Sunday, July 8, 2007 - Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 66: 10-14; Psalm 66; Galatians 6: 14-18; Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20
Isaiah is a poet, detailing with rich description, all the material blessings God offers Israel, as well as the comfort a mother offers a child. In the gospel, Jesus directs the disciples to go on mission with no provisions but the peace that they offer each household they visit. Paul goes further: “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” The Jews believed that earthly success and prosperity signaled God’s approval. Jesus says peace is enough blessing from God. Paul is willing to surrender status and power if only he might know Christ crucified. It may be difficult to admire the sweaty, bloody nobody from Nazareth as he shoulders the cross. Here is the triumph of failure.
How do you look on your own successes and failures? Jesus is not playacting when he is stripped on Calvary, even of God’s felt presence: “Why have you abandoned me?” Crucifixion is not God’s plan, but the outcome of preaching peace, acceptance and mercy to the little ones of Israel. God’s plans are for shalom (Jer 29:11), and shalom means integrity as well as peace. Sit quietly in admiration of Jesus’ integrity in putting flesh on God’s peace, acceptance and mercy. Can you comfort him?
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have brought peace and mercy to our world. Thank you for staying faithful to your mission, and give us the grace of fidelity and integrity.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Genesis 28:10-22; Psalm 91; Matthew 9: 18-26
Jacob has a dream promising him prosperity and descendants, and that God will never leave him. He sets up an altar on the spot and vowed that the Lord would be his God. Psalm 91’s first line: “O God, you are our refuge,” in the original language is “O God, you have always been our home.” There is comfort in altars and homes, but in the gospel we see Jesus diverted. He is heading for the home of an official who wants Jesus to lay hands on his daughter who has just died when a woman in the crowd touches his garment and is healed. Jesus turns around and commends her faith. The mourners at the official’s home ridicule Jesus because he claims that the “girl is not dead but sleeping.”
What is dead or sleeping in your spiritual life? Tell Jesus what you need. Let him take you by the hand. What needs healing in your life? Reach out and touch him. Where do you find comfort? How is God your home? Feel God’s surrounding and penetrating presence. Rest in that security.
Truly, you are in this spot, as Jacob knew. Help us to see you in all the events of today, in the people whom we meet, the work we do, the home we make in you and for others.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Genesis 32: 23-33; Psalm 17; Matthew 9: 32-38
Jesus heals every illness, taking pity on the people, “troubled and abandoned” who mill around like sheep without a shepherd. He looks at these people and says, “Ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers.”
Let us also ask God to send more people into wrestling matches with God as well, so that, like Jacob, we and they might acknowledge, “I have seen God face to face and have lived.” Let us pray for one another that we might know God personally, intimately, face to face and heart to heart. Is there something in your life now that you want to wrestle with God about? Don’t hesitate. In wrestling, we get very close.
At the sight of the crowds today, Jesus, who people our world, living in poverty, hunger and thirst, let your heart go out to them through some action of ours today.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Genesis 41: 55-57, 42: 5-7, 17-24; Psalm 33; Matthew 10: 1-7
Joseph, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, now governor of Egypt, receives his brothers in their starving state but hides his identity from those who sold him into slavery. Jesus summons the Twelve and gives them authority over unclean spirits and illness. Benedict, whose feast we celebrate today, attracted many to a monastic way of life, based on humility, hospitality and prayer. From slavery to authority, from authority to humility, and for all—hospitality. Jesus puts flesh on the hospitality of God.
Meditate on the hospitality of God. How do you discover God’s welcome? What form does it take? What do you need to be even more comfortable with God? Will you let God wash your feet, feed you, house you in God’s heart? And if so, how will you do that today?
Gather us in, the poor and the haughty, gather us in the starving and satisfied. All are indeed welcome in your love, and we ask you to expand our hearts for those in need of hospitality—in our workplace, family, nation, world.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Genesis 44: 18-21, 23-29, 45:1-9; Psalm 105; Matthew 10: 7-15
Matthew continues to spell out Jesus’ missionary instructions: we are to take nothing for the journey but the peace of God; we are to depend on the hospitality of those who welcome us and to shake the dust from the feet of those who reject us. Joseph, instead of rejecting those who enslaved him, sent his attendants away and with loud sobs made himself known to his brothers. “Come closer to me,” he invites them, and assures them, “It was really for the sake of saving lives [from the famine] that God sent me here
ahead of you.”
Paul wrote that all things work together for good; Joseph of Genesis seems to be saying much the same: God brings good out of even the heinous evil of fratricide. Where sin abounds, grace more abounds, Paul insists. How is that true in your life? Pray for grace to abound in war torn lands, in refugee camps, among modern day slaves who are trafficked. Pray for reconciliation in families as torn as Joseph’s.
O God, give us the grace of reconciliation in all areas of our lives. Thank you for choosing us as ambassadors of reconciliation. Let us see and act on some one way to effect unity and peace today.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Genesis 46: 1-7, 28-30; Psalm 37; Matthew 10: 16-23
“Brother will hand over brother to death…children will rise up against parents,” Jesus promises, but when we are dragged before the authorities we need not worry about what to say for “You will be given at that moment what you are to say.” In Goshen when the brothers, who did hand over their brother to death and are now reconciled, watch their father and Joseph embrace and weep, they don’t speak but Jacob/Israel announces that now he can die in peace. “I have seen for myself that Joseph is alive.”
What is that you long for so much that were it granted you could say with Jacob, “At last I can die…” Share your deepest desires with God/Jesus/Spirit. For what justice do you hunger and thirst? How much do you want peace in our world? How can you promote reconciliation and unity today? Ask the Spirit to show you. Listen.
We do take delight in you, Jesus, and so you will grant us our hearts’ desires. We pray always in your name and in the power of your Spirit.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Genesis 49: 29-32, 50: 15-26; Psalm 105; Matthew 10: 24-33
We celebrate Kateri Tekakwitha today, a woman both of what is now Canada and the United States. In our first reading, Jacob dies, and the brothers become frightened that with Jacob gone, perhaps Joseph harbors a secret grudge against them. They say as much to his face and Joseph bursts into tears and refuses their offer to be his slaves, saying “Have no fear. Can I take the place of God?” Jesus assures us too that we have nothing to fear, for the God who cares for the smallest sparrow will surely attend to us. “You are worth more than many sparrows.”
