Dying to self (Fr. James Martin)

    Dying to self as a spiritual practice means letting go of an unhealthy attachment, pattern of living, or even an entire way of life, to experience fuller life. 

    All of us need to “take up our crosses” and “deny ourselves.” But not out of some sick, twisted or masochistic desire to punish ourselves. No, what Jesus offers us, finally, is freedom. His invitation to Peter, to the disciples and to us is not meant solely as a sacrifice, but as the path to new and more abundant life. 

--Fr. James Martin,
Reflection, Outreach,
September 2-3, 2023

Image source: https://allelouscg.com/2021/07/03/does-the-command-to-take-up-your-cross-no-longer-apply-to-us-today/

Dying in love, to love, by love, for love, and of love (St. Francis de Sales)

   Our divine Lover died amongst the flames and ardors of love, by reason of the infinite charity which he had towards us, and by the force and virtue of love: that is he died in love, by love, for love, and of love. For, though his cruel torments were sufficient to have killed anyone, death could never have entered into the life of him who keeps the keys of life and death, unless divine love, which handles those keys, had opened the gates to death, to let it ravage that divine body and despoil it of life. 

   

   [C]rying out with a loud voice he gives up his spirit into his Father's hands, to show that, since he had strength and breath enough not to die, so had he love so great that he could no longer live, but would by his death revive those who without it could never escape death, nor have the chance of true life. 

    Wherefore our Saviour's death was a true sacrifice, and a sacrifice of holocaust, which he himself offered to his Father for our redemption: for, though the pains and distress of his passion were so great and violent that any but he would have died of them, yet he would not have died of them unless he himself had pleased, and unless the fire of his infinite charity had consumed his life. 

    He was then the sacrificer himself, who offered himself unto his Father and immolated himself, dying in love, to love, by love, for love, and of love. 

--St. Francis de Sales,
Treatise on the Love of God,
Book X, Chapter 17 

Image source: School of Bellini, Christo Morto, Scuola Gande di San Rocco, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SCHOOL_of_Bellini_-_Christ_in_devotion_%28San_Rocco%29.jpg

We've all got wounds (Flannery O'Connor / St. Padre Pio)

What people don’t realize is
how much religion costs.
They think faith is a big electric blanket,
when of course, it is the cross. 

 --Flannery O’Connor 

      We’ve all got wounds. We all bear the stigmata. We’ve all got the wounds of the cross. Mine, for some strange reason, happen to be visible, but so what? You’ve got them, too. You’re carrying some. I can see them. 

--St. Padre Pio 

Image source: Timothy C. Schmalz, Homeless Jesus, statue, Buffalo, New York, https://buffaloah.com/a/DCTNRY/s/stig.html
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Taking up the cross (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Jesus says that a disciple must carry his own cross and follow him. All of us sinners tend to see the universe turning around our ego, our needs, our projects, our plans, and our likes and dislikes. True conversion—the metanoia that Jesus talks about—is so much more than moral reform, though it includes that. It has to do with a complete shift in consciousness, a whole new way of looking at one’s life. 

    Jesus’ teaching must have been gut-wrenching to his first-century audience: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” His listeners knew what the cross meant: a death in utter agony, nakedness, and humiliation. They knew it in all of its awful power. 

     If God is self-forgetting love even to the point of death, then we must be such love. The cross, in short, must become the very structure of the Christian life. This is just what Jesus shows on his terrible cross. And this is just what we, his followers, must imitate. Taking up the cross means not just being willing to suffer but being willing to suffer as he did, absorbing violence and hatred through our forgiveness and nonviolence. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,

Gospel Reflection,

November 8, 2023

Image source: Image source: Norman Adams, Second Station: Jesus receives the Cross, St. Mary Catholic Church, Manchester, England, photo courtesy of Fr. Patrick Michaels, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2290515747797273&set=pcb.3525178114425932

Sunday Gospel Reflection, September 15, 2024: The Son of Man must suffer greatly...

The Son of Man must suffer greatly…

Why did Jesus have to suffer? 

