Emmanuel, God Is With Us My father would often say to us, this is a home, not a house. That is, our home was very personal: colors, furniture, pictures reflected the relationship we held as a family. There were toys scattered about signaling play time, TV was on and the adults sat around the kitchen table with a good cup of coffee and great conversation. We lived in our home, our home celebrated who we were. This Sunday’s gospel is about an engaged couple who are about to make a home together. However, Joseph is in a quandary! Mary is pregnant and not by him. We can only imagine the turmoil and the sense that his dream home has been smashed before he and his beloved even move in together. The absolutely unexpected happens – an angel appears, reassures him, restoring his dream home! He is preparing a dwelling place for “Emmanuel…God is with us!” Today, we are to make a home for Emmanuel. We are now to be the risen presence of Christ in our world, we are to make his gospel known. This is how “God is with us”. Christmas is not just a day or a season. It is the mystery of making incarnate the God who loves us. Each of us is the God-bearer. Each of us is God’s home.
Are You the One? We say that the season of Advent is a season of waiting. We try to persuade ourselves that if we just say that often enough, it will become true. Advent is a season of waiting. Advent is a season of waiting. But it’s not. Advent is a season of impatience. Sure, there are other times throughout the year when we experience impatience. But this season, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this season is the climax of impatience, when all our anxiety and hurry and worry are concentrated into four short weeks. We are busy preparing, each of us in our individual way, for something special to happen to us. Is this the right gift, or shall we seek another? Is this the right way for me to serve the poor, or shall I seek another? Is this the moment with my family that I was waiting for, or was I waiting for something else? The horrible possibility lies in the back of our mind that our expectation will indeed go unfulfilled – that what we are waiting for will never happen – Or like John the Baptist, waiting in prison. Yes, John the Baptist. John the Baptist is back today, speaking differently than he did last week. Today, he represents Advent in another way, in a way that is just as authentic as last week’s style. But he is tired. He is discouraged. He questions. John the Baptist is like us. He jumps to hope with power and aggressiveness. But, later, he has questions; he even has doubts. He thought he knew Jesus. He was eager and energetic just last week. But, then, time went by. Things got harder for John. In today’s passage, Jesus has begun his ministry, and John has been cast into prison by Herod the Great. He begins to have his doubts. Is Jesus really the one he was looking for? What happened to the vivid forecasts of John the Baptist? John sends several of his own people, his own disciples, to ask the poignant question, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we wait for another?” John has devoted his entire ministry, even gives his very life, to preparing the way for Jesus Christ, but John does not even recognize Jesus when he comes. This is the Advent question: “Are you the one I’ve been waiting for, or shall I wait for another?” We will find a precious gift, the gift of Christ; we will find reconciliation and peace-if we have eyes to see beyond our expectations-if we look around us and notice new places where Jesus is working.
Who is Coming? So, who is coming this Advent? Which Jesus? Is it Jesus the shoot from the stump, signal of hope and transformation into peace, or is it Jesus the one bearing the axe, the winnowing fork, the bringer of fire? The answer is Yes–both. At the same time, the answer is Neither. Jesus surprises people by what he does not do–Jesus does not conquer the earth with military force, become king, bring absolute order. Jesus also surprises people by what he does do–Jesus does bring diverse people together into one community, lead by going to the cross to suffer and die, send people out to transform the world through preaching. Jesus did say things that separated people. Some people followed; others went away sadly. People very different from one another were brought together. If we need evidence of these major differences, we could consider all the fighting among the earliest churches. Sworn enemies, like Peter and Paul, had to come into a room together and work out an arrangement for how to go forward together. This is probably a good image of work we might do as a church in this Advent season. But it’s not just about our work. It’s about the work God is doing among us. It is not just that Jesus came once upon a time and these things happened. Jesus comes among us today, once again, and these things happen. We get to witness them–to see, talk about, and share these things. Like the Pharisees and Sadducees we are challenged by John’s words to put ourselves on a straight path of changing whatever berhavior impedes God’s vision of peace and harmony.
An Advent Reflection This 5 minute advent meditation focuses on the coming of Christ into our world- not just as a child in a stable but as the bringer of justice and freedom. Music for the meditation features Kyrie – I Call to You from the CD, Standing Still by Jeff Johnson (www.arkmusic.com). Used with permission. All Rights Reserved.
