Open the Door for Us

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Diane Bayne

Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.  After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’  He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’  Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!’  And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out...(Luke 13:23-29)

Piety

For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”  (Luke 13: 30)

Study

What a shock it must have been for the apostles to hear these words from Jesus!  As good, lifelong Jews, they assumed that they would be assured of admittance to the kingdom of God and that it is the Gentiles who will be refused admittance. 

According to New Testament Commentator William Barclay, here Jesus is clearly declaring that entry to the kingdom can never be automatic but is the result and the reward of struggle.  Barclay points out that the word for striving is the word from which the English word agony is derived.  Says Barclay, “. .the struggle to enter (the kingdom) must be so intense that it can be described as an agony of soul and spirit. . . The Christian way is like a climb up a mountain pathway towards a peak which will never be reached in this world. . . for the Christian, life is ever an upward and onward way.”  Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, p. 183. 

Action

The theme that the Christian way is always an uphill struggle is reiterated by many Christian authors.  In a recent book, Rediscovering Jesus, Matthew Kelly declares that “Everybody has a gap to close. . . and it’s a big gap. . . an obvious gap. . . (it’s) a gaping hole in my life and the life Jesus invites me to live in the Gospel.”  (Rediscovering Jesus, Matthew Kelly, pp. 112-113.)  According to Kelly, the only way we can close this gap is by getting close to Jesus.  Kelly then proceeds to list four actions by which all who call themselves Christians can close this gap:

1) Read the four Gospels, over and over, for fifteen minutes each day.

2) Practice The Prayer Process–a process to help you enter into a daily conversation with Jesus

3) Deny yourself.  Find a handful of small ways to deny yourself each day.

4) Practice spontaneous prayer.  Talk to Jesus about the events of your day as they are unfolding. 

Says Kelly, “Our lives change when our habits change. God uses new habits to transform us.  These four habits will have a beautiful and radical impact on your life if you allow them to sink their roots deep into your life.   So begin now.  This is a fresh start.  Be bold. Resist any temptation to put it off.  Close the Gap.  Begin it now.”  (Kelly, p. 115)

In the language of Jesus: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. . . For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Or, to put it another way– and in the language of Cursillo: ULTREYA!  Onward and Upward! Old age is not for Sissies–and neither is following Christ. 

Here I Will Dwell

Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot, and Doctor of the Church

Then I heard someone speaking to me from the temple, while the man stood beside me. The voice said to me: Son of man, this is where my throne shall be, this is where I will set the soles of my feet; here I will dwell among the children of Israel forever.  Ezekiel 43:6-7AB

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. Matthew 23:3-5A

Piety

Near indeed is his salvation for those who fear him; glory will dwell in our land. Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss. Truth will spring from the earth; justice will look down from heaven. Yes, the LORD will grant his bounty; our land will yield its produce. Justice will march before him, and make a way for his footsteps. (Psalm 85:10-14)

Study

Near indeed.  Jesus wants to be as close as your immediate family. 

Ezekiel was rightly surprised that the Lord has chosen to move in next to him.  Maybe not more surprised than Mary of Nazareth, but surprised nonetheless.  Yet on a weekly (or daily basis), our celebration of the Mass is when Jesus says the same to us.  Here in you, I will dwell this week.  Open up and take me with you when you go forth in love and service.

If we open up, our Lord will come to us. Maranatha. 

20 hours ago

Action

When we think about the Lord dwelling with us, it is hard not to think of the tens of thousands of people in the Louisiana flood areas who have no place to dwell today.  The flooding in Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes is more extensive than anyone expected -- more than 40,000 homes have been damaged and more than 100,000 people have been affected.  Yet the news media is obsessed with covering the controversy of vandalism by swimmers in Rio. 

Our hearts break for Louisiana again – a state that is still rebuilding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita more than ten years ago.  Schools and business and roads remain closed.  People must boil water before drinking it (if they have power to their stove). State Farm alone has more than 22,000 claims. 

