Scripture Musings
In his book Rediscover Catholicism, Matthew Kelly talks about journaling at Mass. He recommends that you take a notebook with you to Mass and jot down what God speaks to you during the course of the service. He believes that God will speak at least One Thing to you that will be the key lesson that He desires to teach you today. What follows are my thoughts about the One Thing God is showing me this day.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3; Psalm 145; Romans 8:35, 37-39; Matthew 14:13-21
Jesus “withdrew…to a deserted place…The crowds heard of this and followed him…”
My initial thought when I read this was that Jesus withdrew to give himself some time alone to grieve for his friend and cousin John the Baptist, whom He had just learned was dead.
As I began to meditate on this Scripture and read some commentaries, it struck me that Jesus withdrew to the deserted place in order that the crowds would follow Him there. How often do we feel like we are in deserted places where we have no one to help us as we struggle with a particular problem, whether it be an external problem like sickness or the loss of a job, or whether it is an internal problem, like anger or grief or hopelessness? Did we ever consider that Jesus might have drawn us to that place?
Why would He do that? Why would He want us to experience the emptiness of feeling alone, the fear of not knowing how to resolve our problem, the ache of having no one to comfort us and help us make it through?
In the book of Hosea there is an interesting Scripture that always struck me: “I will lead her into the wilderness and speak persuasively to her.” God has a reason for calling us into the desert. It is there, and sometimes only there, that He can speak to our hearts. Certainly that is not due to His lack of ability; it is always due to our lack of being able to hear, with all the distractions of busyness or even our own sense of security derived from our own efforts.
Sometimes it is only when we reach the end of our resources, the limits of our abilities, the lowest points in our life, where we can look up and see the reality that God is there with us and we have only to ask for His aid, to know that He will supply all that we need.
The psalm today tells us, “you give them their food in due season.” The reading from Isaiah tells us, “You who have no money, come, receive…Come without paying and without cost…Come to me heedfully, listen that you may have life.” Then the reading from Romans summarizes the whole discussion by telling us that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Paul also says in that same reading, “in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”
It’s not magic. You can’t just wish your circumstances away because you follow Christ. You may still have to go through many of those difficulties Paul describes in that passage from Romans.
If we look again at the Gospel, we see that once Jesus had drawn the crowds to this deserted place, He didn’t dismiss them so that they could go provide for their own needs. Nor did He immediately solve their problem through the multiplication of the loaves and fish. No, he turned to his disciples and said, “give them some food yourselves.” Here again, the disciples had to come to Jesus and present to Him their inadequacy in being able to solve the problem. “Five loaves and two fish are all we have,” they said, aware that this meager offering would never suffice for such a large crowd. Yet, they gave it to Jesus with a sense of trust in Who He was, and Jesus showed them that the little they had was indeed sufficient for such a huge crowd.
In the homily the priest gave, he suggested that we, too, should offer ourselves and our meager gifts to the Lord, and then we can watch as He multiplies those gifts to become all that is needed to meet the current circumstances.
Do not be afraid, especially if you are walking right now in a desert place. Do not look down at the ground you are walking on: the circumstances you are dwelling in. Look up at your Father in heaven, Who desires to lavish His gifts on you without you having to pay a price for them. Let Him takes the littleness of your offering and make it into all that you need to walk through your circumstances and reach the other side in victory, “conquer[ing] overwhelmingly through Him who loves” you.
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12; Psalm 119; Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 13:44-52
“The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”
When I read that line in today’s psalm, I wonder if I believe that’s true. Can I recognize this “pearl of great price” that I have in the Scriptures?
When God appeared to Solomon in a dream and said to him, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you,” I wonder what I might have asked for if God appeared to me and told me the same thing. Would I ask for something transient that will not last—that cannot last—like wealth or health or youth? Or would I ask for something with more eternal consequences? It seems Solomon was already pretty wise when he asked God for an understanding heart, but God still blessed him with a wisdom so great it has become for us the standard of the greatest wisdom.
We have before us the opportunity to gain wisdom for ourselves. We have the “pearl of great price” right in front of us. Do we see its value enough to realize that we need to “sell all that (we) have and buy it?”
The Word of God is not an end in itself. The psalm says, “The revelation of your words sheds light, giving understanding to the simple.” The Word of God is a key. It is a doorway. It is our way to encounter Christ, to begin a relationship with Him, and He has given us the sacraments, which the Scriptures foreshadow and describe, as the means to grow that relationship.