Stay Awake Our lives are inevitably shaped by those for whom we wait. “You’d better not shout, you’d better not cry, you’d better not pout, I’m telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town.” As children, we looked at the season of Advent as waiting for great surprises. As we grow older we realize our lives are inevitably shaped by those events in our lives that change us. In our Gospel, Jesus’ warning of “Stay awake'” has to do with having clear vision. We are to see what in our lives needs to change. We are also to see how our good living now is already preparation for the unexpected Second coming of Christ. Advent always begins by looking to the second coming of Christ. Advent is not just looking into the future. Christ came in the past and Christ is coming to us now in Word and Sacrament and in each other. Our behavior is inevitably shaped by the one for whom we wait, for there is a sense in which even as we live out our days in the interim, we already possess and are possessed by the one for whom we wait. Karen, a student at Union Theological Seminary, was living and studying in New York City while her newly lawyered husband had gone to work for a law firm in Harrisburg. They saw each other only on weekends. In homiletics class, Karen described what her Fridays were like when John came into Pennsylvania Station on the train in time for supper. “I usually get up early on Friday to clean the apartment before coming up here to school,” she said. “Then, after classes, I make a kind of safari down Broadway. I stop for groceries, pick up a bottle of wine, stop at a favorite flower stall for fresh flowers, and when I get home, I have just enough time to get myself and supper ready. Then John comes.” Only Karen went on to add, “The funny thing about it is that from morning until he arrives, I have this strange feeling that he is already with me…not really…but really. In Advent the one for whom we wait is already here shaping and giving substance and hope to our lives. Not really..but really.
Christ the King Ask a group of boomers who pops into their minds when they hear the word “king.” Some candidates might be simply “The King” (Elvis) or the King of Pop or, more soberly, some might remember “The Boss” singing: “Poor man wanna be rich/ Rich man wanna be king/ And a king ain’t satisfied/ Till he rules everything.” “King” suggests someone at the top, exercising power and receiving adulation from all quarters. Even today, when kingship seems out of kilter with modern culture. The Gospel on this feast of the Messiah king, Jesus, turns the royal ideology on its head. He reigns not from a throne but from the cross. God, who was to be the protector of the king, seems to have abandoned him as he faces death. Like the servant in Isaiah, he is despised and rejected, as the bystanders ridicule the image of the saving king, challenging him to prove his kingship by coming down from the cross and thus betray his command to his disciples to take up their cross and follow him. The cross is where we least expect a king to be. Yet this is where we find Jesus. The cross is where we least want to be. Yet this is where our discipleship begins: allowing ourselves to be crucified on the cross of self-giving- when we encounter the bedraggled parent with a fussy child, the belligerent teen, the frustrated coworker. Only by beginning here, on the cross, will we hear Jesus say to us: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Til the End of Our Days Archeology teaches us that things last and that all things come to an end. Archeologists painstakingly sift through sand and earth to tease out artifacts, buildings and sometimes preserved bodies that give us insight into the past. The Wailing Wall is all that is left of the temple in Jerusalem, of which this Sunday’s Gospel speaks; stone upon stone is barely left, but the way of living that Jesus taught is still lived and witnessed -preserved in the faithful lives of his disciples. The gospel predicts end times, our challenge is to live faithfully now. How reassuring it is to have Jesus tell us that “not a hair on our head will be destroyed” if we are faithful to discipleship. The source of our confidence and trust that we can live in the way Jesus asks is Jesus himself. By his teaching and by the example of his way of living, Jesus gives us the wisdom we need to face any and all adversity. The secure life Jesus is talking about doesn’t mean that everything in our lives is going to be easy or the way we want it. We will, in fact, face many “deaths” as Jesus did- we will be misunderstood, criticized, taken for granted, taken advantage of, sometimes even face physical death in our pursuit of Jesus’ way of living. No matter what “deaths” we face, our lives are secure in Jesus.
