In Weakness

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling, and my message and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.  1 Corinthians 2:3-5

When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.  They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.  But he passed through the midst of them and went away.  Luke 4:28-30

Piety

Following his temptation in the desert, Jesus begins his ministry in the temple of his adopted hometown.  Only the initial amazement soon turns to rejection.  The people who have walked in darkness expect a King with riches to lead them.  Instead, they get the embodiment of Micah 8:  “You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Study

Still in the early pages of the Good News as passed down by St. Luke, what got the people in Nazareth so riled up?  It appears that the ministry of Jesus the Christ could end almost before it began.   Luke uses this incident to foreshadow the entire ministry of Jesus.  However, the initial admiration of the people turns to rejection over a few critical words which Jesus intentionally left out of the passage from Isaiah. 

Here is the passage from today at Luke 4:18-19:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Here is the source passage from Isaiah 61:1-2.  Note in BOLD the missing phrase:  The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God.”

After years of slavery, occupation, and oppression, the people – who knew the words of the prophets in their hearts and minds – were anticipating a conquering savior-king who would bring vengeance and vindication.  Not only did Jesus not intend to deliver upon that human demand, his ministry, while fulfilling the terms of the prophets, started out in the least possible way that could never be considered filled with power or traditional kingship. 

Jesus came to them “in weakness.”  He was born to a poor girl and carpenter-father and initially raised as a refugee in a foreign land.  How would he expel the belligerent Romans from the Holy Land?  How would this Jesus, this carpenter’s son “rebuild the ancient ruins” or “restore the desolate cities” that had been in tattered for generations of generations.

If Israel was punished double for infidelity, then the blessings of its restoration that the people expected would also be double.  Yet that is not what Jesus promised in Nazareth that fateful day. He did not deliver on human wisdom and power but rather on the wisdom and power of God. 

Action

What is your Fairfax Manifesto?  Or Arlington Manifesto?  This passage in the temple today helped to identify the ministry of Jesus with a concern and attitude toward the economically and socially poor.  According to the notes in the New American Bible, “At times, the poor in Luke’s gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the forgotten and the neglected, and it is they who accept Jesus’ message of salvation.”

How do you identify with the poor of Luke’s gospel and the poor of today? 

Like a Fire Burning

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time A

By Fr. Joe McCloskey, SJ

I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more.  But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.  Jeremiah 20:9

Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.  Romans 12:2

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  Matthew 16:24-25

Piety

Our piety is one of the ways we say who Christ is in our lives. We say Christ is our life by the goodness of our lives. There are pious moments when we show our love by our reverence, attention and devotion. These moments flow over to the ways we do the secular things in our lives. The totality of the focus of our hearts is the best of our piety because thus we are treating the people of our lives as reflections of the God who merits all our attention. Our love of God challenges us to find Christ in the last, the lowest and the least persons of our lives. God created everything good. The right use of creatures proclaims Christ in whom we are. We by our use of creatures with care and attention to what is right make Christ visible by who we are. Our destiny is Christ and all the ways our piety keeps Christ close to us are the works of salvation and the good news that Christ has come to share with us.  Piety in each other is the good news of salvation calling forth the best of us.

Study

By our study we realize that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Each moment of our lives is filled with God’s love for us manifest in creation and in the reality of the ongoing of our lives. We would not live if God did not keep us in existence. The victory of Christ centers the throne of Christ. The cross is his victory. On the wood of the cross we were given our salvation. In the embrace of Christ from his cross all that would separate us from the victory of Christ loses its meaning. Nothing is worth more than his embrace of our sinfulness as he gives us his life for forgiveness and rebirths us in the love of his Father. God is not only in our world; he is also the meaning of our lives and gives meaning to all that we do when we live in his name and spread the good news of salvation. For many the road of God’s wisdom seems impassable. To us who are called, the cross is the exquisite wisdom of God revealing his love for us. It is the road to the resurrection.