Yesterday

You can chip in right now to help the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (http://www.braf.org/) or the Capital Area United Way (http://www.cauw.org/) in Baton Rouge.  These not-for-profit groups are among those which are doing critical work to provide medical assistance and supplies to the victims of this natural disaster and which are directing money to community non-profits that need it for the people who REALLY NEED HELP. United Way also has a list of the supplies they need to be donated to clean up. 

Near indeed.  

I Will Put My Spirit in You

Friday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.  Ezekiel 37:12-14

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37-40

Piety

The Catholic Worker believes
in creating a new society
within the shell of the old
with the philosophy of the new,
which is not a new philosophy
but a very old philosophy,
a philosophy so old
that it looks like new.[i]

Study

God likes creating things.  Sometimes those things are brand, spanking new.  See Genesis.  Sometimes those new things are made out of something else entirely and changed.  See the water blush in the presence of its creator during the wedding reception at Cana.  Sometimes, those things are renewed from the shell of the old inside the body of something new.

The two commandments Jesus gives in Matthews Good News are really not new per se. The first commandment is based in the Hebrew Bible:

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Neither is the second commandment new.  It too takes root in the Hebrew Bible:

“Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”  (Leviticus 19:18)

However, Jesus elevates these two with his teaching that they are first and second to none.  He takes something old and makes it new. This fulfills the kind of vision that is implied in the first reading. The notes to the New American Bible explain more about the Vision of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel as a figurative description of God’s creation of a new Israel.

Even though that creation begins with the remains of the old Israel, the exiles under the image of dry bones, depicting a totally hopeless situation, the new Israel is radically different: it is an ideal people, shaped by God’s spirit to live the covenant faithfully, something the old Israel, exiles included, were unable to do. While this passage in its present context is not about the doctrine of individual or communal resurrection, many Jewish and Christian commentators suggest that the doctrine is foreshadowed here.

A new Jerusalem is coming. Get ready for “a philosophy so old that it looks like new,” as Peter Maurin wrote in the Easy Essays which are neither easy nor in essay form (free verse poetry). This, when Jesus proclaims the Nazareth Manifesto in the temple, we feel the full force of that new creation possible when the Spirit of the Lord is put in us.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:18-21)

Action

Is it any wonder Jesus would like to take something old (like us) and make us new again?  What is possible when the Spirit of the Lord is put into each one of us?

If Jesus seeks to do that on the social level, the path toward that renewal is to change one person at a time. Change, Jesus asks us, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

To accomplish this, Jesus puts his Spirit in us every time we receive the sacraments and go out into the world to love and serve him and the people according to those two greatest commandments. 

---

[i] What the Catholic Worker Believes, http://www.easyessays.org/

Prove My Holiness

Thursday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

Thus says the LORD: I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it. Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you. (Ezekiel 36: 22-23)

“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast … But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.  He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ Many are invited, but few are chosen.”  (Matthew 22: 2, 11-14)

Piety

A clean heart create for me, God;

renew within me a steadfast spirit.

Do not drive me from before your face,

nor take from me your holy spirit.

Restore to me the gladness of your salvation;

uphold me with a willing spirit.

I will teach the wicked your ways,

that sinners may return to you. (Psalm 51:12-15

Study

YouTube® videos display people, perhaps even a bride and groom, misbehaving and acting inappropriately at weddings.  Cringe-worthy photos, dirty-dance contests, and excessive drinking disrespect the sacredness of the event.  A friend of mine admitted with amusement and a touch of pride that his mother smacked an aunt in her face during the wedding feast of a cousin.

Thomas Merton speaks of God’s presence being manifest in all beings who are true to their nature: “But this sadness generates within me an unspeakable reverence for the holiness of created things, for they are pure and perfect and they belong to God and they are mirrors of His beauty.  He is mirrored in all things like sunlight in clean water: but if I try to drink the light that is in the water I only shatter the reflection.”[i]

God is proved to the world through the fickle, idol-worshiping Chosen People.  God is proved to the world through me.  Did the wedding guest refuse to mirror God even when he was given garments to wear?  Jesus, through his cross and resurrection, gave us garments of charity, faith, love, and virtues which flow from the Spirit indwelling?

