Bringing calm to the storm

"Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" (Matthew 8:23-27)

Like the Apostles in that boat on that stormy night, I daresay many of us have asked ourselves the same question from time to time that they did; “Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" “Who is Jesus?”

We know that Jesus is the Son of God.  We know that He is the Savior.  We know that He’s present to us in the Eucharist and in the Word.  We know a lot about Him, but what we think we know is utterly insufficient.  We must become like the apostles.

We must learn to know Jesus as friend, companion, teacher, guide, brother, Lord and God.  We come to this by slow steps, but St. Teresa of Avila taught that to know Jesus as man and God was to enter into God's embrace.  To learn who God really is we must embrace the humanity of Jesus Christ.  That's a powerful and hard teaching.  Most of us look to Jesus as God and forget that He was also human. We don't deny it, but we seem to overlook it.  Sometimes in a homily or in a book we’re reminded that there were times when even He was frightened, sad, angry, joyous; there were times when He experienced every facet of the human existence.

The apostles were in a boat when a storm kicked up on the lake.  They were terrified.  They woke up Jesus and He calmed the storm.  The apostles were at peace.

If we think about it a little deeper, Jesus actually calmed two storms.  There was the outer storm in nature, and the inner storm of fear and anxiety in the apostles.

There’s no doubt that we’re living in stormy times.  One of those storms is the outer storm of brutality against others because of the color of their skin.  Another storm is the inner storm of anxiety of those who fear they will be the next victim of a virus or the scourge of racism.  And there’s a third storm, the inner storm that is the raging prejudice in some human hearts.

As for the first storm, we feel helpless.  It has been raging since the beginning of time.  It will take a major miracle to put it to rest.  Maybe the Last Judgment.

As for the second storm we can do something.  We can make laws and enforce laws that call for equality and justice.  Some progress (so little, though!) has been made here.  This will help calm the storm of anxiety in some of those who fear for their lives.

As for the third storm, we need to make sure there is no prejudice in our hearts.

Prejudice is the result of ignorance.  Ignorance is dispelled by listening, listening that involves walking a mile in another’s shoes.  Listening leads to understanding.  Understanding leads to compassion.  And compassion leads to peace.

So, to come to answer the question "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" we must be able to embrace both the divinity and the humanity.  We need to learn to love Jesus in all that He is before we can begin to fully love Him for all that He’s done for us.  Who then is this?  He is the only One, true man and true God, the eternal before all things. And He is the One who loves us.

Inner peace comes to us when Christ is the center of our lives.  When our boat starts rocking, let’s cling to Him, trust Him, and love Him.

God calls the ordinary to be extraordinary

Two ordinary men.  One a fisherman.  The other a Pharisee and a tentmaker.  Two ordinary men who recognized that God had called them to be something greater than they thought themselves to be.  Two ordinary men who had courage to speak the truth that was spoken to them through Christ.  They endured many hardships and trials for their words and actions and yet they kept on believing in the truth that dwelt in their hearts.  How could ordinary men come to do extraordinary things?

“The angel said to Peter, “Put on your belt and your sandals.”  He did so.  Then he said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” (Acts 12:8)

Even in prison Saint Peter didn’t give up hope in Jesus Christ.  He listened and followed the angel out of the prison.  The angel had to wake him up!  If Saint Peter was asleep, he certainly wasn’t afraid of the trial that was to take place the next day.  The passion that he felt in his heart, about who he had spent three years following and all that he’d seen Jesus Christ do for others, must have been a source of his hope and courage.  He was open to the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah and confirmed it when Jesus asked him “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16: 15-16)

“I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”  (2Timothy 4:7)

Saint Paul was also in prison and didn’t fear death.  He knew that he had completed what Christ had called him to do for the proclamation of the Kingdom.  An ordinary man who was passionate about his faith to the point of persecuting the first Christians.  Then Jesus caught his attention with a flash of light and a bit of a humbling fall to the ground on the road to Damascus (Acts 9: 1-19).  A “snap out of it” moment.  The very epitome of a ‘Come to Jesus Meeting’.  He would carry the message of Christ to the Gentiles beyond Jerusalem to the end of the known world: at that time, the Roman world.  Again, his passion came from the truth that dwelt in his heart and he wasn’t afraid to recognize it and act upon it.

Each of us are called to become something greater than what we think we are.  Even me, an ‘ordinary’ man who believes that his faith is a gift.

Most of us become aware only gradually of this gift.  In our youth we might worship and pray with our family as a custom, as part of our culture.  Our relationship with God can grow as we mature and open our hearts to His presence.  For some people, this choice to open themselves to God never happens.  For many of us, we wax and wane at times, letting other things take priority in our lives.  Months and years can go by without our relationship with Christ growing.  In fact, I rarely think of St. Paul without remembering one particular “Road to Damascus” event in my own life.

