Saturday, October 31, 2009
On Thursday we looked at the temptations to block God’s lavishing all that God is upon us. We do slip. Paul uses the word “stumble” in his assessment of the Jewish problem. If the stumbling of the Jews “means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!” Paul wants everyone included. Jesus teaches that we should take the lowest place at a banquet, “for all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
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Friday, October 30, 2009
Paul tells of his pierced heart, “great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart” because his fellow Jews do not accept Jesus. We don’t think Paul had children, but he feels as any parent would. He would rather be cursed and cut off from Christ if only his people might be saved. Jesus, who heals a man on the Sabbath, also retorts like a parent:
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Thursday, October 29, 2009
“If God is for us, who can be against?” God has given us the ultimate expression of God’s own self, Jesus. Paul then asks, If God has given us such a gift, how can God fail to lavish on us all that God is? Nothing can separate us from such a deep and penetrating love, “nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Not even sin—unless we choose it. Perhaps some do refuse such a lavishing. Jesus weeps in disappointment over Jerusalem. Perhaps he was praying psalm 109: “I am poor and needy and my heart is pierced within me.” How he wants to gather Jerusalem to his heart like a mother hen, “and you were not willing.”
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Feast of Apostles Simon and Jude
Is there any deeper longing in the human heart than a desire to belong? The author of Ephesians assures us that we are “no longer strangers and aliens.” We are part of the living dwelling place, the living, growing Body of Christ. The night before Jesus makes any major decision, in Luke’s theology, Jesus spends time in prayer. Today he chooses the Twelve, and perhaps more importantly, as he stands at the foot of the mountain “multitudes from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon” join him. They mob Jesus, but there is no discrimination here about the Gentiles from the coast. “Power came out from him and healed all of them.”
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
All of Romans 8 is worth our reflective reading. One of the best parts which should come tomorrow, 8:26-31, will be skipped because of the feast of Simon and Jude.
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Monday, October 26, 2009
When Jesus healed a woman bent for 18 years, saying, “’Woman, you are set free from your ailment’…The leader of the synagogue was indignant”. Who is the true “priest” in this scene? Paul writes of freedom, freedom from fear. Fear is an indication of our slavery. The Spirit sets us free from slavery and teaches us to call God “Abba!” The best translation of Psalm 68’s last stanza is: “Blessed be God who bears our burdens day after day. Our God is a God who saves!” Imagine, a God who bears our burdens, who does not add to them as priests and Pharisees of Jesus’ day did.
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Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
In this year of the priest, how appropriate that our second readings on the Sundays of October and November are from Hebrews which focuses on Jesus our only high priest, and on the new covenant he embodied. Our first reading today is God’s promise of that new covenant, one of ingathering, bringing everyone, even the blind, lame and outcast home. God will personally gather from the farthest part of the earth the blind and the lame—those judged to be sinners in Jesus’ Judaism. “Those who sow in tears will reap rejoicing,” the psalmist proclaims. Bartimaeus doesn’t weep but yells out for God’s mercy made tangible in Jesus. “Many sternly ordered him to be quiet.” Reflecting in this year of the priest, we notice that priests can be like God, welcoming the lame, blind and sinful; or they can be like the crowd, telling those most in need of mercy to be quiet. Hebrews highlights Jesus’ priesthood, mediating not between us and God, for God already is covenanted with us, but between the outcast and the righteous. Pope Benedict says: “The heart of scripture is that God desires mercy, not sacrifice” (June 8, 2008).
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Saturday, October 24, 2009
Paul is reassuring: “To set your mind on the Spirit is life and peace…you are in the Spirit…who dwells in you.” Then Jesus interprets the signs of the times, noting that some who were killed by Pilate or by a falling tower were “no worse” than others living elsewhere. His parable highlights his great desire that we bear fruit. The owner of a fig tree which is not producing is ordered cut down, but the gardener pleads for another year. He will dig around it, put manure on it, and is hopeful that then it will bear fruit.
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Friday, October 23, 2009
In Luke 12, Jesus seems disturbed, angry and actually used the word “stressed” in yesterday’s gospel. Today he calls the crowds hypocrites because they do not know how to interpret the signs of the times. John XXIII called Vatican II to address the signs of the times. He said we need new language to clothe ancient truths. And now?
