Least Among All of You

Least Among All of You

1 October 2012

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

"Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I go back again.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!"  In all this Job did not sin, nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.  Job 1:21-22

An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest.  Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed it by his side and said to them, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.  For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest."  Luke 9:46-48

Piety

Divine Scripture calls to us saying: "Whoever exalts themselves shall be humbled, and whoever humbles themselves shall be exalted (Lk. 14:11; 18:14)." In saying this, therefore, it shows us that every exaltation is a kind of pride, which the prophet indicates has been shunned, saying: "O God, my heart is not exalted; my eyes are not lifted up and I have not walked in the ways of the great nor gone after marvels beyond me (Ps. 13:1)." And why? "If I had not a humble spirit, but were exalted instead, then you would treat me like a weaned child on its mother's lap (Ps. 131:2)."

Accordingly, if we want to reach the highest summit of humility, if we desire to attain speedily that exaltation in heaven to which we climb by the humility of this present life, then by our ascending actions we must set up that ladder on which Jacob in a dream saw "angels descending and ascending (Gn. 28:12)." Without doubt, this descent and ascent can signify only that we descend by exaltation and ascend by humility. Now the ladder erected is our life on earth, and if we humble our hearts God will raise the ladder to heaven. We may call our body and soul the sides of this ladder, into which our divine vocation has fitted the various steps of humility and discipline as we ascend.   

(Rule of St. Benedict: Insight for the Ages, translated by Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, Chapter 7)

Study

We have many ways to measure a person.  Of course, height and weight figure prominently.  From the youngest days, the doctors place our height and weight on charts to see how we stack up to the law of averages and percentiles.  As we age, the insurance companies and actuaries use such tables to assess the risk that they might have to pay out our personal lottery (insurance policy) earlier than expected.

We also measure our out our academic achievement by test scores.  We measure out economic status by salary and bank account balance and where we live.

Jesus does not use those with military power, economic power or physical prowess to show the disciples the path to perfection.  Instead, he uses children.  Children are among the least powerful, weakest, and most dependent of any class of people on earth.  Just as the very Lord himself gave up his heavenly/spiritual identity to become a baby in his mother's womb,  so too must we take up the lowly, power-less-ness of a child if we want to find the path to peace.

Action

The other night, while we were waiting to meet friends at a nearby restaurant, I was noticing the kinds of cars which kept coming into the parking area.  SUV was the number one body style.  Mercedes-Benz the number one car maker.  Yet, within just a few miles of this area, we could have come across dozens of people and families who were homeless.  They would be pleased to share in a fraction of the wealth that was parked in that lot.

What is your lot?  How does the world measure you?  GS-13. step seven?  22101?  How many Apple products does your household possess?  How many car keys slip around your key ring?  How many people report to your supervision at work?  How many diplomas are hanging on your walls?

Throw that all away.  Job learned that none of it mattered.  Yet, even when he lost it all, he never abandoned his faith in the Lord. 

As you go through the day, try to measure people by the faith you see them exhibit in their piety, study, action, humility and obedience.  Ignore the wealth and power and status that you sense they possess.

For Us

For Us

September 30, 2012

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2012 B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.  Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses, the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.  Numbers 11:25

For whoever is not against us is for us.  Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.  Mark 9:40-41

Piety

What we do in the name of the Lord is our piety.  To know a name is to have power over another.  When a person calls my name, I turn to listen.  Jesus was given the name above all other names.  At the mention of his name all the knees of the people bow their heads and give reverence.  We try to hold holy the name of the Lord.  The Hebrew people were careful not to say the name of the Lord.  They kept God at a distance.  To get too close to the Lord brought the threat of death.  How can I touch the Lord and live?  That was the way of so many people with God.  Sin keeps God at a distance.  Obedience to the commands of God keeps us close to God’s way of thinking and allows us to walk with holiness.  Our closeness to the Lord is seen in the goodness of our lives.  Our blocks to closeness with the Lord are our sinfulness.

Study

The good people of our lives are quick studies of how the Lord acts.  The saints are people that have absorbed God in all they see and act on in life.  They are the men and women that spell out by their example how to be a good person.  Study of the saints allows us to know how to walk in the footsteps of Christ.  The good people of all the Christian Churches are acting in the name of the Lord.  How we see people in other Churches who do not have the fullness of the advantage of Christ can make a difference in how we behave.  We can do good and even better things if we let them challenges us to improve our lives by getting closer to the something of Christ they represent.  We study how to live up to our heritage.  We live the presence of Christ by becoming his presence though our Sacramental life.  The Study of the Christ that the Scriptures portray for us allows us to draw closer to him.  Hopefully we do not mistake who Christ would be in our lives.

Action

We all need to try to make Christ the center of our lives.  Making the extra effort each moment to do what we do in the name of the Lord is always a good start on the rest of our lives.  We have a little bit of heaven in us when we try to make our lives into a deeper presence of Christ.  There is no end to the journey.  Our goal of life is the journey to a closer walk with Christ.  Our measure of our journey is in how well we can tell another when you see me, you see Christ.  Our action of life is to be Christ-like.

