Pray, Listen, Respond

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

After the Baptism of the Lord and the Christmas season ends in the Church, we return to ‘Ordinary Time’.  All this means is that we are between ‘Seasons’ of the Liturgical Year (Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent, Christmas).  Since the Baptism of the Lord ends the Christmas season, it is also known as the First Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Reading and praying over the scriptures for the First Wednesday of ‘Ordinary’ Time, it occurs to me that they are teaching us that we need to listen and to respond to God’s promptings in our lives.  Sometimes they are direct messages from God and sometimes they come through other people.  But just listening isn’t enough, although it is an important first step.

Lately, when my wife or I have a question for my granddaughter (11 years old) we often have to say over and over again, “Did you hear what I said?”  Her usual reply is, “I hear you,” to which we have to say, “I need you to listen AND respond.”  It’s almost a mantra around our house.

Samuel was listening and he was trying to respond, but he wasn’t listening closely enough to realize it was the Lord speaking to him (1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20).  He needed Eli to counsel him.  That’s OK; we all need the wisdom of elders and those more spiritually in touch than ourselves.  Once he learned that God was truly speaking to him, he responded appropriately and developed a deep relationship with the Lord.

The responsorial psalm echoes Samuel’s sentiments: “Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will.” There is special mention of having “ears open” and then acting (Psalm 40:2-5, 7-8, 8-9, 10).

In Mark’s gospel, Jesus listens to His friends’ entreaty to help Simon’s mother-in-law, even if they may have not made a direct request (Mark 1:29-39). Just telling Jesus about her plight was enough for Him to immediately respond, reaching out and healing her instantly.

The next day, after a full evening of dealing with crowds gathered at the door and curing as many as possible, He rose early and “went off to a deserted place” to pray.  I can just imagine the prayers He offered, probably discussing with His Father the fatigue He may have felt, concerns for others, His hopes for the future, and quietly listening as He absorbed strength from the Holy Spirit.

When His friends found Him, He had a response ready for them.  He wanted to go to nearby villages and preach, saying, “For this purpose have I come.”  Through listening to God’s call through prayer, He was able to focus in on what He was to do.  He shows us the way to discover what we are to do: listen to God’s whispers in our hearts and then act on them.  

“Or who can know Your counsel, unless You give Wisdom and send your Holy Spirit from on high?” (Wisdom 9:17).  When we try to discern God’s will, we are asking the Holy Spirit to clarify what course of action we should take.  In this sense, we are surrendering to that which the Spirit wants of us.

We may not always have the extreme clarity to say, “For this purpose have I come,” but sometimes we will, and other times we will know at least what direction we should start going and what direction we should avoid.

He's everywhere!

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Everyone is looking for Him, but they often don't know it.  In the day to day grind, as they seek some reason to work and to live, they are looking for Him.  They often can't realize it, because of all the internal "noise" that inhibits their search.  Most of those "inner voices" come from our attachment to sin.

Sometimes we pray and pray and pray, and it seems there is no answer.  We pray because we are looking for Him.  We are hoping to see Him.  We pray and seek, seek and pray, and wonder where He is.

And the truth is, He never leaves us.  He loves us and stays by us.  We seek Him, but we don't really look for Him.  We only half seek Him, half-afraid of finding Him.  We are actually half-afraid that if we do see Him, He will ask something we cannot give.

But He won't.  He never has.  "My yoke is easy, my burden light." (Matthew 11:30)   The burden of a life free from constant fear and doubt is light indeed.  God is with us (Isaiah 7:14); born to us as a Child in Bethlehem, and given us as our constant companion, our savior, our brother.

We may not find Him, but He will find us and preach to us because that’s why He came; to bring the love of the Father, the salvation of the world.

The Good News, Truth, and Wisdom

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

How do we know that what we believe is true?  One of the most important ways is to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking in our hearts.

We can sense that what we are hearing makes sense.  That feeling is coming from the Spirit Who is assuring us at the deepest core of our being that we have found the truth.

For instance, I believe in the "good news", but I've never really spent the time to contemplate all the meaning that phrase contains.  Maybe I've become a little too familiar with it, have said it, and have thought about it too superficially.

