Control or surrender? (Sister of the Visitation of Holy Mary)

   The devil’s main trick is to get otherwise godly, committed people to ignore what God wants in order to advance what they want. Almost always, that never involves the cross. It never involves dying to self. 

--Qtd. in “Control or Surrender?”
A reflection by a Sister of the
Visitation of Holy Mary

Image source: Michelangelo Buonarotti, The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1487-1488), copied from an engraving of Martin Schongauer’s engraving of the same, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Saint_Anthony_in_visual_arts#/media/File:Michelangelo_Buonarroti_-_The_Torment_of_Saint_Anthony_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Quotation source

You get to choose (Rachel Marie Martin)

pause 

there is power

in space, in a breath,

in a pause

before you respond.

you get to choose.

hate or love.

anger or empathy.

frustration or opportunity.

lonely or together.

irritation or understanding.

be kind.

pause. 

--Rachel Marie Martin         

Image source: The Temptation of Adam and Eve, detail of the pillar at the left door of the West Façade of Notre-Dame de Paris, https://thecatholictalks.com/artspeaks_post.asp?id=35 
Poem source

Being human meant that he could be tempted (Fr. James Martin)

   Jesus, as we know, is fully divine and fully human. And being human meant that he could be tempted (or tested), as in today's Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent. 

   

   Notice that each temptation, on its surface, seems good. 

   First, it's not bad that Jesus would want to eat. Second, it would be good if Jesus had temporal power over the world. Third, it is not bad that the Father would protect Jesus. 

   But Jesus knows that bodily comfort, power, and the need for protection, are all things that he must be relinquished in order to fulfill the Father's mission. Other people might be called to give up other things; this is what Jesus was called to give up. 

   The most difficult temptations are usually not those that are clearly bad (e.g., to kill someone or to steal something outright) but more subtle ones, which seem good on their surface but end up moving us away from what God asks of us and desires for us. St. Ignatius Loyola called this the Angel of Darkness appearing as the Angel of Light. 

   Key to discernment in these cases is honesty about one's true motives and a hard-nosed look at where these temptations would lead. Also key is knowing that Jesus was himself tested, and is with us, through the Spirit, as we resist sin and temptation and strive to do good and follow God's desires for us. 

--Fr. James Martin,

Facebook, March 6, 2022 

Image source: Duccio de Buoninsegna, The Temptation on the Mount (ca. 1308-1311), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Duccio_-_The_Temptation_on_the_Mount.jpg

Surrendering the center (St. Bede the Venerable)

I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything.

--St. Bede the Venerable 

Image source: https://discoveryseries.org/courses/god-at-the-center/ 

Quotation source

Jesus' three temptations (Henri Nouwen)

    Jesus' three temptations in the desert were about choosing upward mobility.

    • Be relevant: do something the world will praise you for like making bread out of stones.
    • Be spectacular: jump from the tower so that everybody can see you as someone so influential, so important.
    • Be powerful: kneel before me and I will give you dominion over everyone and everything. 

   But Jesus said, No. Because Jesus knew that God's way is not to be relevant, or spectacular, or powerful. God's way is downward. Blessed are the humble. Blessed are the poor of heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. 

    Here we have a self-portrait of Jesus who is also a reflection of the Father: Who sees me sees the Father. When we read the Beatitudes, we are given an image of the face of Jesus, a face that reflects the love of the Father. Humble. Poor. Meek. Peacemaker. Thirsting for justice and peace. Full of mercy. 

   Jesus invites you and I to become more and more like he was: the image of God appearing in flesh among us. To follow him is our way: The way to glory. 

    Prayer for Today:  Jesus, let me abandon my fear, embrace your love, and be transformed by your grace. 

--Henri Nouwen, From Fear to Love

Image source: Linda Saskia Menczel, Temptation in the Wilderness, https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Sculpture-Temptation-in-the-wilderness/770159/7800968/view

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 26, 2023: You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test...

You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test…

Are you tempted by a desire for control? 

    In Chapter 2 of the Book of Genesis, God creates man by breathing life into a figure made of mud, animating it, making of it a living being, and then supplying that living being with the ability to choose. God then also creates woman. Both are given instructions about what is and is not permitted in the Garden of Eden. Most importantly, they are not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But, tempted by their desire for knowledge, Adam and Eve do what they can to gain control over their existence: they choose, and choose poorly, for they wish, as the serpent says, to be like gods. 

