June 14, 2009
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.” Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.” Exodus 24:7-8
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Hebrews 9:13-15
He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Mark 14:24-25
Piety
We are a grateful people. We live our lives in Christ, whether we are aware of that or not. We have been baptized into his life which is more than the fact that we are created and born into this world in the image and the likeness of Christ. Baptism makes us temples of the Most High. We have become possessors of the life of Christ. We have been given his Spirit. Eucharist feeds us with the ongoing life of Christ in his Church. It makes it possible for us to grow in God’s life within us. When we ask Christ to come to us, he covers us with his love and forgiveness. God, the Father, sees his Son in what we have asked forgiveness for. He embraces us with the love of the cross which covers all the blackness of our sinfulness with the light of his love. In the giving of Christ, our real self is received.
Study
Every time we approach Eucharist, it is not that we are just eating the body and the blood of Christ. We are participating in the most solemn act of love that is possible. Christ is once again giving us his body and his blood as our body and blood. His life is now our life. He has taken us into his very self. The human Christ of 2000 thousand years ago is safe in heaven. He will never suffer again in the body that was his. The people of God are the Church in the definition of Vatican II and the Church in the definition of the mystical Body is the Christ that we are all part of. We now in our suffering become the suffering of Christ for his Church. Christ had to die that we could be born into the life of Christ. God has loved us so much that God wanted to be one of us. And the Church is so grateful for this incredible love of God that we all together become the Mystical Body of Christ. In the Eucharist, a moment of time belongs to all time. Christ‘s death lives on in every celebration of Eucharist as the one and the same sacrifice of the Cross. The moment of time that we celebrate belongs to all time. It is the one and the same sacrifice. It is the unbloody sacrifice of the cross. The Last Supper, the first Eucharist, was an anticipation of the bloody sacrifice of the Cross. We see it through the eyes of faith now united to the physical dying of Christ on the Cross. All dying is caught up in his death. All suffering becomes redemptive in its union with Christ. Every time we make ourselves Eucharist for the needs of another, the ultimate meaning of life is realized in the love of Christ that captures all love. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us. We are the continuation of his love that captures the truth that wherever there is love, God is there. Love is forever.
Action
So much can be said about Eucharist. It is where the heart of Christ beats in all of us. It unites us to all that is good about life. It gives us the perfect response to the love of God in our efforts to be one with Eucharist. It is the greatest gift that can be given to God on our part when we take up the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord. There is no other apostolic activity in our lives that can equal the return we make to God when we take up the cup of salvation and offer it in the name of the Lord. Precious in the eyes of the Lord are these moments when we no longer live, but Christ lives in us and we live in Christ. Truly we are a Eucharistic People!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
We Are Ambassadors for Christ
June 13, 2009
Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Matthew 5:34-35
Piety
Petitions or Prayers for Farmworker Justice
For the farmworkers who toil in the fields earning sub-poverty wages, without benefits or basic rights enjoyed by most other workers, let us pray to the Lord.
For the liberation and safety of the farmworkers in Florida and throughout the world, who at this very moment, may be held against their will in modern-day slavery, let us pray to the Lord.
For Burger King, Subway, and other corporations that purchase Florida’s tomatoes, that they may heed the call to practice social responsibility and value the dignity of the farmworkers in their supply chain more than their profits, let us pray to the Lord.
For the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Campaign for Fair Food, and all those who are working to transform our food system to respect farmworkers, let us pray to the Lord.
For the mindfulness to remember those who harvest our fruits and vegetables and for the courage to partner with farmworkers to work for justice and dignity, let us pray to the Lord. Amen. (From the Alliance for Fair Food)
Study
Behold! New things have come! Jesus is the new Adam and seeks to recreate us in his countenance just like God created us in his image.
Ever since that beginning, we have been doing things “my way” as Frank Sinatra would sing. Despite such self-indulgence, God does not hold that against us. Instead, he acts exactly opposite of human beings. Instead of counting up our sins, he counts the ways he can bring us back to him. Instead of turning his back on us as we turn our back on him and on our neighbor and on our enemy, God wants to participate in a closer walk with him.
God wants us to conquer fragmentation and separation. So, to unify us with him again, he sends Jesus to be reconciliation. Everything in heaven and on earth is God’s creations. Jesus came to make us new again.
God appealed to us through Christ. Now it is our turn to go out as ambassadors for Christ. Now it is our turn to appeal to the world on behalf of God.
Action
How can we support the farm workers who put food on our table at wages that are so low, many can not even afford to live?
Many of us have become aware in recent years of Fair Trade products like coffee and chocolate. Maybe your parish has joined a growing list of churches and other institutions that make fair trade products like these more widely available.
There is another group of workers who need our help. They are not growing coffee in some distant continent but are picking the tomatoes in Florida that end up on your dinner table, on your sandwich, in your pizza sauce, or adorning your crunchy taco.
The Alliance for Fair Food is a coalition aimed at improving the plight of these farm workers by forging agreements with large grocery store and restaurant chains. They have made progress with agreements with McDonalds, Burger Kings, Taco Bell (and the rest of the Yum! Brands chain of establishments), Whole Foods, and more.
Find out more about how we can support this work and reconciliation with our sisters and brothers who work with little recognition to put food on our table. Visit the web site http://www.allianceforfairfood.org/index.html to learn how we can help put a fair wage in their pocket so they can feed their hungry children and families, too.
Contact the Alliance for postcards. As we head into summer, a simple yet effective step that you can take is to send postcards to the headquarters of major supermarket chains encouraging them to improve wages and conditions in their tomato supply chains. The Alliance has postcards to Ahold (which owns Giant) and other popular restaurant chains like Subway and Chipoltle about joining this campaign and supporting fair wage practices. Send an E-mail to info@allianceforfairfood.org stating which postcards and how many you'd like, and they will send them to you.
Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Matthew 5:34-35
Piety
Petitions or Prayers for Farmworker Justice
For the farmworkers who toil in the fields earning sub-poverty wages, without benefits or basic rights enjoyed by most other workers, let us pray to the Lord.
For the liberation and safety of the farmworkers in Florida and throughout the world, who at this very moment, may be held against their will in modern-day slavery, let us pray to the Lord.
For Burger King, Subway, and other corporations that purchase Florida’s tomatoes, that they may heed the call to practice social responsibility and value the dignity of the farmworkers in their supply chain more than their profits, let us pray to the Lord.
For the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Campaign for Fair Food, and all those who are working to transform our food system to respect farmworkers, let us pray to the Lord.
For the mindfulness to remember those who harvest our fruits and vegetables and for the courage to partner with farmworkers to work for justice and dignity, let us pray to the Lord. Amen. (From the Alliance for Fair Food)
Study
Behold! New things have come! Jesus is the new Adam and seeks to recreate us in his countenance just like God created us in his image.
Ever since that beginning, we have been doing things “my way” as Frank Sinatra would sing. Despite such self-indulgence, God does not hold that against us. Instead, he acts exactly opposite of human beings. Instead of counting up our sins, he counts the ways he can bring us back to him. Instead of turning his back on us as we turn our back on him and on our neighbor and on our enemy, God wants to participate in a closer walk with him.
God wants us to conquer fragmentation and separation. So, to unify us with him again, he sends Jesus to be reconciliation. Everything in heaven and on earth is God’s creations. Jesus came to make us new again.
God appealed to us through Christ. Now it is our turn to go out as ambassadors for Christ. Now it is our turn to appeal to the world on behalf of God.
Action
How can we support the farm workers who put food on our table at wages that are so low, many can not even afford to live?
Many of us have become aware in recent years of Fair Trade products like coffee and chocolate. Maybe your parish has joined a growing list of churches and other institutions that make fair trade products like these more widely available.
There is another group of workers who need our help. They are not growing coffee in some distant continent but are picking the tomatoes in Florida that end up on your dinner table, on your sandwich, in your pizza sauce, or adorning your crunchy taco.
The Alliance for Fair Food is a coalition aimed at improving the plight of these farm workers by forging agreements with large grocery store and restaurant chains. They have made progress with agreements with McDonalds, Burger Kings, Taco Bell (and the rest of the Yum! Brands chain of establishments), Whole Foods, and more.
Find out more about how we can support this work and reconciliation with our sisters and brothers who work with little recognition to put food on our table. Visit the web site http://www.allianceforfairfood.org/index.html to learn how we can help put a fair wage in their pocket so they can feed their hungry children and families, too.
Contact the Alliance for postcards. As we head into summer, a simple yet effective step that you can take is to send postcards to the headquarters of major supermarket chains encouraging them to improve wages and conditions in their tomato supply chains. The Alliance has postcards to Ahold (which owns Giant) and other popular restaurant chains like Subway and Chipoltle about joining this campaign and supporting fair wage practices. Send an E-mail to info@allianceforfairfood.org stating which postcards and how many you'd like, and they will send them to you.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I Kept Faith
Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
By Melanie Rigney
We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you...Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4: 8-12, 15)
I kept faith, even when I said, “I am greatly afflicted!” I said in my alarm, “No one can be trusted!” (Psalms 116:10-11)
“But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.” (Matthew 5:28-29)
Piety
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I accept from Your hands, whatever kind of death it may please You to send me today (tonight), with all its pains, penalties and sorrows, in reparation for my sins, for the souls in purgatory, for those conversion of sinners, for all those who will die today (tonight), and for Your greater glory. –By Father John A. Hardon, SJ
Study
Dying is so hard.
The physical kind is difficult enough. We join in the suffering of friends and families who struggle through debilitating, chronic, and fatal illnesses. We share the shock when someone dies as the result of a freak accident or senseless crime. We need our time to mourn and grieve. But there’s a sense of finality, and we must continue our lives on earth, if not for our own sake then for the sake of the others who also suffered in our loss.
Still harder, however, can be the daily challenges of which Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel reading and Paul describes in the first reading. These afflictions are the parts of us that must die if the Christ in us is to live. Drinking too much? Eating too much? Being judgmental? Eyeing your spouse’s best friend ... or playing over and over in your mind the pretty parts of a love gone by? Being less than generous with your time, talent, or treasure?
Let it go, Christ tells us. Let it die, even if you’re tempted every minute or every hour or every day or once every ten years. For when an affliction dies, we clear out more room for grace, more space for Christ’s life to be manifested in us.
Action
Find something tangible to help you keep faith as the psalmist did despite numerous afflictions. This should be something you can touch or say or sing or picture when you feel abandoned or hopeless in dealing with a problem. Maybe it’s your rosary. Maybe it’s “Day by Day” from Godspell or “Keep the Faith” from Bon Jovi. Maybe it’s a photo from a time you felt you were at your best. Keep it with you this week... and see where you are next Friday.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Set Apart
June 11, 2009
Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off. Acts 13:2-3
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24
Piety
Lord, we know that you will guide us always. Help us to be aware of what you want us to do. Set apart your agenda from ours as we realize that what we want and what You want is not be the same. Our thoughts are not Your thoughts! As we look to You for wisdom, we pray that You will light our path and show us where to go according to Your will. Help us to make “Your will, not mine” our aim in our thoughts, in our deeds and in our hearts so we can hear Your voice. Amen.
Study
So what is in your calendar, day planner or on your task lists for today? The contrast we have between the first and second reading causes me to pause a little as I contemplate what I will do today. How about you?
No doubt Barnabas and Saul had other plans. In Saul’s case, before he was knocked off his high horse, there were always more Christians to persecute. But the Holy Spirit had other plans. Saul, now Paul, did a complete 180 degree turn and set off for the work planned for him by the Lord.
Matthew also gives us a reason to consider our agenda compared with the Lord’s agenda. Jesus does not want a bunch of followers who give lip service to his commandments. If we worship God while harboring a grudge against someone, then we do not give the Lord, our neighbor or ourselves the respect we should. Jesus tells us to set aside our personal feelings and arguments and seek reconciliation with others and ourselves before we seek reconciliation with the Lord.
Action
Set aside your personal agenda for today and consider what the Lord asks of you. In Matthew 5, he raises the bar much higher than standards of public behavior which were established under Mosaic Law. Are you ready to reach for the heights that Jesus has set?
Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off. Acts 13:2-3
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24
Piety
Lord, we know that you will guide us always. Help us to be aware of what you want us to do. Set apart your agenda from ours as we realize that what we want and what You want is not be the same. Our thoughts are not Your thoughts! As we look to You for wisdom, we pray that You will light our path and show us where to go according to Your will. Help us to make “Your will, not mine” our aim in our thoughts, in our deeds and in our hearts so we can hear Your voice. Amen.
Study
So what is in your calendar, day planner or on your task lists for today? The contrast we have between the first and second reading causes me to pause a little as I contemplate what I will do today. How about you?
No doubt Barnabas and Saul had other plans. In Saul’s case, before he was knocked off his high horse, there were always more Christians to persecute. But the Holy Spirit had other plans. Saul, now Paul, did a complete 180 degree turn and set off for the work planned for him by the Lord.