It seems that much of what God reveals is at once simple and easily understood; at least on the surface. Because of the very simplicity of the words we almost instantly, at least intellectually, "get it."  I suppose that's what God intended—that we would be able to comprehend Him and His goodness.

There is a quote that I’ve read (I don’t know the author) that sums up how we should approach the ‘good news’.  “The possession of facts is knowledge. The use of them is wisdom.”
I think what we fail to appreciate, and sometimes miss altogether, is that we must go beyond knowing, to loving!  We must exercise not just our intellect that resides in our mind, but also our "will" that resides in our heart.  We must not only know; we must respond to what we have seen and what we have heard.  We must be grateful, loving, humble, and obedient. 

Baptism opens the gates of Heaven

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Woman or man, Jew or gentile, black or white, weak or strong, rich or poor, educated or uneducated—it doesn’t matter, God shows no partiality.

Those of us who proclaim Christ as Lord are all seen as the same in the eyes of the Almighty, together forming the body of Christ.  Sure, we all have different gifts and therefore different functions within the body.  But He shows no partiality.  He welcomes us all and rewards us all the same—with eternal life.

John had to be uncomfortable.  By the river was Jesus, feet sunk in the mud like the throng awaiting the waters.  John was just a messenger, and he knew it.  To baptize the Holy One was not proper, not just.  Jesus reassured him: treat me the same.  He came to share in our humanity.  He came to serve sinners, not to rule from above (1 Timothy 1:15).

Jesus emerged joyous from the water to the divine chorus.  In accepting our humanity, we find God’s embrace.  “Here is my beloved.  I am well pleased.”

“He came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him.” (Matthew 3:16)   If you think about this, the exact same thing happens for us when we receive our baptism.  What a joy-filled thought!

We all (except Christ, of course) began in this world the same; as sinners.  Through the miraculous and magnanimous gift of baptism we went down into the water imperfect and came up a new creation, clean of sin and equal to all the others who proudly proclaim themselves "Christian." 

This Sunday we celebrate the baptism of our Lord. We should take some time to reflect on how this simple act in water ties us all together into one body, with Christ as the Head of that Body.

Prepare the way, then get out of the way!

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Sometimes—like tonight, when I’m really tired—the Holy Spirit likes to throw a joke into my meditations.  Take today’s Gospel, for instance (John 3:22-30).  What made me chuckle was verse 23: “John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized.”  It was almost like John was telling those coming to him for baptism, “Hey! I’m here, you’re here.  There’s a lot of water.  Let’s do this!”  Yeah, I know; telling bad jokes is one of the side effects of quoting Bible verses out of context or worse—letting single Bible verses justify otherwise sinful behavior.  But the image is funny to me.  Thanks for keeping me from getting too full of myself, Holy Spirit!

Seriously though, St. John [the Baptist] summarizes the role he has had in regard to Christ.  He clarifies that he himself is not the Messiah, but that he was sent before Him.  He speaks of the joy that this role has given him and that “He must increase, and I must decrease.”

Our role as baptized Christians has some of the characteristics of St. John the Baptist in that we also are to prepare the way for Christ, not only in our own lives, but in that of others.  We do this by the example of how we live our own lives and by teaching informally when the occasion arises.

If we’re doing this, we can ask ourselves, "Does this role bring us joy as it did St. John the Baptist?  Is this joy evident to others?"  Joy prepares a path for Christ.  When we step back and decrease, as did St. John the Baptist, we too are making room for Christ as opposed to taking on the glory for ourselves.  We prepare the way, but Christ does the rest!

I started with a Bible-based joke, I may as well end with one.  I must admit I’m stealing it from a YouTube video in which men tell each other ‘Dad jokes’ to see who can get the other to laugh more.  Here’s the joke:

When Jesus was calling His Apostles, He said to Doug “Come forth and be my disciple and your reward will be eternal life.”  Poor Doug!  He came in fifth and got a toaster, instead.

Ba rump bump!

Words matter. Prayers matter

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

During Christmas we celebrated God’s becoming human in Jesus, an event at once so familiar that perhaps we take it for granted, but at the same time so incredible that we can’t really absorb its meaning.  So the Church gives us, in the liturgy of the days and weeks following Christmas, lessons on who Jesus really was.  That’s what the Epiphany formally does.  But it doesn’t stop with the Magi. We have the baptism by John, the wedding feast at Cana, the walking on the water, and the many healing stories such as the one in Luke’s gospel when Jesus heals the leper (Luke 5:12-16).

