30 June 2017 - touch points

Today's Readings

"Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
"I will do it. Be made clean."

Jesus wants us to be confident of his love for us. He wants us to be made clean at the deepest level. He does will our healing. We have trouble believing this. Like the leper, we've lived with our issues for long enough that we don't really believe change is possible. We tend to think that God must be indifferent to our concerns if he has let them go until now.

Maybe Jesus is waiting to heal us until he can do so by touching us directly. Jesus can heal the servant without visiting the household. But he does so in relation to the servant's master. The problems of sin and suffering in the world are not solved by an ambiguous force of goodness that just moves through the world like a wind setting things right. Rather, sin and suffering only find their answer in the person of Jesus Christ.

Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.

Let us learn to walk with Jesus. It's true that we do have our issues. Abraham goes so long without a child. The leper lives so long with his disease. It is only thus because God wants to draw each of them close to himself. And it is the same with us. We need not fear to ask God for healing and blessing. We can do so assured that he loves us.

God replied: "Nevertheless, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son,
and you shall call him Isaac.
I will maintain my covenant with him as an everlasting pact,
to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.

29 June 2017 - rock solid faith

Today's Readings

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

Peter and Paul know who Jesus is. Everything else stems from that. They have that knowledge from revelation. But it becomes increasingly real for them as they come to rely on it in their lives.

"Now I know for certain 
that the Lord sent his angel 
and rescued me from the hand of Herod
and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting."

They succeed because they hold to the truth of their faith even when they are tested. That is not to say they don't make mistakes or undergo trials. Even Peter fails occasionally along the way. He famously tries to talk Jesus out of going to the cross. He denies Jesus when he is arrested. But even though they may fail they always turn back again to their faith. If they stumble on the way they still get back up and run the race.

I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.

As they rely on the LORD they learn more and more how reliable he is.

The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat
and will bring me safe to his heavenly Kingdom.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

We too have the seed of faith through revelation. It does not stem from flesh and blood but rather from a revelation of our Father in heaven. This revelation is meant to be the rock on which all else is built. It points us toward heaven so that we can run toward it. It is there to catch and support us when we fall. May we too come to experience and trust just how reliable are the promises of our God.

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.

28 June 2017 - real fruit flavor

Today's Readings

By their fruits you will know them.
Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Just so, every good tree bears good fruit,
and a rotten tree bears bad fruit.

This is a great discernment strategy. It helps us see through so many different kinds of deception. When we have a question about what an individual is saying we can look at what he or she is doing. We can watch for the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Are there love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control present? A person without such fruits can still say true things. But we ought to be watchful in such cases for unwarranted leaps from those things to others. This applies to religious and civil leaders and even other ordinary people. All of them occasionally ask us to trust them. But that trust must be earned by their fruit.

It is also a great discernment strategy to test the things we're doing in our own lives. If we accept a new idea does it help us to bear fruit? If we respond to what we believe to be God's call on us do we see fruit as a result? This doesn't necessarily mean successful endeavors. Rather it means that we see inner growth and transformation by the grace of God.

Abram trusts God and bears good fruit. He is uncertain at first but God reveals his holiness to Abram in the smoking pot and the flaming torch that pass between the pieces of the sacrifice. What fruit does Abram's trust bear? We see his success. We know that his name is changed and he is made a great nation. But this is really a consequence of the fruit more than the fruit itself. The fruit itself is the depth of his covenant relationship with God. His closeness to God is his most profound fruit.

It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: "To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River the Euphrates."

Just so with us. Is what we're doing and believing drawing us closer to God or is it taking us further away? The love, joy, and peace we experience in our lives are a good litmus test for this proximity. We can experience them even when we are called to make difficult journeys along unknown roads if we are truly called to those journeys by God.

He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations—
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.

27 June 2017 - toward the gate

Today's Readings

Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Do we treat our faith as precious? Do we recognize that we have in Jesus the pearl of great price? It important that we do so. If we treat our faith as common, if we approach attending Church and watching Netflix with much the same attitude, the world can see this. Then, rather than elevating the swine and making them human as they are drawn toward the pearl, we find ourselves more like the prodigal son, longing to eat what the swine eat because we forgot the beauty of our inheritance.

The gate is narrow. It is unique and distinct from all of our worldly pursuits. Only if we aim recognize our target can we aim for it, and only if we aim for it will we make it through. It isn't a matter of our efforts. It is, however, a matter of choosing one path instead of many possible others.

