's attitude of reverence, humility, and surrender to the will of our God for us. Mary, our Mother who gave the Son of God his humanity, is told in Luke 1: 28 that she has found favor with God and that the Lord is with her.  The angel's message greatly troubles Mary. The angel says to Mary: "Do not be afraid, Mary."  Gabriel then goes on to say that Mary  "is to conceive in her womb and bear a son....[H]e will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."  A bit taken back, no doubt,  Mary asks: "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel explains that her conception of Jesus will be through the Holy Spirit:  "[T]he power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."  She is then told that her elderly cousin is six month's pregnant, "for "nothing is impossible for God." Mary's response: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word," and she conceives Jesus, the Son of God, in her womb!

And the waiting period, Advent, begins!  May your Advent, and mine, also begin with Gabriel's visit to us, remind us that we, too, have found favor with God through Jesus Christ!

Consequences of the Choices One Makes

 In today's first reading, 1 Mac 6: 1-13,  King Antiochus'  determination to capture Persia and all its wealth in gold fails.  He ends up a defeated man, a man of sorrows, a dejected person. When all collapses, the king withdraws in sorrow and states of himself: "I now recall the evils I did in Jerusalem, when I carried away all the vessels of gold and silver that were in it, and for no cause gave ordered that the inhabitants of Judah be destroyed. I know that this is why these evils have overtaken me; and now I am dying , in bitter grief, in a foreign land."

There are consequences to every choice that we make.  Bad choices lead to bad results whereas right choices bring gladness to our hearts. We witness this truth every day in the news of the day. Persons who court evil, who make choices that lead to violence and death to any one person end up facing judges and juries and the anger of persons effected by their poor choices. And even if the outcome of these court hearings acquit a person unjustly, they still need to live with the fact that they got away with murder!    They live chained to the truth even when truth was thwarted in the courts.  

In our heart of hearts, you and I know when we have done evil, when we have wronged another person or persons, when our lives are lives of lies! We may fool ourselves for a while but ultimately we will come face to face with what is our truth, even if that first occurs in the afterlife!  We are who we are before God and no other!  Persons fleeing truth are highly vulnerable to addictive behaviors used to camouflage the truth, to escape reality. Such persons easily become trapped in  addictive behaviors: compulsive spending, gambling, eating, drinking, sexing and so on!  Like King Antiochus, we can become "sick with grief because [our evil] designs [fail] us!"

Lord, may I have the courage, the prudence, and the wisdom to embrace my truth!