30 September 2020 - Christocentric universe

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

This person was willing to follow Jesus, but only if he was going to some definite destination that could be known and understood. It was as if he was implicitly asking, 'and where will that be?' He wanted to be able to retain at least that much control. He could look forward to the rest of the eventual destination to justify whatever he endured along the way.

Jesus answered him,

“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,

but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”

This potential disciple wanted a more conventional style of rest than Jesus offered. Jesus did offer rest, but not as a destination. It was rather with him on the journey where rest could be found. If he was in the boat the storm didn't matter. Peace wasn't found on the eventual shore nearly as much as it was simply in his presence, "[f]or we who have believed enter that rest" (see Hebrews 4:3).

We tend to want to orchestrate our own journey with Christ. There are some things that seem to us so important as to take priority even over him.

And to another he said, “Follow me.”

But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”

Following Jesus means trusting him enough to let him order the rest of our lives around him. It isn't an abandoning of our relationship to our mother or father. But it is a primacy of Christ over those relationships. Only Christ has rightful claim on such a complete allegiance. Even Elijah permitted Elisha to go and take care of his family before following him. Jesus wants us to know that utterly unique and central role he wants to play in our lives. He won't settle for second place.

Jesus senses the partial commitment in the one who wants to first say farewell to his family. It is not his love for his family that Jesus discourages. It is his lack of complete buy in with Jesus that is inadequate. A person with this attitude would always need to consider the things in the world left undone. He could never be fully present to follow Jesus.

Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow

and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

May we learn to put Jesus first in our own lives, to follow him though we know not where, and to trust him with all those aspects of our lives, aspects which do rightfully matter to us. Our families and our destination are all safer in his hands. 

We can learn not to contend with God just as Job understood. But we have far greater reason than Job to trust in him for he has revealed his love for us in Jesus Christ. The Father did not spare his only Son (see Romans 8:32) but gave him up for us. If Job could understand not to justify himself how much more should we, who have experienced the love of Christ, be able to relinquish control?

Job answered his friends and said:I know well that it is so;

but how can a man be justified before God?

Should one wish to contend with him,

he could not answer him once in a thousand times.

God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;

who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

Jeremy Camp - You're Worthy of My Praise

29 September 2020 - God of angel armies

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,

and myriads upon myriads attended him.

Seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, virtues, powers, principalities, archangels and angels surround the throne of the Ancient One in heaven.

The Ancient One is the one enthroned upon the cherubim (see Ezekiel 10:1), with seraphim standing above him calling to one another saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts" (see Isaiah 6:3).

These divine beings are the ones through him God exercises his power. The Devil is defeated by the Blood of the Lamb. It is that same divine power by which Michael himself casts the dragon from heaven. The protection of Michael continues to make God's people victorious when they avail themselves of the Blood of the Lamb through their testimony. This was foreshadowed in Egypt when the blood of the lamb turned away the angel of death from the homes of the Israelites. 

God makes use of angel armies, not because he needs them, but because through them he makes his glory manifest. The angels and their power reveal something of the one from whom they have that power. This is why we should not simply ignore them and focus on God alone.

And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you,

you will see heaven opened

and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Jesus himself is central. He is the bridge between heaven and earth. But he still tells Nathanael that angels have a continuing role to play, though he himself is now the focal point of that ministry.

"It was, as it were, saying, that He was Lord of the Angels; for He must be the King’s own Son, on whom the servants of the King descended and ascended; descended at His crucifixion, ascended at His resurrection and ascension. Angels too before this came and ministered unto Him, and angels brought the glad tidings of His birth."

- Saint Augustine

God wants to manifest his victory over the devil not only in the angels and archangels but also in our own lives. He even gives the angels, though they are by nature higher than ourselves, to defend and aid us. He wants us to join them around his throne in singing his holiness. They can help us to do this by raising us up to God in exaltation and contemplation. They can help us return with gifts to share for others.

"They ascend through contemplation, just as Paul had ascended even to the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2); and they descend by instructing their neighbor."  

- St. Thomas Aquinas

The archangels whom we celebrate today were not just interesting characters in salvation history who are no longer relevant to us. They can still convey messages, healing, and indeed victory, if we turn to them.

In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.

Saint Raphael, Saint Michael, and Saint Gabriel, pray for us!

Chris Tomlin - Whom Shall I Fear?

28 September 2020 - let the walls fall

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Having just Jesus prophesy that he must suffer the disciples began arguing about which one of them was the greatest. It was as though they wanted to build their wall of pride as a protection against the possibility of future suffering. Fear, in other words, made them assert themselves.