Wisdom is not just head knowledge; it is experiential knowledge. We cannot just know about Christ, we must encounter Him, we must experience Him in order to have real relationship with Him.
Last week’s readings told us that Christ IS the kingdom of heaven. This week we learn that He is the pearl of great price. Are we willing to sell all that we have, to give up all that we are, in order to claim this pearl, or are we still holding on to our own ideas of what will make us happy?
In the reading from Romans, it says that we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” We are called. He has chosen us, but we still have our part to play. We must, like Mary, give our consent to allow God to work in our lives.
Our organist chose to include a song called The Summons as one of our hymns for today. The words of that song touched me deeply: “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?”
God is calling. He has chosen you. He is coming to you as He came to Solomon and He is saying, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.”
What will you ask? Will you recognize the pearl of great price and sell all that you have so that you can obtain it? Your eternity depends on the answer you give.
Let Jesus into your life today. Let Him begin that relationship with you that He longs to have. Let His love in you grow as He fills you with Himself, and you will find that all lesser desires seem as nothing compared to this “pearl of great price.”
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Psalm 86; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43
“Let them grow together until harvest…”
When I read the Scriptures, I know that they contain layers of meaning and each time I read them, God can reveal something new to me. That is the amazing reality of the living Word of God.
I have often heard this passage about the weeds and the wheat refer to individuals who have both good and evil in them and how God permits that until the final judgment where we have to make an accounting for our sins. Reading the Scripture today, I am struck that that is not the original meaning of the passage. Jesus clearly says that the good seed are “the children of the kingdom” and “the weeds are the children of the evil one.” These are two distinct groups of people.
In an explanation of this passage, I read that the word used for the “weeds” is actually a word used to describe a grain called darnel, which is also known as “false wheat.” It looks exactly like wheat when it is growing; it is only when it produces its fruit that you can tell the difference, and its fruit is poisonous to humans.
Have you ever looked around your church and wondered if there are some there who are “false wheat”? They look like Christians, they act like Christians, but what is the fruit of their lives. Do they carry secret sin that they do not acknowledge, or worse, that they have rationalized away?
The danger in doing that is that you become judgmental and start seeing yourself as better than others. Maybe first look at yourself. Have you let sin into your life in one particular area? Have you dismissed it as not that big a deal, or have you rationalized it, saying that God will understand? The problem with sin is that it darkens our minds and we begin to rationalize more and more things until we have gone so far down the path to wickedness and didn’t even realize we were walking away from God.
Don’t look at others to be the “false wheat.” Look at yourself. Don’t wait for the harvest to remove the lies. Acknowledge your sin and let Jesus heal you of it now. St. Paul says in today’s passage from Romans that “the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness…” He intercedes for us. He wants to help us to repent.
In today’s psalm, it says, “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity. Turn toward me, and have pity on me.”
Do not presume on God’s mercy. If you sin—and we all do—do not hesitate to run to Him and ask for His mercy to heal you and set you free so that you can become the children of God that you are meant to be.
In the reading from Wisdom, it says, “You have the care of all, that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.” Because He cares for all of us, He will in justice condemn those who wantonly choose to walk away from His mercy, but in that same passage, He assures us, “You gave your children good ground for hope, that you would permit repentance for their sins.”
Do not live in denial of your sins. Do not choose to rationalize them and make light of them. Acknowledge your sins. Repent of them. In First John, it says, “If we acknowledge (in older versions, it uses the word ‘confess’) our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.”
Prepare for the harvest. In the book of Isaiah, it says, “Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before My eyes, cease doing evil…” Let the power of God and the mercy of God transform you from the bad seed into the good seed, so that you can rejoice to be called the Children of God.
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalm 65; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23
We are dirt.
There’s a little blurb at the beginning of my Mass readings today in the devotional I use, and it reminds me that in Genesis, Chapter 2, it says, “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground…”
So, when we look at the analogy in the Gospel of Jesus comparing us to dirt, it has an aura of much deeper reality than I ever realized before.
God made man out of clay. My backyard is mostly filled-in ground and much of it is clay. Clay is not good soil for planting anything. Each time I plant a bush or flower, I mostly have to remove the heavy thick clay soil and replace it with good garden soil. That is what God chose to make us out of. Not a promising start.
