I Believe

Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

By Colleen O’Sullivan

Brothers and sisters:  If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith…  (I)f Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.  (1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 17-19)

Piety

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.  He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.  He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.  (from the Nicene Creed)

Study

The apostle Paul must have faced a tough crowd in Corinth.  (I fear he would face an equally skeptical audience today in many places.)  Toward the end of this letter to the Christians in that city, Paul addresses those who claim there is no resurrection of the dead.  In a series of “if…then” propositions, he challenges the Corinthians’ logic.

There are a slew of ramifications for every one of us if Jesus Christ wasn’t raised from the dead. 

• If Jesus’ dead body was merely surreptitiously removed from the tomb, then not one of us is going to be raised up on the last day or ever.  When we die, that’s it.  The end.  No heavenly reunion with loved ones or eternal life with Christ. 
• All those sins we’ve committed over a lifetime added to the weight of original sin?  We may have forgiven ourselves, but that’s as far as forgiveness goes.   
• The prayers we’ve offered up every day and every night – who’s receiving them?  No one’s listening; they’ll never be answered.

If all those things were true, as Paul said, we are to be pitied.

Even though no one photographed Jesus rising from his deathbed and leaving the tomb, even though we have no artifacts that “scientifically” put any doubts to rest, I firmly believe in Jesus’ Resurrection.  Too many people reported seeing the Risen Lord and too many lives were changed not to believe.  Who but Jesus could have turned Cleopas and his traveling companion around on the road to Emmaus?  The two of them were trudging home in the depths of despair.  Their lives had gone bust.  They had staked everything on Jesus and now they were slinking home, tails between their legs, dreading the ridicule of family and friends.  But, in the breaking of the bread, they recognized their friend and teacher.  They barely finished their meal before they were racing back to Jerusalem, bursting with the news that Jesus was alive!  They had seen him!  Mary Magdalene saw Jesus in the Garden and she, too, reported this to the other disciples.  Her tears dried up, transformed by joy.  Her beloved Jesus lived!  Peter, ashamed and repentant to the depths of his being for his betrayals of the one he loved deeply, met the risen Christ and was forgiven and made clean again at an early morning fish fry.  Even the apostle Paul himself encountered the risen Christ on the road to Damascus.  Stopped dead in his tracks and rendered blind, he went from brutally terrorizing and persecuting Jesus’ followers to becoming one of the most fervent and renowned Christians throughout history.

Auferstehung (1916), By Christian Rohlfs - repro from artbook,
Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10900652

I believe because of these reports of the first-century lives being turned around and transformed by the risen Christ.  I believe because, as I look about, I still see the power of Resurrection at work in our lives.  A young man I know attempted to dull the pain in his life with drugs and became addicted.  Today, he is a drug counselor.  Someone I know, who years ago seemed somewhat skeptical about the faith, met Jesus on the road he was traveling.  Today, he carries the Gospel and Jesus’ healing and mercy to people in distant areas around the world.   In my own life, and I’m sure in yours, there have been instances when my own efforts have turned to ashes, yet the Risen Christ has coaxed new life from the ruins.

Action

Take a few moments when you are praying to consider what your life would be like if Jesus hadn’t been raised from the dead.  Then pray a prayer of thanksgiving because Jesus is very much alive in our hearts and in our world.  

My Soul to Glow in Christ’s Love

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

By Beth DeCristofaro

Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the Apostles, not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)

When (from the cross) Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” (John 19:26)

Piety

O sweet Mother! font of love,
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with yours accord.

Make me feel as you have felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.

(from the Stabat Mater) http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091516.cfm

Study

This week’s news included a story of a school bus catching fire, becoming engulfed in flames as it drove elementary children home from school.  The bus driver is credited with getting every child off in time so that there were no injuries.  As she was interviewed she said that she heard people were calling her a hero.  But, she said, “I’m just a mom.  I have a four-year-old.”  And she continued, explaining she had just done her job.

Mary was a mother just doing her job.  Her job, of course, was raising the Son of God.  But it was also changing diapers, making fresh bread each day, hauling water from the communal well, observing the Sabbath and training her son, along with Joseph, to be a good, observant Jew.    Did she fear for Jesus playing with the other children on the rocks near Nazareth?  Did she join other mothers bragging and worrying about their kids’ learning, activities, and health?  We don’t know.  What we do know is that she “pondered” in her heart all that she saw, from an angel announcing her pregnancy to the words of Simeon in the temple and all the other usual and uncommon occurrences in the life of this son of hers, this son of God.

