Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 16, 2020: For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable...

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable…

Is God’s love open and available to all?

  The people of Israel originally believed that some people had no access to God.  But the prophet Isaiah causes them to rethink this idea:  my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, the Lord tells them, including foreigners who join themselves to the Lord.  Isaiah wants the people of Israel to change how they think of themselves and of their relationship with God; they need to start to think of the people of God in broader terms.  God is joyful as we draw closer to him, Isaiah says; God’s salvation is available to all.  And so the psalmist can sing in Psalm 67, O God, let all the nations praise you!  God wants salvation to be known upon earth, among all nations.

  Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman of Tyre and Sidon in Matthew's Gospel may make us momentarily question this truth, however.  When the woman approaches Jesus for help because her daughter is tormented by a demon, Jesus insults her:  It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs, he says!  This seems unconscionably harsh, but the woman is not, after all, a Jew, and Jesus claims at first that he has been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  But look at the end result of this apparent obstinacy on his part:  what he achieves is to get the woman to state her faith on a deeper level than many of the house of Israel have ever done, and with the utmost humility:  Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.  Ultimately, Jesus broadens his own disciples’ perspectives:  O woman, great is your faith!  Though he may challenge the more unlikely candidates, Jesus clearly offers salvation for all; he seeks hearts that are open to change, ready to receive and to respond to the love he has for them.  In his Letter to the Romans, Paul reminds the Gentiles that the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable; life from the dead—salvation— is open to all, Jews and Gentiles alike, so long as our hearts are open to the opportunity of life in Christ.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 26, 2019: Whoever loves me will keep my word...

Whoever loves me will keep my word…

How has the love of God expanded your vision?

  In his Last Supper discourse, recorded in John’s Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that they must act always out of love:  Whoever loves me will keep my word.  If we open ourselves to Jesus, God’s absolute Word of love for us and for all humankind, we will remain open to relationship with him and allow that love to define us.  The Word is love is connection:  as Christ is one in the Father, we are to be one in Christ.  The source of that oneness is the very love in which we are made.  Moreover, if we are drawn more deeply into the love of Christ, we cannot help but see ourselves differently; we can’t hold on to our old identity if we are defined by God’s love.  And our new identity allows us to see ourselves, and others, in ways we did not before.  Jesus opens the disciples to see him with a new vision, to see him and themselves and everything else in a different, better light, so that love can last.  Love connects us to other, and God shines through us when we become transparent through his love.

  Paul and Barnabas have gone out to give witness to that love, and to all that God is doing in their lives; open to the love of Christ, their knowledge of this love as truth expands their ability to see, for now they see with their heart.  As a result, they can work to eradicate false teachings in the communities they visit in the Acts of the Apostles, fostering unity where there might otherwise be dissension.  In all they do, Paul and Barnabas model the love of Christ.  Through them, as Psalm 67 says, God’s way is made known upon earth, and all nations on earth can be glad and exult.  Seeing the prosperity of the psalmist’s community, others come to believe in God; likewise, seeing the fruits of the work of Paul and Barnabas will bring many to believe, again, fostering unity.

  In the Book of Revelation, the angel of God expands John beyond the limits that humans ordinarily set for themselves, giving him a new sense of identity as well.  The angel takes John in spirit to place where John is extended beyond the body, beyond the physical, to a spiritual place where his former vision is expanded and John sees what he did not understand before, because the glory of God gives him light.  As members of the Church, we too are meant to be a body of people living in the union that this light reveals because we allow God’s love to shine in us.

How might God’s love shine in you today?

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 20, 2017: Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us...

 Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us… 

Are you open to the Other in your midst? 

   So much in our world today pushes us to isolate ourselves from the Other – from the marginalized, from the foreigner, from those who are not like us and therefore somehow suspect.  Moreover, this was as true in the ancient world as it is today, so much so that in the Book of Isaiah, the Lord has to remind the Israelites that all peoples – Jews as well as foreigners – will be welcome in the temple so long as they hold to God’s covenant.  Psalm 67 reminds us that God knows no boundaries or borders:  O God, let all the nations praise you because you rule the peoples in equity.  Later, Paul will remind the Romans that Jesus came to redeem all humanity, and Paul himself has become apostle to the Gentiles, anticipating God’s mercy upon all.

   It’s odd, then, to read Matthew’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman.  Jesus himself has chosen to enter Gentile territory, withdrawing to the region of Tyre and Sidon, yet he remains silent when a Canaanite woman of that district approaches him, requesting healing for her daughter who is tormented by a demon. Jesus’ first response is almost shocking in its exclusivity:  I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; when she persists, his second answer is frankly insulting:  It is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs. Does Jesus really mean to put up barriers between him and certain populations?  All of our readings point to the contrary:  this encounter may well be an opportunity for Jesus both to test the woman’s faith and humility and to teach his disciples an important lesson.  The woman is clearly a woman of faith; Jesus’ challenging remarks only make her own her faith all the more, and her trust that God will provide overrides any insults he might bestow upon her.  O woman, great is your faith! Jesus proclaims finally, healing her daughter in that instant, accepting her and her mother into the kingdom.

   God’s mercy is indeed for all!  If we are to respond to the call of Jesus, a call Paul deems irrevocable, we too need to be open to all, to the Other, to the marginalized, to the foreigner – revealing the love of God to all so that his way may be known upon all the earth.

This post was based on Fr. Pat’s 2014 homily.

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 1, 2016: We will make our dwelling with him...

  We will make our dwelling with him…  

  How can we best live in Christ’s love?  

   The profound love of Jesus Christ, revealed most perfectly at his death on the cross, touches us at the depth of who we are; it is a love revealed in sacrifice, the giving of Jesus’ self entirely for the salvation of humankind.  God wants this love to possess us and for us to possess the Lord in that love, creating a mutual indwelling meant to give us peace.  To reassure the apostles and calm their fears for the future, Jesus promises in John’s Gospel that the Father will send an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct us, to help us discern in our time of need, dwelling within us:  my peace I give to you.  Revelation describes this presence of the third Person of the Trinity as an outpouring of the light of the temple that is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb:  the Holy Spirit is the very love that binds the Father and Son, and invites us into ongoing relationship with God.

   Throughout all of the difficulties of the early Church, the apostles – Paul and Barnabas among them – had to keep sight of the fact that God’s intent is always to live among us.  The apostles’ work is inspired:  It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and us, Paul and Barnabas write to the Christians of Antioch in Acts, to help them better to understand the teachings of the Church.  The apostles know the power of the God dwelling within them, and are fully aware of the role the Holy Spirit plays in their ministry.  In a sense, they are fulfilling the dictum of Psalm 67:  may your way be known upon the earth; among all nations, your salvation. 

   Jesus offered his apostles a revelation of something they have yet to understand, exhorting them not only to keep his word, but also to live in the context of the profound love he is about to reveal in all its glory.  The Advocate is his gift to us, an embodiment of the love in which we are to live, allowing it to possess us, striving to possess it, that we might also be an outpouring of that love to all the world.

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

Image source:  Wordle