    The human desire for control over our world is engrained in our very nature; we struggle regularly to make good choices. David learned the depths of his own capacity for sin when, desiring the lovely Bathsheba, David sent her husband Uriah to the front of the battle lines, where Uriah would be killed. Convicted of sin by Nathan, David prays Psalm 51, the Miserere: Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness, and of my sin cleanse me. As priest-king set to govern God’s people, David’s violation of God’s law to serve his own desire for control is enormous. Yet, importantly, David asks not only for forgiveness, but for transformation: A clean heart create for me, O God, he prays. David prays not to be cast out from God’s presence; he knows God is necessary to his very existence, and seeks transformation, that he might conquer his desire for control in the future. 

   Like Adam and Eve, the very human Jesus will be tempted with very human temptations, each of which represents a form of control over his existence. But, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus the man chooses wisely, in counterpoint to the first man, Adam, who choose poorly. Adam is the one man through whom sin entered the world, the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us. Jesus, for his part, chooses to stay united to his Father, whereas Adam and Eve choose to separate from him, opting for independence over connection. Jesus will not wrest control over his circumstances; his refusal of the devil’s temptations reverses the sin of Adam and Eve: through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous. Jesus surrenders completely to the Father’s will: You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, Jesus reminds the devil. 

    We struggle to make good choices. Our own journey into the desert this Lent is meant to solidify our dedication to God’s will, that we might choose rightly, recognizing our profound need for God in our lives. If we do so, we will know the joy of salvation, that gift Christ brought for all through his death on the cross. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Let the ashes do their work (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Ultimately, there is something innate to the human soul that knows every so often, one must make a journey of descent, be smudged, lose one’s luster, and wait while the ashes do their work. 

   The ashes of Lent invite us to sit patiently so that some silent, inner gestation process can teach us what it means that we are dust and to turn from sin to the Gospel. 

   This Lent, let the ashes do their work. Allow them to awaken you to a renewed sense of urgency. To add virtue while eliminating vice. To transform and unburden you from that which cripples and enslaves. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI

Facebook, February 17, 2021
& March 2, 2022

Image source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lent-2022-ash-wednesday-facts-b2026536.html

To be perfect (Fr. Terrance Klein)

   What does it mean to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? 

   We imitate God when we give. God gives us existence so that we might return the gift, to each other and to God. Yet isn’t it odd, really, to think of giving ourselves to God? What would the all holy, the all-sufficient, want of our prayers, our small acts of asceticism and devotion? 

   What happens when we worship? When we consciously come into God’s presence? What happens when we fast, get down on our knees, or seek out the Blessed Sacrament? 

   Remember the raised arms of a toddler? That’s what happens. If we give the signal—our readiness, our openness—God lifts us up. We’re supposed to walk on our own; that is God’s great gift to us. But we are never supposed to walk alone. That’s something that we choose for ourselves when we forget, when we fail to raise up our arms. 

   Acts of prayer and asceticism are such small things in themselves, yet through them we signal our openness, our need for the Father of Jesus. Like the toddlers we are, we raise our arms. And that’s all we need to do. God’s arms will be there. 

--Fr. Terrance Klein 

Image source: https://www.parentlane.com/baby/baby-development/your-baby-indicates-the-need-to-be-picked-up-by-you
Quotation source

Holiness (Richard Rohr)

   In very real ways, soul, consciousness, love, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. Each of these point to something that is larger than the individual, shared with God, ubiquitous and even eternal-and then revealed through us! Holiness does not mean people are psychologically or morally perfect (a common confusion), but that they are capable of seeing and enjoying things in a much more ‘whole’ and compassionate way, even if they sometimes fail at it themselves. 

--Richard Rohr

Image source: Jyoti Sahi, Holding the Flame of Fire (2005), painted as a design for a stained glass window for the entrance of Paripurnata Halfway Home, Kolkata, India, https://artandtheology.org/tag/holy-spirit/
Quotation source

Holiness (St. Pope John Paul II / Fr. James Martin)

True holiness does not mean a flight from the world; 

rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel 

in everyday life. 

