28 February 2019 - urgent soul care

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.

There is an urgency to the call and invitation of God. We prefer to delay, saying with Saint Augustine, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." The sentiment of that quote even amuses us. In part this is because we relate to the human weakness it expresses. But part of the reason we're amused is because we don't really appreciate just how serious of an affront to God sin is.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

Jesus wants us to know that we should take sin seriously. We should be willing to do whatever is necessary to uproot sin from our own souls and to avoid causing "little ones" to sin not only by our own example of sin but also by our own lack of zeal.

Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 

The thing about sin is that it promises what it can't deliver. It says to worry about the eye now and not the impure things it sees. It puts flesh first and spirit in an ever receding second place. Jesus, by hyperbole, invites us to the wisdom of proper priority. Just as we must love him so much that we hate all others by comparison so too must we love virtue so much as to mutilate the flesh that tries to oppose it. It is not true hatred of others, but a lesser love proper to them for which we strive. Neither do we truly need to mutilate our bodies to avoid sin though it may almost feel that way to us.

If what we do need to do for conversion feels like a mutilation it may be worthy of embracing even so. It is probably the case that when the addict joins a twelve step program he feels he is mutilating himself. Alcohol had perhaps begun to feel like an appendage for him which must be severed. Yet the riches of the Spirit that all of us can find in place of our addictions are worth the sacrifice.

Power and riches shield us from knowing just how temporary is the satisfaction which sin is able to provide. We are called to a deeper peace that world cannot take away.

"Everyone will be salted with fire.
Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid,
with what will you restore its flavor?
Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."

The Holy Spirit will preserve us as salt preserves food. He will be our joy and our lasting satisfaction in this life and the next. While sin turns all it touches insipid we feast instead on the pure delights of the LORD.

He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.

27 February 2019 - wise priorities

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."

Are we concerned about people following us? Should we not rather be more concerned that people take the name of Jesus seriously? Within the legitimate scope of discipleship there are many paths. Some appeal to us and seem right. Some are so disagreeable that we wonder how anyone could choose them. Some are more traditional, some more charismatic, some get more from group activities, others get more from solo prayer, just to cite some possible divergences. And yet, there are a variety of gifts but one LORD who gives them all. There are perversions possible that can invalidate any of them. But anyone to whom the name of the LORD is of central importance is really and fundamentally for us and not against us. Without the LORD's primacy we also lack love's primacy. We, no matter our expression, become resounding gongs or clashing cymbals.

To follow the LORD we need wisdom. Wisdom allows us to put first things first. She is the glue that allows different people with different interests to come together in one body in peace and in love.

He who holds her fast inherits glory;
wherever he dwells, the LORD bestows blessings.
Those who serve her serve the Holy One;
those who love her the LORD loves.

Jesus calls us to be one even as he and the Father are one. This is a level of peace amongst ourselves that is beyond mere human comprehension. It is not simply getting along. It is a mutual vulnerability one to the other. It is a shared heart for that which truly matters. When we break away from it so far as to divide into factions we realize more obviously what it is not. But it is only wisdom from on high that can lead us to the depths of what it is.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (see Ephesians 4:1-3).

Wisdom tests us. An aspect of that is when she tests us to see if we rely on our own understanding or turn to her for guidance.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding (proverbs 3:5)

Turning to her might bring fear and dread while we wait in discipline. But when she returns "she comes back to bring him happiness and reveal her secrets to them". We see now how important wisdom is. We may often feel more foolish than wise. How do we put God's wisdom ahead of our own understanding.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him (see James 1:5).

Ask, seek, knock, and it will surely be given to us.

26 February 2019 - prepared for trial

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"The Son of Man is to be handed over to men 
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise." 

When we encounter the LORD we are drawn to him by his power, love, and divinity. He finally is the one who can be at once our "Yes" to God and God's "Yes" to us, the complete fulfillment of all his promises. He is the messiah, the anointed of the Father, who has the power to deliver us from all evil. And yet we hear, "My son, when you come to serve the LORD, stand in justice and fear, prepare yourself for trials." We didn't plan for this. The victory of God is accomplished no other way than through the cross. Encountering this reality often sends us to states of distraction or denial.

