Today's unusual feast

Today we celebrate a biblical event that we have become so accustomed to we don't realize how odd it was. The Gospel tells us that Mary went to visit Elizabeth and stayed three months. What the Bible never tells us is why.

It's worth noting that the story does not mention Joseph at all. Travel at that time for a woman was neither safe nor easy. It's not like she got in her car and drove over to visit a friend who is also pregnant. The Scriptures make the point of telling us that she went into the hill country. Is this merely a geographical reference or is it telling us that she was going into hiding? It may well be that by this point the gossip around the village had become too much to bear.or perhaps, she simply went to help her older pregnant relative.

We will also never know anything about what transpired in those three months. One can only imagine the conversations these two women might've had. Having both experience the miraculous power of God, they could understand one another.

 

Despite all the mystery still surrounding these events, the Gospel writers felt it important to include the story, and today we celebrate these two women and their time together.  

But let us also take a moment today and pray for pregnant women especially those pregnant and living in very difficult circumstances.

When did piety become a bad word?

Today we begin our reading of the Second Letter of St. Peter. Again it is classified as a catholic letter not because it belongs exclusively to the Catholic Church but because it is not addressed to a specific community but to all.

He opens much like St. Paul wishing us grace and peace in abundance. These are obtained by 

Through knowledge of God [the Father] and of Jesus our Lord

He also associates two other things with this knowledge, life and piety. 

I have written often about the word life, Zoe, the eternal life we receive from God. But the other word, piety seems to have fallen on hard times. 

All too often in our modern culture when we hear piety or the word pious, it conjures up negative stereotypes of a dower, puritanical religiosity. The pious never seem happy. 

The true meaning of the word is something much simpler. Eusebia literally means good worship.  Of course, if there is such a thing as good worship then there must be such a thing as bad worship. If prayer at its most basic is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, then bad worship may well be those times when we lift up only one, or neither. How often can any of us recite our prayers and yet our mind is somewhere else? Or perhaps we turn our mind to God, but without truly lifting up our heart, opening our heart to hear God's will. 

The dialogue before the Eucharistic Prayer

Left up your hearts

We lift them up to the Lord

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

It is right and just

Openness and gratitude would seem to be th basic attitudes of good worship, eusebia, piety. The truly pious people should be the happiest people in the world. I think of Pope Francis, you can see the grace and peace that radiates from his smile. Those are the fruits of true piety. 

Perhaps it is time for us to sweep away the stereotype and reclaim being pious and somethings all of us should strive for. 

What's the motive?

One of the more curious aspects of the human mind is how quickly we jump from a person's action to a decision about the motive. In seconds we judge not only the quality of the action, is it good or bad, but we react as if we know the motive. Particularly if it an action that we don't approve of. Even something as simple as a person walking past us without speaking. How quickly can we take offense?

We react as if the person intentionally snubbed us. 

Contrast that with what the scriptures teach us. In today's first reading St. Peter challenges the people, and therefore us, 

 as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct

But when they are not holy, notice how he describes it 

do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance (1 Pt 1:14)

Like Jesus on the cross St. Peter attributes the behavior not to malicious intent, but ignorance. 

Is it possible for a person to act with a truly malicious intent? Certainly. But should that be our instantaneous presumption? No! If we are Christians we start with the presumption of ignorance. It is actually a double ignorance, their acting in ignorance and our ignorance of what is in another person's heart. 

Does it change the person's behavior? No, but it changes our response. We no longer react with that flash of anger, that can turn into a lasting grudge against someone. 

If we can train ourselves, and it does take practice, to presume ignorance until we have proof of something else, then we can be more peaceful in our own hearts. It is not our natural response, but with God's grace and lots of practice, it can become a habit. 

What was the thing?

Today we have one of the most interesting stories in Mark's gospel that may not be as simple as it looks.  On the surface, it appears to be a condemnation of materialism "go and sell what you have and give to the poor." Then this man who has learned and obeyed the commandments of the Torah his whole life will be ready to follow Jesus. 

The question Jesus never answers is what is the one thing. He tell him he is lacking one thing. He tells him that in order to acquire the one thing he needs to sell what he has, but he never names the one thing he is lacking. 