--St. Pope John Paul II

    We’re not called to be gods or goddesses, but we are indeed called to be holy. In the book of Leviticus, God says, “Be holy, as I am holy.” Jesus tells his disciples to be “perfect” as our heavenly Father is perfect. More recently, St. Teresa of Calcutta reminded us that holiness is not reserved for just a few but is everyone’s “duty.” Indeed, the Second Vatican Council proclaims the “universal call to holiness.” 

    Convinced yet? 

    Holiness is something that God does with us, or in us. In the end, any conversion that happens is God’s work. 

    But we must first desire it. We must open the door to God’s activity within us. Can we be open to God’s call to be more loving, more compassionate, and more concerned with the needs of others? Can we be open to the need for change— moving away from selfishness, complaining, and bitterness? The desire for holiness is the start of a life of holiness. 

    This doesn’t mean that we become cookie-cutter versions of one or another saint. As Thomas Merton said, “For me, to be a saint means to be myself.” Our holiness will fulfill, not eradicate, our personalities. Nor will we become gods or goddesses! Rather, we will become more fully ourselves: human, and still flawed, but closer to the people God desires us to become. 

--Fr. James Martin,
Facebook, November 2, 2022 

Image source: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/god/how-can-we-be-holy-as-the-lord-is-holy.html

No one is born hating (Nelson Mandela)

    No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. 

--Nelson Mandela 

Image source: https://milwaukeemom.com/parenting-perspectives/children-see-color-dont-biases/ 
Quotation source

The universal call to holiness (St. Francis de Sales / François Corrignan)

It is an error, even a heresy, 

to want to see the devout life 

banished from the company of soldiers, 

the worker’s shop, the court of princes, 

the home of married couples…

because wherever we are, we can and 

we ought to aspire to the life of perfection. 

--St. Francis de Sales,

Introduction to the Devout Life

   Holiness is not something one achieves on one’s own. It isn’t a matter of sculpting a statue of one’s self to be placed in some niche or store window for the admiration of passerby. 

   Holiness is never the result of human effort; it is not something that one can attain by dint of some training or by using some human means alone. Holiness is a divine-human adventure: it was God who entered human history and it is He who leads people into His own propre life. 

 

   Holiness is incorporation into Jesus Christ: the baptized person becomes one with Christ. One’s whole life consists in making this reality come alive. One must become each day a little more what one already is at baptism and what Jesus Christ is by nature: a Son of God. 

    There can be no doubt about it: all are called to holiness and each one precisely where he or she is, according to their condition. 

--François Corrignan,

The Universal Call to Holiness:

St. Francis de Sales

Image source: Bumpei Usei, The Furniture Factory (1925), https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2015/09/04/arts/design/art-for-the-workers-sake/s/04LABOR-slide-EZLX.html
Source of quotations

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 19, 2023: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy...

Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy…

Are you holy? 

    The blessings that the Lord showers upon us are extraordinary. Psalm 103 reminds us that the Lord is kind and merciful, constantly compassionate toward his people, constantly forgiving our sins and redeeming our life from destruction. At the same time, the Lord asks a great deal from his people: Be holy, Moses tells the whole Israelite community in the Book of Leviticus: eschew hatred, sin, revenge and grudges. We are holy when we do God’s will, when we work for harmony and justice, when we love our neighbor as ourself. We create the world in which we exist by the way in which we treat others. If we want to be holy, we must treat others the way God would have us treat them, with extraordinary love. 

   Jesus knows this passage from Leviticus. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will take the law one step further: Love not only your neighbor, but your enemies, he tells his disciples, and pray for those who persecute you. We may still hold fast to the law of retribution in our hearts – the idea that revenge is warranted, for example – but Jesus calls us instead to liberality: if you are asked for your tunic, hand over your cloak as well; if you are asked to go one mile, go for two. Be generous in all you share in life, in everything you do. Everything Jesus asks us to do is extraordinary, unusual, surpassing the norm, that we might be holy. 

