Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 7, 2024: She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had...

She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had… 

How strong is our trust in the Lord?

    In the First Book of Kings, God directs Elijah to go to Zarephath, a town in Gentile territory. A terrible drought has caused famine in the land, but the Lord has instructed a widow there to feed Elijah. When Elijah meets the widow and asks, Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink… and a bit of bread, the woman responds, As the Lord, your God, lives, I have nothing, yet she does as he asks! How interesting that this woman not only is familiar with but also trusts Elijah’s God enough to do what he has instructed her. Her trust will be rewarded when Elijah promises that her jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry. The widow of Zarephath’s faith opens God’s ability to act in her life more profoundly. Perhaps she would, as Psalm 146 says, praise the Lord, now having irrefutable proof that the God of Elijah sustains the fatherless and the widow, among others. 

    The fate of widows had not improved by Jesus’ time. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus warns the crowds that the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept seats of honor in synagogues also devour the houses of widows! Jesus then observes how the crowd puts money into the temple treasury. These are not taxes but donations, and the larger the donation, the louder the sound the coins make as they go into the donation box. Although the rich scribes put in large sums, their gift is nothing compared to that of a poor widow who puts in two small coins worth a few cents. Where they give from their surplus, she contributes all she has, a sign of her complete and utter trust in the Lord to take care of her. Having given away her freedom, the widow’s hands are empty and open to receive from the hand of God. 

    The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus himself will likewise give away all he has, offering himself once for all, to take away sin by his sacrifice. We are assured that he will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him. We have but to trust, as the widows did, and to wait eagerly for his return! 

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

To trust in the love that unites us (Pope. Francis / Fr. Patrick Michaels)

In the great commandment,
Christ binds God and neighbor.
There is no authentic religious experience
that is deaf to the cry of the world.
There is no love of God
without care and concern for our neighbor.

 --Pope Francis, November 10, 2023 

    If you feel that you love God with all that is in you but you do not love your neighbor, you might be kidding yourself. Because if we can’t see those we have so much in common with, if we can’t love them, then how can we love God whom we can’t see? How can we stretch out the boundaries of our hearts? 

    If we loved God with everything that is in us and we loved our neighbor, we would be concerned for every life. We would love every life. We would have a concern for the poor, whom we must love and greet and value and show compassion. For that is what we are about; that’s all we have. 

    Love isn’t a warm, fuzzy feeling; love is an action, something we do, something we live, something we are. We can restore our collective integrity as a Church. We can learn to face any problem. But we are going to have to trust in the love that brings us together and unites us. We are going to have to try and participate in it at every opportunity. Then, we will be one. Love does that like nothing else can. Then, the Lord will be a force to be reckoned with in the world, because he will be revealed… in us. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, October 29, 2023 

Image source: Augustus Edwin Mulready, Uncared For (1871), one of many of Mulready’s paintings meant to draw people’'s attention to the plight of the unhoused street children of his age. Notice the torn street poster above the little girl’s head. For this and other work by Mulready, go to https://victorianpeeper.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-news-from-art-world.html

So many neighbors to love (St. Maximilian Kolbe / Rev. Benjamin Cramer)

The cross is the school of love.

--St. Maximilian Kolbe 

   Beware of any Christian movement that insists it has so many enemies to conquer rather than so many neighbors to love. 

--Rev. Benjamin Cremer 

Image source 1: https://www.wearemakingdisciples.com/blog.aspx?action=view&id=68
Image source 2: https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/news/2022/05/15/fifth-sunday-of-easter-may-15-2022
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You need both to be a Christian (Jen Arnold)

   There is no doubt that the cross is the most recognized symbol of Christianity. It symbolizes what our Lord endured for us, what we carry, and our hope for salvation. There is so much meaning wrapped up in this one symbol of our faith. Not by coincidence, the cross is made up of two beams of wood – one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical beam symbolizes your relationship with God while the horizontal beam represents your relationship with others. You need both to form a cross. You need both to be Christian. 

   We use the vertical beam to represent our relationship with God because we are inferior and He is all-supreme. We look up at Him while He lovingly looks down upon us. We reach for heaven while He extends His mercy and grace down to us. This vertical relationship illustrated in the cross is a beautiful thing to imagine. We need to put effort strengthening that vertical relationship. We do this by praying to God every day and listening to how He speaks back to us, just as we would in any other relationship. We need to frequent the Sacraments and receive His grace in all the ways He has offered to us. We need to go to Mass to hear His Word in Scripture and receive His Body in the Eucharist. This vertical relationship is not passive... 