"What were you arguing about on the way?" 
But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest. 

Our pride and egoes are at risk so we do what we can to build them up rather than entering into the mystery of the call of Christ. We were prepared, perhaps, for hardships along the way. But the cross is so definitive. It calls for an entirely superhuman level of trust. We can't rely on prudence or human reasoning. God's wisdom alone can see us through.

You who fear the LORD, trust him,
and your reward will not be lost.

We can look back to the evidence of the faithfulness of God and trust that even the cross will somehow work out for the good.

Study the generations long past and understand;
has anyone hoped in the LORD and been disappointed?

When we're afraid we can choose to enter into God's economy where love matters more than power. Doing so holds the secret that will see us through to the resurrection.

Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.

The LORD is our "refuge in time of distress." But he does not always save us from the trials. Sometimes it is through them that new live is given.

The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him. 

25 February 2019 - help my unbelief

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I do believe, help my unbelief!

The whole crowd was utterly amazed by the presence of Jesus. But this amazement was only the seed of faith. It was interested enough to seek him even when his own disciples could not help. Jesus was willing to walk right into the middle of what should have been a disastrous situation for his nascent Church. His disciples were apparently too puffed up with pride to realize that "This kind can only come out through prayer."

The desperation of the boy's father pushed him beyond amazement that Jesus would charge headlong into a situation like this. It pushed him beyond assuming that a situation that had been a problem since childhood would remain forever hopeless.

But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.

This tentative initial response was enough. Jesus drew him further, offering him to opportunity to come to faith. Yet the man couldn't come to faith without grace given to believe. Flesh and blood could not reveal this to him, but only the Father through whom alone are all people drawn to Jesus.

Jesus said to him,
"If you can!’ Everything is possible to one who has faith."
Then the boy’s father cried out, "I do believe, help my unbelief!"

Aren't we in a similar boat? We are amazed by Jesus but don't really believe in his ability to speak to and affect the circumstances of our daily lives. The prayer of this loving father for his child should become our prayer. It is not a prayer drawn from the heart of a spectator, but from the heart of a lover who has learned that he or she cannot love enough apart from him. Let us learn that this is true about each of us so that we can pray,  "I do believe, help my unbelief!"

The LORD wants to give us a heavenly wisdom. It is a wisdom that knows the importance of faith, love, and prayer. He himself is the only source of this wisdom. His disciples must turn again and again to him to receive it. He wants us to do the same.

He has poured her forth upon all his works,
upon every living thing according to his bounty;
he has lavished her upon his friends.

Let us move from mere amazement to faith by the grace which God pours out.

Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed:
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days. 

24 February 2019 - nothing in return

Today's Readings

(Audio)

But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Of course none of us have enemies. Or at least we don't think of it that way. But toward whom would it be painful for us to do works of service and expect nothing back? Certainly there are such people for all of us. We have very practical reasons why we want to keep up a strict equality of give and take with some individuals. But as Christians we are called to more.

Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp,
I would not harm the LORD’s anointed.

Like David we must be able to get beyond the cycles of give and take. Saul wanted to kill David. Reciprocity in that situation would perpetuate a cycle of violence. Yet for David it would make sense because it would protect him from danger if the one who sought his life was dead. We too are called to love not only those who seek our lives but those who won't or can't repay us as well. In some ways it is easier to give to those who can't repay us, because we don't then have expectations that they should. Those who won't are perhaps the ones we should focus on loving us much as we can if we would be like our Father in heaven.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.


After all, we don't respond to God as he deserves but he loves us anyway. He wants to make our hearts more like his. We must clarify he does not call us to do everything our enemies want us to do. He calls us to love them as he himself loves them, which might be quite in contrast to their own desires. Yet such love is always free of vengeance and judgmental thinking.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.

When we don't feel like we have enough, when we feel like we're on the run from Saul and barely surviving, we can choose to love and to give. Only in this willing lose of our lives will we find them again in Christ for eternity.