   The Corinthians still had not integrated this lesson fully at the time of Paul’s Letter. They have embraced division rather than unity, discord rather than harmony. They cannot see that the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God for human wisdom cannot conceive of the depth of God’s love for all humankind. Their focus, Paul insists, should be on Christ, and on union as the Body of Christ. We may often be tempted to division, to divisiveness. Our challenge is to be fully invested in the extraordinary love God has for us, and to let our love for God be as extraordinary as is humanly possible. If we love our neighbor and our enemies, then we can fully open to God. Then and only then will we be holy in the eyes of the Lord. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Heart of God (Hillsong)

Your heart oh, Your heart Lord

Here I stand before you now

As honestly as I know how

Broken by the days gone by

Spirit help my soul to rise 

I try my best but still I fail

And even then, you're with me there

You remind me I'm a child of God

Regardless of the things I've done 

Oh, my hope is found in perfect love 

Your mercy triumphs over judgment

Love wider than horizons 

Stronger than all sin Lord,

Your kindness

It leads us to repentance

To the heart of God (to Your heart, God)

Your heart, oh God

(Oh, Jesus) is all I want 

Well, they say that it's impossible 

To ever save a sinner's soul

But my God says to the prodigal 

My beloved one, you're welcome home, home

Refrain

All to Jesus I surrender (everything) 

All to Him I freely give (everything I have)

I will ever love and trust Him

(I will trust you and everyday)

In His presence daily live

All to Jesus I surrender

All to Him I freely give

I will ever love and trust Him

(So, I'll trust You, I trust You, God) 

In His presence daily live 

Refrain

To hear Hillsong perform Heart of God, click on the video below: 

Image source: https://livingontheedge.org/2022/02/21/bible-verses-gods-love/ 
Video source

Love involves the infinite mystery of the other (Uli Covarrubias SJ)

   Is there anything more thrilling, more satisfying, more life-giving than love? It is love alone that makes us dream, makes us believe in the transcendent, and sets us free. But for as beautiful as this mighty force is and for as selflessly as we would like to live it out, it is also love that makes us vulnerable and can lead us to question the very core of our being. 

  Whether we put it into words or not, we can find ourselves asking, “Am I loved? Lovable? Worthy of love?” Directly related and perhaps more often unexplored is the question, “Is the love that I have to give any good? Is it worth anything? Am I capable of loving, and loving well?” For we are made not only to receive, but also to give love. 

   Love may seem a daunting task for it involves the infinite mystery of the other, and indeed the infinite mystery of the self. There is so much that we cannot fully understand, fully control. 

   True, we can always fine tune the way we receive and give love by respecting its force and its unpredictability, by accepting our desires and those of the other, by keeping in mind our freedom and that of the other. Life can show us. But we must always strive to hold dear our desire and ability to love. Perhaps the best way of keeping hope alive is by keeping our eyes fixed on that original love from which we came and to which we are called, the one which made us from love and for love. 

   We are
   Loved
   Lovable
   Loving
   What a gift this is. 

--Uli Covarrubias, SJ 

Image source: https://catechistsjourney.loyolapress.com/2019/02/teaching-children-about-gods-love/ 

Quotation source

God works through crooked lines (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   The truth sets us free, but God often works through crooked lines. I’m a student of classical moral theology and truly believe in its principles, even as I am daily humbled and challenged by the love, grace, faith, and wonderful oxygen I see flowing out of people whose situations are “irregular.” How can the good be bad? At this stage in time, along with many of the rest of you, I suspect, I am forced to stay with the ambiguity, to live the question. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI 

Facebook, November 23, 2022 

Image source: Henryk Siemiradzki, Christ and the Samaritan Woman (1890), https://www.wikiart.org/en/henryk-siemiradzki/christ-and-the-samaritan-woman

You are constantly facing choices (Henri Nouwen)

   You are constantly facing choices. The question is whether you choose for God or for your own doubting self. You know what the right choice is, but your emotions, passions, and feelings keep suggesting you choose the self-rejecting way. 

    The root choice is to trust at all times that God is with you and will give you what you most need… God says to you, “I love you. I am with you. I want to see you come closer to me and experience the joy and peace of my presence. I want to give you a new heart and a new spirit. I want you to speak with my mouth, see with my eyes, hear with my ears, touch with my hands. All that is mine is yours. Just trust me and let me be your God." 

