Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 1, 2026: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth...

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth…
 Do you need God? 

    When the prophet Zephaniah exhorts the people to seek justice and humility, he is offering them a path to finding God. For, in order to seek justice, we must first make room for God in our lives, embracing humility; justice flows from our willingness to be in right relationship with God, to be a people humble and lowly who take refuge in the Lord, recognizing that it is only through God that any human action is possible. And, after all, Psalm 146 reminds us that it is precisely the humble – the oppressed, the hungry, captives, the blind, those who were bowed down – who receive help from the Lord, and who can then, in turn, bring life-giving justice to others, God’s justice, born of right relationship. 

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus elaborates on the promise of Psalm 146, beginning with a blessing for the poor in spirit and the meek, those who know they need God, who seek not control but a measure of God’s love in their lives. From beginning to end, the Beatitudes invite all of us to live in a way that demonstrates that we do need God, for God is necessary to the fullness of life; without God, after all, what depth of meaning can we find in human existence? In the epistle, the Corinthians seem to have forgotten this lesson; Paul reminds them that God chose the foolish of the world – the humble of heart, the poor in spirit – to shame the wise, for God can only work through humble hearts open to God’s action in their lives. In that kingdom of inversion, the only kingdom in which true justice is possible, we seek the Lord, struggling to hold him, rather than worldly distractions, at the center of our lives. Isn’t this why we come to church each week, to recognize our need for God, the fact that God has a place in our everyday existence? Yes, we need God: we need God’s presence; we need God’s love. To walk the path of justice can only mean a self-emptying humility that recognizes this imperative need, and opens to it. 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 28, 2024: If today you hear his voice...

If today you hear his voice…

Are we open to listening to the Word of God? 

   In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses relays God’s promise of a prophet to come, one who will speak God’s words to the people of Israel: I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin, and will put my words into his mouth. But the people will have to take care to discern if those who purport to speak in God’s name are true prophets, for some may presume to speak in God’s name an oracle that God has not commanded him to speak, with dire consequences. Although the people have requested to no longer hear the voice of the Lord, our God, and thus do not wish to communicate directly with God, God will continue to communicate with them; God asks simply that they listen to his words. However, they must not, as Psalm 95 reminds us, harden their hearts; rather, they must come joyfully to the Lord with thanksgiving, ready to hear his voice and to enter into relationship with him through worship. 

   Many Christians see in this passage from Deuteronomy a promise of the coming Messiah, Jesus, and indeed Jesus does, as Mark’s Gospel tells us, speak as one having authority, committed to proclaiming what God has sent him to proclaim: the kingdom. Unlike the scribes who simply reiterate the law and the scriptures mechanically, unable to hear because their hearts are hardened, Jesus speaks from his heart to the hearts of all, and the Word of God is invested with all the love God has for God’s people. People are amazed, and their hearts are listening, open to seeing God at work in Jesus’ every action, be it healing, teaching or preaching. In so doing, they, like we, must strive, as Paul tells the Corinthians, to be free of anxieties. We might be married or unmarried, but the important thing is to make sure we are always as connected to the Lord as we are to the world, for adherence to the Lord without distraction will enable our hearts to remain open and our ears ready not only to hear his voice, but to listen to his Word! 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 29, 2023: Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth...

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth…

Do you know how much you need God? 

    In the time of the prophet Zephaniah, the people of Israel are seeking control of their own world, rather than recognizing their need for the Lord. In an attempt to turn the people from their evil ways, Zephaniah reminds them that relationship with God should be their first priority, and that relationship is born of humility and life-giving justice. When Jerusalem is restored, God will single out the remnant that remained faithful: But I will leave as a remnant in your midst a people humble and lowly, who shall take refuge in the name of the Lord. This remnant knows that they need God and recognize the qualities of God listed in Psalm 146: The Lord keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, and so on. To be humble is to live in such a way that we know we need God, that we need God’s presence, that we need God’s love, and thus we work to hold him at the center of our lives, seeking the Lord from a stance of profound humility. 