   The horizontal beam represents our relationship with others. We know that we make up the Body of Christ and that we are all connected to one another on this horizontal plane. Everything we do affects the rest of the parcels on that beam. When we sin, it affects our neighbor. When we are charitable and loving, it also affects our neighbor. Again, this relationship between persons is not passive. Christians are called to action. Remember the corporal acts of mercy in Mahew 25:35-40 where Jesus tells us to do things like feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the imprisoned. He reminds us that, in doing these things for the least of our brothers, we are doing them for Him. We honor Jesus Christ by being in the right relationship with our neighbor and thereby strengthening our horizontal beam. 

--Jen Arnold
 

Image source 1: https://www.equip.org/hank-unplugged-podcast-and-shorts/the-sign-of-the-cross-the-symbol-the-history-the-mystery-with-andreas-andreopoulos/
Image source 2: Mezuzah, Dove with Olive Branch with Adorned Hoshen, https://www.holyshroudfragrance.com/p-4959-mezuzah-dove-with-olive-branch-with-adorned-hoshen-blue.aspx. A mezuzah is a small scroll of parchment contained withing a decorative box. The Shema Yisrael is one of the texts inscribed on the scroll. Traditionally, the mezuzah is affixed to the doorpost at the entrance of a Jewish home to remind them of their love for the Lord God.
Quotation source & complete article

What it means to love (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   Why did Jesus provide two commandments when one was asked for? What would have happened if Jesus had just given the greatest commandment – the first? Then the focus of our lives would be upon ourselves: it’s all about what I need to do in my relationship with God. The second expands it, so that we truly understand what that relationship is about. 

    Love of neighbor is absolutely necessary in the pursuit of a relationship with God. Look at your neighbor and realize that God made them, too. They are just as extraordinary in God’s act of creation as you are. And they are on the same journey. The two commandments fill out what it means to love; they complete what would otherwise be an incomplete concept. That’s why Jesus gives two when one is asked for. But then he summarizes all the law in those two, because if your love for God is expressed in your love for neighbor, the rest of the law would be superfluous, unnecessary. 

   God offers us the fullness of life… in the neighbors around us, those who are in need and who are right here. He gives us life all the time; we have but to choose it. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, August 23, 2024

Image source: https://cmmb.org/to-love-god-to-love-your-neighbor/

Even death cannot end it (Thomas Campbell / Fr. James Martin)

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. 

--Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) 

    On All Souls Day we remember all the "faithful departed," who enjoy new life with God. 

    Sometimes it's hard for even devout Christians to believe in the afterlife. But Jesus promises his disciples eternal life many times, as in today's Gospel (Jn 6); he shows them that death has no power with the raising of the dead in his public ministry (not only Lazarus, but also the Widow of Nain's Son and Jairus's Daughter); and then he reveals it definitively at his own Resurrection, on Easter Sunday. 

   But you can also think of it this way: God loved us into being and loves us every day of our life. God enters into a loving relationship with us at our conception. So why would God end that relationship? It makes no sense. God would never end the loving relationship God has with you. Even death cannot end it. 

   Trust in Jesus's promises about what God has in store for believers: eternal life. 

--Fr. James Martin,

Facebook, November 2, 2021

Today is the Commemoration
of the Faithful Departed!
In November we remember All Souls… 

Image source: Marko Ivan Rupnik, Resurrection of Christ, detail (2006), mosaic, St. Stanislaus College Chapel, Ljubljana, Slovenia, https://www.imb.org/2017/04/12/journey-cross-artists-visualize-christs-passion-part-2/
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Recalling the stories of saints (St. John of Kronstadt / Tish Harrison Warren)

Ask the angels and the saints to intercede for you,
just as you’d ask people who are alive.
Stand face to face with them,
in the belief that they’re also
standing face to face with you.

 --St. John of Kronstadt 

   Saints are imperfect people. And this is what draws me to this day. Christians don’t remember these men and women because they were perfect. We remember them because, like us, they were broken, selfish and fearful, yet God wrought beauty and light through their lives. 

   All Saints’ Day reminds me that God meets us, saints and sinners, despite our contradictions, and makes good out of haphazard lives. It tells me that all of us, even the best of us, are in need of unimaginable mercy and forgiveness. The church is “first and foremost, a community of forgiven sinners,” writes the theologian Gilbert Meilaender. It is not “a community that embodies the practices of perfection” but instead “a body of believers who still live ‘in the flesh,’ who are still part of the world, suffering the transformations effected by God’s grace on its pilgrim way.” Recalling the stories of saints is, in the end, a celebration not of perfection but of grace. 

--Tish Harrison Warren

Today is the Solemnity of All Saints!

Celebrate by reading about 

the life of your favorite saint! 

Image source: https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Saints-Tales-Adventure-Courage/dp/0761193278
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