Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 15, 2026: Give me discernment...

 

Give me discernment...
What does God’s order look like? 

    For the people of Israel, the answer to this question lay in the Law, which the Book of Sirach invokes as the primary source of order for those who opt for it: If you choose, you can keep the commandments; they will save you. As Wisdom literature, Sirach is full of instructions on proper behavior, directing readers away from chaos (which is frequently the choice of human beings, thanks to free will) and toward a world in which love rules. Participating in the order set out by the commandments was perceived as aligning oneself with God; obedience leads to right relationship. These sentiments are echoed in Psalm 119, which focuses on the human capacity to learn God’s ways, to walk with the Lord: Open my eyes, that I might consider the wonders of your law, the psalmist asks. In other words, help me to be internally disposed, bearing the power of discernment, so as to be open to God, because it is in God that I will find life. 

    From a Christian perspective, the coming of Jesus represents a new kind of order, one still focused on relationship, but based first and foremost in love. In Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, Jesus invokes a variety of Jewish laws (about murder, adultery, and false oaths, in this week’s reading), deepening the implication of Jewish law from the literal – the letter of the law – to an internal and more profound understanding. For example, it’s not enough, Jesus says, not to murder; we need to protect our relationships with one another through compassion and kindness, building each other up, treating each other with reverence. In each case, constant attention to relationship is in order, particularly as concerns our internal disposition to that relationship. If we embrace one another in love, with our whole beings, we can’t help but maintain God’s order, for God’s order is love.

    This is the new wisdom of this age of which Paul writes to the Corinthians, a wisdom that applies not to a select few (like the Corinthians, who wanted to feel “special”), but to all: God has revealed the full force of his love, sending first his Son to die and rise, and then the Spirit to dwell in and with us, Love, in its most perfect form, known imperfectly by us, yet still, the principal source of God’s order in today’s world. 

    What does God’s order look like? Seek to live your life immersed in God’s Love, serving as a conduit of that Love to others, and you will find the answer! 

This “vintage” post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 16, 2025: He is like a tree planted beside the waters...

He is like a tree planted beside the waters…
Are we rooted in the Lord? 

    The prophet Jeremiah uses vivid plant imagery to describe two different human scenarios. On the one hand, those who seek their strength in flesh and whose hearts turn away from the Lord are like a barren bush in the desert that stands in a lava waste. Such an individual is not rooted in the Lord but in a void; he trusts in his own accomplishments and has abandoned God. On the other hand, the one who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted beside the waters that bears fruit. We have life so long as we remain connected to God, rooted in God, no matter where we are. If we are without God’s presence because we have cut ourselves off from God, what blessing is possible? But if we are, as Psalm 1 says, people who delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on his law day and night, we too will yield fruit. We must thus concentrate on how to stay close to the Lord, rooted in the love of God.

   To be rooted in God is to be blessed. In Luke’s Gospel, the Beatitudes name as blessed those for whom nothing stands between them and the Lord: Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours… The blessed will inherit the kingdom because they can possess the kingdom more easily, because nothing gets in the way. By contrast, Luke paints the rich as already having received their consolation; having “all” they need, they have no need for God. To be blessed thus suggests closeness to God, while woes are for those who have put themselves at a distance from the Lord. Paul reminds the Corinthians that they too need to be rooted in what God has done: having suffered despair and physical anguish, Christ has been raised from the dead, Paul reminds them, so that humanity could be transformed. To negate this core belief of our faith would be to put oneself at a distance from the Lord, to be uprooted.

   Ultimately, we need to be rooted in God and his love for us, not in some substitute, be it land or worldly possessions or a false belief. Better by far to remain blessed, that we might rejoice and leap for joy, because we are able to bear fruit in the name of Christ who died for us. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 11, 2024: Unclean, unclean!

Unclean, unclean!

How hard it is to be cut off from community! 

   We all remember what it was like to be separated from one another at the height of the pandemic, and the profound effects of such separation on our souls and spirits. It was difficult not to despair. The leper in Mark’s Gospel must know similar despair. Following the rules found in Leviticus, the leper has been taken to the priest and declared unclean, not as a punishment, but as an invitation to do the right thing and accept separation from the community for the good of that community. The leper acknowledges his responsibility to others and cares enough for those in his community to respect the rules of distance and separation. 

   But Jesus’ appearance in Galilee gives the man hope, and he reaches out – an extraordinary gesture, given his condition – with humble faith in Jesus’ ability to heal him: If you wish, you can make me clean. Jesus accepts his request: I do will it. Be made clean. Once the man shows himself to the priest, he will be restored to community. As in Psalm 32, he has turned to the Lord in time of trouble, and God fills him with the joy of salvation. The man’s liberation, not only from continuous discomfort and pain, but from the necessary separation from those he loved, must have overwhelmed him, giving him an immediate connection to Jesus his savior. Is it any surprise that he publicizes the whole matter, even though Jesus asks him not to? His experience is, from beginning to end, extraordinary. One imagines he can barely contain himself! 

   We all have a responsibility to our community. Think back to all the masks and social distancing and sacrifice of years past. In his Letter to the Corinthians, Paul is grappling with reports of a group of Christians who are manifestly not fulfilling their responsibility to one another. Some Christians have been eating meat sacrificed to pagan idols, showing an unfortunate cultural insensitivity. Their actions belie the fact that their membership in a community requires that they respect all members, care for all members, try to please all members in every way, and all for the glory of God and the benefit of the many. Only then will they truly foster the kind of community they are called to be, a community grounded not in sin but in compassion. For only when we are open to the restoration of all to community can we truly be imitators of Christ. Only then will we know the full joy of salvation Jesus offers us at every turn. Only then can we embrace one another in love and fellowship, a fellowship in which no one is deemed unclean, and all are one, united in our community of faith. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class (February 2021).
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 12, 2023: If you choose, you can keep the commandments...