God of the Living None of us likes to have our selves ridiculed. We don’t like our profession, our race or our ethnic background, our religious affiliation to be the butt of a joke. The Sadducees in our gospel today ridicule Jesus and everyone who believes in life after death. Rather than putting them down with a retort, Jesus uses the opportunity to teach about what is fundamental to his life and mission. Jesus lived and ministered as one in tune with the God of the living. All his encounters with others were life-giving. His promise of new life and our own hope of sharing in eternal life are based on the very way he lived-seeing life even where others thought there was only death. Jesus reached out to those whom others considered “dead”: lepers, sinners, outcasts. His relationship with the God of the living enabled him to bring even these people in touch with new life. Like Jesus, we also must spend our lives deepening our relationship with the God of life and sharing this with others. We do so through concrete choices and actions directed to their good. We thus attest to God’s life acting through us now – the promise and hope of future glory within us,
Be Merciful for I am a Sinner In the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the gypsy woman Esmeralda walks into the Notre Dame cathedral and listens to the prayers of the rich people walking by. They pray for wealth, fame, and fortune. She, in turn, sings a song called “God Bless the Outcasts,” in which she says, “I ask for nothing, I can get by, but there are so many less lucky than I. Please help my people, the poor and downtrod. I thought we all were children of God.” The chorus follows, which begins with the prayer, “God bless the outcasts.” With her song, Esmeralda, a non-Christian, reveals a depth of spiritual understanding that most of the Christians in the movie do not have. In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the Pharisee plays the role of a self-righteous, uncaring, religious leader. In his “prayer,” he reminds God of his moral superiority to those around him, including the tax collector, at whom he looks down his nose. The tax collector, on the other hand, is a sinner who knows his own shortcomings. In fact, he is so overcome with his sins that he doesn’t even notice the Pharisee nearby; he is conscious only of his sin and of his need for forgiveness. His prayer, heart-felt and pure, is this: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” It’s easy to have a feeling of moral superiority over our theological or political opponents, and it’s also easy to fall into the trap of “praying” in such a way that we praise ourselves and lambaste our adversaries. This parable reminds us of the absolute spiritual necessity of humility. It’s not that we pretend to be humble because that’s how God wants us to act. It’s that we really are humble, because we really are sinners in need of God’s mercy. As prophetic Christians, we can’t afford to get so bogged down by feelings of guilt that we are unable to speak God’s word to the world. When we speak, we speak with the words and authority of God, but at the same time we remember that we are speaking to ourselves as well.
The Persistant Widow How often my nephew badgered his parents when he saw a toy advertised on TV! By his persistence, I suspect he hoped to change his parents’ minds about what was good for him. The same is often true about our prayer. We pray to change God’s will, that is, we pray for what we think we need or want and hope we can convince God to give it to us. In the Gospel, Jesus does encourage persistence in prayer. True persistence is not badgering God for what we want. True persistence in prayer wells up from a deep faith and brings out the hope that leads us to the longer view and broader vision of Jesus. Our persistence in prayer brings us to new eternal life. Persistence in prayer is not nagging God for what we want. Prayer informed by deep faith is openness to what God wants for us, which always leads to a greater good than we can know or imagine.
Your Faith has Saved You We’ve all witnessed this scene: little children who haven’t seen their grandparents for a while excitedly run and jump in their arms. This joyful encounter is born of their previous experiences of love, care, goodness. The Samaritan leper in today’s Gospel exemplifies the same kind of exuberant response to Jesus. I wonder why the foreigner returned and the others did not. All were suffering from a disease that bound them as outcasts. When they were healed, the nine returned to their former life – religious as well as ethnic. The foreigner only had Jesus. He chooses to respond and come face to face with the One who has healed him. And perhaps he has found his true home. What depth of faith leads us to run to Jesus with joyful expectation of being embraced, healed and loved? How do we discover who Jesus is?
Increase Our Faith The natural attitude of human beings is that we know the answer to all situations, and that answer will advance our desires and intentions. We are impatient and insistent for our answers to be accepted by others and especially by God. We set ourselves up as judge over God. In the Gospel, we are reminded that our task is to do all that we are charged with. All we need is faith the size of a mustard seed. God will do all the real work. What holds us back? It may be we lack confidence in our own power. Or maybe it is that we insist on doing the job alone. Jesus calls us to faith in who we are: God’s servants empowered to make a difference in the world because God makes a difference in us.
