31 July 2021 - freedom of conscience

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Herod might seem uniquely and unrelatedly terrible. 

Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison

on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,

for John had said to him,

“It is not lawful for you to have her.”

Our consciences aren't so guilty that we would put people in prison to silence them. Yet we can still learn lessons from Herod. From him we can see how a smaller sin can lead to greater ones, and how peer pressure and pride make this all the more likely.

Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people,

for they regarded him as a prophet.

On the one hand, Herod wanted to silence John. On the other, the social order still made him feel pressure to do the right thing, and for a while this pressure was enough to keep John safe. The crowd regarded John as a prophet, and Herod himself couldn't shake the idea that there was indeed something more to him, "for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man" (see Mark 6:20).

The trouble for Herod was that now that he had taken the first step on the path of sin by putting John in prison, now that he had made the first act motivated by a desire to silence John, he would find the subsequent path harder to resist. Having essentially begun to will the murder of John in his heart external pressures would quickly lose their ability to restrain him. 

“Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

The king was distressed, 

but because of his oaths and the guests who were present,

he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison.

Herod was distressed because part of him still knew right from wrong, still understood John to be righteous, still, in fact, understood that he himself was wrong to take his brother's wife. At some level he knew from the beginning that each step along the path of arresting and finally killing John the Baptist was a step intended to silence the voice of his own conscience which spoke against him in condemnation. The point for us is that if we entertain that desire to silence that voice at all, even for a moment, it is hard to recover. Social pressures may keep us doing the right thing for appearances sake. But there will come a time either when no one is watching or when we face pressures in the opposite direction. If we no longer have our own inner moral voice on which to rely we will eventually succumb to other voices, voices of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl,

who took it to her mother.

We can avoid the path of Herod if we nip temptations to dull our conscience in the bud. The moment we notice the cognitive dissonance between pangs of conviction from our consciences and the intentions of our hearts we need to double down on listening to conscience. As Saint John Newman reminds us, conscience is "aboriginal Vicar of Christ" in the soul. We can further solidify the ground under our feet by being careful of with whom we spend our time. We should spend time with people who recognize John as a prophet, for they will help us when we are unsure of ourselves. We should be on guard against the enchantments of the world and the desire to be seen as impressive or infallible in the eyes of others. For Herod the birthday party was probably designed to make him feel privileged and powerful, but in doing so, it opened him to giving himself away, even more than he had already done. We need humility so that we don't promise dancing girls whatever they might ask.

In avoiding the temptations of the world, temptations like those Herod faced, we are not simply denying ourselves nor seeking self abnegation. We are ensuring that our hearts remain free to embrace the greater celebration that the Lord desires for us, the true jubilee year. Only in the Lord can we find true joy that builds us up rather than leaving us hollow. Unlike the false promises to which Herod succumbed, there is nothing manipulative in the promise of God. There is nothing of pride or pretense in the jubilee year, and for that very reason it is joy and peace that can give rest to our wayward hearts.

May God have pity on us and bless us;

    may he let his face shine upon us.

So may your way be known upon earth;

    among all nations, your salvation.

Kutless - Word of God Speak

30 July 2021 - unlikely places

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue.

He came to the place where people knew him before his ministry began. It was not a large town, and he was not in fact unknown to them. They knew who his family was and so they believed they knew all they needed to know about him. Having seen him grow up they should have been in the best position to receive him when he came back to them.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man (see Luke 2:52).

They had seen and known Jesus to virtuous and wise. Based on this, they ought to have known that he was not the sort of person to come back and put on pretense, pretending to be more than he was. 

Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?

Yet when he returned to them, in spite of the impression he had made among them, they were still unwilling to recognize who he had become. It was as if they were OK with a certain level of wisdom, appropriate to a hometown hero, but were unwilling to see him as anything truly unique, as anyone of more merit than the average Nazarene. In a way, it was as if they themselves believed that nothing truly good could come from Nazareth (see John 1:46), at least not as good as the claims about Jesus implied him to be.

One general problem that prevented Jesus from being recognized was definitely the limited expectations of the people, based on their familiarity him in the past. This is an easy mistake for us to make as well. In general, past performance really is all we have to go on in predicting future results. But this strategy is never effective when we apply it to God's plans. 

Everyone in Israel had limited expectations of what a person from Nazareth might be able to offer the world. But why did the people from Nazareth themselves seem to have the lowest expectations, when they might have actually expected more from him, since they had known him the longest? Was it not a problem, perhaps, of self-image, even of self-loathing? Did they not believe themselves and their own humanity to be too limited and tainted to have anything to offer the world? A savior from some distant land, perhaps, they could welcome. But how could one of their own really have anything to offer?

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (see John 1:11).

This challenge faced by the people of Nazareth is a challenge that we must face again and again. We must learn to not limit Jesus based on past experiences. Our own flawed humanity, our own past failings, none of this needs to limit what he can do in our world, even what he can do through us. Yet, we, like the Nazarenes, assume that we could not be the point where the love of God chooses to break through into the world. Can anything good come from our own cities and towns? Looking around us, we are right to wonder. Looking objectively at the state of our own hearts, we are right to wonder. Yet all things are possible to him who believes (see Mark 9:23). 

And he did not work many mighty deeds there

because of their lack of faith.