Jesus invites us to drop those walls of protection so that we can welcome others. The disciples were building walls that would have limited their ability to help others. They were only interested in seeing others helped insofar as it attested to their own greatest and built their own brand.

“Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name 

and we tried to prevent him

because he does not follow in our company.”

Jesus asks that we be able to welcome and embrace others whether or not they can do anything for us. We could perhaps be proud of others casting out demons as part of the same company as ours. We could welcome them for the sake of making ourselves look better since they were part of the same company. But what if they're doing good, but not in a way that automatically reflects favorably on us as well? Or what if they are children, with nothing to contribute, whose presence in our midst seems to suggest our weakness rather than anything in which we can take pride?

Fear causes us to be tribal and self-protective. We are only interested in the success of those we perceive to be in our company. And we are only interested in that as evidence that we ourselves our the greatest. Because then maybe, if we are the greatest, the suffering which Jesus predicted can be averted. It seems dangerous to drop those walls. 

Our self-protective strategies are doomed to fail in the end. They might not end with great catastrophes like about which we read in the life of Job. But we know that treasure on earth cannot last. We know that those who seek to save their lives will lose them. Job shows us how to have an attitude that is able to welcome whatever the LORD permits. He himself was childlike in the face of terrible suffering. It was not easy for him, but because he allowed all that to which he clinged to be stripped from him he was able to avoid losing himself along with the world. He let himself lose his life for God's will and so regained it.

“Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb,

and naked shall I go back again.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;

blessed be the name of the LORD!”

When we talk about letting our barriers down we are in fact talking about letting ourselves be vulnerable. And if we are vulnerable we will doubtlessly suffer on some level. But from this posture we will find the ability to embrace the whole world and whatever God might send us.

Show your wondrous mercies,

O savior of those who flee

from their foes to refuge at your right hand.

Kutless - We Fall Down

Lay It Down - Matt Maher

Praise Band - Let the Walls Fall Down

27 September 2020 - doing the work

Today's Readings

(Audio)

'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'

He said in reply, 'I will not, '

but afterwards changed his mind and went.

It is good to know that the ways of the LORD are more than fair. If they were merely fair, we'd be in trouble. But his mercy is better than fairness. If, when asked to go out and work in the vineyard today, we reply, 'I will not,' but afterwards change our minds and go we do in fact do the Father's will. The LORD is always ready to embrace us and welcome us back if come to repentance. Repentance means that we have a change of mind, like the first son, and turn from the wickedness we have committed to do what is just and right. Living lives of justice and mercy is exactly what going into the vineyard entails.

But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,

he does what is right and just,

he shall preserve his life;

We must be on guard against the possibility that we are actually the second son without realizing it. We are constantly invited by the Father into his vineyard. Quickly we respond, 'Yes, sir.' But do we respond too quickly? Do we actually end up going? There is a real sense in which the refusal of the first son forced him to reflect on the father's invitation. He knew that he had rejected it, and with it, his father's will for him. The second son spoke so quickly that he may have effectively shielded himself from realizing just what was being asked of him. He was able to maintain the illusion that he was doing his father's will, yet forgetting about almost as soon as he was asked.

He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.

Sometimes our obvious rebellions are better because they are, in fact, obvious. To repent of them is easier because we recognize them. Those other rebellions that we almost don't realize, where we say yes, but then forget and go back to business as usual, can be harder to perceive. The first step to avoid this is to avoid saying yes too quickly. The Father's invitation is always asking of us a change of mind and heart. His prophets are always asking us to believe him about the way of righteousness. We see this when tax collectors and prostitutes change their whole lives to follow him. When we realize what the Father is asking we may in fact have to struggle with ourselves to get to a yes.  But when we do, it will be a real and permanent change. We will actually go into the vineyard.

Are there instances in which we have rushed past the call to the vineyard? Assuredly. The invitation, as we have said, requires a change of mind and heart. The specific change is the one to which Paul invites us. 

Have in you the same attitude

that is also in Christ Jesus,

Who, though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

To go into the vineyard is precisely to share in this self-emptying of Christ in order to put all that we are at the service of others for the sake of the will of the Father. The good news, as we have seen, is that the Father is ready to welcome us onto the path as soon as we choose to embrace it. All we really need is to realize the ways in which we have not yet done so and then turn to him for mercy and help.

Good and upright is the LORD;

thus he shows sinners the way.

He guides the humble to justice, 

and teaches the humble his way.

Matt Maher - Turn Around

Watoto Children's Choir - We Will Go

26 September 2020 - all is vanity*

Today's Readings

(Audio)

But they did not understand this saying;

its meaning was hidden from them

so that they should not understand it

The disciples who could not accept the saying of Jesus were like the young man about whom we read in Ecclesiastes.

