Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 6, 2016: Now we must celebrate and rejoice...

Now we must celebrateand rejoice…

How do we celebrate God's love for us?

   In Joshua's day as today, Passover was a celebration of the history of the people of Israel: once enslaved in Egypt, they successfully fled captivity, crossing the Red Sea as well as the territory of Jordan to get to the Promised Land.  It was a long and arduous journey.  Passover thus celebrates their transition to a people who are once again in covenant with God, loved by God, blessed to be living in a land flowing with milk and honey where they are able to eat the produce of that land.  Today, I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you, the Lord tells Joshua.  God has fulfilled God's extraordinary promise, reconciling himself with his people, removing their sin, eliminating all distance between them and their God, allowing love to flourish.  And so, as in Psalm 34, they can bless the Lord at all times, his praise… ever in their mouths:  their song is an acknowledgement of God working in them, and thus they are radiant with joy.

   The parable of the prodigal son in Luke's Gospel similarly ends in joy:  But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again.  The love of the father is greater than his prodigal son had ever known:  My son, you are here with me always, the father tells his son -- it is an extraordinary statement, for the father experiences the son's presence more than even the son himself.  The son has not earned his father's love; it is gift, just as the Promised Land was give to the people of Israel.   As Paul tells the Corinthians, that love, mercy itself, is at the heart of God reconciling the world to him in Christ, that we might be a new creation -- and all this is from God. God wants us back; God's love for us, his forgiveness of our transgressions, is nothing short of an extraordinary gift, a prodigal gift, every single day.

   Has living as a Christian, in Christ, made you a new creation, open to God's mercy and love?  Is it transforming you daily?  How do you celebrate that love?

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

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 21, 2015: They cried to the Lord in their distress...

They cried to the Lord in their distress…

Where is God in all this mess?

Scary things happen to us all the time:  accidents, earthquakes, the deaths of those we love.  Or we create tempestuous situations ourselves:  anger, abuse, insults...  And we may be tempted to wonder:  where is God in all this suffering?  what’s God up to while I’m dealing with this crisis?  This is certainly the question Job poses when, having lost both family and earthly possessions, he struggles to hold onto his faith.  And God responds:  I am here.  I am always here, in everything going on all around you.  Who shut within doors the sea?  I set limits for it, God says.  In other words, though you may not understand this just yet, trust.  Trust in my power to be with you through it all, know that I am capable of wonders in the abyss (as Psalm 107 reminds us), always at your side in your time of need.

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus, too, exhorts his disciples to trust.  While he sleeps peacefully on a cushion in the bow of the boat in which they are traveling, the disciples are terrified at the violent squall that causes waves to break over the boat, filling it with water, filling them with chaos.  His rebuke to the wind – Quiet! Be still! – might well be advice to the disciples as well.  Why are you terrified?  Don’t you know I’m right here?  Do you not yet have faith?  Trust!

We perish only if we don’t recognize Christ with us.  He who, as Paul tells the Corinthians, died for all, calls upon us to do the same, to embrace our suffering, our every difficult moment, as easily as we accept the good, no longer living for ourselves, attentive only to him who for our sake died and was raised.  Conquering fear, let us be a new creation, so that the love of Christ might impel us, driving us forward in our journey toward the fullness of union, quieting our distress, allowing us to appreciate the power of the Lord – the power that is Love – and all the ways that God, who is Love, is present, available to us at every moment of our lives.

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 14, 2015: We walk by faith, not by sight...

We walk by faith, not by sight… 

And it’s a good thing, because God’s kingdom is unfolding 

 in ways that are so beyond our comprehension! 

In our reading from Ezekiel this Sunday, the prophet wants the people to understand that only God can restore their destiny:  I, the Lord, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree…  The people of Israel are having trouble believing this message; in exile, their faith in God is waning.  But the Lord reassures them:  As I, the Lord, have spoken, so will I do.  God is looking after God’s kingdom, and if the people focus on where God has planted them, they will prosper, because God who is ever faithful will be working in their life:  The just one shall flourish like the palm tree, Psalm 92 tells us, like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow…  It’s all about faith, and faithfulness.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus uses parables to help the crowds understand the kingdom of God, choosing images of seed sown and the growth that results.  The process of cultivation may be a mystery – through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how – but the result, in the end,  is tangible; likewise, we may not yet be able to see the fullness of God’s kingdom, but that kingdom is growing all around us, all the same, and growing within us as God works within us.  We may not think much of our gifts, but they do produce… so long as we walk by faith, as Paul tells the Corinthians.  Sight can leave us blind to what faith makes apparent; the more we believe in and are attentive to God’s power at work in us, the more physical sight fades in importance. If we allow faith to guide us, it will one day bring us home to the Lord, home to the fullness of that kingdom we cannot yet comprehend.

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

Image source:  Wordle