What is it in so many of us that we fear retaliation, whether from someone we have wronged and/or especially from God? Pray for a true evaluation of your self worth, for you are more than many sparrows and God would give whole worlds for you (Isaiah).
Pray for the gift that his brothers offered Joseph: speaking face to face about their fear of him, and asking forgiveness (no more “mistakes have been made”!) Imagine God bursting into tears when we grovel before God. If Joseph’s forgiveness is so generous, how much more God’s!
Truly, your mercy endures forever. May your mercy today reach into the recesses of our wounded hearts and offer healing, the healing of your continuing forgiveness.
Return to top
Sunday, July 15, 2007 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 30: 10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians1:15-20; Luke 10: 25-37
If human beings had not sinned, would Christ have come? Most Christians think it was sin that drew the Son of God to earth as our redeemer, made satisfaction for sin as St. Anselm would explain. Because in the early middle ages the Dominican teachings of theologians Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas dominated, the Franciscan theologians, Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus, were overlooked. The very good news they offer us is found in our reading from Colossians (and will be continued in next Sunday's selection too). Yes, Christ would have come to be among us, the Franciscan school teaches, because he is "the firstborn of all of creation. In him were created all things...he is before all things and in him all things hold together..." Christ is the model on which all of creation is based, all that God found "very good." In Christ "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." All creation is modeled after him, and he himself "is the image of the invisible God." Our world needs reconciling, not so much with God who has never stopped loving us, but among ourselves. Thus it is peace that Christ made "by the blood of his cross." Not blood because God needs to be satisfied for sin, but blood, the very life of a man who is neighbor, as was the Good Samaritan, to us all, Christ the Word who is so very close, on our lips and in our hearts.
Ponder Christ as the image of the invisible God. What do you know about God, the indescribable Mystery, from looking at Jesus in action? Can you believe that God has never stopped loving human beings, and perhaps, just looking at Jesus’ behavior, holds us closer when we are sinning. Ask to believe this, to trust God’s love, and to trust Jesus.
Jesus, may you who humbled yourself to share our humanity keep drawing us closer as we come to share in your divinity (from the Offertory prayers).
Monday, July 16, 2007
Exodus 1: 8-14-22; Psalm 124; Matthew 10: 34-11:1
Exodus opens with a description of the brutality of Israel’s oppressors and the order to execute all Israel’s boys. Jesus says that the peace he offers is not easy, but will set families in opposition. “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Then he concludes his missionary sermon with good news. In the early church there was division between “prophets”, those free spirits probably evangelized by Paul and friends, and the “righteous,” the Judaizing Christians for whom the Law retained its import. Jesus urges us to welcome both the law abiding Christians and those who are free from Law, and in that way we “receive their reward.” Welcome, do not cast out. We all are not called to be missionaries in Latin America, but when we welcome them, we “receive their reward.” We are not all called to wield power in board rooms and legislatures, but when we welcome the powerful, we receive their reward. Not that we are into rewards, but since we can’t do everything we might desire, welcoming those so called lets us participate in their mission, expands our horizons, makes us one.
Whom in our church community do you admire? Whom would you join in their work, ministry, mission if only you could? Imagine them serving and join them in imagination, “welcoming” them. You might make this prayer for them concrete by writing or phoning them to say how much you appreciate all they do to build up the Body.
Thank you, Jesus, for the many gifts and the many works that make your Body an attractive sign of God’s love in the world. Help us to welcome each person in your name.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Exodus 2:1-15; Psalm 69; Matthew 11: 20-24
First we hear of Moses’ birth and his rescue as an infant from death by the quick wits and courage of his mother and sister. Moses, reared as a prince, had a strong streak of justice however. Did he know he was watching a kinsman being beaten by an Egyptian, or just an anonymous slave? Moses killed the oppressor, and then was on the run from Pharaoh. God will choose a murderer to lead the people. Jesus sounds murderous in his set of “woes.” Woe to three cities of Israel, including Capernaum, where Jesus chose to live when he left home in Nazareth. He like Moses lives among the enslaved and the sinful.
Consider where you live. Among whom do you live? Pray for our cities and those enslaved by greed, fear, drugs, alcohol, sex, and…. Consider your sense of justice, your rage at injustice. How far will it lead you? Is it God’s anger that you share or your own? Ask to live out of only God’s justice, and to be saved from useless wrath.
Lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil. Help us to see the beam in our own eye before judging others, and to be wise in our doing justice.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Exodus 3: 1-6, 9-12; Psalm 103; Matthew 11: 25-27
When Moses is chosen to know God, to hear God through the burning bush, he cries: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?…” Who is he? A shepherd, a murderer. Jesus explains that God is pleased to reveal God’s own self to the little ones, hiding the mystery of God from the “wise and intelligent.”
Who are you that you should know God? How do you know God? How do you experience with mind and heart and feelings, imagination and memory the One whom Jesus reveals? Tell Jesus all that you want to know and experience of God.
“Father, such is your gracious will” -- that we who may be wise and intelligent are also simple and sinners. Thank you for Jesus’ revealing to us your love and faithfulness.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Exodus 3:13-20; Psalm 105; Matthew 11: 29-30
Moses receives God’s self-description: “I am who I am.” Jesus describes himself too as meek, gentle and humble of heart. “Come to me all you who are weary, carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…Learn from me…”
To learn from Jesus is to be a disciple (from the Latin for learner). What do you need to learn from him? How does God’s name given to Moses sit with you? Psalm 68: 19-20 calls God our burden bearer: “You bear our burdens day after day; you a God who saves.” Rest, letting Jesus bear your burdens. If you fall asleep while praying, not to worry. Therese of Lisieux saw that as a sign of great trust.
We do cast our cares on you, Jesus, our footwashing savior. Teach us to be gentle and humble in our relationships. Refresh us so we can help carry the burdens of others.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Exodus 11:10-12:14; Psalm 116; Matthew 12: 1-8
Jesus defends his disciples against the legal judgments of some Pharisees, and shows them how little they understand God who says: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”
In the Exodus reading we have the lengthy description of the night of Passover. Throughout all generations, Israel, scattered around our world, remembers and gives thanks for this saving act of God.