Action

The best action of our lives will be the climbing of the cross of Christ to look at our world through his eyes. The value of what we suffer is immeasurable in the likeness to Christ it brings. Our suffering can be the key to unlock the mystery of God’s love when we offer our suffering in the name of Christ. We need to become the presence of Christ for those we serve. We need to meet the needs of others with the love of Christ who gives his all for each of us. We need to be like to Christ who offers his sufferings for us. The Cross is the wisdom of Christ. We must do our best to make our world more just and special by living the love of Christ for each other no matter what it costs us. Our sufferings offered in the name of Christ can make the world amazed at how the Christians love one another. Let us bring our world back to Christ. Then nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ. We will be his love.

Consider Your Own Calling

Saturday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.  Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.  1 Corinthians 1:26-29

For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  Matthew 24:29

Piety

The Lord is great because His character embodies humility and grace.  Rather than rule from a position of power and might, he started as the weakest of all creatures: a baby borne into a poor family.  Mary reminds us, in her prayer that “His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.”  The two servants who understood and accepted the talents with respect did something for the master with those gifts.    

“He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.  He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly.  The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty.”  Luke 1:50-53

Study

More will be given.  Because the parable is told using “talents” in this instance and retold using “debts” in another, we have to be careful NOT to continue to interpret what it means in economic terms.  The talent was a unit of coinage in ancient Palestine.  The notes to Matthew point out that a talent had a high but varying value depending on its metal (gold, silver, copper) and its place of origin. It is mentioned in the New Testament only two times. 

Leave it to Matthew the former tax collector to confuse us with financial terms.  Sometimes, we can go down the wrong path of understanding if we try to interpret this to mean anything like riches or possessions.  Maybe the penultimate line in today’s Good News is purposely vague on the object of the expression.  “For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich.”

What is really meant here is wisdom or understanding.  The first two servants understood that the master gave them something so they could put it to good use.  The notes in the New American Bible point out that “God gives further understanding to one who accepts the revealed mystery; from the one who does not, he will take it [understanding or wisdom] away.” 

Action

Consider your own calling.  If any of us consider ourselves rich, strong or wise, God will send the poor, weak and foolish to teach us a lesson.   We start off in life like the bread on the altar: broken.  We end up like the bread on the altar: blessed and transformed into something new.

Some years back, a popular little book in stores was an interpretation of the Prayer of Jabez from the Hebrew Bible.  Jabez prayed to the God of Israel: “Oh, that you may truly bless me and extend my boundaries! May your hand be with me and make me free of misfortune, without pain!” And God granted his prayer. (1 Chronicles 4:10)

Care is needed when figuring out the modern meaning of such prayers so that we do not expect material wealth but rather blessings to bring us closer to the Lord.  We should approach these prayers with the care that Mary approached the angel rather than how Matthew might have approached a debtor when he was the tax collector.

Remember, Peter walked away from his boats to follow Jesus.  What are we to walk away from in order to walk with the Lord?

The Message of the Cross

Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist

By Melanie Rigney

Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:17-18)

The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. (Psalms 33:5)

(Herodias’ daughter made her request:) “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in prison. (Mark 6:25-27)

Piety

Lord, may I continually strive to fulfill the promises I made to you or others made for me at my baptism and my confirmation. I owe allegiance to none but you.

Study

Do you remember who baptized you? If you were baptized as an adult, most likely. But if you were an infant, probably not, unless your parents were friends with the priest or he went on to serve for many more years in your community.

And really, isn’t that the way it should be? It’s not about the person who provided the sacrament, but rather the Lord to whom it bound us. In today’s first reading, Paul reminds the early Christians that their allegiance is to Christ, not the one who baptized them.

Most of us are like Paul. We weren’t sent to be among the ordained and those who baptize under ordinary circumstances. But we all, each and every one of us, has the privilege and obligation to preach about the Good News, to carry the message of the cross, in our every word and thought an interaction. Human eloquence isn’t critical. Devotion and sincerity are.