When I look at the parable of the different types of soil that receive the seed of the Word of God, I sometimes compare myself to the seed on the path. I don’t always understand the Word I hear, and it does not find root in my heart. Other times, I feel like the rocky soil; that I have no depth to my spirituality, and as a result, I lose any spiritual gains I may have had as soon as a trial comes my way. Sometimes, I feel like I’m the soil with the thorns growing in it. Fear and the pursuit of the easy way out all too easily take away my chances of bearing fruit from the Word I receive. I have never felt like the good soil, rich in nutrients and prepared to receive the seed and let it grow to produce fruit.
When I hear Jesus quote from the prophet Isaiah about the people in the crowd who “look but do not see and hear but do not listen and understand,” my initial reaction is to be upset with God for allowing this. Why doesn’t He change that? Then I read further and I see what Isaiah says, “Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see…and hear…and understand…and be converted, and I heal them.”
It is we who close our eyes and our ears to the truth of God. It is we who choose to be ignorant of the truth of God’s love for us, who are caught up in our own ideas and goals, and who are too stubborn to change. In another place in Scripture, it says, “Oh, that today you would hear his voice: do not harden your hearts…”
My heart is hardened. Whether it be from the trials and struggles I experience, or the disappointments in life, I have hardened myself so as not to experience the pain. In Romans, it tells us, “we also groan within ourselves as we wait for… the redemption of our bodies…” Pain is part of the process we must experience if we are to grow in God.
I pray now that God would prepare me to receive the Word of God, by “drenching [my] furrows, breaking up [my] clods, softening [me] with showers…” so that when His Word comes to me, it will not return to the Father “void, but shall do [God’s] will, achieving the end for which [He] sent it.”
I am in need of conversion. I desire more than anything that God would convert my heart and heal my soul. Oh, God, make me into the good soil that will “indeed bear fruit and yield” a harvest for You.
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 145; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30
“The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.”
When I think about the “works of God,” I think about all His actions in our world. But, when I think a little bit further, I realize that we—that “I”—am also a work of God.
“Let your works give you thanks, O Lord, and let your faithful ones bless you.” I believe here the psalmist is talking about us as his works. God is at work in us, transforming us from sinful, lost creatures into His very own children.
St. Paul says in the reading from Romans, “You are not in the flesh, on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.” The Spirit at work within us is what transforms us. He goes on to say, “…by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body…” This is the work of transformation.
These truths are revealed to us as we come to Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” This is the mystery He has revealed to us “little ones.” The very next thing Jesus says is, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”
As we come to Jesus, He reveals the truth about the Father and the Spirit to us, how they desire to work in our lives to transform our bodies as well as our hearts, to make us holy even as God is holy. Jesus says, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me…and you will find rest for yourselves.”
It is only in doing the will of God that we will find the peace that we long for. As we come to Jesus, and we surrender ourselves to Him, it is there we will find all that we hope for, all that we need. As we open ourselves to God, He will come to us and make His home within us. Then we can experience what we see in the first reading: “Shout for joy…your king shall come to you.”
Jesus is our answer. He is our hope. He is our way. He is the truth. He is our life. Open yourself to Him now and receive all that He has for you. Your life will never be the same.
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11. 14-16a; Psalm 89; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42
“For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”
I like the story of the influential woman of Shunem, whose name is unknown to us from this passage. She was kind, generous, and one would assume, intelligent and gregarious. Yet she had a personal struggle. She had no children, which was a stigma in those days, but she did not let her personal pain keep her from her gracious acts.
When Elisha asked his servant what he thought he could do for the woman to thank her for her generosity, I’m sure the servant remembered some conversations he had with some of the servants of the woman’s household, who shared the secret pain their mistress carried.
What must her reaction have been, when Elisha spoke the words to her, “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.” How ecstatic she must have been. She had not given anything to the prophet in order to get a return; she was simply being the generous person she had always been. Yet, God knew her heart and He blest her through Elisha the prophet.
I can imagine that Psalm 89 would have been on her lips, “The promises of the Lord I will sing forever, through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness,” and again, “At your name they rejoice all the day, and through your justice they are exalted.”
Isn’t it the same for us? We are called to follow Christ, and as we follow Him, He blesses us. “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.” The happiness that we seek, the longing in our hearts cannot be filled by anything but God Himself, and, as we live our lives in surrender to Him, He rewards us with new life: with joy, with hope, with peace.
Are you searching for life? Are you searching for happiness and fulfillment? Jesus tells us, “Whoever finds his life will lose it.” You can spend your whole life searching for happiness, but never find it, because you will inevitably look in all the wrong places. It’s human nature to do so. But Christ continues to say, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” It is only there, at the cross, that you will find what it is that you have been searching for.
