Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 14, 2026: Jesus' heart was moved with pity for them...

Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them….
How is God’s infinite compassion active in your life? 

    God’s patient compassion for humankind is extraordinary. In the Book of Exodus, while Israel is encamped in front of Mount Sinai, Moses goes up the mountain to God, who proposes to establish a bond between himself and the people: If you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people. God has cared for the people of Israel constantly, bringing them out of Egypt, bearing them up on eagle wings, that they might become a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. In no other faith tradition of the time was there established this kind of relationship in which God is bound to the people as they are bound to God. We are his people: the sheep of his flock, Psalm 100 proclaims, he made us; his we are! God’s compassion toward his people is evident in his infinite kindness and faithfulness, forever! 

    Jesus’ compassion for humankind is likewise extraordinary. In Matthew’s Gospel, seeing people who are troubled and abandoned, Jesus’ heart is moved with pity, and he addresses their needs. Then Jesus sends out his disciples to be his presence in the world, to reveal him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The disciples are sent out to take eternity to the world, to gather the lost sheep back to the God of infinite compassion, restoring them to relationship with their Lord. That restoration, Paul tells the Romans, finds its fullness in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thus we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. We can’t effect reconciliation, but God can and does, in an extraordinary and ongoing way; we can but participate in that forgiveness that is already active, and celebrate it! 

    The compassion of God is extraordinary, beyond our ability to comprehend, yet it is revealed again and again and again every time we open ourselves to it. That infinite compassion is meant to work in our lives as well, recreating us as a kingdom of priests, sent out to bring the promise of eternal life to all the world! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 18, 2023: We are his people: the sheep of his flock...

We are his people: the sheep of his flock…

What does our relationship with God call us to? 

    We belong to God. Our relationship with the Lord is based in covenant, in our acceptance of God’s promise to be faithful to us, and our (often failed) promise to remain faithful to God. When, in the Book of Exodus, Moses goes up the mountain to God, the Lord reassures him, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people. Moses and his community know that the Lord has drawn them into relationship because of the deep love the Lord has for his creation. In Psalm 100, the people of Israel sing joyfully to the Lord and serve the Lord with gladness because, as the psalmist notes, he made us, his we are. They recognize themselves to be God’s chosen people, beloved from the beginning of time, and come before him with joyful song! 

    In Jesus’ time, God proves God’s love and compassion for all humanity once and for all by sending his Son Jesus to bring salvation to all. This wondrous act, as Paul tells the Romans, reconciles us to God, so that we will be saved by his life. Jesus’ every act is born of love and compassion for humanity. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ heart is moved with pity for the crowds who come to hear him teach and preach. The crowds are troubled and abandoned, and Jesus knows they need shepherds to guide them, so he sends forth his twelve disciples, giving them the power to heal their world. Their relationship with the Lord enables the disciples to act out of love for all, giving without cost. 

    Acting in knowledge and full awareness of God's infinite love for all, we too can go forth as Jesus’ twelve disciples did, bringing that love to our broken world in the form of mercy and forgiveness. We do this out of love for that world, without a care for our own needs, for, like the twelve disciples, without cost we have received; without cost we are to give. We belong to God, having been born of God’s love, and we are called to bring that love to all, following the one who gave all for us all. 

This post was inspired by Fr. Pat's many amazing Scripture classes.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 13, 2021: We walk by faith, not by sight...

We walk by faith, not by sight…

Do you trust in the promises of God?

   God calls Ezekiel when the soon-to-be prophet is already in exile in Babylon, and Ezekiel’s message is not, at first, a promising one; much of it has to do with the destruction of Jerusalem. But eventually the prophet does deliver a beautiful, hope-filled image in which God promises to restore David’s kingdom: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain so that it can become a majestic cedar, God says. And what God plants, flourishes, giving shelter to all: Birds of every kind shall dwell below that majestic cedar. God promises that God’s kingdom will embrace all the earth, and all shall be aware of God’s power. Psalm 92 confirms that power: They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. We only have life when we are in relationship with the Lord, in proximity to our God, when our lives are planted by God and nurtured by God, entrusted to God’s own dwelling, living in hope of God’s promises.

   Jesus likewise uses the image of planting to give the crowds a sense of the potential for God’s action to establish God’s kingdom. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus speaks first of a man who scatters seed on the land and then… goes to sleep! The man has no consciousness of the power of God at work until it’s time to harvest, yet he seems to intuit God’s promise of bounty: And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once. That man knows that God sees our potential through to harvest; we then participate in that potential, cooperating in God’s life with God.

   The kingdom of God will take root, as God promises, producing fruit in the most unlikely of places, from the most unlikely of beginnings – witness the lowly mustard seed. We are called to be witnesses to the power of God’s love at work, living with courage as we trust in God’s promises. We are always courageous, Paul tells the Corinthians, for we walk by faith, not by sight. And so we need to live for the promises we hope for, ever open to transformation, ever open to restoration, ever open to the power of God’s love, active in our lives.

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