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Thursday, October 22, 2009
Paul uses a strange image for those who prize their freedom and have worked to counteract the effects of slavery. “You have been freed from sin and enslaved to God.” The Alleluia verse from Paul to the Philippians explains “I count all things worthless but this: to gain Jesus Christ and to be found in him.” Jesus asks: “Do you think I have come to bring peace? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Some laity fear that the Vatican investigation of women religious will divide communities. Not if we are rooted and grounded in Christ. Laity and religious have nothing to fear because the documents of Vatican II have affirmed freedom of conscience. We all are found “in Christ Jesus.”
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Just after we begin to put our trust in the God of Paul, always faithful in a loving covenant based on grace, wham! Jesus tells a story about a slave who is left in charge, but when the master is away, he begins to “beat the other slaves.” When the master returns on a least expected day, the master will “cut him in pieces”. Those of us “in charge” had better take note. Paul continues to encourage us “to present your members to God as instruments of justice.” And thank God that those who were once slaves to sin, now have become obedient to God “from the heart.”
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009
“Here I am, Lord! I come to do your will!” is the antiphon for today’s psalm, one of gratitude for liberation, being drawn out of a muddy swamp. Paul too writes of our liberation; and where sin once abounded, now grace more abounds. Jesus warns that we have to alert for this free gift of deliverance. As soon as the master returns “he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.” This is paradoxical because in another place, Luke tells us to remember that when we have done our duty, all we can say is we are unprofitable servants.
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Monday, October 19, 2009
While Luke sees Jesus’ crucifixion as a prophet dying for justice, Paul understands it in cosmic terms: “handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.” In another place (2 Cor ) Paul states that Jesus even became sin.
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Sunday, October 18, 2009
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We open with “It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.” It is NEVER the will of the Lord to cause pain. “My plans for you are plans of shalom:” peace, healing, wholeness, integrity. Yet, like many of us, trying to make sense of the suffering, we look back on it as God’s will. First of all, the “him” who is crushed is not Jesus but Israel, a corporate person, who was crushed in the Babylonian exile. As Israel looked back on the exile, to whom else could they attribute both their pain and their deliverance? Only God. God is the answer to their every question. Making sense of a tragedy usually occurs only after it is over and one can see again, see the fruitfulness. “Let your steadfast love be upon us,” the psalmist prays. Why not in us? A rabbi taught that God lays love on us so when our hearts break, the love may fall into our hearts for healing. Hebrews highlights Jesus sympathizing with our weakness so that we may approach the throne of grace boldly. In the gospel, Jesus invites us to be servants, as he is. “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Only after the tragedy of the crucifixion, could the disciples see how God made this unjust and evil death fruitful.
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Paul continues his argument for faith over law, “in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants…to those who share the faith of Abraham. God is the father of all of us….” Jesus tells us to depend on the Holy Spirit to teach us if we must defend our faith. Recently there was a demonstration of about 3,000 Muslims who decided to offer their Friday noon prayer on the lawn of the US Capitol. An awesome sight, and yet the group, bowing to the ground, were surrounded by hecklers, warning them to repent, carrying 10 foot plaques of the Ten Commandments. As if Muslims don’t revere Moses, the Torah, the Bible, both Testaments. In fact the Qur’an has more material about Mary, mother of Jesus, than does the New Testament. God is the father of us all, and Abraham is the father of Jews, Muslims and Christians.
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Friday, October 16, 2009
Paul’s argument, that faith trumps law, points to Abraham who lived long before Moses received the Torah. Abraham was not justified by works of the law; rather “’Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’” To believe God does not mean believe in God, believe truths about God, but rather, as Jesus notes in the gospel today, to trust God’s love and care. “Do not be afraid.” If one sparrow is so well attended to by God, “You are worth more than many sparrows.”
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
Jesus continues to “insult” those at table with him. Teresa in her reform of Carmel was probably accused of insulting the way things were. But she herself first had to be reformed, transformed by the grace of God. She might have joined the psalmist: “Out of the depths I cry to you! If you should mark iniquities, who could stand?” Paul explains quite clearly this dynamic of sin and grace which effected Teresa’s conversion as well as our own. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. They are now justified by his grace as a gift….For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” Teresa wasn’t evil, just mediocre in her middle age. Meeting Jesus, falling in love, made all the difference.
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Jesus continues condemning the Pharisees’ emphasis on ritual purities. “One of the lawyers answered him and said, ‘Teacher, when you say these things you insult us too.’” Right! Jesus replies: “You load people with burdens hard to bear and you do not lift a finger to help them.” Paul, who has never met the community at Rome, is not afraid to insult them either. “You have no excuse, whoever you are, whenever you judge others.” He continues, “You say, ‘We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.’” Paul then asks, “Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant is meant to lead you to repentance?”
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Paul details so many ways we humans sin, especially through idolatry. We can only be saved by faith, he asserts, which God gives, “to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.” Those who are “righteous will live by faith.” Jesus warns those who live by greed, yet following the rituals of purity: “You fools!”
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Monday, October 12, 2009
Thanksgiving Day in Canada:
A friend went shopping in Greece and the salesperson said, “Efchariston.” Thank you. The eu changes to ef in modern Greece. A common word, but not a common event in our lives. Everyday that you read these scriptures and pray with them is a thanksgiving, a liturgy of the Word. As priests become more and more scarce, we will more and more be needing the nourishment of Scripture, the living word. Pause and remember all for which you are grateful. In Colossians, the author is grateful for community, all the ways in which the Spirit moves us to love and serve one another as we worship together. In Matthew, Jesus is grateful for bread and fish, simple items of daily life, and especially that we have a God who gives us “every good thing.” In Luke, Jesus calls us to repentance, for which we can be grateful—God’s constant readiness to forgive. In Romans, Paul is grateful that with the resurrection, God “has declared [Jesus] to be Son of God with power;” and that we “are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”
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Sunday, October 11, 2009
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom is more precious than wealth, healthy and beauty. We receive the Spirit who is wisdom through prayer, claims our first author; through counting our days and being satisfied each morning by God’s faithful love, states the psalmist; by opening our thoughts, intentions and hearts to the word of God; and by selling all, giving to the poor and journeying with Jesus, he says in the gospel. A good law-abiding man approaches Jesus, wanting more. Jesus offers him more. He looks on the man tenderly. Will this man be wise and leave all to the poor to be with Jesus? Will he be sad because he has decided to sell everything?
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Saturday, October 10, 2009
Joel sees multitudes gathered in the “valley of decision.” After the darkness of the “Day of the Lord”, the mountains, hills and deserts flow with wine, milk and fountains of fresh water. We rejoice and give thanks to God’s holy name, declares the psalmist. Many of us keep Saturday as a day to honor Mary, and yet today’s gospel SEEMS to dishonor her. When a woman cries out (unheard of in Jewish society!), “Blessed” are the womb and breasts of Mary, Jesus contradicts her. He is not denying Mary’s importance in his life but says she is blessed because (according to Luke in his first two chapters) she is the one par excellence “who hears the word of God and obeys it.”
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Friday, October 9, 2009
Joel describes the terrors of the coming “Day of the Lord.” This is the “end of the world” that many of us as youngsters dreaded. Now, we love the Lord, know that we are loved unconditionally, and hope for a new creation. That is why the psalmist cries out: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart!” Jesus takes on his accusers in the gospel. The Alleluia verse sums up the first reading’s and the gospel’s message: “The prince of this world will now be cast out, and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself.”
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Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Canadian and the United States versions of Living in Christ, have different translations. The Canadian translation uses non-sexist language from the New Revised Standard Version of the Scriptures, which is more ecumenical and closer to the original language. This becomes important in our first reading in which the arrogant (Canada) are equated with the proud (US). A-rogare comes from the Latin which means not asking. The arrogant do not ask. Yet today’s gospel is all about asking, asking fiercely from friends, asking like a child from God. Jesus tells us: ask, search, knock. Jesus asks us, “If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Asking, intercession, petition has sometimes been termed the lowest form of prayer. Not according to Jesus. Jesus stands before the face of God for all eternity making intercession for us.
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Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Jesus’ perfect prayer for today: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Jonah, roaming around today’s area of Iraq and Iran, is angry with God for being so forgiving of wicked Nineveh, so angry he prefers to die. He waits outside the city and God causes a bush to spring up to offer him shade, “so Jonah was very happy about the bush.” When he woke the next day the bush was destroyed, the sun beat down, a fierce wind buffeted him and again he wants to die. “God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?’ And Jonah said, ‘Yes, angry enough to die.’” God marvels that Jonah should care so much about an ephemeral bush and God not care about the numerous lives in Nineveh, so valuable to God.
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Jesus goes to Martha’s house in Bethany where she is “distracted by many things.” Our culture is distracted by many things as well. Once Jonah has learned his lesson he is no longer distracted, but obediently walks through the large city crying out for them to repent. The Ninevites hear and obey, even the king, who proclaims: “All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands.” Are we so distracted that we have no prophet focused on calling the United States from its violence against Afghanistan? Tomorrow marks the eighth anniversary of the US bombing there.
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Monday, October 5, 2009
The brief book of Jonah should be read in one sitting, it is so intriguing. Today we begin the story with God’s calling Jonah to be prophet to Nineveh. He races in the other direction, and today’s piece ends with the large fish spewing Jonah onto the beach. The canticle, which contains all the traditional forms of prayer: adoration, thanksgiving, contrition and petition, Jonah prays while still in the belly of the fish, trusting that “Deliverance belongs to the Lord.” Then the fish spews. Jesus, after commending the lawyer who questions him, responds to a further question about who is this neighbor to be loved with the story of the good Samaritan. Only Luke carries this parable in which God is the good Samaritan. In German “co-man” can mean neighbor. To love our neighbor is not only to love the one who lives next door, but to love the co-man who lives next to our heart. God is the one who lives next to and deep within our hearts, caring for our every wound.
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Sunday, October 4, 2009
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Lord God forms man (adam in Hebrew) from the dust of the ground (adamah) and gives the Woman (ishah in Hebrew) formed from his rib to the Man (ish). The relation of these Hebrew words emphasizes the unity of the two. First God calls woman a helper and then a partner. Therein lies the possibility of conflict in modern marriage. There is conflict among the disciples too. They “sternly” warn children away from Jesus, but he speaks to them with indignation: “Let the little children come to me.”
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Saturday, October 3, 2009
Again, the theme of children. In Baruch we hear Jerusalem speak as a bereaved mother whose children have been taken off in slavery. The Alleluia verse is from Matthew: “Blessed are you, Father…you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kin-dom of heaven.” In Luke, the disciples return from their missionary journey full of joy, and Jesus tells them to rejoice not in their curative powers but that their names are written in heaven. Then Jesus rejoices. “Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you Father…because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have revealed them to infants.”
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Friday, October 2, 2009
Feast of Therese of Lisieux
These last few weeks we are inundated with stories of children, celebrations of childlikeness, than even more than angels on this day’s memorial of the guardian angels. The angel of Exodus is leader and guide. The mention of angels in the gospel today repeats basically what we have heard recently from Mark (Sept 20) and Luke (Sept 28): Jesus calls a child and focuses his ambitious friends’ attention on the little one who is greatest in the kin-dom of heaven. “The angels of these little ones continually see the face of my Father in heaven.”
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Thursday, October 1, 2009
Feast of Therese of Lisieux
Today, on the feast of the patroness of missions, we hear Jesus’ instructions to the first Christian missionaries, the 70 sent to heal and proclaim the new kin-dom, blessing each house with peace. The story of the reading of the Law in the rebuilt Jerusalem tells of the deep awe with which the people heard God’s self-expression, weeping as they listened. What has Law to do with Therese? Why is she named a doctor (meaning, from the Latin, a teacher) of the church, she who died at 24? Perhaps because her own religious experience transcended Law and was steeped in Love. Jansenism raged through France, a heresy which frightened people into obeying law rather than knowing the God of love. With no formal theological training Therese knew God, knew Jesus intimately.
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