When I was a teenager and questioning the existence of God (as I’m sure most teenagers do), I had a lot of nightmares wherein I was falling from great heights.  Sometimes I jumped, other times I was pushed.  Just before hitting the ground and certain death, I would wake up in a cold sweat from the nightmare I imagined death would be.  The same dream came often. I was spending a lot of time worrying about death. One night, again I started the fall.  But this time, an angel appeared next to me and asked why I was afraid.  I told him I was afraid to die. My angel said, “Recite the Our Father with me.”  As we prayed the Our Father together, I remember thinking that I wouldn’t have time to finish before hitting the ground.  But I didn’t need to worry.  Just as I said “Amen” my angel lifted me up and we began to soar.  That’s when I woke up and instead of being afraid, I was sad the dream had to end.  It was such a revelation!  Now, 50 years ‘wiser’, I absolutely believe that God was letting me know two things: First, that in the dreams that I ‘jumped’ off the cliff, it was because I was doubting His saving power; when I was ‘pushed’, it was my sins that were pushing me to doubt and despair.  Second, He was confirming to me that He is alive and well and waiting for me—I just have to remember that I have been given the gift of faith, and that I must act on it.

These present times are certainly calling us to become something greater than what we are today.  The Covid-19 virus and now protests and riots and race conversations have stirred much within my own soul.  I’m being reminded once again that, just like in that dream so many years ago, the strength to persevere through these present events can only occur through faith, prayer, hope, and trust in Christ.  

A simple statement of faith

My daily Scripture reflection today reminded me of this simple statement of faith:

God is Good!  All the time!

And all the time, God is Good! 

Several times during this last school year (obviously before pandemic guidelines that closed the schools for in-person classes took place), I was privileged to sit in on some of Lily’s classes as a “Watch Dog”.  Watch Dogs is a group of ‘Dads Of Great Students’, but granddads were invited, too.  Basically our duties were those of hall monitors and playground supervisors.  We were assigned to help various teachers who wanted or needed our help, as well, usually the teacher of the ‘DOG’s student.

As fifth grade classes tend to do, Lily’s got a little noisy at times when it was supposed to be ‘quiet time’ for reading, studying, or simply listening for God’s “small whisper” (1 Kings 19:12).  When the noise got out of hand Lily’s teacher would say in a loud voice, “God is Good!”, to which the students would reply, “All the time!”  Then she would follow that up with “And all the time!”, and the students came back with “God is Good!” 

Once the kids had a chance to renew their faith commitment in this manner, they would all settle down and listen to the teacher.

God blesses us with this gift of faith as well.  God blessed the Shunammite woman because of her faith and generosity toward the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a).  In Paul’s letter to the Romans (6:3-4, 8-11), we’re reminded once again that our earthly lives don’t end in death, rather we’re given new life in Christ and will suffer no more.

To understand more fully the message of the Gospel from Matthew I’m reflecting on today (Matthew 10:37-42), it’s important to know that the chapter preceding this one was where Jesus was sending out the disciples to do the work He had called and prepared them to do, which was to preach the good news of salvation. This is a pretty daunting mission!  One that we’re all being called to yet today!  Isn’t it an amazing gift for God to trust us so much with the good news that we’re given the holy task of representing God to others?

Jesus reminds us that this call to discipleship challenges us to make His mission paramount in our lives.  Fulfilling the mission of Jesus Christ requires that we detach from those things that keep us from being good and focus on living the new life we have been given at Baptism, sharing the good news with others.

All will be well

Sometimes, it’s hard to have faith. We’re rational, scientific, and want tangible proof or explanations for everything.  But the centurion in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 8:5-11) wasn’t like most of us; he had incredible faith in Jesus.  He came to Jesus, humbled, and just stated a fact, “my servant is suffering”.  He didn't ask Jesus to cure the servant, he just had faith that Jesus would know what needed to be done. 

Many of us, myself included, seem to think we know what we need.  Instead of telling Jesus how it is and trusting that He will provide and care for us, we ask for things.  We ask for that new job, for money, for things that we think will make us happy.  But that’s not what we’re called to do.  We must have faith that Jesus has the right answers and the right timing.  We might not know what we really need, or when something should happen.  As scary as it is, we need to trust that our loving God will take care of us, because He knows what’s best for us.  Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

If Christ Himself appeared to us today and said, “all will be well”, do we have the faith to believe that we can be a part of the change as Jesus would have us do? And do we have the faith to believe what He would do if His feet were on this earth in the midst of Covid-19 and racial unrest?  The Gospel tells us what He would do:

“When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: ‘He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases.’”  (Matthew 8:16-17)

To be a part of the solution, we need to stay faithful through prayers and Scripture readings, worshiping as best we can under difficult circumstances during these troubled times, and not allow ourselves to be burdened or to feel separated from God – He is here, with us, always.

Lord, if You wish....

"Lord, if you wish ..."  (Matthew 8:1-4)   This was a great Gospel reading to reflect on!

What is it that you wish the Lord would do for you?  We all have our wish-lists.  We incorporate them into our prayer times, we post them at prayer request websites, we detail them to friends who give us prayer support.  

In our arrogance (or stupidity), we believe that we know how God should answer our prayers.  We think we're smart enough to know that right now is the best time for God to give us exactly what we desire. But do we really want Him to be as blind and stupid as we are?  Do we really want Him to be limited by our requests?

