31 January 2021 - the author of authority

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The people were astonished at his teaching,

for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

In what did this authority consist? How was it so different from other teachings they heard as to be astonishing? One commentator named Theophylact suggested that "Christ taught them by rebuke, not by flattery as did the Pharisees". We certainly recognize that was in fact the case. Jesus never held back the truth for the sake of his popularity.

Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God (see Mark 12:14).

Those who genuinely 'tell it like it is' do speak with a greater authority than those who do not. Yet, aside from Jesus, teachers always have some regard for the opinions of others. We don't say enough or we say too much because of the impression we want to make. Jesus alone was concerned entirely with the truth, knowing that in the truth alone could his hearers find the good purpose for which they were made.

The authority of Jesus was not something he had to document with citations and sources outside of himself. He did reference Scriptures, was consistent with it, and wanted the people to realize that he was indeed its fulfillment.  But did not need that as a basis for the things he would teach. Hence in the Sermon on the Mount we read, "It was said to them of old time, but I say unto you" (see Matthew 5:27). The boldness of this authority was so great as to be brazen and blasphemous for anyone other than the Son of God. It was only natural that for those who did not yet accept who he was his words would rub them the wrong way. But his words themselves offered the freedom that comes to those who believe in him (see John 1:12)

He taught them also in power, transforming men to good, and He threatened punishment to those who did not believe on Him - Theophylact

The authority of the words of Jesus went beyond their cognitive content. His words themselves had power to transform. Those whom he said were healed were in fact healed. He did not need to recite lengthy incantations as did most exorcists in his day. His simple proclaiming that it was so made it so. It was the same when he rebuked the storms. The word he spoke was the same word that was spoken to create the world. He was the 'Let it be' by which all things were made. And his voice continued to have that same power when, through the incarnation, he spoke it with a human voice.

Jesus rebuked him and said,

“Quiet!  Come out of him!”

The one speaking was in fact the very one whom the Israelites were afraid to hear, so great and imposing was the authority, the truth, the holiness of the one who spoke

‘Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,

nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’

Fortunately, in Jesus the words spoken did not bring death, but healed and gave life. We were always meant to hear these words, but sin had rendered us unable to receive the promises they were meant to convey. The way that God chose to repair this in us was by not by silence, but by speaking even more clearly.

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (see Hebrews 1:2).

When Jesus speaks, just as those possessed by demons found freedom, just as the storms that threatened his disciples were stilled, so too for us now, his words transform. By the power of his words we no longer need regard the intentions of God with terror, but rather with awe and holy fear. Rather than God speaking down to a degenerate and broken people, who would have no recourse but the terror of slaves, his words raise us up, making us sons and daughters, enabling us to delight in the word of the Father.

Rather than "a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them" (see Hebrews 12:18-19) by the authority of the word of Jesus, "you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (see Hebrews 12:22-24).

By the authority of Jesus we can replace worldly anxiety and be anxious instead about the things of the Lord, how we may please the Lord, regardless of our station in life. This same authority is given to his Church to set right the things of this world which are still under the sway of darkness. It is given to families. It is indeed given to each believer.

To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,

I will give authority over the nations (see Revelation 2:26-27)

The voice speaking can change our hearts if we do not harden them. Our choice, our prayer and plea, should be that we be open to listen and receive the authority of Jesus who himself can transform and set us free.

Worship Central - The Same Power

30 January 2021 - faith of future present

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for 

and evidence of things not seen.

Faith is the substance of things for which we hope. It is 'substance' in several ways, according to Aquinas. At a basic level faith causes us to merit so that we deserve to one day see the things we hope for and is their substance in this sense. Yet for Aquinas faith is not only about the future, instead "bringing it about that what is believed really to lie in the future, be somehow already possessed, provided one believe in God" (see Commentary on Hebrews paragraph 557). Finally there is a sense in which faith itself contains, in seminal form, the fullness of our hope, "the full vision of God [that] is the essence of our happiness" (ibid).

We see all of these aspects of faith at work in the life of Abraham. It was because of his faith and not because of his works that God promised to bless him and make of him a great nation, blessings which, expanded and clarified are still those in which we ourselves hope. His faith was always directed to his hope in God. But it brought those promises of God into the present, as it gave him the power to generate, giving him the son through him all of the future promises would be fulfilled. We see too that his faith already participated in the future fulfillment beyond what he could imagine that would be revealed finally in the resurrection of Christ.

He reasoned that God was able to raise even from the dead, 

and he received Isaac back as a symbol. 

By holding fast to faith Abraham was able to receive blessings which he could never have earned or deserved. He was able to realize these blessings in spite of their apparent impossibility on a natural level. And he was able to enter into the even greater ultimate fulfillment of God's plan for the world while only seeing at from a distance (see Hebrews 11:13). His faith was at present a dark mirror and not yet a face to face vision (see First Corinthians 13:12), but the object of that faith was one and the same Lord. 

Abraham's faith sustained him through storms. When God called him to offer Isaac he must have been tempted to feel as though God had forgotten his promise to bless him through Isaac, that he had in some sense fallen asleep. But because Abraham did not turn back from his faith God himself quieted the storm and stopped the knife before harm could be done.