What exodus have you had in your own life? When did God lead you out (exodus in Greek) into freedom? What had kept you enslaved, and now you are free? Pray with the psalmist: What return shall I make to our God for all the good God has done for me? I will lift up the cup of salvation…I will offer you thanksgiving…”
You do desire mercy, our saving God. Give us the gift of mercy. Remove far from our hearts judgment, contempt and fear of others. Mercy on your people! Mercy in and through us!
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Exodus 12: 37-42; Psalm 136; Matthew 12: 14-21
Pharaoh is out to destroy Israel who hurries away with livestock and unleavened bread after 430 years in Egypt. God kept a vigil for them, and so to this day, the Jews keep a vigil of thanksgiving for their freedom. In the gospel, some Pharisees are out to destroy Jesus. Like Israel, “he departed.” Matthew loves to locate passages from his scripture, the Jewish scriptures, to underscore how Jesus is in union with God. Here the evangelist quotes Isaiah who gives God’s servant, anointed by the Spirit, a mission: to proclaim justice to the Gentiles, a gentle, non-violent justice, so that “in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
Ask the Spirit to anoint your memory, and ask when you have in the past stayed to work through a difficult situation, and when you chose wisely to “depart.” Stay quiet and see what bubbles up. Pray for the trust to accept what you cannot change, the courage and creativity to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Jesus, we pronounce your holy, powerful name. Bring hope to all us Gentiles, especially Arabs; bring hope to all Jews. Heal our divisions and make us one, please!
Return to top
Sunday, July 22, 2007 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Genesis 18: 1-10; Psalm 15; Colossians 1: 24-28; Luke 10: 38-42
We return to Colossians where last Sunday we let the Franciscan theologians turn our understanding of the Incarnation upside down. Jesus does not need to satisfy God because we have sinned. God, in infinite generosity, needs to create a beautiful universe patterned on the beauty of God’s Son. This mystery has been hidden for generations, our author assures us, but now to the Gentiles God makes known the riches of God’s glory, “which is Christ in you.” God is so hospitable that God welcomes us all into the very Body of God’s Son. The hospitality of God is embodied in Abraham’s hospitality to three strangers, as well as in Martha’s welcoming Jesus into her home. Mary offers Jesus another kind of hospitality, one open to us even if we cannot cook. We can listen, listen to Jesus, and listen to the Jesus in each person whom we meet today, tomorrow…
This Mary who models listening is not Mary of Magdala, whose feast is usually celebrated today. Mary of Bethany is a disciple, a learner; Mary Magdalen is an apostle, one sent to tell the apostles that Jesus has been raised. With whom do you identify, the listening disciple or the running apostle? This story of Martha and Mary lends itself to Ignatian contemplation, inviting you to enter the home in Bethany with Jesus and see for yourself what happens. Or--the Colossians reading could sink for years into your consciousness: the mystery of God’s glory is Christ in you. You are like Mary of Nazareth, a God-bearer.
Thank you, Jesus, for taking flesh, becoming incarnate, living among us and now in us, living deep within us. Keep us alert to you and your work in us and through us.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Exodus 14: 5-18; Exodus 15; Matthew 12: 38-42
Pharaoh is pursuing Israel with an army in chariots and the people are terrified. Moses warns them to “keep still” and trust that the Lord will handle it. As we know, God does lead them through the sea. The responsorial is the praise Israel’s women offer God as a warrior. In the gospel, Jesus is angry with those who want proof, “a sign.” As we remember the aftermath of 9/11, we in the United States did not keep still, we did not let God lead. We demand a sign. In fact, some people believe that God could have and should have reached down “from the sky” and plucked those planes out of the sky. This is not faith, trust. This is superstition.
Consider God as a warrior. How does God make “war” in our day? Ask God to show you. Listen. Against what does God call you to war? Show your “battle plans” to God and see what God has to say. Listen.
Today we want to hear your voice, our God. Do not let us harden our hearts against any one. Keep us pliable, docile, learning from Jesus who is gentle and humble of heart.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Exodus 14: 21- 15:1, 20-21; Exodus 15; Matthew 12: 46, 48-50
We are told that Pharaoh pursues Israel in order to enslave them again. But God
“in the pillar of fire and the cloud” watched out for the panic stricken Israelites. Whether a strong wind blew the Reed sea dry or whether walls of water swept up to make a way through the sea, they passed through and the sea, the mud clogged and swamped Egypt’s chariots. Moses sings, Miriam takes a tambourine and all sing and dance in thanksgiving.
War, death, destruction. Yet Jesus says that those who do the will of God (which we know is shalom) are “brother and sister and mother” to him. What to make of this paradox? Israel was passive; God led them through the water. Jesus urges us to be active: DO the will of God. Yet it took courage to walk through a swamp, or between walls of water. Israel DID God’s will, for shalom also means wholeness, health, well-being and integrity.
When have you felt about to be enslaved in your life, your personality? Where was God in that? How were you set free? Where in your life do you need freedom now? Ask for the gifts of freedom, of shalom, of being closely related to Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, for drawing us to yourself, gathering us, creating us a new family of God. Now we are your kin. Your kin-dom come, God’s will be done!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 - Feast of James, apostle
2 Corinthians 4: 7-15; Psalm 126; Matthew 20: 20-28
James, son of Zebedee, is the first apostle to be martyred. His mother sets him up for later beheading, as she pleads for her sons to sit next to Jesus in the kin-dom. All Jesus can ask James and John is whether they are willing to drink the cup of suffering and martyrdom. They might have gone forth weeping, but they come back with shouts of joy, these apostles and martyrs. They carry treasure in clay vessels, as Paul knows. “We are always being given over to death so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in this mortal flesh of ours.”
What is your experience of having your tears turned to joy? What is your experience of carrying treasure, Christ himself, in your very weak flesh? When has God’s power been strong when you felt weakest? What return shall you make?