Or do we prefer that He take charge of the entire situation, with free reign to be sovereign over all elements and every ramification of our prayers?

God does give us miracles.  God can make it happen fast.  But how wonderful it is to know that He doesn't work according to our demands!  We should be elated that He's not a magic genie whom we can control and cajole and coerce.

When we approach the Lord in prayer, when we approach Him in the Eucharist, when we approach Him in the people we meet and deal with every day, if our attitude is one of homage, there’s always a miracle that takes place.  It's first of all the miracle of supernatural intimacy with the God of life, the God of the universe, the God of eternity, the God of all power and knowledge and goodness and love.

Jesus often would tell those who were healed to tell no one.  One reason for this, I think, was that Jesus’ acts of love and mercy weren’t done for His own benefit; rather, they were done out of love.  Jesus loved the leper in this Gospel and wanted to offer Him this precious gift of healing.  He did it out of compassion and, in return, only wanted the man’s gratitude.  He didn’t need to make this a public spectacle.  He only wanted the man to be grateful.

The same is true with us.  We need to know that God loves us so much that He wants to lift our heavy burdens and heal our weaknesses simply because He loves us.  He doesn’t do it first because it will benefit Him; rather, He does it out of love for us.

One lesson we can learn from this has to do with our own acts of love and mercy toward others.  When we go out of our way to show love and compassion, are we OK with no one knowing?  Too often we want to be noticed and praised.  But the nature of an act of love and compassion is such that it should be done simply out of love.  In fact, doing something loving and compassionate that isn’t noticed by anyone helps us grow in love and compassion.  It purifies our intentions and enables us to love for love’s sake.

In this time of economic and social unrest, when so many are sick and dying, when whole communities feel left out or worse, we need to cry out to the Lord.  And we will surely hear Him say, “Of course I want to heal you.”  But we first must know what we truly want and then make our plea to Jesus.

Strong foundations

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.”  (Matthew 7:24-25)

One of the ‘feeds’ on my Facebook page today was a story that, to me, was very timely to the gospel of Matthew I read for tomorrow.  It says there’s a ‘conspiracy theory’ making the rounds and gaining momentum that the world actually ended in 2012, and that those of us still around now are living in an ‘alternate timeline’ that is so ridiculous it must be true.  It cites the election of Donald Trump and the passage of Brexit as clear examples of the theory.  Obviously, somebody who has watched too many Marvel movies and has too much time on their hands came up with this as a joke.  In fact, I double-checked to see if the article may have been published by one of the satirical websites.  It wasn’t.  What troubles me upon reading the article is that the faith and/or inner strength of so many people is so weak that they would actually entertain its veracity! 

When life is easy and all goes smoothly, we don’t necessarily need great inner strength.  When money is plentiful, we have many friends, we have our health and our family all gets along, life can be good.  And, in that case, life can even be easy.  But there are few who can go through life without facing some storm.  I daresay the entire world is being tested these days with the pandemic and social unrest due to racism.  When that happens, our inner strength is tested, and the strength of our inner convictions is required.  

In the gospel I reflected on today (Matthew 7:21-29), the rain, floods, and wind that buffeted the house in Jesus’ story are actually a good thing, because they allow the foundation of the house to manifest its stability.  So it is with us.  The foundation of our lives must be our fidelity to the Word of God.  Jesus makes it clear that we will have a solid foundation only when we listen to His words and act on them.

There are many examples of strength and weakness all around us as found in nature, leadership on a national and local level, church, and community as well as family and friend relationships.  We would like to think that the gift of faith we’ve all been given is going to be rock solid all of the time no matter what challenge comes our way!  Jesus tells us that if we only listen to him and stay connected all will be well.  Our faith calls us to be open to the high tide that may wash away our hopes and dreams only to make way for those life-giving God experiences that low tide may wash upon our shores.

Give thanks to a God whose foundation is rock solid and able to endure the winds and rain as well as the sunny days and star-filled nights.

Rich in mercy

My reflection on the gospel for the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (Luke 1:57-66, 80), reminded me that ever since Adam, who God formed “out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7), names mean something.

“The man gave his wife the name “Eve,” because she was the mother of all the living.” (Genesis 3:20)

“She named him Moses; for she said, “I drew him out of the water.”  (Exodus 2:10)

“She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.”” (Matthew 1:21-23)

“He shall be called John.” (Luke 1:60)  

I did a little research on the name “John”.  The Hebrew name for John is a combination of Jah (God) and hanan (mercy)!  God is merciful.

One of the most frequent prayers in Scripture is “Lord have mercy on me”.  In the Old Testament one of the most known uses is in Psalm 51:1: “Be merciful to me, O God, according to Your loving kindness.  According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.” 