This is something Abram knows.

Please separate from me.
If you prefer the left, I will go to the right;
if you prefer the right, I will go to the left.

Because of his relationship with the LORD he doesn't overvalue things of this world. He is able to do to others what he would have them to do him precisely for this reason. He knows the value of his relationship with the LORD and doesn't treat it as equivalent to the good things of the world.

The gate is narrow, but if we move toward it we have nothing to fear. Jesus himself is the gate for the sheep (see John 10:9) and he is waiting to welcome us to the pastures of the blessed.

He who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

26 June 2017 - public opinion

Today's Readings

Stop judging, that you may not be judged.
For as you judge, so will you be judged,
and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.

We are called to always assume the best about others. But we aren't very good at it. On the road, in the grocery store, and at work we are all too ready to attribute other people's failures to malice while we excuse ourselves for being only human. We notice in others the faults we all too readily excuse in ourselves. Even with those faults which we are working on correcting in ourselves we become so well attuned to seeing that we're all too ready to see them in others. Seeing them in others quickly becomes easier than recognizing them in ourselves. We don't even need to consider the faults of others unless it makes some difference to how we act toward them. The world does not benefit from our well thought through considerations of why the people around us are wrong. In fact, all that does is make the world more judgmental in turn.

When the LORD calls us to follow him it is without reference to what those around us are doing. Investing in judgment is implicitly stating that our opinion should matter to others. The converse which inevitably becomes true is that their opinions matter to us as well. We have become trapped in a whole ecosystem of what people think. Instead, we only need care what the LORD thinks, what he says, and to where he calls us.

"Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

"I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you."

We can't follow this call when we are too concerned about the plank in our neighbors eye. The plank in our own eye will definitely be an issue, but only because we need to see the road in front of us, the road which God is calling us to walk. Fortunately he has given us a healing balm in his Church to transform our faults into his own righteousness.

Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.

25 June 2017 - greater still

Today's Readings

There is a lot in this world that seems worth being afraid of. Terror and violence are in so frequently in the news that it seems like a little fear would be justified. Our own faults seem like plenty to worry about even without anything else.

'Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!'
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.

People rightly wonder what difference faith can make in such a world. Do we walk differently from others or do we also stumble in the face of fear?

Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.

The world is watching to see if our faith makes a difference. Faith is supposed to make a difference. We recognize the dangers that exist in our world but we remain confident because God is with us.

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.

The LORD is with us. He holds our souls in his hands. The worst the world can do is kill the body. That is ultimately a very short term problem in the light of eternity. When trials do come we need to remember that God is aware of what is happening to us and that he loves us.

Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.

When we realize we are loved the fear can no longer control us. His perfect love begins to cast out our fear (see First John 4:18). The enemy really wants to keep us afraid so that we won't be good witnesses to Jesus. But the world needs to hear what was spoken to us. We cannot and must not leave it in the dark.

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

It is a gift of grace that changes everything. It isn't something we earn. We don't finally become people immune to fear because we somehow rework our inner psychology to no longer experience it. Instead, the love of Jesus comes to us from outside of ourselves and shows us that, even in the face of our greatest fears, love is greater still.

For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!

24 June 2017 - the dawn from on high

Today's Readings

What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.

John is the greatest of the prophets. It is not because of the attention he draws to himself. Much attention is drawn to him. Followers gather around him. But he is quick to point to the one who he is born to announce. He is ready to decrease so that Jesus may increase. We too need to learn to put God's message before our own. We need be ready to redirect any praise we receive to the Father. We need to learn to speak his words. Only then will we truly be heard.

He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name,"
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.

We need to be ready to step back from ourselves and our own plans in order to make room for God's plans. When we start speaking according to his plans and promises we find our lives begin to change. They are more open to the blessings God gives. They are more easily used by him to bring glory to his name. So we pray every morning in the Divine Office, "Lord open my lips and my mouth shall proclaim your praises."

God has a purpose for all of us. He has a plan he wants to reveal to us. We are called and chosen by him to help bring his Kingdom to our world. We'd rather back down from a plan so fearful. We'd prefer to stick to business as usual, speaking only the names we are used to speaking, not really acknowledging the possibility of something so new and wonderful. But the Good News is indeed new. And it is this which we are called to proclaim.

For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!