    When the disciples learn, in Mark’s Gospel, that Jesus will have to suffer greatly and be killed, they are astounded; Peter even begins to rebuke him. But Jesus rebukes Peter in turn, and clearly speaks of the inevitability of the cross as part of God’s other-centered plan for salvation. As the Christ, Jesus did not come to save the Jewish people from Roman power or to restore self-governance; Jesus came so that he can rise and bring his disciples from death to life. In so doing, Jesus will be fulfilling the words of the Servant Song in Isaiah: I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard. As a prophet, Jesus has already suffered a great deal for proclaiming God’s Word, yet he also gives his disciples reason to hope: whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Like the Suffering Servant, the disciples must open their ears, that they might hear, knowing that, as Psalm 116 assures us, God will incline his ear to their voice in supplication, ever there to uphold their right. Jesus needs the disciples to embrace this very different version of how salvation comes, and to participate in it, taking up their own cross and following him. 

  

    What might that cross look like? Like Jesus’ cross, it must be other-centered, grounded in faith and enriched by works: What good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works? The Letter of James reminds us that any works we might do can reveal our faith, if they flow from that faith. Our works are not a ticket to heaven, but faith must somehow be lived out, and the visible manifestation of faith is works. If such works require suffering for the sake of other, so be it, for we too know that the Lord God is our help; we have but to call upon his name, that we might participate in salvation, taking up our own cross and following him. 

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

Out of the smoke and ashes (Grace A. Johnson / Pope St. John Paul II)

I want to be able to look at the sunrise
and think about the new day ahead of us –
to rebuild our broken lives,
fallen towers, and kneeling country.
 To start over and make something bright
and beautiful out of the smoke and ashes.

--Grace A. Johnson 

    Yesterday was a dark day in the history of humanity, a terrible affront to human dignity. How is it possible to commit acts of such savage cruelty? The human heart has depths from which schemes of unheard-of ferocity sometimes emerge, capable of destroying in a moment the normal daily life of a people. 

   But faith comes to our aid at these times when words seem to fail. Christ’s word is the only one that can give a response to the questions which trouble our spirit. Even if the forces of darkness appear to prevail, those who believe in God know that evil and death do not have the final say. Christian hope is based on this truth; at this time our prayerful trust draws strength from it. 

--Pope St. John Paul II, September 12, 2001 

Image source 1: https://johnbaptistchurch.org/biblical-meaning-names/phoenix
Image source 2: https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2022/11/christ-the-phoenix
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Those who work for justice (Albert Schweitzer / Cecila Espinoza)

The great enemy of morality is indifference. 

--Albert Schweitzer 

    Pope Francis reminds us that “God will destroy the barriers created between nations and replace the arrogance of the few with the solidarity of many. The marginalization painfully experienced by millions of persons cannot go on for long. Their cry is growing louder and embraces the entire earth.” (Message for 3rd World Day of the Poor, no. 4) 

   “Commitment to the promotion of the poor, including their social promotion, is not foreign to the proclamation of the Gospel. On the contrary, it manifests the realism of Christian faith and its historical validity. The love that gives life to faith in Jesus makes it impossible for his disciples to remain enclosed in a stifling individualism or withdrawn into small circles of spiritual intimacy, with no influence on social life” (cf. Exhort. Ap. Evangelii Gaudium, 183). 

   So where is Jesus Christ today? Without a doubt, where two or more gather in his Name! In those who work for justice and the common good: in those who work for the protection of the rights of workers, for the access of the poor to health, for the reform of the judicial and criminal system, for improving living conditions, overcoming poverty, reducing violence, guns, and drug use, etc.

--Cecilia Espinoza 

Image source: https://cfc.sebts.edu/faith-and-economics/what-did-jesus-really-teach-about-wealth-and-poverty/
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Jesus opens ears (Pope Francis)

   The disciples went out with Jesus, who can open the ears and the mouth, thus, the phenomenon of mutism, of deafness, which is also metaphorical in the Bible, signifying being closed to God’s calls. There is a physical deafness, but in the Bible, the one who is deaf to the Word of God is mute, and does not communicate the Word of God. 

--Pope Francis, December 15, 2023 

Image source:  https://young-catholics.com/21634/friday-of-the-5th-week-in-ordinary-time-2/
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The lame shall move with the gait of kings (Peter Steele, S.J.)