Action

Wisdom,  Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, Piety  Refresh by reading up.  http://www.loyolapress.com/our-catholic-faith/scripture-and-tradition/catholic-basics/catholic-beliefs-and-practices/gifts-of-the-holy-spirit   

Practice one today – perhaps by intentionally doing Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy.  Manifest God.  Prove to the world which hurts so deeply the holiness of God.

---

[i] “A Year with Thomas Merton:  Daily Readings from His Journals”, T. Merton and Jonathan Montaldo, Harper one, 2004, p. 259.

For You Are with ME

Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Thus says the Lord GOD: I swear I am coming against these shepherds. I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep so that they may no longer pasture themselves. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. For thus says the Lord GOD:  I myself will look after and tend my sheep. Ezekiel 34:10-11

So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’ He said to one of them in reply, ‘My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’  Matthew 20:10-16

Piety

A psalm of David.

I

The LORD is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack.

In green pastures he makes me lie down;

to still waters he leads me;

he restores my soul.

He guides me along right paths

for the sake of his name.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff comfort me.

II

You set a table before me in front of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Indeed, goodness and mercy will pursue me all the days of my life;

I will dwell in the house of the LORD for endless days.

Study

Psalm 23 outlines things that the generosity that Lord shows to the believer:[i]

1. A sheep fed. “I shall not want” (verse 1).
2. A child led. “He leads me beside the still waters” (verse 2).
3. A backslider restored. “He restores my soul” (verse 3).
4. A friend comforted. “your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (verse 4).
5. A warrior feasted. “You prepare a table before me” (verse 5).
6. A priest anointed. “you anoint my head” (verse 5).
7. A pilgrim housed. “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (verse 6).

However, despite the fact that we want to believe the pastoral roots of sunshine, warm grass and happiness, there is something more serious that takes place inside this Psalm.  Check out the very different setting for verse four:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

It is easy to imagine that the Lord laying down beside us when we relax in the summer grass at the side of the river or on the beach.  Yet, the real test of the disciple is when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  If we realize that the Lord stays with us there, then we shall truly be His apostles.

Yet too often we miss its core message. There is an abrupt transition in verse four that takes us from a nice Hallmark field to the valley of the shadow of death. It’s easy to skip this part as gloom and despair don’t necessarily fit alongside a beautiful green meadow.  But it’s this valley that provides the key message of Psalm 23.

God does lead us to good places, but the road often winds through dark valleys. Pain and hardship are a part of life and it is in these moments when God reveals Himself most powerfully.  Notice what else changes in verse four.  For the first part of the Psalm David speaks of God only in the third person; “He leads me.”  But after the valley there is a powerful change.  The psalmist no longer speaks about God; now He directly speaks to Him, saying, “You are with me.” Pain is difficult, yet it is often the trigger that leads us to spiritual intimacy.[ii]

Whether we turn to Isaiah or Micah or John, the image of God that shines through is a God who is with us through thick and thin.  He wants to walk with us.

Action

Where is your road leading today?  Who is with you?

Last week, legendary New Orleans clarinetist Pierre Dewey “Pete” Fountain, Jr., (1930-2016) died.  Although there are many Dixieland, jazz and honky-tonk tunes he performed that will remain in my mind, at the top of that list is this one (“Just A Closer Walk with Thee”):

1. I am weak, but Thou art strong;
   Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
   I’ll be satisfied as long
   As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
• Refrain:
  Just a closer walk with Thee,
  Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
  Daily walking close to Thee,
  Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
2. Through this world of toil and snares,
   If I falter, Lord, who cares?
   Who with me my burden shares?
   None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.
3. When my feeble life is o’er,
   Time for me will be no more;
   Guide me gently, safely o’er
   To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

Songs like this unite the image of God from the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament – a God who wants to be so close to us he sends his only son to live with us, walk with us, talk with us, and love us.  All he wants is for us – no matter what path we are on now – is to get on the same path to live with Him, walk with Him, talk with Him and love Him.