And she stood at the foot of his cross like parents have done through time immemorial as they watch, helplessly, their children become victims of war, addicted, perpetrators of crimes, wounded or killed by gun violence.  Jesus gave her to all who also grieve, fear, despair.  She is our mother, just doing her job.

Action

In the words of the Stabat Mater: “Make me feel as you have felt; Make my soul to glow and melt with the love of Christ, my Lord.” Mary “partakes in our pain” because she has been there before us and is with us.  How might we go about our day aware that our pains, sorrows, joys are transcended by her sorrow and service?  Be open to the love of Christ melting and making your soul glow as did hers. 

Are All Apostles?

Memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

By Melanie Rigney

Valentin de Boulogne [Public domain], 

via Wikimedia Commons.

Now you are Christ’s Body, and individually parts of it. Some people God has designated in the Church to be, first, Apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; the mighty deeds; then gifts of healing, assistance, administration, and varieties of tongues. Are all Apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:27-31)

We are his people; the sheep of his flock. (Psalm 100:3)

(Jesus) stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. (Luke 7:14-15)

Piety

Jesus, touch this coffin that I might arise and give You praise.

Study

As anyone who reads Your Daily Tripod or knows me is well aware, there are a

lot of things I don’t do well: Control my facial expressions. Hold my tongue. Exercise patience. Acknowledge my God-given gifts. Oh, I’m better at some of them than I once was, but still nowhere near where the Lord desires me to be. I suspect many of you could come up with a list like this. For me, it’s a lot easier than rattling off what I think I do well.

Today’s reading from 1 Corinthians challenges those of us who can recite a litany of our flaws.  Paul speaks of the gifts given to the Body, as varied and textured as it is. In one way or another, we do have all these gifts, and maybe what we regard as flaws and rightly seek to improve can from time to time be useful to others: maybe my lack of patience sometimes moves along stalled processes, for example, or my doubtful, quizzical looks help others revisit faulty plans.

Which gifts we have in which situation isn’t as important as exercising them, weak or strong, at every opportunity. May we worry less about exercising them with perfection… and more about offering them with faith, hope, and love.

Action

Make a list of three things you do well… and how you can use them today to bring souls to the Kingdom.

Wait For One Another

Monday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes…Therefore, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.  1 Corinthians 11:26, 33

And Jesus went with them, but when he was only a short distance from the house, the centurion sent friends to tell him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Therefore, I did not consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word and let my servant be healed.  Luke 7:6-7

Piety

Looking Up or Three Days in September

Song by Cletus Kennelly that he wrote on September 13, 2001

Study

Wait. Waiting.  One meaning of wait is to be at rest and inactive.  However, another way to look at it is to be ready.  Two things strike me about these readings. One is action and the other is lack of action. A very Christmas “Oh Come Emmanuel” feeling.

St. Paul recounts the creation of the Eucharist and he tells people to act.  Do this.  However, in spurring his followers to action, he also tells them to no act.  When you come together, wait for one another.  Don’t start the celebration until everyone is there.  Wait for one another before you wait on one another.

Waiting is not solely a passive activity.  Waiting is something that is engrained in sacred scripture and tradition. From the earliest days, the people were waiting for the Messiah.  That carried forward to the shepherds watching their sheep in the field on the night before Christmas. It also was important in the passion when Jesus asks will no one wait up with me while I pray?

Luke recounts and action and reaction story as well.  The centurion wants Jesus to come heal his servant.  And as word gets to Jesus, Jesus sets out on the healing mission like the father in the Prodigal Son story.  Jesus does not wait.  While Jesus is still a long way off, the centurion sends other servants to tell Jesus not to bother coming any further. Jesus turns and goes away but the faith-inspired healing action has already taken place.  Whether or not Jesus reaches the physical destination, he has reached the heart of the centurion. That, it seems, is close enough.

Jesus does not sit around waiting.  He goes out to get things done – even if it means acting to heal someone on the Sabbath. Jesus is a man of action.  We do not find him waiting around without a purpose.  Everything he does has a reason and a season.

