“My Son Absalom!” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

“My Son Absalom!” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”  (2 Samuel 19:1)

Listen, Lord, and answer me! (Psalm 86:1a)

He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that, they were utterly astounded. (Mark 5:41:42)

Piety

Father, help me to appreciate the awesome of Your love, most especially when I know I don’t deserve it. Help me get back on the path You desire for me.

Study

Consider the life and death of Absalom.

He was David’s third son and possibly his favorite of his older group of sons. He inherited David’s good looks—and other less admirable attributions. Angered by the rape of his sister by one of their half-brothers, Absalom waited two years, then killed the half-brother. Three years in self-imposed exile followed before David welcomed him back home. When he did, things went from bad to worse, with Absalom leading a revolt against his father that seemed headed for success, until a particular battle in which David’s forces prevailed. Then that gorgeous long hair of Absalom’s resulted in his doom. It got tangled in a tree as he rode underneath it, and David’s commander, despite specific orders to take the young man alive, killed him.

David’s mournful cry when he hears the news touches our hearts and souls. It’s the pain of a parent who deeply loves the child, regardless of all the treachery and conniving that came between them. It’s about loss that can never be regained, loss that never had to happen.

Yes, consider the life and death of Absalom. And consider how our own treachery and conniving, even on a smaller scale, grieves God.

There’s one important difference.

We can stop the grief today by stopping the actions that offend Him. We can love instead of hating, embrace instead of shunning, accept instead of rejecting. If we can’t do it for ourselves, let’s do it for Him.

Action

Disentangle your soul from that place that keeps you from the full reunion with the Father.

Image Credit: Gustave Doré [Public domain]

Hope Does Not Disappoint

Hope Does Not Disappoint

February 3 – Memorial of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr

“Not only that, we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: "Go into the whole world

and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16

Piety

Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and every other illness:  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Study

Popular piety frequently construes setbacks, troubles, and illness as punishment for sin. Instead, Paul assures believers that God’s justifying action in Jesus Christ is a declaration of peace. The sign of that: Christ’s crucifixion. Through this singular act, God displays His initiative in marking all humanity for unimpeded access into His divine presence for eternity.

While God offers this freely, our reconciliation shares God’s pardon of the entire human race. Through faith, we benefit personally from this pardon.  That is what Paul means with the term “justified by faith.” (5:1)

God’s ultimate aim is to liberate us from the temptations we face daily in our usual pre-Christian self (ego).  Our freedom will not find fulfillment until the future state of our death and resurrection. The present moment is our struggle, but we have an eternal hope that the battle has an end.   

Because this fullness of salvation belongs to the future, Paul calls it the Christian hope. Paul’s Greek term for hope does not, however, suggest a note of uncertainty, to the effect: “I wonder whether God really means it.” God means it. We do not have to wonder, like what will I get for my birthday?

“Thanks to God’s promise in the gospel, we can be filled with the expectation and anticipation for the guaranteed climactic gift of unalloyed commitment in the Holy Spirit to the performance of the will of God.” (emphasis added)[i]

Action

In the end, our illnesses, pains, and persecutions teach us to be patient and strengthen our ultimate hope.  All along our path of faith, there are little reinforcing gifts that God offers to us to help out and strengthen us on the journey.  Today reminds me of one such offering that I learned about in third-grade Catechism class on dreary, overcast, cold February 3, 1968. 

At St. Mary’s parish in New Monmouth, NJ, the public-school students (like me) always had laywomen or nuns for these Saturday morning classes. Watch out if a priest showed up.  I thought that meant someone was in trouble with a capital T. I, for one had a distinct fear (it was not yet awe) of the black-cassocked priests when encountered without the color of joyful Sunday vestments.

In strode Father Charles Kelley (don’t even ask how I remember his name but perhaps the latent fear crystallized the embedded memory) carrying nothing but his purple stole and two unlit candles to give us a lesson in St. Blaise[ii] and bless our throats.  For a second-grader, this appeared to be a Catholic flu vaccine to protect us from the common cold during the winter.