Matthew also gives us a reason to consider our agenda compared with the Lord’s agenda. Jesus does not want a bunch of followers who give lip service to his commandments. If we worship God while harboring a grudge against someone, then we do not give the Lord, our neighbor or ourselves the respect we should. Jesus tells us to set aside our personal feelings and arguments and seek reconciliation with others and ourselves before we seek reconciliation with the Lord.
Action
Set aside your personal agenda for today and consider what the Lord asks of you. In Matthew 5, he raises the bar much higher than standards of public behavior which were established under Mosaic Law. Are you ready to reach for the heights that Jesus has set?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Until Heaven and Earth Pass Away
June 10, 2009
Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious. 2 Corinthians 3:10-11
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” Matthew 5:17-18
Piety
We are the salt of the earth. Father, if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Preserve us so we can flavor your world with the presence of our service to your love. Matthew 5:13-14
Study
Sometimes it is very tempting to take Jesus as his literal word. Today’s gospel from Matthew shows why that is dangerous if we seek to truly hear and understand the meaning of what Jesus was saying.
The literalist might hear this chapter and think that Jesus is here to fulfill every last paragraph, clause and sentence of Mosaic law. However, the notes in the NAB for this chapter point out the following:
Yet the "passing away" of heaven and earth is not necessarily the end of the world understood, as in much apocalyptic literature, as the dissolution of the existing universe. The "turning of the ages" comes with the apocalyptic event of Jesus' death and resurrection, and those to whom this gospel is addressed are living in the new and final age, prophesied by Isaiah as the time of "new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22). Meanwhile, during Jesus' ministry when the kingdom is already breaking in, his mission remains within the framework of the law, though with significant anticipation of the age to come, as the following antitheses (Matthew 5:21-48) show.
Jesus is about to launch into a series of points that show his interpretation of Mosaic law was markedly different than what people heard at the time. Jesus’ different conclusions stretch his followers to be more merciful and perfect (like the Father) than they have been up to this point.
What Jesus is fulfilling is not a promise from the past but a vision for the future.
Jesus takes serious violations like murder and uses them as an example. In his audience, there were many people who would conclude that they could and would never resort to violence or murder. However, Jesus sets a bar that is harder for us to ignore and says you can not even be angry with another sister or brother. “Be first reconciled.”
Jesus takes adultery next. In his audience, there were many men who would conclude that they could and would never cheat on their wife. Again, Jesus sets the bar higher for us and says you don’t have to commit the “act” but you can sin just by looking upon women with lust (a la Jimmy Carter’s famous confession in a Playboy Interview back in 1976). At the time, former President Carter said:
Because I'm just human and I'm tempted and Christ set some almost impossible standards for us. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Christ said, I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery. I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times.... This is something that God recognizes, that I will do and have done, and God forgives me for it.
President Carter concludes that one ought not to be condescending or proud because of the relative degree of sinfulness. Some other trap may await you. Be careful shining your lamp like a city on a hillside. Someone may come along and quench your fire before you even spread the light.
Action
Jesus is leading up to his famous conclusion to this chapter: “So be perfect, (or merciful) just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Emulating the Father is the standard.
Today, when so many of us are trying to follow the popular fashion and wear the right clothes, drive the right car or shop in the right store, Jesus says not to bother with those kinds of things. Instead, copy God, not Calvin Klein or William Ford or Tim Gun or Rosie O’Donnell or Donald Trump.
Sometimes I consider Matthew 5 like the high jump in a track meet. We may not break the world record on the first attempt. However, if we gradually raise the bar on our own behavior, then eventually, we may stretch ourselves to break the record.
Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious. 2 Corinthians 3:10-11
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” Matthew 5:17-18
Piety
We are the salt of the earth. Father, if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Preserve us so we can flavor your world with the presence of our service to your love. Matthew 5:13-14
Study
Sometimes it is very tempting to take Jesus as his literal word. Today’s gospel from Matthew shows why that is dangerous if we seek to truly hear and understand the meaning of what Jesus was saying.
The literalist might hear this chapter and think that Jesus is here to fulfill every last paragraph, clause and sentence of Mosaic law. However, the notes in the NAB for this chapter point out the following:
Yet the "passing away" of heaven and earth is not necessarily the end of the world understood, as in much apocalyptic literature, as the dissolution of the existing universe. The "turning of the ages" comes with the apocalyptic event of Jesus' death and resurrection, and those to whom this gospel is addressed are living in the new and final age, prophesied by Isaiah as the time of "new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17; 66:22). Meanwhile, during Jesus' ministry when the kingdom is already breaking in, his mission remains within the framework of the law, though with significant anticipation of the age to come, as the following antitheses (Matthew 5:21-48) show.
Jesus is about to launch into a series of points that show his interpretation of Mosaic law was markedly different than what people heard at the time. Jesus’ different conclusions stretch his followers to be more merciful and perfect (like the Father) than they have been up to this point.
What Jesus is fulfilling is not a promise from the past but a vision for the future.
Jesus takes serious violations like murder and uses them as an example. In his audience, there were many people who would conclude that they could and would never resort to violence or murder. However, Jesus sets a bar that is harder for us to ignore and says you can not even be angry with another sister or brother. “Be first reconciled.”
Jesus takes adultery next. In his audience, there were many men who would conclude that they could and would never cheat on their wife. Again, Jesus sets the bar higher for us and says you don’t have to commit the “act” but you can sin just by looking upon women with lust (a la Jimmy Carter’s famous confession in a Playboy Interview back in 1976). At the time, former President Carter said:
Because I'm just human and I'm tempted and Christ set some almost impossible standards for us. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Christ said, I tell you that anyone who looks on a woman with lust has in his heart already committed adultery. I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times.... This is something that God recognizes, that I will do and have done, and God forgives me for it.
President Carter concludes that one ought not to be condescending or proud because of the relative degree of sinfulness. Some other trap may await you. Be careful shining your lamp like a city on a hillside. Someone may come along and quench your fire before you even spread the light.
Action
Jesus is leading up to his famous conclusion to this chapter: “So be perfect, (or merciful) just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Emulating the Father is the standard.
Today, when so many of us are trying to follow the popular fashion and wear the right clothes, drive the right car or shop in the right store, Jesus says not to bother with those kinds of things. Instead, copy God, not Calvin Klein or William Ford or Tim Gun or Rosie O’Donnell or Donald Trump.
Sometimes I consider Matthew 5 like the high jump in a track meet. We may not break the world record on the first attempt. However, if we gradually raise the bar on our own behavior, then eventually, we may stretch ourselves to break the record.
Monday, June 08, 2009
My Light for Your Glory, God
Tuesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
By Beth DeCristofaro
As God is faithful, our word to you is not "yes" and "no." …For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him; therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory. (2 Corinthians 1:18, 20)
(Jesus said)…your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:16)
Piety
Lord, you know me better than I know myself. Your Spirit pervades every moment of my life. Thank you for the grace and love you shower on me. Thank you for your constant, gentle invitation to let you into my life. Forgive me for the times I have refused that invitation and closed myself off from you. Help me in the day to come, to recognize your presence in my life, to open myself to you, to let you work in me, to your greater glory. Amen. (From www.sacredspace.ie)
Study
Paul seems to be in a kind of verbal sparring match with the Corinthians in this letter. There has been some offense given and taken. The footnotes in the NAB read: “Since Paul's own conduct will be under discussion here, he prefaces the section with a statement about his habitual behavior and attitude toward the community. He protests his openness, single-mindedness, and conformity to God's grace; he hopes that his relationship with them will be marked by mutual understanding and pride, which will constantly increase until it reaches its climax at the judgment.”
Paul stresses his commitment through reference to the trials he has undergone but also through his commitment to the word of God and his grounding in the Spirit given him by God. He reminds the Corinthians that they, too, have been given the Spirit and that God loves their endeavors. He stresses God’s fidelity to them.
Jesus reminds us that it isn’t about us…which is, in part, what Paul is trying to say. If we accept the presence and the influence of the Spirit, our duty is to be the lamp or the city on the hill not for our aggrandizement but for the glory of God. Paul reminds the ancient citizens of Corinth and us that argument, misunderstanding, personal slight, miscommunication might happen but in the beginning and in the end we are all subject to the presence and the power of God. Jesus tells us how: think, be and act for the glory of God. Don’t be a millstone of grumpiness or rigid duty-keeping or sanctimonious. Rather let the Spirit move the heart and let God’s presence shine through. We can only do this if we center our being in God. We can look at this as hard work, which it is, but we can also look at it as the possibility of experiencing and spreading joy.
Action
Lighthouses don’t consider with whom to share their light. They merely stand, good weather or horrid, reaching their guiding light to any ship within their range. They don’t have to question because they can’t. We have the opportunity to be like the lighthouse except that we can choose not to question or judge because we are filled with the gracing light of the Spirit. To whom can you be a beacon today?
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Rejoice and Be Glad
June 8, 2009
Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 2 Corinthians 1:5-6
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12
Piety
I sought the LORD, who answered me, delivered me from all my fears. Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush for shame. In my misfortune I called, the LORD heard and saved me from all distress. The angel of the LORD, who encamps with them, delivers all who fear God. Learn to savor how good the LORD is; happy are those who take refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you holy ones; nothing is lacking to those who fear him. The powerful grow poor and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Psalm 34:5-11
Study
Back in the 1970’s there was a popular song with lyrics that went something like this:
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s got to be a little rain sometime.
Today’s readings remind me that Jesus never promised us that following him would be easy. So, he sends his encouragement in the form of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order for us to get over the hurdles in our Christian path.
There is a famous story about St. Theresa of Avila. As she was bucked off her horse into a river on the way to visit one of her monasteries, she said to God: “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies.”
St. Theresa was going through a period of rain in her relationship with God. As she endures, there will be some sunshine in the future.
Life will not always be seen and lived as if it were passing through rose-colored glasses. However, when Jesus says, “Pick up your cross,” he does not leave us alone to drag it through the streets of Fairfax, Reston or Arlington. Not only will Christ send us his encouragement, but once we finish with our lives here, our rewards will be great in heaven.
Action
The Beatitudes remind us that the Lord will save us from all of our afflictions. However, in light of these human problems, we also must help others who are dealing with these kinds of issues among their family and friends. For when they face these problems, God is there for us.
God will comfort.
God will satisfy.
God will show mercy.
God will revel himself.
God will show mercy.
We are God’s hands and feet in this world. How can we see Jesus in those who are suffering and help reveal God to those in need?
Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted, it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 2 Corinthians 1:5-6
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12
Piety
I sought the LORD, who answered me, delivered me from all my fears. Look to God that you may be radiant with joy and your faces may not blush for shame. In my misfortune I called, the LORD heard and saved me from all distress. The angel of the LORD, who encamps with them, delivers all who fear God. Learn to savor how good the LORD is; happy are those who take refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you holy ones; nothing is lacking to those who fear him. The powerful grow poor and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Psalm 34:5-11
Study
Back in the 1970’s there was a popular song with lyrics that went something like this:
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s got to be a little rain sometime.
Today’s readings remind me that Jesus never promised us that following him would be easy. So, he sends his encouragement in the form of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order for us to get over the hurdles in our Christian path.
There is a famous story about St. Theresa of Avila. As she was bucked off her horse into a river on the way to visit one of her monasteries, she said to God: “If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies.”
St. Theresa was going through a period of rain in her relationship with God. As she endures, there will be some sunshine in the future.
Life will not always be seen and lived as if it were passing through rose-colored glasses. However, when Jesus says, “Pick up your cross,” he does not leave us alone to drag it through the streets of Fairfax, Reston or Arlington. Not only will Christ send us his encouragement, but once we finish with our lives here, our rewards will be great in heaven.
Action
The Beatitudes remind us that the Lord will save us from all of our afflictions. However, in light of these human problems, we also must help others who are dealing with these kinds of issues among their family and friends. For when they face these problems, God is there for us.
God will comfort.
God will satisfy.
God will show mercy.
God will revel himself.
God will show mercy.
We are God’s hands and feet in this world. How can we see Jesus in those who are suffering and help reveal God to those in need?
Go Make Disciples
June 7, 2009
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
“This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.” Deuteronomy 4:39-40
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20
Piety
It all began with baptism. We were marked with the sign of the cross. Just as the Roman Slaves of the first centuries of the Church were marked with the sign of their owners, we were marked at our baptism with the cross of Christ. We were given Gods life. In the indwelling of the Trinity we belong to God. We are possessed by God. Cleansed by the waters of Baptism, we have been sanctified. Our holiness is Trinitarian. God has revealed himself to us. He has revealed to us his inner life. The Holy Spirit teaches us to observe all that Christ has commanded us. Christ promises to be with us always, until the end of the age. God has chosen us to be his own people. Nothing greater had ever happened. God has spoken to Moses and the Jewish people from the midst of the fire. God revealed his statutes and commandments. Then in the fullness of time after speaking through the prophets and the patriarchs, he spoke through his only Son. And the Son revealed to us that he had to go so that with the Father he could send the Holy Spirit. And so the Trinity is complete within us. We have the Spirit of Adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The spirit tells us we are children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Study
It is not enough that we belong to God. We have been given the mandate to make disciples of all nations. That requires work on us. We need to be able to go at least through each other to share our baptism with all nations. Our world has to be taught to observe all that Christ has taught us. We have been blessed in our Lord choosing us to be his. Now it is our job to spread the belonging to God by revealing God to all nations by our apostolic work.
