With Great Anxiety

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch; Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street.  Lamentations 2:18-19

“Son, why have you done this to us?  Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”  And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  But they did not understand what he said to them.  He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. Luke 2:48b-51

Piety

Father, you prepared a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  From that heart, her interior spirituality grew into an exterior life as she conceived, gave birth and raised her son. Graciously grant that through her intercession we may imitate her role model and also be a worthy temple of your piety, study and action.  Amen.

Study

From the notes to the New American Bible:[i]

This chapter [from the Book of Lamentations] continues to move between the voice of the poet and that of personified Zion.  The persona of the poet, first portrayed in Lamentations chapter one as a detached observer recounting both the desolation as well as the sins of the city, becomes in this chapter an advocate for Zion in her appeal to the Lord and never once mentions her sins.

The poet urges Zion to appeal to the Lord once more on behalf of her dying children. The image of Zion’s children effectively condenses the metaphorical sense of all residents of the city (young and old alike) into the more poignant picture of actual children at the point of death. It was precisely this image, no doubt well known to survivors of besieged cities, that led to the emotional breakdown of both Zion and the poet. The hope is that the Lord will be similarly affected by such a poignant image and respond with mercy.

We know that the plea for the Lord to respond with mercy is realized and today’s feast day for the Immaculate Heart of Mary marks that realization.  Blessed with that clean heart, Mary willingly becomes the human vessel from which the Divine Lord emerges into the world and takes on his cloak of humanity. 

The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God the Father, her maternal love for her son Jesus, and her compassionate love for all persons.[ii]  According to historical records, in the midst of the second world war Pope Pius XII put the whole world under the special protection of our Savior's Mother by consecrating it to her Immaculate Heart, and in 1944 he decreed that in the future the whole Church should celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.[iii] 

Action

In devotion to the Heart of Mary, study and imitation hold as important a place as love. Love is more the result than the object of the devotion, the object being rather to love God and Jesus better by uniting one's self to Mary for this purpose and by imitating her virtues.

How will you imitate and reflect the disposition of Mary in your world despite the anxiety you might feel?  Can you keep that anxiety in your heart and not express it to the world?   

---

[i] http://www.usccb.org/bible/lamentations/2:2#31002000-1

[ii] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07168a.htm

[iii] http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2014-06-28

A People Sacred to the Lord

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

By Melanie Rigney

Moses said to the people: “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own. It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you and because of his fidelity to the oath he had sworn your fathers…” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)

The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him. (Psalms 103:17)

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Piety

Lord, help me to stay strong, confident in Your great Love, as the forces of the world buffet me.

Study

We know how the earthly life of St. John the Baptist ended: beheaded after speaking against Herod’s marriage to Herod’s brother’s ex-wife.

We know how the earthly lives of two of the most prominent early followers ended: St. Peter, crucified, head down; St. Paul, beheaded. The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome met similar or even grislier fates.

We know how the earthly life of St. Thomas More, patron of the Diocese of Arlington, ended: on the scaffold, beheaded for high treason because he refused to take the oath of supremacy of the British Crown in matters of the church.

In the sixteenth centuries, Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher were executed because they refused to compromise their beliefs despite their former friendship with Henry VIII, the king who ordered their deaths.

In the twenty-first century First World, we generally have the luxury of worshipping if and as we choose. But then, so did John the Baptist in the early days of his ministry. So did the early followers of Christ. So did Thomas More and John Fisher before their powerful friend decided he wanted to take a different wife, and set up a new church to accommodate that.  Perhaps they were all a bit complacent at some point in their faith lives. But when the moment of truth arrived, they were fearless. Will we be the same?

Action

What are you willing to do to show your faithfulness? Consider setting aside time to participate in the Fortnight for Freedom. Check out the Web site for more information. In the Diocese of Arlington, Bishop Loverde will be at St. Joseph Parish in Herndon to open a related special event. Can you spare three hours to stand up for your religious beliefs?

Only the One

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

[Nebuchadnezzar] deported all Jerusalem: all the officers and men of the army, ten thousand in number, and all the craftsmen and smiths.  None were left among the people of the land except the poor.  2 Kings 24:12-14

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  Matthew 7:21

Piety

Considering the Good News today, I thought it might be a good idea to build our tripod on a “Prayer Rock.”  Prayer rocks are fun to make, can involve the whole family or group reunion and can help pass the time on a rainy day. It makes a great Vacation Bible School or Camp activity and helps kids remember to say their daily prayers.  They also come in handy as Palanca.  I still have the rock that a Women’s Team gave to our Men’s Team during formation several years ago.  What a great way to build a team!

