12 March 2018 - good signs

Today's Readings (Audio)

Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

If this were a criticism we might expect Jesus to withhold the signs and wonders. He withholds from the Pharisees all signs but the sign of Jonah. But he does not do so here. This man needs this sign to believe. Jesus wants him to come to faith in him so he grants him the sign. Maybe he would rather that he not see but believe. But for Thomas as well he was willing to go to whatever lengths Thomas needed in order to reveal himself to him. For those of us who are weaker in faith, and let's be honest, that is most of us, Jesus guides as little by little. There is a gradient of increasing faith.

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

The royal official still isn't all the way there. Something about Jesus causes him to trust enough, even having not seen, to return to his son. Yet he still isn't fully convinced, can't be fully convinced, of the identity of Jesus as messiah until he sees the sign.

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,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

Jesus does give the man the sign he needs. But he draws from him a little bit of faith without sight first. He is helping him to trust and obey first, to have faith first, and to see the results only after. The royal official comes to believe that Jesus can be trusted, that he has his best interest at heart. He comes to learn in this way that God is for him, not against him. He can act on God's word without seeing the whole contract or without holding collateral blessings to assure his compliance.

Jesus wants to convince us how much he loves us. He uses signs when we need signs. But the point is the same with or without them. We are called to faith in him. He wants to show us that he makes everything work together for our good.

For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.

Jesus wants to continue to make this appeal to the world through us. We who already believe must be willing to keep trusting before we see. Jesus may choose to work mighty deeds through us for the sake of others. This will be more difficult if we insist on the conditions in which we believe him for those mighty deeds. Rather, we must trust and let him work. He may call us to speak his appeal even when there seems to be no fruit. We must trust, then, and speak.

Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.

11 March 2018 - just deserts

Today's Readings (Audio)

We journey through the desert with Jesus. He wants to bring us to the promised land, to the new Jerusalem, where we can worship him in Spirit and truth, in the new temple of his own body.

Rather than following Jesus we often turn aside to idols, adding infidelity to infidelity, and practicing all the abominations of the nations. Yet even when we turn from him he does not abandon us. He does not want to condemn us. The Father lifts up the Son so that we can turn from idolatry and see the love which God has for us. The Father longs for this love to draw us back to him.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, 
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish 
but might have eternal life.

We are in the desert now. This explains why we're so ready to look for any consolation we can find. Yet aside from God all consolations are empty. We must look to the promised land. We must look to the LORD's love raised on high. Only then can we hope to make it safely home to the heavenly Jerusalem.

Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, 
let him go up, and may his God be with him!

God is so rich in mercy and love that he brings us to life when we collapse in the desert because of our sins. He does not leave us where he finds us. But just as Christ is raised up we too are raised up in Christ. 

even when we were dead in our transgressions, 
brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved —, 
raised us up with him, 
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 
that in the ages to come 
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace 
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

The raising up of Christ happens on the Cross but it does not stop there. It continues as he is exulted into heaven. So too for us if we just keep our eyes on him. This is the free grace we are offered today. Let's not look away even though our own sinful hearts are exposed as we gaze. The desert is not our destiny. Let us prize the heavenly Jerusalem above all our joys.

May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.

When we do this we live the life God intends for us even in the driest deserts of life.

For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works 
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.

10 March 2018 - unconvincing ourselves

Today's Readings (Audio)

Jesus addressed this parable
to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.

Are we convinced of our own righteousness? Maybe we are to a greater degree than we realize. The reason for this is that we want righteousness to be a solved problem. We want to be able to check certain boxes and know that we are therefore good.

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.

We want to be able to say, for instance, 'I'm baptized and I've recently been to confession. I always go to Sunday mass and give regularly to the poor.' Someone who can say all that is good right? If they are not depending on God now in this moment, maybe not. Without the humility of the tax collector we run the risk of being closed to the help we need when we are faced with a new temptation or trial.

Your piety is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that early passes away.

Let's change our attitude. Righteousness should no longer be about self-image. It isn't something we have so that we can feel safe. Righteousness is something for which we need to depend on God at each moment. It is only secondarily about what we do and do not do. In the first place it is an attitude to depend entirely on God.

‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former

This is why God tells us he desires mercy more the sacrifice. Sacrifice can be a performance piece, done more for us than for God. Mercy can only come from the humility that first receives the mercy of God.

