Who Do You Say that I Am? Anyone involved with youth knows that the question of identity is the question for them. They are trying to find out who they are in terms of talents, career choices, how they relate to others. All of this is a positive step in maturation during which they identify their strengths and weaknesses, consider their gifts and bond with others who help them in this somewhat painful process. When asked about who they are, no one would answer in terms of pain, suffering or death. In our Gospel today, Jesus asks a similar question about his identity. When Peter answers, the Christ of God, little did he know that implied suffering greatly, being rejected and being killed! This is the way Jesus becomes who he really is – the Risen One. When we think Jesus’ mission we usually think of his teaching and preaching, his healing and working miracles. Bur underlying these activities is his suffering, death and resurrection. And so it is with us. We are called to daily take up our cross; to die to ourselves and to care for others. Following Jesus has its cost. We save our lives by losing them. Self-giving is life-giving.
She Has Shown Great Love We bathe others when they are in need. Parents bathe their infants and toddlers because they are not able to do it for themselves. Nurses bathe patients when they are too sick to do it for themselves. Children bathe their parents when their parents are too frail or too forgetful. In all of these, the act of bathing another is a tender, loving and generous act. in addition to cleansing, bathing another deepens a relationship. Bathing another has layers of meaning and nowhere is this clearer than in our Gospel this Sunday. Jesus is dining with a Pharisee and the Gospel makes it clear that his host had not provided the usual gesture of hospitality. And a “sinful woman in the city” seemingly without permission and with no fear of recrimination brings a flask of ointment as she approaches Jesus. One clear purposes [to anoint Jesus] apparently leads to an unplanned response! When she encounters Jesus she is moved to tears and in a humble act, bathes his feet with her tears and wipes his feet dry with her hair. The Pharisee’s response is indignation. Was he concerned about the woman or embarrassed because he failed to provide the customary act of hospitality? Jesus, on the other hand, was able to see into the woman’s heart and forgive her. And he looks into the heart of the Pharisee and finds no love. The deeper lesson here is how we see others, encounter them and respond to their needs with care. When Jesus looks at the woman he sees her great love, her saving faith. The woman sees Jesus as the One whom she can love and who loves her in return. What is really central in our Gospel today is an openness to others, accepting them for who they are and seeing into our hearts before we judge the heart of another. What does Jesus see when he looks at us? What do we see when we look at one another?
Two Fish, Five Loaves of Bread and Five Thousand for Dinner Recently, there was a news item of strawberry farmers destroying good plants rather than picking the strawberries for market. It was cheaper to let the berries go to waste than to pick them. There was a public outcry, and rightly so. Weekly, I receive pamphlets of malnourished, starving citizens which demand a response from me. I know there is food in abundance and that our starving sisters and brothers across the globe are victims of political action. And I know that world citizens are starving for more than just food. Our readings today make it clear that we are to give of our very selves in feeding others. We are called to give the gift that keeps on giving-our very self for the life of others. As Jesus is God’s nourishment through his self gift, we too, are to be God’s abundant nourishment for others. Perhaps what is amazing about this Gospel is that God willingly chooses us to make known his blessing. This feast celebrates the superabundance of God’s graciousness to us. We are invited to share that superabundance. The challenge of our Gospel is for us to be Eucharist for one another, to be attentive to the needs of others. The challenge is to make visible that divine generosity.
Pentecost Pentecost! The celebration of… what? Flames on heads? Speaking in tongues? The blessing of the Spirit on individuals? Although Pentecost was originally a festival celebration of the wheat harvest in ancient Israel, and of the giving of the law which defined Israel as a nation, for Christians it is known as the time when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, and is sometimes called the birthday of the church. In that sense, Pentecost, which can also refer to the entire 50 days between the resurrection and the coming of the Spirit, is the celebration of the formation of the church as corporate body. Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit to guide his disciples, just before he ascends to heaven, is sealed with the arrival of the Spirit on Pentecost. The Spirit of God has, of course, been present since the beginning of creation, but the event of Pentecost marks the moment when the Spirit works to mediate the presence of the Risen Christ to the church community. Pentecost, then, is more about the corporate body of the church than about the spiritual presence of God to individual believers. The Spirit is now available to guide the church in its mission to bring the Gospel to the world. The effect on the disciples as they receive the Spirit is interesting in this respect. They begin to speak in languages other than their own, with the crowd who gathers hearing the disciples speak in their own language. This is the reversal of what happened with the curse of Babel, which resulted in confusion and lack of understanding between peoples. Rather, at Pentecost, all are made able to understand the message of the Gospel, and are drawn into the church through the power and understanding given by the Spirit. What should this mean for us today, as a people of the Spirit? By this indwelling of the Spirit, we ourselves become advocates of God’s presence for others. It maybe as simple as a reassuring touch or a helping hand. It might be a sacrifice of time in volunteering for a task that needs to be done for the good of all. In all, we are called to die to ourselves in order to be the true presence of Christ for others.