Action

For what are you on the look-out? Maybe you are waiting for a doctor to call with test results or news of a pending procedure.  Maybe you are waiting for a package that you ordered to be delivered.  Maybe you are waiting for the letter carrier to bring news of a college application or a phone call about a job interview.  Maybe it is just for the traffic to start moving so you can get to your destination somewhat close to being on time.

Please wait to be seated.  Wait here for the next available agent.  Stop Here and

wait for the gate to open. Even when you call someone on the telephone, you are probably placed in a cue. The Doctor will see you now. Do this.  Don’t do that.  Can’t you read the sign?

On the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, the disciples were once again found sitting around waiting and looking up.  Why are you standing around looking up?  Jesus told us what we need to do. It did not include standing around and waiting.  It included commands like “Remember me.”  Or “Feed my sheep.” 

So, what are you waiting for? You already have an invitation for a dinner to honor Jesus of Nazareth.  

The Lost Have Been Found

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, “Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?  … you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’”  So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. (Ezekiel 32:11, 13-14)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these, I am the foremost. But for that reason, I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. (1 Timothy 1:14-15)

‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. (Luke 15:7)

Piety

We pray, O God,

Brother Robert, Lenz, OFM

for all Christians, Muslims, Hindus or Jews  
whose hearts are consumed
by a zeal that has hardened them;

All whose vision is partial,
whose mind is narrowed,
whose perceptions are simplified,
whose soul is poisoned.

And yet, O God, we read of Jesus that
"zeal for your house consumed him".

His life teaches us that
without the zeal of a burning love for you
that will endure through
the night-time of our enmities
we shall not see your kingdom come.

So we ask, O God, that you give us
a zeal that insists on acceptance
a commitment that endures in non-violence
and a patience that works for your coming;

and teach us to hate
only our tribalism and prejudice
which separate us
from those different to us.

We ask it in the name of the Prince of Peace,
Jesus Christ Our Lord,
Amen.     (http://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/in-times-of-terrorism.cfm)

Study

God’s mercy is so great it is truly hard to comprehend.  Moses pleads successfully with God not to devastate an idolatrous, stiff-necked and depraved people.  Paul witnessed to the sin within his own heart which was purified and made into holy fodder for his teaching about Christ by the sacrifice of the cross.  And Jesus shares stories of those lost and found – sinners, prodigals, persecutors, one who misplaces her treasure – all pursued by a merciful God who runs to greet us.  God is ready to give comfort, new life and forgiveness to those of us who squander our fortune as well as to those of us who are ignorant in unbelief. Lost is lost, God does not keep a metric of who is most deserving of mercy.  To offer mercy allows us a glimpse into the mystery of a creating, ever renewing eternal love.

Action

In Jesus’ life, sacrifice and resurrection we have already been found.  And so have all others who seek and accept.  Pray for your own continual sojourn within his flock.  Pray for those outside.  We need not fear or treat them with disgust for they are lost.  Pray that they might be found.  Perhaps the Shepherd is already hoisting them on His shoulders.  What might you do to open the sheepfold gate for someone today?

Icon of the Bedouin Good Shepherd available at:

https://www.trinitystores.com/store/art-image/good-shepherd-0

Staying Fit

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest

By Colleen O’Sullivan

Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize?  Run so as to win.  Every athlete exercises discipline in every way.  They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.  Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.  No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.  (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

Piety

O God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption,
look graciously upon your beloved sons and daughters,
that those who believe in Christ
may receive true freedom
and an everlasting inheritance.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
(Collect for Week 23, Creighton University's Praying Ordinary Time Home Page)

Study

In today’s first reading, Paul alludes to the Isthmian Games conducted the year before and the year after the Greek Olympics.  Besides athletic events, the games also included chariot racing and poetry and music contests.  The original prize was a celery wreath or crown, which was later replaced by a laurel wreath.  Only the person winning first place received one.  There were no silver or bronze medals in those days.  Everyone in Paul's day would have known exactly what the use of powerful imagery of athletes meant.

The apostle uses imagery from these games to describe our lives as Christians.  He makes one distinction, however.  The prize for winning an Isthmian Games event was a wreath that would wilt and dry up within a few days.  The prize we seek as Christians, being with Jesus forever in God’s Kingdom, is imperishable.  Win that crown, and it will never wither or fade.