This annual blessing of throats[iii] is a traditional sign of the struggle against illness in the life of the Christian. We know very little about his life, so I have to wonder how we connect our throats to his life? Like St. Luke, Blaise was a physician before becoming a bishop. His cult spread throughout the entire Church in the Middle Ages because he was reputed to have miraculously cured a little boy who nearly died because of a fishbone in his throat (before “Saint” Heimlich invented his maneuver). From the eighth century onward, the faithful invoke St. Blaise on behalf of the sick, especially those afflicted with illnesses of the throat.    

Getting your throat blessed today?

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[i] http://www.usccb.org/bible/romans/5:1#53005001-1

 

[ii] In 14 years of blogging, Your Daily Tripod (www.yourdailytripod.blogspot.com) has never mentioned St. Blaise.  We mentioned Cardinal Blaise Cupich. We quoted Blaise Pascal just last week. However, never once (according to a Google search of the site) did we ever address how the beeswax blessed on Candlemas was used the next day. Now, we have.

[iii]Fortunately, every time my throat has been blessed, the candles were not lit.  So the ceremony had little chance to create a homonym of today’s featured saint.

Who Will Endure? By Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)

Who Will Endure? By Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Piety

Thus, says the Lord God: Lo, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me; And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek…But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner's fire, or like the fuller's lye. (Malachi 3:1-2)

When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord… (and Simeon said) "My eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." (Luke 2:22-23, 30-32)

Study

Any woman who has been captivated by the Lord Jesus, and feels an intense burden for others, understands why Anna went to the temple during the day and evening worshipping with fasting and prayer.

Anna fasted and prayed. Fasting brings a change in consciousness. Internal dialogue slows down; the mind quiets so you can hear deeper longings.

Anna prayed for her nation, testifying to Jesus to Israel “to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.” The word redemption means liberation or deliverance, from the Roman rule, from their sinfulness, trauma, and despair.

It changed her from the hurt of losing her husband at a young age to be a prophetic hope-holder for a nation because she knew the solution was spiritual in the person of the Messiah.

A teenager named Paige Hunter is also a hope-holder for others. She was suicidal after a traumatic event in her life; she spiraled downwards and found herself standing on the rails of the Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland, England.

We just heard about Mary’s heart in Luke 2:35 that “a sword will pierce it so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

The sword of maternal grief that she will suffer as she stands at the foot of her Son's cross.  St. Ambrose, following Hebrews 4:12 said that the "sword" is a spiritual judgment that exposes the thoughts of anyone who comes into the presence of the crucified Christ.

Wearmouth Bridge

Two people in a van stopped nearby and talked Paige Hunter down from jumping off the bridge.

She never got to thank them, but she began tying hand-written, laminated notes intended to give people hope and encouragement to keep living and placing them on the bridge. Many people have since told her that her notes saved them from suicide. In 2018, the Police Superintendent presented her with a commendation for her contributions towards the mental health of her community.

Paige is currently a student at East Durham College, where she studies health and social care, turning her passion into a career.

What are the sources of your hope?

God is releasing a similar grace that Anna had upon a whole generation of women who will operate in the same anointing, making known the revelation of Jesus to give hope and purpose to the lost and hurting so that they find and know their way.

Now, for men, we hear that Simeon was righteous and devout. Righteous means obeying God’s law. Devout means to carry out religious duties.

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen said that “Pleasure is a by-product, not a goal. Happiness must be our bridesmaid, not our bride. Many people make the great mistake of aiming directly at pleasure; they forget that pleasure comes only from the fulfillment of some duty or obedience to a law.”

The Gospel and our faith call men to know, like Simeon, that Jesus “is destined for the fall and rise of many…” Thus, individuals choose their fate by deciding for or against Jesus.

Like Anna, Simeon frequented the Temple, now the Church, where for them, like us, is a privileged place where God’s revelation and some key salvific actions take place (Luke 2:46.49; 19:45-47).

