Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 12, 2020: The seed that falls on rich soil...

The seed sown on rich soil is the one 

who hears the word and understands it…

How does the Word of God take root in us?

  When the prophet Isaiah speaks of the rain and snow that water the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, he is clear that human investment in the process is significant:  God then gives seed to the one who sows, regenerative seed that farmers plant to produce an even greater yield. Likewise, God’s word requires human investment:  my word shall not return to me void but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.  Humankind must be open to the word, taking it up, culling its seed, processing and replanting it with an eye to making something new.  The Lucan refrain to Psalm 65 reminds us that the seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest:  God generously prepares the land so that humankind may reap the bounty, even softening the fields, making them receptive to the seed that God will sow.  And because God blesses its yield, the payoff is great, an abundant and overflowing harvest that brings great joy.

  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus uses the parable of the sower to make a similar point.  Some seed falls on the path, other seed falls on rocky ground – and the resulting harvest (or lack thereof) depends on the setting.  We are all in different places in life, but we have to be in a place where the seed can take root; our life circumstances are not incidental to how we take in God’s Word, and only those who are prepared to explore its meaning can come to know it with any sense of fullness.  If we are not, we risk falling into what Paul in his Letter to the Romans, calls futility, the Latin root of which points to a leaky and unreliable vessel, useless or worthless, in other words, incapable of producing fruit. We, however, have the firstfruits of the Spirit as well as the Word of God as a source of redemption, the glory to be revealed for us – so long as we open to and invest in that Word, allowing it to take root in the rich soil of our hearts.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, March 29, 2020: Jesus wept...

Jesus wept…

Do you believe?

 

  One would think that Jesus could remain relatively calm when Lazarus – the one he loves – falls ill and dies, but in fact, in John’s Gospel, Jesus becomes emotional:  When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and then, John tells us, Jesus wept.  But why? Jesus clearly knows that he will raise Lazarus from the dead, since he says, This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.  So why does Jesus weep?  Why is he perturbed, moved to the depth of his being, by a death that will soon be reversed?  Perhaps Jesus weeps over his friends, over those who are trying, but struggling, to believe.  It is love that drives Jesus’ perturbed state, love responding to the pain and grief of those who do not yet know that death is not final, who have not yet come to full belief.  The crowd notices Jesus’ extravagant love, his compassion:  see how he loved him, they say.  But they do not yet know that anyone who believes in him will live in eternal union with God, because death cannot hold them.  In the end, once Lazarus comes out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, John notes that many of the Jews who had seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.  But their faith journey is not yet over; it will end only once they know perfect, eternal union with God.

  God has always called God’s people to faith, to belief in God’s faithfulness.  In Psalm 130, the psalmist entreats the Lord, trusting in God’s mercy:  out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; he seeks to live in relationship with the Lord in spite of his own breach of covenant.  In the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, God tells the people of Israel in exile in Babylon that God will open their graves and have them rise from them.  Ezekiel is not talking about resurrection of the body, but of transformation:  God will bring this people, who are dead to him, having been unfaithful to covenant, back to life as a nation by putting God’s spirit in them, that they might live.  Paul will evoke a similar idea in his letter to the Romans, reminding them that they are in the spirit, and that they must thus remain aware of and open to God's Spirit, the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, who dwells in them.  The Spirit of God dwells in them, dwells in us, because we have been baptized in Christ; now we must believe, and live that belief with the same extravagant love that Jesus did, with extravagant compassion for others’ suffering, extravagant self-giving to those in need, moved at the depth of our being, moved to weep as Jesus wept, with faith in the glory of God revealed.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 2, 2017: Whoever believes in me, even though he die, will live...

 Whoever believes in me, even though he die, will live… 

Do you believe God can lift you to life? 

   When we’re broken, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that God can make us whole again.  Yet, as Psalm 130 reminds us, God’s sole focus is on forgiveness and redemption, on healing that which is broken – and our faith stories tell us that God is not interested in breaking anything further.  The prophet Ezekiel is chosen by God to call the people of Israel – languishing in exile – back to life as they once had known it:  I will open your graves and have you rise from them… I will put my spirit in you that you may live, God says. It is a promise to lift the people from the death-like state of exile through the bond of covenant, a bond that will tie them once again to their God, making them whole, restoring them to life.

   When Jesus sets Lazarus free from the bonds of death in John’s Gospel, he simultaneously urges all those who are watching to loose the knots in their own hearts that have consigned Lazarus to that death:  Untie him, and let him go, Jesus says  For they too must move with Jesus through death to life.  Likewise, it is Jesus’ death and resurrection that make it possible for him to lift us from the depths of sin and despair to life in the Spirit.  But we must, like Martha, profess our belief in Jesus’ power to do so:  everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, Jesus tells her. 

   Our lives are a constant journey with Jesus, moving through his Passion, from death to life, drawing ever closer to our own life in him.  If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, Paul tells the Roman community, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.  Do we believe God is able to lift us to life?  If we are open to the power of the Spirit of God in our lives, we should have no doubts:  Jesus is the resurrection and the life – the God who lifts us from our brokenness, making us whole, lifting us to life in Christ.

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