1. Search for Rocks. You need a large enough rock to fit the palm of your hand. Make sure it does not have sharp edges and not too dirty. Don't try to search for colorful rocks as you are going to paint over it anyway. Get enough so that each child or Cursillo candidate has her or his own rock.

2. Wash away the dirt on the rocks. Thoroughly wash away any debris and grit present on the rock, especially if children under the age of 8 are participating in the activity.

3. Paint and decorate your rock. Use bright pastel colors and paints to decorate your rock. You can also add stickers, to your rock. Recommended styles are patterns, a single bright paint, polka dots etc. Let the child or Cursillista use her/his own creativity.

4. Write a reminder. Paint a reminder to pray with a fine paint brush. It can be a simple reminder like "Remember to pray today" to a more complex one such as a small poem. Help the child write the message if he/she cannot do so him/herself.

5. Use the rock. The rock serves to remind young children to pray every night and after waking up. 

• Place the rock on the bed so that the child will see it when he is going to bed.
• The child is then supposed to say his prayers and keep the rock on the floor so that he will step on it when he wakes up, again to remind the child to say his prayers.
• Place the rock on the bed again after saying the morning prayers.

Study

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.  And to the victor went the spoils.  You cannot say that the people in Jerusalem were not warned about the coming defeat. Just a few chapters earlier in 2 Kings 20 they heard the warning but did not change:  The time is coming when all that is in your house, everything that your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried off to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD.  2 Kings 20:17

The parallel histories of this battle and its aftermath also are recounted in Daniel and Jeremiah.  In telling and retelling the story, we learn that the historical events happened to Jerusalem and Judah because the LORD was so angry that he cast them out of his sight.  They were warned and continued to behave as they wanted.  And we are warned multiple times as the Hebrew Bible tells us this sad story so many ways.

None were left except the poor.   Not the strongest soldiers.  Not the most faithful rabbis.  Not the richest merchants.  Not the officers and warriors. 

Not the most creative artisans or silversmiths or goldsmiths. The house set on solid rock will be known by the actions of its inhabitants. 

The trick is not to trick the Lord because your vanity and deceit will be detected. 

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.  But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.”  (Matthew 7:24-25)

Action

What rock are you building your foundation upon? 

Back in the sixties and seventies, the Prudential Insurance Company slogan was, “Own a Piece of the Rock.”  Prudential's logo, The Rock of Gibraltar, is one of the most recognized corporate symbols in the world. Its use dates back to the 1890s.  The related slogans "Own a Piece of the Rock" and "Strength of Gibraltar" are also still quite widely associated with Prudential. Are you building on the Pru or are you taking out insurance in the church that St. Peter set upon the rock?

Fidelity.  A nice strong noun about being faithful.  To what or to whom?  Will our lives reflect the sound and images of the Bible or of a financial services company that wants us to be more like Hamlet (“To thine own self and Wall Street be true.”) than to Jesus?

Vanguard.  Another nice strong noun about taking the position of greatest importance or at the head of the army.  That is exactly the place Jesus told us to take, right?  Oh.  No?  The LAST shall be FIRST?  How can that be?  How can we be innovative and creative in applying the lessons of the Sacred Scripture to our lives and loves?

While we are considering the unfortunate ways that the financial industry has usurped names and concepts from scripture almost like the serpents in the garden, shall we also note that the winds “buffeted” the house.  Who knew that St. Matthew would be recounting to us the name of the most famous investor of our day, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the Oracle of Omaha?

We can all pursue these false paths to alleged riches.  However, the daily endeavor of piety, study and action will keep us from straying too far – and keep us on the right path.  