We must all live on the edge of God’s mercy.  We must not be afraid to jump into the abyss of His kindness.   There’s a great democracy among all of us.   We all exist on the margins of God’s mercy.  Paul said it well: “For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”  So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.” (Romans 9:15)   God’s mercy is our ultimate reality!  This is true not just because we’ve sinned and need forgiveness, but our very existence is an effect of His mercy.  “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.” (Ephesians 2:4)

We have met the enemy

A few years ago the company I worked for was trying hard to implement a new program that would greatly improve the lives of our customers, our team members, and—of course—our stockholders.  It was a radical change in proven procedure, but a necessary one.  Naturally, there was a lot of ‘pushback’ by the management team (myself included); a lot of excuses, disagreements, and arguments as to why we shouldn’t ‘fix’ what wasn’t ‘broke’.  Some were even resigned to the attitude that any good manager hates to see in his team: “It’s impossible!”  My boss came up with what I thought was a great motivator to identify the root cause of our inability to comply with the new program.  He gave each of us a hand mirror to carry with us and told us to look into it every time we wanted to see our ‘biggest obstacle’.   

It sometimes seems that the solutions to our country’s problems are “impossible”.  Racism, greed, vengeance, poverty, global warming, unemployment, discrimination, apathy, inflexibility to other opinions, dishonest politicians of every party and ilk, and ‘journalists’ with agendas; the list goes on and on.  To quote the wise opossum POGO in Walt Kelly’s famous comic strip, “We have met the enemy, and it is us!”

What do we pray for when the enemy “is us?”  When I reflected on the Gospel of Matthew today (Matthew 7:6, 12-14), Jesus gives three sayings that provide a good answer to that question.  First, Jesus says, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.” We can pray that we don’t trample the words of Jesus “underfoot” in order to pursue greed or vengeance or our own will.

Jesus then says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.”  We should pray for the grace to follow the Golden Rule.

And after that, Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”  We can and should pray for the grace to discern the “narrow gate” and the “constricted road.”  We can pray for the willingness to let go of whatever it is that keeps us from entering the “gate” that leads to life.

We don’t have to be anyone’s enemy, even when we disagree about what needs to be done.  What we’re asked by Jesus to be is loving, compassionate, understanding, kind, forgiving, and merciful.  We need to look in a mirror and ask ourselves, “Are we?”

Critique vs Criticism

“Do not judge, that you may not be judged” (Matthew 7:1-5).

As I reflect on this gospel today, I don’t think Jesus is telling us to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”, or to be naive and undiscerning.  Part of the prophetic role of the baptized is precisely that; to be prophetic, not to abstain from taking positions.  Part of our being sent is to call evil what is evil and good what is good. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to set ourselves up as judges of others.

In the English language, there’s a distinct difference in the use of two similar words, namely, ‘critiquing’ and ‘criticizing’.  They both have the same etymological root, but they have different meanings.  We critique products: books, poetry, paintings, music; we critique actions, strategies, principles.  The moment we pass from products to persons, from actions to agents, we’re no longer critiquing, we’re criticizing.  And in criticizing we’re setting ourselves up as judges of our brothers and sisters, we become personal in our passing judgment.  We’re able to critique products, because, at least to some extent, we can measure their quality.  But we don’t have any sure gauge to measure the intention and heart of the agent, as distinct from the action itself, and so to criticize the person.

I believe this is the context of the Lord’s injunction “don’t judge: don’t condemn (the person), that you may not be condemned. Whether we judge/criticize or not, we are all going to be judged one day by the One, who is entitled to do so: The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).

We’re asked (Matthew 16:16) to be “simple as doves, but shrewd as serpents”.  Simple toward people, but prophetically shrewd toward actions, policies, products.

It seems that the times we live in demand mercy more than ever.  Perhaps one of the reasons for that is the extreme tendency, as a world culture, to be harsh and critical of others.  All we need to do is read a newspaper, browse social media, or watch the nightly news programs to see that our world culture is one that is continually growing in the tendency to overanalyze and severely criticize.  This is a real problem.

We’re called to be self-reflective rather than the bearer of judgment.  The most annoying things I find in other people are generally things that I find or have found in myself.  I often learn a lot about myself when I’m aware of my less favorable experiences of others.

The good thing about the mercy of God is that He uses either our judgmentalism or our mercy (depending upon which is more manifest) as the measuring rod of how He treats us.  He’ll act with great mercy and forgiveness toward us when we show that virtue.  But He will also show His justice and judgment when this is the path we take with others.  It’s up to us!

Mercy is always far more rewarding and satisfying than being judgmental.  It produces joy, peace, and freedom.  We need to put mercy in our mind and commit ourselves to seeing the blessed rewards of this precious gift.

Fear not!

“Fear no one.  Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known…” (Matthew 10:26)

At one point or another, most people go through a period of sadness, trial, loss, frustration, or failure that’s so disturbing and long-lasting, that it can be called a Dark Night of the Soul (St. John of the Cross, 16th c. Spanish mystic).

Depression is a psychological malady; the dark night is a spiritual trial. The gospel I reflected on today (Matthew 10:26-33) challenges us to shift from a therapeutic to a faith model and offers us a guide for dwelling in our 21st century world, a world saturated with violence and fear.

If your main interest in life is health, or comfort, convenience, or pleasure, you may quickly try to overcome the darkness.  But if you’re looking for meaning, character, personal substance, you discover that a dark night has important gifts for you.  Every human life is made up of the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the vital and the deadening.  How we think about this rhythm makes all the difference.  Will we hide out in self-delusion or distracting entertainment?  Or are we willing to embrace the mystery?