Let's point the way to Jesus even if it means that we ourselves lose some of the attention we might otherwise receive. Let us speak the words God is calling us to speak even if they are new and unfamiliar. We can be sure that when we do we discover our true purpose. Our mouths are opened to bless the LORD.

 I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.

23 June 2017 - yoked

Today's Readings

Christians are people who bear the yoke of Christ instead of the yoke of the world. We are not thereby freed from suffering but we do experience a peace and a rest even amidst the storms of life at which the world apart from Christ can only wonder.

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

Let us come before Jesus this morning. He loves us and wants to give us rest from burdens we aren't meant to bear. We acknowledge that he is the Son of God, and with this acknowledgment God abides in us and we in him. This is coming to Jesus. This is the true, deep, and mystical meaning of bearing the yoke of Christ. It is not the easy but ultimately unsatisfying peace of indifference. It is the peace that comes from knowing that God is love and that love, therefore, has the ultimate and final say. It is still a yoke, this love. Our yoke is still concerned with love of God and love of neighbor. But in Jesus, even though we bear this yoke, we can still rest.

We are chosen for this call. It is not by chance. Jesus is calling your name and mine specifically when he says "Come to me".

You are a people sacred to the LORD, your God;
he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth
to be a people peculiarly his own.

It is not because of our own merits or deeds. It is not because we first loved God. It is because, from the very beginning, God loved us. And so we hear him. We confidently approach him when he says, "Come to me". We receive his Spirit, his yoke, his heart for the Father and the world, his own love with which he loves.

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

Perhaps we have never experienced the rest of Jesus Christ. Perhaps we're holding our own burdens with white knuckled tenacity. Today is the day to come to him and to let the healing begin.

He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.

22 June 2017 - meant words not many

Today's Readings

In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

We approach prayer in humility. We can't talk our way into being heard. We're never going to formulate enough perfect words to compel the Father to hear us. More importantly, we don't need to.

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

He already loves us. He already knows what we need. 

'Our Father who art in heaven,

We pray to acknowledge that we have a Father in heaven that loves us and whose will is perfect. When his name is hallowed in us we are in right relationship with him. We trust him. We realize that his will is the best thing for us and for the world. 

hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Only then do we talk about more specific ways we want to remain in his perfect will.

Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.'

How can we approach a God like this as if he were merely a king whom we could persuade with flowery words? This God of ours is not going to have a change of heart. He loves us and nothing can change that. Instead, we approach prayer with humility. The first thing we do is allow him to reveal himself to us. From there we let his will transform our own desires to unite them to his own.

This humility will help us to receive the truth about Jesus without the need for flash and glamour of "superapostles". Humble teachers are most likely to teach truth yet they are often the easiest to ignore.

Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge;
in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

Our many words in prayer and our refusal to accept the humble teachers God sends us stem from the same source: our pride. Let us realize the Fatherly providence of God this morning. Let us come to trust him.

The works of his hands are faithful and just;
sure are all his precepts,
Reliable forever and ever,
wrought in truth and equity. 

21 June 2017 - secret treasure

Today's Readings

When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

When we do good and don't receive acknowledgment how do we take it? Times like this are good indicators of how we're doing in this regard. How much is our charity really driven and fueled by pride? For most of us it is probably the majority rather than less. The idea of giving in secret is difficult. The idea of fasting without drawing attention to ourselves is tough. Praying without the need to be seen as a particularly devout and prayerful person is tough. Without pride to fuel us we often fall back on grudging obligation. How can we overcome this problem? We need to remember that there is one who always sees, acknowledges, and receives our efforts. He is the one who loves us before we even begin.

And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

The Father loves cheerful givers. He is able to give us all we need for all the good works he prepares for us. There is such an abundance that we don't need pride or obligation to motivate us anymore.

Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you,
so that in all things, always having all you need,
you may have an abundance for every good work.

People can see when we are enriched with this generosity. They are used to the pride and self-image that usually pass as love. They can't help but be moved when they see the real thing. It isn't our reward when that happens. Our reward is with the Father. But still, realizing this kind of love is possible helps the world to change.

You are being enriched in every way for all generosity,
which through us produces thanksgiving to God.

Let us remember that our Father sees in secret. Let us learn to receive the grace he gives to love for his sake.

Light shines through the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.

20 June 2017 - by his poverty

Today's Readings

for in a severe test of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty
overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

Usually poverty doesn't overflow in generosity. For the Macedonians it does because their poverty is like that of Jesus Christ shows us.

