14 February 2024 - in order that people may see?

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Take care not to perform righteous deeds

in order that people may see them;

otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.

In our righteous deeds we must avoid the temptation to seek reward by drawing attention to ourselves. This doesn't sound so difficult at a distance yet we often find that when we do something good it is hard not to talk about it. There is sometimes the sensation that their is a strange pressure building within us and the only valve to lessen it is to share it with others. This temptation is different from trying to present ourselves as an example to others or letting our light shine for the glory of God because, unlike those situations, it is all about us. Our egos desire some recognition or recompense for the righteous deeds in question, and are not capable of looking to our heavenly Father to receive it.

But when you give alms,

do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,

so that your almsgiving may be secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

When we perform actions that aren't intrinsically rewarding at the level of sensation or emotion there is a part of us that tends to feel cheated and tries to make up for it, feeling as that it has earned something and now deserves praise and reward. And this part of ourselves is very clever in the ideas it can construct to wring some sort of reward from our acts. But if we allow it to have its way, perhaps by broadcasting an image of ourselves to others as righteous or pious, we deprive ourselves of a better reward that only God can give.

But when you pray, go to your inner room,

close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

We can choose to ignore the ego within us struggling to find some reward for ourselves and instead choose to receive a better and more spiritual reward from our heavenly Father. If we allow ourselves to be content with the passing praise of men we will close ourselves to a reward that is more subtle and gentle, but also more lasting, and ultimately more satisfying. It is as though we can await a well made meal around the family table but often ruin our appetite with candy that briefly stimulates but eventually leaves us with a sour stomach.

When you fast,

do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.

We should not fast in order to win pity from those around us. No matter what our egos insist, in fasting we are meant to forego earthly satisfaction in order to allow God to feed our hearts. But there is only room in us for one reward. We can find treasure on earth, and find out in turn how quickly such treasure fades. Or we can instead find lasting treasure in heaven.

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;

behold, now is the day of salvation.

As we begin this Lent we can be confident that, although our ego tends to resist our progress, we do not have to rely on ourselves alone. We have the grace of God performing its work within us, transforming us, little by little, into the righteousness of God.

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land

and took pity on his people.

Matt Maher - Forty Days

13 February 2024 - check the recipe

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus enjoined them, "Watch out,

guard against the leaven of the Pharisees

and the leaven of Herod."

One must be on guard when adding ingredients, because a "little leaven leavens the whole lump" (see Galatians 5:8). This means there is the potential for a little bit added in the beginning to corrupt an entire project. Of this sort of leaven Paul wrote, "[c]leanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (see First Corinthians 5:7-8). But the Kingdom could also act as leaven in the sense of having disproportionately large impact compared to the initial apparently meager investment, hence the parable of Jesus that "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened" (see Matthew 13:33).

Leaven seems to be trivial and insignificant at first but later on down the road the impact can be surprising. That means we must guard against even the beginnings of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees of the corrupt self-indulgence of Herod. An innocuously small bit of these ingredients added into the mix early on can eventually result in an unsavory loaf. 

They concluded among themselves that

it was because they had no bread.

When Jesus cuts to our motives in a way that is potentially uncomfortable may try to distract ourselves with external and apparently more concrete realities. If we had only remembered that bread! But it was not the omission of preparations at a human level that Jesus was criticizing. Clearly he himself was sufficient preparation against a lack of physical bread, having fed the five thousand and the four thousand. But his physical presence was no guarantee that the disciples wouldn't reproduce the faults of the Pharisees and the Herodians. Only relying on him, and on the leaven of the Kingdom, would ensure there was no temptation to attempt to make the project grow in other ways. The only ingredients worth adding to the mixture that would grow and impact the world, as bread to be broken and shared, were the gifts that come from God.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters:

all good giving and every perfect gift is from above,

Seed, Scattered, and Sown

12 February 2024 - no signal

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus,

seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him.