Please, Holy Spirit, make the life of Jesus visible in us. Let everyone whom we meet today look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus. Be our power today. Thank you!
Thursday, July 26, 2007 - Feast of Anne and Joachim, grandparents
Sirach 44: 1,8, 10-15; Psalm 132; Matthew 13:16-17
“Sing the praises of our ancestors!” This first reading is sometimes used in funeral Masses of the elderly. Their bodies are buried in peace, Sirach continues, but their names and wisdom live on forever. Jesus points to the blessing of his generation (and ours) because we have been able to know the very human and alive-forever Lord, Jesus. To “know” for the Hebrews can mean sexual intercourse. The Jews believe that when husband and wife make love on Friday night to welcome the Sabbath, the Shekinah (the cloud of God’s glory in the Sinai desert) overshadows the couple. Mary gave her DNA to Jesus, and Anne and Joachim, in a burst of God’s glory, gave theirs to Mary.
What is your attitude toward sex? How is it like or unlike the Jewish understanding? Have you ever had a conversation with Jesus, the very human and sexual Jesus about sex? Today may be the day to try it. If that is too difficult, you can always pray in gratitude for your ancestors in the human family and in the faith.
Dear Anne and Joachim, thank you for rearing Mary to be so open to God, so willing, so courageous and strong. More than her DNA, thank you for shaping her character so beautifully.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; Matthew 13: 18-23
Jesus offers us the parable of the sower of the Word. God through Moses offers the Jews Ten Commandments. Psalm 19 lauds the Law. Word, commandment and law might mean the same thing to the Jews, but for Christians, the Word is Jesus. We are set free from Law, from the 637 laws of the Jews. We are to be receivers of the Word who shapes our hearts. One way then to pray Psalm 19 is to change words like precepts and decrees to the word “Word,” remembering that the Word puts flesh on God’s will.
Michael Crosby, Capuchin, starts his workshops on the Beatitudes by asking his audience to list the ten commandments, which all usually can do. Then he asks them to write the Beatitudes and their corresponding promise, which very few can do. Moses returns from Mount Sinai with Law for the Jews. The new Moses gives a new way to live in his sermon on the mount: Blessed are you, happy are you….
Which of the Beatitudes attracts you? (They are found as the opening verses in Matthew 5). Picture Jesus speaking that blessing directly to you. How is he looking at you as he addresses his living word to your heart? Which Beatitude is most difficult to receive (for these are invitations, not commandments)? Ask for the grace of being open to receive the blessing and to be fruitful.
Make us rich soil, Jesus, ready to receive your Word. Let it fall deeply into our being. Let us bear fruit today, some way to feed the hungry in whatever their need.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Exodus 24: 3-8; Psalm 50; Matthew 13: 24-30
In gratitude for God’s Law, Moses offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Although the parts of Psalm 50 chosen to respond to the Exodus reading do correlate, the main theme of the psalm is that God does not delight in the smell of blood and smoke. God, according to Jesus, does not even want us to judge ourselves. If we are Jews keeping commandments, maybe we can take our spiritual pulse. But if we are growing in the word, then the parable of the man who sowed good seed speaks to us. An enemy comes to sow weeds throughout the crop. The servants want to pull up the weeds (and don’t we want to?! In our own selves and in the people and society around us?!) The master instructs them to let weed and wheat grow together until harvest. Then it will be easy to separate the two.
Can you stop judging what is wheat and what is weed? Can you trust Jesus to separate it all out at the end without your gouging at yourself and others? “If you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them.” Ask Jesus to remove condemnation and contempt from you and fill you with mercy for yourself and others. Ask for the gift to trust him. As the communion antiphon prays:
“It is good for us to be with you, Lord, and to put our hope in you.” We do believe, we do trust! Help our unbelief. Help us to learn that “You desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Return to top
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Genesis 18: 20-32; Psalm 138; Colossians 2: 12-14; Luke 11: 1-13
God comes to check out the inhospitable Sodom and shares a plan of destruction with Abraham. “Then Abraham drew nearer,” and began to challenge God not to sweep away the innocent with the guilty. He works the numbers of innocents living in Sodom from 50 to ten, and God promises that if ten innocent people are found there, God will not destroy the city. What boldness in our ancestor and what intimacy between the two!
In Luke, Jesus first teaches his friends how to pray. First we pray in praise, and in hope of the kin-dom. Then we are to ask for our daily needs, especially forgiveness. We promise to forgive others and beg not to be put to the test. Jesus then uses an image of a man bothered in the middle of the night because his neighbor has a need. Even if friendship doesn’t call a response from him, just to quiet his neighbor he will give him what he needs. Finally, Jesus asks what we give our children? Can’t we count on God to do likewise? “If you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit.” Luke changes Matthew’s “every good gift” to “the Holy Spirit.”
How do you pray? Are you bold in your asking? Persistent? How do you feel asking for your daily needs? Sometimes we are “distracted” during prayer and find ourselves planning the day. Is that not asking for our daily needs? How is the Holy every good gift for you?
Holy Spirit, be enough and more than enough for us. Thank you for living deep within us, bubbling up your wisdom, peace and joy, precious fountain of living water.
A PS—if this were not Sunday, we would have the feast of Martha who was bold enough to ask Jesus to rouse her sister to help her! She was praying.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Exodus 32: 15-24, 30-34; Psalm 106; Matthew 13: 31-35
The kin-dom of God is tiny, Jesus says in parables, as small as a mustard seed or bit of leaven, but how it grows. As the mustard seed grows to harbor birds in its branches and leaven rises to nourish us with bread, so our relationships with God and one another (the kin-dom) grow. The kinship between Moses and his brother Aaron is severely tested. While Moses is on the mountain, Aaron assuages the fear of the people by having them contribute all their gold to fashion an idol, a calf. Moses’ “anger burns hot,” yet he pleads with God to spare the sinful people. His bonds are so strong that if God will not forgive the people, then Moses too wants to be blotted out of the book of life.
Bring all of your relationships to God today. With the eyes of God, look at each person whom you will meet or contact today. Then review your most loving relationships and finally, your most difficult relationships, always looking with the eyes of God. What do you notice? How do you feel?