If our spirits protest that is to be expected. We still have the old man, the first man who is earthly, pulling at our wills. This is called concupiscence. But we who are in Jesus are being renewed in a new man who is spiritual, being more and more transformed into the image of the heavenly one.

Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

We need to welcome this transformation. We succeed at this when we are given the opportunity to love our enemies and we allow ourselves to rely on the grace that God never ceases to offer.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.

23 February 2019 - evidence of the unseen

Today's Readings

(Audio)

But without faith it is impossible to please him,
for anyone who approaches God must believe that he exists
and that he rewards those who seek him.

We are those who have not seen yet are called to believe. We were not with Peter, James, and John on the mountain of the transfiguration. Yet we can know Jesus in glory with even greater clarity.

And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

Faith makes realities like the transfiguration present to us.

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for
and evidence of things not seen.

When such mysteries are seen with the eyes of faith we perceive more than even Peter did on Mount Tabor. We perceive how they lead to the realization of what is hoped for. And in doing so we come to believe more and more that God does reward those who seek him. We our strengthened in our walk with Jesus.

Peter didn't yet perceive how the transfiguration was connected to his hope in God's promise.

“Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 

When Jesus tried to explain the connection Peter and the others didn't understand.

So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

Our faith allows us to fix our hope on the resurrection from the dead, first of Jesus, and then of all his people. Knowing that a time is coming when he will wipe every tear away allows us to persist even during challenging circumstances. We run so as to win. We endure to the end, and so our saved, knowing the crown that awaits us.

Faith is not a guess because guesses are not evidence. It is not arbitrary or random as though we may just as well believe in the flying spaghetti monster. Faith is an invitation and a gift. Just as with Peter, it comes to us as a gift from the Father.

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven (see Matthew 16:17).

The fact that we want such faith is evidence that God is already at work within us. Even that it sounds like it would be nice if it were true is a gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit. Yet faith is always an invitation. Jesus stands at the door and knocks. We must say yes.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (see Mark 9:23)

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (see John 20:28)

We who have some faith should pray for more. We can tell we need it because of how little we find ourselves motivated by the rewards laid in store for us. We know our treasure ought to be in heaven but we're still collecting moth and rust and decay. Let's ask for more faith this morning.

Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.

An Act of Faith:

O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy catholic Church teaches, because in revealing them you can neither deceive nor be deceived.
- From Catholic.org

If you aren't fully awake yet, this will help..

22 February 2019 - who do we say he is?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Who do we say that Jesus is?

Is he a good moral teacher? Or a prophet like Moses or Muhammad? A spiritual enlightened figure like Buddha or Confucius? Ask the crowds and these sorts of answers will be forthcoming. The crowds get Jesus wrong because Jesus doesn't fit into any pre-existing categories. When we trust in the crowds we try to categorize he who fits into no category but his own.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply, 
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The only source of a true confession of identity of Jesus is revelation.

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

And revelation is not too far for any of us to reach.

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, 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 (see Romans 10:8-9).

Yet revelation is not a license to believe whatever tickles our fancy. Our entrance to the Church comes through faith. The Church is built on this faith. It is a solid structure that prevents us from going astray or being captivated by illusion.

And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.

There is no conflict between knowing Jesus by revelation and by living in and loving the Church, including her teaching authority. In fact, only knowing the supernatural origin of Jesus will do due justice to the claims of the supernatural guidance of the Church. Without Jesus as the Son of the living God the Church can only be a merely human institution. Yet authentic faith and the testimony of the Church bear one another witness if we only listen.

I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

As we await the return of the chief Shepherd let us be good members of the flock. Let us tend those in our care eagerly and willingly. Let us listen to the voice of those shepherding us in the name of the Church and move when they speak to us with the voice of Christ.

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.

21 February 2019 - renewed minds

Today's Readings

(Audio)

You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.

We may well wonder whether it is a reasonable thing to ask a human being to think as God does. After all God himself said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (see Isaiah 55:8-9).