Many people think that the point in life is to solve their problems and be happy.  But happiness is a fleeting sensation, and we never get rid of problems.  Maybe my purpose in life is to become more of who I am, more engaged with the people and life around me now; to really LIVE life.  It may sound obvious, yet many people spend their time avoiding life.  When we’re afraid to let life flow through us, our vitality can get channeled into ambitions, preoccupations, addictions, all of which can (and usually do) lead to jealousy, envy, apathy, and cynicism; fear, racism, violence, and hate are never far behind.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.  Even all the hairs of your head are counted.  So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”  (Matthew 10:29-31)

It’s comforting to know that the All-Powerful God of the Universe knows every detail about our lives and is deeply concerned about every single detail.  He knows us infinitely better than we know ourselves and He loves each one of us more deeply than we could ever love ourselves.  These facts should give us much peace.

When we can come to the realization of the Father’s perfect knowledge of us AND His perfect love of us, we’ll be in a position to put our complete trust in Him.  Trust in God is only possible when we understand who we are trusting.  And when we do begin to completely understand who God is and how much He cares about every detail of our lives, we’ll more easily entrust to Him those details, allowing Him to take control of all.

Our Mother's Love

The Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Mother is a sign of her perfect love for us.  It is ‘Immaculate’ in that it’s spotless and perfect in love.  Her love is the perfection of a mother’s love.  This is a unique love of the highest order.  A mother’s love is not just love of neighbor or a friendship.  Rather, a mother’s love is such that it’s completely invested, nurturing, sacrificial and total.  This is the love our Blessed Mother has for us.

The Immaculate Heart, and therefore, the Immaculate love of our Blessed Mother is a glorious gift from God.  She is the instrument through which Salvation Himself came into our world.  She is also, therefore, the continuing instrument through which all the grace given by Christ comes into the world.  She is the Mediatrix of Grace.  God could have saved us any way He chose, but we must humbly and honestly acknowledge that the way He chose to save us is through the mediation of the Blessed Mother. 

Today’s Gospel is the account of Mary and Joseph finding the 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple after fearing Him lost.   When they finally find Him, He says, "Why were you worried?  Didn't you know I must be in my Father's house?"  (Luke 2:41-51)

During my reflection today I thought, “how could Mary and Joseph just ‘lose’ their son?”  It's not like they forgot He was the Son of God.  Rather, they might have been just so comfortable in their family life that they thought He must be with one of the other families (possibly even relatives) traveling with them and so didn't worry until a couple of days had passed.  But when they did notice His absence, they were distraught. 

Sometimes I get distraught that I'm not giving Jesus enough attention and conclude that I've ‘lost’ Him.  When that happens, I have to try and remember that I know where to ‘find’ Him; He'll be in His Father's ‘house’, in the Tabernacle.  If you know someone who has ‘lost’ Jesus or is simply just looking for Him, direct them to the Father's house.  They’ll also find Him there, in the Tabernacle.  Tell them to look for the flickering red lamp that keeps vigil for us when we can't be there.

Most all of us have trust issues, even with God.  We have those issues because what is happening to us at a given moment of our lives often doesn’t make sense to us.  Figuring out how to respond is even more difficult.  And then, of course, there are those experiences of misunderstanding, disappointment, and even betrayal.  Events in our lives can easily overwhelm us and fill us with fear.  It is in times like these that the life of Mary can speak to us.  She was battered by many tragedies in her life and was, I’m sure, often afraid.  Yet, her steadfastness in remaining open to the mystery of God and trusting in God’s faithfulness never wavered.  She was present from the beginning to the end and beyond, into the life of the early Church.  She is the true disciple.  There is no one better than she to pray with, through the Rosary, as we ask God to help us in our lives to never lose heart and trust that Jesus is with us.

Finding rest through Jesus

My reflection today on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus comes in the midst of a world that’s in the throes of change, desperately seeking to remain alive.  The power of Covid-19 continues to ravage the populations of nations, the forces of hatred and division deeply embedded in histories of privilege and oppression are being explosively revealed and challenged, and the power of fear creates social and economic chaos in community after community.  Many of us are wondering how we can find strength for another day, much less another hour.

Jesus cares about how much we have to do, and He knows how difficult it is for us. He doesn't want to see us discouraged and overburdened and sapped of energy.  So He gives us a special invitation: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

It's not a false respite, from a bottle or a pill or a pillow.  It's God's kind of rest, straight from the heart of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our Savior.  He alone can give us this kind of rest.  It's a good rest, a real rest, God's rest.  And He wants us to have it.

So, how do we get the kind of rest that Jesus wants to give us?  First, He tells us to come to Him; simply, humbly, like a little child.  Then, we just have to tell Jesus that we want to take Him up on His promise; we want to take on His yoke, His way of working, and learn His way to move on with the tasks in our life.

His way provides His kind of rest.  Even though we’re still working, now we’re working under His yoke, and that makes all the difference in the world.  We’ll still be working, but it will be different with Jesus in charge.  By taking His yoke and learning from Him, "we will find rest" for ourselves.