Your kin-dom come, your will, your deep desire for our unity and peace, be done!
Clean out any idols we may have hidden in our hearts, in our church, in our society.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Exodus 33: 7–11; 34:4-9, 28; Psalm 103; Matthew 13: 36-43
The disciples ask Jesus to explain the parable of wheat and weeds; they evidently understood seeds and leaven. The personal explanation on Saturday gives way to Jesus’ explanation on a societal level. Both have the same end: we are not to judge. In the end, the righteous will “shine like the sun”. In the parts missing from Exodus we have some of the same. Moses, who learned in Exodus 3 that God’s name is I AM, asks to know the beautiful name of God. God sets him in the cleft of a rock to steady him, so great is the glory that will pass before Moses. In today’s reading, God calls out the beautiful name: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and kindness….” Psalm 103, other psalms and frequently in Isaiah do we hear of God’s kindness and faithfulness, hesed and ‘emet. The new word in this passage is rchm which when pronounced rechem means womb or uterus; and when rachum, means compassion. God’s is a womb-compassion.
One way to rest in God is to imagine yourself in the womb of God, this universe. All beings in the universe are truly your siblings, your kin. A child in the womb doesn’t think or worry but just is, is safe and nourished and rocked and warmed. Enjoy God’s womb-compassion in some minutes of quiet now, and return to the womb when life gets pressured.
Thank you, gracious God, for your beautiful name and your faithful mercy to us all. We look on your glory, your beauty, and thank you for helping us too to shine like the sun.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Exodus 34: 29-35; Psalm 99; Matthew 13: 44-46
To belong in the kin-dom of God is like finding buried treasure, like discovering a pearl of great price. To belong to God’s kin and community is to have our own faces shine like Moses’ when he would converse with God face to face. Coming down from Mount Sinai, coming in and out of the meeting tent, the skin of Moses’ face was so radiant that the people were terrified. So he would cover his face with a veil until he entered the tent to speak to and listen to God once more.
“Oh that our faces may be radiant with joy!” (Ps 34). Ask the Spirit to remind you of times when your face was radiant with joy. Savor those experiences. Ask to let joy radiate from you hour by hour today. Whom will you meet, converse with? Ask to be an attractive sign to others of your kinship and communion with God.
Thank you, Jesus, that you have found for us great treasure, a pearl of great price. You have found all that we could ever need and have offered it to us, free of charge: union with our God. Thank you!
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Exodus 40: 16-21, 34-38; Psalm 84; Matthew 13:47-53
Jesus offers yet another parable of what the kin-dom of God will be like: a net dragging in all the treasures and all the junk from the bottom of the sea. So we, with our radiant faces, mill about among the dead and smelly fish until the end. That is a way we share in Jesus’ self-emptying, the incarnation. “He did not consider being divine something to be clung to….” but came among the likes of us. “How lovely is your dwelling place,” the psalmist cries, in response to Moses building the Dwelling Tent in which to place the Ark of the Covenant. The cloud and the pillar of fire filled the Dwelling with glory. And so the Incarnation: Jesus filling all of creation, the dead, the smelly, the junk, the beauty-full, the radiant, the holy with his very presence.
“Mill about?” you cry. “Why, I love, I minister, I have a purpose-driven life!” All is grace, all is free gift, the radiant face, the love, the ministry – all is grace. Ask for the gift of emptying yourself, gradually, of any need to win, stand out, glory in yourself and your achievements. Ask to be given a gentle, humble heart, the dwelling place of Christ.
Fill us with your glory, God. Not to us the glory, but to you. Fire us with your love; surround us with your cloud of mystery so we stay humble and in awe. To you the glory, our God!
Friday, August 3, 2007
Leviticus 23: 1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34-37; Psalm 81; Matthew 13: 54-58
When people want to read the whole Bible they mistakenly start with Genesis and plow through Numbers (which is about numbers) and Leviticus (which is about the minutiae of ritual). After the instructive stories of Genesis and Exodus, we are pressed to find meaning in much of this book. Notice how our liturgists skip around to find verses that can communicate today. Listed here are some of the more important feasts of the Jews, with Passover as first. The fiftieth day, feast of Pentecost, is the first harvest feast, with the second one in September, the feast of Booths. Because of the mild climate, Israel can manage two harvests each year. The Day of Atonement too calls for a “sacred assembly” and no work. Not just animal sacrifice but cereal offerings, sheaves of wheat, all first fruits are to be offered to God. And the Law about these festivals is spelled out in Psalm 81: Make music! Jesus’ experience, however, dampens our joy. His own townsfolk take offense at him.
How do you celebrate “the festivals of the Lord?” How do you celebrate the Sabbath? Can you, as another verse from Psalm 81 urges, “put down your workbasket?”
Ask for the grace to incorporate rest and leisure and music and celebration into your week. At Sunday Eucharist gather all the fruits of your work and give them to God.
Thank you for commanding us to make music, our God! We worship you, we praise you for your great glory. We offer you all of our work, our joys, sufferings, play and rest.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Leviticus 25: 1-8-17; Psalm 67; Matthew 14: 1-12
God in Leviticus details the year of jubilee, seven times seven years when all are to return to their own land. Israel is to let the land lie fallow for a year. How just God is, making sure that everyone is fair in returning land to its original owners, teaching us to pro-rate our investments. How unjust Herod is in the gospel, how fearful of public opinion as he yields to human respect and gives Salome her wish: the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
In the year of jubilee, the land is to lie unplowed, unplanted. Ask the Spirit to light up your interior landscape. What parts of your life are fruitful, what lies fallow? What do you want planted so it can spring up next year? Open dry and empty pieces of your interior to the sun of Christ and the watering of the Spirit and wait. Breathe deeply and wait.
Harvest us home, God. Bring in all the fruits that you have planted, all the good wheat. Separate us from whatever weeds and insects do us harm. Deliver us from evil.