Let us allow God to come into our midst. Let us allow him to heal those memories of the past that would make us place limits on what he might choose to do in the future. If we do, we will be open to all of the mighty deeds he desires to do for us, in this, his native place.

The reading from Leviticus shows us that being healed and learning to offer right worship to God is not a one time event. It is rather to be renewed with the seasons, with the liturgical life of the Church. Our ability to have great expectations of God and deep faith was not broken all at once by sin. Typically, it is only over the course of time sanctified by the life of the Church that it is healed. This means that, for us, the best place to recognize Jesus and his power and his mighty deeds is actually the one that might seem at first to be the most unlikely. It is in the Eucharist that he seems the most hidden. Yet it is there that his power is most profoundly revealed.

Take up a melody, and sound the timbrel,

    the pleasant harp and the lyre.

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,

    at the full moon, on our solemn feast.

Hillsong Worship - Who You Say I Am

29 July 2021 - better is one day

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Lord, if you had been here,

my brother would not have died.

Martha had great faith in Jesus. Even in tragedy she still believed enough to say, "even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you." Her expectation, like that of many Christians, was that the reward of the righteous would be something in the distant future. She correctly realized that suffering would often have to be endured in the short term for the sake of the joy that the future would bring.

Jesus said to her,

“Your brother will rise.”

Martha said to him,

“I know he will rise,

in the resurrection on the last day.”

Martha's belief was strong, but it was missing something. The love, joy, and peace of the Kingdom was not to be a reality only on the last day. It was a reality that could be found in Jesus himself.

Jesus told her,

“I am the resurrection and the life;

whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,

and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?”

The point was not so much the resurrection of one person who would go on to die again. Rather, Jesus was definitively demonstrating the truth of his words by raising Lazarus as a sign of something deeper. We can come to a place where our faith in Jesus means that death has no power over us, even if we, as mortals, will still die.

Because we are united with Jesus we will live again after we die, both body and spirit. But even before that, we can become so united with he who is the resurrection and the life that the reality of that union overcomes even our fear of death. This is what it means when Jesus tells us that if we believe in him we will never die, because in the deepest part of our being we will live on. Eventually, on the last day, our body too will no longer rebel against the life that fills our souls. Our bodies may indeed have to wait for the last day, but Jesus does not want us to be content with only that future directed hope. He wants us to be united to him here and now, so that his peace and fearlessness can define us as well.

She said to him, “Yes, Lord.

I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,

the one who is coming into the world.”

To really grasp that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, to experience that here and now, we do need to spend some time at his feet. Service is important as well, but we must not neglect the fact that we are offered an experience that even Moses could not have. When the cloud of glory filled the meeting tent even Moses could not enter, not even he, who spoke to God as a friend, whose face shone with the glory of the Lord. In Jesus, the veil is torn and we are permitted to enter into this glory. This is the promise of contemplative prayer. We need not wait to heaven to begin to see that glory, though only there will its fullness be revealed.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!

Matt Maher - Christ Is Risen

28 July 2021 - eyes on the prize

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure

We give lip service to the idea that the Kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure. But do our lives reflect that reality? What really matters most to us? We often speak of the Kingdom of heaven as a treasure but seek harder after health, wealth, power, or pleasure. Often many of us seem to act as though our deepest poverty is boredom and that our greatest wealth is therefore to be entertained.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,

which a person finds and hides again,

and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

If we really treasure the treasure we will take steps to protect it. We will keep it safe from the interference of the world by burying it deep in the soil of our hearts. But that soil is not fully ours. We can't immediately reap the full benefits of the treasure. Now that we know where the treasure is and that it is safe we must first be like the merchant who, "out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." If the buried treasure is truly valuable to us we will not only be willing to sell all that we have to find it, to lose our lives to secure them for eternal life, we will even do so "out of joy". If this does not describe us, we needn't worry. The treasure is still present, waiting for us to discover it a thorough, experiential, and transformative way. Even if we failed to properly respond and hide the treasure within our hearts it need never be lost completely. It is waiting to be found once more. It and it alone is true treasure for it alone can satisfy our hearts and in it our desires can finally come to rest.

Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant

searching for fine pearls.

When he finds a pearl of great price,

he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

There are many fake pearls on offer, more pretense than actual value everywhere we look. We will need to have an eye to recognize what truly makes a pearl worthy of great price if we are to avoid being deceived. Both the treasure and the pearl require of the finder that they have an eye for that which is of true and lasting value, and that they are willing to take action based on that awareness. We are meant to desire truth, goodness, and beauty, and it is these that are truly of the greatest price, worth all that we have and all that we are. For this we need sustained and sincere attention, aware of our susceptibility to substitutes and falsehood. 

But why begin at all? Treasures and valuable pearls are so rare that we might not even bother looking. Yet we have been told that they are there to be found. We have been told that there is a treasure by the one who himself is that treasure. He has given us every reason to trust him. If we do we can seek and discover more and more how great a treasure he is, and more and more respond with our whole hearts.

In the first reading we see in Moses the results of his own encounter with this treasure:

When Aaron, then, and the other children of Israel saw Moses

and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become,

they were afraid to come near him.

Though the Israelites could not experience this, because they were unwilling to sell their idols in exchange for the truth, there is no such limitation for us. Jesus himself has paid for the treasure for us. In him it becomes our inheritance as well.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (see Second Corinthians 3:8).