So just how do we followers of Jesus Christ train and keep ourselves fit?  I'm no athlete, but I do know that different types of sports call for different sorts of training.  We soon realize that the journey as a Christian is more a marathon than a sprint.  Faith calls for endurance and perseverance.

When the way is steep, and we grow weary, what is it that keeps us going?  Primarily, it's loving Jesus and wanting to be with him.  We don't love people we don't know intimately, and being close friends with Jesus happens through Scripture study and prayer.  For me, the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises have been an extraordinary means for growing closer to the Lord. 

Along the way, we try to let go of the things that tie us to this world and hold us back.  Maybe it's unhealthy relationships from which we need to walk away.  Maybe it's climbing the career ladder that has diverted our attention.  There may be many encumbrances we need to shed if we're going be able to keep on running toward the goal.

Companionship along the way is a big help.  When your energy is waning, or your spirits are flagging, having someone running beside you, encouraging you, helps.  And Cursillo provides us with running companions.  Sometimes our fellow Cursillistas carry us, and sometimes we carry them.  That’s being Christ to one another.

There may only have been one winner for each event in the Isthmian Games, but Jesus loves all of us and wants all of us to be there at the finish line.  He hopes and desires that we will be with him for all eternity.

Action

I took piano lessons for ten years when I was young.  As I was pondering Paul's words, I remembered one music teacher saying:  "If you don't practice for a day, you'll know it.  If you don't practice for two days, musicians will be able to tell.  But, if you let three days go by without practicing, everyone will know it.

"

It's the same principle in our lives as Christians.  We have to be disciplined.  When we don't pray for a few days, it's all too easy just to let talking with Jesus fall by the wayside.  If we don't discern the disordered attachments that hold us back spiritually, they can weigh us down and pull us entirely off track.  The solitary life isn’t the Christian life.  Going it alone can leave us feeling discouraged and ready to give up.  To stay the course, we need each other.

Does your fitness/training program need any tweaking?

She Stood Firm with the Son

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By Beth DeCristofaro

https://orthodoxportlandmaine.org/tag/birth-of-mary/

The LORD says: You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel …He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD.  (1 Micah 5:1, 4)

And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30)

…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)

Piety

Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord,

The gift of heavenly grace,

That the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin

May bring deeper peace

To those for whom the birth of her Son

Was the dawning of salvation.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

One God forever and ever.

    (Collect from the Mass for the Day)

Study

Do Not Be Afraid.  God calls, justifies and glorifies.  God chooses from the small and powerless.  God chose a poor, illiterate peasant girl to be the Theotokos, the Queen of All Saints, the Mother of the Universal Church.  She stood firm even unto the Cross.

God chose another poor girl who grew up under communism to be God’s light to the poorest of the poor and Mother Theresa stood firm to bring light to the hopeless.  God also chose a socialist-leaning, cynical journalist to serve the homeless in this country.  Dorothy Day stood firm following the Shepherd; she modeled God’s profligate mercy.  God has chosen countless others.  God calls each one of us, Cursillstas, imperfect, ordinary sinners to stand firm and walk with the Shepherd. 

Action

Are we walking with Him as Mary, Theresa, Dorothy and others elected to do each and every of the often difficult days of their lives? Today look at every person you encounter and see Dorothy, Theresa or Mary.  How would you react to them, treat them, talk with them, interact with them if he/she were the saint whose face you are imaging?  God gives her/him the chance to be a saint.  God sees the promise of sainthood in each of us as well.

Power Came Forth from Him

Tuesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

I say this to shame you. Can it be that there is not one among you wise enough to be able to settle a case between brothers? But rather brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers? (1 Corinthians 6:5-6)

Domenico Ghirlandaio [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Sing to the Lord a new song of praise in the assembly of the faithful. (Psalm 149:1)

Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all. (Luke 6:19)

Piety

Jesus, touch me.

Study

People like to be around holiness.

Consider the way people clamored to be around the newly canonized Teresa of Calcutta. Consider the way people lined up for blocks to catch a glimpse of Pope Francis while he was in the United States almost a year ago. And in today’s Gospel reading from Luke 6, we are reminded that everyone in the crowd wanted to touch Jesus “because power came forth from him and healed them all.”