Action
Making a friend, being a friend and leading a friend to Christ is only the beginning of our apostolic Action. Baptism makes us a part of the community of nations. We must do our part to make the one Spirit and the one Lord known to all. It is not our work alone. He works with us when we reach out in the power of the Spirit to make the Father known. It is our responsibility to share with each person who comes our way every day the Christ that is the real meaning of our lives. What we do for the Hungry, the Thirsty, the Prisoner, the Sick and the Naked is what we do for Christ and what we will be judged on. How we reach beyond ourselves to create the family of Nations is the logical conclusion of our being a community of believers. Our families are the living out of the Trinity.
How we love and share with our family members is how the Trinity has its best expression in our lives. Every prayer we utter finishes with the sign of the Cross which gives word and form to our belief in the Trinity. The Preface of the Trinity says it all for us. Three persons equal in majesty, undivided in splendor, yet one Lord, one God ever to be adored in everlasting glory. Family love gives flesh and blood to the greatest of the mysteries of life. God is revealed in the very living out of our love for each other. By the blood of the Cross the blood of the Family has its ultimate meaning in how we live our lives for each other.
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
“This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.” Deuteronomy 4:39-40
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20
Piety
It all began with baptism. We were marked with the sign of the cross. Just as the Roman Slaves of the first centuries of the Church were marked with the sign of their owners, we were marked at our baptism with the cross of Christ. We were given Gods life. In the indwelling of the Trinity we belong to God. We are possessed by God. Cleansed by the waters of Baptism, we have been sanctified. Our holiness is Trinitarian. God has revealed himself to us. He has revealed to us his inner life. The Holy Spirit teaches us to observe all that Christ has commanded us. Christ promises to be with us always, until the end of the age. God has chosen us to be his own people. Nothing greater had ever happened. God has spoken to Moses and the Jewish people from the midst of the fire. God revealed his statutes and commandments. Then in the fullness of time after speaking through the prophets and the patriarchs, he spoke through his only Son. And the Son revealed to us that he had to go so that with the Father he could send the Holy Spirit. And so the Trinity is complete within us. We have the Spirit of Adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!” The spirit tells us we are children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Study
It is not enough that we belong to God. We have been given the mandate to make disciples of all nations. That requires work on us. We need to be able to go at least through each other to share our baptism with all nations. Our world has to be taught to observe all that Christ has taught us. We have been blessed in our Lord choosing us to be his. Now it is our job to spread the belonging to God by revealing God to all nations by our apostolic work.
Action
Making a friend, being a friend and leading a friend to Christ is only the beginning of our apostolic Action. Baptism makes us a part of the community of nations. We must do our part to make the one Spirit and the one Lord known to all. It is not our work alone. He works with us when we reach out in the power of the Spirit to make the Father known. It is our responsibility to share with each person who comes our way every day the Christ that is the real meaning of our lives. What we do for the Hungry, the Thirsty, the Prisoner, the Sick and the Naked is what we do for Christ and what we will be judged on. How we reach beyond ourselves to create the family of Nations is the logical conclusion of our being a community of believers. Our families are the living out of the Trinity.
How we love and share with our family members is how the Trinity has its best expression in our lives. Every prayer we utter finishes with the sign of the Cross which gives word and form to our belief in the Trinity. The Preface of the Trinity says it all for us. Three persons equal in majesty, undivided in splendor, yet one Lord, one God ever to be adored in everlasting glory. Family love gives flesh and blood to the greatest of the mysteries of life. God is revealed in the very living out of our love for each other. By the blood of the Cross the blood of the Family has its ultimate meaning in how we live our lives for each other.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
With You Always
June 7, 2009
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
“This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.” Deuteronomy 4:39-40
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20
Piety
Lord, you never stop loving us as your precious children, no matter what we do – no matter what we do not do. Even when we forget you, surround us with your protecting love. You are the light and the thoughts in our mind. You are the sights brought in to our eyes. You are the life in our body, the Word on our lips and the song in our heart. Make our faith in you grow constant. Amen. (Adapted from the World Prayer – “I Am With You Always.”)
Study
God certainly has the market cornered on ideas that are hard to understand like the unrequited forgiveness we contemplated yesterday. What in the world did we ever do to deserve such limitless love? Being borne into this world was reason enough for God to love and forgive us always.
Today, we get two more of these deep ideas that defy common sense. First is an inheritance forever. By its very nature, an inheritance is transitory. The property was passed to us from a deceased relative. When we die, it will pass on again. But not with what God has given to us. We will possess that love for ever. There is no end.
The second idea is this concept of God being with us always. Jesus has just commanded his disciples to go make disciples of all nations. Yet now he says when we go, he will stay with us always. What? How can the Lord be in two places at once? Or three? Or twelve?
We must progress beyond mere logic and rationality and explore a relationship based solely and completely on love. This is not a quid pro quo alliance like we might have with Safeway or Costco or Sears.
According to the song “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” God is “Always giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed.” When we mere mortals are asked to join this happy chorus, we can expect to have difficulty comprehending God’s truth in the same way we have difficulty explaining the rise of the morning star or the depths of the oceans. God’s will is whatever is happening in the present moment whether we understand or not.
Action
God works overtime to be with us always because he has the unified assistance of the Trinity and the sacraments. However, God created a system/universe/world in which we also are an extension of his reach and frequency. Where will you carry God in the coming week?
Friday, June 05, 2009
What is Due
June 6. 2009
Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
When the wedding celebration came to an end, Tobit called his son Tobiah and said to him, "Son, see to it that you give what is due to the man who made the journey with you; give him a bonus too." Tobit 12:1
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood." Mark 12:42-44
Piety
Father, please do not cast judgment on us based on what is due to us. If you were like that, we would never be reconciled with you. Instead, we thank you and praise you for giving us for-giving-ness. Help us find the courage, fortitude, temperance and prudence to give to others in the same way as you and the widow to spread love in the world. Amen.
Study
In our marketing-dominated culture, so much of our focus is on getting an equal or greater exchange. We seek to extract the greatest value for ourselves from every market opportunity. Whether buying a pound of coffee, investing our savings for retirement, trading in our sometimes reliable used car, or giving money to charity, we make everything a financial equation rather than a value of life equation. The result: the richer do get richer and the poor end up like the widow in today’s Gospel.
The widow’s spirit still lives. According to a recent story on McClatchy New Service by Frank Greve, the poor still donate more as a share of their overall income than do those who are wealthier. Here is the start of his story originally posted on May 19, 2009…
America's poor are its most generous givers
WASHINGTON — When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald's recently, he bought the man a cheeseburger. There's nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsized chunk of the $9.50 he'd earned that day from panhandling.
The generosity of poor people isn't so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/328/story/68456.html?storylink=omni_popular
Thanks to Scott Mathern-Jacobson for alerting his Facebook friends to this story. I am lucky to be among that exclusive group of 610 and counting. Sign up to be his friend and learn about stories like this that the mainstream media miss along with his occasional hokey hockey passions. Go Wings. Beat them Pens!
Action
Give yourself a charity-check-up as you watch the widow drop her last dime into the collection basket. What percent of your income was sent to charity last year? Pull out that Form 1040 and check it out right there on Schedule A (if you itemized your deductions). Where do you fall in relationship to the chart in the linked article?
If you are in the 2 percent club like most of the higher income brackets, can you try to double your charity this year and get up to the 4-5 percent range of your total income like those at the lowest end of the income spectrum reported? If that is too high because of your personal situation, can you set a three percent goal?
Now…here is the hard part that will make this easy to accomplish. Don’t wait for the end of the year. Start now and commit three, four, five or even ten percent of your income to charity each month. So when you get to the end of the year, you won’t have to make a big gift before the tax year ends on December 31. Whatever year-end giving you make will be an automatic boost to the higher levels you have set.
If you are looking for places to invest your hard-earned charitable dollars, allow me to suggest a few worthy causes:
Partners in Health (www.pih.org)
Habitat for Humanity Musician’s Village in New Orleans
Doctors Without Borders/MSF USA http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
Right to Play http://www.righttoplay.com/site/PageServer
Washington Jesuit Academy http://www.wjacademy.org/
Check out their websites. You can bank on them using your money efficiently. Then let them check out a draft from your bank.
PS: And stop by St. Mary of Sorrows for some fair trade coffee this weekend. A pound of regular coffee for your home maker will only set you back $7 and the growers in Latin America, Africa, or elsewhere in the world will get a fair profit. After all, a fair profit is what is due to them.
Saturday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
When the wedding celebration came to an end, Tobit called his son Tobiah and said to him, "Son, see to it that you give what is due to the man who made the journey with you; give him a bonus too." Tobit 12:1
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood." Mark 12:42-44
Piety
Father, please do not cast judgment on us based on what is due to us. If you were like that, we would never be reconciled with you. Instead, we thank you and praise you for giving us for-giving-ness. Help us find the courage, fortitude, temperance and prudence to give to others in the same way as you and the widow to spread love in the world. Amen.
Study
In our marketing-dominated culture, so much of our focus is on getting an equal or greater exchange. We seek to extract the greatest value for ourselves from every market opportunity. Whether buying a pound of coffee, investing our savings for retirement, trading in our sometimes reliable used car, or giving money to charity, we make everything a financial equation rather than a value of life equation. The result: the richer do get richer and the poor end up like the widow in today’s Gospel.
The widow’s spirit still lives. According to a recent story on McClatchy New Service by Frank Greve, the poor still donate more as a share of their overall income than do those who are wealthier. Here is the start of his story originally posted on May 19, 2009…
America's poor are its most generous givers
WASHINGTON — When Jody Richards saw a homeless man begging outside a downtown McDonald's recently, he bought the man a cheeseburger. There's nothing unusual about that, except that Richards is homeless, too, and the 99-cent cheeseburger was an outsized chunk of the $9.50 he'd earned that day from panhandling.
The generosity of poor people isn't so much rare as rarely noticed, however. In fact, America's poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What's more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does.
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/328/story/68456.html?storylink=omni_popular
Thanks to Scott Mathern-Jacobson for alerting his Facebook friends to this story. I am lucky to be among that exclusive group of 610 and counting. Sign up to be his friend and learn about stories like this that the mainstream media miss along with his occasional hokey hockey passions. Go Wings. Beat them Pens!
Action
Give yourself a charity-check-up as you watch the widow drop her last dime into the collection basket. What percent of your income was sent to charity last year? Pull out that Form 1040 and check it out right there on Schedule A (if you itemized your deductions). Where do you fall in relationship to the chart in the linked article?
If you are in the 2 percent club like most of the higher income brackets, can you try to double your charity this year and get up to the 4-5 percent range of your total income like those at the lowest end of the income spectrum reported? If that is too high because of your personal situation, can you set a three percent goal?
Now…here is the hard part that will make this easy to accomplish. Don’t wait for the end of the year. Start now and commit three, four, five or even ten percent of your income to charity each month. So when you get to the end of the year, you won’t have to make a big gift before the tax year ends on December 31. Whatever year-end giving you make will be an automatic boost to the higher levels you have set.
If you are looking for places to invest your hard-earned charitable dollars, allow me to suggest a few worthy causes:
Partners in Health (www.pih.org)
Habitat for Humanity Musician’s Village in New Orleans
Doctors Without Borders/MSF USA http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
Right to Play http://www.righttoplay.com/site/PageServer
Washington Jesuit Academy http://www.wjacademy.org/
Check out their websites. You can bank on them using your money efficiently. Then let them check out a draft from your bank.
PS: And stop by St. Mary of Sorrows for some fair trade coffee this weekend. A pound of regular coffee for your home maker will only set you back $7 and the growers in Latin America, Africa, or elsewhere in the world will get a fair profit. After all, a fair profit is what is due to them.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
I Can See You, Son, Light of My Eyes!
Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr
By Melanie Rigney
(After Tobiah spread fish gall on his blind father’s eyes and peeled off the cataracts, restoring Tobit’s vision, Tobit) threw his arms around him and wept. He exclaimed, “I can see you, son, light of my eyes!” Then he said: “Blessed be God ... Because it was he who scourged me, and it is he who has had mercy on me.” (Tobit 11:14, 15)
The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord raises up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord protects the stranger, sustains the orphan and the widow, but thwarts the way of the wicked. (Psalms 146:8-9)
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said: ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.”‘ David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” The great crowd heard this with delight. (Mark 12:35-37)
Piety
Father, help me to see more clearly that I truly am the light of Your eyes.
Study
Fathers and Sons
Writers as diverse as Hemingway, Turgenev, Mike Rutherford and the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens explored the relationship of men and their sons since time began. Today we remember St. Boniface, who was born into a family of privilege... to a father who wasn’t thrilled when his son chose to lead a monastic life. We find a more positive father and son dynamic in today’s first reading, with Tobiah facilitating the return of Tobit’s sight. Tobit is so overjoyed he calls his son “light of my eyes.”