With our individualist mindset we tend to think of illness (and healing) as something that affects primarily the individual, though often the family as well.  But the many stories of lepers and those suffering from convulsive disorders (like epilepsy), for example, illustrate another feature of illness.  The afflicted were literally marginalized.  People couldn’t have contact with them. Even to touch them made a person ritually impure. They were relegated to the outskirts of towns and villages, even to living in cemeteries.  To some extent, we still do something similar in our times.  Think of how we have marginalized AIDS victims.  In the not very distant past we sent people with tuberculosis to sanitaria. 

I don’t question the motives behind such practices, especially when we might not know what causes the conditions in some cases.  Rather I think about the marginalizing that is a feature of illness – one we too easily overlook today.  It is not just the person who is sick; it is the community that is, in a sense “broken” by the illness of one of its members.  Ill people make us uncomfortable.

We don’t much like being with them, except perhaps for a perfunctory “visit the sick” (as in the corporal works of mercy).  The healing of the afflicted individual restores the community to its wholeness.  Jesus was healing both.

By His actions in this story, as well as by His words throughout the gospels, Jesus is saying that there is no marginalizing in God’s view of how humanity ought to order its affairs.  Luke makes a point of saying Jesus touched the leper, a man “full of leprosy”.  That very touch brings the sufferer back into the community from which he had been excluded.  Notice, in other healing stories, that Jesus looks the sufferer in the eye, speaks to him/her by name, and touches – almost always touches.

That’s the God who is revealed to us in these Epiphany feasts.

After people heard about how Jesus miraculously cured the leper, He was besieged with crowds following Him, to listen and be cured.  But we are told that He withdrew to deserted places to pray.  Why?

Certainly it couldn't have been that He didn't want to have people listen to Him or that He didn't want to cure people, and certainly it would seem He was always in the presence of the Father and the Spirit. Why then did He withdraw to pray? 

It seems that there is more to it than just giving us an example of the need to pray; important and helpful though His example was.  Could it have been that while on earth, Jesus really felt exiled, and not just wanted, but needed, the unity of the Father and the Holy Spirit, which could only be achieved through the practice of prayer?

So, He gives us an example of what is absolutely necessary!  Unity!  Not only is the Trinity meant to be undivided; we, too, as the Body of Christ are meant to be undivided in unity with the Trinity.

Words matter. Just as God’s words of creation took flesh in light, stars, seas, dry land, animals and humans, and just as the very Word of God became flesh here on earth, our words also take on flesh.  Unfortunately, sometimes the words of bullies take on flesh with disastrous results, even suicides, of those bullied.  Other times a word of healing or compassion actually brings healing and compassion.  Words of hope actually bring hope. The way we talk to ourselves, the way we talk to and about others, the way we talk to and about God – it all matters.

This might be why during every single Marian apparition approved by the Church, our Blessed Mother asked us to pray the rosary.  We begin with the prayer that is the Apostle’s Creed, which professes our faith in the Trinity in a nutshell.  Then as we meditate on Jesus’ life through the Mysteries of our faith, we begin each Mystery with an Our Father and end each Mystery with the Glory Be.  Can’t be much more in unity with the Trinity than that, this side of Heaven!

Therefore, we must go forth like Jesus and with Jesus to that deserted place within, to pray and so be with the Father and the Spirit.  It’s not something that's just nice to do, but something essential to do, as Jesus taught and as His mother reminds us.

Faith is a measure of our success as Christians

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

As I read the Gospel (Luke 4:14-22) for today, I place myself in the synagogue as Jesus is reading the scroll with the passage from Isaiah (Isaiah 61:1-2).  I am mesmerized; amazed at His knowledge and teaching.   When He says “Today, in your hearing this Scripture is fulfilled”, I lose it.  I entered the synagogue with my family and friends skeptical about this man who used to live here, in this town, among us.  He never seemed to be special; he is just the carpenter’s son.  But now, my eyes fill with tears and I feel so unworthy to be in His presence, witnessing the divinity of Jesus.  I feel so blessed! 

….. back to the present.