Return to top
Sunday, August 5, 2007 - Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Ecclesiastes1: 2, 2:21-23; Psalm 90; Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11; Luke 12: 13-21
All four readings call us to a new perspective. “All is vanity!” is the trumpet cry to open the first reading. Psalm 90 of which we often hear the first part now focuses on the final verses in which we pray: “Teach us to number our days aright, so that we may gain wisdom of heart.” Colossians reiterates the need to put on the new self in the image of the Creator, for our worldly distinctions do not matter; “Christ is all in all.” Finally, Jesus tells a parable that no first world citizen can ignore. Who is not guilty of counting how much we have gained, earned, accumulated? “I will build larger barns” to house all the gain. Then we have to worry, having worked with anxiety and grief –“….even at night his mind is not at rest” (Ecc). And God says quite clearly: “You fool. Tonight you die.”
Let’s look first at our society with all its riches and resources to protect. How does that wear on our spirits, our generosity? What fears lurk that our lifestyle will be blown away by terrorists? Then look at your personal “possessions.” “Take, Lord, and receive all I have and possess.” What illusion, even in the prayer of St. Ignatius. Ignatius knows it is illusion. What do you fear God will take? Talk it all over with God or Jesus or the Spirit.
Give us only your love and your grace. That is enough. And if it is not enough, help us to hold all lightly, as your gift, not our possession. Save us from foolishness and give us wisdom and perspective, please.
Monday, August 6, 2007 - Feast of the Transfiguration
Daniel 7: 9-10, 13-14; Psalm 97; 2 Peter 1:16-19; Luke 9: 28-36
In Daniel the depiction of glory belongs to the Ancient One, presumably an image of God; the attribution of authority belongs to the Son of Man, applied to Jesus by the early church. We know the story of the transfiguration, and Luke adds that Jesus was going to accomplish “his exodus in Jerusalem,” that is, his passage into freedom and glory. So we turn to a seldom noticed book, Second Peter. Its imagery is apocalyptic, somewhat frightening.. This piece today however, combines the Daniel and the Luke scene (the good news, kerygma) and then adds the exhortation ( parenesis). The format of sermons in the early church was not a harangue, but included two parts: first, the good news, followed by how we should respond. How should we respond to the glory and authority of Jesus? “Be attentive…to it, a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
Use your imagination and see Jesus as a lamp. Perhaps an Easter candle. Go with him to all the dark places of our world and pray for the people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. Then see the darkness in your own life. We often use the image of the Spirit as the fountain of living water bubbling up from deep within us. Today use the image of Jesus as the morning star slowly dawning, rising in your depths.
We praise you for your glory, Jesus, and give you all authority over us. Help us to be attentive and discerning, seeing what you desire and moving toward your hope for us.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Numbers 12:1-13; Psalm 51; Matthew 14: 22-36
Not long ago we heard the story of Joseph’s forgiveness and generosity toward the very brothers who sold him into slavery. Today is another story of sibling rivalry. “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses.” Surprisingly, the narrator says that Moses “was the meekest man on the face of the earth.” He was also large-hearted, for when God punished Miriam with leprosy, Moses prayed passionately: “Please, not this! Pray, heal her!” The gospel tells of Peter, certainly not the meekest of men, testing Jesus on the stormy waters. “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” “Come.”
Let that “Come” echo in your heart. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, not on the waves and wind that is buffeting you. He looks at you, holding out his hand in greeting, saying, “Come.” What frightens you? Where/why/when do you take your eyes off Jesus? Then what happens? Talk these things over with Jesus in the calm of the boat.
Pray, heal us! Forgive us, gracious God, our sins against our siblings, each of your children that people our world. Make us large-hearted that we may forgive even as you forgive us.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Numbers 13: 1-2, 26-29,34-35; Psalm 106;Matthew 15: 21-18
Forty days scouts explored the promised land, but so discouraging were their reports that the people were terrified, “broke out in loud cries…and wailed.” So God punished their mistrust by keeping the first generation of freed slaves in the desert for forty years. After an initial dismissal Jesus, however, listened to the cry of the desperate Canaanite woman. He was headed for Tyre and Sidon, along the coast; perhaps a beach vacation. His disciples were peeved and he agreed with them. The woman “did him homage” and pleaded for her daughter. When Jesus warned that “dogs” could not have the children’s food, she raised his consciousness with her comeback: “even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.” Matthew has Jesus say, “For your great faith,” but Mark’s Jesus demonstrates how she has pricked his conscience. In Mark he says: “Woman, for saying that….” and her daughter is healed.
What do you do when you are terrified? How do you pray? How does God hear the cries of the poor when the poor and desperate one is you? Can you give God a comeback if God’s way is not to your liking? Can you trust that our God does not punish but admires honest expression? Ask for the gift of saying anything to God and trusting God’s mercy.
Thank you, Jesus, for being like us in all things. You absorbed the bigotry of your society without meaning to. You needed vacations as we do. Thank you for our vacation time, and please come with us.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Numbers 20: 1-13; Psalm 95; Matthew 16: 13-23
These are painful readings. Miriam dies, and the people grumble against Moses. They want grain, figs, vines, pomegranates, and they don’t even have water. Moses doesn’t even ask God for water, but with Aaron, falls prostrate before God. That gesture is plea enough. God tells Moses to strike the rock and water gushes forth, but in striking it twice, even Moses falls afoul of God, who will prevent him from leading Israel into the promised land. Peter falls afoul of Jesus who calls him Satan. Jesus has just asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter is then named Rock and immediately afterwards, Satan.
How do you think Jesus and Peter reconciled? Enter the scene in which Peter tries to dissuade Jesus from walking into danger. “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me!” Ask Jesus about his anger, his fear. Offer him your understanding and compassion. Then see in your imagination how the reconciliation happened.
Let our every gesture of love today, good God, be a plea for justice and peace in our world. Keep us reconciled with our friends. Make us humble enough to say we are sorry.
Friday, August 10, 2007
2 Corinthians 9:6-10; Psalm 112; John 12: 24-26
We know we have a major figure when the continuous reading gives way to special passages. Lawrence, a deacon, was ordered to hand over the riches of the church. He called the poor together and proclaimed that they are the treasure of the church. For this he was martyred. For this he is remembered in our first reading as one who gave bountifully and gladly for the needs of the poor, and in the gospel he is the grain of wheat who died so as to bring forth much fruit.
