31 March 2022 - expert opinions?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

I came in the name of my Father,

but you do not accept me;

yet if another comes in his own name,

you will accept him.

Jesus came as one not interested in human praise to a world that was utterly fixated on it and intoxicated by it. The Judeans were not so different from people in our own day, even ourselves. 

We, like people in the time of Christ, are willing to welcome those who come in their own name, those who seem to stand in a relationship of dependence with no one. These apparently strong and self-made heroes assure us that we too need depend on no one and can rely on ourselves entirely. Hence our praise of such hero figures is really our own egos expressing their aspirations and desires.

As we come to imagine others as inherently honorable or praiseworthy we become willing also to buy into the system that places much value on their opinions. In fact, if we think about it, we will probably find that we do care quite a lot about what the crowds think about the issues of concern in our day. Certainly we select the groups that seem the smartest and best from whom to seek validation. Then when we find we are in agreement with them we ourselves feel validated for trusting the right people. Even if we are in fact trusting those who have correct insight and vast intelligence we usually still do so still at least partially for the sake of assuaging our own egos and boosting our own self-esteem.

What if Jesus came to us in our day and there was no crowd to whom we could look, no experts who could testify on his behalf? It is not enough in the case of Jesus to do our own research. The Judeans tried that, but the posture of their hearts prevented them from finding the truth.

You search the Scriptures,

because you think you have eternal life through them;

even they testify on my behalf.

But you do not want to come to me to have life.

Rather than succeeding as those who figure things out for ourselves, we must open ourselves to the witnesses of whom Jesus himself spoke.

The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,

these works that I perform testify on my behalf

that the Father has sent me.

Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.

We are to look closely at what Jesus himself said and did, for in him was the fullness of the revelation of the Father. Like Peter, we need a revelation that could not come from flesh and blood (see Matthew 16:17). This is not a posture of pride wherein we take credit for finding the answers. It is rather one of humble receptivity before the authority of the one who is Truth itself. We find him in the Scriptures and in Tradition, but not as lifeless letters on a page that we can control, and for which we can ultimately claim the credit. We find him there alive and active, ready to challenge us, yes, but also and especially to reveal his heart to us. Hear in this statement the desire, the genuine longing of Jesus that we would in fact come to him for life:

But you do not want to come to me to have life.

Jesus is utterly disruptive to the worldly system of mutual affirmation by which the world regulates the value and importance of people and ideas. He is calling us to open our hearts to influence from above, from the Father, who is the source of value and the one who alone can tell us what truly matters.

Given that our world is so utterly preoccupied with status and honor and not open much at all to God's wisdom, given that we ourselves are often a part of the problem and not the solution, let us learn to be like Moses and plead for ourselves, our nation, and for the world.

Then he spoke of exterminating them,

but Moses, his chosen one,

Withstood him in the breach

to turn back his destructive wrath.

MercyMe - Word Of God Speak

30 March 2022 - equal to the God

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus answered the Jews:

“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”

The Judeans had accused Jesus of working on the Sabbath in a way that transgressed their understanding of the law. Jesus explained his own work on the Sabbath by pointing to the work that his Father did not cease to work "until now" including on the Sabbath. The Father's acts of giving life and judgment did not cease on the Sabbath for babies were still born and people still died and faced judgment for their lives regardless of the day of the week. The Judeans didn't really consider the argument, but instead got hung up on the unique relationship Jesus claimed in calling "God his own father, making himself equal to God." It wasn't that Jesus had merely a better interpretation of Scripture and the law to justify his actions. He claimed a unique authority on the basis of his relationship with the Father that gave him a unique insight into the Father's life and purpose. No mere interpreter of Torah was positioned to argue with someone who thought of himself of that light. 

For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,

because he not only broke the sabbath

but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

The authority by which Jesus explained his understanding of the Sabbath was something that was harder for the Judeans accusers to take than the initial crime of which they accused him. But Jesus did not back off. He did not, for instance, say that he was just describing an experience of God that was open to everyone. Instead he further explained the way in which his relationship to the Father was utterly unique.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,

but only what he sees the Father doing;

for what he does, the Son will do also.

That the Son could do anything on his own ought in some sense to have given credence to his words. His was not a mission of self-promotion or self-aggrandizement. But to the Judeans, the only alternative to Jesus acting on his own was even less imaginable. To them his words could only be explained by madness and blasphemy. How else, they thought, could Jesus claim to have such a unique ability to see what the Father was doing? Unless of course he spoke the truth. But this was a leap that they were not yet prepared to make.

For the Father loves the Son

and shows him everything that he himself does,

and he will show him greater works than these,

so that you may be amazed.

The mission of the Son to reveal the Father was just getting started. He revealed his mission to give life to the world in a small way by healing the paralytic. But this was merely a prelude, a sign to make intelligible the still greater works than these with which he would amaze them. 

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,

so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.

Nor does the Father judge anyone,

but he has given all judgment to the Son,

so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

The greater works that Jesus would go on to perform included giving spiritual life to those who believed in his name, raising the bodies of the dead on the last day, and finally sitting in judgment over every human life, all works which he himself learned from his Father. The hinge of it all would be Jesus himself, since in responding to Jesus an individual also responded to the Father who sent him.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word

and believes in the one who sent me

has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,

but has passed from death to life.

