Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 16, 2014: You shall eat the fruit of your handiwork...

You shall eat the fruit of your handiwork...

Do you trust in God’s gifts?

In our first reading from Wisdom this Sunday, the relationship described between wife and husband is extraordinary.  In spite of all of the limitations placed on women in biblical times, the woman depicted here is called worthy, meaning that her deeds have been heroic, beyond the norm.  Her husband therefore entrusts his own thoughts and indeed, his very self, to her, because she knows him deeply, knows how he will act.  Where does her wisdom come from?  The author suggests that it is her fear of the Lord – her awe born of the recognition that all that she has and is is a gift from God, from Love – that is the source of her empowerment.  This good wife can lose herself in all that God is doing in her; she is the epitome of all that is the best in humanity, as she has learned from Love how to be love for other.  And hence, as Psalm 128 suggests, she is blessed, as is the family she nurtures and nourishes.

A similar appreciation (or lack thereof) of the gifts with which God endows us percolates through the Parable of the Talents in Matthew’s gospel as well.  Of the three servants entrusted with the master’s money, only two invest it properly and reap the rewards of their investment; the last buries his share out of fear of displeasing his master.  But indeed, it is precisely the last servant’s inaction that displeases the master:  rather than trust the gift, and the giver, this servant prefers safety and security to risk.  Now apply this logic to love:  love is, by its very nature, risky.  If we ever hope to live fruitful Christian lives, we need to be able to take the risk, open our hearts, give witness to our faith, be transformed by that faith, and live our relationship with God from a stance that includes fear of the Lord, awe in all that God does for us.  When we are fully possessed by God, nothing stands in our way.  Our hope is grounded in something we have yet to encounter (our future beyond death), but we can share in the kingdom – share in the master’s joy – here and now, acting, as Paul tells the Thessalonians, as children of the light, living in fear of the Lord and therefore with no reason to fear death, or anything else.  Then we will truly share in God’s joy, enjoying the fruit of our handiwork, assured of the bliss that will be ours, in this life, and, hopefully, in the life to come.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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San Giovanni in Laterano

Take a virtual tour of the mother of all churches:

St. John Lateran / San Giovanni in Laterano!

Visit the church whose founding we celebrated at Mass this weekend -- check out the Vatican's tour of San Giovanni in Laterano by clicking here.

Virtual tour
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 9, 2014: You are God's building...

You are God's building...

Where is the temple of the Lord?

This Sunday we celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome in 324 A.D., a church founded by the Emperor Constantine and given to Sylvester, the bishop of Rome; it became the mother church of all Christian churches to follow.  Our readings therefore all center on different images of temples, from the historical to the future Jerusalem; and from the temple that was Jesus to the temple that is the Church – and all of us – today.

Ezekiel borrows imagery from the book of Genesis that will be echoed again, much later, in Revelation, thus creating a kind of continuity over all human time.  Ezekiel’s temple, with water flowing out from it, is divine in origin and life-giving, revealing God in God’s Creation.  It is a vision filled with hope, a promise of future restoration, of return to paradise… not ours to enjoy just yet, but one day.  Psalm 46 is similarly a song of confidence, reminding listeners that no matter what form chaotic forces might take, God in his holy dwelling will be there to vainquish them, to restore order, multiplying the astounding things he has wrought upon earth.  There, too, the waters of the river gladden the city of God…

Jesus is likewise present on earth to restore order, though in this week’s gospel from John, he certainly seems first to be creating no small amount of disorder, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and driving them out of the temple area.  The activities going on in the temple are not illegitimate:  the Jews had to change their Roman coins for Hebrew ones they could use in the temple area.  But Jesus is there to explain that the temple of his Body has come to be last and greatest sacrifice by which all will be saved – thus, their temple is no longer necessary.  Jesus is the Holy of Holies, yet no one seems to understand this, not even his disciples.  It is only much later that his disciples will remember that he had said all this, and realize that, after his Ascension, they have become God’s building, as Paul tells the Corinthians, all building upon the same foundation, seeking the kind of union only Jesus can create thanks to the Spirit dwelling within them.