Ask Jesus to sit with you and examine your attitudes toward the poor. Ask him to deepen your generosity and joy in giving. Ask that wealth on this planet be distributed more equally, not according to merit but according to need.
What have we that we have not received? Thank you for your abundant and joyful giving, God our creator, our supplier, our true treasure!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Deuteronomy 6: 4-13; Psalm 18; Matthew 17: 14-20
Although there are no special readings for the feast of Clare, how well the first reading fits her. Moses calls us to love God with our whole heart and strength, and to proclaim our love. Then God will give us everything, nothing that we deserve, but God’s generosity poured out. In the gospel, Jesus heals a child who throws himself in fire or water, “a lunatic” the boy’s father calls him. Jesus is disappointed that his disciples cannot heal the child because of their little faith. Jesus should know that faith is a gift!
Has your faith, your trust in God/Jesus/Spirit, ever moved a mountain? Ask for that kind of faith so that you might be a more effective healing force in the world. Ask for the gift of wholehearted love of God and the courage to proclaim it.
Thank you for the gift of faith, Giver of all good. Help us to believe that with you all is possible and that you, so much more than we, want all things to work together for good.
Return to top
Sunday, August 12, 2007 - Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 18: 6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19; Luke 12: 32-48
The first reading is a bit bloodthirsty, but the second and the longer gospel reading continue our theme of simple living in faith. The psalm ends with our longing for God and God’s kindness, our hope. Then Hebrews begins with a description of faith as the making real that in which we have hoped, but without seeing. The author recounts the faith of Abraham and the other ancestors, all hoping for a homeland which is not a piece of property but a homeland which is God’s own self. Jesus urges us not to be afraid for we are inheriting (not meriting) the kin-dom. “Sell your belongings and give alms…for where your treasure is there your heart will be.”
Homeland security? We have it in Jesus’ constant comfort: “Do not be afraid.” Ask him to remove all fear from your heart, to align your heart with his, to make his love your only treasure. Is there some particular “treasure” you could give away today as a gesture of love and trust?
O God, you have always been our home (Ps 90:1). Help us to relax, to rest, to enjoy tastes of our inheritance now. Calm our striving, our anxieties, and the world’s fear.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Deuteronomy 10: 12-22; Psalm 147; Matthew 17: 22-27
Often in the gospels Jesus’ enemies, rather than facing him directly, attack his disciples. When Peter is questioned about the temple tax, Jesus tells him to take a coin out of the mouth of a fish to pay the tax both for Peter and for himself. Moses would say, rightly so, for only God is our glory. What more do we need, “for the Lord was so attached to your [ancestors] that God chose you.” Moses continues: “Hold fast to God.”
The psalmist adds the promise: “God grants you peace in your borders; with the best of wheat God feeds you.”
If God is truly our glory and God’s attachment to us is so strong, no wonder Jesus always preached: “Do not be afraid.” Picture yourself in the events of today holding fast to God. What does that look like? Imagine peace within your self as you picture each person you will meet/have met today. How has God fed you today? How will you respond?
Thank you, God of glory, for choosing us to possess the glory of Christ Jesus and the power of his Spirit. Help us to be peace and bring peace today.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Deuteronomy 31: 1-8; Deuteronomy 32; Matthew 18: 1-5,10,12-14
Moses is not allowed to lead Israel into the promised land, and as he admits, “I am now 120 years old and am no longer able to move about freely.” He urges the people and again, Joshua himself, to be brave and steadfast; have no fear. Jesus explains that we have nothing to fear from our God who asks us to be like children, humble, willing to be cared for. More than shepherds care for sheep, so God cares for children.
How will you use the Spirit’s gift of humility today? How will you be “meek and humble of heart,” as Jesus urges in the Alleluia verse? How have you, paradoxically, become more like a child as you age? Moses admits his limits and frailty. How do you handle your own aging?
O God, let our hearts at least move about freely even if we are slowed by age, illness, depression, even laziness. Fill us with your Spirit of freedom that we may play before you with the abandon of children.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - Feast of Mary’s Assumption
Revelation 11:19, 12: 1-6, 10; Psalm 45; 1 Corinthians 15: 20-27; Luke 1: 39-56
The doctrine of the Assumption of Mary means that she was taken up, body and soul, into heaven. Neither contemporary philosophers nor theologians split body from soul, as two separate entities. Like Jewish theology teaches, the human being is whole, an enlivened body, the indivisible self. So what can we make of this celebration? As the gospel says, we rejoice that God has done great things for her; that the queen takes her place, as the psalmist comments; and that as the first disciple of Jesus, Mary can be imagined as clothed with the sun with the moon at her feet, to quote Revelation. Paul theologizes about the meaning of dying and rising. Christ is the first of those who have died and been raised, and after him “all shall be brought to life, but each one in proper order.” The first “one who belongs to Christ” must surely be his mother, not because of her physical childbearing, but because she continued to bear the word, treasure the word in her heart, her home, her life. She learned (discipula) from him. This feast calls us to bear the word, treasure the word, and look forward to the raising of our whole person in glory when we, like Mary, die.
How do you bear Christ in your own body? How do you listen and learn from him? Take some time now to be silent and listen. How do you want to die? What would a happy death be for you? Share that with Mary.
“Mother beloved, of God and of us, here at your feet, faithful we meet. Comrades of Mary, redeemed by your Son, keep us who love you in all things one!”
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Joshua 3:7-11, 13-17; Psalm 114; Matthew 18: 21-19:1
God uses the Ark of the Covenant, housing the commandments and carried through the Jordan by the priests, to cause the flowing river to back up so that Israel could cross into the promised land. The psalm commemorates both the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan river as well. Jesus then tells a “hard” parable in response to Peter’s question: “How often must I forgive?” To illustrate his answer: “Seventy-seven times,” Jesus tells of a king who shows mercy to a servant in his debt. The one whose debt was forgiven then threatens those who owe him money. When the king hears of this injustice he hands the one he first forgave over to the torturers. Jesus concludes: “So will my heavenly Father do to you unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.”
This parable works on a personal level, and on a national level. What we often call “justice” for those who do wrong smacks more of revenge.