Keep My Word In the book, The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz presents a practical guide to personal freedom. The first of the Four Agreements is: Be Impeccable with Your Word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love. For most of us, this may be very difficult. In our Gospel today, Jesus takes us deeper! Not only are we to keep our word, now we are asked to keep His Word! That is, to live the way he lived! In order for us to live Christ’s word, we are promised an Advocate, a divine, indwelling presence through which we are able to live and love as Jesus himself did. To keep His word, we open our hearts to his presence, allow him to change us. In Jesus, the lame walked, the oppressed rejoiced, the poor had the Good news preached to them. If we are to keep Jesus’ word, then our lives are to be characterized by a speaking and doing that brings about transformation.
A New Commandment There is a literary device novelists, playwrights and screen writers sometimes use known as a flashback. A flashback fills in details that are helpful to us, the viewer or reader, to understand the unfolding story and/or to remind us of previous incidents. Today’s Gospel functions as a flashback for us. The context is Jesus’ farewell discourse which really happened before Jesus’ passion, death and Resurrection. Now we read these words after those events and hear his words in a new light. It is only in the Resurrection that we begin to understand Jesus’ final command: “love one another as ‘i have loved you.” This commandment to love one another requires a new way of living our lives for the other without counting the cost; dying to self for the common good. Our dying to self reveals the measure of our love for the other.
Known by the Shepherd My experience with sheep is limited. I have watched them grazing from a distance. I’ve walked among them on my uncle’s farm and found them skittish and aloof. I am allergic to wool. Most of what I’ve heard about sheep is unflattering. They are reputed to be stupid, lacking in initiative and likely to fall over cliffs or entangle themselves in brush. They are not playful. Lambs have a winsome charm, but the adult animal is a little boring. Rams are distinguished by their horns. Although there may be some variation in color, most sheep resemble every other sheep in the flock. To see one sheep is to have seen them all. And there is no such thing as an independent or self-made sheep. A sheep needs the shepherd to guide and care for it and – in dire straits – to rescue it. There is nothing sentimental about this relationship: for the sheep it is a matter of survival, and for the shepherd a matter of economy. The sheep are valuable property, not pets to be cuddled. In our Gospel today, Jesus names himself the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd knows his sheep as individuals. Each one is worthy of his care and attention. Today, let us rest a bit in what the Good Shepherd offers us when we live the paschal mystery. For all our efforts to dying to self for the sake of the other, they do not equal the gift of self that Jesus gives us. Let us rest a bit this Sunday, basking in Jesus’ care and protection, listening to his voice calling us to his loving embrace, This, too, is living the paschal mystery.
Gone Fishing! If you walk into my office you will find a small sign – “Gone fishing”. This saying can either be read literally, indicating that I have really gone fishing, or it may mean that I have taken a break from the demands of my ministry. In our Gospel today, little does Peter realize that his fishing trip will end up immersing him ever more fully in the demands of a different kind of work. It would seem that the disciples are missing the point of the Resurrection and how the Resurrection changes one’s life because Peter and the others revert back to what they know – they’ve gone fishing! The two scenes in our Gospel, the miraculous catch of fish and Jesus’ dramatic encounter with Peter capture two interrelated Easter mysteries- abundance of new life and love that overflows into following the risen Christ to the point of death. We give our lives because we have first been loved by God. Following Jesus isn’t easy for it means dying to self, even to the point of death for the sake of the other. We share in this new life only if we are willing to share in its cost -dying to self for the sake of the other. Let us take care that our actions announce God’s blessings and God’s care.