“We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”
Stop seeking your own fulfillment. Seek out the cross. Embrace the cross. “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” It is the way, the only way. You cannot bypass the cross to get to the resurrection, but know that Christ is with you every step of the way. He will guide you by “the light of his countenance.” You need not fear, for in the end, you “will surely not lose [your] reward.”
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Jeremiah 20:10-13; Psalm 69; Romans 5:12-15; Matthew 10:26-33
“Terror on ever side! Denounce! Let us denounce him! All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.”
What a frightening way to start the readings today. Why is this happening to Jeremiah? He is being denounced because he has been obedient to God and spoken the word that God gave him to share with the people, but the people, apparently even his friends, do not want to hear what God has to say.
I look around our world right now and I see many people who are angry. Voices are raised and gestures that imply violence are flaunted. Where is peace? What is the world coming to?
I was deeply touched by the words of one of the hymns that was chosen for our liturgy today, called “Christ, Be Our Light”: “Longing for peace, our world is troubled. Longing for hope, many despair.” The psalm response says, “I pray to you, O Lord, for the time of your favor, O God!” And in this morning’s Morning Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, that sentiment is echoed, “Help us, O Lord, for we are troubled; give the command, O God, and bring us peace.”
Don’t we long for that peace! St. Paul tells us in Romans that “through one man, sin entered the world, and through sin, death…” Sin is at the heart of our unrest, our anger, even our fear, but what does Jesus tell us in the Gospel?
“Fear no one,” He says. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul…” He continues to tell us how much God values us: “Even all the hairs of your head are counted.” God knows us that intimately and loves us that much! Then Jesus goes on to say, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”
Our pastor gave a wonderful sermon on how we can acknowledge Jesus. He suggested three different methods. First, if Jesus is truly the center of your life, if He is your best friend, then you should want to talk about Him, to share your friendship for Him with others. Secondly, you will want to share what He teaches you through His word and what you have learned through His Church. Finally, you can acknowledge Him through living a holy life, showing people what it means to love and follow Jesus.
I like that he put that point last. My tendency is to want people to see any holiness in my life so that I don’t have to share God’s truth in words. After all, look what happened with Jeremiah when he shared God’s word of truth.
The words of the Gospel Acclamation, “The Spirit of Truth will testify to me, says the Lord; and you also will testify.” It is our call to testify to the truth of the word of God. If we are to truly acknowledge God in our lives, we must not only live it, but speak it, and take opportunities to teach it, even when our friends present us with their beliefs that may be well-meaning, but really miss the mark of the Gospels.
The words of the hymn “Christ, Be Our Light” continue: “Your word alone has power to save us. Make us your living voice.”
We can only truly begin to acknowledge God in our lives as we draw closer to Him. Study the Scriptures, pray always, seek out the sacraments on a regular basis, not just the Eucharist, but also the Sacrament of Reconciliation. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” It is only then that we will find the peace that we long for, even in the midst of the storms of life.
When we have that peace, we can share about Jesus fearlessly, knowing as Jeremiah did, that “the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.”
Prepare to testify to God in your life, and prepare to be persecuted for doing so, but know that God is with you, “for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!”
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Exodus 19:2-6a; Psalm 100; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:36-10:8
“While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”
God knows our hearts. He knows how wretched and sinful we are. Yet He chose to send His Son Jesus to us to reconcile us to Himself “through the death of His Son.” Do we deserve it? Did we earn it? No. That is the wonder of our salvation. God knew us in all our sinfulness and yet He still sent His Son to die for us so that we could be reconciled to Him!
The Scriptures today all clearly point to the love God has for His people. In the Gospel, it tells us that “Jesus’ heart was moved with pity” for the crowds, so He chose 12 men from His disciples and gave them special authority “to drive…out [unclean spirits] and to cure every disease.” He sends them forth with the message, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (In another Gospel, we hear these same words: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark 1:15) The Scripture there continues with Christ also saying, “Repent and believe in the gospel.”
God has chosen us to go and bear fruit, another Scripture tells us. Just as He chose the Jewish people in the first reading to be “my special possession,” He has also chosen us and made a covenant with us so that we should also become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”
How we should marvel at this calling! He has taken us from the darkness of our sinfulness not only into the light, but also into His commission to be light for others! We should be able, like the psalmist to, “sing joyfully to the Lord,” knowing that “he made us, his we are.”
Let us rejoice in that revelation. Let us rejoice to know that we belong to Him, but let us also remember that we must keep His covenant, we must repent and believe the Good News. Let us know that what we have received without cost, “without cost you are to give.”
