Sunday Gospel Reflection, June 28, 2020: Living for God in Christ Jesus...

Living for God in Christ Jesus…

Where do you find your life’s meaning?

  When, in the Second Book of Kings, Elisha is welcomed by a wealthy Shunamite woman, she recognizes his identity as a representative of God and honors him for that reason. The woman finds meaning in her own ability to offer the prophet a little room on the roof with a bed table, chair and lamp.  And because she honors a man who serves the Lord, she will find blessing: Elisha tells her, This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.  Although she may not believe in the same God as Elisha, one could imagine that the woman’s rejoicing might echo Psalm 89, which expresses a hope that God will follow through on God’s promises:  The promises of the Lord I will sing forever; my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.  The psalmist finds meaning in his community’s relationship with God, a relationship he celebrates in joyful song:  in the light of your countenance, O Lord, they walk.

  The Incarnation of Jesus brings a new degree of meaning to the lives of Christians.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells his apostles that if they recognize that their lives are intended for the service of others, if, in other words, they lose their life for Jesus’ sake, then they will find meaning in him through love and service to all.  As Paul reminds the Romans, they have been baptized into Jesus’ death, buried with him that they might live in newness of life.   Jesus died and rose so that all mankind would know the love God has for them; the apostles are to ensure that all receive this tremendous gift, and so are we – with lives dedicated to Christ, lives lived for God in Christ Jesus.  There is no greater source of meaning in our lives than this.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 24, 2017: The revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages...

 The revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages… 

How well do we understand salvation history? 

   Even today, how easy is it for us to understand what Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, calls the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages?  Certainly, during the reign of King David as described in the Second Book of Samuel, David doesn’t entirely understand his own role in salvation history.  Recognizing that he, as king, lives in a house of cedar, he is embarrassed that the ark of God dwells in a tent!  But the house David wants to build for God will be fixed in time and place; it will be a tangible and temporary construction.  So God sends the prophet Nathan to set David straight:  I will fix a place for my people Israel, and will make the kingdom of David’s heir firm. God isn’t promising David a covenant according to the terms of men, as Psalm 89 explains; it is a covenant according to God’s own terms:  Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him, and my covenant with him stands firm. It is God who calls the shots, God who is responsible for salvation history, God who has no human limitations, God who establishes the kingdom of heaven, our opportunity for perfect union with him after death…  We have but to allow it to happen through us.

   In Luke’s Gospel, Mary is pretty much in the same boat.  Visited by the angel Gabriel, told that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son who will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, Mary simply says, May it be done to me according to your word.  She, too, must allow salvation history to happen through her; she says yes to a radical shift in her identity and thus in the identity of all humankind.  The son she will bear, Jesus, is the fulfillment of God’s promise to the house of David – of his kingdom there will be no end – but he is much more than that: God’s plan is more than we could ever conceive of, as God himself is born into our world through the womb of Mary. 

   In the final analysis, the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages is nothing but the Incarnation of Jesus – the salvation God has promised to all humankind, for all eternity.  We have but to allow it to happen through us!

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

Image source:  Wordle  (http://www.wordle.net)

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 2, 2017: Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…

 Whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones… 

How important is hospitality to you? 

   Etymologically, the notion of hospitality involves a mutual, reciprocal relationship:  the Latin word hospitem is the word for a guest or stranger, a visitor or sojourner; it is also the source of our word host, the person who receives a guest or visitor.  (In French, the word hôte can mean both guest and host.)  Such reciprocity of relationship in the context of our relationship with God may well give us pause:  what can we offer to God?  Isn’t God the one who does the giving, as the host, while we are mere guests?

  Consider the story of the woman of Shunem in 2 Kings, a woman of influence who opens her table and her home to the prophet Elisha as he passes through her land.  Elisha naturally would like to thank the woman for her hospitality:  Can something be done for her?, he asks his servant Gehazi.  Ultimately, the woman will bear a baby son; her generous hospitality to Elisha is thus mutually beneficial – each is, in a sense, both host and guest, enjoying the fruits of kindness and faithfulness in relationship.

