Sunday, November 1, 2015

Be surprised by what is a 'blessing' in your life

Please join me in praying for my brother Bob on his birthday today. He was born on All Saint’s Day. The Gospel for this Feast Day has always been, for as long as I can remember, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12). I thought that a fitting tribute to him on his birthday would be a short reflection on the Beatitudes.

We have to let the beatitudes be the counter-cultural "good news" that they are.

I think Jesus is saying to each of us: Be surprised by what's a blessing in your life. It's not a blessing to be "spiritually rich" or to be full of success. It's not a blessing to "win" all the time. In fact, we have to almost turn upside down all our notions of blessedness, if we are to hear the "good news" Jesus brings us.

When we find ourselves "spiritually poor" we have nowhere else to turn but God. In our poverty we discover who our Savior is. In our poverty we open our hands and our hearts and then we can really pray.

When we find ourselves small or mourning or starving for justice that has eluded us, we have nowhere else to turn but God. In this helplessness we long for a Savior to comfort and satisfy us.

When we find that our heart has known God's mercy for our sins and has been purified by all the pain and wounds we have received, and we can offer forgiveness and mercy to others, actually becoming a peace maker, then we are ready for a special blessedness. Mercy will remain in our hearts and we will become children of God who can see our God face to face.

And when our trust in God earns us the ridicule of the world and our standing on the side of the poor and marginal leads to real rejection by the world, then we can really "rejoice and be glad" because we will have been wrapped in what the Kingdom, the Reign of God is all about. Then we can look up at the Cross and give thanks and praise. Then we know that ours is the reward of all the martyrs and saints who have gone before us, marked with the sign of our faith.

May all of the saints of God intercede for us this day, that we might see and believe in the Good News of the Cross and Resurrection in our daily lives. Amen.

Jesus' Call to Mercy

"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".