Action

To whom or what are you offering greater allegiance than to God? Money? A loved one? A fear? Review the baptismal vows, and start anew.

Enriched in Every Way

Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 1:4-7

“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household to distribute to them their food at the proper time?  Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so.  Amen, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.”  Matthew 24:45-47

Piety

“Too late have I loved you, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within, and I abroad, and there I searched for you; I was deformed, plunging amid those fair forms, which you had made. You were with me, but I was not with you. Things held me far from you—things which, if they were not in you, were not at all. You called, and shouted, and burst my deafness. You flashed and shone, and scattered my blindness. You breathed odors and I drew in breath—and I pant for you. I tasted, and I hunger and thirst. You touched me, and I burned for your peace” (St. Augustine, Confessions).

Study

St. Augustine's writings remains (for me) dense and hard to understand – not because there is any lack of articles and books about him.  Rather, because his writing is hard to read through for me. Normally, I do not shy away from the intellectual-spiritual doctors of the church and other giants.  St. John of the Cross.  St. Benedict.  St. Ignatius.  Thomas Merton. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  Dorothy Day.  Henri Nouwen.  But, my confession is that the Confessions of St. Augustine remain difficult to comprehend.  Daunting may be the right word.  Crazy as it sounds, I would rather pick up Kierkegaard than Augustine. 

His mother, St. Monica, whose feast day was yesterday, prayed for the conversion of her son who was distracted in the many perversions of his day.  In his youth and early adult years, Augustine was not always the “faithful and prudent” servant praised in today’s Good News.  It was not until he turned 36 years old before he was ordained.  But then he became a bishop by age 41!  The famous story is that as his mother prayed and cried for his conversion, he joined her in that prayer, but just not yet.

Whether or not you tackle City of God, the Confessions or the Homilies is your choice in study.  Eventually, we all will probably get that book off our shelves or from the library and use it in our study.  But for me, just not yet.

Action

Much more accessible and understandable today are the daily comments and tweets of our @Pontifex.  Did you catch the list of things Pope Francis said made for a happy life?  Just when I thought my (and the world’s) amazement with Pope Francis had run its course, he did it again. In a long interview with an old friend who was writing for an Argentine magazine, the pope put forward a 10-point plan for happiness.  You can read his list here. 

How long until we see the book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Pope Francis?”  

In addition to this ten-point plan (almost sounds like something Woodrow Wilson would propose at Versailles), have you also noted all the articles on happiness?  In a frenetic, chaotic world with more and more separation between people, we often just want to wake up feeling good in the morning and we want to know how. There are essays and books filled with tips on achieving true happiness and bliss but one tip remains fairly consistent: expressing gratitude makes people feel good.

Maybe that is why the five days of gratitude (#gratitude challenge) is making its way around social media circles these days.  Maybe not as viral as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the practice of appreciation is pretty awesome in that it can be done anywhere, at any time. You can write a list of specific things within a day that you’re grateful for (hello, education, people, fresh olives, Reese’s peanut butter cup ice cream or snow crab legs – just not all at the same time) or reach out and express your gratitude to others.  

For what and whom in this divine milieu are you grateful?  What makes you enriched in every way?

Open Your Hearts

Memorial of Saint Monica

By Colleen O’Sullivan

Jesus said:  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.  You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.  Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evil doing. (Matthew 23:27-28)

Piety

Blessed are you who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways!  (Psalm 128:1)

Study   

When someone calls out, “Woe to you,” we know the rest isn’t likely to be good!  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus has entered Jerusalem for the final time.  The crowds have cheered, sung hosannas and waved their palm branches.  Jesus has swept the money changers out of the temple, told some more parables, slipped out of the Pharisees’ trap on paying taxes to Caesar, and sparred with the Sadducees about whether or not there would be a resurrection from the dead.  Things have heated up and the Pharisees try a couple more times to entrap him. 

