Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 18, 2020: I am the Lord, there is no other...

I am the Lord, there is no other…

Do you recognize God at work in the world around you?

  When, in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, God calls upon Cyrus, the King of Persia, to return the people of Israel to their lands, the gesture is extraordinary:  a foreign king is being called by name to achieve God’s ends, and so Cyrus sends the people back to Israel with the wherewithal to rebuild.  Moreover, God is explicit about God’s own role in this project:  it is I who arm you, though you know me not.  When God works through Cyrus to benefit the people of Israel, God makes it very clear that the power lies with God:  I am the Lord, there is no other.  God wants the people to know that there is none besides God who merits the glory and honor referred to in Psalm 96.  The people are to sing to the Lord a new song, one not sung before, from a place they haven’t been before, from a place of understanding and appreciation for all that God has done and continues to do, in holy attire, prepared, heart open, ready to do good.  Psalm 96 calls for an intentional recognition of God at work in the world around us.

   The Pharisees and Herodians, on the other hand, do not recognize God at work in the world around them, not even with Jesus standing right before their eyes.  When, in Matthew’s Gospel, they test Jesus, asking, Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?, the Pharisees and Herodians are failing to recognize God’s hand in Jesus, failing to give God his due.  Jesus’ reply goes to the heart of this:  repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.  Remain focused on God, in other words, see what God is doing in the world right in front of you, keep God ever before you.  God blesses us by being with us in good and in bad; we must be open to the revelation, open to God acting in ways we might not expect.  We see in Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians that the early Christian community exists in union with Christ, and through Christ in God:  Grace to you and peace, Paul says to them – may God dwell among you and bring you peace.  The gospel came to them not in word alone, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit; the Thessalonians responded to God’s call in the affirmative, ever aware of God at work in the world around them.  We are called to no less.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 20, 2019: There was a wedding in Cana at Galilee...

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee…

What does our relationship with God call us to?

  In John’s Gospel, Jesus performs his first miracle (albeit reluctantly) at a wedding at Cana in Galilee, at the request of his mother, who simply states, They have no wine.  No one wants a new marriage to be marred by difficulty from day one, and so Jesus does the extraordinary:  Fill the jars with water, he tells the servers, and then, Draw some out.  The wine the headwaiter tastes is of the highest quality, a fitting tribute to the bond of souls the wedding is intended to celebrate, and a good reason to sing to the Lord, as Psalm 96 exhorts, to proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations. The miracle at Cana is a foretaste of the messianic banquet, of our ultimate union with God in heaven – and a revelation of God’s glory.

  Jesus’ marvelous deed at the wedding in Cana reminds us of the centrality of the marriage metaphor in salvation history, wherein God calls the people of Israel by a new name to celebrate a return to covenant relationship:  you shall be called My Delight and your land Espoused, Isaiah says.  It is as a marriage bond that Isaiah characterizes the relationship between God and Jerusalem, a relationship in which God shall rejoice, for it is grounded in love shared, love celebrated.

  Moreover, it is out of that bond of relationship that the Holy Spirit is able to bestow upon us all, as St. Paul tells the Corinthians, different kinds of spiritual gifts, gifts we are meant to employ to be of benefit for each other.  Remember that we are called as a church to be the Bride of Christ; Jesus loves us as a bridegroom loves his bride.  And the love he shares with us, if we are open to it, opens us further to giving in turn, using our gifts to build up each other’s lives, yet recognizing at every moment that it is God who produces all of these gifts – manifestations of the Spirit – in everyone.  It is yet another reason to proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations, as we are invited to participate in God’s extraordinary action and so embrace the identity that is ours, an identity grounded in service and love.

This post is based on notes from Fr. Pat’s 2016 homily on the readings for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 22, 2017: Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God...

 Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, 
and to God what belongs to God… 

Do we give the best of ourselves to God? 

   When, in Matthew’s Gospel the Herodians and Pharisees gang up on Jesus, asking him, Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar, or not?, Jesus knows that their question is meant to trip him up.  It is also profoundly misguided.  In actuality, the Pharisees and Herodians have themselves invested in the Roman empire, the very empire they seek a messiah to save them from; in so doing, they have lost sight of the essential question, which is, what does God ask of you?  Repay to God what belongs to God, Jesus says.  In other words, make of your life a blessing; do no malicious acts.  Make your life itself a tribute to God before all else.  Coins are of little interest when compared with God’s currency, a currency the men confronting Jesus simply do not understand.

   We are made by God to be stewards of the gifts God gives us.  Even the foreign king Cyrus, in the Book of Isaiah, allows God to work through him, God’s anointed, sending the Israelites home so that they might rebuild the temple where they can pray to God on Cyrus’ behalf.  Our bodies, our very lives, are God’s gifts; Psalm 96 reminds us that we must return those gifts, transformed, back to God:  Bring gifts, and enter his courts.  We must therefore ask ourselves daily, What gifts has God invested me with, that I might best serve him?  Yet service to God is not without cost:  the Thessalonians have engaged in a true work of faith and labor of love to maintain their Christian community, and Paul commends them on their endurance and persistent hope.  They have put their gifts to the service of God; they have invested their entire lives in proclaiming God’s kingdom.

   Our treasure is not money; our treasure is our very selves.  If our lives are God’s gift to us, then our goal must be to take that gift and put it to service, proclaiming the kingdom of God.  These are our first fruits, the best we have to give – to return to the generous, awesome and wondrous God who gifts us with life. 

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

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