We who have believed that Jesus is from the Father have life in his name. If we abide in him and he in us we will not come to condemnation. This exulted role of Jesus was too much for many who heard him in his own day but it is truth born out by his own resurrection from the dead, a truth on which we must now rely. There is no other source of life, no other hope in the face of judgment. When that life is within us and bearing fruit we can come forth from the tombs with confidence when his voice calls us on the last day. The resurrection of life will merely confirm those who have chosen to trust in God for life. The resurrection of condemnation will merely reflect those who have already rejected the hand of God outstretched in an offer of mercy.

“I cannot do anything on my own;

I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,

because I do not seek my own will

but the will of the one who sent me.”

These are not the words of a crazy person, not like the emperors and their cults of divinity. These are not the words of a liar, speaking for his own benefit, trying to trick others in order to gain something himself. And that leaves no other option than that Jesus is who he himself claimed to be the Son who is "equal to God".

The purpose of Jesus in coming to us was that he might save us so that we would not face condemnation. He desired to "restore the land and allot the desolate heritages", to set prisoners free, to be a light to those in darkness, and to lead his sheep to green pastures. He himself would be the living reality that sealed the New Covenant with his people. He did in fact come, yet we still sometimes complain, claiming that the Lord has forgotten us, forgotten these promises and left us here unaided. To us who feel such temptation to despair the prophet calls us to greater faith.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

Can a mother forget her infant,

be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

I will never forget you.

Let us listen for the voice of God that gives life. Let us see the works Jesus has received from the Father so that we might in turn have life in abundance and from that abundance bear fruit.

The Lord is gracious and merciful.

Matt Maher - Love Comes Down

29 March 2022 - springs of living water

Today's Readings

(Audio)

One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there

and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,

“Do you want to be well?”

This man probably had high hopes when he first came to Bethesda seeking the remedy promised by the healing waters. The first year he was there it is likely that he wanted to be well, and the second, and perhaps the third. But as time stretched on his hope certainly wore thin. He was still present at the pool after thirty-eight years, frustrating years like those the Jewish people spent wandering in the desert. But did he have any expectation of being healed any longer? Or was he rather just going through the motions?

“Do you want to be well?”

The sort of ritual and routine that the lame man he created for himself was something worse than no longer coming at all. He had completely neutralized himself and cut himself off from any possibility of change. How? He imagined himself to be doing what he could already, but accepted the thoughts of despair that suggested he would never be the one to be healed. The pools themselves would do nothing to unsettle him from this rut for they were lifeless, indifferent to his condition. Those who surrounded him had their own problems. In their eagerness to solve those and find their own healing they were all too ready to ignore and even claw past those around them. Such seemed to the lame man to be the reality of the world, a reality of healing for some, but not for him, a world that was finally indifferent to his suffering. Yet in accepting this and continuing to participate in the system by being present there year after year how could he expect different results? There were any number of alternatives he might have attempted, or, if not, he might at least have found better use for his time than waiting for that which would never come.

“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool

when the water is stirred up;

while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”

Jesus therefore felt the need to clarify this man's desire, to dig within him to the place that could still hope, to find the place in his heart that was not paralyzed but still willing to reach out for the cure. The pools may have been indifferent and so too may the crowds have been. But Jesus himself saw this man, knew his frustration, and had compassion on him.

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”

Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.

Jesus, and not some pools with reputed healing properties, was the true source of living water. He was the river whose flow enabled every sort of living creature that could multiple to live, the water that made the sea fresh, and nourished fruit trees of every kind on its banks. Drinking from that stream alone would generate leaves that would not fade and fruit that would not fail. The man who had been without fruit for thirty-eight years, symbolically all of Israel, needed never again be without fruit, never again without a life of purpose. And neither then need we ourselves ever be without fruit again. For this same stream of living water flows from the sanctuaries of the Catholic Church, not from a lifeless pool, but from the very heart of Christ himself.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water (see John 19:34).

Darrell Evans - Let the River Flow

28 March 2022 - you may go

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus said to him,

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

The royal official asked Jesus to heal his son who was near death. But his request was specifically that Jesus himself would come and do the miracle before his eyes. It took some faith and humility on his part to come and ask this of Jesus in spite of his position of authority. But Jesus himself desired to provoke him to a still greater faith.

The royal official said to him,

“Sir, come down before my child dies.”

It was clear that the official was desperate to save the son whom he deeply loved. He had some idea that Jesus himself had power and would be able to help. But Jesus did not respond in the way that the official first imagined, by a physical visit, or a laying on his hands.

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

Here was the call to faith. Could the man accept the words of Jesus without being able to see the results already with his own eyes? This was not a trivial question, considering how deeply the official cared for his son. To leave without being accompanied by Jesus, if he did not believe the words of Jesus, would be to admit defeat. But he did believe.

The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

His belief that the words of Jesus would prove true was new and tentative, but it was enough. It may not yet have entirely drowned out the thoughts of hopelessness and despair, but it empowered him to return home still willing to see the good he longed to see. When met by his slaves he was ready to listen to evidence of the power of Jesus at work. It would have been understandable if he assumed his slaves were coming to him in order to tell him his son had died. But he had believed Jesus, and was all the more ready to discover that his words had proved true.