Songs In His Presence - Prayer of Augustine

Dan Schutte - I Found the Treasure

27 January 2021 - until the harvest

Today's Readings

(Audio)

He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,

the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.

The weeds are the children of the Evil One,

and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.

At a simple and superficial level this parable encourages endurance, assuring us that we will encounter opposition in the world. All the wheat trying to grow and bear fruit will have to deal with weeds. It is better to resolve oneself in advance to be patient. Attempts to create a world so controlled as to be free of trials always results in harming the innocent along with the guilty. This is not to say we don't try to leaven the dough of the world. It's message is rather about helping us come to terms with imperfection that is inevitable until the end of the age. We should not ignore the flaws of the world. But neither should we assume something is wrong when our attempts and efforts don't perfect the world. At such times we risk bringing force to bear in ways that are destructive, that ultimately do more harm than good.

At another level we can consider that our own hearts are merely a patch of soil. With care and diligence they can receive and nourish the good seed and bear fruit. Inattentiveness inevitability results in weeds. The good seed is small and the progress is often hidden from us. However, the evil seed makes itself obvious, and we can discover the warning signs in our own hearts before they can do permanent damage.

The weeds are the children of the Evil One,

and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.

The fundamental thing necessary for the good seed to grow is to receive and trust in the word of Jesus. It is a disposition where there is a fundamental concern for truth, even over appearances, even when it is an insult to our pride.

Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me (see John 8:43-45)

What is our relationship to the truth? Is it a matter of convenience for us, so that we acknowledge it when it helps us with our goals and when it helps us to grow in pride? Hopefully it is instead something which we seek after zealously, wholeheartedly, knowing that, however it feels at first, it is only the truth that can set us free (see John 8:32).

There is still plenty of time left for us, time to devolve further into weeds or time to be healed and transformed into healthy wheat, ready for the harvest. The fact that our destinies are not yet determined is cause for hope. He who sowed the good seed desires a harvest, not kindling. He will take care of the pruning necessary to ensure good fruit. None of us are yet where we want to be. But we are all further along than we used to be. Our growth, however hidden it may be, still gives us confidence. The seed is working within us and because of that we can await our blessed hope in peace, enduring the weeds for the sake of the eventual harvest.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun

in the Kingdom of their Father.

The Lord is more interested in mercy than condemnation. The weeds he allows, but the wheat he actively nourishes. If we have allowed ourselves to behave more like weeds than wheat, if we have been stiff-necked in the face of the mercy and grace of God, it is not too late. In what small way can we become a little less like weeds and a little more like wheat today?

This is indeed a stiff-necked people; 

yet pardon our wickedness and sins,

and receive us as your own.

Newsboys - I Am Free

26 July 2021 - growth dynamics

Today's Readings

(Audio)

It is the smallest of all the seeds,

yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.

We have not been born from perishable seed but from the imperishable seed of the word of God (see First Peter 1:23). The seed planted within is powerful. But at first it is just a seed. There is a lot of growth that needs to happen before anything is even visible on the surface. Even once the plant does break through the soil toward the sun it is not immediately a bush large enough to give hospitality and blessings to the birds of the sky. We need to learn to believe that this seed, which at first seems of little consequence, is the most significant thing in our lives. Even when we don't see growth we should not give up on the seed but prioritize the care of the soil, creating the ideal growing conditions as grace makes us able.

It becomes a large bush,

and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.

The seed will become a bush. It has the power within itself to do so. Our part is to center our lives and hearts around the growth of this seed, even while leaving the actual growth in the hands of God. What we must not do is meet initial discouragement about our growth and then abandon the seed to seek fulfillment elsewhere. If we will just not deprive it of attention, the seed will grow. It is only by closing our hearts to it and insisting on looking elsewhere that might kill it entirely.

The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast

that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour

until the whole batch was leavened.

Just as the Kingdom in each one of us individually operates in a hidden but powerful way so too does the Kingdom in the wider world. Christians are meant to be the leaven that makes the dough of the world to rise above barbarism to true civility, based on the dignity of each human being. This may not seem to be the case in the world, and Christians, to be honest, may not seem to be doing much to help. Yet each Christian that lives acknowledging the God-given goodness of the world and life is fundamentally affecting the conversation. We reveal a beauty that is not easy to ignore once it is seen. We may never see a unified and virtuous Christendom in the future, as much as that ideal might be desirable. Nevertheless, the world can be a rich loaf, abundant with nourishment for those who hunger. 

Since the seed is the word of God, fidelity to the it means keeping the commandments and avoiding idolatry. Every idol is a lifeless seed, incapable of bearing fruit. Watering any such seed is a waste of resources. As to the dough, it can't be leavened with infidelity. This is what the  Enemy suggests, telling us that God was holding out on us and that idols could offer more, more bread, faster, and easier. But the mark of the Enemy is that while he promises much he only ever takes. In his kingdom of darkness there is never a bush capable of hospitality and love. There is never a loaf capable of feeding masses. There is only hollowness and regret. Yet God is more interested in our own lives and destinies than are we. Even when we fall for the lies of the Enemy he does not abandon us. He restores us by his mercy even when we fail to put his Kingdom first.

Then he spoke of exterminating them,

but Moses, his chosen one,

Withstood him in the breach

to turn back his destructive wrath.

John B. Miller - Speak Lord I'm Listening

25 July 2021 - greener pastures

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?” 

He said this to test him,

because he himself knew what he was going to do. 

Jesus required his disciples to confront the inadequacy of their own resources. He did not simply make bread appear out of nowhere, as well he might have done. Instead, he made his disciples consider what it would take to get enough for everyone. If we consider what we would need to do even today if we were tasked with feeding five thousand people plus women and children we may have some idea of how the disciples felt. Although they already felt this sense of overwhelm Jesus sent them throughout the crowd to how much everyone's combined resources would be.

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” (see Mark 6:38).

No doubt the disciples thought Jesus was hoping to find a practical solution. Maybe if everyone combined what they had it would make some difference. Yet this was not his plan. This was still a part of his test.

One of his disciples,

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;

but what good are these for so many?” 

We get the sense that Andrew almost didn't even mention these loaves and fish, since they were so little in the face of such a large crowd. But he did mention them. And that he did seemed to be a sign of faith and a flicker of hope. Yes, he immediately walked back from that faith with negativity. But that did not stop Jesus from responding. He responded both to the meager offering of bread and to the meager offering of faith and hope that, at least for a moment, considered that in Jesus's hands they might be of some good after all. Maybe Andrew knew the story of Elisha multiplying the barley loaves. Maybe he remembered Moses feeding the people in the desert. We should give him credit when these stories didn't obviously leap to mind since Jesus himself seemed to be asking for a practical solution. What must have been his hope, then? That, when Jesus seemed to be asking for a practical solution and there was none possible, he must have had something else in mind, must still have had a plan.

Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” 

Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. 

So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. 

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,

and distributed them to those who were reclining,

and also as much of the fish as they wanted. 

Jesus was the Good Shepherd who made his people recline in green pastures, who prepared a table before his people. Yet this miraculous feeding of the crowds with bread was not his endgame. He refused to be seen as a king who came merely to give the people physical bread to satisfy natural hunger. Rather, this multiplication of the loaves pointed forward to the true bread from heaven which Jesus came to give, the bread of his own flesh for the life of the world. Any physical bread would satisfy hunger only for a time. By the next day the crowd would hunger again. But those who fed on the flesh and blood of Jesus could find in it food that truly satisfied, food in which the soul itself could rest. It was food for the journey, for our own desert pilgrimage through life. When we experience spiritual hunger or weakness this is the place we should turn again and again until the fullness of what we receive, everlasting life, is definitively and finally revealed.

If Jesus was pointing toward the Eucharist it is no wonder that he forced his disciples to come to terms with their own human limitations. As priests of his New Covenant called to feed his people with the Eucharist these human limitations would be even more glaring. Yet Jesus wanted them to rest assured that he could work through their meager offerings. He himself would feed his people through his disciples, hence in John we read "Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them" whereas in the Synoptics we read "the disciples gave them to the people" (see Matthew 14:19). The head would work through his body in such a way that there was no contradiction between these accounts.

Jesus desires for his people to be one flock united under one shepherd, to be a people united around the table of his word and of his body. He does not want us to be scattered to the cities seeking for our deepest needs. Yet to preserve and protect this unity, which is God's own gift, we must be like the disciples, willing to offer what little with have in humility. When we hear negativity and doubt we must respond with patience and gentleness. We must be willing to let Jesus express his own love for our brothers and sisters through us and to willing to receive that same love through them in turn.

I, a prisoner for the Lord,

urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,

with all humility and gentleness, with patience,

bearing with one another through love,

striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace

We must treasure even the fragments of God's gift, even although our hunger already seems sated, so that nothing may be lost. Just as the Church reserves the remnants of the Eucharist in the tabernacle so too must we reserve the blessings we have been given in our hearts as thanksgiving to God.

The eyes of all look hopefully to you,

and you give them their food in due season;

you open your hand

and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Ronan Ferrer - Adoro Te Devote

iWorship - Hungry (Falling On My Knees)

John Michael Talbot - I Am the Bread of Life

Peter Furler - Psalm 23

24 July 2021 - not overextending

Today's Readings

(Audio)

‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?

Our experience of imperfection in the world tends to make us doubt our master. Is he not good? Not competent? Why are the fields not wheat only, but weeds as well? It might be enough of an explanation in a normal household if the master was asleep. But we know that he sleeps not, nor slumbers, Israel's guard (see Psalm 121:4). How then did the enemy get into the field? If we feel this doubt we should not pretend that we do not feel it but rather acknowledge it so that we may be healed.

His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

God does not consult us in his governance of the universe. He often acts in ways that are not our ways. If we were running the world we imagine that we would do things differently, and that the results would be better somehow. Though from all the many times we have had 'good ideas' which did not turn out so well we ought to know better, the temptation remains to try to fix things ourselves. 

He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds

you might uproot the wheat along with them.

There are some things that the enemy has done in the field that God does want us to address and correct. He definitely wants to work through us to alleviate suffering and poverty, to instruct the ignorant and spread the good news. But in anything we attempt, even these rightly motivated things, we often attempt to control too much, overextending ourselves into God's prerogatives. When we insist on being in control of that which is beyond our scope and capacity we typically put ourselves and others at risk. We do not merely uproot the weeds we find in our lives and those of others. We end up pulling out entire plants by the roots, and sometimes even uprooting ourselves. This happens when we insist on results that are too perfect. It happens we insist on specific methods just because we ourselves prefer them without regard for the nuance of varied plants we find in the field.

The way to avoid pulling up wheat is the learn to trust the master of the field. He has allowed what he has allowed because he is ultimately capable of handling it, even without any help from us. We must learn to trust that even the apparent presence of the enemy in the field is only allowed because the master himself can bring some greater good from it. If we do not learn to trust all of these apparent weeds are just going to make doubt more likely and peace of heart more elusive.

Let them grow together until harvest;

then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,

“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;

but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

We can trust the Lord enough to let go of things that we are not meant to control. We can learn to believe that the field is his, and the harvest is his, and nothing can keep him from gathering the wheat into his barn. We can have this trust because he himself desires to give it to us, has already given it to us by the grace of baptism. We must simply realize it and open ourselves to it so that it can have its way in us. If we're having a hard time making this act of surrender, the Eucharist is a perfect place to come for help. In it we experience the depths of the master's love for us, so that we can more and more learn to respond with our whole heart.

Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,

“This is the blood of the covenant

that the LORD has made with you

in accordance with all these words of his.”

Bethel Music - Raise a Hallelujah

23 July 2021 - the world is not neutral ground

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Why does the soil matter? Because the seed is at risk. The world above ground is not friendly toward the seed, nor even neutral, but hostile.

the Evil One comes and steals away

what was sown in his heart.

We have only just escaped Egypt and slavery to idols, and Pharoah is not content to let us leave. If we want to escape successfully to the promised land we must be willing to listen to the guidance of God. Otherwise, when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place we will have nowhere to turn. The Evil One will pursue the seed that is only superficial and it will have no means of escape. To avoid this we need to receive the word with understanding. It is not enough to be exposed to the word. We need to know it and make it our own. Then and only then will it give us guidance to keep us safe from the Enemy.

The seed sown on rocky ground

is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.

But he has no root and lasts only for a time.

Especially if our lives haven't been pristine before receiving the word, if perhaps we were given over to idols in Egypt, we are the rocky ground that can make it difficult for the seed to mature. We should try be especially conscience of our need for roots that go deeper than our rocky past. These roots ought to reach down to our identity in God as sons and daughters. They grow deeper by the acquisition of virtue that happens when we are faithful to the commandments. As we keep the commandments by God's grace we push these roots deeper into the soil, making it less and less likely that some passing tribulation will uproot us.

The seed sown on rocky ground

is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.

But he has no root and lasts only for a time.

If we are planted among the thorns, we need to grow in directions that allow us to breathe. Worldly riches make promises but weighs heavy upon us, making it difficult to breathe easily. Ideally, we'll just branch out in directions without thorns, but if the thorns are pressing in too hard, we need to press back to establish boundaries and find freedom. What sorts of things are stealing our peace from us? How can we move away from those things or to push them back if necessary?

But the seed sown on rich soil

is the one who hears the word and understands it,

who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

The deeper we get in this soil the safer we are, the more likely it is that we will bear good fruit. We can't be content to be shallow or confined and attempt to grow. If that happens, we may stay alive, but without the fruit that God desires from us. Yet if we allow God to have his way, he himself will provide the means and the grace to use the means to surround ourselves with soil full of nutrients, to push forth leaves and branches toward the sun, and to bear much fruit.

For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God, 

    inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness 

    on the children of those who hate me, 

    down to the third and fourth generation; 

    but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation 

    on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Maranatha! Singers - I Will Delight

22 July 2021 - called by name

Christ Appearing to Mary by William Etty 1787–1849

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

Photo © Tate

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

On the first day of the week,

Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning,

while it was still dark,

and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

Having been forgiven much, and freed of seven demons, Mary Magdalene loved much. She kept a vigil of love for the one who had given her freedom, who had become her friend, and who now, to all appearances, was gone forever. On the one hand, Mary could not help but believe Jesus to be dead.  On the other, she simply couldn't let him go, couldn't accept that he was gone forever.

Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping.

Her heart was still seeking Jesus, like the bride in the Song of Songs.

I sought him but I did not find him.

If she did not find him whom her heart loved she would not give up. If the watchman who had made their rounds hadn't seen him she would not give up. Yet to actually find him whom heart loved seemed to her impossible. She still knew Christ "according to the flesh" in some sense. She understood him to be the Messiah, no doubt. But she didn't know him enough to understand how their could still be hope even after such a trauma and a tragedy as was the cross.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,

but did not know it was Jesus.

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

Whom are you looking for?”

She thought it was the gardener

She was still considering things according to the paradigm of the old creation. In this creation there was only the first Adam, doomed to die himself, to tend to the garden. There was no way she could imagine this person she encountered to be anyone else. However, the world was no longer circumscribed merely by the old creation. A new day was dawning.

even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh,

yet now we know him so no longer.

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation:

the old things have passed away;

behold, new things have come.