Peter hearing that Jesus would have to be killed was akin to him hearing that there would be a second flood. The covenant promise that began to take definitive shape in Noah's rainbow was the same promises that Peter saw being fulfilled in Jesus.

Peter said to him in reply,
“You are the Christ.”

Jesus asked Peter to elevate his thoughts from mere human ways paradigms. God insisted on the value of human life because it was created in his image. Peter knew this. How then could Jesus be allowed to suffer and die? He wasn't yet able to see was that in order for that value to be maximally realized that very value needed to be surrendered in love.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.

We take this statement of Jesus more lightly than Peter because the crucifixion already happened and because we didn't just receive a revelation from the Father himself, that Jesus was the Christ. We have a vague sense of the truth of it, but it isn't fresh in our hearts. But when we realize that the anointed of the Father had to suffer and die we can feel a little of the protest within our own hearts that Peter himself felt. However, we can accept God's plan for Jesus. Not only for Jesus, but every time we feel our hearts protesting in the face of what God chooses to allow we do not have to accept merely human ways of thinking.

"For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ (see First Corinthians 2:16)

The covenant promise is not negated by the death of Jesus. He is the ark the brings us safely through even the flood waters of death. He brings us safely to the solid ground of a new creation where a new and better rainbow shines.

And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald (see Revelation 4:3).

The invitation to us is to recognize that we have been given the mind of Christ. We do not have to falter when human wisdom fails. We can follow God no matter what.

When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer. 

20 February 2019 - the process

Today's Readings

(Audio)

He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”

Salvation is seldom a one time event. Maybe the good thief on the cross approaches that paradigm. Who can say? But for many of us during our first encounters with Jesus we aren't yet ready to hand everything over to him. We need a second encounter. 

Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

Most of us don't have the purity of heart to see God clearly. In fact, our ideas our vague shapes, which, while better than nothing, don't always inspire great confidence or make it easy to make firm decisions.

The flood is over but we cannot immediately exit the ark. Even though we have been baptized we are still waiting on the dove to give us the clarity we need about our next move. Jesus wants to touch our eyes to give us clarity of vision. The Holy Spirit wants to show us the way to the new creation. If we exit the ark too soon we drown. If we don't wait on Jesus to fully restore our sight we stumble and fall.

We might say that we need to be patient with our process. And this is true. But we need to be insistent with it as well. We need to keep sending the dove to scout for dry land. We need to keep asking Jesus for help until we are fully healed. We see that we don't need to be embarrassed to tell Jesus that we aren't perfect yet. He doesn't take it personally that the blind man isn't healed in one go. This grace given to the blind man to be honest with Jesus is perhaps part of what allowed for the clarity of the second healing. One thing is certain. We must seek his healing touch until our eyes are opened.

May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to his call.

Jesus is waiting to take us to the next level, and then the level after that. It is an upward call to which there is no limit in this life.

 How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. 

19 February 2019 - that which is hidden

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus enjoined them, "Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod." 

The leaven of the Pharisees is not the right way to have enough bread to go around. Their fruit can only be like themselves. On the outside it has the correct appearance of religion. But within not only is there no nourishment but there is actually the corruption of selfish pride. There is plenty of this leaven and this bread in the world. When we are hungry we are tempted to turn to it.

Instead of the leaven of the Pharisees we must learn to trust in Jesus. We must pray for our daily bread from God. 

"And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?"
They answered him, "Twelve."
"When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?"
They answered him, "Seven."

Trusting in God is the opposite of the leaven of the Pharisees. From the outside it seems insufficient. It is a mystery of hiddenness. It seems like there isn't enough to go around. Yet there are leftovers. The Eucharist appears to be mere bread. Yet it is the very life of God.

We are invited to shun solutions which only appear easy but which ultimately lack substance. We are invited rather to trust in the one who makes what is hidden grow.

He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how (see Mark 4:27).

Jesus is our example in preferring the hidden manna. 

But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." (see John 4:32).

We may be called apart into the hiddenness of the ark before the rain even starts, when the world still seems to be the place where plants and animals are abundant for food. We bring with us only what we are called to bring. And in this hiddenness God renews not just ourselves but all of creation.

Then the LORD said to Noah:
Go into the ark, you and all your household,
for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just.

It isn't necessarily an easy ride within the ark. But it is the only way. And it will be worth it when we see the rainbow shining and set feet on dry land once more.

The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever. 

18 February 2019 - not leftovers

Today's Readings

(Audio)

In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD
from the fruit of the soil,
while Abel, for his part,
brought one of the best firstlings of his flock.

Do we offer God the leftovers or do we give him the best? God wasn't playing favorites with Cain and Abel. Rather God favored the one who made God his favorite. Cain apparently kept back the best of the fruit of the soil for himself. His livelihood was more important to him than God.

Cain's fault need not have consumed him.

If you do well, you can hold up your head;
but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door:
his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.

Cain's sin spiraled out of control precisely because he refused to own up to it. He blamed Abel for something which he himself caused.

Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

All of this could have been averted if Cain had simply put God first. At any stage along his path to ruin he could have turned aside from his failings, own up to them, and decide to put God first in his life. For him to keep running the show eventually meant scapegoating and murder in order to ignore the feeling that he himself needed to change.

It may at first seem a loose connection, but we seek signs for the same reason Cain needed to kill Abel. We seek to distract ourselves from who God really is and what he says about us. Signs are in fact given to those who need them. But to those of us who know already and just want to argue with Jesus the only sign we are shown is the sign of Jonah, the person, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Cain could have mastered the impulse to sin. How much more can we who have grace and truth through Jesus Christ choose to place our trust fully in God and to offer him all that we have.

Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

17 February 2019 - unfaded

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.

God looked on the lowliness of his handmade and the kingdom was conceived in her. Mary is par excellence a woman of the beatitudes. Are we poor enough that we know our need to trust in God? The danger for those of us who are rich is that life seems to keep working even when we don't remember him. But this is an illusion. Living in an illusion will not end well unless we recognize the illusion and turn back to God's truth.

Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.

God fills the hungry with good things but sends the rich away empty. We need to learn to rely on him for our daily bread more than our ability to procure it for ourselves. This is why Jesus taught us to pray to the Father for our daily bread and why he fed the crowds in the wilderness. This is why, ultimately, he gave himself to us to be our bread. If we truly cultivate a hunger for this spiritual bread we absolutely can know true satisfaction.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.

It is OK if we suffer. It doesn't mean that God doesn't love us or that we're doing something wrong. He asks us to prefer and hope in things that are unseen so that we can show our trust in him.

Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.

The Kingdom is not yet fully come. Everything is not yet set right on earth. Jesus asks us to look to the reward held in store for us in heaven as our treasure. But he tells us that we can taste the blessedness of that reward even now even and precisely in the "now" of our weeping and exactly "when" people hate us. The reality of reversal has its source in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Through the Spirit it transforms Christians from the inside out in accordance with the beatitudes. As we are transformed we remake a world where the hungry are fed and those who mourn are comforted.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.

Ultimately, our circumstances don't have to dictate our blessedness. If we stay connected to the streams of living water that flow from the heart of Christ circumstances will not be able to overcome us. We will know a blessedness even here and now. We long for heaven all the more even as we remake the world to show forth the justice and mercy which are found there in perfection.

For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.

16 February 2019 - eat and be satisified

Today's Readings

(Audio)

By the sweat of your face
shall you get bread to eat

The fall of man had consequences. No amount of excuses from Adam and Eve could prevent it. No amount of excuses for the sin and lack of conversion in our own lives will prevent us from experiencing it either. The consequences are directed at restoration. Even though we run and hide and make excuses God does not want to leave us as less than we are meant to be. Knowing good and evil apart from what God knows them to be turns out to be misery. We prefer lesser goods to greater ones and wonder why we suffer. We can't live in Eden in this condition.

When he expelled the man,
he settled him east of the garden of Eden;
and he stationed the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword,
to guard the way to the tree of life.

Exile could have simply become the new normal. But God had other plans.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.

God had no intention of allowing the snake to sabotage the beauty of his creation. Even at the moment of the fall God had plans for a new Adam (Jesus) who would obey and a claim a new tree of life (the cross) for the sake of his bride, the new Eve (the Church). Tempted in a garden, he was found faithful. In his cross and resurrection the fall of our first parents was not simply bypassed or ignored. It was reversed from the very inner logic that caused it in the first place. The disobedience of Adam and Eve was reversed by the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ.

Whereas after the fall mankind earned its bread by only by sweat and hard work, we see in the feeding of the four thousand in today's gospel a beginning of that punishment being reversed.

Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them,
and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.

Is it any wonder that when Jesus feeds the crowds they want to make him king? All the hunger in the world ever felt by anyone is a symptom of the fall. And in these gospels the crowds probably had some subconscious sense that the fall itself was beginning to be reversed. Even so, Jesus couldn't simply keep feeding them physical bread. It was essential that they learn a longing for the heavenly bread that Jesus himself would provide.

Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life,* which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal (see John 6:27).

It is this bread is in itself the fundamental reversal of the fall. It comes to us without labor even though Jesus endures the thorns of the earth to offer it to us.

But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work (see John 4:32-34).

So today we're invited to put aside our excuses and to taste and see that the LORD is good.

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

15 February 2019 - glad cries of deliverance

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden
at the breezy time of the day,
the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God
among the trees of the garden.

What are we hiding from God? What are we unwilling to bring into his presence? See how quickly doubt becomes fear. Once we make the serpent's doubt in the creator or own we begin to suffer all the consequences of a life not properly ordered to God.

Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness (CCC 397).

But what if, as is in fact the case, the LORD wanted to extend healing and forgiveness? Adam and Eve hid themselves making themselves unable to receive it. Doubt and fear do sometimes cause us to sin. But what are we afraid to bring before the LORD in confession? What are we afraid to tell him, although he knows it already?

The more we hide from God and don't admit fault the harder it will be for us to hear the truth about God's goodness and the less authentically we'll be able to speak ourselves.

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him

It is only by grace that we come to confess our sins. It is not something we do so to put ourselves right with God. It is something God does to put us right with him. Since this is so he can heal even the parts of our heart that don't want to approach him and don't want to confess.

He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)

Once Jesus heals us we will know it because where before our mouths were filled with excuses now they are filled with praise.

They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
"He has done all things well. 
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak."

Let us trust in the one who made us very good and who is even now making all things new.

You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;
with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.

14 February 2019 - to the rescue

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The LORD God said:  
"It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him."

From the beginning we were made for relationship. We were made to be able to leave the comfortable and routine in order to pursue relationship. This archetype is at the heart of so many stories of romance. But our loneliness runs deep. After the fall Adam and Eve could be side by side but still feel alone. Being together suddenly became the potential occasion of shame. The relationships for which we were made were broken and needed to be restored.

Jesus is the one who leaves his Father to seek out the bride. He does so to restore our relationships to God, to one another, and even to ourselves.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (see Ephesians 5:31-32).

The Syrophoenician woman was unwilling to let this heroic figure pass without his helping her. In this she demonstrated the faith that we all need. She had confidence in Jesus as the one who had come to set things right. Her faith allowed her to persist even when she met first with apparent rejection. But it was only that, apparent rejection.

Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.

Jesus wanted to restore the relationship of mother and daughter. But even more so, he wanted this woman's faith, because that faith is what would restore her relationship to God. He took her into the deep waters of humility but she did not sink. She kept her eyes on Jesus.

Jesus can restore us to relationships where shame is no longer much of a threat. He can sustain us in the powerful love of the Trinity. But for this to be possible we must enter the waters of humility as well. We must allow ourselves to be rescued by the bridegroom who has come to save his bride.

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

13 February 2019 - fruit of the tomb

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

Nothing from without can cause sin. Even the worst temptation must be embraced by our will before it defiles us. But what is coming from within us, from our hearts? Do we not have the inchoate forms of all of the vices within us? Do we not allow ourselves to dwell on and mentally enjoy temptations? If we do this, it only becomes harder to cast them aside later. The longer we spend before casting them down the more their lasting influence will be felt.

You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden
except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

For us it is hard to read this verse without our old self entertaining doubting questions. Why a tree that we can't have? We have already, in our first thoughts, abandoned trust in the creator. We are already suspicious. We should practice with thoughts like these when we find them. We should intentionally make acts of faith in God immediately following the fact that provoked us. Everything except this tree? The LORD knows what is good for me and he must have a good reason for it. We may, at some point, understand why the tree is there. It exists as a sign of free will and the fearful ability to choose we have been given. But we will never discover that from a position where doubt is already coming from our hearts. We will only believe that God is holding out on us.

But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.

We do not have to allow temptations into our hearts. We can take every thought captive for Christ. Let's notice what is coming out of us today so we can see how it got in in the first place. Let us use the Spirit we have been given to ensure that we only embrace good things within our hearts and only bring forth good fruit for the Kingdom.

When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.

12 February 2019 - a lower case of tradition

Today's Readings

(Audio)

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

We do honor God with our lips, but where are our hearts? Are they far from him? How can we tell? And if they are far from him, how can we return?

We should cling to God's commandment even in the face of human tradition that is opposed to it. Whether it is within our churches, within society, or within our own families there is always the risk of human tradition that is designed to moderate the complete commitment and surrender that Jesus really wants from us.

The deviations from the true way usually start off with noble sounding excuses and proceed until habit becomes tradition and we eventually forget how it even began. The weight of precedent prevents us from even questioning a lot of what passes for Christianity. But if we take a glance back to the commandments we quickly stand revealed for what we are. Are we loving God with our whole hearts and our neighbor as ourselves? Are we honoring father and mother? 

The traditions of men protect our wealth, our status, our reputation, and our comfort. The purpose of God in creation is love. It is all too easy to substitute this love for tradition. To avoid this peril we need to recognize that God has a purpose for us in creation and to live according to that purpose. We can trust that the creator who made all things to be good has a good purpose for us.

God created man in his image;
in the divine image he created him;
male and female he created them.

In mankind living his vocation of love creation is upgraded from good to very good. Human tradition isn't equipped for bearers of the divine image. It is too static, too stale, and too inherently selfish. It seems safe, but that safety is a dangerous illusion. Let us turn instead to the Tradition we receive from the living God. It is a living Tradition that reminds us again and again that our purpose is love. This is the meaning of the sabbath rest wherein we have a Tradition of prioritizing love above the tyranny of any work.

Since on the seventh day God was finished with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation.

Let us rest in the arms of the one who loves us. 

What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?

11 February 2019 - something greater

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

Creation was made good. "God saw how good it was." In the beginning there was a proper order to all things and the beauty of existence was easily and clearly seen. Disorder was introduced that obscured this goodness. Yet looking back before this point we can see that creation was meant for more.

God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living (see Wisdom 1:13).

The order we see God creating in the garden is the same order we see restored wherever Jesus goes. But Jesus does not simply restore what was meant to be. He raises it to something still greater. He is doing what he promised through the mouth of Isaiah.

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind" (see Isaiah 65:17).

Jesus is beginning to bring about this new creation in humanity in particular.

Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come (see Second Corinthians 5:17).

Again, what Jesus is doing is more than mere healing. It is more than restoration to what was. It is the seed of a life together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the indestructible life of love they share that the resurrection of Jesus reveals and makes available to us even now.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (see Colossians 3:3).

There is plenty in the world that makes us doubt the goodness of creation, and therefore of the Creator. The invitation today is to remember just how good the Creator is and to renew our trust in his plans for us. What we are invited to share in even here and now is a paradise greater than the life of Eden. Let's embrace it.

Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.

10 February 2019 - fishers of men

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.

Genuine encounters with Christ result in this sense of holy fear. It is because, even when not explicit, we are encountering God himself.