"This is how you are to pray...."

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”  (Matthew 6:8)

It takes quite a bit of reflection to realize that despite the words we’re saying when we say the Lord’s Prayer, in our hearts often we’re not really asking God to do anything.  ‘Ask’ is the operative word here.  It’s important to recall that, in the New Testament, the word we translate ‘pray’ almost always means ‘ask’.  Prayer isn’t just a pious act; it’s a request.  When Jesus says, “this is how you are to pray”, the words might be better translated as “this is what you are to ask God for.”  So it makes particularly good sense to note that Matthew introduces the Lord’s Prayer by quoting Jesus on what not to ask for; food, clothing, shelter (Matthew 6:5-15).  God knows we need those things and has provided a world that, if we tend it right and help one another, meets those needs.  No, Jesus says, ask God to do what only God can do; “But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), a kingdom characterized by forgiveness.  

Jesus tells us that “our” Father will fulfill our heart's deepest desires if we ask Him.  There’s one ‘catch’ in His promise, we are to ask for something good.  We earthbound creatures often define ‘good’ to be health, wealth, beauty, fame, talent, intelligence, esteem, and power.  But God sees our greatest ‘good’ to be the forgiveness of sin and the renewal of our minds and hearts in His love and truth.  If we first ask for and accept this gift, we’ll then ask ‘rightly’, because our desires will be centered on our love for God rather than our love for self and this world's ‘goods’.  God's omniscience sees the larger picture and answers prayers in ways assuring the greatest good to all.  Psalm 34 reminds us “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Calling God “our” Father reveals the union we share with one another.  All who call God their Father in this intimate way are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We, therefore, are not only deeply connected together; we also are enabled to worship God together.  In this case, individualism and racism and all other ‘isms’ are left behind in exchange for fraternal unity.  We’re members of this one divine family as a glorious gift of God.  It’s a message we’re sorely forgetting in this Covid-19 ravaged and racially divided country of ours.

Nobody likes a showoff

This Covid-19 “new normal” remains deeply disorienting for me; I miss attending Mass in person and regular sacramental practice.  I want to be out and about, eating in restaurants, grocery shopping, visiting my relatives, or even protesting without fear of crowd contagion.  And I grapple with the creeping realization that the “way I used to know” is permanently consigned to the dustbin of history. Our medium-term future appears to be one of public masks, social distancing, and lots of time in our “inner rooms”.   As much as I am comforted by my knowledge that “We can find Jesus anywhere!” – I find myself wanting to seek Jesus outside my living room.  

And this desire in itself is good.  Jesus isn’t calling us to consign our prayer and practice to the domestic sphere.  This would make no sense for disciples called earlier in the Sermon on the Mount to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14).  Rather, the deeper challenge, as I reflect on today’s gospel (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) is the demand to reevaluate our motives.  Why do we pray, fast, give alms, or perform other righteous deeds?  Public affirmation?  Religious obligation?  Therapeutic sentimentalism?  Proving something to ourselves?  Communion with God?  Love of neighbor?  The only honest answer is likely a combination of these and many other factors.

Nobody likes a showoff.  But all of us, at least occasionally, enjoy being one, and that’s not surprising. We human beings hunger for recognition; we long to be noticed and, despite our protests, often like being the center of attention.  In an age of social media, the craving to be seen and celebrated—to be in the spotlight—seems stronger than ever.  But some desires are dangerous, and this is certainly one of them.  That’s why vanity, an inordinate desire for praise and recognition, is one of the seven deadly sins.  And if we let this desire get the best of us, it will deeply damage us and never give us the satisfaction and fulfillment we anticipate.

Jesus knows this, and so it’s no surprise that He warns us to “be on guard” against people who do things only to be seen.  We could call them “spiritual showoffs.”  These are people who do good things—giving alms, praying, fasting—but for the wrong reasons.  Even if their acts achieve good (such as helping the poor), they’re not genuinely good acts because with spiritual showoffs their intention is not to do good, but solely to draw attention to themselves.  That’s why Jesus dismisses them as nothing more than “hypocrites looking for applause.”  But he’s also telling us that if we strive to find happiness and meaning in our lives by seeking praise and glory for ourselves, we’ll be sorely disappointed.  With each example of spiritual hypocrisy He lists in today’s gospel, Jesus says, “they are already repaid.” He contrasts this with being repaid by God to stress the sheer emptiness and futility of a life whose dominant purpose is to make ourselves the center of attention; in other words, “they who are already repaid” end up with nothing at all.

We’re called to give glory and praise not to ourselves, but to God.  If we do so, day by day, through our thoughts, words, intentions, and actions, we’ll experience a happiness and fulfillment, an honor and glory, that we could never have given ourselves.  A good example is the prophet Elijah.  At the end of a life devoted wholly in service to God, Elijah was whisked up to heaven in a flaming chariot drawn by flaming horses (2 Kings 2:1, 6-14).  Our own life’s ending may not be so unforgettable, but we can be absolutely sure that God will glorify lives that were spent in glorifying God.  After all, that’s why we’re given life in the first place.