Ward off grief from your heart

and put away trouble from your presence,

though the dawn of youth is fleeting.

They were hoping to simply be glad in these days they spent with Jesus. They did not want to consider the possibility that it might ever be different for them. They doubtlessly knew from other aspects of their lives that the halcyon days of youth could not last. They saw that every other thing that promised much in life would eventually wither and fade. So they focused on the moment to the exclusion of of signs that things would not always be thus.

Because man goes to his lasting home,

and mourners go about the streets;

Before the silver cord is snapped

and the golden bowl is broken,

And the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

and the broken pulley falls into the well,

And the dust returns to the earth as it once was,

and the life breath returns to God who gave it.

The disciples probably knew well enough that all else was vanity. But they were amazed at every deed of Jesus. They sensed in him, finally, something that was not vain. They tried to pursue and cling to this sense by warding off from their minds any unpleasantries, and could not accept or understand the sufferings Jesus foretold.

“Pay attention to what I am telling you.

The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” 

They wanted to break free from a world where all was vanity. But Jesus seemed to be telling them that even this greatest hope which they found would be proved the most vain thing of all. This, however, was not why Jesus wanted them to pay attention to the fact of his impending suffering and death. Jesus insisted that they not view the world the narrow rose colored glasses that only perceived the good things of youth, willing themselves to believe that they would not change. There was one final sorrow, one final judgment that they needed to witness. Only on the far side of that experience could they hope for something beyond vanity.

they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

As Christians, are we like the disciples who don't want to hear about or understand the cross? Are we still trapped, like the youth of Ecclesiastes, in trying to make the best of something which ultimately cannot last? If so, Jesus is telling us to pay attention. Only in the cross do the vanities of this world lose their power to charm and enslave us. Only in the resurrection can we trade the naivety of the young whose treasure is in this world with the good hope and confidence of those who are born again for the Kingdom. 

Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,

that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.

Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles - Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent

25 September 2020 - hidden in our hearts

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus is so interesting as to be hard to ignore. It is not just enough to talk about him. Rather, we feel the need to say something that will explain him. His identity is an open question to every person he encounters. 

Once when Jesus was praying in solitude,

and the disciples were with him,

he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

The trouble, as we saw with Herod Antipas, is that the preexisting categories can't contain Jesus. No prior paradigm can provide the complete story.

They said in reply, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah;

still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”

There is some likeness between John, Elijah, and the prophets and Jesus. But to dwell on the likeness is to miss the still greater difference. If we emphasize that Jesus was a good man, a teacher, a healer, a prophet, a guru, a sage, or any other category that the world had ready, we miss the deeper reality.

Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Peter said in reply, “The Christ of God.”

The only way beyond the crowded categories of worldly wisdom is for the Spirit of the Father to reveal Jesus to us. If we enter into the world's marketplace of spiritual figureheads we will find ourselves choosing based on the our own human limits, and therefore choosing someone who cannot help us escape those limits. While we are made for Jesus we could never discover just how God planned to fulfill us apart from revelation.

[He] has put the timeless into their hearts,

without man’s ever discovering,

from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

It is the revelation of Jesus that puts everything else in our lives in order. It is true that there is a time to be born and a time to die, but the disciples could not be faulted for not knowing which was which by their own reasoning.

He said, “The Son of Man must suffer greatly

and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,

and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Jesus wants to shatter the categories and paradigms that limit his activity in our lives. He himself is meant to be the standard we use to discern the appointed times for every purpose under the heavens. If we let him, things may become uncomfortable for us. But they will be uncomfortable only in the sense that a grand adventure is uncomfortable. We will no longer need to hesitate when he calls us to go forth without resources we need, to go sailing with peace even amidst the storms of life, or even to walk on water or move mountains by faith.

Blessed be the LORD, my rock,

my mercy and my fortress,

my stronghold, my deliverer,

My shield, in whom I trust.

Hillsong United - Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

 

24 September 2020 - beyond boredom

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“John has been raised from the dead”;

others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”;

still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”

The people were insistent that, "[n]othing is new under the sun." They said that this Jesus was just another example of a type that already existed, a great type perhaps, but not something really new. Perhaps he was Elijah or John or one of the ancient prophets. After all, that would limit the scope of his potential impact. Even after Elijah the world was not redeemed, it still managed to fall back into the state of disrepair in which is now existed under the authority of Rome. Even John, greatest of all born of a woman, did not himself break free of this cycle of rise and fall, growth and disintegration.

