30 November 2021 - fishers of men

Today's Readings

(Audio)

As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers,

Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew,

casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.

Andrew had learned from John the Baptist that Jesus was the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. He and another disciple immediately left John to follow after this mysterious figure. By the end of his first day with Jesus he was so excited about the one whom he had found that he was overwhelmed by his desire to share this revelation with his brother.

We have found the Messiah (see John 1:41).

Peter, for his own part, was not as easily persuaded as Andrew. Andrew had a posture of readiness and waiting for the Messiah, tuned in, as he was to the voice of the forerunner, John the Baptist. Peter had much else to think about, much that made it difficult for him to be as ready as Andrew. Though they were both fisherman Peter seemed more invested in or dependent upon that identity than Andrew. 

Andrew's expectation and readiness to hear bore fruit, not only in himself, but in the way he brought his brother to the Lord. Not all are ready or listening to hear the initial message of our Lord. But many will eventually notice the difference Jesus made in the hearts of those with whom they share life. Our own enthusiasm or excitement will not of itself convert anyone. But it may be part of what God uses to persuade others to give Jesus a chance.

At once they left their nets and followed him.

At once isn't always the whole story. There was certainly some level of natural preparation for Peter before he made this decision. Yet he did finally arrive at a decision that was decisive, a fundamental break with his former identity, symbolized by his leaving his nets, in order to receive a new identity as a follower of Jesus. Thank goodness for Andrew, through whom God worked to bring this about. Thank goodness for all of those still acting as fishers of men in our own world.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!

May Saint Andrew teach us by his prayers how to be witnesses ourselves, witnesses who are patient and present with those who have thus far been slower to see what we have found in Jesus.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

The message is so good as to seem foolish. Much worldly cynicism puts us on guard against anything that seems too good to be true. But Jesus is actually better than anything we could imagine ourselves, more than we would even dare to ask. He has demonstrated the validated of his claim not only by his miracles, including his resurrection, but also by what he has done in the hearts of his witnesses. When hard, cynical, worldly people are willing to leave behind all that have been before in order to follow Jesus this is surely miraculous. 

The call is not merely to learn a teaching, which would be easy and could fit comfortably into the context of a normal life without any real change to business as usual. It is rather riskier and more demanding. The call is the follow a person. Jesus did not call people who would be especially skilled in doctrine. He called people whom he knew could become convincing witnesses. He desires to make us convincing witnesses as well. For Peter, this didn't come from his skill in fishing, but from his time with the Lord. For us too time with the Lord is key to becoming witnesses who not only offer abstractions but whose very lives are the evidence through which Jesus reaches out to others.

May Saint Andrew intercede for us that we will be ready to let other people know what we have found in the lamb of God, to not be ashamed to show our excitement in finally having found the Messiah for whom every human heart longs. Saint Andrew, pray for us!

Matt Maher - Behold the Lamb of God

29 November 2021 - amazing faith

Mt. Zion

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”  

He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”  

Upon hearing the response of Jesus the centurion realized that he had been too bold. He himself could imagine how the answer to his request would look to the those Jews who were already critical of Jesus. Here was one who seemed to represent everything that a military messiah might come to oppose, an embodiment of the military strength of the empire that ruled over Israel. It must have seemed presumptuous on his part, to be sure, but also shocking as a reversal.  One who seemed to have earthly power acknowledged the true power of the one who seemed to be without it. 

Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;

The Jewish people had been given "instruction" or "Torah", the wisdom found on the LORD's mountain, learned in the LORD's house, to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah, who himself said he was "sent only to the lost sheep of Israel" (see Matthew 15:24). Even if this man Jesus was the Messiah of the Jewish people what claim did the centurion, a Gentile, have on his assistance? He realized that he ought not ask Jesus to come himself, that is was perhaps still not the time for the Gospel to go forth to all nations. But somehow he had come to such a faith in Jesus that even all of this did not present a problem.

only say the word and my servant will be healed.

Most others surrounding Jesus seemed to have more of a magical conception his abilities rather than a spiritual one. They imaged that he would need to be nearby, perhaps to say the right words, and to make the correct gestures in order to compel others- angels? God?- to do the healing. But Jesus did not need such external formalities, because the power he exercised was within his own authority, given to him by his Father.

For I too am a man subject to authority,

with soldiers subject to me.

And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes;

and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes;

and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 

By his faith in Jesus this Gentile centurion demonstrated that he was more ready for the promise of the Messiah than many in Israel who had not yet gone so far in what they were willing to believe about Jesus. The faith of the centurion might not have made explicit the fact that Jesus was God incarnate. But it drove closer to that point than any had done so far. For this reason we hear, for the only time in the Gospel of Matthew, that Jesus was "amazed". The Gentile recognized in Jesus a power that was not constrained by the limitations of the physical world, that indeed must stand utterly above it if a word from a distance could do what he believed it could. 

“Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. 

I say to you, many will come from the east and the west,

and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.”

It faith such as this that Jesus came to seek. When the mountain of the LORD's house was established as the highest mountain, the nations would have access to it by faith. Indeed, the banquet would only admit those of faith, whether Jew or Gentile. It was a promise that began with the faith of Abraham and his true descendents were those who shared that faith. It was this perspective that transformed blessings that seemed to be for the nation of Israel only into blessings for all nations and many peoples. We can easily imagine how the spread of this faith would inevitably bring peace in its wake, if even the centurions of armed oppressors came to believe it.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks;

One nation shall not raise the sword against another,

nor shall they train for war again.