I guess Jesus has had it with the Pharisees and their friends.  Maybe he figures the end is near anyway, so he has nothing to lose by telling it like it is.  He begins in a series of seven woes addressed to them.  In today’s reading the Lord says they are like whitewashed tombstones whose pristine exteriors unsuccessfully seek to cover what lies beneath – death and decay.  As my grandmother always used to say, “Beauty is only skin deep; it’s what’s on the inside that counts.”  What lies inside the Pharisees’ hearts - self-righteousness, pride and contempt for others – isn’t pretty.

I wouldn’t spend too much time on the Pharisees, though, because we’ve got our own disparities to deal with.  The images we project to the world are frequently at odds with what lies beneath the surface of our lives.  Who hasn’t put on a pleasant face when inside we were boiling with anger?  Who hasn’t put on a stiff upper lip when inside we wanted to collapse in tears?  Or put something in the collection basket, when inside we were resenting giving every penny of it?  Summoned up what passed for a kind expression when inside we were feeling pity and contempt for another?   

Jesus came to make us whole.  He came to redeem whatever it is inside each of us that we seek to hide.  The Lord tried to do this for the Pharisees, but they refused to open their hearts to him.  Today, he invites every one of us into an intimate prayer relationship with him, a quiet place where we are wrapped in his love, a place where we, in turn, allow ourselves to fall in love with him, a place where our hearts are slowly transformed over our lifetimes as we steep in that Divine Love.

Action

What face do you like to present to the world?  How do you want people to see you?  What is it in you that is incongruent with your projected image?  Or what part of you do you seek to hide from others?  Offer that aspect of yourself to Jesus in prayer and ask him to transform it and make you whole. 

Authentic Power is Service with Love

Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.  You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law:  judgment and mercy and fidelity.  But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23)

Piety

(O God we pray that) all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life, and all men and women of goodwill: let us be 'protectors' of creation, protectors of God's plan inscribed in nature, protectors of one another and of the environment. . . . Let us never forget that authentic power is service." (Lord remind us that) "Only those who serve with love are able to protect!"

    Pope Francis, http://www.catholic.org/news/international/europe/story.php?id=50242

Study

Reading the headlines and reviewing history one is apt to forget that authority of governments are intended to forge bonds of order and work for the common good.  Hearing Jesus accuse the leaders of temple reminds us that even today leaders can lose track of their spiritual calling in the quest for power or even political gains.  In every message of Jesus, however, I should also be asking how am I a leader and am I “neglecting the weightier things” by being complicit or even overtly acting for the detriment of others.

How powerful are the stories of those who do not neglect the weightier things.  Missionaries in Africa who choose to work amid the sickest of the sick even at the risk of their own health.  Pastors who stay and protect their flock amid persecution in Cairo and Homs.  Religious who have been martyred in Brazil, Jamaica and other countries solely because they served the poor.  A layman whose dedication to bringing the truth to the light was exploited and murdered.  Catholic Workers who welcome the unwanted, the “other,” into their homes. 

Action

What do my actions say as a leader in my Fourth Day?  Do I protect?  Am I of goodwill and recognize, encourage goodwill in others?  Do I serve with love?

Endurance and Faith

Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Accordingly, we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God regarding your endurance and faith in all your persecutions and the afflictions you endure.  This is evidence of the just judgment of God, so that you may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering.  2 Thessalonians 1:4-5

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.  You lock the Kingdom of heaven before men.  You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.  Matthew 23-13

Piety

Our pilgrimage to God is a marathon. Hence it’s not about speed but about endurance. It’s as much about taking care of our faith along the way as learning to praise God in the midst of anything and everything. Our marathon will be finished the same way it was started: By taking steps of faith in hope.  (From Practicing Patience, Cultivating Endurance, April 24, 2012 by Mari-Anna Stålnacke @flowingfaith) 

Study

Today’s readings are almost mirror images of discourse answering the question, “Where and when is boasting allowed?”  Paul’s letter to the people in Thessalonica clearly explains the answer, “Only when it is about the works of another, not about the works of ourselves.”