The Pharisees put the Lord to the test just as the exodus generation had put God to the test in the wilderness. Having witnessed one miracle after another they proved impossible to satisfy, demanding some even greater sign which they could not possibly deny. Maybe if the sign was sufficiently cosmic and overwhelming even they would deign to consider believing in Jesus. They would not consider coming to Jesus through free will and faith but asked him to force them to recognize him if he could. 

He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said,

"Why does this generation seek a sign?

Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation."

Jesus wanted to bringing healing and freedom, and desired to lead those willing to trust him to ever deeper levels of faith. But the Pharisees were like the rebellious generation of Israelites during their desert pilgrimage. They weren't interested in trusting in God. They wanted what they wanted and would only play along with God with they thought it might help them to attain it. If a sign could have brought them to faith Jesus doubtlessly would have given them one. But giving anything to the Pharisees in their condition would have only led to the further hardening of their hearts. And yet there was a sign that might still avail for some of them, the sign of Jonah, his death and resurrection. He left them for the other shore, but he did not give up on them. He did not give them what they thought they wanted. He didn't even stick around to indulge them with continued controversy. He left them to themselves to reflect. Hopefully later, after he was put to death, they would hear that he had refused to stay in the tomb. Maybe that would finally plant a seed of faith and hope within their hearts.

But if any of you lacks wisdom,

he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly,

and he will be given it.

As we have seen, Jesus himself was tested during his earthly life. So too does God allow us to be tested so that our faith may produce perseverance and be made perfect. Things that may seem to be to our detriment and harm can be seen in the larger perspective of God's divine plan as helping us to grow. But to see them this way we will need wisdom. It is easy to imagine we have this wisdom until the trials themselves actually come. Then the truth is revealed. At such times we tend to waver back and forth between a half-hearted desire to trust God's perspective and any other option we can conceive. But God's wisdom will only sustain us in peace if we go all in for it. So let us not be "of two minds, unstable in all" our ways. Let us instead trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, knowing that he does not allow us to be tested beyond our strength (see First Corinthians 10:13).

It is good for me that I have been afflicted,

that I may learn your statutes.

Graham Kendrick - We Believe

11 February 2024 - the touch

Today's Readings

(Audio)

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

This leper came from a life of isolation, shame, and sickness, to Jesus, as his only hope. The law could only isolate this man and separate him to prevent the spread of his illness. He came with faith in the power of Jesus, power that was sufficient to do what the law could not. But he was not sure this was what Jesus wished. To some extent this was a pious way to avoid presumption. But some of his motivation probably also stemmed from a negative self perception and a real lack of self worth on the part of the leper. It would be hard to avoid internalizing such a self perception when the law required him to "cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'" when there was anyone in proximity. He knew Jesus could do what he asked. But he may well have doubted that he was worth it. And it was to this deep loneliness, and not merely to a physical malady, that Jesus responded when he was "[m]oved with pity".

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 

touched him, and said to him, 

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

Before he said the words of healing, he reached out toward the leper, and did what must have been shocking to leper and to all those who witnessed it. He "touched him", thus already beginning the deep healing from isolation and shame that had accompanied the man throughout his history with the disease. In any normal case this would have caused the man who touched the leper to become unclean. But Jesus was anything but a normal case. With him it worked precisely in reverse, such that the leper became clean by the power of his touch and the power of his word. This word was like the word that created the universe in that way it said it also accomplished. "God said, "Let there be light," and there was light" (see Genesis 1:3). Jesus said, "Be made clean", and he was made clean.

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,

but go, show yourself to the priest 

and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

Jesus was not yet ready to have his identity widely known. He didn't want to be misunderstood as merely a healer, an exorcist, a prophet, or a teacher. He wanted these aspects of his identity to be understood under the wider context of his Messianic plan, which was not first to conquer, but to suffer. People were all too eager for the healer, but not so ready to accept him as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. They loved him when he provided them with bread. But they were tempted to despise him when he insisted that there were things more important than food and clothing. They were hoping for a Messiah whose kingdom was of this world. But the Kingdom of Jesus was of this world.