An even more profound Father-Son relationship is the subject of today’s Gospel reading. Jesus challenges the teaching that the messiah will come from David’s line. How can that be, he asks, when David referred to God as “Lord,” not “Father”? It’s not that I’m just of David, Jesus in essence says, but that I am the Son of God. The crowd that would later turn on Jesus gets what he’s saying and likely cheers.
One wonders what the authorities would do today with such a “dangerously” charismatic man who implied such a relationship and held himself up to be closer to a supreme being than a heroic king was. Perhaps order up a DNA test to prove to his followers once and for all who this fool was? Or what if Joseph had demanded such a test to determine just how his wife-to-be became pregnant? What would such a test have shown? After all, Jesus was fully God and fully man.
Or maybe, by posing such questions, we, like the scribes, display our own blindness.
Let us pray for the wisdom to accept the miracles God puts in our path every day ... and the way He shows Himself in our fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, and brothers and sisters in Christ.
Action
Identify your own blind spot in faith or in relationships. Dedicate some time in study to finding the resources that will help remove the scales.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
With All Your Heart
June 4, 2009
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
Piety
“Blessed are you, O God of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever. You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended. You said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.’ Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.” Tobit 8:5-7
Study
Today, the scribes devise another test for Jesus. These scribes would have relished all the quizzes and trivia questions on Facebook. Jesus won’t be boxed into a corner by only selecting one commandment.
Throughout the first twelve chapters of Mark’s Gospel, we have already heard Jesus proclaim many commandment-like statements in his preaching, teaching and directing those who follow him. There is a veritable cornucopia of great Jesus-isms throughout Mark’s writing. Consider the following:
1. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
2. Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.
3. Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!
4. Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.
5. Ephphatha! (Be opened!)
6. Everything is possible to one who has faith.
7. If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.
8. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.
9. For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.
10. Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
Despite all this wisdom, Marks indicates no hesitation in Jesus’ reply to the scribes. He did not look up at the ceiling to get some thinking time. Jesus does not repeat the question like some spelling bee contestant. Jesus did not hem and haw. He confidently enumerated to two great commandments. If we are going to live together to a happy old age, then these are the two commandments which we must follow with all our heart.
Action
There is no room in our hearts for diversions. We can not keep a little corner set aside for our precious Jack Daniels. Or those NBA playoff tickets. Or that red Corvette or new Bernina. Jesus does not pull any punches when counting off the two greatest commandments. Nor does he hesitate on how focused we must be on each of them.
With ALL your heart.
With ALL your soul.
With ALL your mind.
With ALL your strength.
Emotionally. Spiritually. Intellectually. Physically. Jesus wants us to go ALL IN for him. Jesus only asks 100 percent of our attention on these commandments. In return, Jesus gives us everything he can give until there is nothing else left to give except his limp, lifeless body hanging nailed to a tree. He has nothing more to give.
How can we attempt to return the favor? What is your plan for acting on these two great commandments this week? Share with your group reunion what you are doing to live out each of these in your piety, study and action.
Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
Piety
“Blessed are you, O God of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever. You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended. You said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.’ Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.” Tobit 8:5-7
Study
Today, the scribes devise another test for Jesus. These scribes would have relished all the quizzes and trivia questions on Facebook. Jesus won’t be boxed into a corner by only selecting one commandment.
Throughout the first twelve chapters of Mark’s Gospel, we have already heard Jesus proclaim many commandment-like statements in his preaching, teaching and directing those who follow him. There is a veritable cornucopia of great Jesus-isms throughout Mark’s writing. Consider the following:
1. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.
2. Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.
3. Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!
4. Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.
5. Ephphatha! (Be opened!)
6. Everything is possible to one who has faith.
7. If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.
8. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.
9. For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.
10. Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
Despite all this wisdom, Marks indicates no hesitation in Jesus’ reply to the scribes. He did not look up at the ceiling to get some thinking time. Jesus does not repeat the question like some spelling bee contestant. Jesus did not hem and haw. He confidently enumerated to two great commandments. If we are going to live together to a happy old age, then these are the two commandments which we must follow with all our heart.
Action
There is no room in our hearts for diversions. We can not keep a little corner set aside for our precious Jack Daniels. Or those NBA playoff tickets. Or that red Corvette or new Bernina. Jesus does not pull any punches when counting off the two greatest commandments. Nor does he hesitate on how focused we must be on each of them.
With ALL your heart.
With ALL your soul.
With ALL your mind.
With ALL your strength.
Emotionally. Spiritually. Intellectually. Physically. Jesus wants us to go ALL IN for him. Jesus only asks 100 percent of our attention on these commandments. In return, Jesus gives us everything he can give until there is nothing else left to give except his limp, lifeless body hanging nailed to a tree. He has nothing more to give.
How can we attempt to return the favor? What is your plan for acting on these two great commandments this week? Share with your group reunion what you are doing to live out each of these in your piety, study and action.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
The Glorious Presence
Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga, martyr, and his companions, martyrs
Jesus said to them, “Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, (the) God of Isaac, and (the) God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled.” Mark 12:24-27
Piety
“You are righteous, O Lord, and all your deeds are just; All your ways are mercy and truth; you are the judge of the world. And now, O Lord, may you be mindful of me, and look with favor upon me. Punish me not for my sins, nor for my inadvertent offenses, nor for those of my fathers.” Tobit 3:2-3
Study
Do you think the leaders of the Sadducees stay up late at night trying to think up questions to test Jesus? I guess they are finding out that there are not enough hours in the night and the day for them to stump the Lord.
After dancing on the head of a pin, Jesus turns the table on the Sadducees by not just refusing to answer the question but by exactly answering it. Through his answer, he reveals that living presence of God. The same glorious presence that hears the prayers of Tobit and Sarah is the same Spirit which saved Isaac and Jacob. Today, the knowledge Jesus has of the Father helps him to overcome the question of the day about marriage.
Action
By listening to Jesus we become greatly led. By trusting in the world, we can become greatly misled. Our God is a God of the living and would not ask us to turn to violence in order to fight violence.
No matter what Dr. George Tiller did in his clinic, when he went to Church on Sunday, he went to share in the glorious presence of God. None of us know what was in his heart as he passed out church bulletins in the foyer of the
Yet someone played God on Sunday and shot Dr. Tiller in the back of his church. Many in the anti-abortion movement are coming to the defense of the shooter and calling this murder justified. However, we do not have an “eye-for-an-eye” God.
How often have we heard the expression “hate the sin but love the sinner.” It is not easy to do but nothing that Jesus asks of us is easy. If it were easy, then where is the challenge of following Christ? Anyone can do what is easy. We are asked to do what is hard.
We can not begin to fathom the great generosity and glorious presence of God in all that we encounter. In the face of the tragic death of Dr. Tiller, it may be helpful to remind ourselves that it is not up to us to make decisions for God. God asks of us humility and service and obedience, not violence and murder.
So today, let meditate on Luke 6 and pray for all who are our opponents be they on the opposite side of a political issue, a moral issue or a life-and-death issue.
“But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit (is) that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful. Luke 6:27-36
Monday, June 01, 2009
Loosen My Tongue to Sing Your Praise, Lord
June 2, 2009
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
By Beth DeCristofaro
Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in God's commands….They shine through the darkness, a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and just. (Psalm 112:1, 4)
Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech…. So Jesus said to them, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." (Mark 12:13, 17)
Piety
Holy Spirit, Loosen our tongues to sing your praise in words beyond the power of speech. (from the alternative opening prayer for Mass on Pentecost Sunday)
Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, a gatekeeper at my lips. Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin. (From Psalm 141)
Study
Jesus’ loving words cut through the self-serving tactic of those wishing to ensnare him. He takes the denarius and simply says that the world is limited but God is the God of all. He doesn’t preach resistance to an unjust tax levied by an oppressor. He doesn’t sermonize that being a good citizen is the way to happiness. Nor does he bother to denounce the Jewish officials. He simply reminds us that, as he has been saying “I am not of this world,” that our duties lie on two planes. But they are on the same coin – neither one is to be discarded.
Recently I was web-surfing and came across a site where the author declared up front and personal contempt and disdain of liberals who complain too much. It really brought me up short. First of all, as a liberal on some issues, I thought “You hate me? My goodness, do you know me?” But I was then offended and, frankly, hurt. What upset me the most is that this webmaster is Roman Catholic. I thought that this was my team.
And I want to make clear that I’m not bashing a self- described conservative. Not long ago, MSNBC’s Keith Obermann labeled former Vice President Dick Cheney as “The Worst Person in the World.” Now while I do not agree with most of what Mr. Cheney espouses, that does not make him rank with the genocide committed by the leaders of the Sudan, the oppressive devices employed by Myanmar’s military junta or the warlords of Sierra Leone who continue to kidnap children for soldiering and working in the mines.
What I am offended by is sloppy rhetoric and global condemnations. Denunciation of “a type” or of a person with whom I disagree is not the message of Christianity. Jesus did not condemn the Samaritans or Romans or even the adulteress but he did chastise behavior: “Go and sin no more.” Most often he taught love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Do we realize that our words, too, either convey charity or they do not? Do differences of opinions or approach cause us to see the other person as evil? Sinful? To be cast out? Do my words let God shine through the darkness as the psalmist sings or do I contribute to the darkness?
Action
What do my words say about me? What do my words say about my relationship with Jesus? Henri Nouwen says: “Mercy comes from a compassionate heart; it comes from a desire to be an equal. Jesus didn't want to look down on us. He wanted to become one of us and feel deeply with us.” Next time that I am tempted to say or write something derogatory about another person, rather than more specifically refuse to condone her/his actions, may I first pray: “Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, a gatekeeper at my lips. Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin.”
Tuesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
By Beth DeCristofaro
Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in God's commands….They shine through the darkness, a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and just. (Psalm 112:1, 4)
Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech…. So Jesus said to them, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." (Mark 12:13, 17)
Piety
Holy Spirit, Loosen our tongues to sing your praise in words beyond the power of speech. (from the alternative opening prayer for Mass on Pentecost Sunday)
Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, a gatekeeper at my lips. Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin. (From Psalm 141)
Study
Jesus’ loving words cut through the self-serving tactic of those wishing to ensnare him. He takes the denarius and simply says that the world is limited but God is the God of all. He doesn’t preach resistance to an unjust tax levied by an oppressor. He doesn’t sermonize that being a good citizen is the way to happiness. Nor does he bother to denounce the Jewish officials. He simply reminds us that, as he has been saying “I am not of this world,” that our duties lie on two planes. But they are on the same coin – neither one is to be discarded.
Recently I was web-surfing and came across a site where the author declared up front and personal contempt and disdain of liberals who complain too much. It really brought me up short. First of all, as a liberal on some issues, I thought “You hate me? My goodness, do you know me?” But I was then offended and, frankly, hurt. What upset me the most is that this webmaster is Roman Catholic. I thought that this was my team.
And I want to make clear that I’m not bashing a self- described conservative. Not long ago, MSNBC’s Keith Obermann labeled former Vice President Dick Cheney as “The Worst Person in the World.” Now while I do not agree with most of what Mr. Cheney espouses, that does not make him rank with the genocide committed by the leaders of the Sudan, the oppressive devices employed by Myanmar’s military junta or the warlords of Sierra Leone who continue to kidnap children for soldiering and working in the mines.
What I am offended by is sloppy rhetoric and global condemnations. Denunciation of “a type” or of a person with whom I disagree is not the message of Christianity. Jesus did not condemn the Samaritans or Romans or even the adulteress but he did chastise behavior: “Go and sin no more.” Most often he taught love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. Do we realize that our words, too, either convey charity or they do not? Do differences of opinions or approach cause us to see the other person as evil? Sinful? To be cast out? Do my words let God shine through the darkness as the psalmist sings or do I contribute to the darkness?
Action
What do my words say about me? What do my words say about my relationship with Jesus? Henri Nouwen says: “Mercy comes from a compassionate heart; it comes from a desire to be an equal. Jesus didn't want to look down on us. He wanted to become one of us and feel deeply with us.” Next time that I am tempted to say or write something derogatory about another person, rather than more specifically refuse to condone her/his actions, may I first pray: “Set a guard, LORD, before my mouth, a gatekeeper at my lips. Do not let my heart incline to evil, or yield to any sin.”
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Become the Cornerstone
June 1, 2009
Memorial of Saint Justin, martyr,
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
The table was set for me, and when many different dishes were placed before me, I said to my son Tobiah: "My son, go out and try to find a poor man from among our kinsmen exiled here in Nineveh. If he is a sincere worshiper of God, bring him back with you, so that he can share this meal with me. Indeed, son, I shall wait for you to come back." Tobiah went out to look for some poor kinsman of ours. When he returned he exclaimed, "Father!" I said to him, "What is it, son?" He answered, "Father, one of our people has been murdered! His body lies in the market place where he was just strangled!" I sprang to my feet, leaving the dinner untouched; and I carried the dead man from the street and put him in one of the rooms, so that I might bury him after sunset. Tobit 2:2-4
"Have you not read this scripture passage: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?" Mark 12:10-11
Piety
May all people respond generously to the ministry of Food for the Poor and other local or international relief organizations allowing us, through these charities, to provide relief to the poor in third world countries or to the poor right outside our doors in the same spirit shown to us by Tobit.