    This is the voice to listen to. And that listening requires a real choice, not just once in a while but every moment of every day and night. It is you who decides what you think, say, and do. You can think yourself into a depression, you can talk yourself into low self-esteem, you can act in a self-rejecting way. But you always have a choice to think, speak, and act in the name of God and so move toward the Light, the Truth, and the Life. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: John Reilly, Cain and Abel (1958), Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208, https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/life-and-faith/the-methodist-modern-art-collection/browse-the-collection/cain-and-abel-john-reilly/ 

Quotation source

Do good (St. John Bosco)

Do not lose any time, do good, 

do all the good you can, 

and you will never 

regret doing it. 

--St. John Bosco   

Image source: https://www.envisionkindness.org/programs/arts-letters-program/ 

Quotation source

The law will be in our hearts (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   When Jesus has died and risen and the Spirit has descended, then a new order can be established and the law can fall away and prophets are no longer needed. We will be called in our hearts, and our hearts will be the prophets that God has speak to us. And the law will be in our hearts, written there, as Jeremiah says. For God will establish his relationship with us, in us, and call us to it. There will be no need for God to prove that he is God. All we will need is to open our hearts, and we will know. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,

Homily, June 8, 2022 

Image source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/wholecounsel/2018/02/28/law-abolished-fulfilled/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 12, 2023: If you choose, you can keep the commandments...

If you choose, you can keep the commandments…

What does the gift of free will require of us? 

   Trying to observe all the commandments God sets before humankind can be complicated. Because God created all us with free will, so that we could choose freely to love God rather than be obliged to do so, we must also take responsibility for every choice we make. As the author of Sirach states, Before man are life and death, good and evil; whichever he chooses shall be given him. God’s commandments exist for a reason; they are not laws, but guides to help build a community that will sustain itself and thrive. In order to preserve that community – which has God at the core – we must work always to discern what is right and just, and to choose accordingly. Psalm 119 echoes the teachings set forth by Sirach: Blessed are they whose way is blameless,… who seek the Lord with all their heart. God’s instructions to us are clear: God wants his precepts to be diligently kept by those who consider the wonders of God’s law and strive to keep his commandments with all their heart. 

   Fortunately, as Paul tells the Corinthians, God sets a means to properly discern what is right before us: we speak God’s wisdom, Paul states, which God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Jesus is the wisdom of God, predetermined before the world began, yet known only to more recent generations. And, as Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it. By dying and rising, Jesus makes all things new, thus showing us the way to the kingdom of God. But again, free will means that we must take responsibility for every choice we make: whether we are angry with our brother, or living in a state of adulterous desire, or tempted to swear or take a false oath, we must ask the Holy Spirit for assistance. Jesus is the best expression of God’s wisdom, and that wisdom is God’s love for humankind. If, then, we strive to see as God sees, if we are open to God and to God’s will for us, we will see what God reveals to us through the Spirit, and make choices that are in accord with God’s will. It’s not simple, but it will get us to heaven! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Love comes with community (Dorothy Day & Dalai Lama)

We have all known the long loneliness 
and we have learned that
the only solution is love and
that love comes with community.

--Dorothy Day 

   We are social creatures, dependent on our community. And as members of a community, even people with no spiritual interest will find peace of mind in being considerate, truthful and honest. Being honest and compassionate are not necessarily religious qualities, but they contribute to our being able to lead happy lives. Being concerned about our own community lends to our own survival. The key factor is compassion. Anger is its opposite. Anger destroys happiness and harmony. We need a sense of the oneness of humanity. 

--Dalai Lama

 

Image source 1: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.3218782054849861/3381675151893883 
Image source 2: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.3218782054849861/3320164551378277
Quotation 1
Quotation 2

Community is grounded in God (Henri Nouwen)

    Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus, all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst. 

    Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other… The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Georgia Gerber, Legacy (1996), https://www.marysvilleglobe.com/opinion/public-art-tells-the-story-of-a-community-like-marysville/ 
Quotation source

We are inextricably tied to each other (Coretta Scott King & Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

The greatness of a community is 

most accurately measured 

by the compassionate actions of its members.

 

 --Coretta Scott King 

     Everything is interconnected, and our failure to see that leaves us in peril. Blindness to our interdependence, willful or not, is dangerous. We are inextricably tied to each other and to everything in the world. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI 

Image source: https://enlightphoto.com/interconnected-nature/ 

Quotation 1 

Quotation 2 

We are meant to be salt (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the images of salt and light to show how we are to bring salvation to the world. In our rather privatized and individualistic culture, we tend naturally to think of religion as something for ourselves designed to make our lives richer or better. Now there is a sense in which that is true, but on the biblical reading, religiosity is like salt, light, and an elevated city: it is meant not for oneself but for others. 