Is our own faith like that of the centurion? Or do we tend to think of the power of Jesus as more like magic, requiring certain rituals of us in order to receive certain results from him? We are instead invited to remember that all of the many things we might do in prayer and in our relationship with him are not designed to persuade someone to use their limited power for our personal goals. Instead, the power of Jesus is limitless and ready for all things. What he asks of us is for us. His apparent hesitation is not from any lack of authority on his part, but rather an occasion for humility and belief on ours.

Because of the house of the LORD, our God,

I will pray for your good.

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 122: Let Us Go Rejoicing

28 November 2021 - living the promise

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The days are coming, says the LORD, 

when I will fulfill the promise 

I made to the house of Israel and Judah.

What was this promise about which the Lord spoke?

Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;

I will not lie to David.

His offspring shall endure forever,

his throne as long as the sun before me.

Like the moon it shall be established forever,

a faithful witness in the skies. (see Psalm 89:35-37, emphasis mine).

Yet the throne of David seemed to have succumbed to the judgment on the sinfulness of those who succeeded David on his throne. From Solomon on there was a deep stronghold of sin casting a shadow over that throne. Solomon had Pagan temples built for his many wives in the holy city of Jerusalem. Somehow, it went downhill from there, with good and admirable kings being outliers and exceptions. This continued until conquests of Israel scattered and divided the tribes such that there was no longer one king over all of them. The throne and the promise seemed to have failed.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit (see Isaiah 11:1)

The promise seemed to have been cut off so entirely that there was only a stump remaining. But the prophets foresaw that even this seemingly dead stump could still somehow nevertheless bear the promised fruit if the Lord willed it.

In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit (see Isaiah 27:6).

Jeremiah also spoke of the shoot that God would raise up. From him we learn that from David's seemingly broken line of succession a new king would arise who would walk in fidelity to the Lord. Because he would do what mere human kings had again and again failed to do Judah could dwell in true safety and Jerusalem in lasting security. This promise was not possible based on merely human initiative. From the perspective the kingdom was unsalvageable. Even if someone managed to patch the tribes back together into a kingdom such a leader would not exceed the righteousness of David. Judgment would eventually inevitably tear it apart again. But in the fulfillment of this promise the Lord took the initiative. The shoot God himself raised demonstrated that the Lord himself would be justice for those who were not just. He came not only to patch an earthly kingdom back together but to provide a basis for a Kingdom fit for eternity.

this is what they shall call her: 

“The LORD our justice.”

The Lord became not just justice in the abstract, but justice for each of us individually, first given to us in our baptism, by which we could stand before him and live in a way that pleases him.

For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ (see Romans 5:17).

The Lord became our justice so that in him we too could be just, we too could be righteous. By this gift we were made able to fearlessly await the coming of the Son of Man, made fit to inherit an eternal Kingdom.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (see Second Corinthians 5:21).

We live in a time of tension between the already and the not yet. Jesus himself already came to fulfill the promise to David, raising up and transforming a merely human and national kingdom into the Spiritual and transnational reality embodied in the Church. Yet his gift of justice to us is still something which we much each work out in our own lives, even "with fear and trembling" (see Philippians 2:12). This is why we receive all the warnings from Jesus in today's Gospel about the need to remain alert and focused on him rather than giving in to fear and anxiety. His justice in us is strong enough to empower us to stand erect and raise our heads. It is powerful enough to remind us that our redemption is at hand. But it is clear that this is not automatic. His justice is not just a given that we can take for granted. It is rather something on which we must rely as the source of the strength we need to live as faithful members of his Kingdom even here and now. 

Be vigilant at all times 

and pray that you have the strength 

to escape the tribulations that are imminent 

and to stand before the Son of Man.

The main sign we are doing what Jesus told us and relying on him in the way that he intended is that we are watching for him more than we are watching the circumstances. But if the circumstances have indeed clouded our vision with anxiety and fear and made us run to seek temporary fixes and worldly stop-gap solutions, the answer for us begins with turning our gaze back on Christ, and allowing the expectation of his coming to take deeper root within our hearts.

Matt Maher - O Come O Come Emmanuel

27 November 2021 - avoiding beast mode

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy

from carousing and drunkenness

and the anxieties of daily life,

and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.

Jesus predicted a perennial problem, as present in our own age as it any time in history. The risk is to forget that life has a definitive meaning and history a definitive direction. This risk is to forgot that, as Saint John Paul the Great put it, "Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history" (see Redemptor Hominis, 1). 

When we forget about the larger meaning of history we also forget about the new life we have been given in baptism. When this happens we revert to living as centered in our old and sinful selves, not guiding ourselves by minds renewed in Christ, not manifesting the new hearts his Holy Spirit has given us. When we forget about these things and no longer live as though they are true it is the result of culpable negligence on our part. It begins as mere indifference, as when we make the seemingly harmless decision not to return with the leper to give thanks. But the world around us is all too ready to conspire with any indifference on our part. It will try to cast a spell over us, leading us to believe that this life is the entire horizon, with nothing eternal beyond. That is not to say we explicitly entertain such a thought. Rather, we begin to live like it is true while still talking and thinking of heaven, no longer as an impetus to holiness and evangelization, but rather as one more tranquilizer to put our hearts back into worldly slumber.