Study
How do we treat our neighbors? On Sunday, Fr. Thomas Boutrie preached at our parish about his ministry with the organization Food for the Poor (www.foodforthepoor.org). According to Fr. Tom, Food for the Poor is the number one international relief and development charity in the United States, feeding 2 million poor people everyday. Its Christian relief services are helping children and the poorest of the poor by providing food, housing, health care, education, water projects, emergency relief and micro-enterprise assistance in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Fr. Tom shared what he has witnessed in places like Haiti where people will literally eat a paste made of mud because they have no food, or live in slums as large as six football fields, or take turns eating because their families do not have enough food for everyone.
Today’s readings show us two responses to the works of mercy. Tobit’s main concern was for others. He voluntarily risked his life to bury the dead and invited the homeless and hungry to share in his food. The workers in the vineyard, however, were self-centered and more concerned with protecting themselves and stealing the inheritance, so they beat up three messengers and then killed their landlord’s son.
Action
We never know how the Lord will put himself into our lives. Maybe it is through our landlord or the visiting preacher. However, our job is to respond as if it is the Lord himself. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40
Considering making a gift to Food for the Poor or buying some of the greeting cards they offer for sale on the internet.
Memorial of Saint Justin, martyr,
Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
The table was set for me, and when many different dishes were placed before me, I said to my son Tobiah: "My son, go out and try to find a poor man from among our kinsmen exiled here in Nineveh. If he is a sincere worshiper of God, bring him back with you, so that he can share this meal with me. Indeed, son, I shall wait for you to come back." Tobiah went out to look for some poor kinsman of ours. When he returned he exclaimed, "Father!" I said to him, "What is it, son?" He answered, "Father, one of our people has been murdered! His body lies in the market place where he was just strangled!" I sprang to my feet, leaving the dinner untouched; and I carried the dead man from the street and put him in one of the rooms, so that I might bury him after sunset. Tobit 2:2-4
"Have you not read this scripture passage: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?" Mark 12:10-11
Piety
May all people respond generously to the ministry of Food for the Poor and other local or international relief organizations allowing us, through these charities, to provide relief to the poor in third world countries or to the poor right outside our doors in the same spirit shown to us by Tobit.
Study
How do we treat our neighbors? On Sunday, Fr. Thomas Boutrie preached at our parish about his ministry with the organization Food for the Poor (www.foodforthepoor.org). According to Fr. Tom, Food for the Poor is the number one international relief and development charity in the United States, feeding 2 million poor people everyday. Its Christian relief services are helping children and the poorest of the poor by providing food, housing, health care, education, water projects, emergency relief and micro-enterprise assistance in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Fr. Tom shared what he has witnessed in places like Haiti where people will literally eat a paste made of mud because they have no food, or live in slums as large as six football fields, or take turns eating because their families do not have enough food for everyone.
Today’s readings show us two responses to the works of mercy. Tobit’s main concern was for others. He voluntarily risked his life to bury the dead and invited the homeless and hungry to share in his food. The workers in the vineyard, however, were self-centered and more concerned with protecting themselves and stealing the inheritance, so they beat up three messengers and then killed their landlord’s son.
Action
We never know how the Lord will put himself into our lives. Maybe it is through our landlord or the visiting preacher. However, our job is to respond as if it is the Lord himself. “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40
Considering making a gift to Food for the Poor or buying some of the greeting cards they offer for sale on the internet.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Pentecost: The Christ Heart Today
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
Temples of the spirit
Love announces the presence of the Spirit in our hearts. Our recognition of the presence of God in our lives is the work of the Spirit. The day we begin praying to the Spirit for the grace to be willing to be who Christ would have been if he were lucky enough to be one of us marks the beginning of a deeper love relationship with the Lord. From that moment on, the Spirit of the Father's love for the Son and the Son's love for the Father is ours. Caught in the deepest of all meanings of love, the still point of being in love, the lived experience of prayer brings to life the Spirit at work in our hearts. The Spirit speaks for us in the cry of "Abba.” to the Father. The Third Person of the Trinity voices our needs from our hearts in the intense emptiness of a dark night. Our prayer cries out for belonging to God. In the lived moment of the wordlessness of our hearts we encounter the Spirit pleading for us to the Creator. Our souls have become Temples of the Spirit.
Dawning of love
Love in our Spiritual lives gives us a growing vision of God. Our personal Pentecost is the dawning of love in our hearts. Christ indicated the importance of Pentecost at the Last Supper when he said, "...the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything..."(Jn. 14:26). The apostles, even though they had known Christ personally, did not recognize him immediately in his resurrectional appearances. The Christ of the resurrection was a stranger to the two disciples traveling to Emmaus until they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. Although the Apostles recognized Christ a number of times after he rose from the dead, the coming of the Spirit would sharpen their awareness of Christ's presence through the gifts of the Spirit. The "everything" the Spirit would teach would include wisdom, knowledge, counsel, and understanding of Christ in his humanity. The putting on the mind of Christ would complete the Apostles’ training. Molded by piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord, the disciples would have hearts alive to Christ who would claim their hearts. These same gifts of the Spirit resurface our hearts as the Christ hearts of today. Thus, we proclaim the Sacred Heart even as we enshrine it in our heart.
Love for others
Seven gifts - Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Piety and Fear of the Lord - in which we are always growing, are ours by virtue of our membership in the family of God. The presence of the Spirit in our lives is most pronounced in the love we have for others. Christ made it clear at the Last Supper just how far reaching our love ought to be: "...no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend"(John 15:13). "What I command you is to love one another"(John 15:17). "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Love of God and love of our neighbor are Christ’s commandments to us. The Spirit surrounds our love and is our love for one another.
Put on Christ
The gifts of the Holy Spirit make it possible to put on the mind and the heart of Christ. The way Christ does things can be learned by our prayer and the example of good people. If our own adherence to Christ is to make any sense at all, we have to put on the mind and the heart of Christ. Prayer makes the mind and heart of Christ a living memory in us.
We come to know Christ through the Scriptures. Listening to our hearts brings us closer to the Christ who touched our hearts in baptism. Christ reaches out to our world by using our gifts for spreading his kingdom. If we are going to own the mind and the heart of Christ, our gifts have to fuse with our energies of life as we reach out to the needs of our world.
Becoming complete
The gifts of the mind are complemented by the gifts that touch the heart. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding and counsel are the mind gifts that need the heart-felt gifts of piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord. Together they are the quality of a Christ life. Piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord are other gifts of the Spirit which come together to stretch our hearts. Both sets of gifts are the Spirit at work to help us put on the mind and the heart of Christ. The Spirit works to capture all of our being for Christ. The distinction of the intellect and the will often de-personalizes these gifts so that we lose touch with the Holy Spirit. We become a complete person in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
No greater love
Love is the beginning of wisdom. We cannot love others if we do not love ourselves. But we can only love ourselves if we have been loved. Human love begins with a parent's love. A mother's love is incomprehensible, yet it teaches us, at an early age, the meaning of love. Divine love is best understood in God's love for us as expressed in the humanness of Christ who died on the cross for us. Wisdom is found in Christ's "no greater love." Wisdom is the Word made flesh and the fleshed out forgiveness of the cross.
Born in our time
Knowledge of Christ is all the information we possess of the events in the life of Christ. The knowledge produces meaning in us as we grow in our journey of faith to become another Christ. We read the Scriptures and come to an awareness of who this man Christ is. He lives with the Church as his Mystical Body. In what we know about the Church we come to recognize Christ in all he does in the lives of our brothers and our sisters. Reading the lives of great saints helps increase our knowledge of Christ. We imagine what Christ would have been like had he been born in their age and time. The 'saints' of our own families and friends help us to understand the Christ of the Scriptures by the way they have incorporated Christ into their own lives. The gift of knowledge dawning in our minds brings the light of Christ. Light is shed on who we can be in Christ.
Our destiny
The Apostles who accompanied Christ during his Public Life, and the understanding the Spirit gave them, sustained the early Church. Our understanding of friends and ourselves will continue through life until the day we see Christ face to face. Then eye will see and ear will hear what has not yet been seen or said in the history of the world. At last we will understand, in the fullness of the Christ of Heaven, what life in the Spirit invites us to have as our destiny.
Test of authority
The translation of Christ into our 20th century is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our belonging to the Church is the movement of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul could have heard of Christ many times in his life and never understood what Christ was about. As he subjected his understanding of Christ to the Spirit, through the Apostles he came to know in a deeper way what he understood in his prayer and the time spent in darkness. Understanding puts the process of learning to the test of authority. It allows us to realize the truth of our thoughts.
Hard love
Wisdom, knowledge and understanding are the natural outcrop of the Spirit's grace within us. The divine indwelling reaches a tangible expression in the beauty of our love reaching out to another's need. Rid of selfishness our hearts have a greater capacity for loving. Our world does not understand hard love measured by Christ's giving from the cross. Hard love is measured by how we give rather than receive. Our wisdom, knowledge and understanding are tempered by our love of the cross of Christ. "The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them (Jn. 15:13).
Counsel
Counsel is the coming together of wisdom, knowledge and understanding in the practical advice given or received. Counsel points out what is missing in our Christ relationship. We have counsel for others in our understanding of what is missing in their Christ relationship. We need spiritual direction and discernment on the spiritual journey. Counsel must be prudent so that advice not take us beyond our strength for living a good life.
Piety
Often enough, in our lives, there is a note of scorn in our voices when we call someone pious. Yet piety is the strength of personal love for Christ. We are called to lose ourselves in Christ so we can say with Paul: "...I live now not with my own life, but with the life of Christ, who lives in me"(Galatians 2:20). The Spirit strengthens our love of God in Christ. Christ's love touches the foundation of our being, giving us his relationship to the Father.
Fortitude
Fortitude is a sorely needed gift of the Spirit in our world and in our Church. It makes perseverance and sticking to a difficult task possible. Fortitude energizes us to live up to what we believe. Fortitude is essential to religious life. The intensity of a life following Christ all the way to the Cross relies on fortitude. Marriages can flounder in its absence. Every form of community will fall by the wayside without it. The intensity of our love is a measure of fortitude. By fortitude we can offer a love as intense as Christ's love. Such a love endures in season and out of season, when it is acceptable and even when it is not acceptable. Fortitude strengthens us in the way we share our love. The sinner who keeps on trying against all obstacles, and one day reaches the pinnacle of holiness, gets there by fortitude. The attraction of a pleasure locking us into selfishness is counterbalanced by the call of grace, which gradually allows us to build up the habit of saying "yes" to our Lord. Fortitude is the love of a heart capable of outlasting temptation. Fortitude forges a will of iron, which enables us to do what the Lord is asking.
Fear of the Lord
Our journey of love calls us to choose our beloved over everyone and everything else in life. Each time we fail we have a new movement of the Spirit flowing from a fear of the Lord. There are times when we do not want to live with our Lord, but we need him, whether we know it or not. Every time we pick something other than our Master, and make it, even for a moment, the meaning of life, we feel the grumbling of our hearts, calling, calling, calling us back to this God, whose absence we fear. Just like the awesome experience of his love living within us, fear of losing the Lord can be one of the freeing experiences of life. We will do the impossible to keep him.
Another Christ
We dare to be another Christ. Fear, which keeps us from doing something, is not the same as fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is different than fear of being punished. Our hearts quake before the awesomeness of God's presence in Jesus Christ. We have the gift of the fear of the Lord when we look deep within. In the Mystery of Indwelling we realize in whose presence we are. This fear does not bring paralysis; rather it brings a moment of adoration in the unveiling of God's majesty in us.
God’s way
The Spirit is sent to empower us on our own missions in life. We have to surrender our way of doing things in favor of God's way. We have to realize that God is in our lives. There are no accidents in the plan of God. He has chosen us. He has chosen to be in our lives. The coming of the Spirit deepens the surrender of our lives to God's action in us. The surrender to this call allows God to work through us, because grace builds on nature. This enables us to see how much more can be done than we could ever have dreamt of doing alone.
Contemplatives in action
We have to make the transition from simply being preserved in life to being active participants with the Lord working through us. The ideal is to let the Lord work one hundred percent while we do nothing. All blocks to the-Lord-taking-care-of-everything need to be removed with today's Pentecost.
The Work of the Spirit
The Fruits of the Spirit
Each of the Gifts of the Spirit makes it possible for us to be present to the needs of another. The gifts show themselves through the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits distinguish our relationship to Christ. When grace builds on nature, the fruit of the Spirit focuses nature by shining forth with gracefulness, and exposing the uniqueness of each of us.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon us
A genuine Christian by being true to oneself offers the fruits of the Spirit. The life of the Spirit in anyone reveals itself by the way one’s gifts nourish another. The fruits of the Spirit are much more obvious in others than in oneself. Love is the working of the spirit attracting our hearts by the gift of another. Love is anything done for another and a deed of love finds expression as a fruit of the spirit. Each act of love plants in our hearts a fruit of the Spirit. In the Gospel of Luke we encounter Christ reading from the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor..."(Luke 4:18). His comment on the scripture was; "This passage of Scripture has come true today as you heard it being read."(Luke 4:21) The presence of the Spirit within us has an outgoing manifestation discoverable in the fruit of the spirit. The force of the spirit within flows to the exterior of our lives, and his fruit show his presence within.