Taking Inventory

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

By Colleen O’Sullivan

The king went up to the temple of the Lord with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:  priests, prophets, and all the people, small and great.  He had the entire contents of the book of the covenant that had been found in the temple of the Lord, read out to them.  Standing by the column, the king made a covenant before the Lord that they would follow him and observe his ordinances, statutes and decrees with their whole hearts and souls, thus reviving the terms of the covenant which were written in this book.  And all the people stood as participants in the covenant.  (2 Kings 23:2-3)

Jesus said to his disciples:  “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but underneath are ravenous wolves.”  (Matthew 7:15)

Piety

I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  (Jeremiah 31:33)

Study   

Life always seems so busy – doing my own job, plus learning the ropes for a new position I will assume in the fall; long distance care for my elderly father, singing in a choir, Cursillo, writing Daily Tripods…  The first half of 2014 has just flown by without much opportunity to come up for air.  But it’s good for each of us to stop once in a while and assess where we are, what we’re doing and whether or not we’re walking a faith-filled path.

King Josiah probably didn’t realize that’s what he was going to be doing the day the scribe Shaphan brought news to him of a major discovery in the temple.  It seems the high priest Hilkiah had stumbled upon the book of the law.  We don’t know whether it was the Book of Deuteronomy or the first five books of the Old Testament in their entirety, but we do know that the contents shook the king to the core of his being.  Josiah realized that the people had not been keeping up their part of God’s covenant with them.  They had not been living according to God’s law.  No wonder things weren’t going so well.  The king immediately tore his clothing as a sign of remorse and repentance and then called the people of Judah to renew their intent to live faithfully as God’s people.

It doesn’t hurt to take inventory once in a while.  We can do this in any number of ways.  We could look at our baptismal vows and ask ourselves how well we’re keeping each of them.  We could read through some of the parables and ask ourselves if we’re living as Jesus asked us to:  Are we sowing the seeds of God’s word with abandon?  Are we putting to work the gifts God has entrusted to us or hoarding them for ourselves?   Are we vigilantly living as though each day could be our final one?  We could also reread some of the accounts of Jesus’ healings.  Are we looking out for the needs of the marginalized and disenfranchised segments of our society?  Do we take care of the sick and the poor?

Action

As Jesus reminds us, the Evil Spirit loves to come to us attractively disguised in order to get between us and our God.  Maybe the Evil One hopes we will throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the frenetic, 24/7 society in which we live, with no time to reflect on what we’re doing or for whom we’re doing it. 

Make some time this week to prayerfully reflect on how you spend your time.

Be a Grateful Witness

Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

By Beth DeCristofaro

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. … He will be called John. …  All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, “What, then, will this child be?” For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit   (Luke 1: 57, 60, 66)

Piety

Dear God Our Heavenly Father, 

May my life be witness and an offering of thanks for the great gifts you have given to your people.  You give Your people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of our sins.  Because of the tender mercy of our God, daybreak from on high will visit us to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

        (reimagined from Zachariah’s Canticle, Luke 1:76-79)

Study

Recently babies have been born to friends or the children of friends and such news always fills me with an irrational joy for the babe and parents.  Babies smell just as wonderful as warm, fresh baked bread and they fill me with hope, a sense of potential and an opportunity to form new communities.  I love learning more about myself and creation as I see the world anew in the eyes of a child.  Welcome to the world, Poppy and Jacob!

Elizabeth and John sensed God’s presence in their newborn.  Going against the tradition of naming the baby after family, they called him by a name which means “Yahweh Is Gracious” or “The Lord Graciously Gave”.   Did they, does any parent (aunt, uncle or committed friend) realize how gracious, indeed, is God as we feed a baby, correct a wayward tween, guide an idealistic teenager?  Elizabeth and Zachariah gave over trust to God.  God tasked their baby boy with being the herald of the Messiah.  What does God have in store for any baby today whether born in Fairfax, Rome, Syria, India, Thailand, or Argentina?

Action

Do we appreciate the graciousness of God in the little things of life?  What can I do to share the graciousness of God with the vulnerable?  There are children in our communities that are homeless, neglected, abused, refugees or separated from family because of immigration issues.  What can I do to help one child who might be tasked by God to be a herald of the Word?

See Clearly

Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time

“You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”  Matthew 7:5

Piety

Day by day
Day by day
Oh, Dear Lord
Three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day.

Study

Congruence is making sure what we say reflects what we do…and what we do reflects what we say.  The first reading from the Hebrew Bible warns us of what happened to the children of Israel when their actions did not follow the commandments and statues prescribed by the Lord.  War came and they were taken hostage because they did not give up their “evil ways.”  The implication is that had the people been more obedient, then the war may not have occurred. Maybe. 