Now, Teresa wasn’t a great orator, nor is Francis. But anyone who was near them can attest to the feeling of healing that came from them as well. It’s in us all. Because, you see, healing isn’t always about curing blindness or deafness or bringing people back from the dead. It can be relieving a friend who’s weighed down by caregiving at home. It can be sending a card to someone who’s struggling at work. It can be listening to someone talk about how the grief of losing a loved one just feels like too much to bear, months or years after the loss occurred.

Think about the people—family members, friends, and others—you most like to be around. Chances are they’re not the ones with the best jokes or the best education or the most expensive house, although they may possess any or all of those things. But it’s likely the reasons you are drawn to them have less to do with those attributes than their listening skills, their compassion, and their kindness.

People like to be around holiness.

Action

Endeavor to reflect holiness in all your interactions today.

Stretch Out Your Hand

Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.  Luke 6:9-11

Piety

"The fruit of silence is prayer"

--- Teach us to pray.
"The fruit of prayer is faith."

--------Help us to believe.
"The fruit of faith is love."

-----------Guide us to love.
"The fruit of love is service."

--------Strengthen us to serve.
"The fruit of service is peace."

------Lead us to peace.

(Prayer on the back of Saint Mother Teresa, M.C., of Kolkata’s business card)

Study

We encounter some very “yeasty” readings for the end-of-summer.  Work is the common theme between the today’s Scripture and today’s “holy-day” in American civil religion.  To celebrate the works that we do, we take the Labor Day Weekend day off.  To celebrate the works that Jesus commands, the Messiah takes a day to engage his followers in the works of mercy.  We are there to see Christ stretching out his hands in service to cure the crippled man in the temple.  Where is the corruption in that act?  Precisely because Jesus went to work on the Sabbath is why and how he got himself into trouble.

Yeast, which induces fermentation, is a natural symbol for a source of corruption that becomes all-pervasive. Once the fermentation process begins, it is hard to end.  The dough will keep rising.  Beer will keep brewing. The old yeast of corruption will keep corrupting. However, the new yeast of mercy will remain perfectly merciful.

In the Jewish calendar, Passover was followed immediately by the festival of Unleavened Bread. In preparation for this feast all traces of old bread were removed from the house, and during the festival, only unleavened bread was eaten. The sequence of these two feasts provides Paul with an image of Christian existence: Christ’s death (the true Passover celebration) is followed by the life of the Christian community, marked by newness, purity, and integrity (a perpetual feast of unleavened bread). [i]

Jesus is showing the sincerity and truth of the works of mercy.  He commands the man with the disability to stretch out his hands, just like Jesus will do as he is nailed to his cross.  The crippled man complies with Jesus’ commandment. 

Jesus wanted to throw out the old bread of blindly following rituals in favor of the new bread of life dedicated to blindly performing works of mercy.  We are fed by the new unleavened bread of the Eucharist. Once Jesus starts to leaven his environment with the spirit of service without regard to the day of the week, mercy also becomes pervasive.  Maybe that is why the scribes and Pharisees feel so threatened.

Action

If you looked at the pictures and video broadcast from St. Peter’s Square anytime this weekend, you could be forgiven for thinking it is a good time to be a Catholic nun. The canonization of St. Mother Teresa of Kolkata brought out throngs of worshippers for the Mass.  Tens of thousands were there – so many that if you stretched out your hands, you would probably hit the person next to you in the nose. 

Mother Teresa stretched out her hands to lift up the poor and the sick.  She stretched out her hands to form a community called the Missionaries of Charity.  Pope Francis explained, "[Saint Mother Teresa] bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity," Francis said. "She made her voice heard before the powers of this world so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime of poverty they created."

But, -- unfortunately – the publicity has not been as good for some as it has been for others.

Take Sr. Sola Matas, 51.  She was born in Barcelona but spent her adult life and ministry in Haiti.  Sola was a member of the Congregation of the Religious of Jesus and Mary.  She helped raise tens of thousands of dollars to build a parish vocational school where Haitians could learn everything from catering to electrical wiring to music.  Sister Sola was gunned down while driving an old SUV through the crowded street of Port Au Prince.  Her purse was stolen.  I cannot even image how little was in that purse.

Take Sr. Paula Merrill, a nun with Kentucky-based Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.  She was a nurse practitioner to residents of one of Mississippi's poorest counties.

Take Sr. Margaret Held, a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who was living her dream of erasing racism and poverty in the deep South.