Fruits of the Spirit
The genuine living of our Christ-life should have many outward signs. A list could include more than the charity, peace, joy, patience, benignity, chastity, continency, longsuffering, goodness, mildness, faith and modesty that make up the traditional listing of the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit reveal our Christianity. We shall know they are Christians by their love. Our love for one another needs the uniqueness that flows out of the mixture of the gifts of the Spirit. The recognition of the uniqueness of a friend elaborates the meaning of a fruit of the Spirit. Love for another flows from the appreciation of the uniqueness of one or more of the fruits of the Spirit in another.
Love
A great heart is recognized by its generosity, in its giving of self in love. The only thing we can change in a relationship is the amount of love we give, and the way we give it to one another. At the other extreme from generosity is selfishness, which manipulates the gift of another for personal gain. Love attempts to give the better gift, recognizable as the fruit of charity.
Joy
Joy flows from a genuine heart. Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God in any life. Joy goes deeper than a silly smile. The happiness of being a child of God is part of joy. The closeness of belonging is part of joy. The living of our truth brings joy. Desire to be true to our word is written on our heart and is the source of joy. The sad-faced Christian contradicts the Good News of the gospel. We like ourselves when we are living up to the dictates of our hearts. Holiness brings sane living, and the wholeness of sanctity brings a joy strong enough to survive even the trials of Job. Joy is one of the best signs of the closeness of God to us. The divine indwelling surfaces joy again and again, showing the truth of our heart’s closeness to God. It is the gift belonging to the Resurrection.
Peace
Peace is the sign of a soul that has it all together. It is tranquility of a heart secure in its relationship to the Father. Love calls us to togetherness with the beloved. Poverty, short life and dishonor that mark the life of Christ are difficult to want until love for Christ and the Father strengthens us. Once our peace is strongly established in our relationship to Christ, our unruffled spirits flow from our freedom to give of ourselves rather than our concern with what we are receiving. Christ chose poverty, and his spirit within us chooses his poverty. The disgrace of the cross bringing the glory of Christ makes possible the great peace accompanying Christ's cross in the saints. It allows us to know in the midst of our crosses that we are close to Christ. The human Christ who lived two thousand years ago is out of our reach, but his choices of life are possible to us. Christ can be touched and held in no better way, with the exception of Eucharist, than by the way we live out his choices of life. Our awareness of trying to choose as Christ chose brings peace.
Peace is possible amid fears. The Apostles of the upper room were filled with fear when Christ brought them his peace. Once we make the choices of Christ our own, nothing can separate us from the peace Christ brings. The world no longer can force us away from Christ because honor and power lose their attraction; they are not his choices. He chose poverty, short life and the dishonor of the cross.
Only the choice of something other than Christ endangers peace. Sin is the distance that exists between who I am and who I should be in following Christ. Sin is rarely a “we,” it is always an “I.” Our peace is in what we do for Christ as the other. Our peace is in our being with Christ by our togetherness with others. Peace births the leaders our world needs.
Patience
Patience is seen in the acceptance of our own and others' growth. It is easier to see growth in others than in self. Growth requires pruning to remove the dead wood. Such pruning is the work of the Father. It makes room for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The pruning away of faults opens us to growth. Pruning and growth are not always easy. They often occur in periods of great stress, where we are not aware of what is happening. The piercing of the heart of Jesus on the cross ranks as one of the sharpest cuts of all time. Our own cuts do not always draw the best from us. Wanting to be close to Christ can calm the troubled waters of our lives. Closeness to Christ allows the fruits of the Spirit to flow out of our hearts in the patience we have with each other. We walk on water with the touch of Christ on our hearts.
Kindness
Christ becomes part of the excitement of our life in the experience of the coming forth of the Spirit in our salvation history story. When the Spirit comes to us, we are enabled to live up to Christ in us. Our Christ gifts are always renewed for what is needed as our hearts are claimed to meet the challenge of what is to be done in our world today. A gentle heart is one that belongs to Christ. Violence is foreign to a soul caught up in the wonder of Christ having died for us. The willingness to be a non-violent person flows out of the oneness one has with the Christ of the Cross.
Gentleness
We joyfully recognize the presence of the Spirit as the bursting-out expression of the pleasure of giving. Not only does God love a cheerful giver. We all do, even loving ourselves when we give cheerfully. The fun of giving opens the eyes of our soul in an ever-widening circle of love until one day we can be more concerned about the world in which we live than about ourselves. Gentleness comes from respect for life and all life stands for. The life of Christ, knowable from the scriptures, becomes real to us in the way Christ dealt with the woman taken in adultery. Gentleness is how the good Shepherd comes alive in our dealings with one another. A placid spirit and a kind heart find expression in gentleness of spirit.
Goodness
Each of the fruits of the Spirit is a living out of a gift of the Spirit in a practical way, thus making it a pleasure to be with another. The fruits of the spirit make us loveable. Once we are willing to say that we need another, we know, in the recognition of the gift they possess, the working of the Spirit in our relationship. It goes both ways. Others can discover in us what we discover in them. A living people-list of the twelve fruits is its own reward. Much more rewarding is the discovery of what attracts our hearts to holy people. Goodness is a label we put on holiness.
Christ’s holiness
All of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit have to do with love. Perfect love generates new love. The fruits of the Spirit are found in Christ and the imitation of Christ produces fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit reveal the uniqueness of Christ's holiness in each of us. We are called by the gentleness of Christ. He does not call us by force. The "come follow me" touches our hearts as an invitation. The desire to follow is born of the truth of the attraction of holiness. Christ calls us to find ourselves in him.
The beauty of Christ's love is that it has anticipated us. Before we have been born, Christ has loved us and we are called to find in him the deepest meaning of our creation. All the other religions are touched by the Spirit of God, and in the very touch tell us something about holiness. Christianity not only tells us something about holiness, but also in telling us about Christ gives us the example of the perfect holiness of life. Christ tells us something about what it means to be ourselves and the richness of the Spirit in each of us is founded on the relationship to Christ's gifts of the Spirit.
The birth of the Church
As the blood and water issued forth from the pierced heart of Christ, the Church was conceived. Pentecost marks the birth of the Church and claims Christ's spirit as its ongoing life that will be fulfilled in the final resurrection. Love carries us toward fusion with the beloved. The tension of love is found in the need of independence and autonomy. Growing up in this love carries us into the Mystical Body of Christ in the interdependence of our lives together where our gifts are needed and expressed as the life of the Church. The source of this love is the Holy Spirit. The locus of this love is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And the possibility of this love is the exchange of hearts with Christ.
Personal Pentecost
We live in an age of the Spirit. But we often pay only lip service to the Holy Spirit in the Gloria, the Creed and the sign of the Cross. How often do we adore the Holy Spirit in the depths of our hearts? Our missing challenge to holiness could be the ignorance of the coming of the Spirit in our own lives. The gifts of the Spirit can make us aware of the coming of the Spirit to us. We have all heard of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost. Yet our unawareness of his coming to us from without makes us incomplete in our own relationship to the Spirit. Most of us claim the Spirit at Baptism, but need encouragement to frequently tap the Spirit. Few realize that for every new need of the community, there is the possibility of a new coming. Christians will never get beyond the need of new comings because the problems of the growing pains will be with us until the end.
A new coming
We think of someone missing when we hear of the Holy Spirit, and yet the Spirit moves us when we adore the Lord our God. People whom we respect as spiritual are filled with the Spirit. Yet many of them do not realize that for every need of the people of God, there is the possibility of a new coming just for the asking. The very need of the people of God brought the new coming we call the second Vatican Council. What the Church can do as the macrocosm of the people of God, we can do in community as a microcosm of the people of God. Each new need of the people of God can invite us to go beyond the way we see ourselves. Our need is the basis for a new coming if we will but call out from the depths of our being with the cry that the Spirit makes possible. We need the combination of wisdom, knowledge, counsel and understanding that brings the integration of the mind of Christ into our way of thinking, and the piety, fortitude, and the fear of the Lord that claims for our living the very heart of Christ as our own. The mind and the heart of Christ give rise to all the fruits of the Spirit.
Love to be shared
We are looking for the Spirit of the Father. Looking at Christ discovers the Father. Christ was such a good teacher of the Father that he could claim at the Last Supper that all the Father had given him he had passed on to his disciples. He told his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, I have loved you." And he wanted his disciples to live on in that love. The disciples could well have come to the upper room of Pentecost out of fear and out of the memory of what they had shared in Christ. The promise of Christ to send the Spirit and not the qualifications of the Apostles made Pentecost possible. Peter, forgiven by Christ for having denied him, would be the spokesperson of Pentecost. Peter had a need of sharing this Christ who had died for him. What happened in that upper room was not just the rush of the fire of divine love that reached their hearts, but the need of that love to be shared.
Excitement of love
The Pentecost experience is filled with an energy that cannot be restrained. The Spirit of the living God within us breaks free in the sharing of our love. At Pentecost, the Resurrection becomes the dawning awareness of Christ bigger than hearts and the encounter with Christ needs to be shouted out to our world with all the excitement of love. We capture in Christ's humanness all the mercy and love of God. Pentecost makes it possible for a dearly departed friend to live on in our lives in the love of our hearts reminding us of our friend.
Wings to words
At Pentecost all the memories of Jesus came together with such a rush, it was like a loud wind gathering in one place. The Apostles could not be quiet. The urgency of their hearts to speak of their Christ gave wings to words that reached the hearts of the many listeners of that day. The tongues of fire set them free. The gathering of the day and the memories shared caught up and freed their spirits to proclaim to any and all the good news of Christ's Resurrection. The Apostles needed Pentecost to become free. What we would say because of our new Pentecost speaks the louder to hearts seeking to be free. The truth reaching the heart reflects the working of the Spirit. Each of the gifts we possess, given for the needs of the world, relates whom we are to the world groaning to know the salvation of Jesus Christ. Christ is revealed in us even as we reach out to the needs of the world under the inspiration of the Spirit. The victory of Christ lives in each of us through our goodness. Christ had to go. As long as he was on the scene, the apostles would always want to be around Christ and would be following his lead. They were not about to initiate anything that would risk their lives or spread the news that God was in the land. They needed something that would galvanize them into action after Christ had left them in the Ascension; they had to be taken from being bystanders and watchers to heartfelt livers of the Kingdom of God. Christ told the Apostles that he had to go in order that the Spirit might come. He was telling them that there was something missing between what he stood for and their living the fullness of whom he, Christ, was. When someone finally leaves us, all we shared becomes a living memory in us. We know the need of honoring the memory with action.
The awakening
Pentecost brings the awakening of all the Apostles in the excitement of the day we read about in the second chapter of the Acts. Their membership in the human race showed through their fear. We can imagine the doors locked. They could not bring themselves to leave. Confusion reigned. Would Jesus come soon? How will we recognize him this time? What could be done in the meanwhile? Were they all talking at once? Was it Mary who first understood? Did she wait for the others to understand? So many questions then and today capture our hearts before we are ready for the work of Jesus. The Apostles were beset with confusion and doubt. They were held together by expectation and love of Jesus. The "Come, Lord Jesus" prayer of the early community was perhaps first uttered from the hearts of these men at this time.
Tongues of fire
When the Apostles were together, they possessed the presence of Christ missed so desperately when they were alone. This group of ordinary people would be made extraordinary by tongues of fire. The ground swell of fear is swallowed by a heaven swell of love. The doors of their hearts are swung open and the doors of the room hold them no longer. They burst forth from the room charged by the movement of the spirit, charged with spreading the good news. His excitement in sending the Spirit has to be measured by our joys in sharing the good news. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit. What the apostles received, we receive. New times and new needs call forth the gifts that are so different, but the same in the Spirit, the giver of the Gifts.
New coming
Chapter four of Acts tells us about Peter and John praying: " to speak. Your, message with all boldness... grant that wonders and miracles may be performed... "(Acts 4:29-30) The building shook and the sound of the rushing winds made them aware of a new coming of the Spirit. The Pentecost we celebrate as the beginning of the Church was the first of many great needs that would be met by sending the Spirit.
Ongoing life
The Holy Spirit comes to the great needs of the Church, inspiring men and women of every age to use their gifts for the Church. The great civilizations which have come and gone so quickly in the history of the world suggests something special keeps the Church going amidst all the weaknesses and sinfulness of its members. The presence of the Spirit in the Church, constantly renewing us, explains the ongoing life of the Church. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit brings the truth the Church shares with its people. The father of lies will not prevail over the Church. The Spirit’s presence nourishes and insures the growth of the Church. The Spirit is the love present in the Church in its relationship to the Father and the Son. Limiting the operations of the Spirit to the day of Pentecost would make the Spirit an isolated part of Church history. In truth, the Spirit is the life-giver of every day. The Spirit is in the ''now-ness'' of the mystery of love as the breath and life of the Church.