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Readings: Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven…”
Today we celebrate one of the great feast days of the Church which was formerly known as Corpus Christi. As our priest said at Mass this weekend, it is one of the great mysteries of our Catholic faith how simple bread and wine become the actual body and blood of our Savior.
In the Vatican II documents, the Eucharist is called the Source and Summit of our faith. From our acceptance of the truth of the Eucharist stems all our beliefs, and at the same time, this is the height, the most sublime, truth of our faith: Jesus is truly present—body, blood, soul and divinity—in the bread and wine that we receive in the Eucharist.
I was most struck by the first reading, from the book of Deuteronomy. “For forty years now the Lord, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert…” This life we live now is our “desert.” We are seeking the Promised Land of heaven and our journeying to that land is our desert experience, where there are “serpents and scorpions” and “parched and waterless ground.”
We recognize the “serpents and scorpions” as temptations to sin, as the evil that confronts us every day where we must learn to choose the good based on God’s laws over the evil we see. The “parched and waterless ground” is sometimes the way our prayer life feels. We seek God, we seek holiness, but sometimes it appears we are walking in the dark and have no direction or guidance to take us where we want to go. Our prayer feels like it evaporates into the air rather than reaching the throne room of God.
The Scriptures tell us that God wants to “test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.” He brings the test, but He also brings the solution. “He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers…” His testing is to show us that only He can provide all that we need in order to make this journey through the desert of our life.
Jesus tells us in the Gospel that He has made provision for us to always have all that we need to survive this life. “Unlike your ancestors who ate (the manna) and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” What is the bread He is referring to? “I am the living bread…” He says earlier in this passage from John. He is our food. He is our strength. It is He who provides all that we need in this desert to reach our Promised Land of heaven.
As the priest said at Mass, the mystery of the Eucharist can never be fully understood in its entirety. Our knowledge can only deepen as we study it more, but it will never reach a finality. We understand that Christ becomes our food, to strengthen us on the journey, but this is only one part of our understanding of the significance of the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith. St. Paul alludes to something more in his first letter to the Corinthians when he says, “because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we partake of the one loaf.”
The mystery of the Eucharist is also in its ability to draw us into unity, into oneness. As we partake of the Eucharist, we become one body, the body of Christ, another great mystery of our faith.
Looking at one of the choices for the Preface for today’s Mass, it contains this phrase: “As we eat his flesh that was sacrificed for us, we are made strong, and, as we drink his Blood that was poured out for us, we are washed clean.” Here is another mystery of the Eucharist that our priest touched upon in his sermon: reception of the Eucharist can cleanse us of sin! I have long felt when I pray the prayer before communion, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed,” that the word Jesus is speaking to me is, “Come.” Come, receive and be made whole. Come and experience the fullness of My life within you. Come and be made new again.
As we received communion at this Mass, the organist played a song that really touched me. It’s called “Lord, I Need You” by Chris Tomlin. “Lord, I need You, oh, I need You. Every hour I need You. My one defense, my righteousness, oh God, how I need you.” One of the verses says, “Where sin runs deep, Your grace is more. Where grace is found is where You are.”
In the Eucharist, we find Christ. We find all that we need. We find food for the journey, we find grace to take away our sin, we find oneness and unity in Him and in our brothers and sisters, we find peace, we find joy.
Come to Jesus. Receive Him now. Know that He loves you beyond anything that you can imagine. He is waiting for you to say yes to Him. Come. Receive, and find life forever more!
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Readings: Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9; Daniel 3; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; John 3:16-18
“Whoever believes in him will not be condemned…”
One of the most famous Bible verses is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Today, I want to look at the verses that follow. “Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name…”
What does it mean to believe? A famous quote from Benedict XVI says that “being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a new direction.”
If you remember, the third chapter of John tells the story of the encounter of Nicodemus with Jesus, who tells him that he must be “born again.” Benedict captures the essence of what that means in his quote. To believe is more than just mental assent: I acknowledge that this is true. In the book of James, it says, “even the demons believe…and tremble.” Mental assent is not enough to save one. That’s why Benedict goes on to describe the “encounter” with the person who will completely change the trajectory of our lives.
How do we encounter this person, who is Jesus Himself? St. Paul gives us a small hint in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”
In the Baltimore Catechism, we were taught the seven corporal works of mercy and the seven spiritual works of mercy. I believe that prayerfully practicing these “works” can be a powerful way to encounter Christ, especially in your service to others. If the works are undertaken simply to do good works, this will not lead you down the path to holiness. In fact, it could easily lead to pride and Pharisaism, but, if practiced prayerfully, with the Lord ever before our eyes, these can be a great means to grow in our faith and deepen our relationship with Christ.
