“Puffed Up with Pride” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Puffed Up with Pride” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Memorial of Saint Justin, Martyr

 

 

Rembrandt, Tobit and Anna with the Kid, 1626,
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons[i]

 

At that time, my wife Anna worked for hire at weaving cloth, the kind of work women do.  When she sent back the goods to their owners, they would pay her. Late in winter on the seventh of Dystrus, she finished the cloth and sent it back to the owners. They paid her the full salary and also gave her a young goat for the table. On entering my house the goat began to bleat.  I called to my wife and said: “Where did this goat come from?  Perhaps it was stolen! Give it back to its owners; we have no right to eat stolen food!”  She said to me, “It was given to me as a bonus over and above my wages.”  Yet I would not believe her and told her to give it back to its owners.  I became very angry with her over this.  So she retorted: “Where are your charitable deeds now?  Where are your virtuous acts?  See! Your true character is finally showing itself!” (Tobit 2:11-14)

Coin from reign of Caesar Augustus

Jesus said to them, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  They were utterly amazed at him.  (Mark 12:17)

Piety

“… if a thought or a desire leads you on the road of humility, of self-abasement and of service to others, it is of Jesus; but if it leads you on the road of self-importance, of vanity and of pride, or on the road of abstract thought, it is not of Jesus.”

-         Pope Francis’ Homily at Mass on January 7, 2014 based on 1 John 3:22-4:6

Study

Tobit, the main character in today’s first reading, has had a freak accident.  Sleeping next to the courtyard wall, he didn’t notice a bird’s nest directly over where he made his bed.  While he was lying there, bird droppings fell from the nest into his eyes, resulting in blindness.  Now he can no longer work.  He has gone from being a well-paid court official to being totally dependent on his wife’s earnings from her “woman’s work.”  One day she comes home after delivering the cloth she has woven.  Besides her wages, her employer has given her a goat so she and Tobit would have meat to put on the table.

The ensuing conversation/fighting match struck me funny at first.  Far from being grateful for his wife’s boss’ generosity, he doesn’t believe her and says she should take it back.  

Then it’s his wife’s turn to vent her irritation with Tobit’s nonsense.  You talk a good line, but where is your charity now?  What about Tobit’s past virtuous acts?  Were they not sincere?  Your true self is showing, she shouts.

It’s not so funny, however, when we realize that this story illustrates the excessive pride you and I often take in our own accomplishments as well as our embarrassment and unwillingness to let others help us when we need help.  We don’t want our friends to see us in our moment of weakness.  It’s evidently okay for Tobit to have been charitable to others when he stood upright and proud before his neighbors, but on this occasion when help should have been welcome, he allows his pride to get the better of him and resents the gift of the animal and even suggests that perhaps his wife might have stolen it!

Pride has been referred to as the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins.  Pride leads us to put more stock in our own abilities than in the grace of God.  Pride tricks us into believing that we are running our own show without any need for divine assistance.  Live long enough and we’ll all be in Tobit’s position at some point, helpless and angry because we’ve been exposed as mere, needy mortals.

As I pondered today’s Gospel reading, I thought how weary Jesus must have been of all the attempts to catch him doing or saying something for which he could be arrested.  Here the Pharisees join forces with representatives of Herod’s government.  They make a blatant attempt to trick Jesus into picking his Father over the Roman government.  First, they flatter him.  Jesus, you are honest. You aren’t afraid of anyone.  You don’t let anyone’s status impress you.  You are only concerned with God’s ways.  So, tell us, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?  Jesus is a threat to their pride of place in the community and their authority over the people.

Jesus doesn’t get snared by their trickiness.  “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” is his answer.  Be a good citizen of your country and, at the same time, be a loyal disciple of the Lord.  These words contain nothing with which to find fault.

Action

False pride is something we all have to contend with at one time or another.  It’s so easy to pat ourselves on the back and take way too much credit for the things that go right in our lives.  The best weapon against that kind of pride is to feel overwhelming gratitude for all the good gifts we receive from God.  Have you ever been in Tobit’s position where illness or any other catastrophe has cut you down to size and made a mockery of your pride in yourself?  Spend some time in prayer today thanking God for all God’s gifts to you.  You’ll discover there’s no room for false pride when we are truly grateful for God’s goodness toward us.

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[i] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_154.jpg

“Rejoice with our Mother” by Beth DeCristofaro

“Rejoice with our Mother” by Beth DeCristofaro

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem: Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged! The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a mighty savior; He will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love, He will sing joyfully because of you, as one sings at festivals. (Zephania 3:16-18)

 

Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
    my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
    for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
    the Almighty has done great things for me,
    and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
    in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
    he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
    and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
    and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
    for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
    the promise he made to our fathers,
    to Abraham and his children forever.” (Luke 1:46-49)

 

Piety

“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:42, 45)

Study

One of my favorite prayers, I am constantly stirred as I pray “(God) has looked with favor on his lowly servant” and “the Almighty has done great things for me.” Mary speaks humbly and powerfully as herself, yet also her words speak to the whole of Israel, and directly to me as Mother. Mary’s words are personal yet universal. Mary proclaims the grandeur and mercy of God to the human condition for each individual and all nations simultaneously. 