Now that I profess to have faith, how do I know my profession is true?  St. John gives us a guideline in his letter to us (1 John 4:19–5:4). To paraphrase, in my own feeble way:

Faith is our best measure of success.  The successful person is the one who believes in Jesus.  Jesus was actually born.  He is our Savior by blood through His birth in human form and by His death.  Jesus is fully human, born as a baby from a human woman, and fully God.  Those who acknowledge His humanity and His divinity are the winners and their prize is eternal life.  Those who believe in God and Jesus and praise Him are blessed, and their children are blessed, and they are blessed with life everlasting.  

Those who believe in Jesus must also follow His Commandments and love their neighbor as they are loved themselves by Him.  When we believe in God, when we believe in Jesus, we win.  And our prize is the blessing of our faith, healing, and life everlasting.

Love casts out fear

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Fear and Love are two of the most intense emotions in many peoples’ lives.  If you’re like me, you might be a little taken aback by St. John’s statement, “one who fears is not yet perfect in love.” (1 John 4:11-18)   We all fear something.  Fear is a common emotion innate to every single animal on the face of this earth.  I’m afraid of a world at war, cats are afraid of dogs, mice are afraid of cats, and so on.  So how can it be considered that fear is the opposite of love and therefore God?

John isn’t stating that the emotion itself is the opposite of love.  In Mark’s gospel (Mark 6:45-52) we hear of the Apostles terrified of a storm.  In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Himself sweated blood when He was praying in fear about His upcoming crucifixion (Mt 26: 36-46; Lk 22: 40-46; Mk 14: 32-42).  The emotion of fear is human.  What St. John is getting at is that crippling fear, fear that leads us to inaction, is the opposite of love.  Love is action.  It physically connects us with both others and God.  As John states, “love is brought to perfection in us… love is brought to perfection among us.”  Love is not letting fears keep us stagnant and isolated.  Love addresses the emotion of fear but does not give into it, even when our life is on the line.  While Jesus did fear the crucifixion, He didn’t let it cripple Him from performing the ultimate act of love.

Psychologists tell us that there are two ways of coping; Flight (quit, copout, run for cover) or Fight (attack the cause of your fear head on, conquer it, and eliminate it by proving you are superior to it).  John gives us a third and better way of coping.  He says: “Love casts out fear.”  He begins with the love of God.  Not the romantic form of love.  Rather he means the total giving of oneself to the other, surrendering oneself to the other, making the others' well-being the greatest goal of our life.  After all, the greatest cause of fear is our self-concern.  I’m afraid I might fail; I might get hurt and maybe I’ll be humiliated.  On and on it goes.  Fear is the product of our self-interest.

If we find ourselves fearful and worried in the crises of life we have a third valuable solution for banishing our fears and worries by turning them over to Christ.  To do this we have to develop our total love for the Lord, by putting on the will of Christ not just in words but in all of our actions.

Consider Mark’s gospel again.  The Apostles who really loved the Lord should have figured He didn’t call them to be “fishers of men” if they were to drown without the opportunity to answer His call.  They should have recognized that anybody walking on the water had to be Jesus, the Son of God, not a ghost who would simply swallow them up in the waves.  Nor should they have doubted that the man who miraculously fed the 5000 would be unable to calm the winds and the waves.  Had they genuine love for the Lord they would have surrendered their wills to the will of their Lord and with confidence believed that being all powerful He would rescue them even from the elements.  Of course we know that the Apostles did come to love the Lord in this way—they were just a little slow—as we all are!

So as we go about our days, let’s take some time to address those main fears that hinder us from ACTING with love.  Maybe you’re afraid of being insulted.  Maybe you’re afraid of offending someone.  Maybe you’re afraid that you will be hurt – socially, emotionally, or maybe even physically.  Maybe if we take the time today to address and pray to the Holy Spirit about our fears, maybe we’ll be able to recognize and overcome them the next time they arise.  Maybe we can learn to live into a more perfect love.

I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that we have someone to help us along the way!  It’s quite natural to cling to your mother when you’re fearful.  The Mother of God is the perfect mother!

Love is enough

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Back more years than I care to remember, there was a popular song by the Beatles that said, "All you need is love." But the “love” that John, Paul, George and Ringo were singing about was more of a love borne of relativism, than one of Truth.  Some two thousand years ago, John, the disciple that Jesus loved, was also saying that all we need is love.

