Spiritual realities Different from Natural Realities

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 2: 10b-16, St. Paul reminds us of the Spirit’s presence and role in our lives.  It is the spirit within each of us who knows  what pertains to me and you and “[n]o one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.”  The spirit that each of us has received is of God, not of the world.  Given that gift from God,  we have the ability to know what God gives us and what is not of or from God.  We have been given the gift to discern good spirits and evil spirits.   Through the spirit within us, we speak of spiritual things spiritually, that is, we use “spiritual terms”.  It is a wisdom of the spirit, not of the world, that inspires us when we speak of heavenly realities, of things of God.

When we speak of spiritual realities, we meet opposition from “the natural man [woman], as the natural and the supernatural oppose one another. Things of the Spirit are not accepted by “the natural man [woman]”.  To such persons, spiritual realities are perceived as foolishness, St. Paul reminds us. There is no way that the natural man/woman can understand the things of God because they are thinking from natural minds; they are judging naturally, not spiritually.  A person who has been given “the mind of Christ” through baptism, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon him/her, knows the mind of the Lord, thinks with the minds of the Lord, responds as God responds to the things, experiences, situations of this world. And people of the world, using natural abilities only, have no idea out of which lens a woman/man of the spirit  (of God)  is looking, perceiving or understanding reality.

For instance, when you and I profess our faith in God, our Creator--His presence in all of life, His power at work transforming our world and our lives one by one; when you and I profess our faith in Christ Jesus and His death and resurrection; when you and I profess our faith in God the Holy Spirit,  in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures as the Living Word of God, and in other spiritual realities, persons who think and function from the perspective of human wisdom, who think only naturally, scoff at us. “How foolish can you get?” “There is no God!”  “Jesus coming to you in a piece of bread or a cup of wine which you say has been changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus in the process of Transubstantiation at your Liturgies, is utter foolishness. You are committing idolatry in your worship services, the natural man/woman proclaims! You are utterly wrong when you believe that God reveals Himself in nature, in other human beings, in life and in death itself: how crazy are you?

I stand by my faith! How about you?

God's Inheritance

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor. 1: 25-31, St. Paul reminds us that we “are in Christ Jesus” and that Jesus, through a gift from God the Father, became for us “wisdom,…righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”  Those of us chosen, called to become Jesus’ disciples, to live “in Christ Jesus,”  St. Paul reminds us, were not “powerful.” We were not “of noble birth.” No! God “chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those  who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. [In fact, it] is due to [God] that you [and I] are in Christ Jesus.”

How difficult it may be to absorb the truth that before being  and living “in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from  God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” you and I were  weak, foolish,   lowly and the despised of the world, counting for nothing and that there is nothing you and I can boast about, nothing!   Then turn this around and realize that Christ Jesus is your strength and mine, your wisdom and mine, your righteousness and mine, your sanctification and mine, your redemption and mine.   Furthermore, the author of Psalm 33, today’s responsorial psalm , tells us that God has “chosen [us] for his own inheritance.” God’s inheritance! What? You and I are “God’s inheritance”?  WOW!

The Cross of Christ: Its Meaning, Power and Wisdom

In today’s first reading, 1 Cor 1¨17-25, Paul reminds us that God has sent him, not “to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross,” Paul observes, ”is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside….’  [T]he world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God through the foolishness of the proclamation to save those who have faith. For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those are who called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

The pain, suffering and grief that people throughout the world are suffering—fires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, wars, chronic and terminal illnesses, divorces and the deteriorization of family life, the loss of morals and justice toward the poor and oppressed and minorities in every nation, the prominence of evil in drug trafficking, human trafficking, slave labor and the violence in our streets—reveals the “cross of Christ,” through which salvation has come into the world on that first Good Friday and every “good Friday” since that day 2000+ years ago.  To the unbeliever, this is considered foolishness and does not, in their minds, reveal “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  “Don’t tell me God exists,” is what we hear from a lot of angry people. “Look at the evil in the world,” they say and then ask “Where is God?”

To the haughty and proud of heart, the cross is scoffed at as much today as it was by  persons who stood  beneath the cross on that first Good Friday where angry people were taunting the  dying Jesus, saying:  “’He saved others, he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with him taunted him” (Mark 15: 30-32).

When you and I face the effects of sin and evil in this world and the suffering it causes, are we among those who speak disdainfully of God and the crucified Lord?  Or do we hold firm to our faith in Christ Jesus even in the most devastating of circumstances in our lives, as did the good thief on the cross when, in his pain and dying, he turned to the Son of God and said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23: 41).

God's Generosity and Awesome Promises

Today’s first reading, 1 Cor 1: 1-9, explodes with awesome reminders of who we are in Christ Jesus and the abundant generosity of our God.  Like St. Paul, each of us is called “by the will of God”  to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. By baptism each of us has “been sanctified”—made holy—“in Christ Jesus” and are “called to be holy”. As a disciple, as for an apostle like Paul, our call includes proclaiming--by the way we live our lives-- the Good News” of who Jesus is and of God’s abundant generosity to us in Christ Jesus (spelled out in the Gospels, in the writings of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. Timothy, St. John, in the Acts of the Apostles and in the book of Revelation that describes our Catholic Liturgy or Mass (See The Lamb’s Supper by Scott Hahn).  May God give you the wisdom to ponder these realities, to read The Lamb’s Supper (available through Amazon or Barnes and Noble), to sit in solitude reflecting on 1 Cor. 1:1-9.

