Thursday, February 28, 2013

Beyond Remedy?



Beyond Remedy?

February 28, 2013
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?  I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.  Jeremiah 17:9-10
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.  Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’  Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.  Luke 16:24-25

Piety

Father, give to us the grace to fully rely on you.  Make us like the tree planted beside the waters so that we might stretch out our roots to the stream of living water that is your Son.  Holy Spirit, shower upon us your gifts so that we may stay refreshed no matter what the weather, no matter what stress or distress we endure for you for one purpose -- to bear and share your fruit to the world.  

Study

Are we beyond remedy?
Today's readings present us with two extremes.  Jeremiah stakes out two positions:  those who trust in the Lord and those who trust in human beings.  Luke personalizes these two examples in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. 
Chances are, if you are human, you like I gravitate to one camp or the other.  More often than not, we are someplace in between.  The "in between" space could be a problem because Luke describes it as a "great chasm." 
If I am in the great chasm, when am I beyond remedy?  From the parable, I infer that I am only beyond remedy when I (like the rich man) am beyond mortal life.  Until then, you and I hold in our hearts and in our control the infinite possibility to love and to change. 

Action

The Lord alone can probe our minds and our hearts.   
What messages is the Lord sending for us to change this Lenten season?   
 As our Church undergoes its historic change today and over the coming weeks, we too are asked to change.  What will you "resign" from?  To what new path will you commit to following? 

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Tuning Out the Gospel According to the World



Tuning Out the Gospel According to the World

February 27, 2013
Wednesday of the Second Week in Lent
By Colleen O'Sullivan
Heed me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say.  Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life?  Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.  (Jeremiah 18:19-20)
“... (W)hoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.  Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”   (Matthew 20:26b-28)

Piety

Lord, help me to empty myself of all desire for praise, acclamation, wealth, or power.  May my heart be filled with compassion for the needs of my brothers and sisters.  Grant me the grace to follow in your footsteps as a servant to others.

Study

Jeremiah is one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament.  He’s so human.  He’s beset by so many of the same frailties that afflict you and me.  God sends this prophet to the people of Judah in an attempt to bring them back to their God.  Jeremiah proclaims the message God gives him.  But now, in today’s Scripture reading, he begins to sound like you or me.  Okay, Lord, I’ve been faithful.  I’ve spoken your words to the people.  But this whole thing just doesn’t seem fair.  I did what you asked, and my reward is a death threat!  The people are digging a pit; they want to throw me into it and murder me.  Such a man of this world, believing that good deeds are rewarded with earthly admiration or well-being (or, as we sometimes believe, prosperity or acquisition of power).
And then along comes Jesus, challenging our deepest notions about ourselves and our world.  He reminds us as we journey through Lent with him that we are on the way to Jerusalem, to suffering and death, before we get to the Resurrection.  His faithfulness in proclaiming the Kingdom, his love for all of us as manifested by the many times he touches people’s lives with healing and forgiveness are not rewarded with any kind of well-being, but with an ignominious death on the Cross.  As he responds to the mother of the sons of Zebedee’s request that her sons be awarded seats of honor in heaven, he lets us know that in his Father’s Kingdom, all our world-inspired assumptions about greatness, fairness, and rewards get turned upside down.  If we truly want to be great in God’s eyes, we have to die to ourselves and become servants to others.  No prosperity gospel here; just plain talk about being last and least in order to be first in the Kingdom.

Action

From the moment that we begin to toddle around, the world teaches us that actions have consequences.  As a two-year-old, if you do what Mommy says, you are rewarded with her smile.  Later, if you pay attention in school and study hard, you’ll get an A.  If you wear the right clothes and hang out with the right people, you’ll be popular. If you go to college, you’ll get a good job.  If you work hard, you’ll get a promotion and a bigger salary.  Then you can buy a bigger house and a sportier car.   If you become the CEO, you’ll have power over others. This is the gospel according to the world. (It doesn’t, however, prepare us for bad things happening to good people, for discrimination, for learning disabilities, for ill health, for job lay-offs, or for underwater mortgages, etc.)
How often do you find yourself sharing Jeremiah’s feelings?  How difficult is it for you to tune out the world’s gospel and hear Jesus’ words instead?  What are you doing this Lent to serve others?