No one was satisfied with the condition of this world left to its own resources and preexisting archetypes. Nothing found within it could bring the fulfillment for which the human heart longed.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing

nor is the ear satisfied with hearing.

Herod had a sense that Jesus came from outside of existing paradigms. He recognized something genuinely new in him and wanted to see what that was.

But Herod said, “John I beheaded.

Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”

And he kept trying to see him.

Herod's motivations were insufficient to recognize that which he sought. Jesus was in fact something entirely new and unprecedented. What he was on earth to do would finally shatter the cycle of sin, break the dominion of death, and tear down the dividing wall between man and God. But Herod's heart had only moved as far as a bored curiosity and novelty seeking. He grew tired of the delights his position afforded but he did not realize how deep the problem was. He didn't realize he was encountering the utter inability of this world to satisfy. Had he done so he might have been willing to repent from his worldly pursuits and open himself to the new thing God was doing.

Remember not the former things,

nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert (see Isaiah 43:18-19)

It is a difficult thing to wish, to discover that nothing in this world can truly satisfy us. But only if we discover it can we truly delight in God. Then the things of this world themselves change from being tiresome and repetitious into gracious gifts of the one who is ever old and ever new.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (see Hebrews 13:8) yet he tells us "Look, I am making everything new!" (see Revelation 21:5) This is because the timelessness of God is more and not less than the timebound world in which we live.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (see Revelation 1:8)

Ron Kenoly - Ancient of Days

Phillips, Craig, and Dean - Revelation Song

23 September 2020 - the believer's authority

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority

over all demons and to cure diseases,

and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God

and to heal the sick.

Jesus wants us to rely on the power and authority that he gives us. Having an abundance, even if that just means a walking stick, a sack, food, money and a second tunic, tends to make us self-reliant. We believe that we have something to lose and become self-protective. It seems obvious to us that if we don't manage these resources well we may well end up with nothing. And Jesus is not calling us to be poor stewards of our resources. But he does want us to be a people who can trust in him and be confident even in situations where we our ability to provide for and take care of ourselves is not at all guaranteed.

give me neither poverty nor riches;

provide me only with the food I need;

We can learn what it means to store up treasure in heaven (see Matthew 6:19-21) when we begin to discover that all riches are already ours in Christ Jesus.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (see Philippians 4:19)

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (see Colossians 1:27)

Relying on the power and authority of Christ more than on our possessions, abilities, and talents, is how we discover the true riches that are ours, not as earned, but as a gift, as our inheritance in Christ.

The Lord "is a shield to those who take refuge in him." His words are trustworthy. They have proven effective again and again in the lives of those who follow him and they can be a lamp for our feet as well. The authority we have in Christ, and our ability to take refuge in him, are grounded in his word. Saint Jerome tells us that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. So too is ignorance of Scripture ignorance of the authority we are given. In this sense knowledge truly is power. Ignorance of his word prevent us from taking refuge in him because it is precisely in his word that we learn where and how to take refuge in him. We are not entirely ignorant, having read these readings. But do we believe them? Only if we trust in them as does the psalmist will we find in them the same comfort as he.

Your word, O LORD, endures forever;

it is firm as the heavens.

Hillsong - This Kingdom

22 September 2020 - faith and family

Today's Readings

(Audio)

He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers 

are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

It is by the response of faith that we become sons and daughters of the heavenly Father.

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham (see Galatians 3:7).

Jesus didn't want the crowd to think that relationship with him was only possible on the basis of genealogy. He did not come to be the Lord of this or that tribe but for all of Israel, and not only for Israel, but for the nations. The blessings he came to bring were to big to be restricted to those who were closest to him by blood.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (see John 1:12-13).

Mary herself was the mother of Jesus by faith before she conceived him in the flesh.

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (see Luke 1:38).

Mary's motherhood is the model for all of us who want to embrace Jesus in faith. In imitating her response we are overshadowed with the same Spirit who overshadowed her. This is the Spirit of adoption who makes us cry "Abba! Father!" We become the younger brothers and sisters of Jesus, children of Mary by faith.

We might think that our status as sons and daughters would afford us special treatment in the world. But we can see that no special treatment was reserved even for Mary herself. Though all generations would call her blessed, she was first weak, hungry, and humble. Though she would be crowned in heaven a sword first pierced her own side. Neither biological relationship to Jesus nor faith exempted Mary from these things. Indeed she didn't want to be exempted. She wanted to share by faith as completely as she could in the mission of her son, to share even his suffering. In our own lives if we feel that the crowds have access to Jesus that we don't have and that we are forced to stand outside, let us not on that account tell ourselves that Jesus is distant or that we lack his favor. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, and these crowds around him were the lost who needed him. He had to go forth from the Father and then from his mother to reach these crowds. But by the faith he offered them he would bring them back with him into familial relation with both the Father and with Mary. 