“Peace Be With You” This isn’t Ordinary Time but a season of purposeful time. On this Second Sunday of Easter, we continue to remember the events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus and marvel in the light of the Risen Lord. As we do so, we find our identity, as the body of Christ. Eastertide is about the resurrection of Jesus; yes, but it also and perhaps especially about the new life he opens up for all in the body of Christ and the unstoppable mission on which he sends us as his disciples. It’s a mission of making sure the poor get good news, of releasing captives (and welcoming them back into our communities!), healing and restoring the sick, the lame, and the blind, witnessing to and joining the work of God’s kingdom whenever and wherever it may be found, and declaring God’s saving love and power that brings us into eternal life through Jesus Christ by our words and our actions. We haven’t seen the risen Jesus in person with our eyes, yet many of us believe. Many of us can testify that “the Spirit bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.” Still all of us, at times; and some of us, nearly all the time, struggle with belief, just like Thomas in the story from John’s Gospel. This story comes as a radical shift in tone. This story is for those who haven’t yet believed or seen or felt something of the resurrection of Jesus. Three times in the Gospel the risen Lord addresses the gathered “Peace be with you.” What is this peace He brings? It is a peace that allays fears, empowers forgiveness and prompts us to accept that suffering and death is the doorway to new life. When we live this “Peace of Christ”, our lives are marked by self-giving, forgiveness and genuine care for the other – even our enemies. As we offer the “Peace of Christ” today, let us remember, we move from bright lights to shadows, from joyous determination to fearful confusion. And the good news in this story is that our risen Lord comes to us wherever we are, however we are, and brings us what we need to believe, never condemning us for our doubts but meeting us in them.
There are Serious Questions to be Asked About Ohio’s Death Penalty As the Christian world prepares to enter into a solemn remembrance of the Passion and Death of Jesus this Good Friday, in a joint statement, the members of the Leadership Teams of The Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown and the Sisters of the Humility of Mary publish the following statement in regards to Ohio’s death penalty. “We are writing to voice our concerns about the Vindicator’s recent reportings on the death penalty. As Leadership Teams of the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown and the Sisters of the Humility of Mary, we support a moratorium on executions until Ohio’s death penalty is studied by the legislature. Ohioans deserve to know if the death penalty is effective, if it is the best use of our scarce resources, and if it supports healing for victims’ families. The death penalty presently fails on all of these counts. Rather than bringing any healing, the death penalty often prolongs the pain of murder victims’ loved ones who must endure years—even decades—of reversals in the courts and media hounding throughout the long life of a capital case. The death penalty provides a false sense of hope that with an execution will come closure. Many survivors have said there is no such thing as closure for a person whose loved one is murdered. What is more, the death penalty often creates new victims of the corrections officials who must carry out executions and of family members whose loved one is executed. Given that we spend millions more on the death penalty than on life in prison without the possibility of parole, we would rather see those resources being better spent on counseling for murder victims’ loved ones and other victims’ services, more law enforcement, or increased crime prevention programs. The death penalty is not effective. Study after study has shown the death penalty does not deter crime. The death penalty is also carried out disproportionately—who receives the death penalty often depends on socioeconomic status, the race of the victim, and where the crime occurred rather than the nature of the offense. Nоt еvеrуоnе саn afford tо post bail whеn thеу gеt arrested. Bail bonds services make thе option mоrе accessible tо еvеrуоnе, regardless оf income оr social status. On connecticut-bailbonds.com website you will get affordable bail bond service. Whеn уоu аrе posting bail, уоu аrе offering payment аѕ insurance thаt уоu wіll appear аt аll уоur scheduled court hearings еvеn іf уоu don’t stay іn jail. Thе аmоunt уоu pay depends оn thе criminal offense уоu hаvе bееn accused оf. Sоmеtіmеѕ, іt саn gо uр tо аn аmоunt уоu simply wіll nоt bе able tо рut оut right thеn аnd thеrе. Thіѕ іѕ whеrе thе bail agent соmеѕ іn. Bail bonding allows уоu tо pay just a small percentage оf уоur bail, usually 10 percent, whіlе a thіrd party covers thе rеѕt. Onсе thе bail surety іѕ received, уоu аrе free tо leave jail аnd prepare уоurѕеlf fоr thе upcoming trial. Whіlе іn jail, thеrе іѕ nоt muсh уоu саn dо. Yоu аrе оnlу given permission tо make оnе phone саll. Visiting tіmеѕ аrе аlѕо limited, аnd thе environment іn prison іѕ nоt conducive tо preparing a defense. Bу posting bail аnd bеіng set free fоr thе tіmе bеіng, уоu wоuld bе given ample tіmе tо gеt rеаdу fоr уоur upcoming court trials. It wоuld bе easier fоr уоu tо look fоr a competent defense lawyer. Thе ordeal wоuld аlѕо bе easier tо bear іn thе company оf loved ones. Remember, hоwеvеr, thаt bail bonds соmе wіth a pledge. In exchange fоr helping уоu оut оf jail, уоu аrе obligated tо appear аt аll court hearings concerning уоur case. You can click here for more info about the bail bondsman. We also risk the integrity of the entire judicial system every time an innocent person is released from death row. There have been 139 of these exonerations across the country, and that number keeps climbing. After spending 22 years on Ohio’s death row, the charges against Joe D’Ambrosio from Cuyahoga County were finally dropped this month due to strong evidence of innocence and prosecutorial misconduct. If officially exonerated, D’Ambrosio will be our sixth death row exoneration from Ohio. Nationwide, there are also several cases of people who were executed despite evidence of innocence. Every time we sentence an innocent person to death, we chip away at the system’s credibility to enact real justice. We can save money and ensure real justice is served by eliminating the death penalty in Ohio. It is because of these reasons and because of our moral commitment to life that our Leadership Teams simply cannot support the death penalty. Thank you for taking the time to hear our concerns. We hope that in future reportings on the death penalty, you will consider some of the above. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss this matter further.” Sincerely, Sister Nancy Dawson, President Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown (OSU) Ursuline Motherhouse, Canfield Sister Susan Schorsten, President Sisters of the Humility of Mary (HM) Villa Maria, Pa
Sin No More Who is the most honorable person you know? Why is this person so honorable? What makes a person honorable? Great deeds and great commitments? Wisdom and humility? Trustworthiness and compassion? A great reputation? There are these and many other ways to define an honorable person. Striving for the right. The right way to act. The right way to live. This person is the opposite of the sinner. What turns a sinner into an individual of honor? Presented with a sinner, Jesus turned the question of condemnation back on the honorable leaders of his community. And he gave the possibility of change to the sinner with a simple twist in his point of view. In our Gospel today, the Pharisees challenged Jesus with a moral dilemma. The Jewish leaders pitted the fulfillment of God’s Law (tradition) against compassion (present need). If Jesus chose fulfillment of the Law, he would be seen as cold-hearted in the eyes of those he ministered to: the sinners. But, if he chose compassion, he would be seen as one who disrespected the Law and was “soft on” immorality; the general populace would renounce him and the leaders would have sufficient grounds to prosecute him. This was a tight “open and shut” case for the Pharisees and a losing situation for Jesus. But Jesus chose an unexpected middle route; he acted apathetic by doodling on the ground and turned the question back on them. By giving the sinless permission to carry out the Law, Jesus caught the Pharisees at their own game. To throw a stone at this point would be the sin of pride. The persecutors would have the audacity to act in God’s place; this would be blasphemous in the eyes of the people, since no one was without sin. No wonder the elders left first in shame. Possibly the greatest irony of the story could be found in the adulterous woman. The woman, caught in the act, stood before Jesus un-judged; that would be the way Jesus would leave the woman. Without judgment, the charge of sin could not be leveled against her, she was truly “sinless” in the eyes of the Lord. Jesus simply told her not to sin again. Our encounter with Jesus brings hope. In the invitation to repent, Jesus offers us new life. Jesus offers us new choices and opportunities to change. The work of Lent is to hear Jesus and respond by making choices that will lead us to new life.
The Prodigal Father As a teen-ager, I was chomping at the bit to leave home and get on my own, thinking this is the way I can do what I want. I thought I was quite capable of ordering my own life! My father, the practical one, encouraged me to get a job. He set up four envelopes – church, bills, savings account and personal use. Each time I cashed my check, I had to place a percentage [mutually agreed upon] in each of the first three envelopes. Soon I realized it wasn’t as easy as it looked! By the time I filled the first three envelopes, I realized how expensive living was ! So in reading our Gospel this Sunday, I can identify with the son who is chomping at the bit to leave home. The Gospel begins with the Pharisees and Scribes complaining that Jesus welcomes sinners – how little do they understand God! So Jesus tells a parable. When the son comes to his senses and returns home, he experiences a merciful father who clothes him in dignity and honors him with a feast. This parable reminds us of the mercy of God. This parable reminds us that God longs to embrace and celebrate with us. Coming to understand mercy and forgiveness from God’s perspective changes our attitudes about ourselves and others. Sinners, though we are, our Father longs to embrace and celebrate with us. Let us recall God’s graciousness and rejoice. Receiving God’s forgiveness and mercy and offering the same to one another is our journey from ” Ashes to Easter.”
The Unexpected Mercy of God My father was a very patient man. One year he took a peach stone and planted it in a small pot. The first year yielded nothing. The second year – a small stick that really looked dead. He then transplanted that “dead stick” into his garden. He fertilized it, watered it, cared for that “dead stick”. We asked him why spend the energy. Each time, my father said, “Give it another year.” Today, 10 years later, that “dead stick” gives us great peaches. As my father was patient with that “dead stick”, how much more is God patient with us? Our Gospel today gives us the parable of the fig tree. In this parable, Jesus reveals the patience of God with us, despite our slowness to repent, despite our slowness of letting go of our narrowness of life. How merciful God is. This is God’s mercy – to take what is almost dead and coax it to new life! Our Lenten journey, our work of repentance is to turn sinfulness toward God’s transforming mercy. Jesus offers us a challenge – “bear fruit” or “be cut down”. Our encouragement – God is ever patient, God is ever merciful. God does not gives up on us.