Who Are the Needy At Our Door? Every day several calls come into the parish office for food and financial help. Thankfully we have a St Vincent de Paul chapter in our parish who will respond to these calls for food. Sometimes those who come are also in need clothing, help with rent, a place to rest their head or a listening heart. Daily, these Vincentians have their hearts stretched and they are faced with difficult choices. This Sunday’s Gospel is a parable about the needy at our door with an admonishment to listen. We are faced with a question-how does listening open up the insight to see needs? Ultimately this is a question about how we become more compassionate and caring people. We hear the voice of Jesus not only in our Gospel but also in many other ways – through the good works of others, through our own experience of doing good for others, in the cry of the poor and needy. Such listening opens us to a much wider world and develops in us attitudes of compassion and care,
Who Is First in Your Life? The issue of financial manipulation at the expense of others is a rampant problem. We read of CEOs embezzling funds, individuals overspending and then declaring bankruptcy, businesses charging high interest rates on credit cards. The kind of manipulative behavior of the dishonest steward in our Gospel this Sunday is not so uncommon. What is perhaps uncommon is the behavior to which Jesus calls us who are his disciples. Daily, faithful disciples face issues dealing with self interest, trustworthiness, honesty. These issues force us to make choices revealing our real goals for life. The foundation for all our choices must be that God holds first place in our hearts. When we choose to give God first place in our hearts, we live simpler lives, we experience serving others as serving God and we find being trustworthy and honest is its own reward. These ways of living show the kind of shrewdness Jesus praises and bring us to eternal happiness.
Seeking the Lost This is the time of year when parishes wake up from a long summer nap and get cracking. Vacationers return and we are glad to see them and each other. Parish Lifelong Faith Formation programs crank back up and DREs and catechists are busy organizing classes and greeting the kids. The choir starts practicing again after winging it through the summer. Committees begin to meet again. It’s very satisfying to look around and see the church doing what the church is supposed to do. Lots of people are helping out with this or that, taking responsibility and sharing leadership. Then this Gospel selection from Luke appears and there’s a problem. Now here’s the problem: We are doing church, and that’s good. But we have followed Jesus to worship together, to be renewed, so that every week we can follow Jesus out — out to the school and the hospital and the bank and the office and the neighborhoods. We gather together to follow Jesus, then we split up and follow Jesus out to seek the lost, the broken, the bleating, the alone. Jesus seems to care inordinately about the ones who aren’t here. Jesus came to save the lost — lost sheep, lost coins, lost brothers, lost prostitutes, lost loan sharks, lost weaklings. Jesus came all this way looking for them. And those we have given up on or forgotten about or dismissed because of their unworthiness are the very ones that Jesus has headed out to look for. He looks back over his shoulder to see if we are following him. Remember what happens every-time somebody who was lost gets found? Amazing grace. Celebration for all because we are so inextricably bound one to another, church leader to stranger, hungry to full, joyous to mean-spirited, faithless to faithful. What happens when the lost sheep gets found is that the joy is contagious. And the 99 sheep have an excuse to throw a party, which is what we come together to do every week.
Discipleship – At What Cost? What do you find hard to let go of? What sort of things make it hard for you to be a disciple? In today’s selection from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus laid out three “trip wires” for discipleship: attachment to family, the hard consequences of discipleship, and attachment to possessions. All three have a caveat. If someone cannot detach from family or possessions, if someone cannot live out the consequences of Christian life, he or she “is not able to be my disciple” Attachment to family came first. For, place in family defined place in society. Jesus did not condemn society or the clan system that built it. He simply used a Semitic idiom of extreme language to make his point. When he said “hate,” Jesus was not talking about emotional revulsion and physical distance. He was talking about spiritual detachment, the ability to put God first (before relationship or self-interest). Indeed, spiritual detachment requires one to die to self-interest and let God be Lord of one’s life. Without such detachment, one does not have the ability to truly follow Jesus. Next, Jesus spoke of carrying one’s cross. We sometimes reduce the meaning of this phrase to our personal struggles. For early Christians, however, this phrase had a far more literal meaning. As Jesus went to the cross, his followers could taste death for their devotion to the Master. Jesus, then, told his audience they must accept that palpable danger. If they did not, they did not have the ability to be a true disciple. Third, Jesus turned again to the notion of attachment. This time, he addressed the subject of possessions with two parables. The first parable involved a farmer constructing a silo (i.e., a “tower”). Without the money, why should a farmer rush to build a silo that will stand only half-finished? If that happened, the farmer would look like a fool. The second parable spoke of a king planning strategy against a belligerent opponent. Can the king win the battle against an army twice the size of his own? Or should he sue for peace? In either case, the message of Jesus rang out clearly. Stop! Think long and hard about Christian discipleship before a decision is made. Divided priorities drain the ability of the person to be a disciple. We all have possessions, relationships, or ideals we guard zealously. Like Jesus’ challenge to his audience, he asks us if we can stand back and view them in the bigger picture. Before we grab these things, people, or causes and hold them close, can we ask God how important they are and what priority we give them? Can we look to God first and put everything else second?