I am
If we could hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us we might hear. “I am the love of the Father, and the Son for each other. I would be your love of God even as I am God's love for you. I am the meeting of love and the reaching beyond the boundaries of life to the meeting of the divine and the human. I am the moment of time that is eternal because it only takes a moment to love forever. I am your deepest wish and the wellspring of all knowledge. I am the truth of who you are, and of whom you will become in the fullness of all love that Christ makes yours in my coming. Forget yourself and all the desires you have of this world and allow me to do the talking for you. Open your heart to the sound of my voice and I will speak for you to the world crying out for the human to make sense. I am the moment before common sense, even as I am the divine logic of all love. Open yourself to hear the truth of the heart you can be in God's love as you accept the truth of yourself.”
Let us pray
We claim you, Spirit, as the truth of our hearts. Come, fill our hearts and make us faithful. Your gifts are the heartbeats of Eternal Life in us. Give us open hearts to love even as Christ did. Move us and mold us as lovers of life and all that is holy. Make us noble in the way we reach out to the hurting and the little ones of life.
Teach us what we need to know that we might always possess the truth of Christ in who we are. Let us be totally receiving and totally giving so the life of the Trinity might have a counterpart in us in the Mystery of Indwelling. Make us a giving people so poverty might be driven away forever. Deafen us with the cry of "Abba" from our hearts so we may only hear the word of our hearts calling to our Father in heaven. Speak for us so we might be heard by the Father in the truth of our Christ life within. May each of your gifts be strong in us and may the fruits of your life within us be seen by all. Enkindle in us the fire of divine love and never let it go out. Recreate us anew in Love. Let the Sacred Heart be our heart. Amen.
Temples of the spirit
Love announces the presence of the Spirit in our hearts. Our recognition of the presence of God in our lives is the work of the Spirit. The day we begin praying to the Spirit for the grace to be willing to be who Christ would have been if he were lucky enough to be one of us marks the beginning of a deeper love relationship with the Lord. From that moment on, the Spirit of the Father's love for the Son and the Son's love for the Father is ours. Caught in the deepest of all meanings of love, the still point of being in love, the lived experience of prayer brings to life the Spirit at work in our hearts. The Spirit speaks for us in the cry of "Abba.” to the Father. The Third Person of the Trinity voices our needs from our hearts in the intense emptiness of a dark night. Our prayer cries out for belonging to God. In the lived moment of the wordlessness of our hearts we encounter the Spirit pleading for us to the Creator. Our souls have become Temples of the Spirit.
Dawning of love
Love in our Spiritual lives gives us a growing vision of God. Our personal Pentecost is the dawning of love in our hearts. Christ indicated the importance of Pentecost at the Last Supper when he said, "...the Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything..."(Jn. 14:26). The apostles, even though they had known Christ personally, did not recognize him immediately in his resurrectional appearances. The Christ of the resurrection was a stranger to the two disciples traveling to Emmaus until they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. Although the Apostles recognized Christ a number of times after he rose from the dead, the coming of the Spirit would sharpen their awareness of Christ's presence through the gifts of the Spirit. The "everything" the Spirit would teach would include wisdom, knowledge, counsel, and understanding of Christ in his humanity. The putting on the mind of Christ would complete the Apostles’ training. Molded by piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord, the disciples would have hearts alive to Christ who would claim their hearts. These same gifts of the Spirit resurface our hearts as the Christ hearts of today. Thus, we proclaim the Sacred Heart even as we enshrine it in our heart.
Love for others
Seven gifts - Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Piety and Fear of the Lord - in which we are always growing, are ours by virtue of our membership in the family of God. The presence of the Spirit in our lives is most pronounced in the love we have for others. Christ made it clear at the Last Supper just how far reaching our love ought to be: "...no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend"(John 15:13). "What I command you is to love one another"(John 15:17). "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Love of God and love of our neighbor are Christ’s commandments to us. The Spirit surrounds our love and is our love for one another.
Put on Christ
The gifts of the Holy Spirit make it possible to put on the mind and the heart of Christ. The way Christ does things can be learned by our prayer and the example of good people. If our own adherence to Christ is to make any sense at all, we have to put on the mind and the heart of Christ. Prayer makes the mind and heart of Christ a living memory in us.
We come to know Christ through the Scriptures. Listening to our hearts brings us closer to the Christ who touched our hearts in baptism. Christ reaches out to our world by using our gifts for spreading his kingdom. If we are going to own the mind and the heart of Christ, our gifts have to fuse with our energies of life as we reach out to the needs of our world.
Becoming complete
The gifts of the mind are complemented by the gifts that touch the heart. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding and counsel are the mind gifts that need the heart-felt gifts of piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord. Together they are the quality of a Christ life. Piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord are other gifts of the Spirit which come together to stretch our hearts. Both sets of gifts are the Spirit at work to help us put on the mind and the heart of Christ. The Spirit works to capture all of our being for Christ. The distinction of the intellect and the will often de-personalizes these gifts so that we lose touch with the Holy Spirit. We become a complete person in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit in us.
No greater love
Love is the beginning of wisdom. We cannot love others if we do not love ourselves. But we can only love ourselves if we have been loved. Human love begins with a parent's love. A mother's love is incomprehensible, yet it teaches us, at an early age, the meaning of love. Divine love is best understood in God's love for us as expressed in the humanness of Christ who died on the cross for us. Wisdom is found in Christ's "no greater love." Wisdom is the Word made flesh and the fleshed out forgiveness of the cross.
Born in our time
Knowledge of Christ is all the information we possess of the events in the life of Christ. The knowledge produces meaning in us as we grow in our journey of faith to become another Christ. We read the Scriptures and come to an awareness of who this man Christ is. He lives with the Church as his Mystical Body. In what we know about the Church we come to recognize Christ in all he does in the lives of our brothers and our sisters. Reading the lives of great saints helps increase our knowledge of Christ. We imagine what Christ would have been like had he been born in their age and time. The 'saints' of our own families and friends help us to understand the Christ of the Scriptures by the way they have incorporated Christ into their own lives. The gift of knowledge dawning in our minds brings the light of Christ. Light is shed on who we can be in Christ.
Our destiny
The Apostles who accompanied Christ during his Public Life, and the understanding the Spirit gave them, sustained the early Church. Our understanding of friends and ourselves will continue through life until the day we see Christ face to face. Then eye will see and ear will hear what has not yet been seen or said in the history of the world. At last we will understand, in the fullness of the Christ of Heaven, what life in the Spirit invites us to have as our destiny.
Test of authority
The translation of Christ into our 20th century is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our belonging to the Church is the movement of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul could have heard of Christ many times in his life and never understood what Christ was about. As he subjected his understanding of Christ to the Spirit, through the Apostles he came to know in a deeper way what he understood in his prayer and the time spent in darkness. Understanding puts the process of learning to the test of authority. It allows us to realize the truth of our thoughts.
Hard love
Wisdom, knowledge and understanding are the natural outcrop of the Spirit's grace within us. The divine indwelling reaches a tangible expression in the beauty of our love reaching out to another's need. Rid of selfishness our hearts have a greater capacity for loving. Our world does not understand hard love measured by Christ's giving from the cross. Hard love is measured by how we give rather than receive. Our wisdom, knowledge and understanding are tempered by our love of the cross of Christ. "The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them (Jn. 15:13).
Counsel
Counsel is the coming together of wisdom, knowledge and understanding in the practical advice given or received. Counsel points out what is missing in our Christ relationship. We have counsel for others in our understanding of what is missing in their Christ relationship. We need spiritual direction and discernment on the spiritual journey. Counsel must be prudent so that advice not take us beyond our strength for living a good life.
Piety
Often enough, in our lives, there is a note of scorn in our voices when we call someone pious. Yet piety is the strength of personal love for Christ. We are called to lose ourselves in Christ so we can say with Paul: "...I live now not with my own life, but with the life of Christ, who lives in me"(Galatians 2:20). The Spirit strengthens our love of God in Christ. Christ's love touches the foundation of our being, giving us his relationship to the Father.
Fortitude
Fortitude is a sorely needed gift of the Spirit in our world and in our Church. It makes perseverance and sticking to a difficult task possible. Fortitude energizes us to live up to what we believe. Fortitude is essential to religious life. The intensity of a life following Christ all the way to the Cross relies on fortitude. Marriages can flounder in its absence. Every form of community will fall by the wayside without it. The intensity of our love is a measure of fortitude. By fortitude we can offer a love as intense as Christ's love. Such a love endures in season and out of season, when it is acceptable and even when it is not acceptable. Fortitude strengthens us in the way we share our love. The sinner who keeps on trying against all obstacles, and one day reaches the pinnacle of holiness, gets there by fortitude. The attraction of a pleasure locking us into selfishness is counterbalanced by the call of grace, which gradually allows us to build up the habit of saying "yes" to our Lord. Fortitude is the love of a heart capable of outlasting temptation. Fortitude forges a will of iron, which enables us to do what the Lord is asking.
Fear of the Lord
Our journey of love calls us to choose our beloved over everyone and everything else in life. Each time we fail we have a new movement of the Spirit flowing from a fear of the Lord. There are times when we do not want to live with our Lord, but we need him, whether we know it or not. Every time we pick something other than our Master, and make it, even for a moment, the meaning of life, we feel the grumbling of our hearts, calling, calling, calling us back to this God, whose absence we fear. Just like the awesome experience of his love living within us, fear of losing the Lord can be one of the freeing experiences of life. We will do the impossible to keep him.
Another Christ
We dare to be another Christ. Fear, which keeps us from doing something, is not the same as fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is different than fear of being punished. Our hearts quake before the awesomeness of God's presence in Jesus Christ. We have the gift of the fear of the Lord when we look deep within. In the Mystery of Indwelling we realize in whose presence we are. This fear does not bring paralysis; rather it brings a moment of adoration in the unveiling of God's majesty in us.
God’s way
The Spirit is sent to empower us on our own missions in life. We have to surrender our way of doing things in favor of God's way. We have to realize that God is in our lives. There are no accidents in the plan of God. He has chosen us. He has chosen to be in our lives. The coming of the Spirit deepens the surrender of our lives to God's action in us. The surrender to this call allows God to work through us, because grace builds on nature. This enables us to see how much more can be done than we could ever have dreamt of doing alone.
Contemplatives in action
We have to make the transition from simply being preserved in life to being active participants with the Lord working through us. The ideal is to let the Lord work one hundred percent while we do nothing. All blocks to the-Lord-taking-care-of-everything need to be removed with today's Pentecost.
The Work of the Spirit
The Fruits of the Spirit
Each of the Gifts of the Spirit makes it possible for us to be present to the needs of another. The gifts show themselves through the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits distinguish our relationship to Christ. When grace builds on nature, the fruit of the Spirit focuses nature by shining forth with gracefulness, and exposing the uniqueness of each of us.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon us
A genuine Christian by being true to oneself offers the fruits of the Spirit. The life of the Spirit in anyone reveals itself by the way one’s gifts nourish another. The fruits of the Spirit are much more obvious in others than in oneself. Love is the working of the spirit attracting our hearts by the gift of another. Love is anything done for another and a deed of love finds expression as a fruit of the spirit. Each act of love plants in our hearts a fruit of the Spirit. In the Gospel of Luke we encounter Christ reading from the prophet Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor..."(Luke 4:18). His comment on the scripture was; "This passage of Scripture has come true today as you heard it being read."(Luke 4:21) The presence of the Spirit within us has an outgoing manifestation discoverable in the fruit of the spirit. The force of the spirit within flows to the exterior of our lives, and his fruit show his presence within.
Fruits of the Spirit
The genuine living of our Christ-life should have many outward signs. A list could include more than the charity, peace, joy, patience, benignity, chastity, continency, longsuffering, goodness, mildness, faith and modesty that make up the traditional listing of the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit reveal our Christianity. We shall know they are Christians by their love. Our love for one another needs the uniqueness that flows out of the mixture of the gifts of the Spirit. The recognition of the uniqueness of a friend elaborates the meaning of a fruit of the Spirit. Love for another flows from the appreciation of the uniqueness of one or more of the fruits of the Spirit in another.
Love
A great heart is recognized by its generosity, in its giving of self in love. The only thing we can change in a relationship is the amount of love we give, and the way we give it to one another. At the other extreme from generosity is selfishness, which manipulates the gift of another for personal gain. Love attempts to give the better gift, recognizable as the fruit of charity.
Joy
Joy flows from a genuine heart. Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God in any life. Joy goes deeper than a silly smile. The happiness of being a child of God is part of joy. The closeness of belonging is part of joy. The living of our truth brings joy. Desire to be true to our word is written on our heart and is the source of joy. The sad-faced Christian contradicts the Good News of the gospel. We like ourselves when we are living up to the dictates of our hearts. Holiness brings sane living, and the wholeness of sanctity brings a joy strong enough to survive even the trials of Job. Joy is one of the best signs of the closeness of God to us. The divine indwelling surfaces joy again and again, showing the truth of our heart’s closeness to God. It is the gift belonging to the Resurrection.