Enduring suffering is the key to the kingdom – a kingdom that requires of us to pick up our cross daily.  The Pharisees get Jesus’ condemnation because they live a life that is the opposite of suffering. 

Rather than use their keys to open the gates, they lock the gates of heaven to themselves and to others by their woeful and woe-filled behavior.  These “blind guides” may appear clean on the outside.  However, on the inside they are false prophets.

Action

Vatican City, Aug 24, 2014 / 08:52 am (CNA/EWTN News) - During his Angelus address Sunday Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel account of Saint Peter's recognition of Jesus as the Lord, urging those present to honestly evaluate their own faith.

“Brothers and sisters, what happened in a unique way in Saint Peter, also takes place in every Christian who develops a sincere faith in Jesus the Christ,” he told crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square on Aug. 24.

“Today's Gospel challenges each of us: How is your faith? Let each of us answer in our heart. How is your faith? How is it? What does the Lord find in our hearts: a firm heart, like a rock? Or a heart like sand, that is, doubtful, mistrustful, unbelieving?”

How is your faith?  Is it as big as a mustard seed or as fragile as the faith of a dozen disciples locked in an upper room? 

But Who Do You Say that I Am?

Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time 2014 A

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace: “I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station.  Isaiah 22:19

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!  Romans 11:33

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”  Matthew 16:15

Piety

Our piety is one of the ways we say who Christ is in our lives.  We say Christ is our life by the goodness of our lives.  There are pious moments when we show our love by our reverence, attention and devotion.  These moments flow over to the ways we do the secular things in our lives.  The totality of the focus of our hearts is the best of our piety because thus we are treating the people of our lives as reflections of the God who merits all our attention.  Our love of God challenges us to find Christ in the last, the lowest and the least persons of our lives.  God created everything good.  The right use of creatures proclaims Christ in whom we are.  We by our use of creatures with care and attention to what is right make Christ visible by who we are.  Our destiny is Christ and all the ways our piety keeps Christ close to us are the works of salvation and the good news that Christ has come to share with us.  Piety in each other is the good news of salvation calling forth the best of us. 

Study 

By our study we realize that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Each moment of our lives is filled with God’s love for us manifest in creation and in the reality of the ongoing of our lives.  We would not live if God did not keep us in existence.  The victory of Christ centers the throne of Christ.  The cross is his victory.  On the wood of the cross we were given our salvation.  In the embrace of Christ from his cross all that would separate us from the victory of Christ loses its meaning.  Nothing is worth more than his embrace of our sinfulness as he gives us his life for forgiveness and rebirths us in the love of his Father.  God is not only in our world; he is also the meaning of our lives and gives meaning to all that we do when we live in his name and spread the good news of salvation.  For many the road of God’s wisdom is impassable.  To us who are called, the cross is the exquisite wisdom of God revealing his love for us. 

Action 

The best action of our lives will be the climbing of the cross of Christ to look at our world through his eyes.  The value of what we suffer is immeasurable in the likeness to Christ it brings.  Our suffering can be the key to unlock the mystery of God’s love when we offer our suffering in the name of Christ.  We need to say with our work that we are the presence of Christ for those we serve.  We need to meet the needs of others with the love of Christ who gives his all for each of us.  We need to be like to Christ who offers his sufferings for us.  The Cross is the wisdom of Christ.  We do our best to make a world more just and special by living the love of Christ for each other.  Our sufferings offered in the name of Christ can make the world amazed at how the Christians love one another.  Let us bring our world back to Christ.  Then nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ.  We will be his love.  