Many of the places mentioned in the first reading are remote – today they have other names.  However, the battle in today’s scripture reading takes place in the same area which is the present day Syria and Iraq – the source of an on-going current battle with religious and political overtones.  From 500 years before Christ to 2,000 years after, that area of the world has been in a state of almost constant geo-religious-political conflict.  The theory that their behavior might have brought about the war is hard to prove or disprove.  Had they changed, then war may have happened for another reason.

The deeper meaning here, though, as Matthew’s account of Christ’s sermon makes clear, hypocrisy is not reserved solely for the others.  It takes action by two parties to resolve conflicts and to get along.  While many times, the biblical moniker “hypocrite” had been reserved for the scribes and the Pharisees, the notes to the New American Bible explain that it also applies to the Christian disciple who is concerned with the faults of another and ignores his own more serious offenses.

Action

We need a set of practices which puts us in a proper relationship with God and with our neighbors.  Our conduct toward others may very well correspond to God’s conduct toward us.  Thus, we have to guard against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance that ignores awareness of our own foibles.  If not, that may just be how the Lord judges us if God were not perfectly merciful.

We cannot just make a point to be politically expedient.  The judgment we make must be consistent with getting the relationships right.  Take Pope Francis.  Last week, he ventured into parts of Italy controlled by the mafia and said that, because of their actions, they have excommunicated themselves from the church.  

Although organized criminals may be an extreme example, what behavior of ours may be expedient but incongruous?  How can we harmonize what we belief with what we do?  

Live Forever

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

[T]he LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the desert, so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments. Deuteronomy 8:2

Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.  1 Corinthians 10:17

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."  John 6:51

Piety

Piety is made up from our relationship to Christ.  Piety is more than putting on the Mind and the Heart of Christ.  It is also to have his Body and Blood as part of us.  We never think twice about the reality of how the food we consume becomes a part of our body and blood.  We know we become what we eat.  It is harder to appreciate that when we go to communion, we are becoming the body and the blood of Christ.  Most of us sell ourselves short of the destiny God has waiting for all of us in the ways we are nourished by the water and the blood that flows from the side of Christ pierced on the cross for us.  We are called Christians and so we are in our gift of self to others.  Christian means Christ-like and that perhaps is enough for most Christians.  But it should also mean real “Christs” and that is what we are becoming by our frequently communicating our gift of self in the name of Christ.

Study

The finest wine I ever drunk in my life came from a bottle more than a hundred years old.  It might well have been the best wine of the 18th century.  I was with young people that drank it down without appreciating the once in a lifetime opportunity they were having.  I tried to teach them how to appreciate it.  In celebrating Eucharist, I sometimes wonders if it is even possible to truly appreciate what the gift of communion is worth.  Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  There is only one Eucharist.  Our celebration is a moment that does not exist in time. Christ died once and forever for us.  We celebrate his dying every time we are at Eucharist.  Since we are there at a moment that exists in all of time, we are there with all the people we love with whom we have ever celebrated Eucharist.  He makes us one in our togetherness with him.   We are one with him and with all we are with.  There is one Lord and one Eucharist and we are all one with him and everyone else by Eucharist.

Action

We make Eucharist out of our lives by the ways we share our time and energy.  How often we offer all of ourselves to the person we are with makes the Eucharist of Christ live on in who we are.  Christ gave all of himself to us by emptying himself out of his “God-ness” to be one of us in his humanness.  How I empty myself out of the extras of life surely is Eucharist.  But it is more real when I share the essentials of my life with those in need. We live in a world that is materialistic in how it tries to hold unto to what is has and to get more.  Eucharist is the opposite.  The challenge of Action is in the giving of self away with the best of us offered each moment of our service of others.  Action is the ultimate of prayer, as words become the reality of who we are, in what we do for another.  As we give ourselves away in prayer, our lives become the reality of the promise of eternal life. 

Seek First

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious

Although prophets were sent to them to convert them to the LORD, the people would not listen to their warnings.  2 Chronicles 24:19

But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.  Matthew 6:33

Piety

Aloysius, you have drawn me to you, gentle teacher, loving guide. I am filled with gratitude to you...I love you. Just to see you, to sit with your image, is to see all the innocence, the trust, and the fire of prayer of the children of the kingdom.

