Herod's Weakness to Please Others at All Costs: Is It Our Weakness, as Well?

Today's Gospel, Matthew 14: 1-12, presents us with the anger of Herod and his wife toward John the Baptist, who confronted Herod with the fact that his marriage to his brother's wife Herodias was invalid. Herod would have killed John the Baptist outright but, out of fear of the people, who regarded John the Baptist as a a prophet, had him imprisoned instead.  At his birthday party, Herod's daughter performed a dance for Herod that absolutely delighted him. He swore to give her whatever she asked for.  Prompted by her mother, she said, "'Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.'"  So Herod, not wanting to look bad to his guests, had John the Baptist murdered in his prison cell and his head brought to his wife on a platter, as she had requested! Herod's weakness to please others led him, in this case, to being complicit in the murder of John the Baptist.

How does our codependency upon others or our need to look good to others--to please them at all costs-- lead us to do that which is contrary to God's will for us?  In other words, in our compulsion to meet what we believe are other's expectations of us, how do we betray ourselves and do that which, otherwise, we would not do?  To what lengths are we willing to go to please another, even if it means violating our commitments to our family/our community/our parish/our employer?  Herod's codependency--his compulsion to please others--led him to be complicit in his wife's murder!

Lord, Your Spirit lives within us and guides us to the Truth. Help us be true to ourselves, to Your Spirit of Truth guiding us, and not be led astray by the desire to please another person not in tune with the truth of goodness within all of us.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Catholic Mass

 In today's first reading, Exodus 24: 3-8, the Israelites say to Moses: "We will do everything that the Lord has told us" to do. Moses puts this promise into writing and then, the next day, "he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel."  He offered sacrifices on this altar, pouring the blood of the sacrificed animals on the altar and some of their blood he sprinkled on  the people. As he sprinkled this blood upon them, he said: "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his".  At the consecration of the bread and wine during a Catholic Mass, the priests says:  "Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you" and "Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, (my emphasis) which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me." And so, in Holy Communion we do  (my emphasis) take and eat and take and drink of the body and blood,. the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and transformation of ourselves into Christ Jesus!

What a gift offered upon our altars in every Catholic Church during the Sacrifice of the Mass,  offered in memory of Jesus's sacrifice made for us on Calvary.

Being Open to the Truth That I Need to Hear

 In today's first reading, Amos 7: 12-15, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, commands the prophet Amos to leave Bethel. He does not want him prophesying in his land: "Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah!"  In other words, a prophet is not welcome in Bethel--"  "...[I]t is the king's sanctuary and a royal temple,"  Amaziah proudly tells Amos. 

A prophet is someone, in my mind, who comes to tell the truth about a situation to which I may be blind. Cozy in my comfort zone, I may not want to be disturbed and especially not from someone who is carrying a message that I need to hear!

To whom might I say: "Off with you, visionaries"?  Or to whom might I refer as follows:  "Tell those religion people to leave my property"!  Or whom do I avoid because I do not want to hear what they have to say because they are speaking a truth that I really need to hear? These are the people who may be messengers from God.

Lord, open my heart to the truth that you send to me through your "prophets": a neighbor, a spouse, a child, a member from my parish (the priest, the minister, the deacon, a fellow parishioner), a co-worker, a neighbor!

 

Our Need to Wake Up to our Dependence upon Jesus!

 In today's Gospel, Mark 4: 35-41, Jesus invites the disciples to go with him to the other side of the sea. As they are  making their way across the sea, a "violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was...filling up" with water. Terrified, they say to Jesus, who had fallen asleep on a cushion: "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"  They are not perishing, of course, but, in Jesus' eyes overreacting and revealing a lack of faith. Jesus wakes up at their bidding and says to the stormy sea: "Quiet! Be still!" Immediately the storm ceases. And then Jesus asks the disciples: "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?"

Jesus is speaking to  you and to me, as well!  How often do our reactions to life's storm indicate a lack of faith in Jesus! How often are we not terrified and believe that we, too,  are perishing!  "Look, Lord," we seem to be saying to Jesus!  "We seem to be sinking in the depths of sin, immorality, injustice, hatred, lustfulness, greediness and unfaithfulness in serving you and in our service of others. We seem to be succumbing to idolatrous ways. We are 'out at sea' in waters that seem to be too turbulent for us to manage. Lord! Wake up and save us!"  And Jesus awakes, so to speak, and quiets the storms within our hearts, minds and spirits!