If you watch as you have not watched before 

you will see the morning 

begin to lace the darkness 

If you turn from the trail that has drawn you for ages 

and gaze at the fringes 

you will see the timber budding. 

If you lean from the place of your balance, 

your arms uplifted 

a rhythm will catch and lift you. 

For the Lord has come to his people, 

and the earth trembles with joy, 

the Father is kindling his fire on the earth, 

the Son is roving with life in his touch, 

the Spirit is rising though we are falling 

And the promise come true that brought us to birth 

the promise that lingered in the young and feeble 

the promise that drove us from evening to morning 

And the lame shall move with the gait of kings 

the broken flourish, the bound step forth 

and God exult among his children 

So name him, and find your name in his. 

Seek in the needy the light of his face 

lift up your hearts, today and forever. 

--Peter Steele, S.J. 

Image source: https://bible.art/meaning/isaiah-35%3A6
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Once we shut our hearts (Sr. Joan Chittister)

   Once we shut our hearts to the other, we have shut our hearts to God. 

 

--Sr. Joan Chittister 

Image source: http://www.ahearteninglife.com/2014/10/only-god-can-unlock-your-heart-31-days.html
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Jesus heals a deaf man (Bishop Robert Barron)

    [In this week’s] Gospel, Jesus heals a deaf man who had a speech impediment. 

    Mark tells us that he took him “off by himself away from the crowd.” Jesus then “put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’).” Looking up to his Father and inserting his fingers into the man’s ears, Jesus establishes, as it were, an electrical current, literally plugging him into the divine energy, compelling him to hear the Word. 

    Now for the healing’s spiritual significance. The crowd is a large part of the problem. The raucous voices of so many, the insistent bray of the advertising culture, the confusing Babel of competing spiritualities—all of it makes us deaf to God’s word. And therefore, we have to be moved to a place of silence and communion. 

    Jesus draws us into his space, the space of the Church. There, away from the crowd, we can immerse ourselves in the rhythm of the liturgy, listen avidly to Scripture, study the theological tradition, watch the moves of holy people, take in the beauty of sacred art and architecture. There we can hear. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, February 9, 2024 

Image source: Mark Hopkins, Faith, bronze sculpture, available for purchase at: https://www.markhopkinsart.com/art.asp?!=W&ID=22928

Sunday Gospel Reflection, September 9, 2024: Ephphatha! Be opened!

Ephphatha! Be opened! 

What would the world look like if all barriers disappeared? 

    In the midst of their Babylonian exile, the people of Israel look to God for some hope of vindication, and the Lord, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, assures them: Say to those whose hearts are frightened, Be strong, fear not! The Lord will vindicate his people by conquering their enemies; they will one day be released and restored to their land. But that restoration will be to a world that is as yet unknown to them, one in which all barriers – physical, personal, financial – are removed: then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared, Isaiah tells them. Even the desert will be transformed and become fertile once more, for springs will burst forth there and the burning sands will become pools. At that time, the people will have every reason to praise the Lord, as in Psalm 146, for the Lord sets captives free, removing every barrier between them and every barrier that keeps them from God himself. 

    Jesus similarly removes barriers that keep us from him, as in Mark’s Gospel, in which Jesus heals a deaf man who had a speech impediment. As Isaiah had predicted, Jesus does indeed make the deaf hear and the mute speak. He can do so because, in him, the fullness of God’s will and of God’s intent is not limited by human vision. In a moment both miraculous and intimate, Jesus reaches beyond the barriers of the deaf man and restores him to life: Ephphatha! Be opened! Jesus says. This is what it means to save people in truth: not the way they want to be saved, but in a way perfectly in line with God’s will and and intent. 

    If only humankind were as adept at removing barriers as Jesus is! In the Letter of James, it is clear that if God loves all equally, then we should also: show no partiality as you adhere to the faith, James exhorts his readers. We are not to erect barriers between peoples; we are not to discriminate, but to welcome rich and poor alike. In God’s kingdom, no prejudice of any kind is permitted, for God’s love is equal, and equally accessible, to everyone. In that ideal world of the fullness of the kingdom that is our hope, all are equal and all barriers are removed. Can you imagine? Try! And then… work for it! 