He asked them when he began to recover.

They told him,

“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”

The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,

“Your son will live,”

Maybe we too have deeply felt needs that we desire to bring to Jesus, perhaps children in need of health, physical or spiritual. We tend to insist that things happen in the way we imagine they should, tend to desire healing that manifests implicitly our control over the situation. We would prefer that Jesus come with us into the situation and perform a miracle before our eyes. But maybe instead he desires that we learn to trust his word and surrender our requests into his hands, for a result that is more hidden, but no less effective.

“Your son will live,”

and he and his whole household came to believe.

Was it the conversations with the slaves about the time of the healing that confirmed the whole household in faith? Was there perhaps something about the way Jesus chose to respond, over and above what the royal official requested, that redounded to the salvation of many? The slaves were, after all, now more directly invested and involved. Put another way, would the whole household have come to believe if Jesus merely came as requested? Only Jesus knows for sure, but we ought not dismiss the possibility. Often Jesus frustrates our own designs only so that he can provide something even better than we asked.

Jesus was already beginning, in answering this prayer of the royal official, to manifest the new heavens and new earth promised by Isaiah. He showed in a limited and particular way that renewal that will one day characterize all things.

No longer shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;

He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,

and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.

It is not just our families and other loved ones who are in need of more healing and more faith. Jesus desires for all of us to enter by faith more and more into this promised new life and new creation, living more and more as though the it, and not the fallen world, is our primary reality. From that place of faith we will ourselves have something to offer to the fallen world around us, a world desperate for the one who makes all things new.

Matt Maher - Lay It Down

27 March 2022 - I shall get up and go to my father

Today's Readings - Year C

(Audio)

the younger son said to his father,

‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’

Many of us may not or no longer recognize ourselves in the younger son, having walked with Jesus since we were young, or having spent many years with him since our conversion. Yet it seems at least probable that most of us still embody this transgression of the younger son in smaller and less obvious ways. We too sometimes seek the blessings of the Father without reference to our relationship with him. We desire benefits for ourselves, benefits that we can take, and consume, so we imagine, far from the sight of God.

After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings

and set off to a distant country

where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.

We can recognize that we are falling into this trap, that we are squandering the blessings of the Father, by the way that doing so leaves us isolated and empty, having spent everything but still unfulfilled.

When he had freely spent everything,

a severe famine struck that country,

and he found himself in dire need.

What are those things in our lives which seem as though they should be good and positive, but which, by trying to keep them for us alone, we have exhausted, and by them been ourselves in turn exhausted? No blessing given by the Lord is meant to be carried into a distant land where we can have it all to ourselves. All is meant to be at the service of the family and made to contribute to the feast. Music, dancing, and the fattened calf all only have their meaning in the context of this celebration, together with all the members of God's family.

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I no longer deserve to be called your son;

treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’

When we try to subvert the divine inheritance to our own purposes we become something less than we are meant to be. From royal sons we fall to the rank of merchants struggling to provide for ourselves, and as merchants quickly find ourselves bankrupt.

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,

not counting their trespasses against them

Fortunately the Father's heart is not hardened or vengeful by the ways in which we turn away from him. Rather, he decided to not count these trespasses against us so that he might reconcile us to himself in Christ. This is also the heart that characterizes the father of the prodigal, that moves him to ignore propriety and run to the son as soon as he sees him in the distance. 

While he was still a long way off,

his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.

He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.

When we are reconciled to the Father he immediately embraces us and restores our true identity as his royal sons and daughters. The baptismal robes that we have tarnished are restored and the ring of covenant fidelity is placed on our finger. This is the righteousness of Christ himself, given to us as a gift of mercy.

‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;

put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

It was only because Christ was made to be sin for us that we are now so free to return to him after our transgressions. What we must recognize is how great is the invitation to be reconciled. It is not simply a matter of an acquittal in court. It is instead a full incorporation into the sonship of Christ, sharing in his royal identity and partaking of the feast he himself has provided for his family.

Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.

Then let us celebrate with a feast,

because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;

he was lost, and has been found.’

When we remember that our blessings come from God and are meant to be offered back to him in thanksgiving we learn to leave those distant lands where we have been trying to satisfy ourselves and to return to the family table as the ultimate source of our joy and fulfillment. This applies whether we have been wandering at a distance, but even also if we have remained close but closed to sharing a feast with our father.

‘My son, you are here with me always;

everything I have is yours.

Have we failed to recognize that everything that the Father has is already ours, that, for instance, the joy of a sinner returning to him can be our joy as well? Or are we instead like this older brother, close, but still desiring to have the blessings of the father but alone and apart from him? Whichever son we have embodied before, the invitation is clear. We can finally return from the desert to the promised land where produce is abundant. Let us return to the Father by the path Christ made available. Let us enter into the feast!