Whoever Humbles Himself

Saturday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

The voice said to me:  Son of man, this is where my throne shall be, this is where I will set the soles of my feet; here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.  Ezekiel 43:7AB

“The greatest among you must be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  Matthew 23:11-12

Piety

A great way to pray is to look for God’s presence in your life. More than 400 years ago, St. Ignatius Loyola encouraged prayer-filled mindfulness by proposing what has been called the Daily Examen. The Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and to discern his direction for us. Try this version of St. Ignatius’s prayer. - See more at: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/how-can-i-pray/#sthash.kmX6bqhI.dpuf

Study

Whose glory is all this about?  If the reading from Ezekiel did not make the glory of the Lord, not the people, abundantly clear, Jesus knocks down anyone – especially the Pharisees – who may exhibit an attitude of moral superiority.  Practice what you preach and stop fishing for praise and recognition for every action you take.    

Jesus is pretty clear in denouncing the abuses of the scribes and Pharisees.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus forbids not only the titles but the spirit of superiority and pride that is shown by their acceptance.[1]  He goes on to a series of seven “woes” which further point out practices which must be avoided.

Ascent toward heaven “is made through the humility of this present life,” not through the kinds of actions Jesus condemns in the Pharisees.  The Rule of St. Benedict prescribes twelve degrees of humility for his brothers and sisters.  By taking on such practices, the Rule explains the end result obtained in walking these humble steps:

Having climbed all these steps of humility, therefore, the monk will presently come to that perfect love of God which casts out fear.  And all those precepts which formerly he had not observed without fear, he will now begin to keep by reason of that love, without any effort, as though naturally and by habit.  No longer will his motive be the fear of hell, but rather the love of Christ, good habit and delight in the virtues which the Lord will deign to show forth by the Holy Spirit in His servant now cleansed from vice and sin. (RB: Chapter 7)

Action

This exhortation in Matthew is not about “them.”  It’s about us.  It’s about me.  If we take these words to heart, how should we look at and evaluate our own conduct and attitudes? There are many examples of how to do that in prayer resources but the Jesuit Examen (one version here: http://www.diocese.cc/upload/images/originals/Examens070510A.pdf) provides substantive steps.

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[1] Notes to NAB Matthew 23:8-12 (http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/23:1#48023013-1) 

Can These Bones Come Back to Life?

Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Melanie Rigney

The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the broad valley. It was filled with bones. He made me walk among them in every direction. So many lay on the surface of the valley! How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come back to life? “Lord GOD,” I answered, “you alone know that.” Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Listen! I will make breath enter you so you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put breath into you so you may come to life. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 37:1-6)

They cried to the Lord in their distress; from their straits he rescued them. And he led them by a direct way to reach an inhabited city. (Psalms 107:6-7)

(When the scholar asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus said:) “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Piety

Lord, fill these bones with Your truth and nourishment.

Study

Back on the Fourth of July weekend, I clanged some exercise equipment on my right ankle. It swelled up and turned black and blue, but I still could walk without any pain. Now here it is practically Labor Day, and my ankle still has a goose egg on it, albeit smaller and minus the colors of the rainbows. I suppose I should go see the doctor anyway, but I keep putting it off. I do know that I’ve spent a lot of time poking and probing and testing that ankle instead of assuming good health and otherwise ignoring it.

Maybe it’s the same way with our spiritual health. When all is well and we have an ongoing communication with the Lord, we don’t think a lot about how the relationship could become even deeper or how we could live in ways even more pleasing to Him.

How much harder life is when our spiritual “bones” dry out, when we are confronted with the reality that what we want now, right now, is not part of the Lord’s immediate plan for us. It’s like with my ankle. The situation’s made me more conscious of the parts of my body that don’t work, and more appreciative of the parts that do. Spiritual dryness can remind us to appreciate the times when our souls are well watered and fed… and poke and prod and test when our interior life isn’t working the way it should. We can pray for the Lord’s breath to come upon us and heal us as no doctor’s visit or ankle brace could ever do.

Action

Where are you experiencing spiritually dry bones? Ask the Lord to reinvigorate them.