The disciples of Jesus in today's Gospel reading still needed more growth in faith.

They woke him and said to him,

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

He woke up,

rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”

The wind ceased and there was great calm.

Then he asked them, “Why are you terrified?

Do you not yet have faith?”

The problem was not that they tried to wake him. Rather it was the fact that they were terrified showed that they did not trust as much as Jesus wanted them to trust. He wanted them to be confident even when he was asleep so that when he slept in death for three days they could maintain their hope. Desiring him awake, desiring his resurrection was natural. But he needed them to understand that he was the one whom even the wind and sea obeyed, the one who would conquer even death itself. 

Jesus was training his disciples to have faith that would merit to see him risen, not because they earned such a vision, but because of their trust in him. He wanted them to have faith that would help them to be so connected to himself that they could have peace during whatever storms they faced, already experiencing the power of the resurrection in their own lives. 

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (see Philippians 3:10-11)

He was leading them to the faith by which they would see more and more the revelation of the vision of God, the vision which he himself revealed 

The one who has seen me has seen the Father (see John 14:9). 

Is our faith like the faith of Abraham? Or is it more like a list of data points to which we give our checkmark of assent. Let's ask God to make the fact that in our faith our object are things hoped for, the deepest desires of our hearts, more clear to us. Let us ask him to help us to walk somehow in the simultaneous reality of 'not yet' and 'already' that faith makes possible, so that we can have peace amidst the storms. And finally, let us ask him to help us to grow even now in our vision of the One in whom we hope, in whom our every desire is fulfilled.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant.

Chris Tomlin - Resurrection Power

29 January 2021 - beneath the surface

Today's Readings

(Audio)

This is how it is with the Kingdom of God;

it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land

and would sleep and rise night and day

and the seed would sprout and grow,

he knows not how.

Growth in the Kingdom is hidden because most of what happens is below the surface. Most of what occupies our attention, however, is what happens above the surface. When we have to endure "a great contest of suffering" it is obvious to us. But the growth that is happening at such times is not obvious. This is why the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminded his listeners that there was more to the trials they endured than the obvious suffering. What was happening below the surface, of which they were likely unaware, was more important than what was happening above.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence; 

it will have great recompense.

You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.

The seed is safe beneath the soil. It will grow unless, due to trials and afflictions, we decide to abandon it. The fruit of the seed is itself endurance, but endurance of a certain kind. It is fruit that can enable us to grow in the knowledge of God and allows us to be "strengthened with every power, in accord with his glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy" see Colossians 1:10-11).

We will likely go through life seeing more of our own flaws and failures and less of fruit. We may be distressed by the things which we must endure and the imperfection of our response to such challenges. It is as though we wish the plant would sprout fully grown. But we are called to account our own lack of perfection is not only a part of the process, but even an opportunity to recognize that even then God's grace is at work at a deeper level. This is how the eyes of faith look at the seed. As Paul said, he and others may water, but God gives the growth (see First Corinthians 3:6). It is in him, ultimately, that we are meant to trust.

We may likely feel that the seed planted in each of us is insufficient for our needs, our responsibilities, or for the call on our lives. It does very much start off feeling like "the smallest of all seeds". We can't perceive from the hidden beginnings how God could do much with it. But God delights to humble the proud and lift up the lowly (see Luke 1:52). He loves to use the small for great things. He "chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something" (see First Corinthians 1:28). If this is what is happening with in us- and by faith we believe it is- then of course we can't perceive it clearly, because in not perceiving it clearly we are able to remain humble about a growth for which we seem to lack the raw materials, which we do not cause, and which we can only begin to perceive when it finally puts blade, ear, or grain above the surface.

Let's stick with the seed in spite whatever is happening on the surface. The harvest is coming. If we "are not among those who draw back and perish" we will have fruit to offer, we will be "among those who have faith and will possess life."

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Matt Maher - Great Things

Newsboys - Secret Kingdom

28 January 2021 - through the Blood

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Since through the Blood of Jesus 

we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary 

It is too easy to dismiss this confidence of entrance we have been given. Too many years have passed since access was limited to a high priest once a year. Further, there was not great confidence then, to the degree that they tied a rope around the high priest's leg in case he died while in the presence of God, so that he could be removed safely and without sacrilege. Further still, it wasn't even into the real fullness of the presence of God that he entered, but merely an earthly copy built after the heavenly blueprint. 

It is too easy to also dismiss the way that we have this confidence. It is too easy to see the veil now opened without paying attention to the way that was made possible for us, the way without which it would have remained closed. 

by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, 

that is, his flesh

It was by the death of Jesus that we were given access to the presence of God. The veil of sin and death that separated us was torn asunder, irreparably, and forever. We ourselves were cleansed by washing in the pure waters of baptism, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. This was the water that poured from the wounded side of Christ. Without it would lack the sinless hands and clean hearts that are needed to ascend the mountain of the LORD and stand in his holy place. What we could never do, what we ought never to have even dared to hope without God's promise, he himself accomplished in the dying and rising of Christ.