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

Living lives that reflect justice (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   The demand to live lives that reflect justice and real concern for the poor is an integral and non-negotiable part of Christian discipleship. It’s not something that is grounded in some particular ideology which I can buy into or neglect, as long as I am living honestly and prayerfully in my private life. It’s an essential part of the gospel, equal in demand to praying, going to church, and keeping my private moral life in order. For a Christian, it is not enough just to be pious, good, and church-going. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI,
Facebook, October 12, 2022

Image source: President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes the hand of a resident of Appalachia during an official tour to assess poverty in America, 1964, https://appvoices.org/2014/04/09/appalachias-place-in-the-war-on-poverty/
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Finding sweetness in God's commandments (St. Francis de Sales)

    Many keep the commandments as sick men take medicines, more from fear of dying in a state of damnation than from love of living according to our Savior's pleasure. But as some persons have an aversion for medicine, be it ever so agreeable, only because it bears the name of medicine, so there are some souls who abhor things commanded simply because they are commanded. There was a certain man, they say, who, having lived quietly in the great city of Paris for the space of fourscore years without ever going out of it, as soon as it was enjoined him by the king that he should remain there the rest of his days, went abroad to see the country, which in his whole lifetime before he had not desired. 

   On the other hand, the loving heart loves the commandments; and the harder they are, the more sweet and agreeable he finds them, because it more perfectly pleases the Beloved, and gives him more honor. The loving heart pours forth and sings hymns of joy when God teaches it his commandments and justifications. And as the pilgrim who merrily sings on his way adds indeed the exertion of singing to that of walking, and yet actually, by this increase of labour, re-energizes himself, and lightens the hardship of the way; even so the sacred lover finds such sweetness in the commandments, that nothing so much eases and refreshes him, as the gracious load of the precepts of his God. 

--St. Francis de Sales,

Treatise on the Love of God,

Book VIII, chapter 5 

Image source: https://chadd.org/adhd-weekly/better-tasting-medicines-improve-treatment-outcomes/
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Work is a thing of awe (Fr. Louis Brisson)

    When we work, when we set our hands to these material things that God has created, we return praise and honor to God, and we cause creatures to render this homage to the Creator, in their own secret and wonderful language. Work makes us sharers in the divine action, and, consequently, in the holiness and grace that emanates from God the Father and that communicates itself not only through the ordinary means of the Redemption, but by the special channel of work – by contact with material things that are for our use. With us, work is a thing of awe, of blessedness. By work, we cooperate with God and with the Word. Work with our hands is our way of honoring God the Father. 

    In that it comes from God, all work is excellent. By steeping ourselves in this doctrine, it will come to pass that our work of each day, whatever it may be – whether manual or intellectual – will take on a character so elevated, so complete in its union with God that we will treat all things as holy and sacred and as requiring our attention, our care, and our devotion. And in their turn, these things will bring us grace, the grace of God the Father. 

--Fr. Louis Brisson, O.S.F.S.,
The Nineteenth Century Salesian Pentecost

Image source: Ford Madox Brown, Work (1865), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_%28painting%29 
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To go deeper into the heart of God (Crystal Caruana Sullivan)

    We must approach [the law] with discernment, that process of decision-making where we prayerfully, patiently, seek relationship with God to understand God’s mysterious and hidden wisdom – that we may know how it is we are called to live.

*Discernment, a gift from God leads us to God’s wisdom.
*God’s law can be trusted
*Jesus invites us to go deeper than the legalism of the Pharisees
*The spirit leads us in discernment to God’s wisdom 

   These are lessons for our spiritual journey. None of them simple. But all of them important as we cultivate a life of prayer and response to God. A “rule book” may work as a moral guide for a three-year-old. But we need something more than the prescriptive starting point or set of rules or list of laws. We need Jesus. We need Jesus, who takes us deeper into the mystery of God’s wisdom – who invites us to go deeper into the heart of God as we live into God’s kingdom. And this is the harder route – because it requires that we choose – each and every day – to surrender our complicated opinions and relationship with the law – and to trust in God, to show us how to follow. Amen. 

--Crystal Caruana Sullivan 

Image source: A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah_scroll
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