Glory Through Self-Offering Most of us live too hectic lives – working, cleaning, preparing meals, answering emails and a hundred other things. I have often mused, “Oh to be bored just one day!” Life is hectic! When I might finally sit down in the evening I often doze off while reading or watching TV. I might wake up when those commercials come on only to find I have missed half the program I was watching! In our Gospel today, Peter, James and John must have really been tired climbing that mountain! For they fell asleep! Then they awakened they saw Jesus transfigured. How startling that must have been! Luke’s account of the Transfiguration includes the necessity of the passion on the journey to glory. The point of our Gospel – glory presupposes embracing self-offering. Glory comes only through embracing the passion – dying to self for the good of others. We have to come down from the mountain and walk our journey through death to glory. And let us remember God walks with us to glory.
To Be Tempted It is said that certain items are “rust-proof.” Other things are billed as either “dust-proof” or “spill-proof” or “bullet-proof” or “child-proof” or “scratch-proof.” But here’s something which no human being ever has been or ever will be: “temptation-proof.” Temptations are luring. They present us with a seeming good we do not presently have but want. Without a lure, temptations do not exist. Temptations always lure us to a false good. In our Gospel today, Jesus is faced with three perceived goods. And each temptation put to Jesus involved some misguided personal gain – power, prestige and possessions. By resisting the temptations, Jesus shows us that our true gain is not in satisfying ourselves but in something better – utter fidelity to God. Temptations are not an indication of sin, rather, they are occasions for us to show that our lives are turned to God. In resisting temptations, we are choosing who we want to be – those who faithfully serve God by doing good for others. Lent is a focused time to grow in holiness and transformation; it is a time to take the test of who we want to be. We don’t have to go out to the desert to find temptation. But we do need God’s nearness to resist it. And that God has promised us.
Our Lenten Journey With the Church’s observance of Ash Wednesday 17 February 2010, Lent begins. This holy season is a time to rediscover the Lord and live like Him more consciously. In these forty days, marked by traditional penitential practices, we are challenged to turn away from sin. We are called to commit ourselves anew to live the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turning from sin and toward the Lord is the best preparation for Easter’s joy. For Catholics, the spiritual renewal we undertake in Lent has numerous forms. Acts of charity and alms-giving help us to become more mindful of providing for the poor all through the year. The reception of the Sacrament of Penance offers us the Lord’s forgiveness, which is always available to us through God’s grace. Reading Sacred Scripture opens us to hear the Word of God more deeply. Praying the Stations of the Cross reminds us of Christ’s supreme sacrifice for us and of the importance of sacrificing for others ourselves. Time-honored practices of fasting and abstinence bring us closer to the Lord who Himself often fasted and prayed. When many of us were children, we might remember our giving up candy for Lent. And, it seemed like a real sacrifice. As we grew up, it was often more difficult to decide what special thing to do, to make Lent a special season – to get our attention and to prepare ourselves for deeper sacrifices. What would help me grow in freedom? That’s the question to ask. For some of us, it could be, committing ourselves to give up judging others, every single day of Lent. For others, it could be giving up a bad habit we’ve developed. For many of us, the choice may not be to give something up, but to add something to our daily living during Lent. We may commit ourselves to extra prayer time. We may decide to do some service for the poor. We may choose to increase our alms-giving-perhaps related to something we choose not to do- not going out to eat and giving that money to a charity that feeds the hungry. Whether it is fasting, abstaining or other acts of penance, the whole desire we should have is to use these means to help us grow closer to our Lord and prepare ourselves to celebrate the paschal mystery with hearts and minds renewed.
