Today is the end of the first week of the year of mercy.
When we think about the Scriptures at Mass we think of course of the gospel, then we think of the first and/or second reading. We often forget about the psalms. Each day a psalm is assigned. In the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Psalms is the first book of the section simply called "the writings." Our name psalms comes from psalmoi in Greek meaning instrumental music. We know that the psalms were intended to be sung, accompanied by instruments. Nothing will ingrain a text in us like singing.
Our Morning and Evening Prayer centers around singing of the psalms and each time mass is celebrated one psalm is provided with a verse or part of a verse serving as a refrain. Todays psalm is #25 and the refrain is taken from verse 4.
Teach me your ways, O Lord.
The opening verse today was:
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me
But how much do we really want to learn? How open are we to being guided? Speaking for myself, I have my to-do list for the day ready to go. And with Christmas bearing down on us, slightly more than a week away, we can all feel a bit overwhelmed. With so much to do, how open are we to being taught right now? Are we really open to letting God choose the path for the day? Suppose the path God has set for us today does not coincide with our to-do list, or our preparation for Christmas. How will we respond?
Perhaps it's time to pause. Step back from what are really cultural expectations of Christmas, and truly look for the path God wants each of us to walk this Christmas.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
A Challenge
On this the second day of the Year of Mercy, the gospel places before us an enormous challenge particularly given the world in which we live. Terrorism appears to be achieving its goal. What separate murder or even mass murder from terrorism is the goal. The goal of terrorism is not simply to kill to be terrorize, to instill fear. As Christians we are told constantly in the New Testament to not be afraid. But today's gospel may be even more difficult to live.
Jesus tells us to:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart
We are supposed to to learn to follow his example and yet how many of us really want to be either meek or humble? We like the words in theory, but if you were to ask Gallup to conduct a poll, and ask people to list the top 10 characteristics of a great leader, where would meek and humble fall? I doubt that those two words would even make the top 20.
More importantly, how many of us strive to been either meek/gentle or humble of heart? And perhaps that is the challenge on this second day of the Year of Mercy. Be gentle. Be humble.
Jesus tells us to:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart
We are supposed to to learn to follow his example and yet how many of us really want to be either meek or humble? We like the words in theory, but if you were to ask Gallup to conduct a poll, and ask people to list the top 10 characteristics of a great leader, where would meek and humble fall? I doubt that those two words would even make the top 20.
More importantly, how many of us strive to been either meek/gentle or humble of heart? And perhaps that is the challenge on this second day of the Year of Mercy. Be gentle. Be humble.
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
New Beginnings
Some may wonder why the Pope would choose the day on which we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary as the day to begin the Jubilee Year. To me it makes perfect sense. After all if someone asked you where does the gospel story begin where would you pick?
Some might say that the gospel story begins with the birth of Jesus. Others might go back a bit further and say the annunciation when the angel appeared to Mary and Jesus was conceived. Others might go back six months further to the conception of John, the precursor of Jesus.
To me it makes sense to go back to the moment we celebrate today, the moment Mary was conceived. With that first miraculous step God showed his plan for the restoration and elevation of the human race. I say elevation because the plan was to raise us from mere image and likeness to true sons and daughters. He would undo the damage done by original sin. And so his first act in the forging of this new and eternal covenant would be to conceive a child without original sin, the prototype of what was to come.
And so for me it makes perfect sense that today as we celebrate that new beginning we make a new beginning of our own, the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Today as Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica let each of us throw open the doors of our hearts.
Some might say that the gospel story begins with the birth of Jesus. Others might go back a bit further and say the annunciation when the angel appeared to Mary and Jesus was conceived. Others might go back six months further to the conception of John, the precursor of Jesus.
To me it makes sense to go back to the moment we celebrate today, the moment Mary was conceived. With that first miraculous step God showed his plan for the restoration and elevation of the human race. I say elevation because the plan was to raise us from mere image and likeness to true sons and daughters. He would undo the damage done by original sin. And so his first act in the forging of this new and eternal covenant would be to conceive a child without original sin, the prototype of what was to come.
And so for me it makes perfect sense that today as we celebrate that new beginning we make a new beginning of our own, the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Today as Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica let each of us throw open the doors of our hearts.
Monday, December 7, 2015
Offering masses and Indulgences
One of the Catholic practices least understood by others is that of offering masses for the repose of the soul of someone who is deceased. Why pray for them if they are already dead?
1. The journey is not complete for any of us until it is complete for all of us at the end of time when Jesus returns and raises our moral bodies and makes them like his own. (1 Cor 15:36-49).
2. Some souls have already entered into heaven. Others are still being purified.
If is for those we offer our prayers, including the mass and indulgences. No, indulgences are not something sold. The are actions that we put with words to atone for sin that we have committed or on behalf of others. And here is where we come to today's gospel.
In the gospel, the man is paralyzed. He cannot act on his own behalf. He represents so many people are are in one way or another paralyzed. His friends decide that they must help him. They dismantle a section of roof and lower him to Jesus.
The gospel tells us,
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
The faith of the friends, brings forgiveness to the paralyzed man. Their faith expressed in actions (works) brought forgiveness and salvation to the paralyzed man.