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Matt Maher - Run to the Father (Prodigal Mix)

26 March 2022 - like the rest of humanity?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus addressed this parable

to those who were convinced of their own righteousness

Jesus used a Pharisee as an obvious example, but we tend to be more like this than we are like to admit.  We prefer to be convinced that we are righteous, doing all of the right things, checking all of the right boxes, living in the best way available. But the trouble is that we really want it to be our own righteousness, something which is entirely caused and sustained by our own effort. Why do we prefer this? Because anything else feels too tenuous and insecure and we have a deep desire to feel as though we are in control. 

and despised everyone else.

This symptom is a key indicator that we are not free from the need to be responsible for our own righteousness: that of comparing ourselves with others. We might not say that there is anyone whom we really despise. Yet we desire to feel as though our spiritual practices, tithing, fasting, and the rest, compare favorably, or are at least at parity, with others who seem to us to be good people. What can these comparisons mean except that we attribute our righteousness to us and theirs to them? Our egos force us into this competition which in the end has no winners. 

The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself

The Pharisee represented someone so preoccupied with himself, someone so prideful, so intent on self-image, that he no longer even spoke to God about it in his prayers, but rather to himself. He attempted to obscure that truth from his mind by beginning "'O God,'" but the content of his prayer made it clear that he was still the main focus and not the God whom he tacitly acknowledged. Too many of our prayers are also like this, preoccupied with ourselves, and designed to shield our egos from any negativity or correction.

‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity —

greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week,

and I pay tithes on my whole income.’

The Pharisee said he thanked God for these things. But he was truly celebrating himself rather than God. Tithing and fasting were good things, and it would have been right to thank God for making possible the righteousness implied thereby. But if he really meant it, he couldn't have pivoted so quickly to comparison with the rest of humanity or the tax collector. 

But the tax collector stood off at a distance

and would not even raise his eyes to heaven

It is more difficult to stand alone in prayer, with no others with whom to compare ourselves. With no basis for comparison to assuage our guilt and assure us of some imagined righteousness earned through effort we realize the truth that there is nothing that we have earned, no merit of our own by which we stand before God. We come to see that all depends on his mercy and grace.

but beat his breast and prayed,

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

This is our posture in the mass as we pray "Mea Culpa" and it is what we recognize when we say, "I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof". But is it ultimately a posture of despair and self-hatred? Anything but! Once we abdicate the position of responsibility for our own righteousness we can stand aside and instead receive it as a gift. It is a gift that will be forever beyond our complete control, something which will never be properly a boast of our own. Instead it will be something which calls us to genuinely give thanks to God, while forgetting ourselves. It is something that will unite us with the rest of humanity, including the tax collector, since we and they all depend on the same mercy and grace.

Come, let us return to the LORD,

it is he who has rent, but he will heal us;

he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds.

He will revive us after two days;

on the third day he will raise us up,

to live in his presence.

The Lord desires to heal us of "piety that is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away". He speaks hard words to us in order to call us out from ourselves, from our rigid need to be in control, and onward and upward into love of God and of our neighbor. It is no exaggeration to say that what we need is a resurrection and a new heart. But this is exactly what he has promised!

Huron Hills Church - Mea Culpa

25 March 2022 - how can this be?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

This greeting was something entirely new, something which Ambrose said was a "new form of blessing, unheard of before, reserved for Mary alone." Origen added that "if Mary had known that similar words had been addressed to others, such a salutation would never have appeared to her so strange and alarming." Gregory of Nyssa contrasted the greeting to Mary with the words spoken condemning Eve after her transgression in the garden, writing that in Eve's case, "the cause of sin was punished by the pains of childbirth", but that in Mary's, "through gladness, sorrow is driven away. Hence the angel not unaptly proclaims joy to the Virgin, saying, Hail."

Yet there was something like this greeting to be found in the Scriptures though the context prevented Mary for immediately recognizing herself in the passage.

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

O daughter of Jerusalem!

...

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil (see Zephaniah 3:14-3:15)

Mary too was told to rejoice because the Lord was with her. But though she doubtlessly knew the Scriptures she did not recognize herself as this figure, "daughter Zion", and in her humility she could not immediately do so. For all of these reasons "she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be."

Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

Mary had been made for this, created full of grace to be fitting mother for the Son of the Most High. Yet it was precisely this grace that prevented her from rushing forward and jumping to conclusions about what was to be her privileged role in salvation history. That said, she was different from Ahaz, who refused to ask for a sign when the Lord had something to reveal. The Virgin, by contrast, did not reject the offer of the sign that was too much for Ahaz to handle.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:

the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son,

and shall name him Emmanuel,

which means “God is with us!”        

Yet she did not immediately see herself in that prophecy either. She was told that she herself would have a son, but did not jump to any conclusions. 

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end.

By now she recognized that she was to have a special role in bringing the Messiah into the world, that she was, in some special and particular sense, the daughter of Zion. But again, she waited for Gabriel to make explicit what was perhaps too fearful and awesome for she herself to guess.

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?”

Mary never imagined that she herself would be that virgin described by Isaiah. But, nevertheless, she was committed to a life of virginity, since she had no relations with a man, and apparently no plans to do so in the future. But since she could not imagine any other way for words of Gabriel to be fulfilled aside from this prophecy she asked for clarity and waited on Gabriel to reveal it to her.