Perhaps this is good, because it creates a space for us to fill. What is the one thing that we are lacking? What is it that keeps us from following Jesus completely?  Jesus, "having looked at him, loved him" and he saw what was missing and what this particular man needed to do to fill the void properly.

Are we willing to hear the voice of Jesus, acknowledge what we are lacking, and do whatever Jesus calls us to do, or are we like the young man in the story, too wedded to our stuff, to our current way of life. 

Today let us open our hearts acknowledge what we lack, and listen for the voice of Jesus.

Sickness and forgiveness

Not having grown up Catholic the words sacraments meant nothing to me. I had grown up with the notion that you read the Bible, believed in Jesus, got baptized, and were saved. Then I really started to read the Bible, the whole thing. And sudden I found that "all that Catholic stuff" was right there in the Bible, including the seven sacraments— without that title. But what difference do titles make. The titles were not on the gospels, tradition assigned those but all Chrstians use them (The Gospel according to Matthew, etc)

Today in chapter 5 of the Letter to James it says,

Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the Church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. 

Notice that it doesn't say "gather a group of Christians, have them stand around the person in a circle, and put a hand on them, prayer over them, and have someone anoint them"

St. James is very specific the person must be a presbyter (English translation: priest). We are still officially ordained "presbyters". The group of priests collectively is called the Presbyterate.  

Praying for one another is certainly important thing to do, but it does not take the place of the sacrament, the anointing according to the direct instructions of the word of God. 

Why does it have to be a presbyter? Many Catholics will ask, why can't deacons annoit. Firstly, because the Bible is specific. Secondly, the reason St. James is so specific is that the Sacrament of Annoiting is not simply about physically healing. Notice the last part,

If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. 

The Bible has always known what medicine is just beginning to admit, that the human person is one. You cannot divide them up and deal with the physical, the psychological, and the spiritual separately. All of the dimensions are interconnected. 

The Annoiting of the Sick always brings healing on the level that the person most needs it, from God's point of view. Sometimes that healing is the ultimate healing, passage into eternal life. No sacrament is ever without effect. 

Today we thank God for the gift of this sacrament, and when we are seriously ill we should follow the instructions of St. James. 

How to avoid God's judgement

As Christians we must remember that there are more than 10 imperatives in the Bible. While Jesus summarizes all of them in 2, the New Testament is filled with concrete things that we are commanded to do or not to do, as part of the two great commandments. 

Today's first reading opens with just such a command from St. James

Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be judged. 

The Greek has that sense of muttering under your breath. All to often we don't reserve the comment to under our breath; we say it out loud, which is even worse. 

Not only does St. James tells what not to do, but he tells us the reward we get for not doing it. Don't grumble against others, and you can avoid judgement. And yet, even after reading thi,s how many of will make to bed this evening without falling into this sin, without having to comment negatively about somebody. 

St. Paul gives the Ephesians the same command (Eph. 4:29)

No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear.

And yet, neither St. James nor St. Paul can seem to sway us.  Even on Sunday, some people can't even make it out the doors of the church before they start. Imagine a parish where no one grumbled about anyone else.

What do we get out of it? Does seeing bad in others make us feel better about ourselves?

Whatever it is, the scriptures are clear, it is a form of darkness that we need to fight on a daily basis. And in some ways it may be the simplest way of avoiding judgment in the end. 

Crying

In the first reading today St. James tells us that the workers who have not been justly paid, cry out to God and the cries

enter the ears of the Lord of Hosts (armies).

This notion is not new to St. James but is a central them throughout the Hebrew Scriptures 

Tzaak - the out cry, the cry that comes from the deepest part of your being

The word occurs 72 times beginning with the Book of Exodus when the children of Israel cried out to God because they are being held in slavery. 

What is as interesting is the fact that sometimes the people are not answered by God because they do not cry out to God from their hearts (Hosea 7:14)

What keeps us from crying out to God from our hearts? Pride? Do we see it as a sign of weakness? Are we afraid to open our hearts completely before God? 

Cry out to God all the earth!