Lent First a story: Missionaries were traveling in Africa accompanied by natives who acted not only as guides, but also as the ones who carried the luggage, supplies and other materials. The missionaries were anxious to get to their destination which was only accessible on foot, and proposed an ambitious schedule to which the group kept for three days. On the fourth day, the guides would not pick up the camp and move. When the missionaries inquired why, the one who acted as translator said: “We have moved too fast. We have to wait for our souls to catch up.” I know that feeling. Most of us live a hectic pace, even nuns who have dedicated their lives to prayer and service of God’s people. We knew how to multi-task even before we ever heard the word. We acquire modern communication devices – things like cell phones, blackberries, netbooks, and smartphones – in the hope that they will help us be more efficient and get more done. But, it never seems like we can get everything done that we need to do. That brings me to Lent. Each year the church invites us to enter into this holy season. Though there are numerous ways to describe the purpose of Lent, one reason is to let our souls catch up to our bodies. One of the themes of Lent is conversion. This conversion involves a turning away from sin – metanoia as well as a turning toward God – epistrophe. In particular, we Christians want to dispose our lives to be more like that of Jesus, the Incarnate Word of God. It was only two months ago that the whole church celebrated the mystery of this incarnation, God in Jesus becoming one like us in all things but sin. Jesus not only reveals God to us, but shows us the way to be holy, to imitate him. This conversion happens I think only when we slow down enough to let our souls catch up with our bodies. I would like to highlight five characteristics of human life that give us an insight into how to let ourselves enter into conversion. First, we are finite, bodily creatures. This body provides the vehicle that is the means for our souls to get around. Though we often fail to take care of our bodies well – we might eat too much, drink too much, fail to get enough sleep, or engage in risky behaviors – our bodies have a remarkable resilience for a rather long time. The dietary practices of Lent – also know as fasting and abstinence – are one way to remind us that we need to be attentive to our bodies and to be moderate in our activities. Second, we are relational creatures. It is stating the obvious to say that we are born in relation to others. But it seems to me we take for granted the profound significance of this insight. Our faces are oriented to the other. Our vision is always outward, not inward. We only see our own faces in a mirror. Because we are relational creatures we are made in the image of God who is by nature triune. Third, we are intelligent creatures. This intelligence is not only the great gift of being able to reason. It also includes an ability to be self-reflective. We are creatures who know that we know; we are self-conscious knowers. We can abstract from the limitations of our finite lives to remember the past, reflect on our actions and intend to move in a good way toward the future. Fourth, we are creatures capable of self-transcendence. This does not mean that we can overcome our bodilyness. However, we can imagine beyond the finite limits of our time and space. We can pose questions that go beyond what we currently know toward the infinite. It ultimately raises the question of whether or not there is an Infinite One at the end of our questioning. Fifth, we are hopeful creatures. Something inside us prods us to consider that, as good as life is, there is something more. The promise of this “more” is the core of our hope. Christians desire to dispose their own lives to that of Jesus, to journey with him to and through the Paschal Mystery. The season of Lent offers us the opportunity to attend to this discipleship with all members of the Christian community. If we let our bodies slow down enough, we might just let our souls catch up.
Blessed Are You My nephew was about to “graduate” from kindergarten. He put on his paper mortarboard and marched with his class to the stage. As he received his “diploma”, Jason shook hands with his teacher. After the ceremony, we each said “Congratulations.” Jason looked at us and asked, “What does that mean?” His mom and dad answered, “Good job!” That answer worked for a five year old! While this may be sufficient for a five year old, sometimes something deeper is intended. If we look at the Latin – “congratulations” means “to be pleased with” or “graced with.” When we offer our congratulations, we are saying we rejoice with the other and it expresses a relationship. The Beatitudes in our Gospel today announce God’s pleasure in and relationship to the poor, to those who are excluded and hated. With the Beatitudes, Luke highlights God’s generosity. Luke seems to be exalting the downtrodden simply because they are downtrodden, and “cursing” the comfortable simply because they are comfortable. What really is at the heart of this Gospel is the manner of life that makes present God’s reign of love. Jesus asks of us today to become people willing to feel our needs and to depend on God. Then we will also be open to our neighbor, to receive and to give. It is our relationship with God that motivates us to live the blessings that are given to us. And it is our relationship with God that motivates us to reach out to others. The model for this type of relationship is Jesus himself.
Isn’t This Joseph’s Son? One night, not so long ago, I was praying and asked to know where I was not one with God. The next day, a knock at my door and for the next hour, I found out where I was not one with God! Be careful of what you pray for! We find it easy to speak to people when we have pleasant things to say and they are obviously glad to hear them. On the other hand, we tend to shy away from delivering words of confrontation, criticism, challenge. Neither do we ourselves like to hear such negative remarks. Yet at the same time, we realize that growth often results from what we really do not want to hear. Our Gospel today challenges us to stand pat on the truth of God’s word even to stake our life on it. While the Gospel is always Good News, it is not always comfortable, because it stretches us beyond where we are right now. Our response can be amazement or fury, welcoming Jesus or expelling him from our midst, growing in discipleship or stagnating in narrowness. If the chatter at work grows uncharitable or coarse, do we have the courage to walk away? If prejudice exists among our friends and acquaintances do we have the courage to extol the dignity of the minority? Do we have the courage to place Gospel values before any others and are we willing to stake our lives on them? The real challenge comes when we are nudged to live the Gospel. What determines your response?