The world conspires with our fallen nature to put us to sleep, to make us forget that history is not just an endless succession of gain and loss, pleasure and pain, but that it is heading somewhere, heading toward someone. At first we are complicit through our negligence. But when we forget about our hope we tend to do things beyond mere omissions. We do inevitably respond to the pressures of this world in one way or another. We either bring the anxieties of daily life to Jesus or we find ourselves taking up carousing and drunkenness or any other way that we can numb ourselves, since dealing with these things without Jesus is a fundamentally hopeless proposition.

Be vigilant at all times

and pray that you have the strength

to escape the tribulations that are imminent

and to stand before the Son of Man.

We need the strength to remain steadfast, engaged in our faith, and ready to welcome Jesus into any situation at any time. But we do not gain this strength by gritting or teeth and trying harder. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit given- and here is the secret- when we ask. Let us listen to Saint Paul encourage us. Hear how confident he is that we will be empowered to make this stand.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (see Galatians 5:1).

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (see Ephesians 6:13).

We stand in the face of all that the world can throw at us precisely because we are ready to kneel and to fall on our faces before the coming of the Son of Man. When we are tempted to forget about the big picture the Spirit will nudge us to remember. He himself will "bring to your remembrance" all that Jesus said (see John 14:26). It isn't merely human weakness that puts us at risk. It is when we neglect these offerings of grace that we expose ourselves to the danger that could ultimately overwhelm us. May we always avail ourselves of these graces that he never ceases to offer us!

When our identities are centered on our renewal in Jesus Christ, when his Holy Spirit helps us to stay awake and attentive to his word, we do not fear though the powers of the world seem to be terrible beasts, though their dominion seems absolute. We see beyond the narrow horizon of secular narratives of power because we realize that they are temporary, indeed the blink of an eye in the face of eternity.

Then the kingship and dominion and majesty

of all the kingdoms under the heavens

shall be given to the holy people of the Most High,

Whose Kingdom shall be everlasting:

all dominions shall serve and obey him.

Matt Maher - Alive Again

26 November 2021 - summer is coming

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.

We know that the purpose of the fig tree is to bear fruit, not thorns or brambles (see Luke 6:44). Good trees should bear good fruit by their very nature, acting in a way consistent with their identity. Yet it is often the case in our world that the owner of the vineyard discovers fig trees without fruit. The fig trees seem to be voting against their own continued existence as fig trees by failing to do what fig trees are meant to do. In the parable from Luke the owner of the vineyard was all to ready to accede to this vote and cut them down so that they didn't drain resources that could be reallocated to those trees who did bear fruit.

And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.

Fortunately the vinedresser took the part of these barren trees. He knew that the soil in which they had grown thus far was depleted of nutrients, that the trees struggled to live at all, much less bear fruit. His solution was not glamorous. If the trees indeed got a vote they may well have objected to the sort of care he offered. They may not have had fruit, but at least they stood tall as trees. This fertilizer required humility to endure. It was not only a judgment that these trees were not in fact OK as they were it also presented a solution that would be challenging to endure. The vinedresser could perhaps save these proud but fruitless trees by digging out the worldly securities of the dirt surrounding them and filling the soil with manure. Could it be this be the tree equivalent of counting all things as counting all things as, depending on the translation, rubbish, garbage, or indeed dung in order that Christ might be gained for Paul? 

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ (see Philippians 3:8)

Once all that we previously counted as gain is seen in its proper perspective it really can become fertilizer for our growth and bearing good fruit. When the blessings of the world are viewed as dung compared to Christ they do not cease to help us grow. It is rather that we are no longer tempted to have anything from them but the growth they can provide. They now seem to us, as it were, to smell. We recognize that they aren't really sanitary to touch. But in the right context, when applied to us by the vinedresser, they can help in the process of producing fruit.

When their buds burst open,

you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;

in the same way, when you see these things happening,

know that the Kingdom of God is near.

When we see fruit beginning to bud on the fig trees we know it means that the vinedresser is at work, whether in the Church or in our hearts. It is, after all, only through the Holy Spirit that we bear fruit fit for the Kingdom. The vinedresser skilled at pruning us, at making our past into fertilizer for our futures, but also and especially at keeping our connection to the source of life as the primary concern. Apart from the living water of the Spirit we die. Or, as we discover in another parable, cut off from the vine we whither.

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).

The fact that Jesus is at work in the world tending his vine means that summer is near. We ourselves are a generation which will, at least as individuals, behold the coming of the Son of Man, if not for the world as a whole, nevertheless in his Sacramental presence in the Church, and when he comes for each of us at the end of our lives. His activity in helping us bear fruit is meant to make us eager for more as the first signs as summer foretell the end of a winter, however long and dark it may have been. 

There is much in the world that makes us forget about the imminent coming of the summer of eternity. Nevertheless, whatever immense beasts seem to be ruling our world presently, they are utterly unable to challenge the power and the reign of the Son of Man. When we are tempted to be afraid, to hunker down, and ignore the duty to bear fruit we are called to stand erect and raise our heads, looking to the coming of the Son of Man.