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her in the way that it once did over the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies, but did so no longer. The child conceived because of this presence of her would be holy, the Son of God, unlike any child born before or since. The temptation for Mary, if there could have been one, would have been to desire to recuse herself as too insignificant for God to work through her. It would be easy for her to acknowledge this plan of God in another. But to agree to be a part of it herself required the freedom of the grace in which she was created. We, like Ahaz, would have been tempted to reject the sign we were offered. The worst of us would have rejected it from fear of condemnation from such close proximity to God. But the best of us would still not have had the trust that God could do this thing he proposed in us, though surely he could do it in another. But Mary did not doubt that God's power could even work with her, though she was a humble handmaid.

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word.”

By agreeing with God's plan for her Mary opened the way for Christ to come into the world. The body prepared for him was given to him by her assent. Already in here at his conception the law was superseded by grace, freedom preparing the way for the freedom by which Christ himself would come to do the will of the Father. It was by "this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all." 

Mary, thank you for your yes! Teach us to make our yes to the Father, Son, and Spirit in you!

John Michael Talbot - Holy Is His Name

24 March 2022 - overcoming the strong man

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,

he drives out demons.”

It is a bad sign when we feel the need to attribute to apparent good to a secret evil. It is a sign that our dislike of another has so obscured our judgment that we are no longer interested in the obvious truth in front of us. Instead, we invent unlikely narratives to make everything another does consistent with our image of him. We refuse them the possibility that, whatever their perceived faults, they might do good in some way. This is of course much worse when applied to Jesus. It is only natural that some of the things that Jesus says and does will challenge us. But even when we are challenged we should seek to understand Jesus in light of the fact that we know how good he is, that we ourselves have seen that goodness at work in others, and experienced it in ourselves.

Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.

We can see that for these others a sign would never be enough, for Jesus had already demonstrated his power and authority. Just as the first group dismissed Jesus as someone who used the power of darkness so did these who asked for a test only do so to give themselves an excuse to dismiss him. The truth of things was not really of interest to either group. Rather, they feared the true implications of the amazement of the crowd. They secretly suspected and feared the ramifications of what Jesus himself made explicit.

But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,

then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

The fact was that Beelzebul's kingdom and authority were being undermined in every action Jesus took. More to it, actions that opposed Jesus played right into the hands of Beelzebul. Whoever was not with him was against him and whoever did not gather with him scattered. This was so because only Jesus was the one stronger the devil who could overcome him and release all of those he held captive. It was therefore not a matter of indifference to dismiss Jesus as unproven or evil. To dismiss Jesus was the act of a captive disparaging the one who came to rescue him or her, a kind of Stockholm syndrome in which a person develops positive feelings toward their captors or abusers over time. For such delusions, which could not even be cured by miracles, what did Jesus suggest? 

If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,

by whom do your own people drive them out?

He pointed to something that both the captive minds of his questioners and he both understood to be true and good, the exorcisms worked by others, as a common basis of understanding of genuine goodness on which to build. Look at that, Jesus seemed to say, and look at me and see that power on display in fullness, the very finger of God in your midst. At the same time he was clear that opposition to this power, manifested in the opposition to Jesus himself, was the true allegiance with Beelzebul. But he did this, not to condemn those who sought to condemn him, but rather to liberate them by the strength of truth and the power of genuine goodness displayed for all to see.

they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.

When you speak all these words to them,

they will not listen to you either;

when you call to them, they will not answer you.

It is a constant concern that when the Lord speaks to us and calls us to a closer walk with him that we tend to look for ways to put him off or dismiss him. We hear from the Spirit suggestions of how to align our own lives more with the love of Christ but dismiss them as coming from the devil. Or we press God endlessly for signs after he has already done more than enough to amaze us and make himself clear. The questions for us are: What is the finger of God doing today in our midst and how can we get on board with it? How can we more fully commit to gathering with him, to more fully invest in his purpose of setting captives free?

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil (see First John 3:8).

Craig Musseau - Good To Me

23 March 2022 - law, but ordered

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

Jesus spoke this as a disclaimer early on in his Sermon on the Mount. After all, with all of the pairs of "You've have heard it said" and "But I tell you", the disciples might well have suspected that he was in fact about the business of abolishing the law. Yet even those things which did not remain the same pointed forward toward a greater fulfillment in Christ and in his teachings. Jesus himself said that the law and the prophets were summarized by the commandment to love God and love neighbor. The life Jesus lived perfectly demonstrated the fulfillment of this law of love, and enabled others who would share in Christ's life through baptism to fulfill it as well.

Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,

not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter

will pass from the law,

until all things have taken place.

Even the ritual aspects of the law that are no longer binding on Christians, Jewish feasts, ceremonial laws, circumcision, and the rest, remain eminently valid and important for understanding Jesus himself. He did not step onto the seen over and against the Old Testament as though it were unenlightened and in need of correction. He was not opposed to the God of the Old Testament as though the God and Father of Jesus in the New Testament was someone else. Jesus did help us to see more clearly that the face of God was primarily one of mercy more than wrath, that of a Father more than a master. But in doing this he was following the trajectory already present in the Old and bringing it to a full exposition.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (see John 14:9).