Encountering God’s Word In January, when we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, we always see a clip of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Each time I see that clip, I am moved and challenged by what he said. The power of his words comes from the integrity of what he said, how he lived, and what he called us to. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a model for us of a response by word and deed to the challenge Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel. Jesus proclaims a reading from the prophet Isaiah to the people in the Nazareth synagogue. The hearers must have heard, for after Jesus’ proclamation, they looked intently at him. What were they expecting? An explanation of what they heard? Yes, but Jesus moves them beyond the mere words to an encounter of him as the Word of God made flesh. The people of Nazareth, heard God’s word and encountered God’s word in the very person of Jesus. In Jesus, the Word is action fulfilled, for in him God’s plan of love is enfleshed in his care and compassion for the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed – anyone who came to him. Now we – our own lives- announce the meaning of the word proclaimed and enfleshed. The poor we encounter today include not only those who lack material necessities but also those without inner satisfaction. The imprisoned are not only those in cells but also those imprisoned by their fears. The blind are not only those who cannot physically see but are those who fail to see their human dignity. Like Jesus, we are sent to bring glad tidings to all we encounter, not simply by uttering words but by actions that change the world around us.
Baptized by the Holy Spirit and Fire In preparing adults to be received into the Catholic Church, we spend a great deal of time talking about the Holy Spirit in our lives. Several years ago, one of our catechumens asked, “What, really, is the Holy Spirit’s fire?” I answered, ” We have several expressions that might give us a hint: a coach works with a team to get them all fired up, your boss tries to light a fire under your staff to undertake a new project; someone intent on a mission has a fire in the belly.” “All these expressions,” I said, “point to commitment, intensity, energy, a drive toward a goal. Our baptism is meant to instill in us all this commitment, this energy as well.” Our Gospel today tells us who we are and how we have been gifted. Our Baptism transforms us and confers on us a mission. By Baptism, we are The Body of Christ entrusted with cooperating with the Holy Spirit in making present God’s love by which the world is saved and renewed. We are missioned to a Gospel way of life. Taking our Baptism seriously means that the ritual is just the beginning of a lifetime of living for God and for God’s people.
Rise, Shine, Your Light Has Come As a child, my dad would tell the story of La Buffana. According to tradition, Italy’s main celebration is on the 12th day after Christmas, the day Jesus Christ was revealed as the son of God. According to my dad, legend has it that the three wise men stopped at Stregga Bufanna’s house on their way to Bethlehem and she showed them such gracious hospitality they told her where they were going, and asked her to come along. She declined at first. “She said ‘I’ll catch up with you’ and she never has caught up, she is still looking and she is stopping at every home to see if the baby Jesus is going to be at that home.” According to some versions of the story, on her original journey La Buffana had gathered up some toys that belonged to deceased child and she was trying to take the toys to Bethlehem. Since she never got there — she was never able to catch up to the three wise men — she leaves toys for children in every home she visits. This Sunday’s gospel is a wonderful story and it is easy to get caught up in the details of stars and kings, journeys and searches, newborn Baby and gifts. However, we need to move beyond these details to get to the challenge of the message that is there. The point of the Gospel is amazing- God chooses to manifest the mystery of Christ Jesus to all the nations. And the challenge for us is to become the story. The light of the glory of God is all around us. We need only to do two things: search for the Christ among us and be the revelation of His Presence. We are to seek the light within us. And we are to become the story. Like La Buffana, we make present the Word that dwells among us and within us through the light of our faithful living of the original story.
The Epiphany of the Lord The feast of Epiphany celebrates the revelation of Christ to the pagan nations. And it points to Israel’s place as the source of God’s revelation. The Magi came to seek the newly born King, the one who would be a light to the nations. Their encounter acknowledged Israel as God’s chosen people. They would be the source of God’s blessing, a living fountain of God’s revelation for all people. In the feast of the Epiphany, we rejoice in the worship of the first seekers. And we are reminded to honor God’s people who gave us the great gift of Jesus, our Lord. When have you searched for the Lord? When has that search encountered road blocks or deception or wrong turns? How has God kept you on track? As we look back on the story of the Epiphany, let us remember who called, guided, and revealed himself to the Magi: God. The story was God-driven from the first verse. Let us not forget God himself calls us from the surface experience of daily living to seek something higher, something better. He is the one who turns us from those who expect experience into those who receive grace, pure gift, at every turn. In God, we find someone to give our hearts, our minds, and our lives to. We find the goal of our quest. How has God called you this week? How has God graced you this week? How can you pass your call and your grace along to others?