The Feast of the Dedication is thus ultimately a celebration of our identity as Church, and church; it is about our capacity to identify ourselves as being members of the Body of Christ on earth, with Jesus dwelling within us.  The next time you enter Our Lady of Mount Carmel and cross yourself, know that you are opening yourself to the body, to be part of this body, so that as a community of many members, we can live this bond that is church more fully, committed to a relationship with Jesus, and with one another.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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Sail to the Stars (The Pirate Queen)

Different cultures commemorate the deaths of loved ones in different ways... Midway through Claude-Michel Schönberg & Alain Boublil’s Pirate Queen, the Irish hero Grace O’Malley’s father Dubhdara is mortally wounded in battle.  Given a sailor’s funeral, his body sent out to sea in a flaming boat as Evleen, the elderly spiritual leader of the clan, sings the first half of this tribute song in Irish; she is joined by the assembled crowd for the rest of the song, sung in English:

Seol chun farriage                             (Sail to the sea

Go Glaitheas de agus                         To God’s Heaven

Glor ne heireann                               And the glory of Ireland

Seol, seol leat                                     Sail away with you

Doite sa tine                                       Burned in fire

O eirigh in eineach le dia                 Rise together with God

O seol go samh le dia                        Sail peacefully with God

Chun na realta                                  To the stars)

Sail to the stars

Off to glory, God

And the grace of Ireland

Go on your way

To your journey’s end

In a veil of fire

A chieftain dies

A chieftain’s born

As hearts are torn

A new light shines

Upon the morn…

And sail to the stars

Off to glory, God

And the grace of Ireland

Go on your way

To your journey’s end

In a veil of fire

And take your place

In Heaven’s light

Upon this night…

Go forth to the dawn

In the years ahead

They will tell the tale

Of you, of us all

On this night

Made one with the stars; set sail!

(Note:  Schönberg & Boublil are best know for their musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables for the stage.  You may recall another tearful – and lovely – father-daughter goodbye at the end of that show, which you can find here.)

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Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 2, 2014: I shall raise him on the last day...

I shall raise him on the last day...

What do you fear most?

We celebrate this weekend the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, also known as All Souls, a memorial that can’t help but put us in mind of end times – our own, as well as those of the world – and we tend to fear death...  Yet the message that Jesus came to bring is that death cannot conquer love:  everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, he says in our gospel reading from John.  If we believe in that love, it can change the way we see, for we see not with the eyes but with the heart, opening the eyes of our hearts to the a truth that we can only find in Christ’s death and resurrection.  Choosing love is choosing a life of grace – and it is a choice we have to choose willingly.

Our first reading, from Wisdom, offers a message of hope:  The souls of the just are in the hand of God; in other words, immortality is the reward of the righteous, those in right relationship with God.  Moreover, they are in peace – for God has removed the fear of death that previously undermined the relationship between God and God’s people.  Instead, those who die will abide with him in love and understand truth; they will know God’s care.  Hence there is no reason to be afraid.  Fear of death can only lock in our fear of loss of love and life, making us grasp for what is not eternal, for what will ground us in the moment.  Faith, on the other hand, gives us the opportunity to step away from this limited viewpoint, so that fear no longer rules our lives.  Thus, we can trust in God’s grace and mercy, because we know that, even as we walk in the valley of darkness, we need fear no evil, for God is with us (Psalm 23). 

And while we remain in this world, Paul tells the Romans, our hope is to die with Christ (we are baptized into his death), dying to the slavery that is sin such that sin no longer drives our desire – God’s love does.  When our desire is focused on the love of God, our consummate need for control falls away, and all we need is that love.  It is ours if we are open to it, and respond – and in so doing, know that fear no longer stands between us and the perfect union God has in store for us, united with Jesus in the resurrection. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture's class.
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The Not-so-Social Gospel (Fr. James Martin)

The Not-so-Social Gospel

How would the Gospels read if Jesus hadn't loved everyone, loved them equally?  

Fr. Jim Martin, S.J., takes a shot at answering this question in his highly ironic Not-so-Social Gospel in America Magazine.  You can read Fr. Jim's article by clicking here.  

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