For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that for your sake he became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Jesus enriches all of us because he allows himself to be poor. He does not insist on his rights. He becomes man and suffers and dies for us. All of this is beneath him as God. Yet he stoops down to us. This is what love does. We are meant to love even when we don't receive anything in return. We aren't meant to gauge the worthiness of those whom we love. Jesus proves that everyone is worthy of love.

But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Yes, we do love those close to us in a special way. But no one should be ineligible or excluded just as a matter of course. We are permitted no enemies whom we are free to ignore, to not love, or even to hate. If the world seems too big for us to love everyone let us at least work at extending our will in loving prayer to all. Let us pray particular for those we don't want to pray for. Let us pray for those who we don't like. Let us pray for those we think do not deserve it. As we pray for them our own hearts change. Our love is more broad. We find that we ourselves were selfish and not deserving of love. But as God gives us his grace we are able to love more like he loves.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Let us love like the Father who loves us even when we act as his enemies.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (see Romans 5:10)

Let us thank the Father for having shown us this love first and giving us the grace to love like him.

Praise the LORD, my soul!
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.

19 June 2017 - nothing held back

Today's Readings

But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.

In case we are tempted to forget how radical is the gospel to which Jesus calls us here is a reminder. We are quick to add 'within reason' to our reading of this statement. And there is something to that. Even so, Jesus put this into practice. He does so beyond anything we would consider 'within reason' when he allows himself to be crucified for us. We know that we have some right to protect ourselves, to establish firm boundaries, and to not let ourselves be treated as doormats. It is important to know that Jesus did not give himself up to his enemies the first time they tried to kill him. While his disciples did give to the poor they also maintained a moneybag for their needs.

We are called to do what we can for everyone who crosses our path, starting with those closest to us and working outward in concentric circles. The point is that we must not hold on to our goods or our lives for our own sakes. When we hold back a gift it is always so we can make a still greater gift of who we are.

Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

It sounds impossible. In practice it looks like it would be painful. And yet only if we practice this genuine charity can we ever experience true freedom. 

We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful;
as unrecognized and yet acknowledged;
as dying and behold we live;
as chastised and yet not put to death;
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing;
as poor yet enriching many;
as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

In order to fulfill our ministry we need to receive the grace of God and allow it to change us. We are drawn toward selfishness. God gives endurance in whatever hardships we face. The Spirit gives us the purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, truth speech, and unfeigned love that allow us to live radically for Jesus. We have the weapons of righteousness at our right and at our left, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and the shield of our faith (see Ephesians 6:10), both ready and waiting for us to use them.

Because our task sounds difficult we might want to delay. With Saint Augustine we want to say, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." But if we want to be sure that we do not receive the grace of God in vain now is the time.

In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.

Our calling proves impossible by our own strength. It is too radical for anyone living in the flesh. But as we see God bring it about in us we are moved to praise him. This love is how the world is meant to recognize us as the followers of Jesus.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.

18 June 2017 - hungry I come to You

Today's Readings

He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

We need food to live. We can go without it for a while and become hungry. Our very bodies insist on the importance of food. Yet even in our hunger we are meant to remember something even more important than food and even more basic. We need the word of God to sustain us. He is the one who can provide food for us even in the desert. By his power he supernaturally ensures that we have what we need for our journey.

We depend on food. But in truth, we depend on God for that food and for everything else. It is that dependence on God that we remember. This is why there is something greater than the manna in the desert which is meant to satisfy our souls at a deeper level.

This is the bread that came down from heaven. 
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever.

We are meant to depend on God. Here's the cool part. He wants to satisfy us not merely with things external like the food for which we hunger. He wants to satisfy us with himself. We hunger in order to learn to hunger for him.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him. 
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me. 

Around a table we are united in sharing a meal. The manna in the desert was a source of unity for the people of God. But when we receive God himself we are united with one another in an even deeper way.

Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.

He feeds us with word and Sacrament. He dwells in us and we in him. He unites us as one. Let us give due honor to so sacred a feast. Let us gather at the table of the altar of God.

17 June 2017 - nothing to prove

Today's Readings

Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.'
Anything more is from the Evil One."

