In the first reading today we reach a story that we all know well, David and Goliath. As Christians the violence of the story may disturb us, and we may loose some of the small details that are of great meaning.
This week we have been reading the story of how God had decided that Saul was no longer suitable to serve as king, and David is chosen to take his place. Despite this, the reading opens with "David spoke to Saul: 'Let your majesty not lose courage.'" In humility he respectfully addressed the man he is supposed to replace, and places himself at Saul's.
Humility and Basic Respect.
Basic values we need in our modern political language.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Colaboration wtih God
We finally reach the point in the first reading when Samuel is charged with replacing Saul, with David. The reading today tells us of his anointing and how from that day on, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David. Depite being filled with the Spirit of God, David will go on to commit a number of grave sins including adultery, and murder. And yet, Jews, Christians, and Moslems continue to think of him as a great king.
This may in part be due to the fact that he did not have 24 news channels ginning up anger, and running the video all day long. More to the point it is because history recognizes the constant struggle of human life, and the good a person does is not erased by sin.
Each of us had that same Spirit rush on us the day of our baptism, but there still remains our free will, and temptations we face to make choices that run opposite to the will of God, being filled with the Holy Spirit does not shield us from our own free will. This is why daily prayer becomes so critical in our lives. We must maintain our conscious connection to that presence of God given to us. We must constantly quiet ourselves and listen.
The second Vatican council reminded us of the "Universal Call to Holliness" in the document Lumen Gentium. We can be saints, but only with the daily help of God.
This may in part be due to the fact that he did not have 24 news channels ginning up anger, and running the video all day long. More to the point it is because history recognizes the constant struggle of human life, and the good a person does is not erased by sin.
Each of us had that same Spirit rush on us the day of our baptism, but there still remains our free will, and temptations we face to make choices that run opposite to the will of God, being filled with the Holy Spirit does not shield us from our own free will. This is why daily prayer becomes so critical in our lives. We must maintain our conscious connection to that presence of God given to us. We must constantly quiet ourselves and listen.
The second Vatican council reminded us of the "Universal Call to Holliness" in the document Lumen Gentium. We can be saints, but only with the daily help of God.
Monday, January 18, 2010
What does it mean to be free?
In the first reading today we hear what may seem like a strange rebuke of Saul. He is declared by unfit to remain king because he allowed his mean to offer sacrifices, at a time when this was a normal way of worshiping God.
Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams. For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
The sin of Saul was the original sin. It is called idolatry because that's what it is. Saul decided for himself, contrary to the instructions he had received from God, that it would be a good thing to allow offerings be made to God.
We rarely thing of ourselves as idolaters, but whenever we decide for our self that, "God's law is outdated", or that something is no longer a sin because everybody is doing it, it is the sin of idolartry, because we have made ourselves God. We have given ourselves the power to decide what is right and wrong. This was the original sin.
Obedience is hard for us, in part because we mistakenly believe it is the opposite of freedom.
If I have to obey someone else, I am not free.
In fact the opposite is true. Obedience to God is the path to true free. It is God who created us, in his own image and likeness. God knows us better that we know ourselves. God knows our full potential, what we were meant to do in this world.
You think you are free? Which of us has not said or done something, and then asked ourselves, why did I do that or why did I say that? Which of us does not have some bad habit we cannot seem to break?
Only God's grace can truely free us to fulfill our true potential and be the person God had in mind at he moment of our conception. We receive that grace of God in the sacraments, but we must then allow it to work, allow it guide our words and actions, and this requires obedience.
In latin to obey is to listen. We must listen constantly for that voice of God, and trust that the path it directs is best. Then we will be truly free.
Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams. For a sin like divination is rebellion, and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
The sin of Saul was the original sin. It is called idolatry because that's what it is. Saul decided for himself, contrary to the instructions he had received from God, that it would be a good thing to allow offerings be made to God.
We rarely thing of ourselves as idolaters, but whenever we decide for our self that, "God's law is outdated", or that something is no longer a sin because everybody is doing it, it is the sin of idolartry, because we have made ourselves God. We have given ourselves the power to decide what is right and wrong. This was the original sin.
Obedience is hard for us, in part because we mistakenly believe it is the opposite of freedom.
If I have to obey someone else, I am not free.
In fact the opposite is true. Obedience to God is the path to true free. It is God who created us, in his own image and likeness. God knows us better that we know ourselves. God knows our full potential, what we were meant to do in this world.
You think you are free? Which of us has not said or done something, and then asked ourselves, why did I do that or why did I say that? Which of us does not have some bad habit we cannot seem to break?
Only God's grace can truely free us to fulfill our true potential and be the person God had in mind at he moment of our conception. We receive that grace of God in the sacraments, but we must then allow it to work, allow it guide our words and actions, and this requires obedience.
In latin to obey is to listen. We must listen constantly for that voice of God, and trust that the path it directs is best. Then we will be truly free.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
1 Shevat 5770
The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar, and the days go from sunset to sunset.
On this day the first of Shevat of the Hebrew year 2488, according to the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses convened the Jewish people and began the 37-day "review of the Torah”, which he concluded on the day of his death on Adar 7 of that year.
As our Jewish brothers and sisters mark this final presentation of God's law, we remember that, while we believe Christ freed us from much of the law with the new Covenant, we still believe that all law must be judged by its correspondence to God's law, most simply summarized in the duel commandment to love God and love our neighbor.
On this day the first of Shevat of the Hebrew year 2488, according to the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses convened the Jewish people and began the 37-day "review of the Torah”, which he concluded on the day of his death on Adar 7 of that year.