Choose Not the Higher Position According to scripture, our social aspirations betray the placement of our hearts – with God, or with false idols. In a passage unique to Luke, Jesus, in our Gospel today, insists that, contrary to everything society tells us, we should not try to “keep up with the Joneses.” Rather, we should keep “down” with those in need, “the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,” and rejoice when they cannot repay us, “for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous”. Jesus uses two familiar social situations – dining at table and guest invitation lists- to teach us about knowing our self in both our gifts and limitations. The first parable about wedding guests invites us to reflect on knowing ourselves in relation to others. We are invited but it is God who invites. Our relationship with God is as those who are poor; we cannot buy our place in heaven. It is in God’s choosing us that we share in divine riches and sharing in God’s life. If this is how God relates to us, then this is how we relate to others. The second parable invites us to reflect on how we wish God to relate to us. No one is excluded from the banquet. Neither should we exclude others from our attention and service. We are called to extend ourselves to all others, regardless of social or economic class , religious affiliation or gender. We give ourselves over for the good of others.
One Flaw in Women If you are a mother, a grandmother, daughter, a sister, a wife, a friend, an aunt or a girlfriend, or if your life has been enhanced by having women play these roles for you, we invite you to watch a new groundbreaking short movie, “The One Flaw In Women.” It’s based on the moving poem that celebrates women for all that they are and all that they contribute to in our world. We invite you to share this movie with your family members, friends, colleagues or anyone you can think of that can benefit from its important message and moving imagery. It can easily brighten everyone’s day and help the women in your life feel like they’ve made a difference.
Who Will Be Saved? “Who will be saved?” If you Google the question, there are pages and pages of search results and books galore trying to distill the answer! Many of the entries try to streamline the response! Our Gospel for this Sunday makes it very clear who will be saved. Jesus makes it very clear, that the journey to Jerusalem, the journey of salvation is very demanding and always requires dying to self. During Lent, we sang a song penned by Rory Cooney entitled, Jerusalem, My Destiny. Part of the refrain contains these words: I have fixed my eyes on your hills, Jerusalem, my Destiny. Though I cannot see the end for me I cannot turn away. We have set our hearts for the way; this journey is our destiny.Let no one walk alone. The journey makes us one. Jesus walks the journey with us and shows us the way to what we desire most in our lives – life with God! Our salvation is not without cost! Being a disciple means daily dying to self and living for the sake of the other – seeking reconciliation with another; accompanying a dying spouse or parent; reaching out in compassion to a neighbor in need. The journey makes us one. Who will be saved? The one who looses their life for the sake of the other.
God Has Done “Great Things” Throughout history, great women have done great things. From Esther, Ruth and Judith of the Old Testament to Mother Teresa and Dorothy Day of our time, great women have left their mark on history. Today we celebrate a great woman who is at the heart of Christianity – Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Our feast celebrates the “great things” God has done for Mary. He chose her to be the mother of Jesus, assumed her body and soul into heaven, and graced her with his indwelling presence. Sometimes I think she is beyond us! When reflecting on this solemnity, I am reminded that “God has done great things” for all God’s beloved, that God shows mercy to all the faithful and that God promises all of us a share in divine life. Like Mary we also receive “great things” from God. Mary was a simple maiden from Nazareth- a woman who gave birth, a wife who cared for her family and home, a refuge in a foreign land, a caring relative who visited her pregnant cousin, a mother who suffered. Mary is surely not beyond us in these ordinary, everyday things. In all things she responded faithfully to God. Mary is our model of fidelity.
Where Is Your Heart? Recently, a sister suggested that I liked to spend money. And for some reason, I reacted with some passion. Why would that simple statement activate such emotion? That same week, I had a dream in which I was sent by our General Superior to a strange land with only a small suitcase and very little money. What was God asking of me? This Sunday’s Gospel makes for difficult reading during the “dog days” of summer. It speaks of things we would rather gently put aside: simple lifestyle, almsgiving, readiness for the return of the Lord, faithful use of the time given us and warnings of punishment. Jesus proclaims freedom from material anxieties and radical trust in God, who cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field and concludes with an exhortation to seek real treasures with God, for “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” The Gospel then continues with a number of sayings on the fragility of the future and the need for responsible stewardship by Jesus’ followers during his absence. Freedom from care and the desire for wealth and power, together with a heart transformed, are prerequisites for responsible leadership in the community. The final line of this gospel is most demanding,”Much is required of the person entrusted with much”. We have been entrusted with much – furthering Jesus’ mission of bringing the Good News to all we meet. We are to be the presence of Christ continuing Jesus’ mission for the sake of others. We go with little possessions but with a heart filled with our one and only treasure – namely Jesus Christ.