One like a son of man coming,

on the clouds of heaven;

When he reached the Ancient One

and was presented before him,

He received dominion, glory, and kingship;

nations and peoples of every language serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

that shall not be taken away,

his kingship shall not be destroyed.

It is in this Kingdom, his Church, that we now live. It is not yet fully summer. It may indeed look like the depths of winter. But look to the fig tree! See its branches laden with fruit and know, with the surety of words that will not pass away, that summer is coming.

Sr. Stacey Whitfield - Abide O Lord

25 November 2021 - faith over fear

Today's Readings (for the day, not Thanksgiving, for continuity).

(Audio)

When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,

know that its desolation is at hand.

Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.

The Lord wants us to have the freedom to follow him, even when he calls out, metaphorically or literally, from the earthly cities in which we live, away, perhaps, from our routines and those things to which we are attached. Yet this call for detachment is not abstract or arbitrary. It is necessary so they he can keep us in safety, necessary if we are to follow his plan and avail ourselves of the protection he desires to provide for us.

Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days,

for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth

and a wrathful judgment upon this people.

The Lord does not deliver us from all trials or suffering. Indeed the very act of leaving the city behind will doubtlessly be difficult for those of us who have dwelt there for our entire lives. Yet he does indeed desire to deliver us from judgment, to ensure that we are living our spiritual lives in communities safe from the reign of "the edge of the sword" of mortal sin, free of captivity to the the world, the flesh, and the Devil.

They will fall by the edge of the sword

and be taken as captives to all the Gentiles;

and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles

until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The world around us is arguably motivated primarily by fear. It is no exaggeration to say that fright and anxiety are so intense and pervasive in our world as to be causing deaths that might have otherwise been avoided, such as when stress aggravates what might have been non-fatal physical illnesses, or when it causes accidents that might have been avoided by hearts at peace.

People will die of fright

in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,

for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Jesus does not tell us of these fearful things so that we will be afraid, but rather so that we will be prepared. These very signs that speak judgment on the world promise redemption to those who know and await the coming of the Son of Man. It is not as though the message is primarily that we should be ready to give away all we have and move because if we don't we might die with the world. It is more to the point that we should be ready to consider the value of what we leave behind as nothing compared to that which we await, toward which we move, just as did Saint Paul.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (see Philippians 3:8).

As with Daniel, there is a lion prowling and hungry, awaiting victims to consume, but in our case that lion is the devil himself (see First Peter 5:8-9). Fortunately, Daniel was not the last to be delivered from the mouth of a lion. Paul experienced it, saying, "I was rescued from the lion's mouth" (see Second Timothy 4:17). Those early martyrs who did become food for mere animals were able to do so with joy precisely because the mouth of the lion who was the true adversary was definitively closed and because they themselves had such an eager expectation of seeing the Son of Man. 

For ourselves, it is not so much a matter of stripping down to nothing, of surrendering all we have, as it is a matter of learning the "surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (see Philippians 3:8) so deeply that all of the other things which once so charmed, transfixed, and captivated us finally lose their hold.

And then they will see the Son of Man

coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

But when these signs begin to happen,

stand erect and raise your heads

because your redemption is at hand.

Newsboys - Where You Belong/Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

24 November 2021 - on the virtue of being unprepared

Today's Readings

(Audio)

They will seize and persecute you,

they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons,

and they will have you led before kings and governors

because of my name.

What Jesus predicts in this Gospel passage is exactly what Luke goes on to describe in the Acts of the Apostles. We do read about the imprisonment of Apostles like Peter and Paul, and of their testimony before kings and governors. They were in no way ambiguous in the face of such persecution, but continued to be clear that it was for the name of Jesus.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (see Acts 4:11-12).

Persecution might seem like it would have impeded the evangelical efforts of the early disciples of Jesus. But it was just the opposite. It was precisely in persecution that they gained the opportunity to give testimony.

It will lead to your giving testimony.

It did not matter whether the persecutions scattered the disciples, moving them to places that they did not decide to go, or resulted in their imprisonment, preventing them from going where they might choose. Philip gave testimony in Samaria to the Ethiopian eunuch because he was among those who were scattered but now "preached the word wherever they went" (see Acts 8:4). The imprisonment of Paul and Silas resulted in the conversion of the jailer and his family (see Acts 16:25-34). Paul's steadfastness during his imprisonment in Rome resulted in the conversion of multiple members of "Caesar's household" (see Philippians 4:21). These few examples demonstrate how it was not in spite of persecution that the Gospel was spread. God took evil circumstances and made them work together for the good of those who loved him and who were called according to his purpose, that purpose being the spreading of the Gospel (see Romans 8:28).