    In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus offers the Beatitudes, or blessings, as part of his Sermon on the Mount. In each and every case, the people who are blessed are notable for some manifestation of humility: they are poor in spirit, recognizing their dependence upon God, for without God, life is without meaning; or they hunger and thirst for righteousness, for right relationship with God, a relationship in which humility trumps self-sufficiency; or they are persecuted and insulted precisely because they recognize overtly their need for God. Each is acutely aware of their need for God; each seeks to hold the Lord at the center of their lives. As Paul will later tell the Corinthians, God chose the lowly and the weak, those who count for nothing to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast in God. Christianity is a reversal of the world order that prizes self-sufficiency and control; it is through our humility, our openness to reliance upon God, that God will work in and through us. Our participation in worship is a marker of that dependence: to worship is to recognize our profound need for God and the place God holds in our lives. Let us come together to embrace his presence and his love, that he might lead us ever closer to him.

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 30, 2022: Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety...

Be my rock of refuge, a stronghold to give me safety…

Do we recognize the strength of God girding our lives? 

   The prophet Jeremiah is in a difficult situation. Designated to be a prophet by God before God knew him in the womb, appointed a prophet to the nations, Jeremiah will meet with turmoil and rejection; he will feel crushed, but will not in fact be so: Be not crushed on their account, God tells him, for it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, to deliver you. Jeremiah’s is not a happy lot, but the Lord will support him and will not abandon him. Psalm 71 similarly recognizes that our salvation rests in the Lord: In your justice rescue me and deliver me, the psalmist sings, reminding himself of all the times the Lord has been his strength, from his mother’s womb. 

   When Jesus speaks in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke's Gospel, he is rejected by the townspeople whose amazement in his teaching is diminished because they know his lineage: Isn’t this the son of Joseph? they ask. When, in their fury, they lead him to the brow of the hill, to hurl him down headlong, Jesus passes through midst of them and goes away. His truth runs contrary to the truth they hold; they have already defined him and ultimately, they disparage him for the words for which they had previously praised him. The hand of God is at work among them, but they don’t seem to realize it, and they lose their chance to recognize the strength of God touching their lives, God’s very presence among them, in the synagogue. 

   God knows us from birth and gives us the capacity to do the extraordinary, but this is only possible if love is behind our faith, driving it. None of the Corinthians’ gifts matter, Paul tells them, if love does not drive their actions, love emanating from the depths of who they are. Paul himself has not perfected such love; he is still on the journey, too. But he knows that his actions come from the heart, where God dwells. One day, God willing, he shall know fully, as he is fully known, and so shall we. In the meantime, we must constantly remind ourselves, as Paul does, that Christ is alive in us, embodied in a love that is patient and kind and bears all things. So let us gird our loins, knowing that our Lord is our strength, our rock and our fortress, and, ultimately, our salvation. 

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

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 31, 2020: If today you hear his voice...

If today you hear his voice… 

How receptive are you to the Word of God? 

    By the time of Moses, the people of Israel fear direct communication with God; at Horeb they state categorically: Let us not hear the voice of the Lord, our God, lest we die. But, because he desires an ongoing relationship with his people, God devises a system of go-betweens to enable open communication, sending them prophets to deliver his messages to them. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is the first prophet to bring the word of God to the people, and he promises more to come: A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin, he tells them. The people will need to learn to listen to the word of God, not blindly, but with discernment, opening their hearts, that they might hear without fear. Psalm 95 reminds them, If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Most of all, we need to recognize our need for God and our position before him: come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made us. Rather than standing in our own arrogance, we must be receptive to the Lord, who guides us in all things, if only we can learn to listen. 

    In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus, himself the Word of God, enters the synagogue at Capernaum and casts out an unclean spirit. When he speaks, not only the spirit listens to him, but his words draw the people to him so that they identify him as one having authority. Jesus has the ability to open them, speaking through their fears, through their feelings of inadequacy, through any distance; as an authority, he speaks directly to their hearts. It is up to the people to open their ears (and hearts) to hear, to listen and obey. Paul likewise encourages the Corinthians to be sure to be focused on the things of the Lord, whether they be married or unmarried, for anxiety is not productive. We simply need to remain open: open to those with whom we have established relationships, within our families and communities, but most especially with God, listening, receptive, open to his will in all we do.  