What is Essential? An invitation came in the mail yesterday- a way to clear out the clutter-be part of a car/trunk sale! Yard sales and garage sales abound! Try driving down most streets in suburbia on a Saturday morning and you think you are on an obstacle course! We store up possessions in great quantities! In some way we are not unlike the young man in our Gospel parable for this Sunday. He has enough and yet, by wanting more he builds more and larger storehouses-only to die and not enjoy it! Some have called this parable “the rich young fool” because the young man thinks his future happiness is guaranteed by his possessions. Jesus cautions us to guard against such greed and turn our hearts to what is essential – the fullness of life that God wishes to give us. Our true inheritance is not the amassing of possessions, but life with God. The only security we really have is a loving relationship with God. Perhaps today we take the time to think about what we possess and where we store it and what possesses us! Take time today and answer the question, to whom do we belong? What really is essential in our life? What truly matters is fullness of life and the happiness that only a share in God’s life can bring.
Ask and You Will Receive Over the past few Sundays, our Gospels have focused on what it means to be a disciple and a follower of Jesus. Today we look at the depth of that discipleship in how that relationship works through prayer. People who claim to have a relationship with God often act as if they discovered it. But the truth is that God found them and led them to their creator. There are countless Christians who have experienced God’s forgiveness and the reconciliation in Christ’s dying and resurrection. Convicted felons on death row, white-collar executives who have broken trust with their companies, addicts, and just ordinary folk testify to the glorious new life that comes from this relationship. As disciples of Jesus through our baptism, we are given the outline of how we should pray: the Lord’s Prayer. Many good books and sermons have unpacked this prayer that almost everyone knows by heart. It is prayed in many languages around the world, a continuous offering going up from the hearts of the faithful, and even from those who may not be sure about their faith. Then Jesus tells his disciples, and us, through Luke, to take the actions expected of this relationship: ask, search, knock. Prayer is more about searching than finding. The words Jesus gives us in the Lord’s Prayer express exactly the way Jesus lived and prayed: in intimate union with and trust in the Father, in furthering God’s kingdom and in surrender to God’s will which brings life. Prayer is more about searching for God and divine presence than about finding answers to specific needs. Asking, searching, and knocking are actions disciples should take every day. We should say the Lord’s Prayer, then get up and begin our day with action. Be a disciple, pray the prayer our Lord taught us to pray, then search for the things God has in mind for you. You will find them, because we worship a God who always keeps promises.
The Better Part My sister always sits sideways in her chair during meals. Whether the table is surrounded by family members or invited guests, she is poised for action. She jumps up if she’s forgotten something in the kitchen, if someone wants steak sauce rather than the ketchup that is on the table, or if it is time to pass the serving dishes around again. My sister seldom relaxes enough to enjoy the food and conversation. There is biblical precedent for that instinct and posture in the account of Jesus’ visit to the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha offers immediate hospitality, welcoming Jesus and then busying herself with meal preparation, while Mary sits down with Jesus. One can imagine how the clatter of dishes in the kitchen grows steadily louder until Martha’s exasperation at working alone is audible to Mary, who is engrossed in what Jesus is saying. Who is to say that passive-aggressive behavior didn’t exist in New Testament households? Finally Martha can’t bear working alone any more and comes to where Jesus and her sister are talking. Pulled in all directions by a dozen tasks, she can no longer contain her frustration. She confronts the guest himself, challenging his care for her and asking him to send Mary into the kitchen. In an astounding breach of etiquette, Martha embarrasses her sister, and her Lord and no doubt herself as well. Jesus doesn’t mince words in his response. Calling her by name not just once but twice, in a manner that sounds more like a parent than a friend, he describes the situation. Jesus says: “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it — it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” Perhaps the words “main course” for “better part” can help this well-worn story be heard in fresh ways. A woman in the parish where I serve commented that she never likes hearing this text preached because she always comes away with the sense that it’s never possible to get things right. If, like Martha, she works hard, she will be labeled “overfunctioning.” If, like Mary, she sits and listens too long, nothing gets done. Giuseppe Belli’s 19th-century sonnet “Martha and Magdalene” ends with Martha snapping back at Jesus when he tells her that Mary’s choice is more important: “So says you, but I know better. Listen, if I sat around on my salvation the way she does, who’d keep this house together?” (Divine inspiration: The Life of Jesus in World Poetry). Thinking of God’s word as the “main course” in the feast of life, however, doesn’t give that immediate sense that listening is better than doing. Rather, it places these activities in balance. Whereas the world reminds us to keep the “main thing the main thing,” Christians are urged to remember that the main course is just that, the main course. Jesus is the host, not Martha or Mary or anyone of us, and he spreads the word like a banquet to nourish and strengthen us. The word has within it commands both to sit and listen, and to go and do. We “sit on our salvation,” as the sonnet has it, but then scatter into the world and work of daily life. Living this side of Easter, we know what Mary and Martha could not know: that hearing and doing are finally in the realm not of law, but of gospel — because the host of the banquet has himself become the main course. The good news is that Jesus the host grants permission for all distracted, frantic people to sit down and eat their fill of word and promise. When we join them and nourish ourselves at the table, we’ll be ready to put hands and feet, hearts and minds to work.
