Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 26, 2020: Were not our hearts burning within us?

Were not our hearts burning within us?

What do we gain when we sojourn with the Lord?

  We need to hear the Word of God.  When, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus appears to two disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, they at first believe that he is unaware of the things that have taken place in Jerusalem in recent days.  But Jesus quickly points out that the problem lies in their own shortsightedness:  O how foolish you are, he tells them, How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!  As he sojourns with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus breaks opens the scriptures for them, one after another, demonstrating how each one points to how Jesus himself came to save them.  And, once he has broken open the scriptures, he also breaks bread with them, proclaiming God’s Word in such a way that they can hear it with their hearts.  And then he disappears.

  In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter embraces the task of proclaiming the Word of God, the good news of salvation, so that all can understand:  Let this be known to you, and listen to my words, he tells everyone staying in Jerusalem.  Peter cites scripture (Psalm 16) – you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption – to remind his listeners that God sent Jesus to die and rise for us. The First Letter of Peter further clarifies the reasons for this gift:  to ransom us from our futile conduct.  Jesus is the ransom; Jesus redeemed Israel, paying the debt of sin then and continually on to the present day. Which means that each of us must be of value to God – for, would you pay a ransom for something that has no value? But we must be open to that redemption, open to the salvific love of God, open to sojourning with the Lord.

  When we let the Word of God enter our heart through scriptures and the breaking of the bread, when we allow the Lord to come and enter into us so that he can dwell in us and journey with us, we are sojourning with him.  Our sojourn is our life as journey, a pilgrimage to eternal life. If we focus on growing in the love of God, if we focus on what God is doing in us, on God walking with us, then the sojourn will have accomplished its goal:  that we might learn, through scriptures and through bread, just who God is and what God is doing in us every day.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 30, 2019: Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye...

Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye…

Could you leave everything behind for the Lord?

  When, in the First Book of Kings, Elijah throws his cloak over Elisha as a sign that Elisha is to be anointed prophet to succeed Elijah, Elisha’s response can be read as a tad disappointing:  Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you.  Elijah issues a gentle rebuke:  Go back!  But Elisha responds instead by destroying his yoke of oxen and his plowing equipment; he does not kiss his parents goodbye (that we know of), but prepares in the best way he knows how in order to follow Elijah.  For in the end, Elisha knows that the Lord, not land or material possessions of any kind but the Lord alone, is his inheritance (Psalm 16).  By destroying any remnant of his past, Elisha puts his relationship with God and all future fullness of joys in God’s presence before all else.

  Jesus’ call is no less radical.  In Luke’s Gospel, various would-be disciples promise, I will follow you wherever you go, yet they impose conditions:  let me go first and bury my father or let me say farewell to my family at home.  Jesus himself has no home to return to -- the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head – and only the cross to look forward to.  Yet look forward he does.  For if we are to answer God’s call, we can only look forward, not back, as Jesus suggests:  No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.  Jesus’ followers can’t build their identity on what has been; they – and we – must be defined by what he puts before us:  the cross. 

  To be a disciple, to be a follower of Christ, is to know the depth of his love for you and to be changed by that love, so changed as to be willing to leave all else behind to follow him.  This is the freedom of which Paul speaks in his Letter to the Galatians, freedom not to do as we like, but freedom to serve one another through love.  We need to be guided by that love, to live by the Spirit, to love our neighbor as ourselves.  To respond to Jesus’ call, to choose Christ, is to choose love before all else, leaving all else behind, looking forward only, radically altered by the love Christ has for us, a love he expresses most effectively on the cross.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 18, 2018: You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld...

You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld…

How do we deal with chaos?

  Things may get worse before they get better.  At least that is what the prophet Daniel seems to be suggesting to his audience when he gives his vision of the end times:  it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress, but those who are true to their covenant with God will be vindicated:  the wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, Daniel says.  Although they may have to endure a time of turmoil, the people of God can trust that, if they stay true, working at doing good works, bringing God’s love to bear upon others’ lives, they shall live – like the stars –  forever.  Psalm 16 likewise reassures the faithful that God will not abandon their souls to the netherworld, so long as they remember always that God is the whole of their identity, their allotted portion and their cup.

  In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus similarly speaks to his disciples about a time of turmoil and tribulation, when chaos will seem to reign once more upon the earth and the stars will be falling from the sky.  But, so long as they remain vigilant, so long as they continue to focus on the one who rules their heart, the one who brings mercy and forgiveness, the one who calls them to the kingdom where he is, they will participate in the fullness of its coming, for at that time the Lord will gather his elect.  In the meantime, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins, has taken his seat forever at the right hand of God, where he waits for all to come to pass as he taught them. 

  We experience chaos every day – the chaos of failure and of sin, the chaos of error and lack of human foresight – but we also experience grace, for joy is often not possible without sadness.  God’s mercy is capable of seeing past all we do as human beings.  It’s up to us to do our best to remain faithful, true to our relationship with the Lord, bringing God’s love to bear upon the lives of others, so that we too can endure the end times to come in the hope that we will be made perfect forever, perfect, that is, in our final, perfect union with the Lord.

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

Image source:  www.wordle.net

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 30, 2017: They recognized him...

 They recognized him… 

How do we recognize Christ? 

   In Luke's Gospel, the disciples on the road to Emmaus don’t recognize Jesus right away, but they have an inkling that the man who joins them on their journey is significant:  Stay with us, they urge him, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.  They will recognize him, eventually, in the breaking of the bread at table – With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him – and will realize that their inkling had been prescient:  Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?  They recognize Jesus, that is, in Word and Eucharist, in the grace of the sacramental moment he shares with them.

   When the apostles journey out to give witness to their life with Christ, in Acts, Peter also offers a way to recognize Jesus, first by citing the words of David in Psalm 16, which point to a heart open in love:  I saw the Lord ever before me, he says. Yet notice that Peter’s vision is not restricted to the past, but opens to the future, as he continues to quote the psalm: You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.  Peter is calling his fellow Israelites to conversion, inviting them to see things differently, signaling to them that something extraordinary is happening in their very midst.  In 1 Peter, the message is similar:  Jesus Christ has been revealed in the final time for you; you have access through Jesus to God now, today, day or night, if your heart is open to recognize him, recognize his presence, recognize his love:  even in the night my heart exhorts me, said the psalmist.  Once again, being mindful is the key.

   We are all on the road to Emmaus; Emmaus is a part of the life of every Christian who sojourns on this earth, waiting for perfect union with God.  We all seek to recognize Jesus in our daily lives.  How do we recognize Christ?  Perhaps by being ever mindful, precisely, of those opportunities that present themselves daily -- in God’s Word, in Eucharist, in our fellow pilgrims on this journey of life -- and by opening our hearts to his presence, allowing his love to burn within us, at our very core, and to inspire us to give witness in turn.

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

Image source:  Wordle