After the death of the emperor who had banished him to the Isle of Patmos, the Apostle John returned to Ephesus where he lived to a very old age.  No longer able to walk, he was carried into the congregation in the arms of his disciples.  He had gotten to where he couldn't speak for any length of time, but they always asked him to say something.  His homily was the same every time: "Little children, love one another."  At last, wearied that he always spoke the same words, they asked: "Master, why do you always say this?"  "Because," he replied, "it is the Lord's command, and if this only is done, it is enough."

Love is the bond that allows us to interact with each other, whether in the workplace, at home, or among friends.  It is also this sacred connection that allows us to be intimate and to understand our Creator (as much as our finite minds can understand Him).  And in the same way, just as God wants to continuously remind us that we are truly and uniquely loved by Him, we must also practice this same value with each other.

We are not measured by how much we do for one another, but by God’s grace.  I suggest we practice the same love we are given by God with our brothers and sisters (1 John 4:7-10). Whether it is saying 'hi' to an old friend, getting to know your boss a little better, or striking up a conversation with a co-worker that you see sitting by him or herself at lunch, let people know that they are loved.  And just as Jesus fed over five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish, let’s practice giving to those in need, spiritually or emotionally. In addition to giving that dollar to the person in need on the street, ask if you can pray for him or her.  We may be imperfect and flawed, but we will always, in every moment, be truly loved by the One who knows all things.

Discerning deceit vs Truth

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

There is a point in everyone’s life when—I think, I hope—they realize that no matter how successful or happy they think they are, there is still something (Someone?) missing.  It explains why people see the Virgin Mary in toast, or the profile of Christ in a car’s window after washing.  I know that God humbled Himself so lowly that He chose a stable-full of animals to be born of a virgin, but toast and glass are not humble; that’s just plain silly.  There is, of course, the Truth of the Eucharist; that ordinary bread and wine become the actual Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ even though their appearance does not change. 

Then there are seemingly credible apparitions that have either been recognized by the Church for their Truth and message, and others that haven’t.  

In John’s Letter (1 John 3:22–4:6) we hear something very important: how to know the Spirit of Truth and differentiate it from the spirit of deceit.

So that we don't have to struggle, fret or worry whether we've got it right, the answer is given, simply.

The way we know a Spirit of Truth is by what it says.  Does it acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary?  Jesus, who was crucified, died, buried and raised up on the third day?  Who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father?  If a spirit confesses this, it is The Spirit of Truth, The Holy Spirit.  It is the same Spirit Who innervates the Catholic Church, gives Her life, preserves Her, protects Her, guides Her.  I am reminded of the many apparitions of Our Lady, especially in Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe.  In each of these appearances, she was sent by her Son to guide us closer to Himself; because of this, we can be certain that her message is from the Spirit of Truth.

Do you want to hear the Spirit of Truth, know the Spirit of Truth?  Then listen to the Spirit speaking through the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; the Spirit that speaks through the Sacred Word, through Sacred Tradition, through the Magisterium.  That's where you will hear the Spirit of Truth; where you will come to know the Spirit of Truth.

Changing our hearts

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 2:1-12) is unique as it presents Jesus as both the One Who is to come and the One who has come for all.  The Magi represent the “beyond” or distant lands and peoples to whom the Christ will offer His universal wisdom. 

These “Wise Men” also represent the former ways of thinking, wondering, and philosophizing.  They come in a sign of surrender to this new “epiphany” or display of this “One God” Who is for all and is now known as the God Who does the seeking and the finding.  The Magi are the figures of the world who did the seeking for and the finding of God.  The Light is initiated by God and this Light is meant for the whole world.

As with the shepherds, these wise men continue in a liturgical manner.  They arrive, having wandered in faith, have an offertory procession, a time of adoration and then a sending.  Were they totally satisfied by the whole experience of stars, warnings, findings?  They were somehow missioned by the encounter to go farther and further and deeper.  Like the shepherds they were changed and yet returned to the desert-usual of life.

The gifts which the Magi had presented represented what had been valuable to these seekers who left them at the “house” and leave by “another way”.  They have not so much found as they have been found and leave that place to begin the spreading the news of the Finder they found.  This is all a grand ending and beginning.  The Magi-story is the revelation that mere human wisdom searches for more than it can understand.  The Wanderers, who have come from afar in distance and time, arrive, not at an idea or principle, but at the mystery of a Person.  They are we as well.