Jesus refused to shut his ear to the cry of the poor. He pitied his neighbors that surrounded him in the crowds. Haughty eyes and proud hearts would insist on the privileges of relationship. But Jesus and Mary demonstrated hearts that were able to embrace the world because of their humility.

Give me discernment, that I may observe your law

and keep it with all my heart.

Audrey Assad - Be Thou My Vision

21 September 2020 - follow the leader

Today's Readings

(Audio)

As Jesus passed by,

he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.

He said to him, “Follow me.”

Jesus calls each of us in the same way he called Matthew. And while we are often surprised that Matthew was able to simply get up and go simply when he was asked, to leave his former life behind him simply at the invitation of Jesus, there is a way in which it is like this for every disciple he invites. None of us knows Jesus so well when we begin to walk with him that we understand to where that call will take us. We all have reasons why perceive that the invitation is credible. We sense that it promises joy and fulfillment. But none of us really understands how this comes to be until immediately. It is rather by a lifetime of following that we come by degrees to truly understand what was hidden but present in the initial call.

And he got up and followed him.

Matthew might probably have been ashamed of his old life as a tax collector now that he was in the company of Jesus. But there was nothing in Matthew's past that Jesus couldn't turn into an asset. There was no brokenness that could not be woven into a new and beautiful design.

While he was at table in his house,

many tax collectors and sinners came

and sat with Jesus and his disciples.

Matthew's own stained past opened the way for Jesus to speak to others in similar circumstances. If Matthew had simply hidden or denied that past then many others who needed what Matthew needed from Jesus might not have been able to receive it. Jesus has this power to make use of all of our pasts in ways which we would not expect and could not guess.

The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,

“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

He heard this and said,

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

Jesus worked through Matthew to call more and more people into the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. He worked through natural gifts and circumstances that already characterized Matthew. But to this same end of uniting all people in himself he also gave supernatural gifts.

And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets,

others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,

to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,

for building up the Body of Christ,

until we all attain to the unity of faith

and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,

to the extent of the full stature of Christ. 

Jesus made Matthew an Apostle and an evangelist, a teacher by the words he wrote, in order to be a source of unity for the whole Church. His past and human characteristics at a natural level were not thrown aside, but rather taken up and perfected. In Matthew's Gospel his own sinful past and transformation in Christ was able to reach beyond his own acquaintances during his lifetime to all sinners who would read it throughout history. They could see in him hope for themselves. We can see in him hope for us. We are not so different from Matthew the tax collector before Jesus invites us to follow. And the promise to us when we do follow him is no different: "knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ."

Their message goes out through all the earth.

David Ruis -You're Worthy of My Praise

20 September 2020 - the promised wage

Today's Readings

(Audio)

When those who had started about five o’clock came,

each received the usual daily wage. 

Who do we want to be among these hired workers? Do we prefer to be those who get away with doing the least but still get the promised wage? Do we want, finally, to be a saint, but to put it off as long as possible? Do we say with Augustine, "Give me chastity and continence, but not yet"? We know that deathbed conversions are possible. We know that the good thief on the cross was promised to be with Jesus in paradise (see Luke 23:43), the same paradise as Paul, Peter, or any of the great saints of history. 

‘These last ones worked only one hour,

and you have made them equal to us,

who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’

It is in some sense natural to prefer to avoid the day's burden and the heat if possible. But what is the alternative?

‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’

They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’

There is real work in the vineyard. There is the heat of the day. But the alternative is idleness that is ultimately purposelessness. Those who are not working have not been chosen. They aren't simply sitting at home watching TV. They're wondering what their lives are supposed to be all about. They look for how they might put their skills to use, how they might find meaning, but with no one to hire them they do not find a satisfactory answer. 

Can we learn to delight in the project of the landowner, to see ourselves as a part of the vineyard that produces the wine of joy for the nations? Do we realize that Christianity, though not without hardship, is the place where we find fulfillment, where we can live with purpose, and put our gifts to use? That we are invited to help produce this sacred wine is a far greater thing than the inevitable challenges that come with it.

The Lord longs to give us the promised wage. He will give it, not to those who have earned it, but to every heart that is willing to accept his invitation. Do we as Christians still live as though we are earning God's favor? Does this characterize our life of prayer? It is one reason it can be difficult to remain in silence before God. We feel the need to be productive, to do something. We have a hard time letting ourselves just 'waste' time with God. Yet learning to waste time with him, to spend time regardless of how we measure its utility, is important to our growth.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

Paul gave us an example by his Christocentric attitude. He himself would have been happy to serve in vineyard however long he was called to serve. He would have been equally happy to immediately depart this life to be with Christ. He was able to see beyond his own preferences and to desire that Christ be magnified. He learned to find his own good, his own joy, in the goodness and joy of the landowner.

Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 

For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. 

We Belong to God

19 September 2020 - sow effective

Today's Readings

(Audio)

A sower went out to sow his seed.

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,

and the birds of the sky ate it up.

The sower is again planting his seed in our hearts. How do we respond when it is in the form of a familiar parable? Does it actually get inside of us or does it stay on the surface to be consumed by the birds of the sky?

Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,

it withered for lack of moisture.

These words of Jesus sound so familiar that we sometimes fail to realize that they have more to offer, more to teach, and more fruit to bear. Looking at them we won't immediately recognize their value until we invite the Holy Spirit to help us. He is the living water that prevents them from withering for lack of moisture. When we invite him to help us we might not have an obvious new insight, but the word will nevertheless take root within us. We will begin to bear fruit, even without realizing the direct connection to the way in which we welcome the word, which is in fact the cause.

Some seed fell among thorns,

and the thorns grew with it and choked it.

If we let the world determine our focus we will focus on the things that make us anxious and the things that excite our excessive desires for riches and pleasures of life. None of these pursuits offer the fruits of joy or peace. In them the word will not have the space it needs to grow.

As Christians we continue to receive seeds sown by the sower. But we have the choice of what sort of soil we will be for that seed. It is not just those who have never received the word that need to heed these cautionary examples. It is we ourselves who perhaps think that the seed is already securely planted that need to pay attention so we don't miss the new grace that the sower is offering on this day.

If we receive the word as it really is, not as the word of man, but as the word of God (see First Thessalonians 2:13), we will be the good soil we are meant to be. We will treasure the word and not allow the devil to steal it. We will invite the Holy Spirit to water it so that its roots may grow within us. We will uproot the thorns and weeds that try to suffocate the weed, even if doing so necessitates some strenuous gardening, even if it means breaking up the soil, which we perceive to be ourselves, to remove the foreign elements that ultimately do not serve us.

The way we become rich soil, able to embrace the word with a generous and good heart, is to let the word itself transform us. Even this familiar parable, read with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, actually does purify our soil. This is what it means that the word is living and active (see Hebrews 4:12). It isn't just a philosophical strategy for fixing ourselves. It itself contains the grace to heal us.

The more we let the sower work in us the more able we will be to entrust ourselves completely to him when our very lives our the seeds to be sown for immortality.

What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be

but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.

We often look at the various forms of seeds, unimpressed. Progress is made when we begin to realize that what is in the seed is hidden. We begin to trust in the plans of sower and the effectiveness of his Spirit. How can we bear good fruit? How can we ever be made fit for heaven? Jesus himself is the one who gives these gifts.

the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

John B. Miller - Speak Lord I'm Listening

Andy Park - The River is Here

18 September 2020 - resurrection faith

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another,

preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God.

The good news that Jesus preached was that the time for the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham had arrived. And what was this promise? 

Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant. It does not say, “And to descendants,” as referring to many, but as referring to one, “And to your descendant,” who is Christ (see Galatians 3:16).

Jesus himself was the fulfillment of the promise. He himself was the reason for the good news he proclaimed. He himself was that toward which all the prophets and righteous people looked with longing and holy desire.

For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it (see Matthew 13:17).

The faithful of God in times past trusted that his promises for restoration and renewal would one day be fulfilled, although they knew not how. They waited for Jesus, without knowing exactly that it was for him that they waited.

All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth (see Hebrews 11:13).

Yet the good news was not fully revealed simply in the preaching of Jesus. The Twelve and the women who were with him had not yet arrived at their ultimate destiny. They had to continue to follow him. 

Accompanying him were the Twelve

and some women

Their faith was not to rest on Jesus simply as divine preacher and healer. It would need to be drawn further, through the Passion, to the resurrection. The resurrection was the perfect fulfillment of the promise to the descendent of Abraham, the fulfillment of the promise to David, and the true unutterable hope of the prophets. It was what all faith desired without the faithful being able to articulate it.

Christianity only makes sense in light of the historical and physical resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Only in this way are all the promises of God fulfilled. 

If there is no resurrection of the dead,

then neither has Christ been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching;

empty, too, your faith.