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,

for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking

that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

When we are unprepared and yet encounter fierce opposition we can take heart. It is not through the polish of our rhetorical ability that we are able to offer persuasive testimony. It is not a matter of having all of the right "plausible words of wisdom" (see First Corinthians 2:4) prepared in advance. We see this demonstrated by Saint Stephen. Even in the face of violence God guided Stephen in such a way that his words and his very life would be a persuasive testimony of the Lordship of Jesus. It may well have been that the testimony was the first chink in the armor of Saul, leading to his complete acceptance of Christ on the road to Damascus. Even though his words seemed to harden the hearts of his hearers, his witness was undeniable.

you are not to prepare your defense beforehand

We are very much called to study the bible, to know apologetics, to be "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" with "gentleness and respect" (see First Peter 3:15). But we are not called to attempt to predict the circumstances in which we will make use this knowledge. If we rely on having prepared in advance flowcharts of our message and all possible responses, and our answers to those responses, and their answers to us, it will multiple on and on to infinity. Jesus wants us to be able to depend primarily on his own presence at such times rather than any part of our prior preparation.

for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking

that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

This wisdom in speaking is a spiritual gift given by his Holy Spirit that no amount of study or preparation will provide. In order to avail ourselves of it when times get tough we should begin by listening when they are easier. We are meant to be able to hear and recognize his voice. But we are like sheep who only gain this recognition through repeated exposure. We must spend time in prayer, not only talking at God, but given him time to respond. We must read his word, not as though it was a mere human word, but as a word spoken directly to us in that specific moment. God himself will ensure that we have all the opportunities we need so that we are ready to face persecution when it comes. If there is no time, from an earthly perspective, to be open to his voice and to have a background of familiarity with his word from which to draw, he can school us in his own wisdom in an instant and make us witnesses. All he asks of us is "perseverance", of not turning away from him who did not turn away from us.

Daniel answered the king:

“You may keep your gifts, or give your presents to someone else;

but the writing I will read for you, O king,

and tell you what it means.

Daniel was an example of one who was able to give testimony to the God of Israel because of the persecution he faced. Rather than shrinking back from speaking up or adapting the truth in order to produce a better result for himself he remained faithful to the Lord. Counterintuitively, even though the message was difficult to hear it nevertheless did persuade Belshazzar. It did not save his kingdom, that much is true. But it might just have saved his soul. What else are we to make of his rewarding of Daniel in spite of the message he heard, if it was not that he owned up to and accepted the verdict of the God of Israel on his sinfulness?

Then by order of Belshazzar they clothed Daniel in purple, with a chain of gold around his neck, and proclaimed him third in governing the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was slain (see Daniel 5:29-30).

Difficult times may come for us as well. Perhaps some of us have already experienced families divided by faith. No matter the circumstances we must not give up hope! We must not even see all of these real difficulties and hardships as outside the scope of God's providential plan. They are not mere accidents around which he must work. They are the very threads he can knit into a story of salvation.

Kutless - Word of God Speak

 

23 November 2021 - not made with hands

Today's Readings

(Audio)

While some people were speaking about

how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings,

Costly stones and votive offerings are visible realities that are meant to point to ones which are invisible. They are not meant to make us so comfortable on earth that we forget about heaven. Rather, beautiful things are meant to awaken in us a longing for the source of beauty. If we fail to realize this, the temporary nature of such beauty has the potential to deeply traumatize us.

Jesus said, “All that you see here–

the days will come when there will not be left

a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”

Why would God allow the destructions of the very temple of his presence in Jerusalem. He would do so only in order that what was merely a sign of his presence, though indeed the chief among such signs, would fade and so that what was symbolized could be realized.

Indeed, what was endowed with glory has come to have no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was going to fade was glorious, how much more will what endures be glorious (see Second Corinthians 3:10-11)

The temple in Jerusalem was made with human hands, a copy based on the blueprint of the heavenly temple (see Hebrews 9:24). Jerusalem itself was a sign of the true and lasting city whose builder and maker is God (see Hebrews 11:10). There was something about the nature of the signs that could seemingly tame the reality itself, for the signs were static, and could be appreciated on the terms of the spectators. But that to which the signs would give way was not safe or tame. It was a dynamic reality that set the terms with which it would engage the world.

But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain

and filled the whole earth.

The stone was "hewn from the mountain without a hand being put to it", meaning it was something done by the initiative of God himself. It did not rely on the transitory and ultimately fragile power of earthly kingdoms. This was the promise of the Kingdom that Jesus himself came to inaugurate, for he himself was this stone not hewn with hands, not born of a father. To him those transitory realities which merely pointed to the presence of God had to give way. In his own person was the new and heavenly Jerusalem revealed. In him was the true temple in which the presence of God could finally and definitively be entered and enjoyed. What was true of Jesus is now true also of his Body, the Church. She is still seen through the medium of signs, but is nevertheless truly the heavenly Jerusalem and the new temple. Though these things are still veiled to those on the pilgrimage of this life, they realities are nevertheless present with all of their power.

“Teacher, when will this happen?

And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” 

Do we become so preoccupied with the signs of transitory things coming and going, of unkept promises, and violence, of sickness and disaster, that we forget to anchor ourselves in that which cannot be shaken? Jesus challenges us to make he himself the source of our hope. Let us choose to belong to his Kingdom over and above any earthly kingdoms in which we live.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (see Philippians 3:20).

Hillsong (Featuring Darlene Zschech) - This Kingdom

22 November 2021 - God is enough

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people

putting their offerings into the treasury

and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.

Celebrating the contributions of the wealthy more than those of the poor is still a challenge for the Church today. Those who give more seemingly do more thereby to enable the mission of the local church, whether upkeep, expansion, paying staff, or for programs. Churches cannot sustain themselves without adequate tithing, so it is small wonder that those who make big contributions get plaques with theirs names on them or rooms named after them. These gifts of the wealthy are indeed useful and valuable. But the temptation for us as for those at the time of Jesus was to see the merit of the gift only in these world terms of utility. 