Perfect love

My reflection on Matthew (5:43-48) today centered on “perfect love” and “gratitude”.

Jesus says: "Love your enemies."  Who is our enemy?  An enemy is anyone whose will, desires, or agenda is conflicting with ours.  There’s a lot of that going on these days, isn’t there?

It's easy to love those who aren’t in conflict with us, but when we have to deal with someone who's causing a problem, the genuineness of our love is tested: Are we really concerned about them, or only about ourselves?

The more costly the conflict, the harder it is to love our opponents.  Love is a choice more than a feeling.  We choose to love, not because our enemies deserve our love, but because Jesus loves them so much that He died for them.  If we don't respond to our enemies with love, compassion, and forgiveness, we’re choosing to turn away from Jesus, because God is love.

Loving unconditionally means to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."  Perfection doesn’t mean committing no sins and making no mistakes.  Spiritual perfection means to love whole-heartedly, under all conditions.

"Under all conditions" doesn’t mean putting up with evil.  Healthy boundaries are also a part of unconditional love.  People who cross the line by sinning against us need to experience consequences that will give them an opportunity to learn and grow.  They might think that we're unloving, but we know our motives, we know how much we love them, and God surely knows.

We don't have to like everyone, but to be united to Jesus we do have to love everyone.  We shouldn’t unite ourselves to abusers by remaining with them, nor should we ignore a situation that needs to be corrected, but we are called to do good to all, just as our Father “causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

If we trust God to make good come from the bad that happens as we deal with our enemies, we’re living in His love.  If we do good instead of retaliating or perpetuating the bad, we’re remaining in His love.  If we deal with others the way Jesus taught by example, we’re united to His love.

Our enemies help us discover the limits of our love.  When we react to their sins in un-Christ-like ways, we learn of our own need to seek forgiveness.  We realize that we have to rely on the Holy Spirit for supernatural love.  We're perfected.  

Gratitude is the happiness we’ve been given.  It’s the echo of joy.  To be grateful is to share.  There are high moments of ‘aliveness’ in our lives.  These moments of the heart are a deep all-pervading, overflowing sense of gratitude.  When we reach our innermost heart.   When we’re at home with ourselves when we’re intimately united with others.  We experience gratitude.

Genesis tells us God created us by breathing life into us (Genesis 2:7).  The heart is where we meet God.  But meeting God is prayer.  Prayer is the very heart of religion.   Hearts are restless until we find rest.  We find rest when we find meaning.  We find meaning when we find God.  God is the source of all meaning.  Gratitude strengthens our faith and makes it grow.  We grow in gratitude when we grow in love.  Praise God for our enemies!  We owe them our gratitude!

A difficut teaching in these troubling times

The world seems so confusing and upside down now!  The Corona virus seems to be spiking again, and the economic and mental impact is far from over: systemic racism has once again caught our national attention and protests and riots rage throughout the country.  Psalm 5 gives us words we can read daily in these troubled times and find comfort and solace. “Heed my call for help, my king and my God! For you, O God, delight not in wickedness; no evil man remains with you; the arrogant may not stand in your sight.”  God always is the constant and we must rely on Him in these tumultuous times.

Sadly, we’ve become a divided nation over every issue, whether life-and-death like Covid-19 and social injustices or trivial, petty personality clashes.  Happily, Jesus has given us some good advice to deal with this nonsense.

“If someone strikes you, turn your face and let him strike the other cheek” (Matthew 5:38-42).  As I reflect on this teaching from Jesus a little more, I think we’re not being asked to just take injustices and evil.  When Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, what He’s really saying is to face our accuser.  If someone strikes, say, a slave, backhand, the striker doesn’t see whom he strikes.  But if that person turns and faces him to present the other cheek for a slap, the striker must look his victim in the face and recognize his humanity.  Turning the other check is not just a call to passive submission to injustices.  Jesus was never passive when it came to evil.  There was nothing cowardly about the way He engaged with opposition.  What Jesus does provide, however, is another way to resist evil that’s not violent.   We are to refuse to oppose evil on its own terms by defying it, not submitting to it.  The challenge to us to stand up for ourselves and what’s right without using violence is difficult for us because we’re called to unmask the behaviors of those who wrong us as unjust.  Jesus tells us how to take on not just individual evil doers but entire systems of cruelty and injustice.  But we’re to maintain our human dignity and humanity by responding to oppression from the rules of God, not the rules of the oppressors, over which they hold all the power.

Let your Yes be Yes

Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle suggested to his followers what living out the virtue of integrity looked like; integrity is not what someone does but who they are.  We can all resonate with this kind of thinking which Jesus first proposed on the Mount of Beatitudes (Matthew 5).  This Gospel is timely for our contemporary society especially in recent weeks following the senseless death of George Floyd at the hands of a former Minneapolis police officer.  When we celebrate freedom for all in our just society, how well have we been doing?  Is it time to open our eyes to the truth and reality of the suffering of our Black American sisters and brothers?  To have the courage to say Yes, we need to hear their stories of unjust suffering.  Yes, we need to strongly hold our politicians accountable to enact real change.  