We tend to dismiss what seems to abstract, what is not a lived reality in our lives. But the author of Hebrews did not think that this was merely a heavenly reality. He invited us to enter in.

We should not stay away from our assembly, 

as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, 

and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Even in this time of pandemic, even if prudence calls us to remain away from the assembly, we can still enter in spiritually. Because the mass is in fact being celebrated we can still have access while less perfect, is no less real, by the desire and attention we bring to making a spiritual communion in the many options we have for viewing from where we are. And we can encourage one another as we see the day draw near when we will once again be able to celebrate in fullness, singing with full voices, unmasked, and unafraid, once the pandemic is just one more defeated foe in our past.

The hidden things of God are given visible representation in the offering of the mass in the house of God by our great high priest, Jesus Christ. There the inner reality of our renewed nature is brought out and made concrete. The spark within becomes a lamp to give light to the world. The more we give ourselves over to this reality the more we get.

The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, 

and still more will be given to you.

To the one who has, more will be given; 

from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

And from there, as lights of the world, we find ourselves enriched to give ourselves away to others. And somehow, the more we give, the more abundance we find we have to offer.

Elevation Worship - O Come To The Altar

27 January 2021 - deep seeded tendencies

Today's Readings

(Audio)

If we want the word of God to bear fruit in our lives we need to give it the proper soil. The sower sows generously. But our role is not one of complete passivity. 

These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.

As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once 

and takes away the word sown in them.

Do will let the seed of the word penetrate us? 

Most of the world is in the situation of the seed that falls on the path, which Satan comes at once and takes away. This means that the word is heard, is perhaps considered to be possibly interesting (see Acts 17:32), but never recognized as definitively true. Satan steals the seeds by his lies before we get that far. He tells us that religion is just superstition, an arbitrary guess, or worse, hateful and bigoted. These lies are prevalent in the world today. The only way to keep the word safe from them is to give it full space, to allow it to speak, to not immediately turn from what God says to what everyone else says about what he says. This is not the same as merely blind ignorance of what the world says about the word. But it does give full space for God to speak. It hears him on his own terms rather than cutting him off before he can even make his case. This is what it means to actually get the seed off of the path and into the soil.

Those sown among thorns are another sort.

They are the people who hear the word, 

but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, 

and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, 

and it bears no fruit.

The word being choked by thorns is a risk that continually presents itself to those who want to live the Christian life and bear Christian fruit. We can choose whether or not to fill our lives with thorns, which are worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things. It is true that we may never be able to get rid of all the weeds entirely, neither from the world nor even our own hearts. But if the weeds are what we spend time cultivating then where will the good seed find room to grow? We may find it difficult to remove any of the thorns from our lives, deeply rooted as they often turn out to be. But let us look within for the part of our hearts that represent our most sincere and deeply held desires, desires that the world and its thorn covered promises could never hope to satisfy. We all have such a place within us. It is there where the seed can be nourished and grow. From that place it can eventually thrive so much as to displace the thorny weeds.

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, 

when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.

But they have no roots; they last only for a time.

Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, 

they quickly fall away.

We must continue to nourish the seed as long as we live. We need roots that go deep because tribulation and persecution will come, in one way or another. There will be the temptation to take a seemingly easier path. We will feel pressure to pave over the garden or to hide the plants which are no longer in fashion. We will need to have roots in order to be able to love God and neighbor when to do so calls for sacrifice on our part. But the roots will show meaningful growth only if we give the seed continued attention over time. There is a sense in which this is the same call as remembering that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (see John 15:5)

What is the purpose and potential of this seed? In other words, why care at all what happens to it? The seed has the power to make "perfect forever those who are being consecrated." It is the very act of God placing his laws in our hearts and writing them in our minds. Good soil is fundamentally a disposition of mind and heart to receive and to continue to receive it. He does not merely want to write his law on the outer parts where it will wash off. He does not want to write it where others will come and erase it or where we ourselves will cover it over because of other priorities. He wants to write it within us. This 'within' is the space we have to welcome and to respond. But even hear we need his help. Let us ask him to be generous in sowing the seed. Let us invite him to do what he needs to do (though this is a dangerous prayer) with the hard places and thorns of our lives so that he himself prepares the perfect soil for his word to find welcome within us.

John B. Miller - Speak Lord I'm Listening

MercyMe - Word of God Speak

26 January 2021 - sons of faith and fire

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Paul regarded Timothy and Titus as his true children in the faith. He experienced what Jesus described when he said that, "whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” When we talk about our family of faith it tends to sound trite and insincere. When we talk about brothers and sisters in the faith the experience to which we refer does not often approach the level of the bond that those in the early Church shared. We have priests that we regard as spiritual fathers, but it is typically more lip service and routine than anything more profound.

The first lesson of Timothy and Titus, before anything Paul said to them, or anything they themselves did, is that this relationship, this new supernatural sense of family is meant to be a real and concrete reality that defines the Church.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (see Romans 8:29).