   In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus also insists on the mutuality of relationship, albeit in a way that might at first seem off-putting.  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, he says.  Our gift to God is to put God first, before all else – to be faithful to the covenant relationship God offers, a life of kindness and faithfulness the psalmist describes in Psalm 89.  God’s most generous gift to us will become clear to the disciples after Jesus’ death:  he died to sin once and for all, Paul tells the Romans.  Taking our sins to the cross, Jesus offered us the greatest possible gift:  that of his life.  Moreover, Jesus knows that if our relationship with God is our first priority, we can love others better, for to embrace God’s love is to be transformed by it; to embrace an existence in which God, Jesus, is our first love is to live for God in Christ Jesus, enjoying newness of life as we wait for the fullness of perfect union with him.  In the meantime, we are called to offer hospitality – to receive all, from prophets and the righteous to the little ones in Christ, to be gift to others as we recognize the gift others are in our own lives.  As with God, so with us:  let us live lives of generous hospitality, singing the goodness of the Lord in all we say, living for God in all we do.

Image source:  Wordle

Christmas Gospel Reflection, December 25, 2016: I proclaim to you good news of great joy!

   Imagine, if you will, trying to attend all four Masses this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:  the Vigil, Mass during the Night, Mass at Dawn, and Mass during the Day.  What scriptural riches you might encounter!

   All of the first readings for these two days are taken from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, whose message is one of hope.  At the Vigil Mass, we hear of Jersualem’s vindication shining forth like the dawn, when God delights in his people as a man in his spouse.  Midnight Mass tells us that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, for a child is born to redeem us all.  At dawn, Isaiah proclaims that our savior comes, while the daytime Mass brings glad tidings to us because their God is our King!

   Not surprisingly, our psalms are all songs of praise:  Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord, Psalm 89 proclaims, while Psalm 96 calls upon us to exult before the Lord, for he comes to rule the earth.  Psalms 97 and 98 also exhort us to rejoice, for the Lord is king, and thus all the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.

   The Gospel texts naturally walk us through the story of our Lord's birth, from Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus and Joseph’s dream, to Luke’s account of  Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem to register, where, of course, the child Jesus is born.  Shepherds visit the baby, while Mary keeps all of these things, reflecting on them in her heart.  And finally, John’s magnificent prologue, which reminds us that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, a testimony to Jesus as revelation of the Father to humankind.

   Lastly, our epistles remind us of all that we know of Jesus thanks to the Incarnation:  that he is the descendent of David, savior of the world (Acts), he in whom salvation is revealed (Titus 2), the love of God incarnate, come to save his people (Titus 3).  A final, powerful reading from Hebrews speaks of Jesus as the refulgence of God’s glory, whom we, like the angels are to worship!

   No one can attend every Mass, and perhaps no celebrant is crazy enough to tackle all of these readings with four different homilies.  But we would encourage you over the next few days to make a bit of time each day to read these beautiful readings in sets, first all of Isaiah, then all the psalms, then the Gospels, and finally the epistles, meditating on their meaning and reflecting on them in your heart.  What better way to prepare for the coming of Jesus than to enter more deeply into the stories that reveal his glory?

 You can find all the readings for this glorious weekend here:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122516.cfm

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 21, 2014: The promises of the Lord I will sing forever...

The promises of the Lord I will sing forever...

Do you keep all your promises?

As we fly toward Christmas later this week, we pause this Sunday to remember the reason for the season:  that Jesus Christ was sent by God to fulfill once and for all God’s promise, the covenant established with David – work that is not over yet, because it continues to take place in us!

Sunday’s reading from the Second Book of Samuel reminds us that God told David explicitly:  I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins… David is thus part of salvation history unfolding, the salvation history we have been tracing all through Advent on our Jesse tree.  Although David didn’t quite grasp God’s message, we do:  Jesus is the ultimate heir to the throne, Son of the Most High, the angel Gabriel tells Mary in Luke's Gospel, the Messiah who will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.  His very name, Jesus, Yeshua, means Savior:  Jesus is the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages, as Paul tells the Romans, planned by God from the beginning of time to bring salvation to humankind.

Hence, in Jesus, God kept his most monumental promise, confirming his faithfulness (Psalm 89).  Thanks to the Incarnation of Jesus, our bond with God is an eternal and open connection that nothing, nothing on earth can change.  Salvation, we know, is still evolving; we are still trying to take it in.  Our life still has somewhere to go – and God still has something to accomplish in us, God’s work in us is still not finished, and we are all a part of that ongoing and endless kingdom. As we continue to participate in salvation history, may we forever sing the goodness of the Lord, remembering his promise and greeting its fulfillment in the very holy days to come, celebrating that promise in the very person of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God's Love for all.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source:  Wordle