As our Jewish brothers and sisters mark this final presentation of God's law, we remember that, while we believe Christ freed us from much of the law with the new Covenant, we still believe that all law must be judged by its correspondence to God's law, most simply summarized in the duel commandment to love God and love our neighbor.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Be careful what you wish for
Today we are nearing the end of Samuel's days and the people of Israel, not content with what they have, have decided they need a king since everyone else has one. Samuel warns them that they can have judges but their only king should be God, but "'The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said, “Not so! There must be a king over us.'" So Samuel asks God to give them what they want. And then the Bible goes on to recount the mess that ensued.
The older I get the less my prayer is what would be called prayers of petition, where I ask God for specific things. The Cathecism lists five kinds of prayer: blessing and adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. And of course we have the example given by Mary, "Let it be done unto me according to thy word", as well as the Our Father's "Thy will be done."
Each of these are center not in our own knowledge of how things ought to be but absolute trust in the love of God. Do we have that same trust?
Perhaps today we can take a look at the five kinds of prayer listed in the Catechism and ask ourselves what percentage of our time goes to each. Is petition wrong, No, but it should not be all we do or evem most of what we do.
The older I get the less my prayer is what would be called prayers of petition, where I ask God for specific things. The Cathecism lists five kinds of prayer: blessing and adoration, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise. And of course we have the example given by Mary, "Let it be done unto me according to thy word", as well as the Our Father's "Thy will be done."
Each of these are center not in our own knowledge of how things ought to be but absolute trust in the love of God. Do we have that same trust?
Perhaps today we can take a look at the five kinds of prayer listed in the Catechism and ask ourselves what percentage of our time goes to each. Is petition wrong, No, but it should not be all we do or evem most of what we do.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
God doesn't work that way
In our first reading today we have one of many examples in the scriptures where faithfulness to God did not protect the people from experiencing defeat. Despite the numerous example in the bible of the good suffering (including Jesus) and the bad prospering (God rains on the just and unjust, rain being a good thing), there are still those who think of God as Santa, "making a list, checking it twice" and handing our riches and punishment all day long.
Pat Robertson's declaration that the earthquake and all the problems of Haiti including crushing poverty were the result of God punishing them for having made a pact with the devil to free them from French control is absurd in many ways, but does serve to remind us that all faiths are not, as some want to say "equally valid," and ecumenism does not call us to declare that we should respect all Christian perspectives without regard for the truth.
For us as Catholics, ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue begin with the belief that some things are true and some are not, like Robertson's absurd understanding of God. Our Catholic Faith calls us to respect whatever is true, in another Church or ecclesial community or faith's teaching, but to, with love, clearly name what is wrong.
We are called to love our neighbor, but if we truly love someone we tell them when they are headed down a wrong road. There is nothing contradictory or hypocritical about saying, I respect the equal dignity of the person of Pat Robertson, and simultaneously call his interpretation of the Christian faith absurdly wrong.
Let us continue to pray for the people of Haiti, and continue to pray for all people that they may come to the knowledge of the truth, remembering God willa that all be saved and "come to knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4)
Pat Robertson's declaration that the earthquake and all the problems of Haiti including crushing poverty were the result of God punishing them for having made a pact with the devil to free them from French control is absurd in many ways, but does serve to remind us that all faiths are not, as some want to say "equally valid," and ecumenism does not call us to declare that we should respect all Christian perspectives without regard for the truth.
For us as Catholics, ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue begin with the belief that some things are true and some are not, like Robertson's absurd understanding of God. Our Catholic Faith calls us to respect whatever is true, in another Church or ecclesial community or faith's teaching, but to, with love, clearly name what is wrong.
We are called to love our neighbor, but if we truly love someone we tell them when they are headed down a wrong road. There is nothing contradictory or hypocritical about saying, I respect the equal dignity of the person of Pat Robertson, and simultaneously call his interpretation of the Christian faith absurdly wrong.
Let us continue to pray for the people of Haiti, and continue to pray for all people that they may come to the knowledge of the truth, remembering God willa that all be saved and "come to knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4)
Monday, January 11, 2010
Beginning at the Beginning
Today we celebrate the first weekday of the first week of Ordinary Time, and both readings mark beginnings as well, the beginning of the story of the prophet Samuel and the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
If you have not read the story of Samuel, the story is worth following for the next few weeks. Today we begin with his mother and see, that as God as often done, God has chosen someone who feels like an outcast and somehow punished by God. Her name means "beauty" or "passion" and she is loveed by God but wants a son.
Today we see her at the point in the story where she cannot see what she has, she cannot see how much her husband loves her, all she can see is what she does not have and therefore has a miserable life.
How often can we be like Hannah? We see what we don't have. We don't hear the good things people say, or we dismiss the compliments, but the negative remarks, like those of Peninnah, stick and we focus only on them. She names the son Samuel meaning "God has heard" but in reality had it not always been a part of God's larger plan to send Samuel the prophet. We pray prayers of petition not to change God's mind, or because God needs our prayer, but because we need to recognize our own constant need for God.
If you have not read the story of Samuel, the story is worth following for the next few weeks. Today we begin with his mother and see, that as God as often done, God has chosen someone who feels like an outcast and somehow punished by God. Her name means "beauty" or "passion" and she is loveed by God but wants a son.
Today we see her at the point in the story where she cannot see what she has, she cannot see how much her husband loves her, all she can see is what she does not have and therefore has a miserable life.
How often can we be like Hannah? We see what we don't have. We don't hear the good things people say, or we dismiss the compliments, but the negative remarks, like those of Peninnah, stick and we focus only on them. She names the son Samuel meaning "God has heard" but in reality had it not always been a part of God's larger plan to send Samuel the prophet. We pray prayers of petition not to change God's mind, or because God needs our prayer, but because we need to recognize our own constant need for God.
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