Aloysius, let me serve, let me love as you loved people on earth. Teach me to leave the dark destructive forces within and without for the Light in the presence of Our Savior, Jesus.

Aloysius, teach me to pray unceasingly, pray with me, stay near me, kneel with me...take my hand. And finally when my life here is over, come to lead me Home.  Amen. http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/andre/gonzaga.html

Study

The people would not listen to the warning and kept seeking happiness from other sources. 

From the Introductory notes to the Book of Chronicles, the editors of the New American Bible explain, “Unlike today’s history writing, wherein factual accuracy and impartiality of judgment are the norm, biblical history, with rare exceptions, was less concerned with reporting in precise detail all the facts of a situation than with drawing out the meaning of those facts. Biblical history was thus primarily interpretative, and its purpose was to disclose the action of the living God in human affairs.”

The Chronicler, unlike the historian in other parts of the Hebrew Bible or New Testament, tries to draw out the meaning of the people turning away from the Lord.  If he were a modern novelist-therapist, “sacred history” might be called “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” or “It’s Not Nice to Disregard the Lord.”  Favoring other idols might have just been an understandable reaction of a people waiting generations for the promised Messiah.  More a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude. 

Still we must wonder what other kinds of distractions were around in the fifth century B.C. when so much time was spent just assuring you were meeting your “first-level” needs in Maslow’s pyramid: food, clothing, shelter.  Too much hunting?  Too much gathering?  Too much burying the dead in the desert?  Too much storing wheat in silos for a grainy day?  They, after all, did not have car salesmen, the Internet machine, Sirrius XM radio, the College Baseball World Series, the Home Shopping Network nor “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”    

Matthew underlines that when the Good New reiterates that you cannot serve two masters with equal affection and commitment. 

Action

Today, I got another message to track all my “wealth” in smartphone app called “Personal Capital.”  Apps like Personal Capital or Mint or Credit Karma or Future Advisor and more tend to try to get us gather more in our silos rather than spread out our funds for charitable purposes. 

You cannot serve two masters if you are just concerned about your affluenza.  Alternative sites like parishgiving.org, iGive, and GiveBack.org are more attuned to helping you leverage as much of your treasury for charitable purposes.  This weekend, why not make a recurring gift to your parish or charity that will put some of your giving, not your getting, on autopilot. 

Store Up Treasures in Heaven

Friday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, by which they would be the LORD’s people; and another between the king and the people. Thereupon all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and demolished it. They shattered its altars and images completely, and slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. (2 Kings 11:18-19)

The Lord swore to David a firm promise from which he will not withdraw: “Your own offspring will set upon your throne.” (Psalms 132:11)

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

Piety

Lord, help me to pack lightly for the journey.

Study

We were planning for a fire drill at work. It got canceled because it was raining at the appointed hour, and the powers that be didn’t want us to be inconvenienced. But we all officially unofficially got the reminder of which stairwell to use and where each team was to gather for nose counts before the “all clear.” The reminder also strongly encouraged us to bring our purses and billfolds just so we’d be in practice in case there’s a time in the future that when the alarm goes off, it’s not just a drill. It was an eerie reminder for some of my colleagues, who due to a tragedy had to shelter in place for hours last fall… or who had left with coffee money and couldn’t get back into the building to get their phones or Metro cards until the next day.

Considerate folks, those powers that be. But most of life doesn’t work out quite the same in the here and now. The relationship we treasured so much and worked so hard at is destroyed by the moths who eat away at it. The old photos and love letters fade beyond recognition with time even with our loving care. The sweater or dress that carried so many memories pills or rips despite our best efforts. Our emotional or spiritual well being is threatened by what seems to be an all-consuming blaze, not just an inconvenient half-hour drill, and we wonder why those little treasures we’ve put so much effort into preserving have turned to ashes.

Treasures on earth. They will go away, no matter what we do to attempt to hold them here. People die. They change. They move on. Boxes of clothing fade. Mementos get lost or broken, or don’t hold the same luster. So while we love the goodness we experience here on earth, we recognize the best way to prepare for that final fire drill is to travel lightly, and focus on the place where the Holy Spirit ignites every bit of flame.

Action

Put aside a lost treasure for which you've been mourning, even if you can do this only for five minutes. Tomorrow, try to make it ten minutes.