Pray for administrators of justice in our nations. Pray for all those whom you find hard to forgive, and ask for the grace of forgiving, for it is God’s gift, not our will power. Remember all the times you have been forgiven, and ask to hand on the same mercy to those who hurt or annoy you.
Your mercy is so abundant, our great God. We praise and thank you for lavishing mercy on us more than seventy-seven times. Make us instruments of your mercy, we pray.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Joshua 24: 1-13; Psalm 136; Matthew 19: 3-12
God speaks through Joshua, who assumes leadership once Moses has died. God reminds the people of their covenant by reciting all that God has done for them. The Psalm reiterates the mighty deeds of God on behalf of the people. Then Jesus speaks of another covenant: marriage. We need to understand the context of his hard saying. In Jesus’ day a man could divorce his wife for the most minor cause, such as putting too much salt in his food. A woman could never divorce her husband. So when Jesus is so adamant against divorce, he is protecting women of his time from arbitrary dismissal, rather than setting a new commandment, cast in stone. Not only is that new teaching, but he continues by accepting the renouncing of marriage itself “for the sake of the kin-dom.” This too is new, for marriage was highly regarded as the only possibility in Judaism. Notice that once even we (following Paul) said that unmarried people can devote more of their energy to the kingdom. Has this made women and men religious workaholic? For the sake of the kin-dom, however, emphasizes our sisterhood and brotherhood, a sign of the reign of God.
Whether you are married, single or in a religious institute, how do you describe your covenant? When did you make it? What were your motivations? How have they changed? How has your heart expanded because of your faithfulness to that covenant?
Share all your memories with Jesus. Ask for healing, courage, faithfulness.
“Your mercy endures forever,” we sing with the psalmist. Thank you for your mercy, for your enduring faithfulness no matter how we weaken our covenant with you and with each other.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Joshua 24:14-29; Psalm 16; Matthew 19:13-15
Two days in a row we begin with “Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem…” Joshua is a gatherer. Yet he stands out as leader when he calls the people to serve God, not the gods of the neighborhood. “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” When the people protest that they too will indeed serve God who has done so much for them, Joshua pushes back: “You may not be able to serve God.” Oh indeed we will, they cry. So Joshua makes a covenant with the people, setting a stone as a sign of it at Shechem. Jesus gathers people too, a strange lot: children. Children were valued by the Jews because they would carry on the family, but were treated almost as slaves in the household. Jesus says: “Let the children come to me…for the kin-dom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
Are you able to serve God? How? Why? How is your service childlike? Hold up each child whom you know to Jesus that he might lay hands on the child. Pray for the children of our world, especially those without love, resources and education.
Jesus, thank you for gathering the children of the world in your arms, holding them, blessing them. Heal parents who neglect or even reject their children.
Return to top
Sunday, August 19, 2007 - Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
Jeremiah speaks unpopular truth to the people, demoralizing the soldiers, so the leaders lower him into a cistern where he sinks into the mud. A court official persuades the king, weak as he is, to rescue Jeremiah, who is pulled out. The psalm echoes that rescue: “You drew me out of the muddy pit and set my feet upon a rock.” Not that we can sit around, basking on the rock. Hebrews urges us to throw off any burden or sin to which we cling and enter the race with Jesus our pioneer taking the lead. We are to keep our eyes fixed on him so that do not grow weary or discouraged. Courage, Luke’s Jesus, cries, because I have come to cast fire on the earth. The peace Jesus brings is built on justice, and it may well set families on edge. He is leading us into new relationships, the kin-dom of God.
When has God drawn you out of a muddy pit? How? What is your response? Suppose you do feel weary and lack courage. What will get you racing with Jesus again?
Ask for whatever it takes, and keep your eyes fixed on him.
Free us, Holy Spirit, from all that we cling to and fix our eyes on Jesus. Help us know the truth that sets free and give us the courage always to speak that truth.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Judges 2: 11-19; Psalm 106; Matthew 19: 16-22
This passage from Judges demonstrates a cycle to be found in many Jewish scriptures. The people sin, God punishes with disaster, the people repent, God blesses them; the people sin, God punishes, and so on. God raised up judges to lead them “but when the judge died, they would relapse and do worse…” In the gospel we meet a young man who keeps the commandments. Jesus varies the order of them, however. Jesus puts “You shall not kill” first and ends with “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The man asks, “What do I still lack?” In Mark’s gospel, Jesus first looks at the man (woman) tenderly and says….
What does Jesus say to you, today? What do you lack? How is Jesus looking on you? Even in your lack? Ask the Spirit if there is anything in your life that you have to give to the poor. Then sit quietly and listen.
Take, Lord, receive all that we are and possess. You have given everything to us, and to you we return it. Give us only your love and your grace, your tenderness. That is enough.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Judges 6: 11-24; Psalm 85; Matthew 19: 23-30
Gideon exemplifies the Alleluia verse: “Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich…” Gideon is from the lowliest family and he is its most insignificant member. So how can he trust this call to lead Israel? “Give me a sign that you are speaking to me,” Gideon pleads. What criteria can we use today to know whether it is God speaking? In the psalm, God proclaims peace, and so inner peace may be a good indication. Justice, kindness and truth meet when God calls. In the gospel, Jesus proclaims peace; he promises that nothing, especially our salvation, is impossible with God. Power and riches do not make us worthy of God’s call. Trusting God makes salvation (yesh: freedom; salus: health, wholeness) possible.
Whom in the human family do you trust? Is there anyone who knows all your secrets? Does Jesus? Hear Jesus proclaim peace directly to you. Let his peace, not as the world defines peace, flood every part of your being, all your relationships. Imagine his peace flowing out into the desert….
Keep our ears and eyes open for your call, Jesus. Deepen our trust in one another, as persons and as nations. Help us to presume the good will of others, but give us the gift of seeing wisely.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Judges 9: 6-15; Psalm 21; Matthew 20:1-16
Our major readings offer a reflection on leadership. The first is a parable about who should lead the trees. One by one the trees refuse to give up their fruits to go “and wave over the trees.” They have so much more to offer than “waving.” In the gospel we find an all too familiar parallel in our own citi
istening
to the Spirit: