31 July 2013 - ad majorem dei gloriam

31 July 2013 - ad majorem dei gloriam

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Do we realize how valuable this kingdom is?  Do we realize that it is worth more than the sum total of all else we have?  Do we tacitly acknowledge this and slowly and unhappily go about selling all we have that we may afford it?  Or do divest ourselves of this world joyfully?  If we realize the truth of what Jesus is saying we realize that we're getting such a good deal that we assume that the seller of the field must not fully realize the treasure they are including.

The kingdom is such a great treasure that it ought to transform us, often without our even realizing it.

As Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands,
he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant
while he conversed with the LORD.

We need the LORD to reveal to us the vital importance of the kingdom he establishes.  We need to realize how without it nothing has value and nothing lasts.  Let us not be transfixed by faux pearls when there is a pearl of great price offered to us at such a bargain.  When we prize this treasure and this pearl over all else the LORD will shine through us.  He will be able to use us to enlighten his people.

What are the things we are reluctant to sell?  What comforts and pleasures are preventing us from receiving that which, in the final analysis, is the only thing that matters?

If we don't realize fully the immense worth of the treasure he offers, let us worship him.  For in worshipping, we acknowledge him as he is in his greatness and splendor.

Extol the LORD, our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for holy is the LORD, our God.

Let us worship with full hearts until we can truly surrender all that we are "out of joy" to so great a God.  Then our faces to may be radient with the light which our darkened world so desperately needs (cf. Psa. 34:5).

30 July 2013 - care instructions

30 July 2013 - care instructions

One of the challenges we face in this life is that we never find goodness in it's purity.  We always find it tainted and intermixed with evil.  In ourselves and in the world the weeds always grow with the wheat.  This is tough because it means we can't use the absence of evil as a criteria for judging anything, even the Church.

We want to see the good seed flourish.  We would prefer if the weeds could be uprooted at once.  But everything is growing together, roots tangled and straining for nourishment.  We must wait for the "harvest" at the "the end of the age" to separate the weeds and the wheat.  To try to separate them sooner does violence to free will.

What are we supposed to take from this?  Patience.  We should desire to see the good seed flourish.  We should cultivate the wheat where we see it grow.  And we should be reassured that there will come a day when we will see "the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father."  Though we do not delight in the destruction of sinners we are comforted that there will come a day when evil is finally destroyed.

We have been given precious instructions from the LORD to ensure the survival and fruitfulness of this field.  This is just one more way that we realize how good the law is.  It is not oppressive or restrictive.  It is for life and growth!  They are so important that Moses spends forty days fasting to write them down.

So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights,
without eating any food or drinking any water,
and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant,
the ten commandments.

With Moses we see God being consistent with the Son of Man in the Gospel reading today.  He is full of mercy and patience but his justice is also absolute.

“The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity,
continuing his kindness for a thousand generations,
and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin;
yet not declaring the guilty guiltless,
but punishing children and grandchildren
to the third and fourth generation for their fathers’ wickedness!”

We are not to long to see anyone burned as weeds.  The LORD does not long for that!  At the end of the age they will be good for nothing else but for now we plead for them, that they may be saved, and for ourselves, that we may continue in the LORD's grace.

This is indeed a stiff-necked people; 
yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own.”

All of the teachings of Jesus are trying to point us toward the merciful heart of God.  When we are told that the weeds are not to be burned immediately it isn't so that we may count the days until they are.  We are instead to rejoice in the mercy and patience of God which gives them time to repent.

As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

29 July 2013 - active participation

29 July 2013 - active participation

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.

There is a time to be active.  When we are with Jesus we should take the opportunity to sit at his feet and be taught by him.  But when we need to go somewhere to see him we should go "to meet him".  If we go to him in faith my may "see the glory of God[.]"  If we sit at home we may still see the results.  But this won't have the transformative effect on our faith that Jesus intends.

Jesus brings Martha from a faith that is distant...

Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”  

...to a faith that is immediate and transformative:

She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”

With each encounter with Jesus she comes to grasp more and more the one thing that is necessary.  Even though the LORD is not always with Martha she nevertheless always displays zeal although  she doesn't always show it in the best way.   But we are not always so zealous.

As he drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing.

If we go too long without his guidance we will be increasingly subjected to the temptation to fall back on our own resources and into our old ways.  Even though such failings leave a bitter taste in our mouths...

Taking the calf they had made, he fused it in the fire
and then ground it down to powder,
which he scattered on the water and made the children of Israel drink.

 ...Jesus does not abandon us.  Even more so than Moses, Jesus stands in the breach for us.

 Then he spoke of exterminating them,
 but Moses, his chosen one,
 Withstood him in the breach
 to turn back his destructive wrath.

 Because he never stops interceding for the zealous, the lukewarm, and even the coldhearted, let us thank him.

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

28 July 2013 - unceasing intercession

28 July 2013 - unceasing intercession

Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me.

The LORD is trying to help us to have hearts for his people like his heart for his people.  He is teaching us to take responsibility for them in our prayers.  We acknowledge that salvation, for others and for ourselves, all comes from the LORD.  But if we listen today we have the sobering realization that he pours out that salvation to the degree that we ask him for it.

“See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes! 

The LORD only bothers to make Abraham aware of the plight of Sodom and Gomorrah because he wants this response from him.  Note how patient he is no matter how many times Abraham petitions him.

“Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. 
What if there are at least ten there?” 

And indeed he does not grow angry.  Humanly, it seems like a pretty frustrating conversation.  But we may imagine that God is actually growing happier and happier each time Abraham petitions him.  What happens if Abraham goes further?  We cannot know.  Perhaps Sodom and Gomorrah would still exist today.  The LORD truly desires a level of persistence in prayer that humanly would be very annoying.

he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.

We begin to realize why he wants us to be so persistent when we see in the Our Father the magnitude of our responsibility in prayer.

Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.

If Jesus tells us to pray these things it must be because God's name won't be hallowed and his kingdom won't come to the same degree if we don't ask him for these things.

In the center of the Our Father, and indeed of all prayer, we find the transforming mercy of God.

and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

We ourselves experience the saving power of God and so are responsible for spreading that mercy to all we encounter.  He is trying to give us hearts which long for God's mercy on those like ourselves who actually deserve his judgment.  This heart of mercy is something we share only imperfectly.  Only Jesus shows it to us in its purity.

having forgiven us all our transgressions;
obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims,
which was opposed to us,
he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross.

The Father longs to pour out his Spirit upon us when we ask.  Let us pray without ceasing (cf. 1 The 5:17) that we may have hearts full of mercy.  Let us join in the thanksgiving of the psalmist.

I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;

27 July 2013 - seeds of doubt

27 July 2013 - seeds of doubt

‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’

There is an undercurrent of mistrust in the tone of this question.  If this is truly the master's field why is it not only the wheat he has planted?

He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’

And is this reassuring?  It's may be even more frightening.  An enemy also has access to this field which is the source of the slaves livelihood.

While everyone was asleep his enemy came

But it isn't as though God sleeps.  Psalm 12 reminds us that "he who keeps you will not slumber."  Even after the creation of the world it isn't as though he rests on the Sabbath because he is tired.  He rests because there are things which are more important than work.  He rests from all else to make a day focused on our relationship with him.

Perhaps his sleep here is similar.  Working without sleep would imply that he is doing everything with no response on our part.  But he wants a relationship with us.  And he makes space for it by not forcing his will upon us.  Thus we may be either weeds or wheat.  We ourselves are the gateway of the enemy into the field.  It is reassuring then that the LORD waits until the harvest before separating the weeds and wheat. This is his patience, about which Pope Francis says:

God is always waiting for us, he never grows tired. Jesus shows us this merciful patience of God so that we can regain confidence, hope 

Let his patience move us to accept "all these words of his” as Moses puts it.  God brings us out from bondage in Egypt.  It isn't because we earn it.  He knows that if he tends to his field he will be able to reap a full harvest, no matter what weeds may spring up. Let us respond wholeheartedly:

“All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do.”

We must make this our intention.  Yet we know we fall short.  Jesus wants to reassure us that he won't pull up the weeds until the harvest.  He is patient and merciful.  All of our trials can move us to rely on him more and more completely.

Then call upon me in time of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall glorify me.”

Amen, LORD.  Glory to you forever!

26 July 2013 - playing in the dirt

26 July 2013 - playing in the dirt

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Hear the parable of the sower.

The word of God is a precious seed which is sown in our hearts.  Without it there is, in a sense, just dirt.  But, that said, the seed itself is not the goal.  The goal is the nourishment and enjoyment from the fruit.

Receiving the seed is not enough.  We need to plant it deep in our soil.  If we do, it will be protected from theft by the Evil One.  It will have the nourishment it needs to endure through circumstantial changes in the world above.  And we need to keep other invasive species off of our soil.  So many worldly things can choke out the seed if we allow them room to grow in the gardens of our hearts.

Let us therefore do all we can to provide rich soil for the precious seed we've been given.  All of our hope is found in this seed- the word of God.  Only from this seed will we taste the fruit of everlasting life.

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

The seed itself contains all of the care instructions we need to make it grow.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;

The LORD gives us his law because in it we find the necessary preconditions for growth, life, and blessedness.  It is a law of freedom, given by the one who delivers his people from all slavery.

“I, the LORD, am your God, 
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.

When we know that his law is about life, freedom, and happiness we will come to love it, not just accept and obey it.

They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.

Let us be zealous in caring for this garden.  May we bear fruit a hundredfold.

25 July 2013 - drinking problem

25 July 2013 - drinking problem

Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?”
They said to him, “We can.”

Of course, they are quick to respond because they don't know what chalice about which Jesus is speaking.  It isn't just some royal chalice to be used at a palace table.  The misunderstanding of James and John stems from their misunderstanding about what leadership in the kingdom truly is.  They want these positions for selfish reasons.  Jesus contrasts this with his motivation.

Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The chalice Jesus drinks is diametrically opposed to the one James and John imagine.  It is a chalice of suffering and self-giving. Because Jesus it he empowers his followers to drink it as well.

“My chalice you will indeed drink,

James and John still imagine Jesus is building a mere earthly kingdom.  They just want the comfort that royal life offers.  But Jesus doesn't take up the chalice for it's own sake.  He doesn't establish his kingdom for any benefit to himself.  He drinks the chalice of the cross for James, for John, and for all of us.

The love which Jesus has for us when we are still selfish sinners has the power to wake us up from our own self-involved lives.  With it, all that we were once trying to avoid by building comfortable earthly kingdoms is transformed.

We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained;
perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.

Initially the chalice we drink may taste bitter.  But Jesus transforms the chalice into the gateway to eternal life.

Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing.

lumen fidei - 5

lumen fidei - 5

Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the year of faith as a way to help us to appreciate the faith that we so often take for granted.  He wanted us experience the joy and wonder of faith as if for the first time.  It is a joy and a wonder which we see in the lives of martyrs.  We can know the same "new experience" that they knew.  It is the same "luminous vision of existence" for which they gave up their lives upon which we should be basing all of our choices.

Let us look around.  Does existence look luminous?  No?  Than let us step more appropriate our faith more deeply.  It can show us where there is light even amidst all the apparent darkness.  Only then will we be able to profess the faith in its "unity and integrity".

24 July 2013 - Sow what?

24 July 2013 - Sow what?

“A sower went out to sow.

What is the purpose of this parable?  Let us first take note that the sower does not discriminate about the type of soil in which he sows.  He sows on the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and even on rich soil.  The sower is clearly not concerned about a shortage of seeds.  He must see that the seeds will sometimes grow in surprising circumstances.  At the same time, he wants the best possible environment for the seed.

But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,

Jesus wants us to cultivate rich soil.  This parable helps us to see what that looks like.  It is free from the cares of the world.  It has an understanding that can't be easily subverted by the evil one.  It isn't just adopted as one fashionable opinion but has roots which go deep, into the core of the believer.

Jesus wants us to have such soil in our own hearts.  He wants us to help others cultivate such soil as well.  The children of Israel in Egypt display many of the soil problems about which Jesus warns us.

“Would that we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!”

They are being choked by the cares of the world.  Their trust in the LORD doesn't go deep enough yet.  But the LORD continues to lead them anyway.  He is transplanting from desert sands to the promised land.  He is fulfilling their needs so that they may come to trust him in a way that is more deeply rooted.

“I have heard the grumbling of the children of Israel.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”

The LORD is definitely a sower with little regard for soil quality.  He is more than able to transform the worst soil into the best, provided we allow him to do so.  The Israelites learn to trust him by relying on the bread he supplies from day to day.  Just so, we who have been given the true bread from heaven must learn to rely on it for our strength from day to day.

Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.

Let us therefore seek to make our hearts good soil.  Let us not grumble about the true bread from heaven which not even the angels are privileged to eat!

23 July 2013 - (re)born free

2013 July 2013 - 23 July 2013 - (re)born free

“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Mary is therefore twice his mother, for she says "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.""  The Father makes us to be like Jesus so that he will be the firstborn of many brethren (cf. Rom. 8:29). And what does being like Jesus mean?  It means doing the will of he who sent him (cf.Joh 6:39).  Jesus and Mary show us what obedience to that will looks like.  They show us how it is oriented to creating the family God intends.

The LORD's will is to save us.  If we follow him- if we do not turn back- we will know his saving power in our lives.  Eventually he will triumph over all of the oppression that we experience from sin and circumstance.

Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day
from the power of the Egyptians.

Ever since Adam and Eve the LORD has been raising a family.  He increased it to a tribe with Abraham, to a nation with Moses, and to a kingdom with David.  In Jesus he realizes it's full transnational potential as Church.

When the LORD leads us on a march through the desert it is because he can't stand to see his family enslaved in Egypt.  He isn't content to leave Joseph imprisoned there.  He isn't content to the leave the Israelites enslaved there.  And he won't leave us imprisoned in sin.

Because of sin the terrain around us is scorched.  The journey to the promised land is difficult.  But we needn't fear.  All that pursues us will be swept away by the waters of baptism.  We will escape to the dry land of the kingdom.