In the book of Matthew, Jesus is asked which is the greatest commandment. In His response, He ties together the love of God with the love of neighbor. These two are linked in such a way that they are inseparable. There are those who say they love God, but do not love and serve others, and conversely, there are those who say they love their neighbor, but have no place for God in their lives. While both of these approaches may have some good in them, neither will cause you to grow deeper in your faith, and may very well set you in a direction that leads you far from God.
We are “indeed a stiff-necked people,” as Moses tells God in the reading from the book of Exodus, and, at every opportunity, we will try to find shortcuts in our faith, because being a Christian is a full-time job. It requires vigilance and constant prayer and daily surrender, but as we do our part, God is faithful to meet us and give us the grace we need to do the work He has called us to do. He gives us the grace to become His children. He builds that relationship with us that draws us deeper into communion with Him through the power of the Spirit working in us.
In the Collect for today’s Mass, we pray, “God, our Father, who by sending into the world the Word of truth and the Spirit of sanctification made known to the human race your wondrous mystery…” God has given us all we need to encounter Him and then to live out His calling on our lives.
Reach out now to the Lord. Ask in prayer to have that encounter with Him that will change your life. Repent of your sins and turn away from your old life. Make a firm resolve to live anew for Christ. Practice the works of mercy while daily praying to build your relationship with Christ. Finally, as it says in the letter to the Philippians, He will give you “the peace…that surpasses all understanding” to “guard your hearts and minds.”
I found online a great resource that includes the entire Baltimore Catechism, Revised Edition from 1941: www.catholicity.com/baltimore-catechism/. The part about the works of mercy can be found in “Part Two: The Commandments,” Section 15. “The Two Great Commandments.”
Pentecost Sunday
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23
“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
When I hear the following words in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles: “Suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong, driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were,” for some reason I am reminded of the scene from the book of First Kings, Chapter 19, where Elijah is hiding in a cave and the Lord tells him to “Go out, and stand…before the Lord.” A strong wind comes through, and an earthquake, and then a fire. But the Lord is in none of these. It is only in the “still small voice” that Elijah recognizes the Lord and then comes forth.
God moves in mysterious ways. Perhaps these strong, violent things were the precursor of the Lord’s coming? In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the noise of the wind is followed by “tongues, as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.” This was the Spirit, who filled each of them so that “they began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”
What were they proclaiming? Later in the reading, the onlookers declare that they can “hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
This is also reminiscent of another time that God appeared amidst thunder and the shaking of the earth. In the vigil Mass for Pentecost we have the opportunity to read from Exodus Chapter 19 where Moses speaks to God on the holy mountain and then gives the Law to his people. The Jewish people celebrate this event even today as the Feast of Tabernacles, or Pentecost.
From the Gospel for the vigil Mass, Jesus speaks to the crowds “on the last and greatest day of the feast” of Tabernacles, and tells them, “‘Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.’ He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive.”
In the reading from First Corinthians, Paul declares, “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Then he goes on to talk about the gifts the Holy Spirit bestows, concluding by saying “to each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.”
Immediately after this, Paul goes on to talk about the Body of Christ as if it were one human body, and makes it very clear that once “we were all given to drink of one Spirit” we become one. Through the Spirit, we are now part of each other. We are not just brothers and sisters in the family of Christ; we are even much closer than that, and it is the Spirit that brings us together.
In the Gospel, Jesus breathed on the Apostles and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Now we have come full circle back to that still small voice of Jesus. I ask today that you allow Jesus to come to you and breathe on you so that you may receive the Holy Spirit in His fullness, that you can declare the mighty works of God, that you can proclaim that Jesus is Lord, that you can be fully a part of the Body of Christ, manifesting your gifts for the benefit of the entire Body.
Maybe you won’t hear a mighty wind. Maybe you won’t see flames as of fire appear over you, but I pray you will hear that still small voice, knowing that Jesus is whispering to you that the Spirit is your free gift from Him. Receive the Spirit now and let your life be changed forever.