Christ in His contemporary passion has been suffering mostly out of our sight.  Jesus, the living Word of God still speaks to us.  He still continues to invite us to live in the kingdom of heaven today.  His Yes brought us the truth and taught us to value everyone. We believe that He died for every single life on this planet.  So that “a stone of hope may rise out of the mountain of despair” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).

May we rise to this moment and fill it with our collective, Yes!   In fact, the world is rising now.  Once awakened to this tragedy, we must never rest until we have routed out the sin of racism in our society.  Just like the prophet Elisha, who left his old life and embraced the Yes of the new call (1 Kings 19:19-21).  May we keep walking forward in hope and leave the past behind.

Root causes

As I continued to reflect on the Gospel of Matthew today (Matthew 5:27-32), Jesus was preaching to His disciples about moral teachings in Jewish Law.  This section of the Gospel according to Matthew is known as the “antitheses”, where Jesus names a biblical teaching and not only does He express agreement with it but He also goes a step further and invites His disciples to go deeper into the spirit of that moral teaching: “You have heard that it was said…, But I say to you…”  These “antitheses”, aren’t really so, since Jesus doesn’t express an opposition to the Jewish Law, like the word antithesis suggests, but an invitation to go further into the spirit of that Law, which had been given by God as a covenant with God’s people, Israel. 

Jesus in the particular passage I reflected on today brings up adultery, an issue that was probably very relevant and imminent for the community around Matthew.  Jesus explores the relationship between adultery and divorce and lust and basically tells His disciples that there’s no need for a physical act to sin, but a mere lustful look or thought is adulterous.  Jesus invites us not to get caught up in the letter of the law, but to go a step further, a step deeper into the spirit of the law and reflect on which is the root of adultery.  Jesus suggests it is lust.

Earlier in this chapter of Matthew, Jesus talks about murder being rooted in anger, and in verses following this passage, Jesus talks about swearing falsely being rooted in engaging in oaths altogether.  Sin isn’t just the external, the physical, what other people see, but our own internal driving forces, our motivations.  Jesus invites us to go to the root of our sin, to go into ourselves and pray for the grace of being able to find out what the root or roots of our shortcomings, weaknesses, and sins are.  

And in thanksgiving and humility, knowing that we’re deeply and unconditionally loved by our Creator God, to pray and put the means necessary towards being more loving, since, like Saint Augustine puts it “…from this root (love) can nothing spring but what is good”.

Reconcile in humility and with mercy

“Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”  (Matthew 5: 23-24)

It isn’t news to anyone that COVID-19 has burrowed into the consciousness of our society, bringing out the best and worst in people.  I was taught early in life that a healthy society is founded on agreeing to exercise one’s freedom in such a way that no harm is brought to another member of society.  Our freedom extends broadly, but it ends when one person can cause another harm or put them in a position where they are less safe than before.  I wear a mask in public to guard against harming you in case there is something wrong with me, not necessarily to protect me from you. 

On top of the stress of combating the pandemic through forced stay-at-home and social distancing rules and directives, we now have another situation where members of a police force have caused the death of a black man while in their custody.  In a lot of cities across the nation what started out as peaceful protests and marches have unfortunately led to more deaths, violence, and looting.  Law enforcement officers have at times reacted to protect with compassion and solidarity, but also to control and enforce order with gasses and clubs.

As I reflected on the Gospel for today (Matthew 5:20-26) my mind kept turning to these competing social situations.  There are news stories of religious leaders who have expressed a variety of opinions and words of guidance to their congregations on both the pandemic and the latest racial violence.  One pastor famously insisted that “God’s rule” transcended public authority in this area and that his congregation would meet in violation of social distancing rules; he contracted COVID-19 and died of the disease.  Some religious leaders have expressed more support for law and order than for the racial intolerance that results in the deaths of innocent men and women.

As He so many times does, Jesus reminds us to not be like the scribes and Pharisees.  He refuses to exalt process and false piety above real compassion and empathy.  For Jesus, following ritual while one’s heart is troubled by strained human relationships is hypocrisy.  He admonishes His followers to fix their human problems before they attempt to meaningfully interact with the divine. 

I think Jesus is telling us to give up our fear of the unknown.  He’s asking us (rather, teaching us) to calm our anger at the changed economic and life security circumstances that are beyond our personal control.  I think He’s absolutely condemning our hatred and prejudice for those who we think of as the “other”.

Jesus is challenging us to look inward, to reflect on our attitudes and dispositions, to understand how we may hold unfair expectations of entitlement and privilege.  He’s inviting us to open our hearts and arms, to unclench our fists, and to join in His love for those who are hurting from the pandemic, for those who are victims of senseless racial violence, for those who oppress and persecute these innocents, and for those in authority who act as unthinking bullies.  If we’re humble enough to ask Him, He will join us in dialogue with victims and their families, with communities and businesses, with police and other government security forces, in searching for paths to a more just future for us all.     

And so, our prayer today should be for the grace to be ever mindful of how we have unknowingly treated others with prejudice, how we have failed to be sensitive to our positions of privilege, and for the strength to open our arms and unclench our fists in solidarity with Jesus and all our sisters and brothers.