He said, “I tell you truly,

this poor widow put in more than all the rest;

Saint John Chrysostom wrote that "God regarded not the scantiness of the offering, but the overflowing of the affection". God did not regard the value of the widow's offering in terms measured by utility or practical concerns. He judged it entirely on the basis of the heart that gave it. Jesus recognized in such a heart one who, had she the resources, would have given more than all of the others combined. The others were practical in that they would not bankrupt themselves by their gift. This made some sense in that they would then be able to continue giving in the future. But this widow gave more, from her poverty, offering her whole livelihood. Put this way the world might view her gift as greater than that of the wealthy people only in terms of foolishness. "Go and buy bread," they might tell her, "that you may live and hope to one day have more to give." 

for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth,

but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.

We recoil at the thought of this gift because we have not given everything away in order to follow Christ. Yet the point is not that this is always the right move in a literal sense. The point- and this is still very challenging- is that we should be free enough to hold nothing back from God when he asks it of us. To give away the last two of our coins is imprudent exactly up until the moment when God asks for them. At that point we must trust, just like the widow at Zarephath who was asked to use the last of our resources to make a cake for Elijah (see First Kings 17:7-16). When God asks for these coins of us we don't give them as those resigned to starvation but as those who plan from that point to rely entirely on God's providential care. He doesn't often ask everything of us, save of those vowed to poverty. But he does often ask us to give more than we think we can, more than we believe to be prudent. He may often call for those things to which we are specially attached. Do we have the faith to respond, knowing that, as long as we possess God, we can live without them?

But the Church is a widow, because her Husband endured death for her. She cast two mites into the treasury, because in God’s sight, in whose keeping are all the offerings of our works, she presents her gifts, whether of love to God and her neighbour, or of faith and prayer. And these excel all the works of the proud Jews, for they of their abundance cast into the offerings of God, in that they presume on their righteousness, but the Church casts in all her living, for everything that hath life she believes to be the gift of God.

- Saint Bede the Venerable

It was by faith in God that Daniel and his companions were able to forego the riches of the king's table in order to remain undefiled. They trusted that even without the fatty foods and choice wines they would nevertheless not only not whither away but actually continue to grow as strong as any in the service of the king. But surely this was not a natural thing to suspect. It was a choice that expressed trust in God to sustain them miraculously in spite of a diet that was probably bland and monotonous and seemingly insufficient for the needs of health and growth. But their trust was vindicated and their fidelity was rewarded.

He acceded to this request, and tested them for ten days;

after ten days they looked healthier and better fed

than any of the young men who ate from the royal table.

...

To these four young men God gave knowledge and proficiency

in all literature and science,

and to Daniel the understanding of all visions and dreams.

The Lord wants to be able to use us to speak the secular society that surrounds us as well. But many of us do not believe we can live without the defilement of the table of the world. May we learn from these young men and from that widow that as long as we have God we have enough, indeed more than enough.

When the king had spoken with all of them,

none was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah,

Mishael, and Azariah;

BarlowGirl - Enough

21 November 2021 - King of the Universe

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"Are you the King of the Jews?" 

Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own

or have others told you about me?" 

Jesus in fact knew that it was the accusation of others that caused Pilate to ask the question. But he knew also that Pilate had his own curiosity, his own potential openness to an answer. Jesus hoped to draw from Pilate a question that came first and foremost from his own heart, not just a matter of fact dealing with the accusation of others. Similarly this morning, he is looking to us, not to our priests or fellow parishioners for a sincere question which he himself will answer.

Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? 

Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. 

What have you done?" 

What had Jesus in fact done to provoke such hostility from the nation and the chief priests? For although he had indeed proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God he never pursued that coming of that Kingdom in the way that the world might expect, by means of power, oppression, and violence.

Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world.

If my kingdom did belong to this world,

my attendants would be fighting

to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. 

When his own disciples had misunderstood and tried to fight to prevent him from being handed over he himself stopped them.

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (see John 18:11).

The Kingdom of Jesus was not, then, a political threat, of the sort about which Pilate was primarily concerned, at least not in the way he imagined. His followers were not a militant sect plotting revolution against the government, nor would his teachings be spread by imposition of force. It was central to his message that those who heard it would not be subject to compulsion in their response. He desired them to be free indeed, no longer slaves, but friends. Rather than tyranny, the basis of this Kingdom would be truth.

But as it is, my kingdom is not here." 

So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" 

Jesus did not deny his Kingship. However, he answered in such a way as to emphasize the basic difference between the Kingdoms of the world, based on power, often on tyranny, occasionally on consensus, but not, as was the Kingdom of God on the truth as the most basic fact and fundamental principle. Indeed no earthly kingdom was qualified to claim this basis for those within such kingdoms were too preoccupied with other things to claim that they always and without fail obeyed the truth.

For this I was born and for this I came into the world,

to testify to the truth. 

Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.

His Kingship was a fact whether or not he seemed to be powerful in a given moment, a fact here in chains before Pilate. Even when he seemed the most powerless, on the cross of his crucifixion he was nevertheless reigning in power. Nor did the power of earthly kingdoms have any victory then, for their powers together could not subvert him from his intended path, of freely laying down his life for the world.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again (see John 10:18).

Even from the seeming powerlessness and failure of the cross he was able to answer the prayer of the good thief who saw more deeply than did Pilate or the rest, asking that Jesus remember him when he come into his Kingdom (see Luke 23:42).

