Once we shut our hearts (Sr. Joan Chittister)

   Once we shut our hearts to the other, we have shut our hearts to God. 

 

--Sr. Joan Chittister 

Image source: http://www.ahearteninglife.com/2014/10/only-god-can-unlock-your-heart-31-days.html
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Jesus heals a deaf man (Bishop Robert Barron)

    [In this week’s] Gospel, Jesus heals a deaf man who had a speech impediment. 

    Mark tells us that he took him “off by himself away from the crowd.” Jesus then “put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue; then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’ (that is, ‘Be opened!’).” Looking up to his Father and inserting his fingers into the man’s ears, Jesus establishes, as it were, an electrical current, literally plugging him into the divine energy, compelling him to hear the Word. 

    Now for the healing’s spiritual significance. The crowd is a large part of the problem. The raucous voices of so many, the insistent bray of the advertising culture, the confusing Babel of competing spiritualities—all of it makes us deaf to God’s word. And therefore, we have to be moved to a place of silence and communion. 

    Jesus draws us into his space, the space of the Church. There, away from the crowd, we can immerse ourselves in the rhythm of the liturgy, listen avidly to Scripture, study the theological tradition, watch the moves of holy people, take in the beauty of sacred art and architecture. There we can hear. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, February 9, 2024 

Image source: Mark Hopkins, Faith, bronze sculpture, available for purchase at: https://www.markhopkinsart.com/art.asp?!=W&ID=22928

Sunday Gospel Reflection, September 9, 2024: Ephphatha! Be opened!

Ephphatha! Be opened! 

What would the world look like if all barriers disappeared? 

    In the midst of their Babylonian exile, the people of Israel look to God for some hope of vindication, and the Lord, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, assures them: Say to those whose hearts are frightened, Be strong, fear not! The Lord will vindicate his people by conquering their enemies; they will one day be released and restored to their land. But that restoration will be to a world that is as yet unknown to them, one in which all barriers – physical, personal, financial – are removed: then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared, Isaiah tells them. Even the desert will be transformed and become fertile once more, for springs will burst forth there and the burning sands will become pools. At that time, the people will have every reason to praise the Lord, as in Psalm 146, for the Lord sets captives free, removing every barrier between them and every barrier that keeps them from God himself. 

    Jesus similarly removes barriers that keep us from him, as in Mark’s Gospel, in which Jesus heals a deaf man who had a speech impediment. As Isaiah had predicted, Jesus does indeed make the deaf hear and the mute speak. He can do so because, in him, the fullness of God’s will and of God’s intent is not limited by human vision. In a moment both miraculous and intimate, Jesus reaches beyond the barriers of the deaf man and restores him to life: Ephphatha! Be opened! Jesus says. This is what it means to save people in truth: not the way they want to be saved, but in a way perfectly in line with God’s will and and intent. 

    If only humankind were as adept at removing barriers as Jesus is! In the Letter of James, it is clear that if God loves all equally, then we should also: show no partiality as you adhere to the faith, James exhorts his readers. We are not to erect barriers between peoples; we are not to discriminate, but to welcome rich and poor alike. In God’s kingdom, no prejudice of any kind is permitted, for God’s love is equal, and equally accessible, to everyone. In that ideal world of the fullness of the kingdom that is our hope, all are equal and all barriers are removed. Can you imagine? Try! And then… work for it! 

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

Living lives that reflect justice (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   The demand to live lives that reflect justice and real concern for the poor is an integral and non-negotiable part of Christian discipleship. It’s not something that is grounded in some particular ideology which I can buy into or neglect, as long as I am living honestly and prayerfully in my private life. It’s an essential part of the gospel, equal in demand to praying, going to church, and keeping my private moral life in order. For a Christian, it is not enough just to be pious, good, and church-going. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI,
Facebook, October 12, 2022

Image source: President Lyndon B. Johnson shakes the hand of a resident of Appalachia during an official tour to assess poverty in America, 1964, https://appvoices.org/2014/04/09/appalachias-place-in-the-war-on-poverty/
Quotation source

Finding sweetness in God's commandments (St. Francis de Sales)

    Many keep the commandments as sick men take medicines, more from fear of dying in a state of damnation than from love of living according to our Savior's pleasure. But as some persons have an aversion for medicine, be it ever so agreeable, only because it bears the name of medicine, so there are some souls who abhor things commanded simply because they are commanded. There was a certain man, they say, who, having lived quietly in the great city of Paris for the space of fourscore years without ever going out of it, as soon as it was enjoined him by the king that he should remain there the rest of his days, went abroad to see the country, which in his whole lifetime before he had not desired. 

   On the other hand, the loving heart loves the commandments; and the harder they are, the more sweet and agreeable he finds them, because it more perfectly pleases the Beloved, and gives him more honor. The loving heart pours forth and sings hymns of joy when God teaches it his commandments and justifications. And as the pilgrim who merrily sings on his way adds indeed the exertion of singing to that of walking, and yet actually, by this increase of labour, re-energizes himself, and lightens the hardship of the way; even so the sacred lover finds such sweetness in the commandments, that nothing so much eases and refreshes him, as the gracious load of the precepts of his God. 

--St. Francis de Sales,

Treatise on the Love of God,

Book VIII, chapter 5 

Image source: https://chadd.org/adhd-weekly/better-tasting-medicines-improve-treatment-outcomes/
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Work is a thing of awe (Fr. Louis Brisson)

    When we work, when we set our hands to these material things that God has created, we return praise and honor to God, and we cause creatures to render this homage to the Creator, in their own secret and wonderful language. Work makes us sharers in the divine action, and, consequently, in the holiness and grace that emanates from God the Father and that communicates itself not only through the ordinary means of the Redemption, but by the special channel of work – by contact with material things that are for our use. With us, work is a thing of awe, of blessedness. By work, we cooperate with God and with the Word. Work with our hands is our way of honoring God the Father. 

    In that it comes from God, all work is excellent. By steeping ourselves in this doctrine, it will come to pass that our work of each day, whatever it may be – whether manual or intellectual – will take on a character so elevated, so complete in its union with God that we will treat all things as holy and sacred and as requiring our attention, our care, and our devotion. And in their turn, these things will bring us grace, the grace of God the Father. 

--Fr. Louis Brisson, O.S.F.S.,
The Nineteenth Century Salesian Pentecost

Image source: Ford Madox Brown, Work (1865), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_%28painting%29 
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To go deeper into the heart of God (Crystal Caruana Sullivan)

    We must approach [the law] with discernment, that process of decision-making where we prayerfully, patiently, seek relationship with God to understand God’s mysterious and hidden wisdom – that we may know how it is we are called to live.

*Discernment, a gift from God leads us to God’s wisdom.
*God’s law can be trusted
*Jesus invites us to go deeper than the legalism of the Pharisees
*The spirit leads us in discernment to God’s wisdom 

   These are lessons for our spiritual journey. None of them simple. But all of them important as we cultivate a life of prayer and response to God. A “rule book” may work as a moral guide for a three-year-old. But we need something more than the prescriptive starting point or set of rules or list of laws. We need Jesus. We need Jesus, who takes us deeper into the mystery of God’s wisdom – who invites us to go deeper into the heart of God as we live into God’s kingdom. And this is the harder route – because it requires that we choose – each and every day – to surrender our complicated opinions and relationship with the law – and to trust in God, to show us how to follow. Amen. 

--Crystal Caruana Sullivan 

Image source: A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah_scroll
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