How did it come to pass that Mary discovered this new creation, when she even interpreted the sight of Jesus himself according to her old worldview? She assumed that it couldn't be Jesus, and there couldn't be hope, because it was after all still the old world with which she was all too familiar. No matter how much she loved him, he wasn't coming back, for death was no respecter of persons. She knew her susceptibility to grief. She knew the danger of getting her hopes up, or of mistaking some stranger as Jesus simply because she desired to see him. She would keep herself closed off, safe from deception, but also unable to move forward. Yet all of this dissolved in a single moment.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to him in Hebrew,

“Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

The voice of Jesus cut through the protections with which Mary had barricaded her heart. His appearance was new to her, for he was inaugurating a new creation. She wasn't moved to hope simply by seeing it. There was still the freedom to see things either way. But his voice! His voice was undeniable. It was still utterly familiar. It still knew her entirely. The voice comprehended all the grief she had endured with the most profound sympathy. It was the voice that had once set her free. And now, by calling her name, it did so once more. This could have no other effect than to make her a witness, an apostle to the apostles.

“I have seen the Lord,”

and then reported what he told her.

We too encounter tragedies in our own lives. Our limited perspectives often cause us to interpret them according to old paradigms, and to therefore assume them hopeless. But Jesus wants to call our names so that we can recognize his presence in our midst and to come to see the new creation all around us, already beginning to restore life and hope.

Matt Maher - Christ Is Risen

Matt Maher - You Know Who I Am

21 July 2021 - blooming in adversity

Today's Readings

(Audio)

A sower went out to sow.

The sower sowed generously. There was no lack of seed, no reason to be precious with it and only place it where it seemed most likely to grow. This meant the fruit bearing plants could potentially grow even in unlikely places. 

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,

and birds came and ate it up.

What if some of the seed that fell on the path wasn't wasted, but was rather covered with dirt and worked deeper by weather and passersby? Maybe the very challenge that made some of the seed vulnerable, being exposed and vulnerable, was in some cases able to make the seed flourish.

Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.

It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep

What if some of the seed that fell on the rocky soil was patient, resisted the urge to seek immediate gratification, and did not spring up at once? What if it waited patiently while it's roots sought to penetrate past the rocks into the deeper soil. Such plants would then, perhaps, be stronger against the wind and rain, less able to be easily uprooted because of the very thing that initially threatened their survival.

Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.

It is certainly possible that these adverse conditions did not tell the whole story, that the initial challenges resulted in stronger long term growth. This would be consistent the Christian message, that our past does not determine our future, that there is always reason to hope, and that the very struggles we face can make us growth in faith and virtue if we persevere in the initial seed of grace we have been given.

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

a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Insofar as our own lives are soil and our efforts are seeds we do want to seek the best soil. We do not want to leave things to chance or to force ourselves to make the best of soil. We want to sow efforts in the deep places of our hearts, with time and attention, not in places of passing fancy, not in places at risk because of the mood of the crowds. The circumstances that aren't up to us can always work for our good. But if we don't take advantage of the opportunities God gives us with the seeds that he himself provides we risk limiting how much fruit we are able to offer him in return.

“I have heard the grumbling of the children of Israel.

Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,

and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,

so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”

Maybe we're in the desert. Maybe we're hungry with desire for which we cannot find satisfaction. It could be that these circumstances were not of our own making. Certainly desert soil doesn't always make for fruit. But we can choose how we respond. We can grumble, which does no good, and bears no fruit. Or we can patiently turn to the Lord who himself is able to make the desert bloom.

the desert will bloom with flowers.

It will be very glad and shout for joy.

The glorious beauty of Lebanon will be given to it.

It will be as beautiful as the rich lands

of Carmel and Sharon.

Everyone will see the glory of the Lord.

They will see the beauty of our God.

(see Isaiah 35:2)

Psalms In His Presence - The Lord Gave Them Bread

John Michael Talbot - I Am the Bread of Life

20 July 2021 - sea it through

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?

Jesus had told his disciples that they must not prefer their own fathers and mothers to him (see Matthew 10:37). He was, then, practicing what he preached, demonstrating that the obligations to blood relations must take second place to the obligations to new spiritual family Jesus was establishing in his Kingdom.

“Here are my mother and my brothers.

For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father

is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Even in the case of the Mother of God, her natural prerogatives were necessarily subordinated to the priorities of the Kingdom. It is true that her motherhood extended beyond beyond that natural sense. Above all others, she opened herself completely to the will of the heavenly Father, saying, "May it be done unto me according to your word" (see Luke 1:38). Because of this Jesus could trust her to understand that what he was telling the crowds was intended as no slight to her, not from he who himself gave the commandment to honor father and mother. Yet though she understood as a disciple, it was probably still difficult for her as a mother. Even she, perhaps, had to learn to let go of what would otherwise be normal expectations of a mother for her son, so that her son would be available and free to bring his Kingdom to the world, even unto the cross.

Mary's preeminence in the Catholic faith was not based merely on the relationship of nature that she shared with her son. It was rather based on a supernatural reality that preceded, underlied, and sustained that relationship. Had she been the sort of person who insisted on her own rights, had she fought to keep her son to herself, had she herself turned away from following him even to the cross, she would not be the woman we celebrate today. In Mary we celebrate a profound work of the grace of God that made it possible for her, overshadowing her by God's own Spirit, to be the perfect example of true spiritual motherhood. This is the motherhood that does not merely raise children who do their best, self-actualize, get what they want, and then die. It is motherhood which raises children and mothers them unto life in the Kingdom, even in spite of the difficulty for both mother and child. It is a supernatural reality which only grace makes possible. We share in this reality, ourselves mothering the image of Jesus in others.

Our natural bonds and normal expectations tend to pursue us like the Egyptians pursued the Israelites once they were free. But the grace of our baptism has the power to drown our pursuers, to give us such complete victory that we never see them again. Like Mary we just need to trust in the grace of God and not turn back.