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 1:12-14; Psalm 27; 1 Peter 4:13-16; John 17:1-11a
“Hear our supplications, O Lord, so that we…may experience…his abiding presence among us.” This excerpt from the Collect at today’s Mass really stood out to me, and I wondered, do we experience His abiding presence in our lives today? I looked up the word “abide” in the dictionary and it means “to remain with, to have one’s dwelling with…”
Does Christ dwell with us today? Is He ever-present to us, dwelling with us in our homes and our hearts? I know I forget that fact way too often.
In the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, after Jesus ascended to heaven, we see the Apostles returning to the Upper Room, where they “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer…” It strikes me how different their attitudes were compared to only weeks ago when they were in this same room where “the doors were locked…for fear of the Jews.” What was the difference, with what appears to me now to be a sense of peace and purpose as they prayed, waiting for the coming of the Comforter, the Advocate? Perhaps, even just a little, they believed Jesus when He said that He would be with them “always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
Did they perhaps pray Psalm 27: “Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call; have pity on me, and answer me.” “One thing I ask of the Lord; this I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…”
The peace that He had breathed on them on Easter Sunday still lingered in that room as they waited prayerfully for the coming of the Spirit. They knew the future would not be easy. St. Peter tells us, “Whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should…glorify God…” He further says, “Blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
They were ready to receive the Spirit, so that as Jesus had glorified God “on earth by accomplishing the works you gave me to do…” they also would be prepared to glorify God by doing the works Jesus had called them to do.
In our station in life, are we still behind the locked doors of fear in our hearts, or do we go now into the Upper Room of our hearts and pray for the fullness of the Spirit so that we would know the abiding presence of Jesus in us? It is only then we will be able to accomplish the works that God has called us to do. It is then we will glorify God in our lives.
God does not promise us that it will be an easy road, but He does promise us that He will be with us, abiding with us, to give us the strength we need to accomplish all that He has called us to do. “I will not leave you orphans…I will come back to you, and yours hearts will rejoice.”
Let us now rejoice in the abiding presence of God in our lives through the Holy Spirit, and then go do the works that He has called us to do.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8, 14-17; Psalm 66; 1 Peter 3:15-18; John 14:15-21
“They laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”
The giving of the Spirit seems to be a central theme of the readings today, to prepare us for the full coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.
In Acts, Peter and John lay hands on the Samaritans and they receive the Holy Spirit. In First Peter, he tells us that Jesus was put to death in the flesh but brought to life in the Spirit. Finally, in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples He will ask the Father and the Father “will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”
How do we receive the Spirit? In the reading from Peter, he begins by saying, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” Sanctify means to free from sin, to make holy. Christ obviously does not need us to do this for Him, but we need to do it for us in order that Christ can live in our hearts. Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He repeats this at the end of the reading as well. Between those two declarations, Jesus makes it clear that it is through obedience to His commandments that we will receive the Spirit.
Obedience to the commandments is more than just a duty we must perform. It is the very gateway to becoming children of the Father, so that we would no longer be orphans. It is the way to receive the Spirit who will lead us to all truth. It is the key to full relationship with God. It is our hope.
“If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” Then Jesus concludes by declaring, “Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him...”
We are loved! With the psalmist, we can “shout joyfully to God…sing praise to the glory of his name...” while we “declare what he has done for me.” As we “put to death” our flesh through obedience to the commandments, He will bring us “to life in the Spirit.”
Come, Holy Spirit!
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7; Psalm 33; 1 Peter 2:4-9; John 14:1-12
“Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God…”
What is that spiritual house where a holy priesthood offers sacrifices? It is the temple. We are being built into a house where worship takes place, where sacrifice is offered to God! We are being built into the very temple of God, with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.
Later, in the same reading, Peter says, “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you…”
We are both the temple and the priesthood within the temple where we are to offer sacrifice and announce the praises of God!
Jesus talks in the Gospel about the fact that “in my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” That house is again referring to His temple in heaven. In Jerusalem, the Temple had many rooms where people could gather to worship in small groups. Jesus continues, “I am going to prepare a place for you…and take you to myself.” He will take us to Himself in the heavenly temple.
In the book of Revelation it talks about the fact that the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (Jesus) are the temple in the city of God. When we will some day enter the presence of God in heaven, we will be entering into the heavenly temple and become part of the ongoing worship there.
In the Gospel, Thomas says, “we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus replies that He is the way, but He is also the destination! Our journey in this life is to prepare us to be the priesthood that offers worship in the heavenly temple, who is Jesus!
As Christians, we live in Him now. Are we living our call to be priests and offer praise and sacrifice to our Lord? What is the sacrifice? It is our very lives! What else do we have to give that would be pleasing to God, that would be acceptable in the throne room/temple of heaven? Our prayers rise like incense. Let the offerings of ourselves as living sacrifices be acceptable to God.