Why do we need to say more than yes and no? It seems that we think we can add certainty to what we're saying. But can we? Isn't certainty something that belongs to God to give? Can it really come from any words we speak? We want to be convincing to others. But in doing so are we presenting a false pretense that we control more than we can really control? How do we step back from this need to be or at least seem so in charge of our circumstances? How can we be truly honest with others about our limits?

The love of Christ impels us,
once we have come to the conviction that one died for all;
therefore, all have died.
He indeed died for all,
so that those who live might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

What if we really live for Christ who died for us rather than for ourselves? If we do that we don't need to present ourselves as more than we are. We don't need to be more than we are. Christ is enough. In him we are new creations. As new creations it is no longer about promises that we have to make ourselves, but rather, it is about the promises of God which we receive as the very source of our life. We have nothing to fear and nothing to prove. The grounds of a very existence are finally made firm set on a rock.

This love of Christ impels us to live differently. And this new life we receive must be shared.

We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

When we share the love of Christ we realize that it isn't about promises we are making but rather the unchangeable promises of God. Because of this we can share the love of Jesus fearlessly.

He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.

16 June 2017 - earthen vessels

Today's Readings

We are aware of the weakness of our flesh. We know many temptations. We find ourselves unable to give people the love and respect they deserve but rather use them for our own selfish ends. Lust and adultery are examples of this.

But I say to you, 
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

These temptations stem from our concupiscence and they can be hard to resist. Paul says that he does the very thing that he knows he shouldn't do in spite of himself.  It almost seems like we are powerless to resist them. There is a good reason why God let's us experience our own weakness.

We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, 
that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us.

God gives us the power and the desire to overcome temptations which we can't overcome by our own effort, and probably don't even really want to overcome until God inspires that desire within us. God allows us to be united to "the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body."

Sometimes the dying of Jesus can seem kind of extreme.

If your right eye causes you to sin, 
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.

While we aren't usually maiming ourselves, the priority is clear. Heaven and eternity has to take precedence even over lesser goods, if sacrificing those goods is necessary to ensure our eternal security. We are unable to put the flesh in this distant second place apart from the power of the risen Christ and his Holy Spirit at work within us. We are unable to see beyond our immediate circumstances and the temptations that fill them. But by belief we begin to hope for more than the next temporary pleasure. We are earthen vessels, it's true. But we begin to let God fill us with the power of his resurrection.

we too believe and therefore speak, 
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.

'Earthen vessels' is a concept that has become too poetic. Singing about them, they seem beautiful and flawless. But really, we feel like vessels on the verge of breaking at any moment. We don't feel up to holding what we have to hold. But faith allows us to be filled in ways we can't even imagine.

I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted";
I said in my alarm,
"No man is dependable." 

So let us believe in the Risen One who wants to fill us today. Let's not turn him away because we see our own cracks and discolorations. We won't break or shatter. We'll be filled with the treasure he wants to give us.

15 June 2017 - mercy shining

Today's Readings

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment,
and whoever says to his brother,
Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,
and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.

Jesus wants to change our hearts at a deep level. It is not enough to simply not kill. We must let Jesus uproot the problems in our own hearts that make us want to kill. Holding on to anger or unforgiveness can keep us from God's presence. He tells us to let go and to go reconcile. We are free to do so. But often we don't want to. We don't want to take the initiative to go to heal the relationship when, in our mind, it is our brother that has something against us rather than we against them. Yet it is precisely this active love that is willing to take the initiative by which God changes us from people who merely don't kill into people who don't even mumble 'You fool' or Raqa under our breath.

Everything God gives us is mercy. He calls us to be merciful to others especially because he is first merciful to us. It is this mercy that unveils what mercy looks like. It transforms us and makes it possible for us to show the mercy we first receive.

All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
as from the Lord who is the Spirit.

God shows us what this mercy looks like and pours it out upon us. Is it any wonder that refusing to show mercy and insisting on holding unforgiveness can keep us from his presence? It is exactly the parable of the man who is forgiven his unpayable debt who then refuses to forgive those who owe him much less.

For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness,
has shone in our hearts to bring to light
the knowledge of the glory of God
on the face of Jesus Christ.

Let's allow God to shine on us and in us and through us today. Let us receive and share his mercy and forgiveness. He offers us grace to let go of any unforgiveness to which we cling.

Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.

14 July 2017 - the Spirit gives life

Today's Readings

for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

We might think this means that we are now free to ignore letters and to be purely spiritual. This is a misunderstanding of just how important the letters were.

Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, was so glorious

The letters are so glorious that "not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law". The letters only kill without the Spirit. The Spirit brings the letters to life. Without the Spirit the letters kill because all they can do is condemn us. With the Spirit they point the way to glory. 

For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious,
the ministry of righteousness will abound much more in glory.

The contrast is necessary because we are all too ready to fall back into a letter-only mode. We receive the Spirit and assume that any interpretation we put forward is the spiritual one. The contrast between the fading glory of the law and the eternal glory of the Spirit shows us that we need to constantly listen to the Spirit as we read the letters lest we be led astray. 

From the pillar of cloud he spoke to them;
they heard his decrees and the law he gave them.

The law is meant to point us toward the one who gives the law. Without the Spirit it only reveals how lost we are without God's help. But with the Spirit it is vital, refreshing, and life-giving. It leads to eternal glory in the Kingdom of heaven.

13 June 2017 - salt added

Today's Readings

We need to do what God made us for. He wants us to be salt that preserves life and gives flavor. He wants us to be a light to shine before the world and cast out darkness. In order not to overwhelm people we try to become less salty. We don't want to be noticed. And certainly we don't want to blind others with our light. We want to help them to see. So we hide our lights rather than letting them shine. But the more we do this the more we don't do what God intends for us to do. He wants us to shine and have flavor. It is possible that a light is in the wrong room or that salt is on the wrong food. But light is meant to shine and salt is meant to be salty.

Brothers and sisters:
As God is faithful, our word to you is not "yes" and "no."

Paul refuses to be both light and darkness or both salty and plain. He is saying one thing, being one fully integrated, entirely purpose driven human. In doing so he follows Jesus who likewise refused to compromise the Father's will.

For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him;
therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory.

We have the Spirit within us to make this holistic integrity possible. He empowers us to will one thing, the better part, the Kingdom which we are to seek first. And in him we already taste it ourselves as our light shines and as we share our flavor with the world.

But the one who gives us security with you in Christ
and who anointed us is God;
he has also put his seal upon us
and given the Spirit in our hearts as a first installment.

We don't have to ask for this Spirit if we are baptized and confirmed. But we can ask him to be unleashed in us, making us not "yes" and "no" but entirely "yes" to God, not darkness and light but only light for a world that needs light desperately.

The revelation of your words sheds light,
gives understanding to the simple.

12 June 2017 - receive courage

Mic drop

Today's Readings

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

The beatitudes are easier to hear in the good times when we don't actually have to pay much attention. When we mourn and someone tells us that we are blessed we are probably just going to get angry at them.  Yet that is what Jesus is telling us. He says to us that our poverty, sadness, hunger, and pain all have a deeper significance in him. On their own they do not. This isn't a platitude of philosophy anyone can discover and live. It is only true because of the death and resurrection of Jesus himself.

For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us,
so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.
If we are afflicted,
it is for your encouragement and salvation;
if we are encouraged,
it is for your encouragement,
which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

There is no way to the resurrection which doesn't pass through the cross. Any crosses we bear by our own effort end only in death and not in resurrection. That is why Jesus brings us with him on his own journey to calvary. Because he does so all of our sufferings can now participate in his own suffering. Our sufferings become redemptive. They help us to desire more and more only that which really matters. They even become redemptive for others as we show them that death and pain don't have the last word. We empower them to endure sufferings just as we do.

If we are afflicted this morning the LORD desires to encourage us. He wants us to realize that he is chiseling away at the remnants of our stony hearts to reveal the living heart he has already placed with us. He is making us pure and and righteous and peaceful so that we will be able to be satisfied as his children by the vision of his face.

Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him. 

11 June 2017 - formula for success

Today's Readings

Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."

The Trinity is hidden everywhere. There is the One speaking, the Word spoken, and the cloud of glory. Although the fullness of the Trinity is hidden he is nevertheless present to Israel. Even then, before they have any idea about the doctrine of the Trinity, they already enter to some extent into the mystery. And this is what the mystery is meant to be. It is something which we primarily enter and only secondarily understand, and that in weak and partial ways.

Jesus reveals to us that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is not interested so much in clover metaphors about a natural three-in-one as he is that we enter into the life they share together. He is interested in joining us in the same bond of love that defines the highest reality of God himself.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

The upshot to all of this is that there isn't going to be a test. We aren't going to have to perfectly recite the Athanasian creed of the Nicean formulas. We may never fully understand the profundity of saying that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father. The important thing is to live it. This is one way that love covers a multitude of sins. Even the Trinitarian heresies are heresies not just because they are wrong but because all of the ways they are wrong describe something as less than love. Love is the only test. Will we enter in?