St. Paul prays for us, asking that we be given grace , that is a dignity, a beauty, blessings, mercy, kindness, loveliness, an elegance  from God our Father and from Jesus Christ—gifts only God can give.  These gifts,   in their authenticity, their depth, and their breadth, do not come from the world.  St. Paul also prays that we are given peace, that is, a calmness, a serenity, a harmony, a freedom and reconciliation from God our Father and from Jesus--gifts, again, that the world cannot give. May you take time to ponder these truths!

Furthermore, St. Paul reminds us that, in Christ Jesus, we are “enriched in every way…not lacking in any spiritual  gift” as we “wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God, St. Paul tells us, “will keep…[us] firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”   What promises. God does not lie! An d God is faithful to His promises!

Do you believe? Are your hopes anchored in these promises or are you looking elsewhere for these gifts, that is, in sources not capable of yielding these results?

Mary, our Queen-Mother and Intercessor

Today we celebrate the Queenship of Mary.  Mary is our Queen-mother. As such she brings our petitions to our Lord, intercedes for us, and has our best interests in mind as she approaches her son.  It was Mary at the wedding feast of Cana who noticed the distress of the wedding party as the wine ran out. She it was who brought the situation to the Lord and said to Him: Jesus, they have no wine. Though Jesus responded that His time has not yet come to reveal who He was by working a miracle on behalf of the distressed wedding party, Mary did not walk away by saying to the concerned persons: I’m sorry; there is nothing I can do.  Mary knew her Son and says to the attendants: “Do whatever He tells you.”  

Today, Mary, our Queen-mother, is the same!  She is our Queen-mother and the mother of her Son. She will intercede for us, as she did for the wedding party and the attendants at the wedding. They needed help and Mary knew it. In fact, she saw the need and alerted her Son even before the attendants approached her. So, too, today. She is alert to what is happening in your life and mine and takes her concern to Jesus always! She is not the kind of Queen who simply sits on a throne distant from us and detached from us. No, she is walking among us, paying attention to every detail of our lives and interceding with her Son accordingly. That is what a mother does for her children! Mary is no different than the most attentive and caring of mothers.

Humility versus Showiness

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 23: 1-12, Jesus  tells his disciples to observe all the things the scribes and Pharisees tell you to observe “but do not follow their example.  For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplace and the salutation ‘Rabbi’”.

It is easy for anyone but especially, I think,  for priests and Sisters to fall into that trap. We need to be aware when we are following the behavior of the Pharisees and scribes, when we let authority go to our heads, so to speak. Do we do what we do in order to be recognized? Do we burden other people, expecting them to serve us while we do nothing to lighten the burdens other people bear, burdens the Sisters I live with bear, burdens my wife/husband or my children bear? And, children are you willing to be a servant in your family?  Other questions to ask ourselves:  Do we dress to attract the accolades of others. Are we enamored with “places of honor” that come with the titles we bear?

In this Gospel passage, Jesus defines greatness in terms of service: “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  The greatest at a banquet, in Jesus’ description, are not those occupying places of honor but those serving tables and doing dishes in the kitchen!

 Am I seeking to occupy places of distinction or am I content doing the dishes, washing the laundry, cleaning the house, or mowing the lawn? Would Jesus say of me: Observe what she teaches "but do not follow her example"?

God Working in All and through All

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus is asked which of the commandments is the greatest and Jesus responds:  “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

How many of us truly love ourselves?  How often I find myself being dissatisfied with this and that and the next thing about myself.  I have a tendency to drive myself crazy because of my need for perfection and order. There are times, it seems, when nothing is ever good enough for me. 

I was complaining to the Lord this morning because I did not follow a disciplined approach in organizing my day.  Instead of starting the day with an hour of prayer, I started it by reorganizing the vocation ministry library and looking for a bookshelf to accommodate a significant number of books being brought here from one of our houses. Anxiously, I pondered my options and did not sit down to pray until I felt satisfied with the decision I made to accept an offer from another person to give, not one, but two bookcases from the house she is leaving.

As I spoke to the Lord about my frustration, the following dialogue ensued:

Lord, I get so frustrated with myself when  I do not hold myself to a disciplined schedule, beginning the day with an hour of prayer and ending it with an hour of spiritual reading.

Dorothy Ann, let go of making schedules and disciplined rigidity your idols! And why is that the exploring you did this morning is not ok as the start of your work day?

Because I wanted to begin the work day with prayer.

You did! You prayed the divine office and participated in Holy Mass with your community.

Help me, Jesus, accept my humanness. I admit that I needed to come to a decision about the book-shelf offers that I originally rejected.

At times, you are a ball of nervous energy, Dorothy Ann, driven for perfection and order.

Jesus, I bring that energy to You!

I am always at work in you, Dorothy Ann. Your desire for perfection and order is a gift for you to cherish as is your desire for connection with loved ones and with what is happening in the world you live in and which you reach out to each evening , in part, through browsing Facebook entries and calling a friend. Remember, I am in all and work through all!  Recall what I told Peter:  Do not call anything profane of my creation.  I will speak to you, Dorothy Ann,  through any “vehicle”: disorganized or organized energy, emptiness and boredom or clarity and fullness of life that delights you.  Nothing do I reject or treat with disdain. I ask that you follow my example!  By loving yourself in this way, you will increase your love for your neighbor, the second of the commandments.