9 March 2017 - life on the vine

Today's Readings (Audio)

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Without him we can do nothing. With him all things are possible. The call is simple enough.

Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, 
with all your soul, 
with all your mind, 
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Yet within this simplicity we discover how complicated our own issues really are. We see just how strongly we are predisposed toward sin. We experience the frustration of not being able to manage our love priorities. We love ourselves, our comfort and entertainment, our power and pleasure, and myriad other things first. We love others second. And God, well, hopefully he factors in. But certainly what we're willing to do for him, the time we are willing to spend in his presence and pursuing his friendship, is trivial compared to what we do for every other area of life that is important to us. Knowing this places us close to the Kingdom of God. But there is only one way in.

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.

Our roots must drink deeply from the vine of Jesus Christ, his Sacraments, his Spirit, and his Church. If we plant ourselves where these things feed us we find life. It isn't necessarily an obvious process. The process of pulling in moisture and minerals through our roots is almost transparent to us. Yet without it we wither. With it we blossom and thrive. We not only put forth fruit, but the fruit is made into a wine that can draw the whole world into the joy of the Kingdom of God.

If only my people would hear me,
and Israel walk in my ways,
I would feed them with the best of wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would fill them.

8 March 2018 - discipline disposition

Today's Readings (Audio)

This is the nation that does not listen
to the voice of the LORD, its God,
or take correction.

How do we take correction from the LORD? Do we understand it as what it truly is, compassion that God only shows toward those whom he considers sons and daughters?

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives (see Hebrews 12:6).

Or do we instead take it to be condemnation? Do we see the power of God and take it more as the action of demons?

Some of them said, "By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons."

We need to learn the welcome the healing touch of the finger of God even when it is correcting us and calling us to new life.

But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

Only when we learn to be well disposed under discipline can we truly grow. If we harden our hearts even a little bit we risk missing some of the benefit. Instead, with humility, we need to learn to see the discipline of God as a way in which he shows us his love.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

The LORD is calling us closer. He may be telling us to let go of some of our old ways. He may even be calling us to the Confessional. But he is calling us, however he is calling us, because he loves us even more than we love ourselves. Let's trust that and turn to him with our whole hearts.

Listen to my voice;
then I will be your God and you shall be my people.
Walk in all the ways that I command you,
so that you may prosper.

7 March 2018 - law abiding citizen

Today's Readings (Audio)

Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.

This isn't what the nations think they will think about moral law. They think they will find a people subjugated and mindless, not able to think for themselves. But what they think they will find is not actually what they find. If we walk off a cliff to express our freedom from gravity it makes gravity no less real. If we walk off the cliff of sin in protest of the limits of morality we find that the realities and consequences it describes are no less real. Defying moral laws, just as with physical laws, does not give us more freedom but less. Keeping the laws allows us to stand firm as the forces of society press against us. Just as knowledge of the structures of chemistry and physics allow us to build better, stronger, and more efficient technology, so too does the law of God allow us to build better, stronger, and more efficient lives in this world.

Jesus did not come to take away the law.

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

He came to perfectly fulfill the law. We ourselves learned the rules but could not keep them by our own strength. All of our moral technology was being overwhelmed by the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. But not Jesus. Jesus overcomes the world! He conquers the devil. He puts sin to death in his own flesh. And he offers us union with himself so that we can share in his victory.

But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is the greatest in the Kingdom. Our only greatness is found in union with him!

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.

6 March 2018 - mercy flow

Today's Readings (Audio)

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.

If we want mercy we must be open to mercy. We must be willing to let mercy flow through us to others. We would prefer a version of mercy where we are forgiven the sins of which we are guilty but which still allows us to live a self-centered exist. The mercy of God is not like that.

His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?'

How can we receive the mercy of the King and remain unchanged? How can he forgive us a debt we can never repay and still harden our hearts? How can we ever hold a grudge against anyone after being forgiven so much at so great a cost? Let us ask the LORD for the humility to receive his mercy and be transformed.

But with contrite heart and humble spirit
let us be received;

This means that forgiving others who trespass against us is serious business. Each time we do we say yes to the mercy of the Father. Each time we don't we close our heart to that mercy.

So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart.

The LORD knows that we struggle to show mercy as wrecklessly and selflessly as he does. He is able to do it precisely because of his absolute humility which does not count wrongs nor seek self-interest. He wants to guide us to be like him.

Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way.