Testifying to the truth seemed like a much more tenuous position than simply coming with military might to slay his enemies. It was not for lack of power that Jesus chose another approach. It was rather because the priority of his heart was that the world could hear his voice and enter freely into his Kingdom.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father,

to him be glory and power forever and ever.  Amen.

The truth to which Jesus testified was no cold or abstract philosophy. It was rather the truth of the Father's love for the human race. It included the truth of the desperate condition of slavery to sin in which that race found itself, but only so that the offer of salvation could be given, understood, and hopefully, accepted. It was for this reason that he desired every eye to see him, even those who pierced him. Even while we were yet sinners- even while we ourselves held the whip, the hammer and the nails, and the piercing lance- even then he loved us. He demonstrated for us an utterly selfless love by actions that nothing but love could explain.

The truth to which Jesus testified turned out to have been a more solid basis for a Kingdom than mere power, as has been born out by history. Empires rise and fall. Only the Kingdom of Jesus himself will endure forever.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion

that shall not be taken away,

his kingship shall not be destroyed.

Newsboys - He Reigns

Robin Mark - Lion of Judah

20 November 2021 - to him all are living

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The children of this age marry and remarry;

but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age

and to the resurrection of the dead

neither marry nor are given in marriage.

The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe that the dead would rise (see Acts 23:7-9). Part of the reason for this is that they believed that such a resurrection would involve logical contradictions. But they reasoned in this way only because they assumed that a resurrection would mean the dead coming back to life in the world as they knew it, in fundamentally the same condition in which it they the deceased left it. 

It was evident that the idea that the dead would return unchanged to an unchanged world posed at least as many problems as it solved. The Sadducees were however correct to assume that God would not simply abandon this creation in favor of some entirely new and different realm in which his creatures could live. What was on the table was not some otherworldly and spiritual afterlife but specifically the resurrection of the body. This creation was good, the Sadducees might have reasoned, but it the finite nature of it limited even God in how he could intervene in it. Against that point of view Jesus argued that the age to come would be both similar to but different from this age.

They can no longer die,

for they are like angels;

and they are the children of God

because they are the ones who will rise. 

That people would no longer die meant that the institution of marriage itself would then have fulfilled the purpose for which it existed. All of the love that existed between those married couples would persist, but there was no longer the need to raise up new children to replace those taken by death, to ensure the survival of a family legacy. The life-giving and generative aspect of marriage was only a shadow of the life-giving love which those deemed worthy now received directly from their relationship with God himself. Those in that age were like angels in this way. Angels never had anything like marriage because they themselves were not subject to death. Further, beholding God directly they did not need mere symbols as pedagogy about divine Fatherhood, Sonship, or Spirit of love whom they shared. So it would be for the children of the resurrection. Those whom the blessed truly loved in God during their earthly life would remain united to them in the age to come.  But as to family all would be children of God together.

Jesus assured the Sadducees that it would involve an even greater contradiction to assume that the dead were simply annihilated, for it would assume God's power was subject to merely human limitations. God himself spoke in such a way as to indicate that he was still in ongoing relationship with the faithful dead of the Old Testament.

That the dead will rise

even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,

when he called  ‘Lord’

the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;

and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,

for to him all are alive.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had not yet risen, but if God was still in relationship with them it was reasonable to conclude that he was not yet finished with them. The creation was good. The body was good. These spiritual fathers were definitely not annihilated or even unconscious. These very facts spoke to an eventual bodily resurrection and a renewal of this world as being so consistent with God's revelation as to be inevitable.

For our part we often view the world through the lens of the Sadducees, assuming that the way things are is the way they must always remain. This is ultimately a recipe for despair and hopelessness of the magnitude experienced by King Antiochus. It causes us to make too much of things that are not meant to last, even of the best of those things, at the expense of those which can endure forever. It causes us to choose things which will only matter in this age over and against being ready for the age to come. The cure for this viewpoint, the way to shatter these gloomy glasses, is found in the Scriptures themselves and in knowing the power of the God whom we follow. Whatever the contradictions we seem to see, whatever problems some irreconcilable, we should realize that they only seem that way to us. For to God all things are possible.

David Ruis - We Will Dance

19 November 2021 - the temple of our hearts

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus used a whip of cords to chase the money-changers from the temple. This seems extreme to us until we remember the gravity and importance of the purpose for which the temple was made.

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations (see Mark 11:17, Isaiah 56:7).

The temple was meant to be a place of encounter with the living God, a place defined by presence and relationship, and not be status, commerce, or means. The particular part of the temple that Jesus cleansed was known as the Court of the Gentiles. It represented the very closest that Gentiles were allowed to come to the God of Israel under the dispensation of the Old Covenant. Yet the sacred purpose of that area and of the temple in general had been subverted by the mundane and the secular. Profit seeking was preferred to seeking God himself.

While acknowledging that the cleansing of the temple was an extreme measure, let us remember that what Jesus did externally in cleansing the temple was something which he himself was willing to receive upon the true temple of his body.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged (see John 19:1).