A New Spirit Within You

Memorial of Saint Pius X,Pope

I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.  I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes, careful to observe my decrees.  You shall live in the land I gave your ancestors; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.  Ezekiel 36:26-28

Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come.  Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’  The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.  Matthew 22:8-10

Piety

Father, thank you for giving us a new heart and new spirit.  Continue to give us the strength, the hope and the love to walk with you as we bring the Good News of your love from the sanctuary to the streets.  Amen.

Study

Good and bad alike, God ignores our faults.  He invites us into relationship with him regardless of what we have done in the past, washing away our sins and ignoring the hardness of our hearts.  Today’s Gospel is like the opposite of the Prodigal Son.  In that parable, the Father gave a feast for his son who had strayed. His brother was upset that their Father had not given a feast for him. 

Today, the Father-King holds a wedding feast for his son but none of the original guests come.  They ignore his invitation – or worse still – they kill his messengers (the prophets).  When the chosen people stay away and continue to pursue their own self-interests.  Finally, the doors are opened wide for whomever accepts the invitation.

While the invitation is freely given, it comes with a price – the price being entering into a proper relationship with the Father-King.  The new covenant described in Ezekiel requires of us two things:  to accept the new spirit offered and then to live by the Lord’s decrees.  According to the notes section of the New American Bible, this ending is unique to Matthew’s gospel, a story-within-the-story.   

“Matthew presents the kingdom in its double aspect, already present and something that can be entered here and now, and something that will be possessed only by those present members who can stand the scrutiny of the final judgment. The parable is not only a statement of God’s judgment on Israel but a warning to Matthew’s church” about the price they must pay for the new covenant of love which is freely given to us in baptism.

The guest without a wedding garment represents those who refuse to the repent, who refuse the change of heart and mind, which is the condition for entrance into the kingdom.  Such a life of love-in-action must be continued by our faith commitment to the new covenant.

Action

Our invitation into relationship also comes with a price.  We must choose to pick up our cross daily and walk with God.  Our wedding garment is the symbol of our willingness to change the direction in which we seek happiness.

Our baptism invitation is not the end of our relationship.  Our initiation continues when we share Eucharist, seek a new heart in Reconciliation and bring the word to the world in Confirmation. We also spread this covenant of love with the community that we build via marriage or holy orders.

Recently, I have been to several weddings and have pending invitations for more in the coming weeks and months.  The bride and groom dress on that day in a fashion in which they have not seen of each other previously – and in garments which they may never wear again.  They are changing the normal of their past and entering into a new normal based upon love. The guests also dress in their Sunday finest and share in the new direction that the loves of the bride and groom will take.

Where are you on this journey?  What is the new normal of your Fourth Day?  Are you building communities? Are you bringing the word to the world?  Or are you still loved yet still locked into the upper room of your life trying to stay in your old comfort zone?

The covenant requires us to change the direction in which we look for happiness just like the bride and groom and the wedding guests.  It won’t be found in your new car, your new job or your new digital toy.  It will only be found when we willingly step one foot in front of the other to walk in the way of the Lord, not the world.

This whole section in Matthew’s gospel screams that the walk will not be easy.  Think of those peaceful protestors in Ferguson, MO who are crying for justice following the death of Michael Brown.  It is fitting that the ministers of the community are anchoring the peaceful marches step-by-agonizing-step while trying to bridge the search for justice with those who seek vengeance through violent means.

His Excellency, Robert J. Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis, recently issued a letter to the faithful in the Archdiocese of St. Louis but in it is a message for us as well:

“The residents of Ferguson, Missouri, are struggling to find peace in the chaos. As people of Christ, we are struggling to find direction in the unrest.”  He went on to write how he finds strength in the peace prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.  

“In all circumstances, but especially in these difficult times, we are all called to be instruments of peace through our words and actions. Pope Francis recently stated that, "All men and women of good will are bound by the task of pursuing peace."

Last night, the Archbishop Carlson celebrated a Mass for Reconciliation and asks for continued prayers from all of us that the new way forward of peace and justice will be found in Ferguson.