A second lesson that can help us attain the reality of the first is that the gifts we have been given by the Lord need attention if they are to bear fruit. If we neglect them they languish.

For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame

the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.

Timothy was called to stir into flame the gift of his ordination. This meant something more than merely adding fuel. He was called to get in and move the embers around until something happened and sparks kindled the flames of the gift. We have been given the gifts of baptism, confirmation, the other sacraments, as well as other particular graces. We neglect them at our peril. Without them we lack the divine flame that is meant to power our lives as Christians. Without them we do tend to fall back into "a spirit of cowardice" rather than the "power and love and self-control" in which the Lord desires us to walk.

For this grace it is in our power to kindle or to extinguish; wherefore he elsewhere says, Quench not the Spirit. For by sloth and carelessness it is quenched, and by watchfulness and diligence it is kept alive.

- Saint John Chrysostom

If we take Paul's advice and fan our own gifts into flames we too will be empowered to bear our share of hardship for the Gospel. That may not sound immediately appealing, but it is assuredly better than attempting to bear them without that power, which is the alternative. The world will try to make us ashamed of our testimony to the Lord, but if we stand in the strength that comes from God, the world will be unable to do so.

Like Titus, there is still a task before us that remains to be done. There is still plenty in our own spheres of influence that we can help to set right. All of the possibilities of the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy are open to us. Though probably no readers of this reflection will be appointing presbyters in the near future there are still ways in which we can do our part to build up the Church. This is not arrogance or Pelagianism. It is entirely based on the gift we have been given. But it only works if we fan the flames.

Announce his salvation, day after day.

Tell his glory among the nations;

among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.

John Michael Talbot - Let the Fire Fall

25 January 2021 - it could happen to anyone

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The conversion of Saint Paul might seem to us to be so dramatic as to bear no relationship to our own lives. Even those of us whose conversion stories involve the improbably and the miraculous would hardly put them alongside that of Paul. There aren't many episode of the Journey Home that can compete. But we aren't meant to see Paul's conversion as something so unique as to have nothing to say to us.

Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life (see First Timothy 1:15-16)

Paul himself did not see his conversion as something about which he himself could boast.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (see First Corinthians 15:8-9).

Paul saw his conversion as a profound mercy of God, meant to demonstrate that there were no lengths to which God would not go in his search for lost sheep. He wanted to demonstrate that there was nothing about him that merited the call he was given. It wasn't because he studied at the feet of Gamaliel or because he was zealous for God according to the ancestral law. He would probably see these as strikes against his own deserving, because they didn't prevent him from being the most prominent and egregious opponent of God's will prior to his experience on the road to Damascus. It was precisely as a sinner that he was offered mercy.

“And fear nothing, dear soul, whoever you are; the greater the sinner, the greater his right to Your mercy, O Lord.” 

- Saint Faustina

We are not meant to be discouraged that we ourselves have (probably) not heard the voice of God speaking to us. If we did not experience prophecy and healing as part of our conversion, we need not feel that we missed out. We can be sure, looking at the life of Paul, that God did everything that was necessary to open the eyes of our own hearts, to make us chosen instruments of his. And yet, part of the point of this conversion is that we should not rule any of those things out, in ourselves, and in God's action in the lives of those we know. If he was willing to go that far for Paul he is willing to do so for anyone in need of his mercy. And we are all in need of that mercy every moment of every day.

How happy I am to see myself as imperfect and to be in need of God's mercy.

- Saint Therese of Lisieux

Now that God does have a hold of us we should be willing to be led, just as was Ananias. We are meant to be docile enough to God that he can lead us to speak to even the most unlikely people, sinners whom we have a hard time imagining ever changing. Docility can make us courageous. It can empower us to act even when we are naturally afraid. It is through docile hearts that the Lord continues to work miracles.

“Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,

Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,

that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes

We read in the gospel today about the signs that will accompany those who believe. Those signs, power over demons, tongues, divine protection, and healing, are not given to the deserving, but precisely to those who, though not deserving, open themselves to mercy. This is the Good News of baptism. It is to "[w]hoever" and not to a select few. Let us not rule out anything that God might do, based on our track record with him, or on our sense of deserving. He may yet need to blind us to what we think we know, to speak new words of mission over our lives, and establish us once more as chosen instruments. Paul wants us to understand that if it happened to him it can happen to anyone.

Go out to all the world, and tell the Good News.

Matt Maher - Your Grace Is Enough/Here I am Lord

24 January 2021 - feeling unfulfilled?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

This is the time of fulfillment.

We have the advantage of hindsight where we can look back and see how the life of Jesus fulfilled the promises of God to his prophets and kings, to his holy men and women throughout the ages. But we may rightly wonder what people thought of this when they heard it at the time. Why, for instance, were Simon and Andrew, James and John, all so quick to leave all and follow him?

Jesus had not yet told them that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to proclaim a year of the Lord's favor and the day of vindication by their God (see Isaiah 61:2). But John the Baptist had pointed out Jesus as both the lamb of God (see John 1:29), and one so mighty that he was not worthy to untie his sandals (see John 1:27). But what would this mean, this mighty and exulted lamb? It seems that Jesus was a paradox from day one.