There were no money-changers taking up space in the heart of Jesus, nor did he himself need any cleansing. It was rather that he held us in his heart when he endured that anguish. The purification that resulted redounded to our own souls, so that we could be cleansed of greed and idolatry and be made true temples of the Holy Spirit. The zeal which Jesus demonstrated for the old temple was just a shadow of the zeal he has for us. It only hinted at the lengths he himself was willing to go so that, by the indwelling Spirit, our hearts could become houses of prayer. 

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ... But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (see John 4:21-23).

The zeal of Jesus for his temple should inspire holy fear in us, but not despair or anxiety. For he himself demonstrated that he was willing to bear the cost of our purification even while we were yet sinners, before we were ready to cooperate with his plan in any way. Now that he has done so the call for us is to unite our own sufferings with which he freely bore so that the fruit of that purifying power can be realized in us.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? I anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple (see First Corinthians 3:16-17).

We now have some sense of the degree to which Jesus is zealous that his people become a people of prayer, with hearts unencumbered enough by the world to enter into worship. We see the lengths to which he went to ensure that it would be possible, not just generally, but for each one of us. We recognize that he will not be content to rest on his laurels until that possibility is realized in us. If this means, occasionally, a whip of cords, we can know that we endure together with him, that we are in that very moment held and strengthened by his love. 

The purpose of our lives is meant to be worship. If we have become overfilled with the Pagan, with greed and idolatry, or even over secular matters that seem harmless but now leave us no room for God, it is time that we rededicate ourselves just as Judas and his brothers rededicated the temple.

on that very day it was reconsecrated

with songs, harps, flutes, and cymbals.

All the people prostrated themselves and adored and praised Heaven,

who had given them success.

Songs In His Presence - The House of God

18 November 2021 - that which makes for peace

Today's Readings

(Audio)

As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,

he saw the city and wept over it

Jesus came, as we recently read, to seek and to save the lost. His was the heart that would not be content with ninety-nine sheep safe and sound while one was lost. The reason that Father sent Jesus to the world was not to condemn it but so that the world could be saved through him. 

Jesus entered the world and lived in such a way as to reveal the Father's love. He offered salvation to those who would choose surrender themselves to that love, precisely as manifested in and mediated through Jesus himself. He himself was the one, the only one, who truly knew "what makes for peace".

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (see Romans 5:1).

And yet, in spite of this desire in the heart of Jesus, it was no guarantee condemnation was impossible. Those who heard what Jesus had to say about peace could still have the truth of that message hidden from them. Those to whom he came were all too capable of not recognizing the time of their visitation.

but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (see John 3:17).

We see in the tears of Jesus that he did not delight in or celebrate that some would refuse to be convinced by him and would instead harden their hearts.

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (see Ezekiel 33:11).

We may imagine that the people in the time of Jesus who failed to recognize him were especially culpable. Having God in the flesh in their midst, what excuse could they have for not recognizing him? We must remember that though Jesus was God in the flesh, nevertheless his flesh looked like that of any other person in that time and place. In order to recognize him it was necessary to have a heart that longed for peace, that was able to recognize one's own complicity in discord and violence, and therefore one's own need for salvation. In order to recognize his visitation it was necessary to set aside preoccupation with self, routine, and business as usual enough to pay attention. It would call for those who would recognize him to abandon the lies by which they attempted to rationalize the condition of the world around them and of their own hearts.

Jesus comes to visit us as well, and to teach us what makes for peace. We actually have an advantage over those who merely saw his physical body for we have received the firmly defined truth about who he is and the meaning of his incarnation and the mysteries of his life. We don't have to waiver around the thought that God seems to be acting in an unusually strong way through someone who seems to be human and what that might mean, for we know him to be both God and man. Given all of our advantages, of the Deposit of Faith, and seeing that teaching vindicated over the centuries in the lives of the Saints, we ought to be ready to recognize Jesus when he visits us. 

With all of the advantages of life within his Body we ought to recognize the hour of our own visitation. But is it so? Are we so desperate to preserve our own sense of self-justification, self-righteousness- in other words, the feeling that we are OK and not in need of salvation- that we refuse to listen when he tells us something that would lead us to greater peace? Are we so busy eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, that we don't have enough free awareness or attention to notice him when he comes to us in prayer, in his Word, in our brothers and sisters, and in in the Sacraments? Is Jesus weeping over us because although he can save us from the pain of the destruction of the earthly city we simply aren't listening?

The world around us conspires with the devil and our own fallen flesh to make us blind to God's presence in our midst. The voice of the accuser teaches us to classify the circumstances of the world so as to imply a cold, distant, or even hostile God. We are led to believe that we must settle for what temporary benefits we can eek out of this valley of tears and close our eyes and stop our ears to hope. We must not listen to the voice of the accuser!

Although all the Gentiles in the king’s realm obey him,

so that each forsakes the religion of his fathers

and consents to the king’s orders,

yet I and my sons and my kin 

will keep to the covenant of our fathers.

Like Mattathias we can learn zeal for the one who was first zealous for us. We can recognize how manifold have been the blessings of living in the New Covenant already, and motivate our entire lives by the leading of Jesus, the mediator of this covenant, the king of peace. Jerusalem was named "City of Peace". Yet it could not be so without recognizing the coming of the King of Peace. Neither can our own lives remain in peace if we are not attentive to all of the ways in which the Lord himself is still coming to us to offer healing and salvation.

Then call upon me in time of distress;

    I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.

Maranatha! Music - You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)