Jesus solved the deepest most intractable problems of the human condition, sin and death. He triumphed over death by his own death. His victory was revealed in the resurrection. He ended the the bondage of the human race of sin by dying to sin and letting us share in that death. He revealed the new life of the Spirit in his own resurrection.  If Jesus were simply a preacher, or worse, simply a story or a poetic myth, he could not really affect the things in us that truly needed healing. For these things were literally as concrete and real as death itself.

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,

we are the most pitiable people of all.

Jesus does give us joy even in this life. But however great that joy, it is fleeting compared to the destiny his resurrection has unlocked for us.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave (see Song of Songs 8:6).

Let us widen our hope, singing together with the psalmist:

But I in justice shall behold your face;

on waking, I shall be content in your presence.

Matt Maher - Christ is Risen

17 September 2020 - love much?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Which of them will love him more?”

Simon said in reply,

“The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”

He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

From this we can understand what Saint Therese of Lisieux meant when she said, "How happy I am to see myself imperfect and be in need of God's mercy." Most of us would prefer to be perfect without any intervention. We would prefer to be holy without the need for healing. But if we can't find within ourselves the places that still need healing, if we can't recognize the need that each of us has for mercy, we risk being able to love only a little. 

So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven;

hence, she has shown great love.

But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.

Therese was not a great sinner as the world reckons sin. But she was able to recognize her need for growth. The further she progressed with God the more things which would seem small to others seemed to be great faults of selfishness to her. In the face of such generosity and love on the part of God who are we to argue about what is small and what is great? But the important thing for Therese was that she did not tell herself these things to beat herself up. She didn't have time for self-hatred. It was rather that she realized that the greatest sinners are entitled to the greatest mercy, and she wanted that mercy to heal her as well. 

I perform works of mercy in every soul. The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy  (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 723).

It is not likely that the Pharisee really needed less mercy than the woman. It is rather that the woman was able to identify her need for it. Doing so did not make her life worse, no matter how she might seem in the eyes of the world. The amazing love she showed to Jesus is proof of the immense gratitude for Jesus, for being able to approach him at all, even before he spoke the words she must have desired to hear.

He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Christ came to call sinners, not the righteous (see Luke 5:32). It is the sick who need the Divine Physician (see Matthew 9:12). He not only called sinners, but died for our sins and was raised on the third day. We will love this Passion, we will anoint this body of Jesus with our own love, to the degree that we find the need of it ourselves, to the degree, finally, that we let ourselves be loved.

Whatever the ways in which we have sinned and need mercy God wants to transform us into people of thanksgiving, people made effective in their toil for the kingdom.

But by the grace of God I am what I am,

and his grace to me has not been ineffective.

Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;

not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.

Let us learn the beauty of the words of the psalmist. With him let us sing, "His mercy endures forever."

Songs In His Presence - Psalm 118

16 September 2020 - in perfect harmony

Today's Readings

(Audio)

‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.

We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’

It is love that lifts us out of ourselves and allows us to empathize with others. It makes genuinely human connections possible.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (see Romans 12:15).

There is a sense in which we all want to march to the sound of our own drummer, to dance to no music but our own. This is a partially valid instinct. It is good not to simply accept conformity for the sake of conformity, or to stifle individuality where there ought to be room for self-expression. But if we are unwilling to hear any music but our own we will find ourselves isolated, excluded from the dance, unsympathetic toward others, and without anyone who is able to feel sympathy toward us. We need to find the music that harmonizes what is deepest in us, all the many ways which we have been gifted by the Holy Spirit, with what is deepest and truest in others, and with God's good plan for the world.

Love is the harmony that lets us live in a vibrant and empathetic dance with others and with God. This does not mean love is easy in the sense of being the path of least resistance. We begin with the familiar list and read that love is patient and kind. That sounds saccharin until we try to practice it in rush hour traffic. But love is not merely a negation of negative personality traits. Rather than seeking its own interest it wills the good of the other as other. It rejoices in truth. It believes, it hopes, and it endures for the sake of the other. The truth in which it rejoices, the beliefs it cherishes, the hopes to which it clings are the sheet music that can unite diverse nations and tongues in one body, in one sacred dance.

It bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Although it often seems like the least reliable option when compared to brute force and manipulation love is the one thing that never fails. We can't see this with perfect clarity now. Sometimes it seems that the opposite is the case. But we know that we will one day soon when we will see that it is true.

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,

but then face to face.

At present I know partially;

then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

In this present time when we see indistinctly we can still heed the music of Jesus, to let ourselves be led, to let our own songs be put in the service of love.

Sing to him a new song;

pluck the strings skillfully, with shouts of gladness.