When your wind blew, the sea covered them;
like lead they sank in the mighty waters.

The opposite of sonship is slavery.  To do the will of God is freedom.  This is today's paradox.  But it isn't so difficult to understand if we think of human parents.  Human parents try to discourage their children from addictive behaviors because they want them to have the full freedom God intends for them.  Their will for their children is freedom.  If their children obey this will they can experience that freedom.  The only freedom they mustn't choose- the freedom opposed by their parents- is the freedom to throw away freedom itself.  As Paul tells us in Romans:

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, Abba, Father! 

The LORD wants to bring a free family to the promised land.

And you brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance—

the place where you made your seat, O LORD,

the sanctuary, O LORD, which your hands established. 

22 July 2013 - uncovered

22 July 2013 - uncovered

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?

Mary Magdalene loves Jesus so much.  In him she finds freedom from seven demons.  Tradition holds that she is the prostitute so grateful for forgiveness that she annoints the feet of Jesus and dries them with her own hair*.  But her sorrow is so great that she cannot recognize him now that he stands before her risen.

“Sir, if you carried him away,

tell me where you laid him,

and I will take him.”

Jesus addresses her firstly as "woman".  He speaks to Mary Magdalene but not just to her.  It is almost as if he looks beyond the present to see all the women of history even unto Eve herself.  Eve has been hurting for so long.  She has been partial and fragmented ever since the first sin.  Every hope has been incomplete, never quite healing the ache in her heart.

Jesus speaks so broadly at first to show that he comprehends the full scope of the suffering he confronts.  But his salvation is not to some abstract group.  Jesus demonstrates that he knows the suffering that has been endured throughout history.  But he saves us from that suffering at the most individual and personal level imaginable.  

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

As he says her name he reveals such an overwhelming understanding of her identity that she can't help but realize who it is who knows her so completely.

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,

“Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

We are often in a position like Mary Magdalene before she recognizes Jesus.  She even sees Lazarus rise from the dead.  She knows that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  But she cannot see past her own weeping and the weeping of every woman at every time in history.  It is like the Israelites in the desert of Egypt.  They experience such profound power from the LORD.  But now, pursued by Pharoh, they quickly forget all of that in the face of the tyranny of the insistent present.

“Were there no burial places in Egypt

that you had to bring us out here to die in the desert?

But just as he is doing with Israel and with Mary Magdalene so to is God leading us toward a more conclusive and permanent deliverance.  The only condition is that we not turn back.

“Fear not! Stand your ground,

and you will see the victory the LORD will win for you today.

These Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again.

We must exult in the victories the LORD works so that we can trust in him no matter how hopeless our circumstances seem.

Let us sing to the Lord; he has covered himself in glory.

* Is Mary Magdalene the same woman as the sinner who anoints Jesus?  Possibly.  See the discussion here.

21 July 2013 - open your presence.

21 July 2013 - open your presence.

In today's readings we see both action and contemplation have their place.

Abraham unknowingly entertains angels by his hospitality (cf Heb. 13:2):

Now that you have come this close to your servant,
let me bring you a little food, that you may refresh yourselves;
and afterward you may go on your way.”  

These angels bring God's blessing and presence to Abraham.  Through them he receives the fulfillment of the promise of children.  It is his hospitality which allows God's blessing and presence to manifest.

But at other times, serving can be a distraction from the presence of God in our midst.

“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 

Jesus is teaching and speaking.  Now is not the time for serving.  All of our service is ordered toward this intimacy.

She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 

When he is speaking to us let us sit at the feet of Jesus and listen.  When he is not speaking let us seek his presence in action and by service.  We can find him in the poor, the lonely, and the downtrodden.  We can invite him closer to us by serving him.

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

And, once in his presence, we should sit at his feet and listen.  This intimacy with him is the goal.  Hence he tells Martha:

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

Jesus dwells in his people.  We can find him in service of others.  We can even find him in ourselves in our own suffering.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,
and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ
on behalf of his body, which is the church,

His presence in our souls is our hope.  Let us open ourselves to the many ways of drawing nearer to him.  Let us open ourselves in particular to his presence in the Eucharist.  He is our hope of glory.

it is Christ in you, the hope for glory. 
It is he whom we proclaim,

20 July 2013 - clean break

20 July 2013 - clean break

Since the dough they had brought out of Egypt was not leavened,
they baked it into unleavened loaves.
They had rushed out of Egypt and had no opportunity
even to prepare food for the journey.

We are on pilgrimage.  We can't afford to stay in the Egypt of sin just to make our bread fluffy.  Unleavened bread symbolizes leaving behind the superfluous and unnecessary and focusing on what really matters.  With Paul leaven itself becomes a symbol of sin. Paul tells us to leave behind the old leaven of malice and evil and to keep our Christian feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (cf 1 Cor 5:8).  Perhaps extraneous things can themselves become problems for us when we let them keep us from putting the kingdom first.

If we insist on spending the time in Egypt (sin) to leaven our bread, or even to bring leaven with us, we will not be able to experience the full deliverance the LORD has for us.  Let us rush from Egypt and toward the promised land.

The passover from Egypt teaches us how to more fully live the passover of Jesus.  Jesus brings us from sin to freedom and from death to life.  We must not idle in sin and death.  Because "a little yeast leavens all the dough" (cf. 1 Cor 5:6) we must not bring any sin with us from our previous lives.  To do so puts us and our Christian brothers and sisters at risk.

Who split the Red Sea in twain,
for his mercy endures forever;
And led Israel through its midst,
for his mercy endures forever;
But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea,
for his mercy endures forever.

Look at how completely the LORD wants us to make a break from Egypt.  By his power and mercy he delivers us.  We don't have to rely on our own efforts.  We would still be on bondage if we did.  Let us lay aside the unnecessary things which keep us from running to God so that we can experience the power of his mighty hand and outstretched arm in our own lives.  His mercy was not just available then for the Israelites.  They themselves assure us: it endures forever!

19 July 2013 - pilgrim priorities

19 July 2013 - pilgrim priorities

Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath
the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath
and are innocent?
I say to you, something greater than the temple is here.

David's companions lack of food takes precedence over the ceremonial restrictions relating to the temple bread. The hunger which Jesus satisfies is deeper than hunger for food.  How much more than David's companions do we need the bread which Jesus gives.  He is the bread that satisfies   No one who comes to him will go hungry (cf. Joh 6:35).

Priests that serve in the temple are permitted to violate the sabbath because the temple is so important.  God dwells within it.  Service in the temple therefore takes precedence over sabbath rules.  Jesus is the very presence of God.  What is partial and symbolic in the temple is fully realized in Jesus Christ.  Therefore, the building of his kingdom is of greater importance the the sabbath.

The sabbath rest is important.  The readings stressed that yesterday.  But the rest week to week is temporary and points toward a perfect rest that will only come at the end of time when the kingdom is comes in its fullness.  We are to remember that we are still on a pilgrimage until then.

“This is how you are to eat it: 
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.

We remember the deliverance that the LORD has already wrought even as we look forward to a still greater deliverance when we finally and definitively pass from death to life.  Even as Jesus feeds us on our journey so will we be even more perfectly united to him.  Having done nothing to earn so great a deliverance he himself will be all we have to offer in thanks.

I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

We will say to the Father, 'I have no merit.  Take Jesus's merits as my own.  In thanks I offer myself, but only in union with him.'  As Therese of Lisieux says:

When I think of the good God's statement: 'I shall come soon and bring my reward with me, repaying everyone according to his works', then I say to myself that He will find Himself wonderfully embarrassed with me, because I have no works! So He will not be able to repay me according to my works. Very well, then, I trust that He will repay me according to His works.

On that day we will rejoice with the psalmist:

I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.

18 July 2013 - revolutionary revelation

18 July 2013 - revolutionary revelation

Jesus said:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.

God wants to give us rest.  This desire has marked his relationship with us since the dawn of creation when he gives us the sabbath as a day of rest (cf. Gen. 2:2).

Moses prefigures Jesus in leading the people of Israel out from the yoke of Egypt to the rest of the promised land just as Jesus leads us out from the yoke of sin and death into the true promised land of heaven.

The children of Israel follow Moses because he reveals the Father to them.  They already stand in relationship to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  But Moses reveals something deeper.  He reveals something heretofore unknown.

if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I am who am.”

The name of God is revealed.  And not just his name, something of the very essence of God is revealed.  He isn't one thing existing alongside others.  He is existence itself.  Everything else that exists does so only because it receives its existence from him.

This revelation is revolutionary and fundamental.  Without this the people will remain enslaved, scattered, and separate.  Knowing this helps them enter deeper relationship with God.  It alters their worldview in such a way that they have a deeper source of unity and strength.  They are in relationship with the one who is!  Who can stand in their way?

“Yet I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go
unless he is forced.
I will stretch out my hand, therefore,
and smite Egypt by doing all kinds of wondrous deeds there.
After that he will send you away.”

Many will try to prevent the Israelites from entering into God's rest for them.  But how laughable that is.  He is the source of all things.  If only they learn to trust this revelation they will enter into "a land flowing with milk and honey."

The people of Israel often express discontent with the yoke of God.  There are two things they are forgetting at such times.  The first is who God has revealed himself to be.  The second is how much worse the yoke of Egypt is.  We are similar.  Jesus frees us from the yoke of sin for his yoke, which is easy and light.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.

And yet we sometimes complain that his yoke is hard.  But that isn't the experience he says we should have.  Perhaps we have allowed the world to yoke us again.  It is a much harsher master.  Let us come back to the yoke of Jesus.  His yoke is freedom.  He came to set us free.  If we hold fast to the truth of who he is we will be free indeed (cf. Joh 8:36).  We are free under his yoke.  Apart from it there is only slavery to the world.  We have to remember who he is.  We have to remember who he has been.

 The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

He is trustworthy.  His yoke is easy.  He tells us so.  Let us come to him.  Let us take his yoke upon ourselves.  There remains a rest for us at the end of this pilgrimage (cf. Heb 4:9).  Let us enter that rest!

lumen fidei - 4

lumen fidei - 4

Faith is not like a blind leep or subjective incommunicable feelings.  It is too powerful for us to manufacture ourselves.  It lights up everything.  Without it all other ways to the truth show their limitations.

It is not arbitrary.  It is an encounter with a personal love which exists before us and which is real enough that we can lean on it for strength.

It sheds light on past.  Pain and suffering are imbued with a meaning at which science and philosophy could not even guess.  Even death is seen in a new light, as it were.

It sheds light on the future.  It shows us the destiny which God intends for us and the way to reach it.

Reason without faith is "shadowy and and fraught with fear of the unknown" (LF 3).

Faith within us is a light so powerful as to be a star that gives light to every aspect of life.

17 July 2013 - barefoot seeking

17 July 2013 - barefoot seeking

The readings today speak of God's self-revelation to us.  They show us that he reveals himself in order to establish a family with himself as Father.  Once we are brought into that family by revelation he raises us up for mission.

No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

To know God is a gift which we receive.  We don't always think of it that way.  We think of the knowledge we acquire that points us to faith.  We think of the act of will that faith entails.  These sometimes seem like the fruit of our efforts.  But they are not.  What CS Lewis says about Agnostics applies to us all:

"Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about ‘man’s search for God.’ To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse’s search for the cat."

Everything that leads up to faith and the act of faith itself are entirely dependent on God's grace.  Jesus tells us that no one comes to him unless the Father draws him or her (cf. Joh 6:44).  And no one is excluded from that call of the Father  We remember this so that we may be humble.

Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.

If we want to let God reveal himself to us we must strip ourselves of all our pretenses and approach him in humility, yes, but also intimacy.  The two are intimately related because he is a Father.  He in working in history for us before we are even born.  He is building his covenant family.

I am the God of your father,” he continued,
“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

If we approach him in humility we will experience awe in his presence.  This experience of the distance between us is the prerequisite to know and enjoy God bridging that gap and uniting himself to us.  He is then able to trust us to bear that love to other.  Awe before God protects us from the danger of turning his mission for us into our project for him.

The cry of the children of Israel has reached me,
and I have truly noted that the Egyptians are oppressing them.

And as we experience him working through us we will come to know more and more just how good and awesome is he!

The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel. 

Let us all bless his holy name!

16 July 2013 - water ride

16 July 2013 - water ride

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.

To whom much has been given much will be expected (cf. Luk 12:48).  We who know the saving power of Jesus have more to answer for.  Those who have never heard the gospel are held to a different standard.  Their position is not enviable, though, lacking the sacramental grace we enjoy.  This grace frees from the chains of sin and makes it possible for us to be holy even as God is holy.  Because we see this grace at work we know that the words of the psalmist are true.

Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.

Tyre, Sidon, and even Sodom are judged harshly.  But at least they have the excuse that they have never known God's deliverance in their own lives.

I am sunk in the abysmal swamp
where there is no foothold;
I have reached the watery depths;
the flood overwhelms me.

Moses experiences this deliverance before he can even ask for it.  It is almost like infant baptism.

When the child grew, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter,
who adopted him as her son and called him Moses;
for she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

We need to realize the great continuity of salvation history in which we stand.  We are drawn out from the abysmal swamps and the watery depths to new life.  Like Moses, we are brought in to a new family.  Just as he is raised to be a leader of his people we ourselves are raised up to reign with Christ.

We need to realize the greatness of what we've been given.  We have literally been given every spiritual blessing in the heavens (cf Eph. 1:3), not just a few.  And the LORD never blesses an individual just for his own sake.  We are designed to live in a community of love.  Therefore the LORD expects us to invest the blessings he gives us in the building of the kingdom.   Just as in the parable of the talents (cf. 25:14-30) we can't bury what we've been given.  Burying our talents means using them for ourselves alone.  Burying the talents is unacceptable not because of a lack of work ethic entailed but mostly because the isolation involved is contrary to the life of the Trinity.

“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

The saving power of God is amazing.  We see it in our own lives.  And we are therefore obligated to proclaim it.  Because it is one thing to not repent oneself.  It is another to be in the position to save others with the blessings we ourselves have been given and not do so (cf. Eze. 3:18).  Woe to us if we don't proclaim the gospel (1 Cor 9:16).  Let God's grace enable us to proclaim his saving power which we ourselves behold.

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.

lumen fidei - 2 and 3

Paragraph two speaks of how faith is commonly regarded by our contemporaries.

Faith would thus be the illusion of light, an illusion which blocks the path of a liberated humanity to its future.

Faith is thought to be naive.  It is thought to be a crutch for week minds.  And naturally, with a crutch we limp.  We don't progress into our unguessed future.  Or at least we progress more slowly.

"this is where humanity’s paths part: if you want peace of soul and happiness, then believe, but if you want to be a follower of truth, then seek".

Nietzsche wants us to think that believers are not courageous   He wants us to think that we are too weak to face the world.  He is trying to provoke us.

Paragraph three shows how the response of well meaning people to the above point of view often falls short.

Such room would open up wherever the light of reason could not penetrate, wherever certainty was no longer possible.

Faith is seen as having it's own sphere that is separate from the world of reason.  It is seen to pertain only to the subjective.

Faith was thus understood either as a leap in the dark,  to be taken in the absence of light, driven by blind emotion,

How many people dismiss faith in this way?  Do we know a faith that is more than a mere leep in the dark?

or as a subjective light, capable perhaps of warming the heart and bringing personal consolation, but not something which could be proposed to others as an objective and shared light which points the way

If we only know faith as a subjective light we won't be able to share it with others.

But this brave new world apart from faith that Nietzsche desires proves flawed.  It can't answer the ultimate questions, provide direction, or shed light on our paths.

Slowly but surely, however, it would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown.

The true light that illumines these things is faith, but not as it is so frequently misunderstood.

15 July 2013 - lost causes

15 July 2013 - lost causes

Yet the more they were oppressed,
the more they multiplied and spread.

The Israelites are peaceable.  They aren't in Egypt in opposition to the Egyptians.  And yet, just by their presence they are a threat in Egypt.  In their blessedness they are divisive.  As Pharaoh treats them thusly and represses them he sees the opposite results to what he expects.  They thrive.  This scares him more.  He increases his cruelty toward them.

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

Jesus is similar.  We don't take up the sword ourselves.  We are peaceable because he calls the peacemakers blessed (cf. Mat 5:9).  But the world is threatened by us.  We make the world uncomfortable by pointing to fulfillment beyond ourselves and indeed beyond the world's capacity to deliver.  It is going to respond with oppression.  It even goes so far as violence.  It gives us two options: turn back or go all the way to the cross with Jesus.

Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The world tells us that this is a doomed proposition.  It insists that we seek happiness here and now.  It basically freaks out when it sees us living for heaven.  It freaks out even more when it sees the joy that comes from this life.  It is desperate because it is trying so hard to find its life but sees it slipping away moment to moment.  We are finding a life we don't even have to chase.

This is true unless we turn aside.  The temptation is always present.  We are still buffeted with pain and suffering.  It can narrow our vision.  It can turn us inward.  It can make us start up ultimately doomed DIY happiness projects.  It can steal our joy.  We must remember that our hope is not in ourselves nor our efforts.

Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

14 July 2013 - simplify

14 July 2013 - simplify

“For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.

We sometimes tend to overcomplicate things.  To love as God loves is not easy but it is straightforward.  We would prefer that there be some loopholes to lower than standard.  We wish to regard only a select few as neighbors deserving of our love.

“And who is my neighbor?” 

But Jesus comes to put all such divisions to rest.  He comes to open us to love in its fullness.  There are so many divisions that we accept.  They are ways to limit our call to love to a level that is "manageable."  But we are called to be like our Father who makes rain fall on the just and the unjust (cf. Mat 5:45).  We are called to be like Jesus who dies for us even while we are sinners and enemies of God (cf. Rom 5:8).  The divisions are entrenched with in us.  The only way to truly overcome them is in the one that can hold all of the disparate pieces together in himself.

making peace by the blood of his cross

The law of the LORD isn't overly complicated.  But we are complicated in our attachment to sin and division.  We don't want to cross the road to the robber's victim.  We have so much to do already, right? That is why such a drastic solution is necessary.  Let us turn from the excuses that keep us from love toward the salvation Jesus offers.

the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.

In his words we find a life we will never know otherwise.

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.

13 July 2013 - remastered

13 July 2013 - remastered

Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,

Eventually it will be made clear whom we serve.  The sheep and the goats will be separated (cf. Mat 25:31-46).  We will become more and more like our teacher and master as we follow him.  We will either grow in likeness to Jesus or in likeness to Beelzebub.

And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;

Proclaiming the kingdom in dangerous.  The servants of the devil may go so far as to kill the body if they continue to follow that master.  But if we continue to follow ours we will not fear.

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.

Sparrows may fall to the ground.  After all, "no slave above his master."  We may face persecution.  But this passage tells us that it happens with the Father's knowledge. Is that comforting?  It should be.  If he knows about it, then he is allowing it in his plan.  And his plan is good!

Even though you meant harm to me, God meant it for good,
to achieve his present end, the survival of many people.

Because we are not greater than our master crosses are inescapable (cf. Luk 9:23).  But they happen with our "Father's knowledge."  And that should console us.

So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

There is always the temptation to not speak up for our master because of the threat of persecution.  But that is how we begin to turn aside from him.  Beelzebub requires no acknowledgement to follow.  He tells us to put ourselves first.  But he does not deliver on his promises of pleasure.  The destiny of those who follow him is certain.

Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

So even while our earthly circumstances include crosses we have every reason for joy if we trust in Jesus.  When we are acknowledged as his servants and disciples before his Father we will at last be invited to enter his rest and share his heavenly joy.

Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad!

12 July 2013 - spirited speech

12 July 2013 - spirited speech

When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.

Let's take note of what this excerpt does not say.  It does not say to that we don't benefit from being ready to speak.  In fact, Peter tells us to always be ready to give a reason for our hope (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15).  On the other hand, "[w]hen they hand you over" is not the time to start this process.  More specifically, it is not the time to start worrying about it, which is in any event different from careful planning.  The point is that times of desolation aren't good times for planning and discernment if we can help it.

You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

The Holy Spirit certainly has the power to just take over with words we don't have the skill or even the knowledge to come up with on our own.  But the Holy Spirit is pleased to work with the limited resources we bring just as he does with in speaking through authors of the Scriptures.  In either case, we need to step out of our own way.  If we come to these desolations and let worry dominate us we risk becoming too inwardly focused to let the Spirit speak.

That God works in us is not an excuse to burry our talents (cf. Mat. 25:14-30).  It is an encouragement to be able to trust God in any situation.  It is an acknowledgement that ultimately our preparations are always insufficient.  Nothing we say means anything without the Holy Spirit changing hearts.  Hence Paul VI writes in Evangelii Nuntiandi 75 that "[e]vangelization will never be possible without the action of the Holy Spirit." This should not cause us to despair.  Jesus assures us that the Holy Spirit will give each and every one of us what we need at these moments.

The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.

The message of today's readings is to trust in the LORD in difficult moments. Joseph does this through hardship after hardship.  Jesus warns:

Brother will hand over brother to death,

Joseph's brothers almost kill him.  They do hand him over to slavery.  But Jesus warns of this only to encourage us to stand fast.

but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

The LORD turns these hardships into blessings for Joseph until he is finally reunited with his father.

And Israel said to Joseph, “At last I can die,
now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive.”

Just so, if we endure to the end the LORD will turn all the hardships of our life into blessings that ultimately unite us with our true Father in heaven, from whom all earthly fathers are named (cf. Eph. 3:15)

11 July 2013 - out of egypt

11 July 2013 - out of egypt

But now do not be distressed,
and do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here.
It was really for the sake of saving lives
that God sent me here ahead of you.”

The LORD is able to work through us in spite of our mistakes.  That is why "all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose" (cf. Rom. 8:28).  There are some ways in which Joseph prefigures Jesus which are worth mentioning.  Jesus, though in the form of God, takes the form of a slave (cf. Phil. 2:7) making him similar to Joseph who is sold into slavery and similar to all of Israel which is eventually enslaved in Egypt.  We too have pasts marred by slavery to sin.

Looking at it another way, it is as though Joseph dies when his brothers throw him in the pit but is raised in Egypt to pour out blessings on the very brothers who betrayed him.    The cross is the ultimate example of evil, sin, and apparent failure and yet it used by God as the very remedy to sin and death.  God wants us to see that apparent evil, slavery, death, and anything else can be the source of the grace of the resurrection.

Before Jesus we see a pattern of slavery and freedom in the history of Israel.  But with Jesus, freedom definitively arrives.  He comes to set us free not so that we will be enslaved again but so that we will be free indeed (cf. John 8:36).  Paul reminds that for freedom Jesus sets us free.  He reminds us not to fall back again into slavery.  Because of Jesus this is finally possible.

Freedom and resurrection are intimately tied together.  When the kingdom is proclaimed bondage is broken, both physical and spiritual.

‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.

Joseph's exultation in Egypt prefigures the LORD's plan for all of us.  He does not set us free to live marginalized and trivialized lives.  He sets us free to reign with him (cf. 2 Tim 2:12).

The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free.
He made him lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions.

We are given this freedom not just for ourselves but to share it with everyone.  This is why Jesus insists that if people won't receive it that we " shake the dust from [our] feet."  We can't risk letting our own freedom be smothered and suffocated because it isn't just for us.

Remember the marvels the Lord has done.

May the liberation that the LORD works for his people inspire us to stand fast in this freedom.  Let us share it freely since we have received "without cost[.]"

10 July 2013 - plan obsolescence

10 July 2013 - plan obsolescence

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples

There is a subtle parallelism between the OT reading and the Gospel today.  The twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve apostles have a few things in common.  It isn't an exact match because Jesus also parallels Joseph without being one of the twelve.

First, both groups are definitely imperfect. The brothers, among other things, almost killed Joseph before selling him into slavery.  We see a tax collector among the apostles.  We even see Judas among them.  They both betray the one the LORD appoints to lead them.

Joseph is innocent and beloved by the father.  He is betrayed by his brothers.

Jesus is betrayed by Judas.  But he is also betrayed by all of us every time we sin.  Among the twelve apostles, only John stands with Jesus at the cross.

Yet both of these groups are used to feed the LORD's people.

The brothers are told "take home provisions for your starving families."

The apostles are sent "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  And we know the the LORD sends his apostles to his sheep to feed them (cf. John 21:17).

His plans are not frustrated by our apparent lack of compliance.

The LORD brings to nought the plans of nations;
he foils the designs of peoples.
But the plan of the LORD stands forever;
the design of his heart, through all generations.

Let's pause here, though.  We sometimes think, 'I've never done anything really bad.' At other times we think only of all our repeated little failures to follow the LORD day to day and doubt that he can use us.    In both cases these are excuses for complacency.  We have crucified the LORD of glory.  You and I have done this, and all the other not-so-bad people like us.  And we fail the LORD day to day again and again.  But his mercy is so much greater than our failures.  He allows the crucifixion to happen because from it he brings the resurrection.  He allows our failures to happen because from them he can bring the kingdom to earth.  As long as we turn back to him and repent his plans are never frustrated.

Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

The brothers of Joseph are eventually reconciled.  Except for Judas the twelve apostles are the very channels through whom we now believe.  Imagine what the LORD can do even through people like us.

As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Lumen Fidei - 1

Lumen Fidei - 1

Those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ

Enlightenment seems like an abstract word.  It seems like otherworldy spirituality.   But we are reminded here that that enlightenment doesn't just shine in some inward spiritual landscape.  It does illuminate us within.  But it also "illumines [our] entire journey".  We can navigate our lives better because we have faith.  Without faith we are in the dark to one degree or another.  And when we are in the dark we stumble and fall.  When we are in the dark we don't have the frame of reference to get to our destination.  Faith makes a concrete difference in our lives.

"Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

Martha does believe.  She believes in spite of her brothers death which she confronts.  Faith isn't an absence of "realism."  It is the acknowledgement of a higher reality over the sensory world.   It is because she has this light that she sees God reveal his glory by raising Lazarus from the dead.

Jesus himself reveals this higher reality.  As he begins his prayer to raise Lazarus he lifts his eyes to the Father.  He looks past death to the eternal love of the Father.

May we be filled with such faith and light.

9 July 2013 - wrestling the restless

9 July 2013 - wrestling the restless

Jacob was left there alone.
Then some man wrestled with him until the break of dawn.

We all experience wrestling with God at some point.  It isn't that our will is going to prevail against the Almighty, obviously. But even when we feel like we're being bent and pressured beyond our capabilities we have to hold on.  It is like a mother lion wrestling with her cubs.  If the cubs just roll over they won't go strong.  It isn't that they are trying to win.  They need their mother.  But they need the strength this will give them.

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.”

True victory in this contest is the strength that comes from holding out to the end.

“You shall no longer be spoken of as Jacob, but as Israel,
because you have contended with divine and human beings
and have prevailed.”

Let us remember that God is first and foremost Father.  He tests us and disciplines us only in order to help us to grow as his children.

Hide me in the shadow of your wings.
I in justice shall behold your face;
on waking, I shall be content in your presence. 

Jesus has the same heart for us.

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.

It is for this reason that he heals disease, makes the mute speak, and proclaims the kingdom of God.  He does it all because he sees us wandering on our own.  We are overwhelmed by the world.  We are orphans who never had our strength built up to deal with it.  All we can do is wander until disaster strikes.  But in Jesus we are no longer orphans.  We cry out "Abba, Father!" (cf. Romans 8:15)  Let us hold fast to him!  Blessing is coming.

8 July 2013 - transcendence

8 July 2013 - transcendence

“Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.”
And they ridiculed him.

Our minds ridicule ideas like this too.  Secretly, unconsciously, we believe that the laws of materialism are absolute.  People don't rise from the dead.  People aren't healed.  Energy is dispersing to the four winds, never to be collected again.

Our minds are rebellious.  This world is imperfect because of sin.  We don't want to acknowledge sin.   We tend to think of this world as more of a permanent home than it really is.  We have a hard time truly living for the coming kingdom.  There is an inherent uncomfortableness in the knowledge that we live in the not yet.  We try to avoid this and make a lasting home here.  We therefore expect that everything should be perfect here and now.  And when it isn't we expect that we ourselves should be the ones to fix it.  And when we can't fix it, we assume that it is hopeless.  To preserve our comfort, we begin to ridicule the idea of a God who transcends all things.

Yet there is a place where this world of sin and suffering and the perfect world of heaven intersect as Jacob sees in his dream.

Then he had a dream: a stairway rested on the ground,
with its top reaching to the heavens;
and God’s messengers were going up and down on it.

And that place is Jesus.

And he said to him, “Amen, amen,* I say to you, you will see the sky opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (cf. John 1:51).

Jesus is the place where all of the brokenness of this world is made new.  We cannot accept the imperfections of this world and rightly so.  Just getting close to Jesus and touching him is enough to access the power which even now begins to heal all things.

She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”
Jesus turned around and saw her, and said,
“Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.”
And from that hour the woman was cured.

In Jesus the things that we take for granted as laws- things which we have to experience because of sin have no power.

When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand,
and the little girl arose.

So what is the secret to placing our trust more in Jesus than the expectations we have about the world from our past experiences?  Cling to him!  Let his hand raise us up!  He can stop our hopes from hemorrhaging even after years and years.  He can give us life again!

Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress. 

7 July 2013 - moved by hope

7 July 2013 - moved by hope

Today Jesus is trying to teach us about sharing the good news.

We are to be like Isaiah, with sufficient hope to proclaim the coming joy of the kingdom even in a world marked with suffering.

Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,
all you who love her;
exult, exult with her,
all you who were mourning over her!

Hope is essential to the proclamation of the Gospel.  We won't even set out without it.  We will just mourn for our Church as the Israelites mourn for Jerusalem.  In order to believe in the difference that sharing the good news can make we have to have the supernatural hope that comes from God.

When the LORD gives us a mission, whatever the size, there are many things which cause us to slow down and turn aside.  We will have to let go of some of these distractions if the LORD is to work through us.

Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;
and greet no one along the way. 

We tend to overcomplicate things.  We often spend so much time figuring out what approach would be best that we are paralyzed.  We never get around to delivering the message we've been entrusted.  The LORD warns us against this.  When he opens a path to us we are not to turn from it.

Do not move about from one house to another. 

We have to put others first.  Even if we have forego some comforts and pleasures we shouldn't let this distract us.

eat what is set before you,

What we have to tell the world is so important.  When we really open ourselves to God and his mission for us he will confirm our words with signs and wonders.

cure the sick in it and say to them,
‘The kingdom of God is at hand for you.’

It won't go to our heads as if we're special somehow.  It is precisely because we care about the one thing worth caring about that the LORD can work through us.  Things that divide us are no longer relevant.  It is empty to boast the LORD does mighty deeds through us.  One thing matters: "a new creation."

Let God fill our hearts with the hope that comes from him.  The world cannot give this hope.  In fact, it tries at every opportunity to extinguish it.  We only need to read the news for confirmation of that.  If we receive this hope and act on it the kingdom will spread.  This is how prosperity is spread over Jerusalem.  This is how Satan falls like lightning from the sky.   Seeing this, we rejoice in our God who has wrought it all.

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”

6 July 2013 - past the surface

6 July 2013 - past the surface

Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

The old framework is insufficient for the Good News which Jesus brings.  The criteria for judging whether something is holy or not have been upgraded.  Before, one could tell simply by whether or not a set of external acts were performed.

“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”

Even the disciples of John are confused.  They know fasting is good so they assume that people who are doing it must be the most pious.  Surely the ones practicing all of the mortifications are the holy ones and the ones who aren't must be lazy at best.  Jesus tells us that this is not so.  There are times when it is appropriate to fast.  There are times when it is appropriate to feast.  We can't tell whether someone is pious just by looking at which external someone chooses.  The important thing to observe is that now in the New Covenant whether or not fasting is a good idea is determined by our relationship to Jesus.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.

We tend to choose badly.  But if we stay near Jesus he can use us in spite of imperfect choices.  Rebekah and Jacob conspire to steal the blessing from Esau.  This blessing is vitally important for through it the promises to Abraham will eventually be fulfilled. Valuable is it is, lying is not commendable or praiseworthy.  If anything, the value of the blessing makes it even worse.  We can see how problematic it is by the strife it causes in their family down the road.  And yet, God not only honors his promise by passing on the blessing he calls Jacob his chosen one.

For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself,

In spite of our mistakes, God choses us for himself.  Let us turn back to him with our hearts full of praise.

Praise the Lord for the Lord is good!

5 July 2013 - heritable blessings

5 July 2013 - heritable blessings

He said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him.

Matthew knows that worldly success is not enough.  His criteria for making decisions probably used to be having a comfortable life with as much worldly distraction as he could procure.  As a tax collector he likely succeeded in providing these for himself.  And in spite of that he is not content.  Such a life is rough on relationships.  Tax collectors aren't popular, as we can see from the comment of the Pharisees.  His acquisitions clearly aren't enough to make him happy.  When Jesus invites him he knows that his own resources are tapped out.  He is able to make a wholehearted response.

Many of us are in the same boat with the Pharisees.  We can't go all in because we have to protect our self-image as "good people."  The LORD gives us opportunities every day to make radical choices of love for him instead of ourselves.  So why don't we?  We want to maintain the illusion that we've already arrived.  We don't want to acknowledge all of the perfecting that we still need in order to stand before the awesome holiness of God in heaven.

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.

And once we begin to make radical choices for God there is always the temptation to backslide.  We are like the Israelites who quickly forget the hardships of Egypt in the midst of the desert.  We begin to take for granted this new freedom we've been given.  We take for granted the providence of God that sustains us on our journey.  But we must not return to that land of slavery.  We must safeguard the promises the LORD has given us.  Abraham knows this and so is very explicit in his provisions for Isaac.

“Never take my son back there for any reason,” Abraham told him.

As we take concrete actions of faith God will unfold his plan for us. It sometimes doesn't seem like there is enough to sustain us on this pilgrimage.  As we trust him we come to learn that he always meets our needs  We come to trust that he will always provide enough for our journey.

Visit me with your saving help,
That I may see the prosperity of your chosen ones,
rejoice in the joy of your people,
and glory with your inheritance.

4 July 2013 - hope never fails

4 July 2013 - hope never fails

I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.”

Isaac is everything to Abraham.  He is the fulfillment of all of the promises that seemed impossible.  He is blessing to Abraham enduring beyond his own life.  Because of this he is more Abraham's future than Abraham's own life.  Asking for Isaac's life is as if the LORD is asking for him to give up all of his fulfilled hopes and dreams as sacrifice to the LORD.  But Abraham does not surrender his hope in the LORD.  He only surrenders his right to understand its fulfillment.  He reasons that God must even be able to raise Isaac from the dead to fulfill his promise (cf. Heb 11:9).  The LORD doesn't ask for Isaac's life because he wants it.  What he wants is for Abraham to have a heart like his own.  The LORD wants Abraham to put him first.  And just as God's heart gives us his only Son, whom he loves, so too does he wish to make Abraham's heart.