We would like to think of God, arrive at our own logical, reasonable concept of God.   We would love to say that we have found God.  If we determine Who and What God is, then we would seem to control God.  God would have to act accordingly.  In prostrating themselves, the Magi admit their former human arrogance and surrender to the truth that until then, they had not been satisfied with the conclusions of their personal ponderings.

The Epiphany is a grand revelation that God will not be found to satisfy human thinking.  This seeking of us by God encourages us to live with the dissatisfactions of our hearts.  Jesus has come among us and within us to accompany our spirits and not merely slake the thirsts of thought.  We are invited to lay down our intellects, as precious gold, which they are.  We, like the Magi, pick up our lives which have been met, found and sent off, the better for the finding.

It can be assumed that, as with the shepherds before them, the Magi went back by “another way”, not merely geographically.  They return to a new and different way of relating with life.  Their hearts and spirits are comforted and their minds, still turning these things over in wonder, not a bad way to journey.  The seeking is God’s labor, the being found is ours.  When we hear that we should seek and we shall find (Matthew 7:7), what Jesus and the Magi teach us is that human finding will always lead to some kind of dissatisfaction and so the seeking begins anew.

The Magi did not stay at the place to which the star guided them.  Nobody who came to find Jesus, from the shepherds to those seeking Him within the tomb, were ever allowed just to stay nice and close to Him, the finder.  He moved them along in their human-heart search.  This too is not a bad, but rather a holy way to journey.

Think back to a time when you experienced some insight from God.  Maybe some confusing aspect of your faith started to make some sense.  Or you found clarity about a new phase of life you had entered into.  That one “light” didn’t necessarily answer all your questions.  It set you on a path, but it didn’t give you the entire road map.  So you had to do your best to follow it, and as you did, you sorted out the next step.  Each step forward, each choice to be flexible, each response of trust made subtle or not-so-subtle changes in you.  Light built on light, and slowly but surely, like the Magi in Matthew’s Gospel, you started doing things differently.  You started to see things as God does, in His light.

And that’s what Epiphany is all about.  It’s a revelation that changes our hearts.

How do we "Behold the Lamb of God?"

The LORD bless you and keep you!  The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!  The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

John the Baptist said of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God." (John 1:35-42)

Upon hearing those words, Andrew, one of John's disciples decided to spend some time with Jesus to find out what would make a credible person like John the Baptist say such a thing.

We Catholics hear the same words, at every Mass during the Liturgy of the Eucharist when the priest elevates the Sacred Host.  The question for us is, do we drop our ordinary ways and, like Andrew, follow Him and never again be the same?

Let me back up a couple of steps, if I may.  Just before the celebrant elevates the Host, we have either recited or sung the “Ecce Agnus Dei” (“Lamb of God”) prayer.  In many—if not most dioceses, the congregation kneel right after this and so are in a reverent posture to “behold the Lamb of God!” then to reply to the priest’s invitation to the “supper of the Lamb” with the words of the centurion (Matthew 8:8); “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and (my soul) my servant shall be healed.”

But in my home diocese of Stockton, the bishop has asked us to stand for the Agnus Dei prayer and continue standing throughout the Communion Rite until the last communicant has received our Lord, at which time we can either sit or kneel in reflection until the closing prayer.  I have always felt uncomfortable standing in the presence of Jesus Christ.  There is something in my “spiritual make-up” that tells me this is a time to be kneeling.  But I have forced myself to stand out of obedience to his Eminence.  After all, he is a successor to the Apostles; perhaps even Andrew himself!

So back to my original question:  How does hearing the words “Behold the Lamb of God” affect us?

Perhaps we are all called to be like Andrew, in regards to his introducing his brother Peter to Jesus, and bring people closer to God through our simple actions, such as obedience to the Bishop out of love for Jesus no matter how uncomfortable it may seem.  Perhaps one simple act of kindness or love today will move someone closer to God tomorrow.  Just like Andrew, we may never know the true value of our deeds, but we must always remain cognizant of the potential importance of our actions in the lives of others, while constantly trying to remember that God is present even in the smallest of endeavors.