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 3, 2019: I shall show you a still more excellent way...

I shall show you a still more excellent way…

How do you discern God’s will?

  It isn’t easy to discern the will of God in our lives.  When the prophet Jeremiah is sent by God to deliver a message no one wants to hear, the people are unwilling to listen, let alone discern whether or not Jeremiah is the prophet they need to hear:  They will fight against you, God says.  But God encourages Jeremiah, reassuring him that God loved him into existence – Before I formed you in the womb I knew you – and that Jeremiah has discerned God’s call rightly, the call to use the gifts God has given him to serve the people, even if the people are too stubborn to hear him.  Psalm 71 reminds us that God is our rock and our fortress. Moreover, God knows what we are capable of because he created each of us with a purpose:  You have taught me from my youth, the psalmist says, On you I depend from birth. With God’s help, we learn to grow in faith, entering always ever further into relationship with God, and thereby learning to hear God when God speaks to us.  We can learn, with practice, to discern.

  Like the people of Jeremiah’s time, the people of Nazareth are not open to discernment.  When, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells them fairly clearly that he is the Messiah, the anointed one, they don’t really listen, let alone discern – instead, they doubt, which impedes their ability to discern that God is present among them in the person of Jesus, the Christ who came to reveal the depth of God’s love for his people.  Indeed, they drive him out of the town!  Whatever their gifts might be, those gifts do not allow the people of Nazareth to receive the insights they need to see the Messiah before them.  They do not listen; they do not hear.  They have failed their gifts; they have fallen short in discernment.

  How do we discern if we are using our gifts for good or for vainglory?  Paul tells the Corinthians that love that is patient and kind is at the core of discernment; if there is no love, the Corinthians’ gifts are useless because alone they cannot see clearly; they see only indistinctly, as in a mirror.  Yet we must work to discern together, to listen to the truths others reveal to us, to expand each other’s vision out of love for God’s truth.  It is our life journey to understand the gifts God has bestowed upon us; it is our life journey to discern, daily, even hour by hour, what God’s will is in our lives.  Together, trusting that we are known by God from the womb, listening with love, we can model our own love on God’s love and discern, as best as humanly possible, God’s will.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 28, 2018: To him shall you listen...

 To him shall you listen… 

How do we interpret God’s message? 

   When Moses delivers God’s law to the people of Israel in the Book of Deuteronomy, it is clear that the people, fearing to hear God’s voice directly, desire a mediator, a go-between who can transmit God’s word to them.  God is willing to establish a prophet among them, on one condition:  to him shall you listen, God says.  Psalm 95 will remind the people that, if today they hear his voice, they are not to harden their hearts – rather, they are to kneel before the Lord in worship.  When God’s word is transmitted by a trustworthy voice, the word becomes a source of joy and thanksgiving.

   In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum, and the people are astonished at his teaching, for he teaches them as one having authority.  Jesus is not only transmitting God’s word, he is God’s Word, the Word made flesh.  His authority comes from within his very person, and so he commands the attention of all who are present to him.  Even the unclean spirit inhabiting a local man recognizes Jesus and his authority:  I know who you are – the Holy One of God! 

   The issues facing the people of Israel continue to press upon us today.  How do we authentically interpret God’s message in the context of our own time?  How do we know if our understanding of the word of God is the true one?  And once we acknowledge it as true, how do we make it a part of our own identity:  how do we ensure that it is at the core of our being, the center of our self, the depth of who we are as individuals and as a community?  Paul has one suggestion for the Corinthians:  adherence to the Lord without distraction.  Only when we listen first to God, focused on that eternal love that is to be ours, can we be sure that God’s Word is at work in us, living and true.

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

Image source:  www.wordle.net