Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 17, 2014: Even the dogs eat the scraps...

Even the dogs eat the scraps...

Are there limitations on who receives God’s love?

In this Sunday's readings, the prophet Isaiah is tasked with bringing surprising news to the people of Israel, a cohort that has long believed itself to be the chosen people.  I love you, God says to them, and I expect you to stay in relationship with me through your attention to my Word:  Observe what is right, do what is just.  In this way, God intends for Israel to draw the entire world to God, as Psalm 67 reminds them:  May God let his face shine upon us, so that his way may be known among all nations.  For – and here's the shocker – God’s covenant is by no means exclusive:  all who hold to my covenant, them will I bring to my holy mountain, Isaiah tells them.  Jews and foreigners alike must thus respond to the invitation to covenant with justice and hearts open to the love of God.

Jesus demonstrates this same principle in his encounter with the Canaanite woman in Matthew's Gospel.  This woman, who dares to approach Jesus and beg for healing for her suffering daughter, is at first apparently rebuffed by Jesus:  when she asks for help, he responds with an apparent insult, It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.  But her persistent faith in his power to heal – his divine power – and Jesus’s reaction, O woman, great is your faith! show that God’s love is not reserved for some ill-defined elect; rather, it is open to all who, like her, have open hearts, to all those who hope, to all those who believe… Which is precisely what the Jews have failed to do, Paul notes, in his Letter to the Romans.  The disobedience of the Paul’s race, the Jews, lies in their rejection of the Good News, in their failure to embrace Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.  Yet ultimately, God will have mercy upon all, Paul assures the Romans, so long as they are one day open to Jesus’s love in their hearts.

For the gift and the call of God are irrevocable.  God’s love is the source and culmination of all gifts, the source of our call.  And all – God’s grace, God’s graciousness, God’s love for creation – all this makes salvation possible, for God’s love never changes.  To the contrary, it calls us unceasingly to life.  And once a heart is opened in love, there is no taking it back.  So respond to the call, and open your hearts wide to receive God’s infinite, flowing love!

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

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Empty Vessel

Empty Vessel

When the time comes for us to place ourselves before God’s divine goodness to communicate with him alone, which is prayer, simply the presence of our spirit before his, and his before ours, forms prayer, whether or not we have holy thoughts or feelings.  It is only necessary, in all simplicity and without any violent effort of spirit, to hold ourselves before him.

As we pray, we must be like an empty vessel, vulnerable before God so that he can distill his grace in us little by little as he pleases, as content to remain in such emptiness as we would be to be filled to the brim.

--St. Jane de Chantal,

whose feast we celebrate on August 12.

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Quotation source:  Ste. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de Chantal, Sa vie et ses oeuvres, Vol.2, Entretien 30, pp.324-325.

Finding God in the Rain

Finding God in the Rain

Elijah didn't find God in the wind, or an earthquake, or a fire; he found him in the tiny whispering sound outside the cave on the mountain.  Like Elijah, we are challenged daily to find God.  Take a minute at the end of your day today and ask yourself:  where did I find God today?

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Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 10, 2014: The Lord will be passing by...

The Lord will be passing by...

Where do we meet God?  And what do we do about it when we do?

Our readings this weekend center on the idea of theophany, the manifestation of God to humankind, as various individuals are challenged to recognize God in their midst… and with varying success.  In 1 Kings, Elijah has fled from Jezebel and has made his way to Horeb, where he is hiding in a cave.  But God tells him to stand outside, for the Lord will be passing by.  Notice that Elijah does not ask to see God; he’s not looking for a divine revelation, just direction, a message of some kind telling what his next step will be.  But God takes the initiative to reveal himself to Elijah in a way Elijah does not expect.  Given the tradition, Elijah might imagine God appearing in a very strong wind, or an earthquake, or fire… but he doesn’t.  Instead, God is present in the insignificant:  After the fire there was a tiny, whispering sound.  Fortunately, Elijah is open to God and does not fail to miss this critical theophany. God reveals himself in a way that requires intimacy and connectedness, of a sort referenced also in Psalm 85:  Lord, let us see your kindness, the psalmist sings.  Blessings, and grace, come when we are faithful, open to God’s presence in the everyday events of our lives.

Yet sometimes it’s hard to meet God, to see him right there, before our eyes.  Paul’s letter to the Romans indicates that his people, the Jews, have failed to recognize God as well:  they have not been open to the presence of Christ in their midst, either in person or in the form of the Good News, and their closed hearts are a source of anguish for Paul.  God is revealed in Jesus, Paul tells the Romans:  from you is the Christ, Jesus, the Son of God.  But they do not see.  Even the apostles have a hard time recognizing this God, Jesus, in their midst.  In Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus comes toward their boat, walking on the water, the disciples can’t help but be awed:  only God can control the chaos of the water.  Peter is willing to challenge this notion:  If it is you, command me to come to you on the water, he says.  If ??.  And while his faith is initially strong – he does get out of the boat, after all! – as soon as he turns his attention to the wind, he becomes afraid, and starts to sink.  His saving grace is his cry:  Lord, save me!  It is an implicit acknowledgement of the power – the divine power – of Jesus in their lives.

Where do you meet God?  Are you waiting for a powerful theophany, God in a burning redwood in your backyard, Jesus walking across your swimming pool?  Or can you retrain your eyes to find God in the smallest blessings of creation?  Do you experience our Lord in Eucharist – really perceive his presence in the sacrament?  Are you able to see Jesus in the eyes of the person next to you?  This week’s readings tell us, simply, that God’s love is always, always available to us… so long as we have hearts open to perceive it.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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Venite, venite sitientes ad aquas...

Venite, venite sitientes ad aquas...

The baroque composer Claudio Monteverdi devoted much of his life to writing sacred music.  This motet entited Venite, venite sitientes ad aquas, is based on a blending of our text from Isaiah 55 this past Sunday -- All you who thirst, come to the waters… -- with Proverbs 9:5 and Song of Songs 1:1,

Venite, venite sitientes ad aquas Domini,

properate emite sine argento mel et lac.

Venite, bibite vinum quod misuit

vobis ineffabilem sapientiam.

Comedite, bibite amici divinum mel et lac.

Quia meliora sunt ubera

Dei vino consolationis mundi.

Venite, venite.

(One translation reads:  O come, O come to the waters, all you who thirst for the Lord.  Make haste to get this milk and honey that no silver can buy.  Come, let us drink the wine which imparts to you ineffable wisdom.  Eat, drink, friend, of this divine honey and milk.  Because God’s love is better than wine which consoles the world.)

The two female voices represent God on heaven and God on earth; they are in the higher range because that is the register of heavenly voices.  In its entirety, the motet becomes an invitation to Eucharist, the Lord's Supper; its tight harmonies can be read as an expression of God's compassion trying to touch our hearts, to call us into relationship. And it's just beautiful.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Thursday Scripture class.  

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