Turn to God in Love

February 20, 2013

Ash Wednesday
 
Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth… When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them, he did not carry it out.  (Jonah 3:4-5, 10)
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”  (Luke 11:32)

Piety

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.  (Psalm 51:19)

Study

Eons ago, before time as we know it began, there was God.  One day, for reasons incomprehensible to the human mind, God decided to create the universe and all that is in it.  With a surge of joy, he placed the stars, the sun, the moon, and the planets in the skies.  With great pleasure he covered the earth with lands and seas, flowers, plants and trees as well as fish, birds, and every other type of animal. 
Then, in a further outpouring of his love, he created the first human beings.  With that same love, God created you and me, knit us in our mothers’ wombs, thought about all the plans he had in mind for us.   Like a new mother, he gazed upon us with eyes of wonder and delight.  All he asks of us in return is that we love him back and love everything he has created, including all his other children.
Lent is the time of year when we reflect on God’s great love for us, a love that issues forth in his sending his Son into our world to die for us, to redeem us from our sins, to be our Savior.  From the very beginning, we human beings have found it impossible to love God with the same single-minded devotion with which God loves us.  Sometimes it’s because we love ourselves more.  Or we like being our own little gods.  In other cases, we’ve fallen in love with the ways of the world and discover that we treasure wealth or power over everything and everyone else.
If the Ninevites, who were Assyrians and didn’t even know the God of Israel, could turn from their sinful ways to the Lord at the word of Jonah, how much more we should be able to turn from sin back to the God we profess to love.   We know Jesus and, through Jesus, we know the Father.  The Holy Spirit dwells within us.  Through the Holy Trinity we are loved into being, accompanied on our journeys, rejoiced with in our delights, comforted in our sorrows, and empowered to love others.  All God asks for is our love in return.

Action

What in your life do you love more than God?  Are you willing to give it up, to turn away from sin, to repent and turn to the Lord?
If you would like to confess what it is that comes between you and your love for God, for the fourth year in a row, the Arlington Diocese is sponsoring, “The Light is On for You,” an opportunity where every Wednesday from February 20 – March 27, from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., a priest will be available in every parish to hear confessions.   See your parish bulletin for additional opportunities for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Humble Yourself, Exalt God




February 26, 2013
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent

By Beth DeCristofaro

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. … Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
   (Matthew 23:1-3, 12)

Piety

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
“Touched by an Angel” by  Maya Angelou

Study

Maya Angelou’s love, downright earthy and personal, is sure a Cursillo kind of love.  We gather, groups of strangers, dare to be brave proclaiming Jesus and thus unleash a kind of freedom that percolates love.  We give each other courage to be bold for Christ.  Richard Rohr in  “Falling Upward:  A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life”  says that “Jesus did not seem to teach that one size fits all…Every time God forgives us, God is saying that God’s own rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to create with us.”  (p. 56). But as Maya points out:  “love costs all we are and will ever be.”   This is all God wants:  all we are.  This takes guts not glory.  Glory, however, is what the Pharisees chose and what our culture rewards. 

Action

How are we bold for God’s love?  Are there categories of people – perhaps even Pharisees with their misguided priorities – that we have particular difficulty loving?  Ask for Jesus’ forgiveness.  Extend forgiveness.  Try humbly loving someone unlovable.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Give and Gifts Will Be Given To You



Give and Gifts Will Be Given To You

February 25, 2013
Monday of the Second Week of Lent
Lord, great and awesome God, you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you and observe your commandments!  We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws.  We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land.  Justice, O Lord, is on your side; we are shamefaced even to this day.  Deuteronomy 9:4b-7b
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  “Stop judging and you will not be judged.  Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.  For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  Luke 6:36-38

Piety

Lord, do not deal with us according to our sins. (Psalm 79)

Study

Mercy.  Perfection.  Either way the bar is set high.  We pray constantly that we might have the grace that will allow us to imitate the life of Christ. 
Yet, our God is an awesome God.  He does not deal with us according to our sins of commission or omission.  God looks not on the obstacles.  God looks not on when we often stumble.  Our God only looks at the God side and waits.  God waits, like the longing Father in the parable of the prodigal offspring.  God waits at the window until we change the direction in which we seek happiness.  God waits, ready for us when we seek happiness in divine union with the Lord.
Just as prayer on the mountaintop changed Jesus, when we turn toward Him, our prayer, our study and our action will change us. Only the Lord knows the rest of our stories.

Action

Did you catch this story in Parade magazine Sunday? 
The article, "Finding a Better Way to Give," presents advice from the new book With Charity for All by former NPR head Ken Stern who offers this tip (among others) to make your donations count: 
The way most charities are rated (based on factors like "administrative ratios" and salaries) has little to do with how effective they are. Before you donate to an organization, check it out on givewell.org or charitynavigator.com. Also look at the group's website—any legitimate charity will post its audited financial statements and offer specific evidence of results.
Note: The book will be released February 26.