Before You Ask

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Blessed is he who shall have seen you and who falls asleep in your friendship.  For we live only in our life, but after death our name will not be such.  O Elijah, enveloped in the whirlwind!  Sirach 48:11

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  Matthew 6:8b

Piety

LORD, you are king and the earth -- held up to you -- is a poor image.  Its clouds and darkness surround you but your fire, like Elijah, consumes your foes and lights up the world with love.  Ignite our lives with that fire so that we may live in your friendship overcoming all obstacles.

Study

When you are with a friend, sometimes that person knows what you are thinking before you say anything.  A friend wants to do the same thing you want to do. 

Jesus showed us that at the Last Supper when he predicted that Judas would be the Betrayer before he left the room and that Paul would be the Denier despite his close friendship. 

We, like Paul, have to get over the source or sources of our denial.  Ben Sirach tells us that holy is the person who falls asleep in the friendship of the Lord.  Mathew reminds us that when we have a friendship with the Lord, the Father knows what you need before you ask.  Yet that does not negate or minimize the need to ask and to hold up our portion of the crucial conversation. 

Action

The psalm today is filled with imagery of the purifying work of fire.  Light a candle and watch how the wax melts and drips away.  When we live in friendship with the Lord and each other, the obstacles in our path melt away. 

Who or what is the obstacle in your path today?  Can you turn over that person to the Lord to let his fire melt that obstacle into something good? 

Endings Become Beginnings

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

By Colleen O’Sullivan

When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.”  Elisha answered, “May I receive a double portion of your spirit.”  “You have asked something that is not easy,” Elijah replied.  “Still, if you see me taken up from you, your wish will be granted; otherwise not.”  As they walked on conversing, a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.   When Elisha saw it happen he cried out, “My father!  My father!  Israel’s chariots and drivers!”  But when he could no longer see him, Elisha gripped his own garment and tore it in two.  (2 Kings 2:9-12)

Piety

Some journeys end so that others may begin.

(Kevin O’Brien, SJ, “For Reflection,”  Ignatian Prayer Adventure, Week 8, Day 7)

Study

Having accompanied his beloved spiritual father as far as he can on that final journey, Elisha is on his own now, standing there all alone on the far side of the Jordan River.  We can imagine the desolation he is feeling.  He even rips his clothing in anguish and grief. 

None of us have ever witnessed anyone being taken up to heaven, let alone by a fiery chariot and horses but most of us have been right where Elisha is.  We know the anticipatory grief as a beloved friend or family member prepares to leave us, the finality of the funeral service, the emptiness once the formalities have been observed. 

Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story.  Elisha picks up Elijah’s fallen cloak, rolls it up and strikes the water with it as he had seen his mentor do.  Immediately, the younger man senses the presence of the Lord.  The waters part, just as they had for Elijah and, with this, Elisha knows that he has inherited Elijah’s prophetic powers and spirit.  He has now become the instrument of God for God’s people.  Where Elijah’s journey ended, Elisha’s is now beginning.  What an inheritance he has received!

Death is never the end of the story when we’re talking about those who have served as our spiritual guides.  My maternal grandmother was my first “spiritual director.”  I often wish I had asked her who passed the faith on to her.  Gram was born in the late 1800’s.  Her father was married three times, and all three wives died, one from disease and the other two in childbirth, not an unusual turn of events in those days.  Altogether, there were 13 children left behind when he, too, died. My grandmother became an orphan at the age of four.  The children were parceled out to various relatives, and my grandmother went to live with an aunt who greatly resented having another mouth to feed and treated her as a servant.  Gram could have grown up an embittered woman, but instead she became a loving person of great faith.  Jesus was her Savior and friend, and she introduced him to me when I was very young.  My grandmother left me many years before she died, disappearing into the misty realm of dementia, but her legacy to me lives on.  Thanks to Gram, God is in my heart.  Jesus is the foundation and underpinning of my life.  No matter what may befall me, no one can ever take that away.  Gram knew how to make friends, how to be a friend, and how to bring her friends to Christ, and she’d never heard of Cursillo!

Action

From whom have you received a spiritual bequest?  When you pray today, give thanks for that person’s involvement in your life.