Sr. Paula and Sr. Margaret were stabbed at home, apparently victims of a robbery.  The car one of them owned was found a short distance away.  At least, in this case, the alleged murderer is in custody and news reports say he has confessed.

We pray in gratitude for the precious lives of Sisters Sola, Paula, and Margaret … they and others are drawn to the consecrated life as brides of Jesus.  They serve the poor so well.  Why would modern scribes and Pharisees, thieves and blind fools cut off that wellspring of love? Despite these acts, we remain a church of Hope.

What religious sister stretched out her hands to you in service?  Who is your hope, your inspiration?

---

[i] http://www.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/5#54005007-1

Carry Your Own Cross

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Rev. Paul Berghout

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

Piety

Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. Wisdom 9:13-14

Study

Clear and direct communication is the healthiest form of communication.  Jesus tells you up front that being a disciple will definitely take effort and commitment by having to choose him over all other people, including family, and even yourself, and to carry your cross.

Satan practices unhealthy communication; he shows you the glamor of evil and tempts you, and then switches things to bad if you fall for it. After all, John 8:44 calls him the father of lies.

Ron Swanson said, “There's only one thing I hate more than lying, Skim milk, which is water that's lying about being milk.”  Or Kimchi made with no gochujang (or kochukaru)!

Up front, Jesus says you have to be spiritually detached from family and blood relatives, and even all our possessions in order to be his disciple.

Self-discipline keeps us from clinging to things and to people. To become detached from one’s will is perhaps the greatest detachment of all because it's being detached from having our way.  Perhaps knowing what “attachments” are helped us to desire spiritual detachment.

In describing attachments, St. John of the Cross says that it makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord. Even if it is tied by a thread, the bird will be held bound just as surely as if it were tied by a cord; that is, it will be impeded from flying as long as it does not break the thread.

In the Modern Catholic Dictionary, Father John A. Hardon, S.J. defines an attachment as follows: Emotional dependence either of one person on another or of a person on some real or illusory object. The first condition for progress in sanctity is some mastery over one’s attachments.

We fail to practice mastery over our attachments when we use them in excess of our needs; for purposes other than that for which they were intended; or as ends rather than as means to a legitimate end.

When we “let go,” with detachment, we let God direct us to our destiny. As we surrender control to God, we release anxiety and fear. Detachment even helps to resist temptation; it helps us avoid disordered inclinations and relationships with persons or things. Detachment can help us avoid negative memories and thoughts that keep us from God’s love.

“Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you.”  A spiritual writer tells the story of a villager who runs to the outskirts of the village in search of a certain wise man. In his dream, the Lord told him that upon finding this wise and holy man, the man from the village would be given a precious stone and be rich forever.

He found the wise man, and the wise man rummaged through his bag and found the stone, which he gave gladly to the man. The man from the village gazed in wonder at perhaps the largest diamond in the world and left for home.

All through the night, he was unable to sleep. Before dawn, he ran back to find the wise man, saying, "Give me the wealth that makes it possible for you to give away this diamond so easily."  This is a lesson in letting go, of being disciples.

The second thing Jesus says up front is that you have to carry your cross. 

We have an example of an interior cross from the woman being canonized a saint today, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who said that on September 10, 1946, while on a train in India, she got the call from the Lord to serve him in the poorest of the poor. She had already been a nun for nearly 20 years before she starting working in the slums.  After a while, she wanted not just to help the forgotten sick and dying physically and materially, but she wanted to a better help their sense their isolation, loneliness, and forgotten-ness because she knew they were Christ and by helping them to feel loved, she would quench the thirst that Jesus felt on the Cross.  God allowed her to become spiritually poor and she then spent nearly the rest of her life feeling desolation. “I have come to love the darkness,” she wrote, “for I believe now that it is a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness and pain on earth.”

Action

Everyone has their cross to bear. Everyone has problems and issues that they must deal with. How do you react to the challenges of life? In the lives of each of us, there may be something painful, big or small, something that we wish to be different. The cross can be caused by somebody else, or we may bring a cross on ourselves due to our choices.

In his recent document on marriage, Pope Francis notes that each of spouses should have their alone time in prayer to God each day “since each has his or her secret crosses to bear.”

We should join our crosses to the Cross of Christ, and we will be unburdened instead of burdened. One ship drives east and another drives west on the self-same winds that blow. It is the set of the sails and not the gales that tell them the way they go.”