Fear gives way to awe, as we search for and find God in the Scriptures and at work in our lives in steady and powerful ways: at work in the lives of our partners/spouses, our children and grandchildren, our parents and teachers, our community members, our priests and deacons, our employers and coworkers, our president and vice president, our governors and leaders throughout the world!  As we seek the Lord and pray to the Lord, we discover the promises Jesus made to us when He said:

• "Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time" (Matthew 28:20).
• "I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high" (Luke 24:49).
• ""...[I]t is for your own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will  not come to you; but if I do go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7).
• "When the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth" (John 16:13).
• "I shall see you again, and your hearts will be filled with joy, and that joy no one shall take from you" (John 16 22).

So, on this journey to our eternal home, let us keep our focus on Jesus and know that He is  not asleep but awake, especially when "violent squalls" come upon us! It is those storms that wake us up, not Jesus. He is always awake, waiting for us to depend upon Him.

God's Love for Us Is Eternal; the Bond Cannot be Broken!

"...[G]reat in  [our] midst is the Holy One of Israel," the God who calls us daily out of the place of slavery, the God who teaches us to walk in His ways, the God who carries us in His arms; who draws us to himself "with bands of love"; who fosters us "like one who raise[s] an infant to his cheeks. Yet, though God stoop[s] to feed [us, we do not] know that [God is our] leader."  That lament from Hosea 11: 1, 3-4, 8c-9, is as true about us today as it was for the Israelites to whom Hosea was speaking.  God is a God of love, a God who watches over us as a shepherd guards his sheep!  A God who gave  His life as the Son of Man, who, on the cross, drew all of us to Himself and redeemed us from Satan's forces of evil--the evil spirits--that roam the earth looking for someone to destroy! Jealous of our inheritance of heaven, a gift of being ransomed by Jesus, Satan is tireless in his efforts to keep us our of heaven. He will succeed as, in a baptism, Jesus took  us as His own. His Sacred Heart was pierced on the cross and blood and water poured  forth, filling our baptismal fonts and our chalices with the blood of the New Covenant. We belong to God forever!

God's Transforming Us in the Stillness

 In today's first reading, 2 Cor 3: 15-4:1, 3-6, Paul reminds us that "all [who gaze] with unveiled face[s] on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit."  In Psalm 46, God says to us "Be still and know that I am God." In the stillness, as we gaze upon God in the Scriptures, in nature, in the core of our being, in the heart of our loved ones--spouses, children, babies--God is at work transforming us into other Christs!  

Paul tells us that the "Gospel is veiled...for those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."  There is the belief that more and more people do not believe in God, that more and more people have walked away from the Eucharist and that more and more of our churches are empty when religious services are being held, though our priests and our ministers, as Paul reminds us, "do not preach [about themselves] but Jesus Christ as Lord, and [themselves] as slaves for the sake of Jesus. For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in [their] hearts to bring to light the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ."

Are you, am I, present at religious services? Do you, do I, take being still in the presence of our God, a God who lives within all of creation, who dwells in the core of our hearts, who is present in the Eucharist in every tabernacle in our Catholic Churches. Do you, do I, seek the "light [that] shine[s] out of darkness, [that shines] in our hearts to bring the knowledge of the glory of God on the face of Jesus Christ" to our attention and thus to the attention of our children, our spouses and anyone we encounter?  Or are you, am I, "blinded" by the "god[s] of this age," money, material things, pleasure, sex, and other substitutes that we seek to fill the emptiness that only God can fill?          

Growing Stronger in Our Faith

 In today's first reading, Acts 16: 1-10, Paul travels to several place and in one of them is introduced to Timothy, a Greek and a Jew. He is so impressed by this man that he invites him to join him in spreading the good news of Jesus' resurrection.  On the way, the Spirit leads them. Sometimes the "door" is open to a certain place and at others times closed as Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, tells us: the Holy Spirit "prevented [them] from preaching the message" in certain places. Paul and Timothy followed the Spirit's lead each time. As a result, "the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number."

What about you and me? Do we follow the Spirit lead? Do we recognize when "a door" is closed or do we force our way into the heart of another person? On the other hand, do we recognize when "the door" is open and take advantage of the situation? The open or closed "door" might even be our own hearts. Do we recognize that situation, as well, and take the needed steps to become open to the Holy Spirit at work within us?  If not, what do I need to do to soften the soil of my hardened heart? Seek silence? Take a walk in nature? Stop in before the Blessed Sacrament and wait upon the Lord? Speak to a loved one? Play with a child? Complete a responsibility that I have been avoiding?

May we take the time to grow in the faith, that is, to strengthen our faith!