Please Lord, let it be so.

Our Father..We just have to ask....

The LORD bless you and keep you!



The LORD let his face shine upon

you, and be gracious to you!



The LORD look upon you kindly and

give you peace!

Have you ever heard someone ‘speaking in tongues’, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that St. Paul writes about in 1 Corninthians:14?  I haven’t either, but I imagine it to be somewhat like an experience I had at Mass a few weeks back.

We were at the point in the Mass just after the Consecration (when the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ) when we are prompted by the priest to ‘Pray in the words our Savior gave us’, and we pray the Lord’s Prayer.  Usually, the Prayer has a certain cadence to it, and all of the words come out clear as if in one unified voice; but on this day, it sounded like everyone was saying something entirely different!  No two recitations were the same.  The priest hesitated after the prayer and said, “Wow!  What just happened?  It’s OK if you want to recite the prayer with conviction to each of the words, but I couldn’t understand any of you!”  We all looked at one another as if to say, “He’s right!  What the heck was that?”  But we continued the Mass and it didn’t happen again.   

Most of us probably learned the Lord’s Prayer as a child, when the meaning of its words could not be fully grasped.  Now, when we hear “Our Father, who . . .” we immediately slip into autopilot, mouthing the familiar words, but with our minds too often wandering elsewhere.

Several years ago, I made the conscious decision to pray each of the prayers I say everyday as if it were the first time I heard or read the words, so as to make my prayers more meaningful not only to God, but to anyone around me who may be listening.  It has been great food for meditation.

For instance, pause now, and simply say those two words aloud: "Our Father."  They are just two little words, but oh, what an infinite amount of meaning they contain!  Enough meaning to fill an ocean! 

When Jesus taught His followers to begin their prayer to God by saying "Our Father," He chose not to say "My Father," or "Your Father," but "Our Father."  He was uniting Himself with His disciples as their human brother.  He was completely human, in solidarity with the human race.  One of us.

Going on to the second word, Jesus did not say "Our God," but "Our Father."  That form of address put His followers - including us - into an amazing relationship with almighty God.  We have been taught by the Son of God to address God as Father.  We are children of God!  Isn't that truly awesome?

By these two words - Our Father - Jesus shows us as His followers that we are part of His eternal family, which makes a whole new intimate relationship with God possible.

Because Jesus taught us to call God "Our Father," a beautiful door has opened for us leading straight to God.  What an awesome privilege to open it and walk through it!

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 are 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 is not just a pious act; it is 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.”  Thus 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 – bring about God’s kingdom – now, in our world – a kingdom characterized by forgiveness.

The good news is that God freely extends forgiveness to us, but we have to cooperate with that gift.   The Church’s mission is to extend that forgiveness to everyone and in every age – not the Church as organization so much as we, its individual members; the entire people of God.  It is precisely that mission that runs like a central theme throughout John’s gospel, from the Baptist’s description of Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” to Jesus’ final words to His disciples on Easter night “As the Father has sent Me so I also send you . . . whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them . . .”  God’s life in us – in God’s church – is what enables us to do that.  That’s what we are to ask for.

God’s forgiveness is extended through us.  It’s just that simple.  We just have to ask . . .

Who's the liar?

As I am reflecting on and writing about these readings for January 2nd (1 JN 2:22-28), the dawn of a new year and the dawn of a new decade –our nation is embroiled in impeachment proceedings, adding rancor and partisanship and name-calling to the mix.  All of this is putting me in a less-than-ideal frame of mind.  The opening line of the first reading is, “Beloved: Who is the liar?”  This line jumped out at me because “liar” is the very word politicians on both sides of our country’s political divide are hurling at each other.  Americans are getting very weary of childish behavior and name-calling, and refusal to even try to understand another’s viewpoint.

I needed these readings today.  It always comes back to putting our sights on God.  As John says twice in 1 John, “remain in him.”  We really have no hope if we take our sights off of God, His word, His Son, and put them exclusively on the present world and all of its divisions and rancor.  Or on our health, with its ups and downs.  As the psalmist says (Psalms 98:1, 2-3AB, 3CD-4), “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.”  We just need to remember that, to revel in it, to let it permeate our being.