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

We are invited to be filled with the Spirit, united with the Son, loving the Father today. We enter in by faith, and from this union hope and charity flow out to the world. So let us praise the mystery beyond all telling!

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

 

10 June 2017 - more than all the others

Today's Readings

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. 
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,
"Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more
than all the other contributors to the treasury.

We don't really believe this do we? We measure our success by the impact we can see. The temple wouldn't notice two small coins so how can they matter? But this is not the way of God's economy. God's economy is not about impact but love. It isn't about results or achievements but rather faithfulness. This is hard for us. We'd rather have something to take pride in like the scribes in today's reading. They strike the perfect appearance but really harm themselves and others.

They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext,
recite lengthy prayers.
They will receive a very severe condemnation.

Raphael helps us to understand just how good the genuine love shown in almsgiving can be. He explains, in effect, why the widow gives more than anyone else.

It is better to give alms than to store up gold;
for almsgiving saves one from death and expiates every sin.

For Raphael and for the widow the important key is to put God first. When he is in first place we have a freedom with our possessions that allows us to give to those in need. When God is on the throne in our lives we are able to hold loosely to our pride and possessions.

Thank God! Give him the praise and the glory.
Before all the living,
acknowledge the many good things he has done for you,
by blessing and extolling his name in song.
Honor and proclaim God's deeds,
and do not be slack in praising him.

When we thank God we remember that everything we have is from him. We are not afraid to offer it back to him again.

So now consider what he has done for you,
and praise him with full voice.
Bless the Lord of righteousness,
and exalt the King of ages. 

9 June 2017 - sight for sore eyes

Today's Readings

David himself calls him 'lord';
so how is he his son?"
The great crowd heard this with delight.

Jesus is the LORD of lords. He is the king of kings. We need to put him first in everything. Only in so doing are our enemies placed under our feet. Only then do we find the way to the life of blessing that God really does have in store for all of us.

We'd really prefer to solve the problem of bird-dropping induced cataracts by figuring it out for ourselves on PubMed. We'd like to similarly solve any relationship issues by first focusing on the relationships. But that leads to one failure after another. Only once all is surrendered to God is he free to truly bless us. We do not surrender to him because we do not trust him. We know that his priorities are not our priorities. We think that his idea of blessings won't make us happy. But they are the only things that can make us happy.

May his holy name be praised
throughout all the ages,
Because it was he who scourged me,
and it is he who has had mercy on me.
Behold, I now see my son Tobiah!

We too are blind when we do not put God first. Anything else we think we can see is false reality. Paul discovered this after being blinded on the road to Damascus. Tobit discovers it in the reading this morning. We are invited to discover it as well. Let us come to Jesus so that our eyes may be opened.

The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.

8 June 2017 - first place winners

Today's Readings

"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel! 
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, 
and with all your strength.

In our lives we tend to forget that this commandment is always applicable. We think to ourselves that as long as we're getting to Church, finding prayer times, and not taking the LORD's name in vain we are more or less on the right track with this. But there is more to it than that. It applies to even that which isn't specifically religious. God is meant to have dominion over every aspect of our lives. Anything that comes before him in anyway is an idol. "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (see Romans 14:23).

Tobiah and Sarah are a great example of doing this right. On their wedding night, a night when most people would be more than ready to tacitlly acknowledge God but then actually put themselves first, Tobiah and Sarah intentionally seek God first.

Tobiah arose from bed and said to his wife,
"My love, get up.
Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us
and to grant us deliverance."

It is a game-changer for them. When they put God first in their relationship finally it works the way God intends for it to work. Tacit acknowledgement isn't enough to live in the plans of God. If we want to live in those plans we need to actually seek him first. When we seek him first we do not become so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good. That is a sign that we are filled with tacit acknowledgements rather than genuine seeking. Genuine seeking always includes love of neighbor.

The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The LORD must be first not in thought only but in deed and in truth. From there flows love of neighbor. From there flows all God's blessings.

Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life. 