One thing is certain, the fulfillment that he proclaimed called the first to be changed before they themselves could be fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the gospel.

Maybe they sensed a chance in Jesus to be what they were meant to be, a people whose whole lives were defined by worship of the Holy One of Israel, whose right worship was acceptable to God. How could this be for a nation whose tribes were scattered, whose leaders were conquered, whose people were marked by sin and imperfection? 

The situation at the time of Jesus seemed almost irredeemable from a human way of thinking. Maybe a military conquest? But the logistics didn't add up in the favor of Israel. Maybe if they were first sanctified, if they repented, if their worship was once again acceptable, would not God conquer any foe that opposed them? Perhaps they were thinking along these lines. A pure offering of lambs once helped free Israel from the grasp of Egypt. Perhaps a new and mighty lamb could set them free in their own day. The Lord had, it turns out, promised something very much like that.

"However, the days are coming,"" declares the Lord, "when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’" (see Jeremiah 16:14).

But if they were hoping for a new exodus what would they have made of what Jesus said to them?

Jesus said to them,

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Fishermen? Of course we do also see in this the genius of Jesus relating his call to something that already characterized the lives of these men. Yet there was more to it, something that made it fit in with the unfolding expectations of the restoration of Israel.

But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks (see Jeremiah 16:16).

Jesus would later go on to compare the Kingdom to a net that catches fish of many kinds. But this too was already part of an earlier vision of fulfillment.

Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea (see Ezekiel 47:10).

Fishermen were not necessarily a good match to fight Roman armies. But fishers of men were exactly what was needed if the goal was to reunite all of the lost, scattered, tribes of Israel. And if there was to be a new exodus from their subjugation then perhaps a mighty lamb was, some how, the right one to lead it.

It doesn't seem likely that Simon and Andrew or James and John could have spelled all of this out or quoted all of the passages in question. But they had probably heard them. And in Jesus they saw enough to recognize the confluence of many different currents of prophecy coming together in one fulfillment. And these, of course, were just the beginning. It is no wonder that Saint Paul wrote that all of the promises of God found their 'yes' in Jesus (see Second Corinthians 1:20).

Their expectations of fulfillment were not quite accurate even after the resurrection, after they might have realized that the ultimate enemies, sin and death, were different from those they first imagined. They still asked, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (see Acts 1:6). It took the power of Pentecost to finally align their hearts and minds with God's designs for fulfillment. We're very much like them in that we still tend interpret the fulfillment Jesus promised according to how we ourselves would like to see it. But Jesus has greater plans than we can imagine. He unleashed the age of the Spirit and the Church where fishermen are still sent forth, and where the offering of the lamb of God is still the source and summit of healing, power, and growth (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324). The world is still in need, just as was Nineveh, of a call to repentance. And like Nineveh, the world may well surprise us by responding. That is, it may if we actually go out and make the call.

“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, “

when the people of Nineveh believed God;

they proclaimed a fast

and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Today is still the time of fulfillment. There need no longer be anything that prevents us from making our lives and our world holy offerings to God.

For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (see Second Corinthians 6:2).

Do we long for fulfillment? It is found in the lamb of God, for he contains within himself all sweetness. To that end we repent and let ourselves be changed so that we ourselves can be part of the offering to God, from the rising of the sun to its setting, of the whole world, of all of the lost and scattered children of God. We act as fishermen to bring in the fish of many kinds that are still not a part of that offering. No wonder, then, that Saint Paul felt pressed for time. It was this fulfillment that he desired, for which he worked and sacrificed.

I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.

The world, the way we used to see it, the ways it used to promise fulfillment, is passing away. Let us invest in the fulfillment that will last forever. Let us hear and obey the call of Jesus and set to ourselves to the task that awaits us. We too are called to be fishers of men.

Good and upright is the LORD;

    thus he shows sinners the way.

He guides the humble to justice

    and teaches the humble his way.

Matt Maher - Behold the Lamb of God

Newsboys - Belly of the Whale

Newsboys - Fishers of Men

23 January 2021 - out of our minds?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus came with his disciples into the house.

Again the crowd gathered,

making it impossible for them even to eat.

When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, 

for they said, “He is out of his mind.” 

His relatives, because they thought they knew him, let their hearts be hardened at what they saw. Why were the crowds pressing in? Because Jesus had acquired a reputation as a healer and a miracle worker. But his relatives were not interested in this, because that was not the Jesus they thought they knew. To Jesus the crowds who came to him were like troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. If it made it impossible for him to rest or "even to eat" the pity that motivated his heart was willing to endure it (see Matthew 9:36). But his relatives could not understand this. They didn't want to put up with a disturbance to their lifestyle, their daily routine, or their comfort. And this to the degree that they actually "set out to seize him". 