Through the valley of the shadow of death, through this world of toil and snares, Jesus shares our burdens with us. Daily. Amazing. Grace.

---

[i] http://blogs.blueletterbible.org/blb/2012/08/06/7-things-the-lord-does-for-the-believer-in-psalm-23/

[ii] http://antiochcc.com/psalm-23-a-second-look/

What Will There Be for Us?

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a god, therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous of nations. They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom, they shall run them through your splendid apparel. They shall thrust you down to the pit, there to die a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea. Will you then say, “I am a god!” when you face your murderers? (Ezekiel 28:6-9)

It is I who deal death and give life. (Deuteronomy 32:39c)

Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” (Matthew 19:27)

Piety

Lord, may I always keep You front and center in my life, for you are all I need.

Study

Heinrich Hofmann [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

You know how your favorite scripture reading can change from time to time, depending on where you are on your spiritual journey and what joys and challenges life is tossing at you? Well, right now, at this particular juncture, it’s Matthew 19:27 I find myself turning to again and again:

Then Peter said to him in reply: “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?”

Everything indeed, it must have seemed to them then: time with their families. Time spent on fishing, tax collecting, and the other activities that had consumed them. Independence and security and perhaps a bit of ego. Logical, then, to ask what they were going to get in return since Jesus had just said those with riches would have to give them away to follow him.

Do you ever feel like you too have given up everything to follow Him? I do—time, talent, and treasure. I’m not complaining, just stating what it looks like to me. And when His next desire for me manifests itself, I find myself asking like Peter, “Really? Do you want more? How can I do more? You already have everything. When do I get something back?”

Then sanity and faith prevail… and I pick up that cross, sometimes daily or even hourly, and give up more… time with silly computer games. A tendency to talk first and think second. Doughnuts in the morning.

And my prayer becomes, “Jesus, I trust in You… regardless of any tangible result, there may be here on earth.”

Action

Just for today, do what the Lord desires, remember that what’s in it for you is peace and the promise of eternal life to the faithful.

My Spirit Rejoices

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God. Revelation 12:5-6A

Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

Piety

From the St. John's Bible

And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.” Luke 1:46-55

Study

Today’s solemn feast marks the end of Mary’s mortal life and her direct assumption into heaven.  However, the Scripture leads us to one of the earliest stories about her life.  Rather than reflect on her just reward, we remember how this poor Jewish girl answered an unlikely and shocking call. We are treated to her most expressive, expansive and powerful passage in the entire corpus of Sacred Scripture.

The Lord shows sympathy for and affinity with the poor.  Rather than come into the world as the son of the Roman Emperor or another king, God chose Mary. Yet, after finding she was pregnant and realizing that her fiancé would not disavow their union, Mary rushed to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth. 

In essence, Mary is the first disciple, maybe the perfect disciple. For Mary, Spirit is both an internal and external manifestation of her response to God’s call.  Her internal spirit rejoices when she realizes that the Lord has looked upon her and called her to perform a special duty. Yet, the Spirit also is an external manifestation of her faith because it is through the Spirit of the Lord that the Word comes to her. Her immediate reaction to everything happening around her is not depression. It is not alcoholism. It is not to go fishing. It is not to hide out in the Upper Room with the door locked.  Mary sets out to see her cousin and upon her arrival, breaks into a song of thanksgiving in her jubilee year of mercy!

With wisdom far beyond her years, she sings with gratitude that the Lord has looked with favor upon her, his slave.  She sings of the hesed, or mercy, that he shows from generation to generation.