On the one hand the difference Jesus made was so significant that the author of the of  Hebrews called the Old Covenant obsolete, and in the sense of that author it was. The Old Covenant did not have the ability to provide grace that would make the law anything other than a burden. But in another sense the Old Covenant remains perennially valid. The Spirit  now dwells within us to change us from the inside out into those who are able to keep the law from our hearts, who in fact want to do so. For us, in whom the righteous requirements of the law are thus fulfilled, (see Romans 8:4) the commandments are transformed from burdens into blessings.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (see First John 5:3).

Now, for those of us who live by grace, the commandments can finally fulfill their true purpose. They allow us to live in the freedom of the sons and daughters of God in the promised land of his Kingdom.

Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees

which I am teaching you to observe,

that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land

which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

For us the law represents precious wisdom that ought to resonate with the presence of the Spirit in our souls as we find guidance to become the "wise and intelligent people" that we are meant to be. For us, finally, because of the fulfillment brought by Jesus Christ, the law allows us to draw near to the Lord, our God, and keeps from us anything that what threaten that relationship as our highest good. We would therefore do well to take the advice of Moses given to the people.

“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard

not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,

nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,

but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”

Maranatha! Singers - I Will Delight

22 March 2022 - let it go

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“Lord, if my brother sins against me,

how often must I forgive him?

As many as seven times?”

We may imagine that Peter thought he was being generous by suggesting as many as seven times. But Jesus insisted that placing any limits on forgiveness, that keeping score in any fashion, was unacceptable.

Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

The point was that Peter was not to sit and count the offenses as they piled up against him, ready and waiting for the offense that would finally be one too many. Rather, he was too be limitless in the mercy he was willing to show. But he could only do this if he deeply realized the mercy he had first received from God himself.

‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’

Moved with compassion the master of that servant

let him go and forgave him the loan.

Without the realization of how great a debt he himself first owed and then was gratuitously forgiven he would not have the freedom to forgive others except in a small and limited way. Rather, he would still feel the need to insist that the debts owed to him be paid. He would feel a violent desperation to ensure that he could take care of himself and provide for himself. Others would therefore seem to be in competition with him. Without that realization he would feel that he was on his own and that it was necessary to insist on the payment of everything that was due to him lest he come to ruin.

He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,

‘Pay back what you owe.’

How easily do we let others off the hook for unmet obligations to us? This is not to say that we let ourselves become the subjects of continued abuse. But if it does in fact happen, as it inevitably will, that others fail in their obligations to us, does this forever taint our relationship with them? Or do we not rather allow others to have a fresh start when they seem to be trying to make one?

Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,

‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’

Even if others who owe us don't fall on their knees and beg we should still recognize the desperation of the situation of one whose life is still dominated by debt. We should be moved by our own experience of God's mercy to do what we can to share that mercy with others. This, and not managing all of those things we perceived are owed to us, should be are primary motive.

Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,

they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master

and reported the whole affair.

It is simply impossible to genuinely receive the mercy of God without becoming agents of mercy. If we refuse to allow ourselves to be changed into people eager to forgive and show mercy it means that the mercy God originally desired to show us was blocked by our hardness of heart. By insisting on the debts of others we find that we are actually insisting on our own debt. More than them, it is we ourselves whom we imprison by unforgiveness.

Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers

until he should pay back the whole debt.

Let us come before the Father and beg him to forgive not only our own sins, but those of the whole world. Let us do this even if it means we stand up "in the fire" of passions that are not yet fully converted. He himself desires not only that we receive mercy but that we become channels of his mercy. This is in fact the only the those flames will be extinguished.

Do not let us be put to shame,

but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.

Deliver us by your wonders,

and bring glory to your name, O Lord.

Hillsong UNITED - Another In The Fire

21 March 2022 - hometown heroes?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Amen, I say to you,

no prophet is accepted in his own native place.

The people is Nazareth wanted to see things like those they heard were done in Capernaum. They felt that if such things were really happening they who grew up together with Jesus had a primacy of entitlement to see and experience them. But at the same time they thought they knew who he was, "the son of Joseph". They suspected that what they had heard was overblown, since it was not in keeping with their past experience of Jesus and his family. How, they reasoned, could the reappearance of Jesus in their town with these newfound followers and this newfound fame be anything but a betrayal of his humble origins?

Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel

in the days of Elijah

when the sky was closed for three and a half years

and a severe famine spread over the entire land.

We see in Nazareth two forces that can block Jesus from doing what he wants to do in our lives. The first is a sense of entitlement. The second is an imagined sense of familiarity. Rather than the true relationship that came from time spent together they had assessed Jesus as external observers and made assumptions about what his capabilities were and who he was based on those observations. From this place of judgment where they themselves were the arbiters of truth and falsehood they inevitably missed the power that Jesus only manifested in the intimacy of relationship.

yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.

Do our expectations limit what Jesus can do in our lives? Does our sense of entitlement, as perhaps lifelong followers of his, block what he might otherwise do in his generous mercy? 

I thought that he would surely come out and stand there

to invoke the LORD his God,

and would move his hand over the spot,

and thus cure the leprosy.