If you choose, you can keep the commandments…

What does the gift of free will require of us? 

   Trying to observe all the commandments God sets before humankind can be complicated. Because God created all us with free will, so that we could choose freely to love God rather than be obliged to do so, we must also take responsibility for every choice we make. As the author of Sirach states, Before man are life and death, good and evil; whichever he chooses shall be given him. God’s commandments exist for a reason; they are not laws, but guides to help build a community that will sustain itself and thrive. In order to preserve that community – which has God at the core – we must work always to discern what is right and just, and to choose accordingly. Psalm 119 echoes the teachings set forth by Sirach: Blessed are they whose way is blameless,… who seek the Lord with all their heart. God’s instructions to us are clear: God wants his precepts to be diligently kept by those who consider the wonders of God’s law and strive to keep his commandments with all their heart. 

   Fortunately, as Paul tells the Corinthians, God sets a means to properly discern what is right before us: we speak God’s wisdom, Paul states, which God has revealed to us through the Spirit. Jesus is the wisdom of God, predetermined before the world began, yet known only to more recent generations. And, as Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it. By dying and rising, Jesus makes all things new, thus showing us the way to the kingdom of God. But again, free will means that we must take responsibility for every choice we make: whether we are angry with our brother, or living in a state of adulterous desire, or tempted to swear or take a false oath, we must ask the Holy Spirit for assistance. Jesus is the best expression of God’s wisdom, and that wisdom is God’s love for humankind. If, then, we strive to see as God sees, if we are open to God and to God’s will for us, we will see what God reveals to us through the Spirit, and make choices that are in accord with God’s will. It’s not simple, but it will get us to heaven! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 16, 2020: Before man are life and death, good and evil...

Before man are life and death, good and evil…

How do we choose what is right?

  From the time of Adam and Eve, humankind has struggled with the notion of responsibility.  We make choices every day; sometimes they are good choices and sometimes they are bad choices, but whatever we choose, we have to own our choices.  The Book of Sirach’s advice in this respect is always to exercise discernment, that we might choose well:  if you choose, you can keep the commandments.  What Psalm 119 calls the law of the Lord are the decrees, precepts and statutes that serve as guides to living a life grounded in God.  But in every case, we must be open, embracing God’s wisdom rather than human wisdom, so that we might see as God sees.  Only then can we bring true discernment to our exercising of free will, that we might know how to observe God’s law, and keep it with all our hearts.

   In his Letter to the Corinthians, Paul also underscores the importance of being open to seeing as God sees when we make our choices:  we speak of God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, he tells them.  That wisdom is Jesus himself, the Word made flesh, predetermined before the world began and sent as the best expression of God’s wisdom, to teach us to be open to God’s will.  Jesus has come not to abolish but to fulfill the law, he tells the disciples in Matthew’s Gospel; he himself is the new law.  And so, he offers a new understanding of the God’s commandments, clarifying that anger is just as offensive as killing, mentally degrading another by looking at them with lust is just as offensive as adultery, and so on.  In essence, Jesus is reminding the disciples, as Sirach reminded the people of Israel,  as the Church reminds us, that at every moment, we have a choice to make – and so Jesus hopes that we will clearly discern, seeking God’s wisdom, choosing life over death and good over evil, obeying God’s commandments and accepting responsibility for our choices, aspiring always to be, one day, greatest in the kingdom of heaven, in perfect union with Jesus himself.

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, February 17, 2019: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord...

Blessed are they who hope in the Lord…

Where do you see room for growth?

  The prophet Jeremiah does not have an easy time of it.  The leaders of Judah try actively to put Jeremiah to death; they are stuck in their own limited understanding of God and of the world.  Trusting only in human beings, the leaders are like a barren bush in the desert – unable to grow or flourish, their hearts have turned away from the Lord.  Jeremiah knows, however, that only if one trusts in the Lord can one enjoy the possibility of growth:  Blessed is the one who trusts… He is like a tree planted beside the waters that still bears fruit.  Psalm 1 will reiterate the importance of trust and hope in the Lord, calling blessed the man who delights in the law of the Lord – he, too, is like a tree… that yields its fruit in due season.  Our life, both physical and spiritual, comes only from our relationship with God, who created us out of love to be in relationship with him.  Only if we believe, if we have faith, if we trust, can we open to that love and to that relationship – but we have to be willing to grow.

  Luke’s version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain similarly focuses on who is (and is not) blessed.  There are those, Jesus says, who live lives of privilege in this world but will face trials in the world to come; likewise, there are those who suffer in this world – from poverty, hunger, sorrow, and hate – who will rejoice in heaven. Indeed, blessed are you when people hate you, Jesus tells the people who have gathered:  to be excluded and insulted in his name, to be persecuted for one’s faith, can be a source of blessing.  Life is not supposed to be comfortable, Jesus suggests – life is an opportunity for ongoing growth, and growth requires change.  The Beatitudes call us to move from where we are comfortable to where we are not, even if pain is involved.  If we are open to the truth, we have to live it, actively – we have to be responsible for living the way of Christ, dying and rising, again and again, with all the constant change and growing pains that way might require.  Certain members of the Corinthian community were not open to that truth, however:  how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? Paul asks them.  These Corinthians don’t have believe in one of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and are stuck in the lava waste Jeremiah mentions.  

  We are called to growth in the truth.  If we believe, if we have faith, if we move past what we know and allow ourselves to open to what we don’t know, then we can grow to know God and recognize him as the center of our lives.  Then we will, even in the midst of suffering, be truly blessed, and will rejoice and leap for joy!

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com