   Perhaps we can bring these two together by saying that we find salvation for ourselves precisely in the measure that we bring God’s life to others. The point is that we followers of Jesus are meant to be salt, which effectively preserves and enhances what is best in the society around us. We effectively undermine what is dysfunctional in the surrounding culture. 

   We are also light by which people around us come to see what is worth seeing. By the very quality and integrity of our lives, we shed light, illuminating what is beautiful and revealing what is ugly. The clear implication is that, without vibrant Christians, the world is a much worse place. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,

Gospel Reflection, 

June 8, 2021 

Image source: https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/what-does-matthew-5-mean-by-salt-of-the-earth.html

To empty ourselves of everything (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   Every time we have to face a difficulty, we should empty ourselves of everything but one: the truth that is singular, God’s love, the one thing we need in facing any difficulty. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,

Scripture Class, February 2020 

Image source: https://clumsytheosis.net/2022/04/08/kenosis-power-in-making-room-for-god/

Our lives are not our own (David Mitchell)

   Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present. By each crime and every kindness, we birth our future. 

–David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas 

Image source: https://breakinginthehabit.org/2015/05/07/a-christian-lens-on-cloud-atlas/ Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 5, 2023: You are the light of the world...

You are the light of the world…

Where do you find identity and connection? 

    In Chapter 58 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the people have returned from exile to a home that is in ruins, and they must rebuild from scratch. They have the wherewithal to do this, and their first impulse is to rebuild the social structures that had previously been in place in Israel. But the Lord exhorts them first and foremost to see their fellow human beings as all children of God. If they do so, then the structures they now build will be grounded in respect and honor and care and concern for one another. The Lord thus calls the people to a better humanity grounded in the one who made humanity: Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, and do not turn your back on your own…  If the people find their identity in God, then such other-centeredness will be easily accomplished, and the light shall rise for them in the darkness, and the gloom shall become like midday. This sentiment is echoed in Psalm 112: Light shines through the darkness for the upright. Here, too, identity is grounded in generosity, in graciousness, and in connectedness – in short, in God. 

    When, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that they are the salt of the earth, he knows that salt, on its own, is good for little; its value comes from its interaction with other substances. Likewise, light must not be hidden away but shared: nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel, Jesus says. If Jesus reveals the light of truth to the disciples, it is meant for the sake of other people. Jesus intended his disciples to be other-centered – they are fishers of men, not hermits, sent to interact with the world, to cause something to be transformed in the world through their interaction with it. Jesus loves them that they might love their world. 

    Jesus so loved the world that he gave his very life for it. In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds them that, in order to proclaim the Word, he emptied himself, resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Paul’s singular objective is to reveal the mystery of God entrusted to him: God’s desire to gather humanity to himself in love. Nothing is greater than that mystery, and Paul is in awe of it. His identity is grounded in the Lord; his proclamation, like that of the disciples, is intended to transform his world with the greatest of spiritual gifts, love, the embodiment of the truth Christ came to reveal. May we too find our identity in the Lord, that we might connect with our world and thus reveal his love all. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Say yes to the surprises (Brother Isaiah)

Say yes to the surprises

Say yes to the unknown 

Say yes to the surprises 

They lead you my heart alone 

Say yes to the surprises 

Say yes to the unknown 

Say yes to the surprises 

That help you cling to me alone 

O Lord, my habits of control 

They really need to go, Lord 

Yes, to follow you 

And all my false securities 

My running after certainties 

Lord, yes, it needs to go 

You whose ways are mysteries 

You quietly beckon to me 

To come and follow you 

Yes you do, yes you do 

Refrain 

Wise man say, wise man say 

To become what you are not 

You must go by ways in which you are not 

Then lead me on, Lord, lead me on 

Refrain 

To hear Brother (now Father!) Isaiah sing Surprises from his Shade album, click on the video below: 

Image source: https://marinmagazine.com/explore/hiking-biking/where-to-hike-in-marin-the-best-trails-for-stunning-views/ 

Video source