As she comes to the end of her song, there is an almost imperceptible shift.  At one moment she is singing of the Mighty One who has scattered the proud, and then in the next moment, she sings that he has exalted the lowly.  Mary has begun to sing of the radical reversal that will so captivate the heart of her son Jesus.  She celebrates that the hungry will have good things but the rich are sent away empty. This is all just as God had promised it would be to the ancestors and to Abraham.[i] 

The assumption is the last step. However, Mary’s entire life shows us the stages of discipleship:[ii]

1. She received a very unexpected and difficult call to be the mother of a unique child in a very strange way.
2. She tested the call by asking questions
3. Without reserve, she accepted the call.
4. Immediately, without concern for herself, she set off to help another, a cousin who was old and in her sixth month of pregnancy.
5. She shared the Good News with her cousin.
6. She returned home to give birth and to show the child to the shepherds, to the magi, to Simeon and Anna, without fully understanding who he was and what he was all about.
7. She persevered to the end, finally standing beneath the cross and burying Jesus.

The miracle children of Mary and Elizabeth will change the world, one person at a time. Including you and me.

Action

What job does the Lord have for you?   You might think – especially on a feast like today – that we cannot be like Mary. She seems so perfect. Yet, other disciples -- like Peter the Denier, Thomas the Doubter, James and John to Sit-At-Your-Side Requestors -- went through a version of these same seven steps.  Maybe it is easier to identify with some of the more flaw-filled later disciples.  But, they all have in common one critical component: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Luke 11:28) 

How do you hear the Word of God and observe it?

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[i] Michael Card.  Luke: The Gospel of Amazement. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2011, P. 41.

[ii] Gerard P. Weber, S.T.L., and Robert Miller, S.T.L. Breaking Open the Gospel of Luke.  Cincinnati, Ohio: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 1990. P. 17

Recognize Grace

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Lisa Helene Bacalski

There was no water in the cistern, only mud,
and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
--Jeremiah 38:6b

Surely, I wait for the LORD;

who bends down to me and hears my cry

--Psalm 40:2

Brothers and sisters:
Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.
--Hebrews 12:1-2a

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.”
--Luke 12:49-51

Piety

Glory

be to the

Father, and

to the Son, and

to the Holy Spirit

as it was in the
beginning, is

now and ever

shall

be.

Study

It is tempting to read this week’s Gospel with a doomsday eye and despair about destruction. Yet the other readings can also point us to another interpretation. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that we are not alone but rather preceded and surrounded by saints who followed the model of love taught to them by Jesus, “the leader and perfecter of faith.” The psalm offers gratitude for deliverance and the ever-suffering Jeremiah is rescued from a cistern. Those who preceded us in God’s everlasting story of love faced some real challenges but they also recognized grace.

That is where we often fall short today, when it is much easier to stay within the safety of cultural interpretations of the apocalypse than to step towards the unexplainable awesomeness of God’s love. Could it be that the fire Jesus speaks of is not a consuming fire that destroys us, but the purifying fire of Divine Love? From there, can we recognize that the divisions in our families, parishes, neighborhoods and workplaces often arise from places of fear rather than love? Can we shed light on the darkness and strive to overcome sin?

Our forebears in faith were not perfect. The very reason we have a letter to the Hebrews is that they were straying from Christian ideals, and the truth spoken to them has echoed through the ages because we need to hear it over and over again. If King David was on easy street, he wouldn’t have cried out to God for deliverance and then written the very lovely thank you note that is Psalm 40. Prior to being dropped into the cistern, Jeremiah had been beaten, thrown in the stocks and threatened with death for his prophesies. Yet he knew that God had literally put words into his mouth and he continued to share God’s promises. Aren’t we called by our baptisms to do the same?

Action

Seek God’s grace in yourself and those around you. Accept an assist from those around you, or just let the grace wash over you. This Matt Maher song might help. 

A New Heart, A New Spirit (or Turn Back and Live!)

Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. Return and live!  Ezekiel 18:31-32

“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.  Matthew 19:14-15

Piety

“Psalm 51: Create in Me” by Bob Hurd

Create in me a clean heart.

Create in me a clean heart.

Have mercy on me God in your compassion.

Remove my sin.  Wash away my guilt.

Create in me a clean heart.

Create in me a clean heart.

O purify my heart and teach me wisdom

Then I shall be whiter than the snow.

Create in me a clean heart.

Create in me a clean heart.

Oh give me back the joy of your salvation;

A willing spirit sustain in me.

Create in me a clean heart.

Create in me a clean heart.

Study

Change.  Again?  Well, the message does not seem to have registered the first 21,177 times the daily readings delivered it. 

Jesus echoed John’s call to “Repent.  The Kingdom of God is at hand.”  John echoed the prophets.  Today’s message in the New Testament is not starkly different from the message of the law and the prophets from the Hebrew Bible. 

Jesus, though, reveals what the Lord seeks of us.  We do not have to change into something new, with some butterfly metamorphosis.  We are asked to change back into the innocent child-like lives from which we have sprouted…and from which we have turned away from in pursuit of other (not necessarily better) options.   

Jesus underscores that by telling the adults that the Kingdom belongs to “such as these [children].”  And when we think back to that Last Breakfast scene when Jesus is grilling fish on the banks of the banks of the Sea of Tiberias.  Jesus addresses the disciples in the boat as children. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” (John 21:5a).  It took the passion, death, and resurrection of their friend Jesus to wipe their slate clean and become child-like again.  

There also emerges a message of personal responsibility. The people quoted in Ezekiel are complaining that they were being punished for their ancestors’ sins. The change Jesus makes is that we are judged according to our own deeds.  We will not pay the price for our parents. Our children will not suffer for our sins.  We will, however, reap what we sow.   

Action

If we are to turn back and away from our current lives, Jesus wants us to go back to a more innocent time in life. We cannot turn back the clock but we can turn back our attitude.

Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, reminds us of the same message by getting us to reflect upon the role of our heart in the world. If our hearts have been hardened by experience in the world, she urges us to allow ourselves to be softened.

We are to be people who see the globe through eyes softened by the gospel. We are to see change and challenge in life as God's voice in our ears. Benedictine spirituality goes into the heart in order to embrace the world. It forms us differently than the world forms us but it does not attempt to shape us independently of the real world around us.  

God’s voice is telling us to change.  Return to the Lord and to a time when we were more innocent.  More like the children who flock to the shepherd like…well, like sheep.  Living the Good News demands nothing less than a total change of the way we relate to life.

Truly Amazing Grace

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

By Colleen O’Sullivan

As for your birth, the day you were born your navel cord was not cut; you were neither washed with water nor anointed, nor were you rubbed with salt, nor swathed in swaddling clothes.  No one looked on you with pity or compassion to do any of these things for you.  Rather, you were thrown out on the ground as something loathsome, the day you were born…  Then I passed by and saw you weltering in your blood.  I said to you:  Live in your blood and grow like a plant in the field…  (Years later) again I passed by you and saw that you were now old enough for love… I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you; you became mine, says the Lord God.  (Israel proved unfaithful time and again) Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you when you were a girl, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you, that you may remember and be covered with confusion, and that you may be utterly silenced for shame when I pardon you for all you have done, says the Lord God.   (Ezekiel 16:4-6, 8ac, 60, 63)

Piety

Bless us, Father, for we have sinned.  In spite of your overwhelming love for us, we, like Israel, have proven ourselves fickle and unfaithful time and time again.  We have worshiped at the altars of false gods.  We have adored the reflections in our mirrors more than we ever cared for you.  Forgive us, we pray.

Used by permission of
Wendi Nagle Schmidt

Study

To my cherished Israel,

From the moment I heard your feeble, newborn cry and saw you abandoned and left to die, I have had a special place in my heart for you.  I lifted you from the ground, looked into your eyes, and knew I had to save you.  I cleaned you off, cut and tied your umbilical cord, found a cloth to wrap you in and gave you a chance at life.  I found a woman to nurse you.  I watched as you learned to crawl, then to walk.