    I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;

        horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.

Bethel Music - Raise a Hallelujah

19 July 2021 - the sign of Jonah

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,

“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

Their motivation for seeking the sign was the problem. They weren't really interested in the possibility that Jesus was who he said he was. There had, in fact, already been an abundance of signs for them to witness. But the Pharisees were interested in sacrifice, not in mercy, so they were not open to see the signs that were before their eyes. Jesus had only just recently cured a demoniac who was blind and mute, but all the Pharisees could say was, "This man drives out demons only by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons" (see Matthew 12:24). What sort of sign can you show to someone whose heart is in that place?

An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,

but no sign will be given it

except the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Jesus had not given up on the Pharisees, even if they were evil and unfaithful. He would not play their games, offering his miraculous powers up to their judgment and critique. He would do something more, something which could potentially draw the Pharisees out of their passively disinterested sense of superiority. 

Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, 

so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth

three days and three nights.

Jesus took upon himself the Pharisees' own hatred, and all of the violence they held in their hearts toward him. He did so, not grudgingly, but for their sakes, in order to bring them back to God and open to them the way of salvation. It was his hope that this sign would expose the violence in the hearts of the Pharisees, and indeed in all of us, to exhaust it, and potentially to allow us all to move beyond it and repent. He allowed us to have the very thing we thought we wanted the most, to definitively silence Jesus, in order to reveal to us how broken and hollow a desire it was. He did not then leave to ourselves, with no alternative but despair. Instead, he emerged from the heart of the earth, not preaching condemnation, but peace and forgiveness.

The people of Nineveh and the queen of the south were able to recognize the signs they had been given, the preaching of Jonah, and the wisdom of Solomon respectively. What did they have in common that allowed them to receive these signs that the Pharisees lacked? It must have been humility, humility that allowed the whole people of Nineveh to repent in sackcloth and ashes at the words of a foreigner, and humility that drew the queen of the south from her own kingdom to seek a wisdom that she could only find in Solomon.

For us too, the Lord willing works signs for those who stand to benefit. But these signs are inseparable from his wisdom of his words, which are signs par excellence. If we refuse the message we will also refuse the signs, because they are bound up together. If our hearts are more interested in sacrifice than mercy, in condemnation than forgiveness, we will leave Jesus little recourse, nothing left to persuade us except, hopefully for the sign of his Passion. His Passion can absorb the hardness of our own hearts, our lack of humility, and still emerge with the offer of life-giving love for us. But let us not remain in attitudes deserving of condemnation. Let us recognize the one who is greater than Jonah and greater than Solomon and open ourselves to the signs he has already shown us.

Fear not! Stand your ground,

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

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

The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.

The Passion of Our Lord is powerful. It leaves sin, sickness, and death behind, unable to ever enslave us again. It is the beginning of our journey to the land of promise. And, in the resurrection, it is the consummation of that promise.

And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea,

split the sea in two,

that the children of Israel may pass through it on dry land.

Newsboys - Belly of the Whale

Songs In His Presence - Exodus 15: Let Us Sing to the Lord

18 July 2021 - shepherds after his own heart

Today's Readings

(Audio)

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

Rest is a genuine good. It is important to have an appropriate level of self-care if we want to be able to care for others. Yet when the crowds continued to follow after Jesus even to this deserted place he did not leave them a second time to insist on the rest he had planned.

Jesus wanted to reveal his own heart to his disciples so that when they encountered similar situations they would be able to respond in the same way. Yes, they should try to rest and recharge when they could. But there would be times when the sheep we so desperately in need of a shepherd that rest would have to wait.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,

his heart was moved with pity for them,

for they were like sheep without a shepherd;

The shepherd is free to rest when the sheep are comfortably in his care. But when even one of the ninety-nine is missing there is work for the shepherd that takes priority. Otherwise, if the sheep are still "scattered" and "driven" away by a lack of care, they are at risk. Sheep apart from their shepherd are not smart or cunning creatures. They cannot escape from the predator or the poacher.

Jesus wanted his disciples to have a heart for his people committed enough that the crowd would not need to feel troubled or abandoned, to have a strong enough concern for them that they would not be scattered or driven away. Yes, they ought to rest when they could. But they were meant to be like Jesus who placed the well being of the sheep before his own, who freely laid down his life for his sheep.

Jesus wasn't trying to guilt his disciples into this frame of mind that privileged sheep care over self care. He wasn't trying to force them into it by obligation. Rather, he saw, and he wanted them to see the crowds with sympathy deep enough to make up even for lack of food and rest in the short term. He wanted his disciples hearts to be open to his people just as his own heart was open.

I myself will gather the remnant of my flock

from all the lands to which I have driven them

and bring them back to their meadow;

there they shall increase and multiply. 

How did Jesus respond to the desires of the crowd? How did he respond to their distress and desire?

and he began to teach them many things.

Sheep did not need, and could not use, an academic solution. Jesus did not simply present a step-by-step process on how to be a good, isolated, individual sheep. Rather his teaching was a teaching that had the power of a shepherd within it. It had the power to guide the sheep away from danger. It was the shepherd's voice speaking, which the sheep could hear, and draw and remain near it on the meadows of the Church.