David Ruis - We Will Dance

OCP Session Choir - Lord of the Dance

15 September 2020 - sweet sorrow

Today's Readings

(Audio)

and you yourself a sword will pierce

so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

If we are used to hearing the title Our Lady of Sorrows we may be desensitized to just how unusual it us. There is a lot about Mary that immediately seems praiseworthy. Her faith, her obedience, and her humility all seem worth celebrating and emulating. But sorrows? Do we really want to commemorate the sorrows themselves and not some other virtues that allowed her to persist through the sorrows? Wouldn't it be better to look at her eventual victory, over her ancient enemy the serpent?

Yet the sorrows of Our Lady were not worldly sorrows. Even among the imperfect there are two kinds of sorrow.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death (see Second Corinthians 7:10).

Although Mary had no need of repentance, yet her sorrows did lead to salvation, because her sorrows were so perfectly united to those of her Son.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church (see Colossians 1:24).

We are all united in Christ. In one Spirit we were baptized into one body. Because this is true we really do receive powers that are properly speaking Christ's powers. We learn to heal and teach and work by his grace. We even learn to unite our suffering to his for the sake of others. But no heart was ever so united to the heart of Jesus as was the heart of his mother. This is why when the lance pierced the side of Christ it could truly be said that a sword pierced her own side.

Jesus himself, in his humanity, must have found some comfort and solace in the presence of his mother at the cross. In one of his final acts he gave Mary as a mother to the beloved disciple and in turn to each of us. Now, just as she perfectly embraced the sorrow of her Son for the sake of the world, so too can she embrace our own sorrows and help us to offer it for others.

Then he said to the disciple,

“Behold, your mother.”

And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

In this world sorrow and suffering are facts. To pretend they aren't is to be ignorant rather than enlightened. But we are called to see and experience how they fit into the bigger picture, how they themselves become the vehicles by which salvation and resurrection break into the world. And so, while we don't properly celebrate sorrow itself, we nevertheless celebrate the Lady who perfectly shows us how to make sense of it in the way we live.

For he is good, the LORD, 

whose kindness endures forever,

and his faithfulness, to all generations. 

Liv Douglas and John Lucas - When the Well Runs Dry

14 September 2020 - look upon him

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,

so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

When Jesus was lifted up on the cross he drew all men to himself (see John 12:32). On the cross Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet Zechariah that we would look upon the one whom we had pierced:

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn (see Zechariah 12:10).

We celebrate today the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. This feast reminds us that the cross was not a mere accident in the plan for our salvation. It was not something to simply be rushed through on the way to the resurrection. The cross itself was given to sinners as a gift. At the cross we ourselves must pause. Like the Israelites that grumbled in the desert we too have a tendency to grumble when God doesn't run the universe in the way we think he should.

With their patience worn out by the journey,

the people complained against God and Moses

Like the Israelites we need to receive healing from the poison of the saraph serpents of sin. And though it is hard to look directly on the results of or sinfulness, to look upon the bronze serpent mounted on the pole, it is necessary to look upon it for life.

Jesus was lifted high upon the cross just as the serpent on the pole was raised up. In both events we see the ugliness of the consequences of our grumbling and our sin. But in both events we see that God's mercy is greater than any sin we can commit, greater than any evil in the world, greater, even than death.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

It may not have been evident to the Israelites that God's mercy shown in the bronze serpent was beautiful. Yet he did turn the results of their downfall into the very vehicle of their own deliverance. But that the cross of Jesus Christ was beautiful should be far more evident. It not only turned the just condemnation of sin into the means of our salvation, but it demonstrated in the face of the most heinous of sins that the love and the mercy of God was without limit.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Let us take the time to behold the cross of Christ today. Let us thank Jesus that he did not insist on the prerogative of his rights as equal with God, but instead emptied himself and embraced death, even death on a cross for our sake. From that cross we receive the spirit of grace and petition prophesied by Zechariah. We receive the living water of the Spirit that poured from his side. Jesus was exalted most explicitly in his resurrection. But in the way he revealed his love for us from the cross we can see that his exaltation had already begun.

Because of this, God greatly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that

Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Looking to Jesus on the cross the good thief was able to sense that he was indeed the Lord who could offer the mercy of his Kingdom. Looking to Jesus on the cross the centurion recognized that, "he was the Son of God" (see Matthew 27:54). Already, before anything the world could recognize as victory, the tongues of all began to confess that victory. Therefore, in the cross is the secret of all faith. May we look upon him whom we have pierced.

Do not forget the works of the Lord!

Newsboys - Lead Me to the Cross

Brian Doerksen - At the Cross