I supplied you with all a growing child needs.  I watched over you throughout your childhood, made sure you had friends and others to care for you and to teach you the things you needed to know.

The years went by until one day I realized you were grown.  You were old enough and mature enough to freely make adult decisions.  There was nothing I longed for more than to be your husband and to have you as my wife.  I wanted to be in a covenant relationship with you.  So, I wooed you, and you accepted my love.  You said you loved me in return.  We entered into a marriage covenant, agreeing to be faithful to each other forever.

How easily promises are broken.  You simply have no idea how much I loved you.  There was nothing I wouldn’t have done for you.  I showed my affection in gifts of fine robes, beautiful jewelry, and the choicest foods on earth.  You were beautiful to behold.

Appearances can be deceiving, however.  I gave you my very heart.  But you turned away and wantonly shared bits of yourself with others.  You gave your heart to those who had no right to your affections.  You broke that precious covenant we made to be faithful to each other forever.

My love for you is such that I will never break my part of the covenant.  I will always be here, waiting for you to come back to me.  Hopefully, one day you will remember the promise you made.  My arms are open wide, waiting to receive you and forgive you, to have you at my side again, to be your one, true Love.

From the One who saved your life and who loves you with an everlasting love

Action

During the 30-Day Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, early on we were asked to sit before a crucifix and consider our sins.  On the one hand, there was God, who loved us into being, who, when we made a mess of things, became one of us, dying on that Cross so that we might have forgiveness for our sins and hope of everlasting life with him.  On the other, there were God’s children, filled with shame and remorse for all the ways in which they had been unfaithful and betrayed their Lord. 

What grace-filled that prayer time, as it does this story from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, because God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting.  Nothing you or I could ever do would cause God to stop loving us.  And the moment we turn from our unfaithfulness to the waiting arms of the Father, we are forgiven and restored to right relationship.

Spend some time today, sitting before a crucifix if you so choose, contemplating the working of God’s grace in your life and offering thanks.  Consider to whom, in your life, you could offer grace and forgiveness.

Seventy-Seven Times

Memorial of St. Clare, Virgin

By Beth DeCristofaro

Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.  (Matthew 18:21-22)

Piety

http://www.carmelites.net/blog/gods-garden-august-5-2016/

Study

Visiting with a critically ill hospital patient, I shared with her, without breaking confidence, that her son had told me how much he loved his mother and that she taught him life’s important lessons such as hard work and service to others.  This elderly woman’s face lit up with a smile and her eyes teared-up.  “He did?” she responded.  “We always seem to be so irritated with each other.  I didn’t know.”  We can find it so difficult to offer each other words of love because we, ourselves, are blocked.  We might grudgingly allow someone back into our good graces without ever offering clearly spoken forgiveness.  That actually causes us and the other to be imprisoned by the barricades in our hearts and between us.

Years ago I learned the hard way how not to “sandbag” someone when I turned in what I thought was a concise, critical yet constructive criticism of my grad school facilitator.  He received it with some surprise and responded that I could have told him of my dissatisfaction and we could have worked on that together in the course.  Well, I thought I had told him because, throughout the difficult course, there was much frustrated back and forth between students and facilitators.  In looking back honestly, however, I realized that I had been obscure, silent or made sidebar type comments which were not clear, not helpful.  Christ wants me to speak up courageously in justice guided by love.  Seventy times seven is not just an image of many but a guide to generosity.  My facilitator needed truth but I needed to be truth-teller rather than uninvolved in my own dissatisfaction.

Action

St. Clare took action, refusing to marry as her family wished, choosing to dedicate herself as a bride of Christ.  To whom should I, today, take action and clearly, lovingly, speak Christ’s truth?  What if I need to speak such truth to myself?