When Jesus causes a commotion in our lives, when he calls us away from our daily routines, do we try to seize him in put him back in his place? Do we try to tame him and confine him to the limited role we are willing to allow him to play in our own hearts and in our neighborhoods? When people suggest that either he or we ourselves are out of our minds do we get nervous and try to disperse the crowds? There is a sense in which, when the Holy Spirit moves in power, the world might feel threatened, because they don't understand what happening. The central premises around which their lives are based are being challenged and shown to not be absolute.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (see First Corinthians 2:14).

If we are living by the power of the Spirit of God we are going to encounter situations where we are misunderstood and even opposed by the 'natural person'. This is not something we should begrudge them. For even we ourselves, without the Spirit, would be in no better a state. But we should be ready for it, ready to have people say, if they like, that we are out of our minds, and even for them to try to seize us. This happens most often in modern times by secular forces trying to keep religion from having a voice in the public square. But in other countries it still takes the form of violence. Jesus was willing to incur such calumny and opposition in order to preach and heal. By his Spirit at work in us we can do the same.

We are fools for the sake of Christ (see First Corinthians 4:10).

Jesus offered himself to perfect us and make us free to love one another. Without that healing we were guilty of dead works, works that characterize those who do not have eternal hope and therefore are motivated by fear of death and self-preservation above all. Those who opposed Jesus when the crowds pressed in were still motivated by this mindset. We ourselves are still bound by it when we let the crowds silence us and when we try to confine Jesus to a small and controllable part of our lives. But the One whose words are Spirit and life, who himself is the way, the truth, and the life, whose life is the light of men, can set us free from these dead works.

how much more will the Blood of Christ, 

who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God,

cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

David Crowder Band - Undignified

22 January 2021 - feeding the sheep

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted 

and they came to him.

After spending the night in prayer Jesus summoned those who would be Apostles, meaning those who are sent. What we begin to see is Jesus fulfilling the oracle of the prophet Isaiah. We read that on "this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined" (see Isaiah 25:6). He called to himself those whom he would call to feed the crowds with bread, whom he would call to feed the world with his own body and blood. He called to himself those whose own lives would be offered as grains of wheat that would give life (see John 12:24). He called Twelve, because there were twelve tribes of Israel and his covenant would be the fulfillment of Israel. He called Twelve, because they would go forth to the nations, three for each of the four corners of the world.

Jesus was establishing the beginnings of a new covenant, enacted on better promises than the Mosaic covenant of the Law. It's basis was the offering that could truly perfect for all time those who were being sanctified (see Hebrews 10:14). 

In the former dispensation the leadership of Israel often did not care for the flock in their charge. They took care of themselves rather than the sheep. Their example was more scandal than something to imitate. Jesus said to follow what they said but not to imitate what they did (see Matthew 23:3). But God promised that he himself would shepherd his people (see Ezekiel 34:15), and that he would give them shepherds after his own heart (see Jeremiah 3:15). 

The idea of Apostles, and their successors, the bishops, presents us with a two-fold challenge. First, it seems that quite often we are no better off by way of their example and sometimes even their teaching than were the peoples of Israel. Second, it seems as though in the New Covenant such a role ought not be necessary.

Their is a mystery involved in both of these questions. But it is one we can approach if not fully comprehend. Is Jesus giving shepherds after his own heart when he calls the Twelve? Assuredly. But still, he also calls "Judas Iscariot who betrayed him." This is consistent with what we see today. Many bishops are genuine shepherds, concerned for the sheep. But there are perhaps still traitors amongst their ranks, and at least there are those who are not making much effort to follow Christ. But to simply say that there is precedent for this is not to explain it.

Delving deeper, we can say that the mystery is that Jesus desired to provide shepherds after his own heart while still respecting the free will of those who would be shepherds. He did not decide to so insulate the Church from bad shepherds that such shepherds might not be appointed, and this despite a night spent in prayer, despite knowing that one of them would betray him. But could this work? Could he still deliver on his promises in spite of the limitations of the people through whom he would work?

And they shall not teach, each one his fellow citizen and kin, saying,

“Know the Lord,”

for all shall know me, from least to greatest.

We might attempt to suggest that the decision of whom he would appoint didn't really matter. Each believer, after all, would receive the Spirit. In some sense they had no need that anyone should teach them anything because of his anointing (see First John 2:27). Jesus himself said he would shepherd his people. In view of the failings of his shepherds are we to fall back to a me and Jesus scenario, where his Holy Spirit is our only teacher? We should not. If we ignore the shepherds appointed by the Lord, whom he has given to care for us, we will be deeply impoverished at best. 

Jesus created the Church as a place where the knowledge of him and the power of his healing touch are available even in spite of the great limitations of the humans who are its members. The reason we don't need to "teach, each his fellow citizen and kin" to know the Lord is because the Church has made this knowledge so universally available that, though her hierarchy may individually dissent or sow confusion, the faithful can still see and know the truth. The Spirit operates in Tradition, Scripture, the Magisterium, and the soul of the believer to enable them to know the truth. The reason we don't have to teach one another in the sense the prophet describes is because the knowledge of God has become ubiquitous, or, if you will, catholic.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (see Habakkuk 2:14).