 

Sr. Elizabeth Johnson wrote, “The Magnificat is a revolutionary song of salvation whose political, economic, and social dimensions cannot be blunted. People in need in every society hear a blessing in this canticle. The battered woman, the single parent without resources, those without food on the table or without even a table, the homeless family, the young abandoned to their own devices, the old who are discarded: all are encompassed in the hope Mary proclaims. …. Doesn’t God love everyone? Indeed yes, but in an unjust world, the form this universal love takes differs according to circumstance. This song makes clear that divine love is particularly on the side of those whose dignity must be recovered. The divine intent is to build up a community marked by human dignity and mutual regard.”[i]

Action

Today let Mary’s words be in your mind, on your lips, and in your eyes as you look at the greatness of the Lord around you. 

 

Give thanks for the great things God has done for you. Pass it on.

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[i] Elizabeth Johnson, Mary, Mary, quite contrary, 2011,  https://uscatholic.org/articles/201101/mary-mary-quite-contrary/

Illustration:  Visitation, Bro. Mickey McGrath, Mural at the Eastern Deanery AIDS Relief Center in Nairobi, Kenya.  https://www.kolbetimes.com/br-mickey-mcgrath/

“Witness with Our Spirit” by Rev. Paul Berghout

“Witness with Our Spirit” by Rev. Paul Berghout 

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

This is why you must now know and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. Deuteronomy 4:39

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.  Romans 8:16-17

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always. Matthew 28:19-20

Piety

Come, Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Study

The ecstatic existence of the Trinity is the supreme confidence of love that love offered will be returned and more than returned via replenished giving that no one can diminish or exhaust. In Latin: Esse Deus dare: to be God is to give.

 

Consider the words and nightly deeds of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. In wartime, she made her systematic rounds of all the medical tents, saw patients, and regularly cleaned the tents.

 

She said, “I have very ordinary ability... God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that’s it, and I have never refused God anything.”

 

Like the Most Holy Trinity: the universe, including human beings, is intrinsically relational. For example, a writer in a current journal says, “Most persons find that their faith in a future life is a belief only, not a conviction. And why? Because the self for whose immortality they hope is an unreal abstraction.”[i]

 

To illustrate this, somebody asked, “I heard the Catechism teaches that human beings can become God. How is this possible?” The answer is that we make our soul a habitation for God beginning at baptism. No matter how busy you are: you can have a cloistered heart. We have Heaven within us. This idea and ideal is the core of St. Elizabeth of the Trinity’s message. She wanted us to understand that if union with God is our end, then Heaven is not a destination but rather a completion, a perfection of a state of being. This blessed existence can begin now, anticipating the eternal present.

 

Matt Chandler said, “God doesn’t need to have emergency meetings. He’s never gathered the Trinity and asked, `What happened there?’”

 

If you want to sense the Trinity dwelling in you, 2 Peter 1:4 gives a clue: “….that…you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

 

The Trinity is our protection.

 

A painting called “Shield of the Trinity” featured in manuscripts and many stained-glass windows has the word “Deus,” inscribed in the center with lines leading out to three points, which are labeled: 

 

“The Father is God”

 

“The Son is God”

 

“The Holy Spirit is God”

 

“God is the Father”

 

“God is the Son”

 

“God is the Holy Spirit”

 

The whole purpose is liberation from spiritual bondage in the battlefield of our thoughts by renouncing sinful thoughts and desires. This attitude frees us to receive the blessing God has given us in his Son so we might live for the praise of His glory. Our Second Reading speaks of “a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.”

 

It is perfectly acceptable to orient our prayers to the Son or the Spirit even though all prayer speaks to the Father.

 

 

“Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.”

 

Prayers to Jesus are very common. For example, devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that begin, “Most sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus;” and the Fatima prayer after each decade of the Rosary, “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need of your mercy.”

Action

Refuse God nothing like the Trinity, that in giving being is replenished not diminished or exhausted.

Understand that heaven can dwell within you when you are in the state of grace. This blessed existence can begin now by indwelling of the Holy Trinity.

A spiritual militancy is required daily in this life through renunciation and faith by the “Shield of the Trinity.”

AMEN.

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[i] H. Heath Bawden, in the Review of Religion, May 1950, p. 410.