7 June 2017 - the God of the living

Today's Readings

God's power changes everything. It changes apparent tragedy into triumph. Things may seem quite bad and we may feel that, although God is good, we have somehow failed him and do not qualify for his mercy. We tend to get this way when things in our circumstances get bad. We rationalize how a good God can let us suffer and this is what we end up with. He is good, but not to me. I must have lost his favor somehow.

So now, deal with me as you please,
and command my life breath to be taken from me,
that I may go from the face of the earth into dust.
It is better for me to die than to live,
because I have heard insulting calumnies,
and I am overwhelmed with grief.

But what if God is still at work? What if we're giving up on him before he gives up on us?

At that very time, 
the prayer of these two suppliants
was heard in the glorious presence of Almighty God.
So Raphael was sent to heal them both

It is God's way that the resurrection follows the cross. We tend to think to ourselves that if we have to face the cross we must not be loved. But it is not so. We need to hold on. We need to ask and keep asking. We need to pray constantly without losing heart even as the widow does with the unjust judge. When we do we find that all things work together for the good of those who love God. Perhaps not as quickly as we would like. But if we hold on to hope and cling to the one who loved us first we do discover that he is in fact the God of the living. The cross has a part to play. He insists it not be skipped. But it leads on to life eternal.

Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

6 June 2017 - whose image

Today's Readings

They brought one to him and he said to them,
"Whose image and inscription is this?"
They replied to him, "Caesar's."
So Jesus said to them,
"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."

Because God's inscription is on Caesar. Caesar, like all of us, is made in the image and likeness of God. There is no private secular realm which is beyond God's rightful influence. It's true that we do pay taxes and respect legitimate civil authority. But we do so only with reference God. Even the government can't compel us to compromise our values or do that which God forbids.

We need to remember God's rightful claim on all of us. When we don't we risk dividing our lives into spheres that are exempt from God's rule. Perhaps, like Tobit, we fall on such hard times that we exempt ourselves from the responsibility to be moral and decent.

So she retorted: "Where are your charitable deeds now?
Where are your virtuous acts? 
See! Your true character is finally showing itself!"

Even when times get tough, when we are sick and doctors can't seem to help, still we are made in God's image. Still we are meant to reflect his glory. Still we are meant to live in virtue and in love. However, when we forget our dignity it becomes almost impossible to act in accord with it. We need to remember our dignity and to remind others of theirs. We are made in the image of God! We are made to reflect the divine glory to the world. We do not live to show our own image alone, but his. When we remember our purpose it begins to become possible to live it. We can't live virtuously just because we want to. But because it is what God wants it is possible.

Blessed the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commands.
His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
the upright generation shall be blessed.

5 June 2017 - love for the people

Today's Readings

Saint Boniface

And I wept.
Then at sunset I went out, dug a grave, and buried him.

Why is Tobit so interested in burying the dead, indeed, the dead to whom he is only distantly related, that he is willing to put his own safety in jeopardy?

Once before he was hunted down for execution
because of this very thing;
yet now that he has scarcely escaped,
here he is again burying the dead!

Tobit has a love for the people of God. He has deep sorrow at their misfortune. To the modern mind, burying the dead might seem like a waste of time. After all, what good is really being done for someone once they are dead? But what Tobit knows, that we forget, is that the body is holy, a creation of God almighty. Whether he realizes it fully or not he is signifying and preparing for the day when the bodies of all the dead will rise.

We don't relate for two reasons. The first is that we don't have much compassion for the people of God. We are able to show love only to a very narrow sphere of acquaintances. This attitude is different than that of the peoples of the Old Testament. Listen to the words of the psalmist:

I say of the holy people who are in the land,
"They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight."

The second reason is that we are basically Gnostic. The world itself seems so corrupt with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that we retreat into the life of the mind. We try to run to that which is merely spiritual. We forget that creation belongs to God. Even if it is tainted by death we must still do our best to offer it back to him.
Trouble comes when we forget that creation belongs to God. In imagining ourselves to be becoming spiritual we actually become even more fleshly. We use creation greedily, without reference to its origin and purpose.

At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants
to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
But they seized him, beat him,
and sent him away empty-handed.

If we, like Tobit, have a love for the people of God and a love for the creation of God it helps to ensure that we give God the fruit he has entrusted to us back to him in due season. It helps us avoid the fate of the tenants of the vineyard. It ensures that we don't accidentally reject the cornerstone chosen by God.

Blessed the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commands.
His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
the upright generation shall be blessed.