Hardship itself is not the cross, but if that person faces his burden with the right attitude, with humility and submission to Christ, it is then that the hardship becomes the cross and the denial of self that Jesus is talking about.

A clever comic strip is circulating through the Internet these days. It shows a group of Christians walking in the same direction along a barren plateau on their way to heaven. They all carry large wooden crosses, like the cross Jesus carried. They are all bowed down under the weight. It looks very uncomfortable. One of them stops, lays down his cross, and turns to God in prayer. "Lord," he says, "I want to follow you, but this cross is just too heavy. Can you please lighten it?"

Hearing no answer, he pulls out a saw and cuts down the long end of the cross by about a foot. He continues along carrying his self-customized cross, but it is still uncomfortable, so he stops once again to pray. "Lord, you know that I love you, but I am just not strong enough to carry this cross. It's too big for me!" Then he gets out his saw again and cuts off another two feet. Smiling, he continues his journey.

All of a sudden, he comes to a huge chasm. A deep abyss separates the plateau he is on from the one on the other side, where the road to heaven continues. He doesn't know how to cross the chasm, so he looks around to see what everyone else is doing. He sees that they are laying down their crosses to cover the abyss, like little bridges, and walking along them to the other side. So he lays down his cross to do the same thing. To his horror, he discovers that his cross doesn't reach; it's three feet too short.

Fools On Christ’s Account

Memorial of SaintGregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

For as I see it, God has exhibited us Apostles as the last of all, like people sentenced to death, since we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and men alike. We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clad and roughly treated, we wander about homeless and we toil, working with our own hands. When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.  1 COR 4:9-13

Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”  Luke 6:5

Mother Teresa's Sandals

Piety

I shall follow you, dear Jesus, wherever you may go, in search of souls. (Morning prayer for Missionaries of Charity recited while donning their sandals.)

Study

Jesus, the Sabbath, and the ritual laws are a combustible combination.  Violations of the rules of the community are easily noticed and these violations – like harvesting on the Sabbath – provide Jesus with a welcome pulpit to teach that satisfying human needs such as hunger and performing works of mercy take precedence even over the sacred Sabbath rest.

The root of the issue today in the Good News is the conflict between human need and the rituals.  Jesus explains that the hunger of his disciples outstrips the requirement to blindly observe the rituals. Even though it was technically NOT Jesus who was in violation, as the leader of the band, he must answer for the rest of his companions.

One more thing outshines human need AND ritual law: Jesus himself.  “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”  If there was not already enough conflict to agitate the Pharisees against Jesus, this statement probably puts another nail in Jesus’ cross.  St. Luke fails to provide the reaction of the Pharisees to the first argument or the second.  Instead, he drops this bombshell in verse five and then immediately moves on to another violation.  “On another Sabbath…” No wonder the scribes and the Pharisees were watching him so closely from this point forward. The authorities did not want to be made fools by Christ.

That humility – or lack thereof -- is exactly the difference between the Pharisees and the Apostles.  St. Paul notes that the Apostles were willingly made fools on Christ's account.  The Pharisees refused to give up their authority, strength, and place of honor. No one would mistake Paul’s commentary to the Corinthians as describing the scribes and Pharisees.

And these situations occurred BEFORE Jesus chooses his Twelve.

Action

Are you willing to become a fool on Christ’s account?

On Sunday, Mother Teresa of Kolkata will become St. Teresa of Kolkata (by man’s account – by God’s account, that occurred at least 19 years ago). When she is beatified by Pope Francis, there are many things that we can note about the life of this icon who walked the earth during our lifetime.  For me, some of the enduring images I will recall are when Mother Teresa was visited by Princess Diana. We saw one of the richest, most powerful, women side-by-side with the servant of the poor.

As one blogger noted: “How oddly fitting that Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, who had some connections in life, are connected to each other in death because they died six days apart in 1997. The coverage of Diana’s death made for a somewhat memorable Labor Day weekend that year, which then rolled right into the coverage of Mother Teresa.”