Who Is My Neighbor? There is an isolated spot on a dangerous road in the Middle East known as “The Bloody Pass.” The road, at the time of this event, was more of a narrow path — a twisting, turning path with cliffs and caves on either side — lots of places for thugs to hide. This particular place, “The Bloody Pass,” got its name because of the violence that commonly occurred there. Unfortunately, one poor man happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was attacked by bandits and left half-dead, tossed to the side of the road. He was bleeding and certainly would die without help. The bandits even took his clothes. Recognize this story? It’s one of Jesus’ most well-known parables — the Good Samaritan. In fact, most of us have heard it so many times that we tend to gloss over it, thinking, Yeah, yeah, the Good Samaritan — help people in trouble and stuff… got it. Notice the setup for the story of the Good Samaritan. What prompted Jesus to tell this story in the first place? Verse 25 says that an “expert in the law” wanted to “test” Jesus. In other words, this man, who knew the Old Testament and Jewish law backward and forward, inside and out, was trying to trip Jesus up. When the man asked, “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?” How did Jesus respond? He said, basically, “Hey, you’re the expert. What does the Law say?” The “Law” Jesus referred to here is the “law of Moses,” or the first five books of the Old Testament. The expert then recited what Jesus calls in Matthew 22 the greatest and the second greatest commandments: He answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In return, Jesus responded, in essence, “You got it. Do those two things — one, love God with your whole being and, two, love your neighbor as yourself — and you will live.” “OK, Jesus, tell me this: Who is my neighbor?” Who is my neighbor? Who is it, exactly, that God calls us to love just as much as we love ourselves? And beyond that, once we know who our neighbor is, what do we do? How do we show that we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves? Jesus answers the question in a beautiful story of compassion in action. Jesus ended His conversation with the lawyer with a powerful command: Go and do likewise. That command — go and do likewise : the mandate to love our neighbor as ourselves . “Who is our neighbor?” The parable of the Good Samaritan gives us the answer. It’s simple – our neighbor is anyone in need that we are in a position to help – the unselfish attention to a sick child, the vigil kept at the bedside of a dying relative, the outreach to the poor and oppressed in our world, making the stranger feel at home among us. In these ways is Christ’s love made manifest.
Witnessing Christ’s Love In my email this past week was an invitation to attend a webinar: Invitation to Conversion. I was intrigued by its title and so, I registered to attend this talk via the internet. In our digital age, webinars are one way to equip the disciple to share the message of Jesus. However, the best way to share the message and prepare the disciple is the personal contact and the personal witness of living our life as disciples of Jesus. Evangelization and witnessing is often a fearful prospect for many Catholics, yet it is the Christian mandate and one of the highest callings we can pursue. This week’s Gospel Reading can help remove that fear by showing us that witnessing for Jesus is simply living and relating to others in such a way that they comprehend that “the Kingdom of God has come near.” For many in this world that is the beginning of hope; the realization that God and his life is accessible to them. . Evangelization always works best when it is a joint effort of two or more people. A companion in Christ reduces the stress of relating and talking to someone about Jesus and it more than doubles the creativity and wisdom that can be brought to the process of revealing the Kingdom of God to others. Having another with whom we can pray for people’s conversion is very empowering As a community whose mission is to bring Christ’s love to those we serve, our presence and our common prayer supports our mission and our focus. Living in community and praying together moves us to service and inviting others to know God’s love for them. Christ desires to reach the world, beginning with your world and your witness. It’s unreasonable that a witness should have to be sent from half-way around the world, or even from across the city, to bring the Gospel to your neighbors or your acquaintances. That is why he has you there.