When we fear the LORD and put him first he is free to bless us.  This archetypal act of faith unleashes some of the greatest blessings in human history.

Again the LORD’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
“I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly

Note that the blessings don't ever stop with one isolated individual.  That isn't even their main locus.  God waits for faith to unleash his power in human history.  But once he unleashes it there are no boundaries to where it flows.  This is how the faith of his friends saves the paralytic.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,

The cry of the psalmist embodies this.  He asks the LORD to bless his people for the sake of the LORD's own glory.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name give glory
because of your kindness, because of your truth.

May we put the LORD first so that his power may be unleashed in us.  May we see it and give glory to God.

When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.

3 July 2013 - doubts transformed

3 July 2013 - doubts transformed

So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

The other disciples want Thomas to be able to share in the experience they've had of the risen LORD.  So they tell him about what they've seen.  But it seems to have the opposite effect.  His heart is still no doubt crushed because the passion. There are rumors that the LORD lives and Thomas has probably heard these.  He is no doubt pulled between hope and despair.  It is probably wearing him down, little by little.  And the disciples want to tell him that the hope is true, the despair is fading, destined to disappear.  But instead they just make him feel more isolated.  Why everyone else but not him, Thomas probably wonders.

Jesus came, although the doors were locked,

Jesus does not abandon Thomas to doubt.  He in fact provides for exactly what Thomas requires.

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

But just the presence of Jesus is enough.  Locked doors of fear and doubt are no obstacles to Jesus.  Thomas's heart swells with faith in response.

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Why does Jesus reveal himself in this way?  Why create a situation where most of the disciples encounter the LORD but not Thomas?  For one thing, he wants his resurrection to be known in the context of community and fellowship and not as an isolated stranger.

You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones

But perhaps even more than that Thomas's doubts seem to give way to an even more profound experience of belief.  And the experience is not just for him but for us all.  When we have doubts we have one in heaven who can sympathize with us.  In the world we can often only see the human side of a situation and not the divine, the death and not the resurrection. Thomas only sees the human side of the situation until Jesus comes to reveal himself to him.  But Jesus comes to Thomas.  When we don't have the faith to see the divine at work and can only see the human and the hopeless Jesus comes for us as well.  He reveals himself to Thomas to reveal his heart for us all.  Does this mean the LORD can even use our doubts to reach others?  Emphatically yes!

Even as we once doubted we now join with our fellow citizens in the Church to tell the world that we too have seen the risen LORD.

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

Peter Furler - Hold On 

"Just believe, I know you're gonna make it"

2 July 2013 - weather or not

2 July 2013 - weather or not

When he hesitated

Lot is told by the angels that it is time to get out of Dodge.  But even though he knows punishment is coming to Sodom he hesitates.  He needs to make a break with this part of his life but is reluctant to do so.  The mercy of the LORD is so strong as to give him the push he needs as angels drag him and his family forth.

Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to.
It’s only a small place.

The LORD plans for Lot to go farther but he does not insist.  In the face of such a pressing disaster God still provides for Lot's human weakness.  It is encouraging to see the LORD's provision for our mortal frailty in not insisting on perfection all at once.

“I will also grant you the favor you now ask.

Although Lot and his family are dragged from Sodom the LORD does not take away their free will.  He shows mercy.  But in the end, they must leave Sodom behind freely.  They must make a decisive break with the land of wickedness.

But Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Their escape must be difficult.  It is an arduous journey even without fire raining from the sky.  But the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is beginning.  Sulphur is falling.  Their past is being destroyed.  It is, in a way, understandable that Lot's wife looks back.  Let it be a lesson for us as to how dangerous it can be to look back when God is calling us on.  The sins of the past can pull us back down and ensnare us.  They can even be our undoing.

In the midst of the storms that assail us Jesus must be our certainty.  All we have between us and the raging sees is the boat, that is, the Church.  We see the waves toss it and we fear for our lives.  Jesus appears to be unresponsive to our plight.  We may be very tempted to try to something drastic out of fear just as Lot's wife did.

His disciples trust him more than this.  They can still see that the boat in which he is traveling is the best option.  They don't just jump overboard in fear.  But their faith is still in need of perfecting.

They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

It is not that they are asking for the wrong thing.  However, the presence of Jesus should be enough for them.  If they truly recognize who he is they will not fear though storms may come.  Even if he seems indifferent to the storms they will trust him.  Even if he seems asleep they will realize that, in his divinity, he slumbers not, nor sleeps (cf. Psalm 121:4).

We must trust Jesus even in the midst of storms.  Even if he seems asleep we can take comfort that he directs our hearts even at night (cf. Psalm 16:7).  There is no need to fear.  This ship won't sink. The Church will persevere.  Eventually the storm will be calmed.

Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.

We long for this great calm.  Let us also have confidence that he intends it for us.  Lot's wife doesn't look beyond her past or imminent sufferings and she is turned to salt.  Trusting in the LORD we will be brought by angels to a place of calm heretofore unknown.

My foot stands on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.

Let us not neglect to be thankful for the wonders which the LORD does for us.  They inspire us and draw us on.  They help us to have confidence when the next storm comes.  We know that he is the LORD and that every storm is subject to him.

“What sort of man is this,
whom even the winds and the sea obey?”

1 July 2013 - bargaining posture

1 July 2013 - bargaining posture

The LORD reflected: “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
now that he is to become a great and populous nation,
and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?

The LORD is training Abraham to have a heart like his heart.  He wants Abraham to be merciful even as he himself is merciful.  He puts Abraham in a situation where his prayers are the only thing between Sodom and Gomorrah and destruction.  And Abraham understands that these are wicked places. They more or less deserve what they have coming.  It is unclear why Lot ends up in such a place to begin with.  Whatever the reason, the LORD has a higher purpose.  He uses Lot to give Abraham stake is there.  Abraham intercedes for the entire area because Lot's presence there means that there is more than the evil visible on the surface (which indeed runs deep).

Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty,
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!

Although the LORD appears to be in a position of condemnation he only allows this to call forth mercy and repentance.  If the cities are spared it will be out of mercy which pleads for them to have more time to repent.  Slightly longer lives will be meaningless if they come to destruction in the end.  But Lot lives there among them.  There is a glimmer of hope in his presence.  And the LORD wants Abraham to hold fast to this hope as he himself does.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.

We prefer it if we eventually find out what "merciful enough"entails.  Seven times seven?  More?  But there is no formula or fixed destination for us.  The only way to truly know what mercy means is to go as far as God is willing to go.  There is no rest anywhere else.

“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,

Who is to say if Abraham had decided to continue past ten righteous what the LORD would have done.  Perhaps the cities would have been spared just for one.  After all, strictly speaking, God saved us all for the sake of Jesus.  Let us give our all to following him.  His mercy is infinite, and so is his love.