But we do know this much: in their public work, both Mother Teresa and Princess Diana stood out as symbols of love and compassion, publicly speaking out for those who were needy, powerless, and downtrodden. What we know of their charitable work has inspired many people to take a greater interest in causes helping their fellow man, which is the standard of Judgment Christ uses in the parable of the sheep and the goats.[i]

Despite all the wealth and privilege, I wonder if Diana had any real happiness?  Yes, her princely sons.  Yes, her causes – banning landmines, AIDS and more.  Maybe even at some point her husband.  However, the tabloid media scrum that followed her every action and her unfaithful husband stood to break her heart at every turn.  They tried to make her a fool at every turn.  One can only wonder what was in Princess Diana’s heart when she stood next to Mother Teresa, her seemingly exact opposite.  Old.  Poor.  Powerless.  Yet the Princess knew deep down that Mother Teresa was the real royalty. 

Compare the public tragedy of Diana with the private dark nights that Mother Teresa wrote about and – like Mary -- “kept all these things in her heart.”  For fifty years she struggled to regain her faith in Christ: “for there is such terrible darkness within me as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started 'the work.'" Such revelations tell us that the two probably had more in common on those visits than we may ever realize.

Mother Teresa was a willing fool for Christ giving up what she had, picking up her cross of darkness daily, and following Jesus.  This weekend, as we watch the pageantry of sainthood play out in Vatican City, ask yourself, “Are you also willing to become a fool on Christ’s account?”

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[i] http://www.keithhunt.com/jesse/diana-teresa.htm

New Clothes, New Wineskins, New Life in Christ

Friday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

By Colleen O’Sullivan

Brothers and sisters:  Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.  Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.  (1 Corinthians 4:1-2)

And he also told them a parable…   “(N)o one pours new wine into old wineskins.  Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.  Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.  And no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

Piety

O Lord, may my heart be filled with love for you, and may that love guide my thoughts, my words, and my actions.   May I be moved to share your love for me with those I encounter today.

Study

A couple of years ago, I went to see the art exhibit Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.  I remember being entranced by a portrait of Mary holding her young son Jesus where both of them are laughing and having a good time together.   There ought to be more art like that.  I don’t think Jesus could have convinced his inner circle of twelve to leave jobs and families to follow him if he didn’t seem to really be enjoying what he was doing.  I picture Jesus kindly smiling at people who come to him for help or healing.  In the Gospels, we read about Jesus going to dinner at different people’s homes.  Jesus is a social being.  He enjoys these get-togethers.  Joy is part of life as Jesus experiences it.

The Pharisees take issue with this.  Why does Jesus laugh and party when their disciples and even those of John the Baptist are fasting and praying?  Shouldn’t religious people be solemn and serious?  Jesus says he won’t be on earth forever, so why shouldn’t his friends enjoy life and be happy while he is here.  After all, he is doing something new.  He’s painting a new picture of what it means to be faithful.  Forget the endless tallying of every minor infraction of the Law.  For example, does agonizing over the maximum weight lamp a person can move from one side of a room to the other on the Sabbath bring a person closer to God or positively affect how that person treats his brothers and sisters?  

Jesus’ ideas about faith are new in that they center on relationship – the relationship we have with God and the effect that has on our relationships with one another – rather than merely checking off a list of things to do or not do.  The Pharisees wanted nothing to do with this and neither do a lot of us.  It’s easier to have lists of do’s and don’ts than it is to love God with all our heart. Faith for Jesus begins as an affair of the heart.  When our hearts are full of love, we are joyful.  We smile.  We laugh.  The inner glow shows in our eyes.

Jesus tells two parables to illustrate how the old and the new don’t really mix.  A new piece of unshrunk cloth can never be placed on an old article of clothing.  At the first washing, it will shrink and tear holes in the garment.   Likewise, new wine shouldn’t be put in an old wineskin.  The new wine ferments and expands over time, and the old wineskin will eventually burst and the contents will be wasted.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul is talking to people who have embraced the new life in Jesus.  He says they have become stewards of the “mysteries” of God.  I like to think of these mysteries as treasured truths that we are asked to share with our brothers and sisters. 

Action

Both Paul’s words and Jesus’ parables challenge us to give up the old and embrace the new.  Lose the checklist approach to faith and examine the disposition of our hearts toward God and one another instead.  Forget the idea that religion is a private matter between God and us.  It isn’t.  Instead, live as caretakers of God’s mysteries, sharing them with those we encounter in our families, workplaces, and neighborhoods.  We reveal God’s treasures by our actions every bit as much as in what we say.