Expectations can be dangerous because they can set aside the need for real relationship and ongoing conversion. We expect something to happen in a certain way, like the scene of a movie. But the Lord has something specific in mind for us. It isn't necessarily harder. It may well be far less extravagant and more hidden. But it is available for us if we will listen.

“if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary,

would you not have done it?

All the more now, since he said to you,

‘Wash and be clean,’ should you do as he said.”

The favors of Jesus cannot be earned or purchased or deserved, nor forecasted or infallibly predicted. He pushes back against our attempts to be in control and frustrates us when our true motives stem from jealous and comparison with others. But he does it all that we too might wash and be made clean.

So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times

at the word of the man of God.

His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

Matt Maher - Come To The Water

20 March 2022 - fig-ured out

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way

they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?

By no means!

It was commonly thought that such tragedies were occasioned by the particular sins of those involved. Jesus rejected that idea, and with it the superiority that one might have felt by having oneself been spared. The people who heard about the victims of these tragedies were learning from them the wrong lesson. They were judging others and inferring from that judgment that they themselves were "standing secure". 

But I tell you, if you do not repent,

you will all perish as they did!

It was not that the victims were necessarily any worse than anyone else, and that was in any case beside the point, for, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (see Romans 3:23). Yet, clearly Jesus did not mean that all sinners would suffer violence in this life. So in what sense would they perish as did the victims? The risk was that they might find their lives unexpectedly demanded of them (see Luke 12:20) and be unprepared. The only way to be ready for death was to repent and believe the Gospel. So in some sense any death not preceded by conversion was equally tragic to that of the victims. If some of the victims had in fact repented then there deaths would have only seemed a tragedy to the outside observer, which is all the more reason Jesus discouraged judging the state of those others in favor of looking to the state of one's own soul.

For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree

but have found none.

True repentance is more than a tacit acknowledgment of past sins. It includes the firm purpose of amendment, in evidence of which we should actually "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance" (see Matthew 3:8). Yet in three dispensations of nature, law, and grace we still find that a multitude "whose hearts are neither corrected by the law of nature breathed into them, nor instructed by precepts, nor converted by the miracles of His incarnation" (Saint Gregory the Great). As the prime example, even after three years of the public ministry of Jesus the fig tree of Israel remained substantially bare of fruit. 

Why should it exhaust the soil?

How about us, we on whom the end of the age has come, we who have the examples of those from the past with whom God was not pleased to chasten us? They had a shadow of baptism, the presence of the Spirit as something only external and separate, and ate a spiritual food and drank a spiritual drink that were good only for bodily health and life. We have been baptized, and the cloud of God's presence now resides in us as spiritual temples. Each week we are invited to feast on the body and blood of the Lord himself. Do we bear fruit for the Kingdom, or are we simply exhausting the soil? And as a consequence, how ready are we, should tragedy strike?

These things happened to them as an example,

and they have been written down as a warning to us,

upon whom the end of the ages has come.

We do not know with certainty what happened to those who have gone before us, save the official roaster of saints. Therefore Jesus advises us to worry less about them and more about those who are still alive and able to decide for or against him. That we are still here is not so much a test, though in some sense it is, as a sign that his mercy is protecting us, giving us the opportunity to become who we ought to be, bearers of the fruits of the Spirit.

He said to him in reply,

‘Sir, leave it for this year also,

and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;

We don't enjoy being unsettled. We enjoy the fertilizer of humility even less. Yet these are signs of the mercy of the gardener for those of us who are too hardened in our ways and too attached to the pleasures of this world. It might seem to us that we would grow by dining sumptuously, but the gardener knows best. We should remind ourselves of this when we are tempted to "grumble as some of them did". Mercy is the reason why we are still here, held in existence, able to receive care of the gardener. We should recognize him at work, lest we too harden our hearts, remain barren, and be finally taken unawares by the destroyer. This is not what Jesus wants for us! He is pleading for us to his Father, and pleading to us to let him work. May we do so.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger and abounding in kindness.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.

Tom Booth - The Jesus Song

David Ruis - Mercy Is Falling

19 March 2022 - faith of a father

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,

yet unwilling to expose her to shame,

decided to divorce her quietly.

Joseph, being righteous himself, was not suspicious of Mary, but, knowing her virtuous character, trusted her. This trust assured him that the surprise of this conception was not some sort of base infidelity. It must have meant that was happening which was, to the mind of Joseph at least, above his pay grade. There was something supernatural at work and he didn't want to muddy the waters by his own involvement, to bring shame upon her because he himself was, or so he imagined, a liability. It was as akin to the holy fear that made Peter exclaim, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man" (see Luke 5:8).

Such was his intention when, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

“Joseph, son of David,

do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

The role of Joseph in the story of Jesus was not accidental or optional. It wasn't as though any halfway decent man would be sufficient as caretaker of the Messiah and his mother. Joseph was specially chosen in a way foreseen by God from the beginning. He was the heir of the house of David who would bestow the royal lineage on Jesus himself. Perhaps another man of the royal lineage could have been found to be a father to Jesus, but certainly none could have been found as fitting as Joseph. He was a son of David and a son of Abraham not only by blood but also by the faith he demonstrated.

When Joseph awoke,

he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him

and took his wife into his home.