I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.

Like Isaiah we say "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Like Peter we say, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." We're afraid because we see just how great Jesus is and how unworthy are the lives we have lived thus far. But the revelation of Jesus isn't about the old us. It isn't about where we've spent our lives frustrated, fishing where there are no fish. It is about him and the new thing he wants to do in us.

"Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."

We won't be forced to rely on our own weak and sinful natures.

He touched my mouth with it, and said,
"See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."

There is grace enough to transform us. Our encounters with the God-man Jesus Christ are meant to transform us into his witnesses. The message isn't that complicated.

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

Jesus Christ has died, he is risen, and he will come again. We are among those who have experienced the power of his resurrection. We need not fear to become fishers of men.

Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.

Let's allow the grace of the risen Christ to make us eager to proclaim his word.

All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
"Great is the glory of the LORD."

9 February 2019 - to seek and to save

Today's Readings

(Audio)

"Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." 

Jesus wanted to teach his disciples that time alone with him was important. But his mission was not to be well rested or to have time to himself with his disciples.

When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

His mission was to seek and to save the lost. This, he demonstrated, was a greater priority even than rest. It was, of course, a balance. He did find time apart with his disciples. Human nature breaks down and burns out without sufficient rest. But his heart was always for the lost sheep. Whenever possible he would open his arms to them.

One thinks of the attitude of hospitality in Benedictine monks toward the guests they receive, receiving each one "as Christ" (see RB 53). In a certain way, this welcoming takes on a greater priority than anything else going on for the abbot. For example he can even relax his fasting to eat with the guests.

In order to truly have enough energy to care for the lost and to welcome guests we must rely on God. 

May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great shepherd of the sheep
by the Blood of the eternal covenant, 
furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.
May he carry out in you what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

The Father raised Jesus when he was dead. The same Spirit can give us new vigor when we feel too tired for the task at hand. As long as the yoke is that of Jesus, shared with him, and not our own, it will be easy and light. Apart from that yoke we will never find the right balance of rest and work.

If we begin to think it is up to us to save every crowd and welcome every guest we'll quickly burn out. Instead, God asks us to focus on him and the good he places close at hand for us to do.

Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise,
that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have;
God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.

When we walk with the good shepherd we want for nothing. As he brings more and more of the lost sheep into his pastures we discover just how verdant, green, and refreshing they are.

8 February 2019 - on not being afraid

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Suggested Memory Verse: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

The Lord is my helper,
and I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?

Confidence in the LORD allows us to endure and be steadfast in virtue and constant in brotherly love. It allows us to say things which should be said even when to do so is risky. It allows us to act rightly when other easier paths are open to us.

John had said to Herod,
"It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."

If we lack hospitality we risk receiving messengers from the LORD as Herod does John the Baptist. Hospitality is another way of saying that we are open to whatever God sends us, to welcome it for his glory. If God sends us a messenger we must be open to their words. We may be so invested in our particular faults that the criticism of the prophet seems to challenge our very identity. But if we remember to be confident in the Lord we are not afraid. We remember that since he is on our side no one else can hurt us and nothing is truly lacking.

Do not neglect hospitality,
for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
Be mindful of prisoners as if sharing their imprisonment,
and of the ill-treated as of yourselves,
for you also are in the body.

Confidence in the LORD helps us to see beyond the narrow horizons of our lives. On our own we are afraid to be so mindful of prisoners or others who suffer. We fear that we will be crushed under the weight of our own sympathy. But because the Lord is both our helper and the helper of all who suffer we need not fear for ourselves or for them. In uniting ourselves to them we can be confident in God on their behalf.

Certainly following God leads to risks for our flesh. They persecuted Jesus so they will persecute us as well. John the Baptist experienced the hardship that can result from following God. But he was confident that what he had in his relationship with God was worth more than even his own life.

but be content with what you have,
for he has said, I will never forsake you or abandon you.

Be content in what we have from the LORD! Be confident in his love! These will be the fuel of our discipleship.

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?