The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is like the Offertory part of Holy Mass when people bring and offer up the gifts of bread and wine. Simeon’s perspective is not personal or individualistic but focuses on the people of Israel. He makes himself a gift or offering.

Think of the timing – Simeon came in the Spirit into the temple. The courtyard around the temple was more than thirty-five acres and full of people. Anna, too, “And coming forward at that very time,” they Mary and Joseph carrying baby Jesus.

God’s timing is always perfect. And God is never late.

Action

Simeon got to hold Jesus. “He took him into his arms and blessed God.” He prays to God looking at Jesus.

We are all called to be ready to stand before God, our Maker. To be at peace with God, knowing that Jesus completely atoned for our sins.

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation.”

Amen.

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Piety

"Now, the rich man received a visitor, but he would not take from his own flocks and herds to prepare a meal for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and made a meal of it for his visitor," [said Nathan].  David grew very angry with that man and said to him: "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this merits death! He shall restore the ewe lamb fourfold because he has done this and has had no pity." 2 Samuel 12:4-6

A violent squall came up, and waves were breaking over the boat so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" Mark 4:37-38

Study

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

In hindsight benefitting from more than two millennia, we know that is the wrong question. Of course, Jesus cares that we are perishing.  Why else would his Father send him out of Paradise to this rock?

However, the disciples do not realize that they are at risk of “perishing” NOT from the storm or the seas, but from their sin, lack of faith, and inaction. St. Mark depicts Jesus as “asleep on a cushion,” but the real people who are asleep on a cushion are the disciples and us.

In reaction, Jesus commanded the seas to be still. However, the men in the boat were still agitated. Although the storm no longer was cause for concern, they were still concerned and disturbed trying to rationalize who this man among them was that he exerted such power over nature.

Like David, rather than judging the rich man, Nathan implies that David should judge himself by the same standards with which he judges others. Look inward David, at your adultery. Look inward, disciples, at your indifference.

Jesus can conquer demons far better than we can. Jesus conquers diseases (like leprosy and the coronavirus). Jesus defeats the natural forces of the earth (like earthquakes in Puerto Rico and wildfires in Australia and volcanoes in the Philippines).  As we saw earlier in this liturgical year, Jesus controlled the demons with just a few words (“Quiet! Come out of him!”) Today Jesus rebukes the wind and subdue the sea the same way with only a few words (“Quiet! Be still!”). Yet those closest to Jesus can not seem to add 2 + 2 and conclude what the demons seem to know.  This special person is the Messiah.

The real issue today is NOT that Jesus does not care if we perish.  The real problem is Jesus challenging our faith.  "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" (Mark 4:40)

Even great faith is not enough unless proper action springs from that faith. We see in David, a man of great faith who knows how to mete out justice among his people when looking outwardly and facing the dishonest shepherd. However, despite that faith, David continues to act selfishly and pursue his desires. He asks for forgiveness. However, David still must pay the price for his misdeeds.

Action

Rather than looking outwardly for Jesus to save us from the turbulence in our

lives, perhaps we need to look inward and assess what might be causing us to risk perishing. What fogs our vision and agitates our lives? On this Super Bowl LIV Weekend, are we asleep on our cushions?  Why are we terrified?

We never know what the next hour or the next day or the next week have in store.  Last Sunday, the former pro basketball player Kobe Bryant woke up and went to Mass just like any other Sunday.  He heard the First Reading:  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone.” He recited the Psalm with the congregation: “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” He heard that “Christ did not send [him] to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.”

The Liturgy of the Word culminated with the call to “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once, they left their nets and followed him.

Just a few hours later, Kobe walked onto a Sikorsky helicopter with his thirteen-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people, not knowing that it would crash into the side of a hill just a few minutes later. He did not know that in minutes he would forever leave the nets of the basketball courts behind him. 

Are we asleep on our cushions?  Why are we terrified?