On his own Joseph knew that the task of being the father of the Messiah was too great, that even a righteous man would stumble in it. But he was able to trust, not only that the Lord was at work in the circumstances, but that he would be able to work through a limited being such as Joseph in order to accomplish his purposes. The same Holy Spirit that conceived the child in Mary would continue to be at work in the divine plan, empowering Joseph to become the person who could give Jesus his name, even though it be the name above every name, at which every knee must bow, and to train him in the ways of the Lord. There was so much supernatural mystery on display, so much divine power, that anyone would be tempted to try to excuse himself in hopes that a more suitable person might be found. But the faith of Joseph was such that he was willing to believe that he could play the part for which the Lord himself had designated him.

He believed, hoping against hope,

that he would become the father of many nations,

according to what was said, Thus shall your descendants be.

That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.

What was said of Abraham was true also of Joseph. It was finally faith that allowed him the privilege of raising the Messiah as his own son, a privilege that it is not easy to overstate, standing in as he did for the Father in heaven from whom every earthly father receives the title (see Ephesians 3:15). Jesus himself said that those who heard the word of God and obeyed it could be his mother and his brothers (see Matthew 12:48-50). But he did not include father in this list. To be the image of the Father in heaven was a privilege unique to Joseph. His silence in the Scriptures seems to indicate how he was able to honor that blessing by humility, by not interposing himself between the Son and his true Father. He was present and attentive, but the holy fear that he felt at first remained active as he lived out his life with Jesus and Mary. He never overstepped or injected too much of himself into something that he knew was bigger than him.

Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;

your throne shall stand firm forever.

We honor Joseph for the faith that allowed him to become the father through whom Jesus would inherit the Davidic throne. With devotion we treasure the name of Jesus, above every name,  given by the angel, but bestowed on Jesus through the faithful response of Joseph the righteous. Our society is deeply troubled and suspicious of all paternal images as indicators of patriarchal tyranny. Yet it is clear that Joseph was anything but such a stereotype. His intercession can be the beginning of the restoration of the family in our own day, as he helps all families to share the charism which he himself brought first to the Holy Family.

Forever will I confirm your posterity

and establish your throne for all generations.

Chris Tomlin - Jesus Messiah

18 March 2022 - will we respect his Son?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,

put a hedge around it,

dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.

We are the vineyard, created and established by God himself.

Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.

We are also the tenants, responsible for the vineyard while landowner is on a journey. 

We were made by God and are responsible to him to provide produce in due season. We are stewards of the being we have received from God. The very substance of who we are is a gift that is on loan from him. We are to care for it and prepare it as an offering back to him.

When vintage time drew near,

he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.

God sends his servants to help to prepare us to make the offering back to him of our time, talent, and treasure, indeed of our very lives. But we are reluctant to respond to these servants. To the degree that their message is uncomfortable we are all too ready to turn aggressively against it by ignoring or critiquing it, asserting our power and self will over the gift of servants sent to help us bear fruit.

Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,

but they treated them in the same way.

Do we see any patterns like this in our lives, where God appears to be trying to teach us something, but the more he tries the more we harden our hearts in response? Yes, these servants are asking us to let go of things we've been holding tightly. But the purpose of the fruit we bear is not ultimately for ourselves. If we try to hoard it we have excesses beyond what we need, it does not make us happy, and eventually much of it spoils. 

Finally, he sent his son to them,

thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’

Will we respect the Son of God when he comes to us to show us how to live our lives as an offering to God? Or will we rather try to persist in our rebellion, in our attempt to take the vineyard for ourselves alone, and to live in willful ignorance of the landowner and his will?

Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.

We can't truly have the inheritance apart from the landowner. But to our fallen human minds this seems like a possibility, like a live option. It is foolish, except that it seems to us to be simply defending things as they are and opposing threats to the status quo. We easily convince ourselves that we deserve to hold the fruit. We justify it with self pity about what we've been through or pride about what we deserve, but all without reference to the original gift and the reason it was given.

Therefore, I say to you,

the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you

and given to a people that will produce its fruit.

The Lord desires to take the reins from our old and sinful self and give them back to us recreated in grace by the power of the Holy Spirit, willing and able to produce the fruit of the Kingdom. Our old selves will fight against this, flailing and thrashing to cling to the when things have been. But we have been reconstructed into an edifice that is able to withstand the assault of our old self as long because Jesus himself is our cornerstone.

The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

by the Lord has this been done,

and it is wonderful in our eyes?

Joseph was an example of the way in which the blessing of one is intended to redound to the blessing of all. How much better it might have been for the brothers to agree with the will of the father and not try to insist on taking matters into their own hands. 

and he had made him a long tunic.

When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons,

they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.

Yet for Joseph and Jesus, our rejection of them was not the final story. The Lord is more than able to work with our mistakes and bring his plans to pass even through our disobedience. But this is the hard way, the way of famine and exile. It is the way, sometimes, of excess, but never of joy or peace. Let us lay down our perceived rights, not to the world, but to God who created us. He knows what is best for us, what will make us to flourish, better than we know it ourselves.

The king sent and released him,

the ruler of the peoples set him free.

He made him lord of his house

and ruler of all his possessions.

Rend Collective - Build Your Kingdom