Those who argue that the only way for one to be saved is for them personally to accept Jesus Christ as their savior (and be baptized with water) have forgotten that God cannot be limited.
Sometimes spiritual paralysis can be worse than physical paralysis.
One this last day of preparation for the year of mercy that begins tomorrow morning,
Countdown and other info
it would be good for us to pause and call to mind perhaps some loved one who have fallen into spiritual paralysis. They are so wound, or angry, ignorant of God's love, or obstinate that they cannot or will not embrace the faith. Let today's gospel be source of hope. Do not give up, because God never gives us on any human being.
1. The journey is not complete for any of us until it is complete for all of us at the end of time when Jesus returns and raises our moral bodies and makes them like his own. (1 Cor 15:36-49).
2. Some souls have already entered into heaven. Others are still being purified.
If is for those we offer our prayers, including the mass and indulgences. No, indulgences are not something sold. The are actions that we put with words to atone for sin that we have committed or on behalf of others. And here is where we come to today's gospel.
In the gospel, the man is paralyzed. He cannot act on his own behalf. He represents so many people are are in one way or another paralyzed. His friends decide that they must help him. They dismantle a section of roof and lower him to Jesus.
The gospel tells us,
When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
The faith of the friends, brings forgiveness to the paralyzed man. Their faith expressed in actions (works) brought forgiveness and salvation to the paralyzed man.
Those who argue that the only way for one to be saved is for them personally to accept Jesus Christ as their savior (and be baptized with water) have forgotten that God cannot be limited.
Sometimes spiritual paralysis can be worse than physical paralysis.
One this last day of preparation for the year of mercy that begins tomorrow morning,
Countdown and other info
it would be good for us to pause and call to mind perhaps some loved one who have fallen into spiritual paralysis. They are so wound, or angry, ignorant of God's love, or obstinate that they cannot or will not embrace the faith. Let today's gospel be source of hope. Do not give up, because God never gives us on any human being.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Three days and counting
Today's gospel ends by reminding us of something that not just Catholics but all Christians tend to forget.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
We do not buy our salvation. We do not earn our salvation. It comes through grace. The Catechism defines grace by saying:
Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
Free and undeserved help. Imagine for a moment if we were to begin truly imitating God whose children we are and in whose image we are made. Imagine if for the year of mercy we were to start handing out free and undeserved help.
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Friday, December 4, 2015
Four days and counting
In four day at 9:30 am Eastern Time Pope Francis will open the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica and mark the official beginning of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy that will run from December 8, 2015 until November 20, 2016 the Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe.
The concept of the Jubilee goes back to the Book of Leviticus 25. Seven being the perfect number, every seventh year was a sabbatical year, but the 7th seventh year, that is every 49 years there was to be a yovel or Jubilee Year, the 50th year. It was a time of forgiveness, liberty, and restitution. Anyone indentured was freed. Land held as collateral was returned. Debts were forgiven.
In these last few days of preparation, perhaps now is the time for each of us to taken an internal inventory. Are there sins for which I need forgiveness? Are there people I need to forgive? Are there things I am holding onto that I need to let go of? Are there relationships that need to be restored?
Let us take these days to prepare ourselves to open wide the doors of our hearts, to receive and give the gift of mercy.
The concept of the Jubilee goes back to the Book of Leviticus 25. Seven being the perfect number, every seventh year was a sabbatical year, but the 7th seventh year, that is every 49 years there was to be a yovel or Jubilee Year, the 50th year. It was a time of forgiveness, liberty, and restitution. Anyone indentured was freed. Land held as collateral was returned. Debts were forgiven.
In these last few days of preparation, perhaps now is the time for each of us to taken an internal inventory. Are there sins for which I need forgiveness? Are there people I need to forgive? Are there things I am holding onto that I need to let go of? Are there relationships that need to be restored?
Let us take these days to prepare ourselves to open wide the doors of our hearts, to receive and give the gift of mercy.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Speechless
Today we have in the gospel the well-known passage,
I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
In Greek there are a number of words for a child depending on the age. In Luke's gospel the word we translate as child like is nepios. It literally means "without words". It refers to an infant so young it cannot yet speak. In other places in the gospels the word paidon (a child of up to about 10) is used but here the word that is used refers to a child at its earliest stage of life.
As I reflect on this I am taken back to all the newborns that came to our house as foster children before being adopted. I can't even count the number. In their earliest weeks their eyes can't even really focus, and so touch and hearing become their primary senses. And maybe that is the key.
Once our eyes can focus we become very visual, perhaps even too visual. We are so captivated by the visual, by appearance, that we loose our ability to listen. The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" has never been more true than today. Ask anyone in the field of communications.
The problem for us as Christians is that we are not people of the picture we are people of the word.
In the beginning was the word... (Jn 1:1)
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mt. 4:4)
Stop judging by mere appearances... (Jn 7:24)
We are great at looking at pictures, and we are great at talking. We are not so good at listening.
Perhaps this gospel is reminding us that if we want to be truly with wise we have to spend more time speechless, and spend more time just listening.
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