Seeking, Serving, Loving Wisdom

Today's first reading, Sirach 4: 11-19, speaks to us of Wisdom and enumerates its riches and gifts. what are those gifts:

Wisdom:

•  "breathes life into her children." 
•  "admonishes those who seek her." 

The person who loves wisdom, "loves life."  The person who seeks wisdom, "will be embraced by the Lord." The one who holds wisdom "fast inherits glory; wherever [such a person] dwells, the Lord bestows blessings. Those who serve [wisdom] serve the Holy One; those who love [wisdom] the Lord loves." 

Whom do you and I serve?  Looking at the facts above, would you, would I, say, in truth, that we are persons who love Wisdom, seek Wisdom, serve Wisdom, love Wisdom? We obviously have choices to serve Wisdom or reject her! When we do not serve Wisdom, drawing from Sirach 4: 11-19, we experience a deficit of blessings, withdraw ourselves from God's love, and, in fact, are not then serving the Lord!

Lord, give us the spirit to discern whom we are serving!  When we have gone astray, please admonish us and bring us back to the way of life that comes from you!

Wisdom: A Gift from God's Bountifulness

In today's first reading, Sirach 1: 1-10, we read that all "wisdom comes from the Lord and with him it remains forever, and is before all time....The word of God on high is the fountain of wisdom and her ways are everlasting....There is but one, the Most High all-powerful creator-king and truly awe-inspiring one, seated upon his throne and he is the God of dominion....He has poured her (wisdom) forth upon all his works, and upon every living thing according to his bounty; he has lavished  her upon his friends."

Because God pours wisdom upon all his works, upon you and me, and "every living thing according to his bounty," because he lavishes her upon us, we are empowered to know right from wrong, to reach out to those in need, to right what is wrong in  our personal, social, familial, ecclesial, civic and community lives.  Wisdom, which comes from God's generosity and concern for us,  enables us to assist others who have made poor choices.  We are able to direct others back to doing or not doing what wisdom inspires them to do or not to do, provided, that is, that we model such behavior!

Jesus' Transfiguration: Revelation of Jesus' Glory and Ours

Today's Gospel reading, Mark 9: 2-13, presents the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to Mount Tabor, where He is transfigured before them.  His "clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them alone with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus....Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over... [Peter, James and John]; then from the cloud came a voice, 'This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.' Suddenly,..., looking around, the disciples no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them."

Imagine being one of the three disciples.  You have been following Jesus for three years. You know Him intimately as a human being. It was revealed to Peter prior to this experience, however,  that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who came down from heaven, taking on human form. Then this!  Wow: clothing "dazzling white"--the glorified Jesus! Furthermore, they see Jesus speaking with the prophet Elijah and Moses, who had been chosen by God to be His instrument in freeing the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt.

Scripture scholars tell us that Jesus, Elijah and Moses were discussing Jesus' upcoming death and resurrection--Jesus would be returning to the glory He left when becoming incarnate.  This was part of Jesus' preparation for that event of death having no power over Him (nor over us)! The transfiguration was also preparation time for the three disciples who would accompany Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus' agony was so great that He sweat blood and where He said to the three disciples: "I am sorrowful even to the point of death" (Mark 14: 34)! On Mount Tabor, the disciple's faith in Jesus is reinforced by both the vision and the voice of the Father saying: This is my beloved son; listen to Him."

The crucifixion, without the resurrection or belief in the resurrection, would have been overwhelmingly crushing!  So, too, in our future deaths. We know death has no power over us. As with Jesus, we, too, following our deaths,  will rise to new life, a life with no end, no more suffering, no more pain, a life of glory.  We will arise to a life of eternal bliss, as planned by God from the beginning of the world. Nothing will become between us and God's love and mercy!

This is my belief!  What is yours?

Trusting in the Lord

Trust is the theme of both readings, Genesis 8: 6-13, 20-22 and Mark 8: 22-26.   In the first reading, Noah has just come through the forty days of rain and is waiting for the waters to subside.  He and his family were the only human beings spared the loss of life during the torrential downpours for the past forty days.  In the Gospel reading, Jesus takes a blind man aside, touches his eyes twice, the first time the man does not see clearly:  "I see people looking like trees and walking," he tells Jesus. After Jesus touches his eyes a second time, the man sees perfectly.

What would I have done had I been in Noah's situation? When the waters subside, Noah and his family are faced with starting all over again, trusting God as they proceeds to rebuild their lives. The same is true of the blind man. His life is totally changed having put his faith in Jesus. Many times, you and I are faced with needing to start over again, rebuilding our trust in the Lord after some disaster, personal, familial, or otherwise.  Jesus takes us by the hand, as he did the blind man, and leads us forward. We are not always sure of where Jesus is leading us or how he is guiding us.  Sometimes we may wonder if Jesus is even aware of the challenges we face on a given day or the drama we may have just waded through and that prompts us to ask: "Where are you, Jesus?" or "Jesus, do you care that my 'boat' is being tossed about by the turbulent waves of life?" Or we may say to Jesus: "Lord, I feel like I am drowning! I don't know how to move forward!"

Help me, Jesus, trust in you!  Help me see clearly as you lead me through the turbulent waters of life!

In whom am I putting my trust?

In today's first reading, Jeremiah 1: 5-8,  the Lord says to us: "Cursed is the one who trusts in  human beings, who seeks his [her] strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  [Such a person] is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, but stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth." In other words, if my trust is in human beings and not in God, that is, I have turned away from the Lord, I am in deep trouble!  If I seek my help from human beings only and do not go to God, I will find myself eventually in a desert.  That is what has happened to those who, having engaged in criminal activity, are in our prisons.  This also happens for those of us who occupy the  "prison" of non-life-giving, selfish, sinful choices, hurting ourselves and others.  By repeatedly choosing such choices, our lives enjoy "no change of seasons."  However, when, in hope,  we turn to the Lord from the "lava waste" and from the emptiness, God is waiting to help us out of the mess into which we may have sunk!

"Blessed are they who hope in the Lord," we pray in today's responsorial psalm. "Blessed the [person] who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. [Such persons are] like a red planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due seasons, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so"!

What kind of choices am I, are you, making?

Lessons from Genesis 3: 9-24

In today's first reading, Genesis 3: 9-24, we are given the story of God's concerns over Adam and Eve. He is looking for them and calls out to Adam: "Where are you," Adam? Adam hears God calling and comes "clean," that is he tells God the truth about himself:   "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself."

"Where are you?"  God asks you and me that same question when we have done something inappropriate, unkind, uncaring, unwise, and, yes, sinful, that is, we have turned away from doing what we have been asked by God to do or not to do.  As with Adam, God cares! His caring does not mean that God will take away the consequences of our wrongdoing but it does mean that God will take precautions to protect us from the Evil One, as He did in the Garden of Eden.

When God asks Adam: "Who told you that you were naked," He gets right to the point: "You have eaten, then,  from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!" You and I need to learn to get right to the point and not hem around the bush when we know for certain that a wrong has been committed or that another person's behavior is inappropriate, that person being someone over whom we have authority or with whom we have made an agreement that has been violated:  a child, an employee, a spouse, a friend.

Another part of this story upon which it is important to reflect is Adam and Eve's response to God: neither owes up to his/her responsibility in doing wrong. Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent.  We have this same inclination to blame someone/something outside of ourselves for the mistakes we have made!  We take ourselves "off the hook," so to speak! Only the truth will make us free and give us the wisdom we need to learn from our mistakes!

Help us, Lord, that we may have the courage to acknowledge that we have heard your voice, that we have been in hiding because we know that we have done wrong and that we have allowed ourselves to get trapped by Satan's lies.  Help us, Lord, to stop the blame game and take responsibility for our behaviors!

The Cunning Ways of Fallen Angels

Today's first reading, Genesis 3: 1-8, we are given the story of the temptation both Eve and Adam faced in the Garden of Eden. Both failed the test!  Satan is a fallen angel, an intelligent being bent on turning us away from God and believing that we ourselves are gods. When deceived by fallen angels, we act as a god, totally independent of any authority outside of ourselves. We then boast of our independence and believe that we are truly wise.  "God knows well," Satan tells us, that the moment [we choose independence from God or others, we will be wise, like God and, Satan says to us:] "your eyes we be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil [--you need surrender to no one] and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loinclothes for themselves. When they heard the sound of the Lord moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, [they] hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden."


When you and I are being tempted do what is wrong, that is, to walk away from God, rejecting God's will and choosing your own in any circumstance, we know in the core of our beings what we are doing.  Adam and Eve knew. As soon as they gave in to the temptation to "be like gods," their eyes "were opened, and they realized that they were naked."  What do you and I do when we act like gods and do what we know is not right or just, we, like Adam and Eve, try to hide the truth. The closer another comes to what is really true in confronting us, the louder we protest--we erect bigger trees, speak bigger lies,  build bigger walls behind which we hide!

In the responsorial psalm of today's liturgy, Psalm 32, we pray:  "Blessed [are those] whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered. Blessed [are those] to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile [because they have] acknowledged [their] sin..., [their] guilt they] covered not."

May you and I not cover our guilt when we are acting as gods or seeking to be a god and not servants of the Living God, our Master!  Lord, our our eyes when we are turning away from you and erecting ourselves as an idol!