Mary, Mother of God Friends of mine are new grandparents and of course, I asked to see their “brag book”. Today, that brag book is on Facebook as well as in print! At any rate, most parents and grandparents are so proud of their newborn that they naturally wish to show off their infant! No doubt Mary and Joseph were proud parents and only too willing to show off Jesus even to these stranger-shepherds. Mary and Joseph heard the shepherds’ message and rejoiced when the shepherds were “glorifying and praising God.” I doubt that this birth was easy for Mary or that she took it for granted. The events of the incarnation are neither easy to understand nor to embrace. How was Mary able to accept these events? Mary heard the shepherds’ good news and took it into her heart and reflected on it. Mary shows us the way: we, too, must adopt a contemplative stance before God. Mary’s ongoing yes to God wasn’t easy. The only way she remained faithful was that she took a contemplative stance-reflecting, pondering, praying. Our feast today encourages us in our own yes to God. The mystery of the incarnation that Mary models for us is that God’s life dwells within each of us. But in our busy, everyday living we can easily lose sight of that Life in us. It is only by making a conscious effort to ponder the way we live and how God is guiding us that we are able to face the difficulties of life with sureness of blessing and strength.
Our Father’s House It has been eleven months since my father died and only now have we been able to look at some of the family pictures. As we looked at those pictures, I could now see why folks have said, “Oh you are just like your father.” The pictures also brought to bear the memories I have valued from my childhood: happy memories of an extended family, rootedness in home, the importance of tradition. Our feast today, the feast of the Holy Family, remind us that being a “holy” family isn’t a matter of being obsessively religious and pietistic. It is a matter of valuing the memories, families and traditions that make us who we are. We belong to a larger family, for we are “the children of God”. This larger family is not abstract but very concrete: being members of God’s holy family is expressed in our nuclear family, where we build our identity from traditions of goodness and values we pass on from generation to generation. Mary and Joseph were not free from family struggles, after all, they lost Jesus on a trip! And when they found him, they had to struggle to understand who he was and who he was meant to be. In doing so, they were able to help Jesus grow in wisdom, age and grace. We gather round the word in our Father’s house to refresh our memories of Jesus’ behavior that speak to our experience and challenge us to growth in goodness and Gospel values. Like Mary and Joseph in this Gospel story, we often do not understand events as they are unfolding. We must ponder their meaning as we continue on with the ordinary affairs of daily life. In this way making memory becomes a means of grace.
Emmanuel-God With Us Several years ago, I was leading the Children’s Liturgy of the Word on this feast of Christmas. As we were reflecting on this feast, one of the children asked me, “Sister, were the shepherds any different after they visited Jesus?” For years, that question has stayed with me. It didn’t take much for the shepherds to abandon their sheep and follow up on a strange message of angels! They saw the infant for themselves and then “they returned glorifying and praising God.” To whom or to what did they return? And were they changed because of their encounter with Christ? Did they return to their sheep? To their former way of a shepherding life? Maybe to some shepherds who didn’t go with them? In trying to answer that child’s question, I said they returned with a difference. Their encounter with this infant stirred in their hearts and changed their lives forever. We,too, are changed by our encounters with this Savior born to us. We are changed when we recognize and respond to this divine encounter. We encounter the Savior in the sick and suffering to whom we extend a healing hand, in the child who needs moral guidance, in a parent who needs an encouraging word, in a lonesome youth who needs a friend. And their presence changes our lives. Emmanuel not only came at a specific moment in history; Emmanuel is among us at all time. Even more, we are to make Emmanuel present.
Christ Incarnate In a recent conversation with members of our parish renewal team, I realized that we live in a very logical society: we want proofs, we love our technological gimmicks, we avoid risks when we aren’t sure something is trustworthy. But curiously, we are a people of belief: we place our trust in surgeons, we act on the advice of certain persons, we take a risk when we try something new. We recognize that relationships always entail a certain amount of trust and self-surrender. Our readings this Advent have shown us that nothing about what Mary and Elizabeth was logical. They relied solely on their belief that God’s word would be fulfilled and they trusted in that word. In our Gospel today, Mary sets out to visit the elderly Elizabeth who also is pregnant according to the word of Gabriel. Two incarnations are announced. Jesus in the womb of Mary, and the Holy Spirit who filled Elizabeth. And for each, their child will change their lives forever. Although Elizabeth extols Mary for her belief, it was also Elizabeth’s belief that enabled her to conceive John as well as recognize the presence of the Savior in her midst through Mary. On this last Sunday before Christmas, we are led into the depth of the Christmas mystery. Like Mary, we are called to birth Christ’s presence in our world today. And in bringing Christ to our world, we are blessed as we share in the very life of God.