In the Gospel (John 1: 19-28), John writes that when priests and Levites came to John the Baptist asking who he was, “He admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, ‘I am not the Christ.’” How refreshing!  Someone admitting and not denying something.  Present-day politicians don’t know the meaning of those words. Their mantra is ‘admit nothing, deny everything’.

John points his questioners to Jesus, gladly.  Even though his own situation is bleak, he is happy to direct them to Jesus.  He, and the whole of Scripture as well, points us to Jesus, too.  The Alpha and the Omega.  Our beginning and our end.

Reflecting in my heart

The LORD bless you and keep you!



The LORD let his face shine upon

you, and be gracious to you!



The LORD look upon you kindly and

give you peace!



This passage is known as “The Priestly Blessing.”

God clearly instructs Moses to speak to his brother Aaron, the High Priest at the time, and to his Sons with the exact words to be used to bless the people of Israel.  The last verse (27) says, “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.“  The Bible specified that only Aaron or his descendants were allowed to impart this blessing upon the people of Israel.

A close analysis of the blessing shows that the emphasis is upon God.  God originates the blessing—it was God who instructed Aaron on the proper form of the blessing and gave instructions for it to be spoken over the people to begin with.  The blessing itself emphasizes that it is the Lord who blesses the people and does for them what they cannot do for themselves.

Today, the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26) is used often in both churches and synagogues as a benediction. “Bene” means “good” and “diction” means “pronouncement.”  The pastor or priest will lift up his hand or hands and pronounce the blessing over the congregation.  It is often said at the close of a service to pronounce a blessing upon the congregation, at the end of a baptismal service, or in a wedding ceremony to bless the bride and groom.  What a beautiful prayer for any of us to say to our children and grandchildren, as well.

Starting today, January 1, 2020, I will be starting each blog entry with this prayer in the hope that God will bless each of us and lead us to the peace of Christ.

This is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

All the other titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the beliefs taught about her, rest on this singular and profound reality.  To be the “Mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43), she had to be conceived without sin (Immaculate Conception); to be the Mother of Jesus, she needed to say "yes" (the Annunciation).  About her, Jesus tells her, "Behold your son," (John 19:26) and her divinely given maternity of Jesus, becomes a maternity for the Church, for priests, for God's people, often depicted as hiding in her mantel for she is the refuge of sinners, and a sorrowing world is gazed upon with sorrow by the Queen of Peace.

Her power as an intercessor exists because she is the Mother of God.  She is Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, and Our Lady of Good Help, along with many other titles representing how she leads us in prayers of adoration, praise and intercession to her Son.  The comfort she offered to her Son is the comfort she offers to each one of us.  This is the solemn day of recognition of the identity of the “Woman clothed with the sun [Son]” (Revelation 12:1).  She is the Mother of God.  Rightly, I am to accept what Jesus has said, "Behold, your mother," (John 19:27) because she will always lead me to Jesus.

To me, the most powerful line in the Gospel today was “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)   What a wonderful resolution that should be for all of us in this new year; to set aside 10 minutes each day in silence, away from cell phones and spouses and children and work and this and that to simply read a bit of Scripture and “reflect on them in our heart”.

For example, take the first reading from the Book of Numbers (Numbers 6:24-27), which sets the tone for today’s celebration.  It recounts the words that God spoke to Moses;



“This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

The Lord bless you and keep you!

The Lord let his face shine upon

You and be gracious to you!

The Lord look upon you kindly and

Give you peace!

So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites

And I will bless them.”



This blessing reaches into our everyday experiences right at the center of our lives where we meet God-Who-Blesses.  New Year’s Day can be highlighted for the resolutions that we take upon ourselves (losing weight, curbing our appetites for food and drink, caring for others, and on and on and on).  We might want to resolve this year to remember the concrete ways that we are blessed each day.  I think if I am able to do this, I might become at a deeper level of my life a Eucharistic servant – called into service by the many blessings that come my way.  Can we habitually count the blessings that are ours and thus give ourselves over to God as Jesus Himself did through his life, death and resurrection?

Today’s feast invites us there under the marvelous gaze of Mary, the Mother of God (and our Mother) to remember and to act as Jesus acted in obedience to His Father.  Mary’s motherhood is a beacon showing us the way to live our lives and to focus ourselves on her Son, Jesus.