We Are Children of Our God

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

“Because you have given yourself up to doing evil in the LORD’s sight, I am bringing evil upon you … because you have provoked me by leading Israel into sin.”  (1 Kings 21: 20-21, 22)

(Jesus said) But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45)

Piety

Jesus, Prince of Peace,
you have asked us to love our enemies
and pray for those who persecute us.
We pray for our enemies and those who oppose us.
With the help of the Holy Spirit,
may all people learn to work together
for that justice which brings true and lasting peace.
To you be glory and honor for ever and ever.

        (www.catholic.org )

Study

At some point in my life I realized how awful it must be to be in the body, mind and heart of someone who feels the need to bully, to pull power trips, to hurt others intentionally, to choose to “do evil in the Lord’s sight”.  It took this personal insight to help me begin to pray for those who persecute me.   Before it I preferred to simply judge, dismiss, look for payback.  And in Ahab’s case his evil is even compounded because he lets his wife do his dirty work while he sulks. 

But that insight led me also to acknowledge those parts of me that step on others, pull power trips, hurt out of my sense of pique, choose evil based on my sanctimonious sense of myself.  No I can’t see that I would ever kill over the ownership of property but I can envision myself killing to defend someone I care about.  It’s a slippery slope.

Jesus’ image of God placing the life-giving sun in transit above the good and the bad both humbles me and frees me.  God loves me just as much as God loves the bad person.  God loves the bad person just as much as God loves me.  It’s freeing to accept that God loves as God wills.  And God protects as God loves even as tragedy and evil befall me. 

Action

Bring to mind someone who has hurt you deeply, personally.  In your imagination, stand with that person in the presence of Jesus.  Pray for her/him.  Ask Jesus to help you love more fully and to know in your bones that God loves you and every one of His children.

Offer No Resistance

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

When Jezebel learned that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Go on, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you, because Naboth is not alive, but dead.”  1 Kings 21:15

“But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.  When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well…Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”  Matthew 5:39,42

Piety

May our prayers today echo the thoughts of the psalmist.  At dawn and midday and noon and night, we bring our plea expectantly before the Lord for peace in our hearts and our heads and our world.  God delights not in wickedness but hates all evildoers like Ahab and Jezebel.  Cultivate a nature of peace within us and our nation as we look to the events unfolding around us.   

Study

Can there be two more opposite readings paired in the liturgical calendar?  The reading from Matthew preaches altruism, generosity, obedience and humility.  The first reading from the Book of Kings tells the story of conniving, deceit, murder, false witness, conspiracy and theft. 

Jezebel outright manipulated the economic and social order, law, and religious observance to eliminate a faithful Israelite landowner who frustrates Ahab’s will.  Perhaps had Naboth been “generous,” and given his vineyard over to Ahab, then Jezebel would not have woven the plot against him.  But what made either of them feel entitled to own or obtain legally or otherwise, Naboth’s land?

Naboth did not have the legal right to sell the vineyard.  According to sources that explain the Jewish system of land tenure and distribution, land was held in common within a social unit such as the family. The ancestral land was not private property, to be sold at will by Naboth.  And both Ahab and Jezebel knew this.    

Matthew, on the other hand, explains the ideal of generosity in the face of the enemy and the person in need.  Rather than building up stores of riches, Jesus advocates for sharing everything – even the clothes on your back. 

Action

This weekend, the drums of war were being beaten again and again over the situation in Iraq.  The situation calls to mind the analogy that former National Security Adviser Colin Powell told President George W. Bush.   In his advice to President Bush before the Iraq invasion in 2003, Powell warned the president of the Pottery Barn rule: you break it, you own it. The United States would be responsible, Powell implied, for whatever wreckage the military incurred in its headlong dash to unseat Saddam Hussein.

Now, after US troops pulled out of Iraq, unrest throughout the country is rampant and insurgents are tearing it apart at the borders.  The Iraqi army seems powerless to defend the country and the government is ineffective.

What should we do?  Clearly, we do not want to allow another nation to become the breeding ground for terrorists who are intent on attacking America or its allies and interests.  Yet, after more than ten years of occupation, thousands of lives lost, countless bodies maimed, and billions of dollars spent, we could not fix Iraq. 

St. Pope John Paul the Great spoke out strongly against a possible war in Iraq, saying military force must be “the very last option” and that its use would be a defeat for humanity.  Pope Francis echoes that call and just a week ago held a prayer summit in his garden.  He asks all people of good will to pray for peace in the Middle East rather than beating the drums of renewing a war in the cradle of civilization.