Peace
Peace is the sign of a soul that has it all together. It is tranquility of a heart secure in its relationship to the Father. Love calls us to togetherness with the beloved. Poverty, short life and dishonor that mark the life of Christ are difficult to want until love for Christ and the Father strengthens us. Once our peace is strongly established in our relationship to Christ, our unruffled spirits flow from our freedom to give of ourselves rather than our concern with what we are receiving. Christ chose poverty, and his spirit within us chooses his poverty. The disgrace of the cross bringing the glory of Christ makes possible the great peace accompanying Christ's cross in the saints. It allows us to know in the midst of our crosses that we are close to Christ. The human Christ who lived two thousand years ago is out of our reach, but his choices of life are possible to us. Christ can be touched and held in no better way, with the exception of Eucharist, than by the way we live out his choices of life. Our awareness of trying to choose as Christ chose brings peace.
Peace is possible amid fears. The Apostles of the upper room were filled with fear when Christ brought them his peace. Once we make the choices of Christ our own, nothing can separate us from the peace Christ brings. The world no longer can force us away from Christ because honor and power lose their attraction; they are not his choices. He chose poverty, short life and the dishonor of the cross.
Only the choice of something other than Christ endangers peace. Sin is the distance that exists between who I am and who I should be in following Christ. Sin is rarely a “we,” it is always an “I.” Our peace is in what we do for Christ as the other. Our peace is in our being with Christ by our togetherness with others. Peace births the leaders our world needs.
Patience
Patience is seen in the acceptance of our own and others' growth. It is easier to see growth in others than in self. Growth requires pruning to remove the dead wood. Such pruning is the work of the Father. It makes room for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The pruning away of faults opens us to growth. Pruning and growth are not always easy. They often occur in periods of great stress, where we are not aware of what is happening. The piercing of the heart of Jesus on the cross ranks as one of the sharpest cuts of all time. Our own cuts do not always draw the best from us. Wanting to be close to Christ can calm the troubled waters of our lives. Closeness to Christ allows the fruits of the Spirit to flow out of our hearts in the patience we have with each other. We walk on water with the touch of Christ on our hearts.
Kindness
Christ becomes part of the excitement of our life in the experience of the coming forth of the Spirit in our salvation history story. When the Spirit comes to us, we are enabled to live up to Christ in us. Our Christ gifts are always renewed for what is needed as our hearts are claimed to meet the challenge of what is to be done in our world today. A gentle heart is one that belongs to Christ. Violence is foreign to a soul caught up in the wonder of Christ having died for us. The willingness to be a non-violent person flows out of the oneness one has with the Christ of the Cross.
Gentleness
We joyfully recognize the presence of the Spirit as the bursting-out expression of the pleasure of giving. Not only does God love a cheerful giver. We all do, even loving ourselves when we give cheerfully. The fun of giving opens the eyes of our soul in an ever-widening circle of love until one day we can be more concerned about the world in which we live than about ourselves. Gentleness comes from respect for life and all life stands for. The life of Christ, knowable from the scriptures, becomes real to us in the way Christ dealt with the woman taken in adultery. Gentleness is how the good Shepherd comes alive in our dealings with one another. A placid spirit and a kind heart find expression in gentleness of spirit.
Goodness
Each of the fruits of the Spirit is a living out of a gift of the Spirit in a practical way, thus making it a pleasure to be with another. The fruits of the spirit make us loveable. Once we are willing to say that we need another, we know, in the recognition of the gift they possess, the working of the Spirit in our relationship. It goes both ways. Others can discover in us what we discover in them. A living people-list of the twelve fruits is its own reward. Much more rewarding is the discovery of what attracts our hearts to holy people. Goodness is a label we put on holiness.
Christ’s holiness
All of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit have to do with love. Perfect love generates new love. The fruits of the Spirit are found in Christ and the imitation of Christ produces fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit reveal the uniqueness of Christ's holiness in each of us. We are called by the gentleness of Christ. He does not call us by force. The "come follow me" touches our hearts as an invitation. The desire to follow is born of the truth of the attraction of holiness. Christ calls us to find ourselves in him.
The beauty of Christ's love is that it has anticipated us. Before we have been born, Christ has loved us and we are called to find in him the deepest meaning of our creation. All the other religions are touched by the Spirit of God, and in the very touch tell us something about holiness. Christianity not only tells us something about holiness, but also in telling us about Christ gives us the example of the perfect holiness of life. Christ tells us something about what it means to be ourselves and the richness of the Spirit in each of us is founded on the relationship to Christ's gifts of the Spirit.
The birth of the Church
As the blood and water issued forth from the pierced heart of Christ, the Church was conceived. Pentecost marks the birth of the Church and claims Christ's spirit as its ongoing life that will be fulfilled in the final resurrection. Love carries us toward fusion with the beloved. The tension of love is found in the need of independence and autonomy. Growing up in this love carries us into the Mystical Body of Christ in the interdependence of our lives together where our gifts are needed and expressed as the life of the Church. The source of this love is the Holy Spirit. The locus of this love is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And the possibility of this love is the exchange of hearts with Christ.
Personal Pentecost
We live in an age of the Spirit. But we often pay only lip service to the Holy Spirit in the Gloria, the Creed and the sign of the Cross. How often do we adore the Holy Spirit in the depths of our hearts? Our missing challenge to holiness could be the ignorance of the coming of the Spirit in our own lives. The gifts of the Spirit can make us aware of the coming of the Spirit to us. We have all heard of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost. Yet our unawareness of his coming to us from without makes us incomplete in our own relationship to the Spirit. Most of us claim the Spirit at Baptism, but need encouragement to frequently tap the Spirit. Few realize that for every new need of the community, there is the possibility of a new coming. Christians will never get beyond the need of new comings because the problems of the growing pains will be with us until the end.
A new coming
We think of someone missing when we hear of the Holy Spirit, and yet the Spirit moves us when we adore the Lord our God. People whom we respect as spiritual are filled with the Spirit. Yet many of them do not realize that for every need of the people of God, there is the possibility of a new coming just for the asking. The very need of the people of God brought the new coming we call the second Vatican Council. What the Church can do as the macrocosm of the people of God, we can do in community as a microcosm of the people of God. Each new need of the people of God can invite us to go beyond the way we see ourselves. Our need is the basis for a new coming if we will but call out from the depths of our being with the cry that the Spirit makes possible. We need the combination of wisdom, knowledge, counsel and understanding that brings the integration of the mind of Christ into our way of thinking, and the piety, fortitude, and the fear of the Lord that claims for our living the very heart of Christ as our own. The mind and the heart of Christ give rise to all the fruits of the Spirit.
Love to be shared
We are looking for the Spirit of the Father. Looking at Christ discovers the Father. Christ was such a good teacher of the Father that he could claim at the Last Supper that all the Father had given him he had passed on to his disciples. He told his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, I have loved you." And he wanted his disciples to live on in that love. The disciples could well have come to the upper room of Pentecost out of fear and out of the memory of what they had shared in Christ. The promise of Christ to send the Spirit and not the qualifications of the Apostles made Pentecost possible. Peter, forgiven by Christ for having denied him, would be the spokesperson of Pentecost. Peter had a need of sharing this Christ who had died for him. What happened in that upper room was not just the rush of the fire of divine love that reached their hearts, but the need of that love to be shared.
Excitement of love
The Pentecost experience is filled with an energy that cannot be restrained. The Spirit of the living God within us breaks free in the sharing of our love. At Pentecost, the Resurrection becomes the dawning awareness of Christ bigger than hearts and the encounter with Christ needs to be shouted out to our world with all the excitement of love. We capture in Christ's humanness all the mercy and love of God. Pentecost makes it possible for a dearly departed friend to live on in our lives in the love of our hearts reminding us of our friend.
Wings to words
At Pentecost all the memories of Jesus came together with such a rush, it was like a loud wind gathering in one place. The Apostles could not be quiet. The urgency of their hearts to speak of their Christ gave wings to words that reached the hearts of the many listeners of that day. The tongues of fire set them free. The gathering of the day and the memories shared caught up and freed their spirits to proclaim to any and all the good news of Christ's Resurrection. The Apostles needed Pentecost to become free. What we would say because of our new Pentecost speaks the louder to hearts seeking to be free. The truth reaching the heart reflects the working of the Spirit. Each of the gifts we possess, given for the needs of the world, relates whom we are to the world groaning to know the salvation of Jesus Christ. Christ is revealed in us even as we reach out to the needs of the world under the inspiration of the Spirit. The victory of Christ lives in each of us through our goodness. Christ had to go. As long as he was on the scene, the apostles would always want to be around Christ and would be following his lead. They were not about to initiate anything that would risk their lives or spread the news that God was in the land. They needed something that would galvanize them into action after Christ had left them in the Ascension; they had to be taken from being bystanders and watchers to heartfelt livers of the Kingdom of God. Christ told the Apostles that he had to go in order that the Spirit might come. He was telling them that there was something missing between what he stood for and their living the fullness of whom he, Christ, was. When someone finally leaves us, all we shared becomes a living memory in us. We know the need of honoring the memory with action.
The awakening
Pentecost brings the awakening of all the Apostles in the excitement of the day we read about in the second chapter of the Acts. Their membership in the human race showed through their fear. We can imagine the doors locked. They could not bring themselves to leave. Confusion reigned. Would Jesus come soon? How will we recognize him this time? What could be done in the meanwhile? Were they all talking at once? Was it Mary who first understood? Did she wait for the others to understand? So many questions then and today capture our hearts before we are ready for the work of Jesus. The Apostles were beset with confusion and doubt. They were held together by expectation and love of Jesus. The "Come, Lord Jesus" prayer of the early community was perhaps first uttered from the hearts of these men at this time.
Tongues of fire
When the Apostles were together, they possessed the presence of Christ missed so desperately when they were alone. This group of ordinary people would be made extraordinary by tongues of fire. The ground swell of fear is swallowed by a heaven swell of love. The doors of their hearts are swung open and the doors of the room hold them no longer. They burst forth from the room charged by the movement of the spirit, charged with spreading the good news. His excitement in sending the Spirit has to be measured by our joys in sharing the good news. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit. What the apostles received, we receive. New times and new needs call forth the gifts that are so different, but the same in the Spirit, the giver of the Gifts.
New coming
Chapter four of Acts tells us about Peter and John praying: " to speak. Your, message with all boldness... grant that wonders and miracles may be performed... "(Acts 4:29-30) The building shook and the sound of the rushing winds made them aware of a new coming of the Spirit. The Pentecost we celebrate as the beginning of the Church was the first of many great needs that would be met by sending the Spirit.
Ongoing life
The Holy Spirit comes to the great needs of the Church, inspiring men and women of every age to use their gifts for the Church. The great civilizations which have come and gone so quickly in the history of the world suggests something special keeps the Church going amidst all the weaknesses and sinfulness of its members. The presence of the Spirit in the Church, constantly renewing us, explains the ongoing life of the Church. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit brings the truth the Church shares with its people. The father of lies will not prevail over the Church. The Spirit’s presence nourishes and insures the growth of the Church. The Spirit is the love present in the Church in its relationship to the Father and the Son. Limiting the operations of the Spirit to the day of Pentecost would make the Spirit an isolated part of Church history. In truth, the Spirit is the life-giver of every day. The Spirit is in the ''now-ness'' of the mystery of love as the breath and life of the Church.
I am
If we could hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us we might hear. “I am the love of the Father, and the Son for each other. I would be your love of God even as I am God's love for you. I am the meeting of love and the reaching beyond the boundaries of life to the meeting of the divine and the human. I am the moment of time that is eternal because it only takes a moment to love forever. I am your deepest wish and the wellspring of all knowledge. I am the truth of who you are, and of whom you will become in the fullness of all love that Christ makes yours in my coming. Forget yourself and all the desires you have of this world and allow me to do the talking for you. Open your heart to the sound of my voice and I will speak for you to the world crying out for the human to make sense. I am the moment before common sense, even as I am the divine logic of all love. Open yourself to hear the truth of the heart you can be in God's love as you accept the truth of yourself.”
Let us pray
We claim you, Spirit, as the truth of our hearts. Come, fill our hearts and make us faithful. Your gifts are the heartbeats of Eternal Life in us. Give us open hearts to love even as Christ did. Move us and mold us as lovers of life and all that is holy. Make us noble in the way we reach out to the hurting and the little ones of life.
Teach us what we need to know that we might always possess the truth of Christ in who we are. Let us be totally receiving and totally giving so the life of the Trinity might have a counterpart in us in the Mystery of Indwelling. Make us a giving people so poverty might be driven away forever. Deafen us with the cry of "Abba" from our hearts so we may only hear the word of our hearts calling to our Father in heaven. Speak for us so we might be heard by the Father in the truth of our Christ life within. May each of your gifts be strong in us and may the fruits of your life within us be seen by all. Enkindle in us the fire of divine love and never let it go out. Recreate us anew in Love. Let the Sacred Heart be our heart. Amen.
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