I myself will gather the remnant of my flock

from all the lands to which I have driven them

and bring them back to their meadow;

there they shall increase and multiply. 

The teaching of the Good Shepherd allows us to remain in a union with him that is active and dynamic, responsive to the changing situations in which we find ourselves, allowing us to be led into new and more fruitful pastures. But his teaching does not unite us to him alone. It also powerfully overcomes the barriers between sheep, allowing a vast diversity to exist in one flock. His purpose is to unite in himself every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

For he is our peace, he who made both one

and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,

abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims,

that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,

thus establishing peace

There are two aspects of this theme against which we can measure ourselves. How do we privilege the care of those sheep entrusted to us, in whatever way? There are different ways in which we shepherd our children, our friends, our co-workers, and acquaintances. But God wants us to have a heart for all of them that is compassionate enough to motivate us to give of ourselves for their sake. If we do not have this heart we can ask Jesus to help us see in the crowd what he saw, the same thing that moved his own heart. 

The second aspect we should consider is how we allow the teaching  voice of Jesus to shepherd us, when we encounter it in our own prayer, through others, and especially in the Magisterium. Are we docile enough to let this voice lead us? If so, we will find ourselves venturing to pastures where we would perhaps never have gone. We will find ourselves uniting with others with whom we would have had almost nothing in common in a natural sense. 

Our Shepherd and King is still present among his people, teaching and guiding us, ruling over us in his abundant compassion so that together, as one flock with one shepherd (see John 10:16), we may be united around the banquet of his table, there to dwell and flourish forever more.

Jon Foreman - The House of God Forever

Peter Furler - Psalm 23

17 July 2021 - to invite, not to fight

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus knew that the Pharisees were planning to kill and so he withdrew from them. It was not yet the appointed time or the appointed place for the Messiah to to die. 

for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem (see Luke 13:33).

My time has not yet come (see John 7:6).

Jesus knew and understood himself to be the chosen and beloved of the Father, in whom he took delight. Because Jesus was absolutely secure in this identity he didn't need to contend with the apparently important classes of individuals in his day to seek their validation. The validation of his Father was the only approval which he ever sought or desired.

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

my beloved in whom I delight;

By not engaging the Pharisees directly and immediately he gave them time and space to repent. They were bruised reeds that he did not break. Giving them more evidence of who he was would have only resulted in greater condemnation, for them whose hearts were closed to him. It would have broken the bruised reed, rather than leaving it in hope that it would not in all cases be lost. Or at least, if it was to be broken, it wouldn't be by his provocation.

He avoided the Pharisees, not out of fear, but out of mercy.  For the same reason he did choose to bring his mercy to Gentiles. It was because Jesus was entirely filled and animated by the Spirit of the Father that he was able to love those whom his society saw as undeserving, and who could not offer him anything in return. By helping them, his own status was not improved, but if anything, popular opinion of him was tarnished. But he was able to transcend concerns about what others thought or about what others deserved because he saw in the Gentiles a smoldering wick which might yet ignite into flame.

A bruised reed he will not break,

a smoldering wick he will not quench

The Gentiles might have seemed to be a lost cause, so full were their traditions of falsehood and illusion and idolatry. But Jesus saw a spark within them, made in the image and likeness of God, with the natural law still in their hearts (see Romans 2:15), that might yet be set afire by his words and burst forth into a fire of holiness.

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.

Jesus brought justice to victory, not by force of arms, but by the power of the Cross. It was by not contending or crying out, not by breaking his opposition or extinguishing those who were not his allies. Rather, by his entire life even unto his death on the cross he proclaimed the justice was to be found, not in men, not in violence, but only in the will of his Father. The resurrection was therefore the victory by which what Jesus demonstrated about the justice of God was vindicated.

In our own lives we probably sense that the victory of the justice of God is not immediately evident or obvious. We still see poverty, sickness, and death ravaging the world. We see the love of money and the fear of death motivating more people than the love of the Father's will. Perhaps we ourselves are more motivated by those things. Why, we wonder, isn't the Kingdom of God more aggressively enforced upon the world? Perhaps, in this age of the Church, God is still holding out hope for the smoldering wicks and bruised reeds. Just as he relied on Jesus, filled with the Spirit, to manifest the victory of the justice of God, not apart from the conditions of the world, but at the very epicenter of the worst of those conditions, so too does he use the followers of Jesus in our own day. He calls us to live lives marked by the justice and mercy of God. Like Jesus, we are called to invite, not to fight. We are called to see hope for those people whom the world has abandoned as hopeless. Our own lives can reveal the victory of the justice of God as we demonstrate definitively that worldly circumstances do not have the final say, that evil does not have the last word.

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.

We should be eager to participate in this victory, for once his Kingdom fully comes, once he reveals himself completely on the last day, there will no longer be time for reeds to heal or sparks to catch fire. We are meant to regard such things as hopeful signs of life and do what we can to cultivate them while time remains.

We are on a pilgrimage very much like that of Israel leaving Egypt. We must give priority to the direction and destination rather than the lack of comfort or challenging circumstances that we encounter along the way. We must be content to sacrifice the niceties of Egypt for the promise that awaits us. But unlike those pilgrims, we have received the Spirit of God, and we have been told that we are the beloved children of the Father. Because of this we can trust in his promise and follow his direction with a supernatural fidelity, following in the path first walked by Jesus himself.

Chris Tomlin - Forever