 

Image Credit: By Unknown (13th-century scribe/illuminator) - British Library, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1288638

Secrets by Melanie Rigney

Jesus Ben Sirach

Secrets by Melanie Rigney 

Saturday of the Eighth Week of Easter

When I was young and innocent,
    I sought wisdom openly in my prayer
I prayed for her before the temple,
    and I will seek her until the end,
    and she flourished as a grape soon ripe.
My heart delighted in her,
My feet kept to the level path
    because from earliest youth I was familiar with her.
In the short time I paid heed,
    I met with great instruction.
Since in this way I have profited,
    I will give my teacher grateful praise.
I became resolutely devoted to her—
    the good I persistently strove for.
My soul was tormented in seeking her, 
My hand opened her gate
    and I came to know her secrets.
I directed my soul to her,
    and in cleanness I attained to her. (Sirach 51:13-20)

The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. (Psalm 19:9ab)

Jesus and his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem.
As he was walking in the temple area,
the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders
approached him and said to him,
“By what authority are you doing these things?
Or who gave you this authority to do them?”
Jesus said to them, “I shall ask you one question.
Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 
Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?  Answer me.”
They discussed this among themselves and said,
“If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say,
‘Then why did you not believe him?’
But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”–
they feared the crowd,
for they all thought John really was a prophet.
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”
Then Jesus said to them,
“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Mark 11:27-33)

Piety

Lord, open my mind to the secrets You desire to share with me.

Study

Wisdom is there for the asking. Or rather, wisdom is there for the asking by those who are receptive.

Consider Ben Sira, the Jerusalem sage who lived about two centuries before Christ. His thirst and desire for wisdom—a deep thirst for an acceptance, if not an understanding, of God’s love, mercy, and truth—led him to a “level path,” one on which he stayed for his entire life. The more he understood, the more he sought to understand.

Consider the chief priests, scribes, and elders who asked Jesus on whose authority He was acting. They weren’t really interested in the answer. They posed the question in an attempt to trap Him. As usual, Jesus’s response flummoxed them, even though they were well practiced in answering a question with a question. Their “We do not know” was not sincere. It was evasion. Instead of drawing closer to wisdom, their subterfuge drove them further away.

We live in a society where honest questions, the kind Ben Sira asked on his level path, are ridiculed or drowned out, where to fit in we are tempted to stay silent, to get along to go along. Too often, our “We do not know” or “It’s not for me to judge” do not come from a place of desiring answers to be drawn closer to God but rather to evade deeper conversations where we might find wisdom… or be the vessel for imparting it.

Wisdom is there for the asking for those who are receptive. For those who are not, it will never be found.

Action

At the end of the day, look at your path. Was it level? Full of peaks and valleys or twists and turns? Pray for the faith and strength to pursue the journey to wisdom more fully tomorrow.

Image credit: Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Sira#/media/File:Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_149.png

Have Faith in God by Beth DeCristofaro

Have Faith in God by Beth DeCristofaro

Friday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

 

Now will I praise those godly men,
    our ancestors, each in his own time.
But of others there is no memory,
    for when they ceased, they ceased. (Sirach 44:1, 9)

 

(Jesus) was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it. They came to Jerusalem, and on entering the temple area he began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. …  Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus said to them in reply, “Have faith in God. (Mark 11:12-15, 21-22)

 

Piety

Peace Within

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you

May you be confident knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.[i]

 

Study

Having a bad day can be tedious; when a colleague is cranky, the printer jams, one is late for a client meeting, and coffee spills all over your briefcase, it can feel like the universe is against you!  In this Gospel, one might think Jesus is having a bad day and reacting out of his frustration.  Yet here we see Jesus seeing Truth in the “bad” moments and teaching us.  Jesus tells us that faith in God bears fruitfulness in God. 

 

Often, we see plants as symbols in Scripture; a bush burning in Genesis, the mustard seed growing large in the Gospels, cedar, olive trees, and of course, Jesus as the vine.  In Jeremiah and Micah, a fig tree symbolized Israel.  In this reading, The tree’s lack of produce points to the absence of vibrancy and fruitfulness of the Chosen People.  Look at the juxtaposition of the tree without fruit and the “liveliness” of the Temple.  The Temple is full of people, bustling with prayer, presumably, but also commerce.  The focus is not on producing spiritual fruit.  Jesus rejects this bustling emptiness like he rejects the tree, grown green but not with life-giving fruit.

 

(Jesus) was hungry. The tree disappointed him as did the temple leaders and the moneylenders.  His relationship with the Father sustained him but he wished to share it with all humanity.  Our hunger, too, is our longing for God.  But our life can also be life-giving for others when we live as friends of Christ. 

 

Action

Jesus’ words about the power of prayer are a powerful reminder that when we remain in God (John’s Gospel readings from last week) we will not “cease.” God’s love and mercy supersede our weaknesses.  God will not blast us like the fig tree, but we can blast ourselves by our own choices, which might generate pretty leaves but no nourishment for a hungry world.

In what way am I producing fruit?  Might I become more fruitful, nourishing and revitalizing?  Prayerfully I ask for the grace to have ever more life-giving faith in God.

 

 

 

Illustration: https://www.britannica.com/plant/fig

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[i]St. Theresa of Avila, www.jesuitresource.org