We walk in newness of life because of Easter. We have been “called out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Let us live the life He has called us to here on earth so that we will be prepared to one day stand before the throne and offer continual praise to the Father and the Lamb as His holy priesthood for eternity.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:20b-25; John 10:1-10
“The Lord is my shepherd …”
This Sunday is also called Good Shepherd Sunday and all of the readings center around that theme. Our Psalm response today is from Psalm 23, one of the most recognized and loved of the Scriptures in the Old Testament. A few things in that reading stood out to me that I had not really thought about before.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” “He gives me repose.” “He refreshes my soul.”
In the Gospel reading, Jesus talks about leading His sheep out of the sheepfold. Where does He lead us? To places of repose and refreshment. Do we recognize those in our daily lives? The times when we have a quiet place to rest in Him, to restore our souls? When we have a quiet moment when we can sit with the Scriptures on our porch swing, enjoying a warm evening breeze, or when we stop into an empty church and kneel before the tabernacle. These are the moments He gives us to refresh us, to restore us.
“He guides me in right paths.” “Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil for you are at my side.”
If we are attuned to the Spirit, He will guide us in right paths. In another place in Scripture, it says, “We had all gone astray like sheep.” We keep getting that metaphor comparing us to sheep. Sheep are stupid. They follow the crowd, no matter where it goes, even when the destination is not good.
When I used to watch the news at night, sometimes I saw how easy it was to compare us to sheep. We too readily follow the crowd and end up in some pretty stupid places. Even there, God promises to be with us. “You are at my side.” Even in that dark valley where I have journeyed in my stupidity or where circumstances beyond my control have taken me, You are there with me.
I read once that if a sheep kept wandering off, the shepherd would sometimes break its leg and then carry it. While this apparently is an “urban legend,” it still illustrates the point of how Christ sometimes works in our lives. Usually, it is our own sin that damages us and takes us to dark places. The lessons we learn in those dark valleys are hard, but Jesus is still there with us, even more intimately than we ever realized. He wants to take us through to the other side, but sometimes the only way we’re going to make it is if we desperately cling to Him.
“You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes.” Even when God provides abundantly for us, the wolf is sometimes right at our door. Will we focus on the invader who waits outside, or do we focus on our provider Who joins us at table?
“Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life.” With God at my side, I should not fear. His kindness leads me to repentance. His goodness overwhelms me with the knowledge that I am loved by Him. Jesus tells us, “I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Let us today walk with our shepherd into the abundance He has for us: mercy and grace and peace and joy, even in the midst of dark valleys, but also in those places of repose.
Good Shepherd, lead us.
Third Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts of the Apostles 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
“May your people exult forever, O God, in renewed youthfulness of spirit…”
Thus begins the Collect, the opening prayer for today’s Liturgy. Our “youthfulness of spirit” is renewed by our celebration of the mysteries of Easter! We are made new again!
I am continually amazed at the concept: that Christ renews us by this celebration of His passion, death, and resurrection. Day to day, I forget that I am renewed in Christ. I need to be reminded by the psalmist that I should “set the Lord ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.”
We live in some disturbing times right now. It is so easy to look at the world and begin to fear. Fear is not of God. Fear is the weapon of the enemy. With God on my side, “I shall not be disturbed.”
The psalmist goes on to say, “Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul…” In the conclusion of today’s reading from the psalm, the Psalmist declares, “You will show me the path of life, abounding joy in your presence…”
I wonder if I had been one of those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, would I, too, have been overwhelmed at the thoughts of all that was happening in their world, and would I have begun to lose hope in what I thought was the answer? Jesus, when he appears to them, tells them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe…”
Even as He spoke and continued to reveal God’s plan to them, I can imagine that what began to well up inside them was hope. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Can we turn to Him now and ask Him to accompany us on the way and open the Scriptures to us so that we would once again walk in the hope He gives? St Peter tells us, “if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially…conduct yourselves with reverence during this time of your sojourning, realizing that your were ransomed from your futile conduct… [with] the precious blood of Christ.” The apostle goes on to say that Christ was revealed to us “so that your faith and hope are in God.”
Let us continue to call on God our Father to reveal the truth of His Son to us, so that as we walk on our Emmaus rode of life, our eyes would be opened to the truth of Who Christ is for us and how He desires to give us hope even in the darkest of times. He is our hope. We shall not be disturbed.