Jesus has created his Church as a place where the power of the Spirit works in spite of human weakness. The very weakness of the hierarchy (not to mention that of we the flock) compels us to confess the divine origin of the Church. For how else would she persevere, and continue, as a whole, to proclaim truth and offer the healing remedies of the sacraments? Even in the beginning we see situations like Peter refusing to eat with Gentiles and Paul criticizing that behavior (see Galatians 2:11-14). Even early on the first pope was acting in a way that made doctrine unclear. But it was very much through the hierarchy, through Paul, against the backdrop of what was already broadly revealed, that the Spirit would show his readers clear doctrine. It was in this way that the Church itself could be called back more fully to embrace her identity. And it is in this way, by fidelity to the shepherds, by caring what Peter says, seeing it in the light of the whole teaching of the Church, and with the gift of the Spirit, that we are called to live today. This is the path to the feast.

Matt Maher - Hold Us Together

21 January 2021 - once for all

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; 

thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.

We read in Chapter 7 of the Letter to the Hebrews what that sacrifice was, "he offered up himself" (see Hebrews 7:27).

Jesus was not subject to the human weakness that affected those who were priests under the law, whose sacrifices were never sufficient. Sinners needed to offer sacrifice as a reminder of the great gulf that existed between themselves and God. As the author will go on to explain, if the sacrifices had been able to actually perfect anyone they would have ceased. Instead, "in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (see Hebrews 10:3-4). 

Jesus, because he was "holy, innocent, [and] undefiled" was able to make an offering that could actually perfect the people for whom it was offered. The former offerings were copies and shadows. They served not only to remind the people of sin but to stir their hearts with hope for a sacrifice which could finally atone, a life which could final bring healing and perfection to the people.

The perfect sacrifice of Jesus was offered once for all, but he still sits at "the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in Heaven, a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up". From there he still has "something to offer". He still presents this one offering to the Father so that the its blessings can be unleashed in all times and places, from the rising of the sun to its setting. It is this reality, Jesus, in his glorified humanity, offering himself to the Father, that is made present in each mass. It is nothing other than the sacrifice of the cross, once for all and yet ongoing. It was once a bloody offering, but in the mass it is in this bloodless aspect that it is made present again and again.

This may sound a little too abstract. But it is important that we understand how great it is that we have this mediator of a better covenant constantly offering himself for our sakes in heaven. If we believe it we begin to let our hope in it mark our own actions. We are able to entrust ourselves and the world into his hands for perfecting rather than trying to do it ourselves. He was separated from sinners, but he joins himself to the redeemed so that we too, in some small way become part of the offering, somehow ourselves becoming an offering acceptable to the Father.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (see Romans 12:1).

The offering begins with Jesus himself, but it incorporates all who will receive his healing touch. Until he comes to us we are like those with diseases and unclean spirits, unable to live lives that fully glorify God, not free to offer ourselves entirely. And so we draw near to him. Yet he must remain the center.  We cannot simply press in on him and crush him because we are so intent on our own desires. His word itself can be enough to transform us (see Matthew 8:8). The unclean spirits knew that Jesus was the Son of God. But only to us does Jesus reveal what that really means. By his Spirit, as living offerings, we are free to proclaim it (see First Corinthians 12:3).

Matt Maher - The End and the Beginning

Jim Cowan - This is Jesus

20 January 2021 - losing our accusing

Today's Readings

(Audio)

They watched Jesus closely

to see if he would cure him on the sabbath

so that they might accuse him.

What are we watching closely, waiting to make accusations? About whom are assuming the worst, waiting for them to fulfill the negative expectations we have of them? When challenged like this way are quick to protest that they are not Jesus. But "as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (see Matthew 25:40). If we're too busy prophesying negativity it is likely that negative results are what we will see. If we want to see something else, if we want to see transformation in the world, we need faith and hope.

We tend to get set in our ways, fixed in our expectations. We have made decisions about where and when it is lawful to do good and we don't look to find it anywhere else. Our faith doesn't reach out to welcome it from anywhere else. Our prayer doesn't invite it from anywhere else. There is a sense in which we could all stand to embrace the quote attributed to Malcolm X: "I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."

Jesus is grieved at our hardness of heart. He wants us to be ready to welcome goodness in circumstances where it seems to us unlikely to be found. Jesus wants to surprise us with the places he can make his healing power manifest. He wants us to understand that there is no time or place where his love can't break through.

Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”

He stretched it out and his hand was restored.

We are meant to see the power of Jesus to heal on display but the Pharisees could only see a rule breaker. He placed this healing very intentionally right before their eyes. The withered hand was clearly visible. But rather than being moved by it, as he would have had them be, they hardened their hearts. This risk continues to exist for us as well. There is nothing that will accelerate our descent into tribalism like hardening our hearts at good done by those we consider to be 'the other side', by those who are our enemies.

Jesus is able to save us from ourselves, from our expectations, and our assumptions. He is not limited by mortal life. He sees beyond the horizons of our narrow concerns. He is the true king of peace, our high priest forever. His offering is what makes possible our own peace, our own access to life that cannot be destroyed. But to possess that life we need to be willing to lay our own lives down, including insofar as they manifest in our old ways of thinking that still need redemption. We still think thoughts that are very much characteristic of lives headed for destruction. Jesus offers us renewed minds as an alternative, thoughts characterized by faith, actions marked by hope and love. Let us not give him just "a tenth of everything" but our very selves.

Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;

    before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you.

Matt Maher - Lay It Down

19 January 2021 - anchor rights

Today's Readings

(Audio)

so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who,

through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises.

If we follow in the footsteps of the Jesus and the saints we too will inherit the promises. We are called to embrace the gift we have been given with our whole being, just as they did. We are to strive to enter the rest of God, to demonstrate eagerness for the fulfillment of our hope. When we forget either the goal or the means by which the goal is possible we do tend to become sluggish. The rest of God is not something that any effort of ours can earn. The fulfillment of hope until the end is not based on our confidence in ourselves.

So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise

an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose,

he intervened with an oath

We will not come closer to the rest prepared for the elect by God except insofar as God himself makes us ready for it and draws us to it. Our part is to cling to his promise with faith and patience. With this attitude we won't become sluggish and risk turning away or failing to achieve that rest. Instead, we will grow in a faith, for he himself gives us this growth (see First Corinthians 3:6). It will become lively enough that we are able to remain eager for our hope, even while we patiently endure the challenges of this life.

This we have as an anchor of the soul

Our hope in God is different from any merely human hope because it is impossible for God to lie or to fail. We can therefore "be strongly encouraged to hold fast" to that hope. It is not merely a wish, something we would really like if it happened to happen eventually. There is no sense that we will get any closer to it by wishing harder. Instead, it is a promise from one who cannot lie. It comes with such assurance that it can be for us an anchor that holds us fast when we might otherwise go adrift. The result is indeed something we desire, but it is something even greater than we can ask or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20). Indeed it is something so unimaginably great that hope in the one who made the promise is the only way we can hold it and cling to it.

which reaches into the interior behind the veil,

where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner

Our hope reaches beyond the veil into the very presence of God himself. Jesus opened the way for us so that even now, through faith, hope, and love we can begin to experience it. The more we let God build us up in such an active faith, a living hope, and a constant charity, the more we will be anchored in a place where no storm can touch us.

We tend to narrow the horizons of hope, which is the same thing as cutting the cord of our anchor. We begin to believe that we were made for the sabbath rather than the sabbath for us. We forget that the whole reason for creation was because God wanted to be able to lavish his love upon us freely and let us freely respond. Instead, we quickly convince ourselves that God made us because he needed us, because there was something we must do for him. This doubt in the goodness of God's intentions is diametrically opposed to the hope we are meant to have in him. 

Let us pray to have a greater confidence in the promises of God today. Let us ask that he himself make his hope the anchor that solidifies our lives with him at the center. We could list his promises endlessly, but we'll leave our reflection today with just one more: he who has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion (see Philippians 1:6). Let us be anchored, brothers and sisters!

Kutless - Take Me In

18 January 2021 - godly fear

Today's Readings

(Audio)

he was heard for his godly fear. 

Jesus was the perfect exemplar of all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit

And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

(see Isaiah 11)

We know that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (see Proverbs 9:10). In normal people the beginnings of this fear have to do with consequences, the pains of hell and the loss of heaven. But this was not the sense in which Jesus feared. 

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (see First John 4:18).

Fear of punishment was like the old wineskins and the old cloak that are symbolically the Old Testament and the law. That way of thinking was too limited to make sense of the mission of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit that he came to give. His life was the bridge by which we were elevated from a servile fear, one characteristic of slaves, to a filial fear, that appropriate to our status as adopted sons and daughters.

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (see Second Timothy 1:7).

The very consequences that we feared Jesus was able to overcome by the virtue of his absolute trust in his Father.

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him

He endured suffering, all of the sorrowful mysteries, for us who were paralyzed by the fear of suffering and death. He who was perfect from before the foundation of the world chose the path that made him perfect as the source of salvation for all who obey him. He who from eternity was perfectly obedient to the Father "learned obedience from what he suffered". He taught our fallen human nature the path of obedience that was firm even in the face of suffering. This was a gap that our doubt and infirmity could not cross alone. It was only his certainty of the Father's love for him that allowed him to fulfill his mission so completely. 

Jesus revealed the Father's love as a new paradigm which we can make the firm foundation of our lives. Is it any wonder that in his presence we cannot help but feast?

“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20) yet sometimes we experience him as distant. This happens when we shift back into the mental framework of old wineskins and old cloaks. At such times fear drives us to pursue something other than God as our greatest good. Assuredly, we will find ourselves spiritually hungry when we do so. When we experience this hunger we should interpret it as a call to make sure we are wearing the baptismal robes of grace and that we are drinking deeply of the new wine of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:13). Let us ask the Father to help us to have a fear proper to those who are completely loved and desire not to offend their Father, all good, and deserving of all of our love, in anything. Let us come to the feast which the Church never ceases to place before us (even in Lent!) and be filled.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows (see Psalm 23:5).

Upper Room - Tremble