Cost of Discipleship Sometimes I need a push to dive into something demanding, be it an unpleasant task, a tediously long and boring job or just motivating myself for a variety of tasks. Motivation and persistence do not come naturally to many of us. When I diet I figure that a good way to cut calories and lose weight is to begin early in the morning and skip breakfast and follow a diet from these fat flusher diet reviews. However, everything I read tells me that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast gives me the personal jolt I need to get myself going with work or whatever; a balanced, nutritious breakfast also jolts the metabolism and gives off energy. After the resurrection, the disciples need a jolt. They cannot return to their former way of living. They have encountered Jesus during his earthly ministry. Now they encounter the risen Christ and are invited to share in his ongoing ministry. This Sunday’s gospel is one in which the word “breakfast” occurs . It is early in the morning—“already dawn.” The right time for breakfast with all its advantages. The disciples have been out fishing and, upon returning to shore, Jesus asks them, “have you caught anything to eat?” Their answer was a simple, unqualified “No.” No fish, no breakfast. Not so! Jesus invites them, “Come, have breakfast.” It is as though Jesus knows the disciples need a jolt—they need to be tugged out of their familiar routine and transformed. They need the spiritual nutrition of encounter and belief for them to declare their love and follow with fidelity. [Living Liturgy 2013] When I diet I figure that a good way to cut calories and lose weight is to begin early in the morning and skip breakfast and follow a diet from these fat flusher diet reviews. However, everything I read tells me that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast gives me the personal jolt I need to get myself going with work or whatever; a balanced, nutritious breakfast also jolts the metabolism and gives off energy, resurge is the perfect vitamin supplement to use on a daily basis while trying to lose weight. After the resurrection, the disciples need a jolt. They cannot return to their former way of living. They have encountered Jesus during his earthly ministry. Now they encounter the risen Christ and are invited to share in his ongoing ministry. This Sunday’s gospel is one in which the word “breakfast” occurs . It is early in the morning—“already dawn.” The right time for breakfast with all its advantages. The disciples have been out fishing and, upon returning to shore, Jesus asks them, “have you caught anything to eat?” Their answer was a simple, unqualified “No.” No fish, no breakfast. Not so! Jesus invites them, “Come, have breakfast.” It is as though Jesus knows the disciples need a jolt—they need to be tugged out of their familiar routine and transformed. They need the spiritual nutrition of encounter and belief for them to declare their love and follow with fidelity. [Living Liturgy 2013] This gospel details the transformation made possible by the risen Christ. The Resurrection transforms the way things are. The risen Christ transforms the way we are, enabling us to obey his ongoing invitation, “Follow me.” We are fortified by Jesus’ risen Presence, by his invitation to follow, by his own love for us that transforms our love into faithfulness and fruitfulness. Risen Life fortifies us for the transformation needed on our discipleship journey of seeing-believing. Risen Life is given to us by Christ, but we must also seek it. Risen Life is a gift, but we must also grasp it. The Gospel for this Sunday is about a journey but the end is not something I would choose. As I reflected on our Gospel I was reminded of the following quote from a book I read early in my spiritual journey – “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” With these words, in The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave powerful voice to the millions of Christians who believe personal sacrifice is an essential component of faith. Jesus is determined to journey to Jerusalem. This might seem like a pleasant trip, until we realize that the journey to Jerusalem is really a metaphor for his passion, death and resurrection! As disciples, we are invited to join Jesus on this journey to new life. The challenge of this Gospel is to accept the cost of discipleship – to accept dying to self that is necessary to following Jesus and to cooperate with him in establishing God’s reign. Frustration and fatigue, disappointment and rejection can stop us dead in our tracks. Even so, Jesus is very patient. giving us the strength we need to continue the journey. This strength comes from the love and support of family and friends, through learning to let go of less important things, by experiencing the good of our self-giving. The Good News – rely on Jesus who has promised to be with us to the end of our journey.