Know Me

Know Me

September 29, 2012

Feast of Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael, archangels

As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him,
He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him.  Daniel 7:13-14

Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."  Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."  John 1:48-49

Piety

O loving messenger of the Incarnation, descend upon all those for whom I wish peace and happiness. Spread your wings over the cradles of the new-born babes, O thou who didst announce the coming of the Infant Jesus.

Give to the young a lily petal from the virginal scepter in your hand. Cause the Ave Maria to re-echo in all hearts that they may find grace and joy through Mary.

Finally, recall the sublime words spoken on the day of the Annunciation-- "Nothing is impossible with God," and repeat them in hours of trial--to all I love--that their confidence in Our Lord may be reanimated, when all human help fails. Amen.  (Prayer to St. Gabriel the Archangel)

Study

Identity.  All week, people who have encountered Jesus have been trying to figure out His identity.  Jesus revealed his identity and destiny to the disciples last Sunday but they did not understand.  Rather, they argued among themselves about who should get a chance to sit next to the Lord in Heaven.

Jesus clues us in that with His friendship, our visible actions are required in order to spread the witness of his life and love in the world. Understanding that identity and acting on it is what unites us as sisters and brothers with Jesus.

However, when we build that relationship on the wrong foundation, like Herod, it will crumble.  Herod wanted to see Jesus and figure out the Lord's identity.  However, he wanted to do it to shore up his own power base (and eliminate a potential rival). 

Nathaniel shows us true understanding and the right relationship with the Lord.  Because his relationship is based upon faith, Nathaniel will reap the rewards of putting vision into reality.  Not just fantastic visions from Daniel and Revelation, but the day-to-day vision of building the Kingdom here on earth.

Action

How do you know the Lord?  How does the Lord know you?  As you ponder that question remember that if you hear the word of the Lord and act upon it, people will see that relationship and it will affect their faith as well because you will be adding, brick-by-loving-brick, to the building of the Kingdom on earth.

My Rock

My Rock

September 28, 2012

Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Blessed be the Lord, my rock! (Psalms 144:1)

Once when Jesus was praying in solitude, and the disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" They said in reply, "John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, 'One of the ancient prophets has arisen.'" Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "The Christ of God." He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. (Luke 9:18-22)

Piety

Lord, I’ll never understand your timing, and I suppose I don’t have to. Help me to be patient and confident in You, my Rock.

Study

So why didn’t Jesus want Peter to shout from the rooftops that he was the Messiah, come to deliver the people?

Because it wasn’t time.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus goes on to tell the disciples what’s coming: I’ll suffer. I’ll be rejected. I’ll be killed. And then, I’ll be raised.

You can almost see the puzzled looks on their faces, can’t you? And Jesus knew that if they, the people who were with him day in, day out, didn’t get it, the crowds surely wouldn’t.

It just wasn’t time.

As we are so beautifully told in Ecclesiastes, there is a season for everything. We’re not the One who decides when the season starts or ends. We’re not the One who decides if it’s a bountiful season, or one where the crop gets burned or hailed out. We’re not the deciders, anymore than the disciples were.

And so we wait. And we trust. And we pray. We turn over control and worry and fear. We know He’s coming back. We don’t know when. All we can do is to do as He asked: Love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s always time to obey the two greatest commandments.

Action

Just for today, pray without a timeline for your intentions. Let God do that part.

Who Then is This?

Who Then is This?

September 27, 2012

Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, priest

All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full.  To the place where they go,
the rivers keep on going.  All speech is labored; there is nothing one can say.   The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.  Ecclesiastes 2:7-8

Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying "John has been raised from the dead"…But Herod said, "John I beheaded.  Who then is this about whom I hear such things?"  And he kept trying to see him.  Luke 9:7,9

Piety

Father, take from our lives all the vain and meaningless pursuits.  Give to us Jesus, the motivation to set right our relationship with you.  Breathe into us, Holy Spirit, the inspiration we need to fear God and follow the commandments.  Amen.

Study

Herod hears about Jesus and seeks out the Lord.  Yet he does so for all the wrong reasons.  John the Baptist had afflicted the comfortable Herod and lost his head.  Herod is not satisfied with what he sees and hears in the aftermath.  He thought he had taken control of his "religious" problem child in John only to find someone greater has taken John's place.  And this new preacher was not content to stay out in the desert wilderness. Jesus comes into the towns and cities and temples to teach his lessons. 

The lives of all people -- the wise and the foolish, the powerful and the lowly -- all end in death.  Ah! But what kind of death will it be?  Herod may hold in his hands the power to end the life of John and Jesus, but in doing so, he unleashes the forces that grant eternal life.  What kind of life will the vain and controlling Herod have after death? 

Action

If everything under the sun is vanity, then what are we do to?  The best course of action is to set our sights on goals that are above the Sun/Son.  Focus not on the things that control this life but rather on the things that control eternal life.

Let us not ask how to maximize our retirement account or get a mortgage on a bigger house.  Instead seek out the answer to the question, "Who is Jesus to me?"   Are we satisfied with what we hear and what we see about the Lord?  Are we ready for the answer that comes from the Son?

Do we seek to know God, to love God and to serve God?  If so, why?  Out of a sense of personal ambition and control or to genuinely walk with God in mutual humility and obedience?

Let us seek to put our relationship with the Lord on the solid ground of respect, honor and worship.