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.

He spread the report abroad

so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

The burden that had previously belonged to the leper, being unable to openly enter any town, had now fallen upon Jesus himself.  Already we see him fulfilling the words of Isaiah that, "[s]urely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (see Isaiah 53:4). The man, by contrast, was to show himself to the priests and offer what Moses prescribed, allowing him to reenter common life and be reintegrated into common worship. 

Jesus did will to heal this man, not only of his unclean status, but of the deep psychological wound that that status had caused in him. In some ways all of us are like this leper, wounded and isolated, not by leprosy, but by sin. Many of us doubt that our condition merits the attention of Jesus. We have been calling ourselves unclean for so long that we may begin to lose hope that any change is possible. But Jesus himself desires to recreate us with his word and his touch just as he did this leper. He wants to heal not only bodies but especially hearts and souls. Let us go to him, particularly in the sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion, for he does will it.

In response to the healing power of Jesus in our lives there is no need to keep silent as there was for the leper. We are encouraged to proclaim the good news, and to live our very lives as thanksgiving, just as Paul described.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,

do everything for the glory of God.

Songs In His Presence - Surely He Has Borne Our Griefs

Darrell Evans - Trading My Sorrows

10 February 2024 - more than enough

Today's Readings

(Audio)

My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,

because they have been with me now for three days

and have nothing to eat.

If I send them away hungry to their homes,

they will collapse on the way,

and some of them have come a great distance.

We are reminded of the time when the angel of the Lord gave a food and water to the prophet Elijah because "the journey is too great for you" (see First Kings 19:6-8). Without the miraculous provisioning he would have grown weary and fainted, but although "youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength" (see Isaiah 40:20-31).

Coming out to a deserted place to be with the Lord means foregoing the usual sources of nourishment. It means that the easy options to satisfy our desires are far away from us, If we try to leave Jesus to go and restore ourselves in the way to which we are accustomed it may result in our entire collapse. In this deserted place we are in a new sphere of life, and returning to the old way is not only not a safe fall back plan but is in fact dangerous. We must not be like Lot's wife who looked back to what and turned into a pillar of salt (see Genesis 19:26). We must not be like those who set their hand to the plow and look back (see Luke 9:62). It is not only that we've come so far as to reach a place of no return. It is actually the case that there is no life to be found apart from Jesus, and we must learn to trust in him to provide for us so we can be nourished at the feast he sets before us.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all (see First Thessalonians 5:14).

Because of the Eucharistic overtones of the miracle of the loaves we tend to think of the disciples as the predecessors of our modern clergy and ourselves as those who are fed. And this is no doubt meant to be a primary interpretation. It is the Eucharist that strengthens us so that, like Elijah, we can go "in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God" (see First Kings 19:8). But might there be a secondary interpretation about those we ourselves might either nourish or send away? Are there people who are drawn to us because we are disciples of Christ whom we might either choose to feed or otherwise cast back upon their own inherently insufficient resources? We become acutely aware that we have, of ourselves, nothing to offer. We tend to think "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?", even regardless of how many times before Jesus has multiplied our meager supply. This feeding of the four thousand is meant to be a reminder to us to rely on Jesus in all things. In the first place we rely on him to sustain us with his Eucharistic presence. Then, second, we trust that he will multiply our own meager offerings so that "so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work" (see Second Corinthians 9:8).

BarlowGirl - Enough

9 February 2024 - open for business

Today's Readings

(Audio)

And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment

and begged him to lay his hand on him.

He took him off by himself away from the crowd.

Sometimes Jesus simply performed healing miracles with the crowd still surrounding him. But there were other instances such as this healing of the deaf man where something different was needed. In some instances of healing he chose to remove the crowds from the scene or, as in this case, to remove the man from the crowds as he "took him off by himself". The crowd seemed enthusiastic, positive, and supportive. They were not like the mourners whom Jesus put out as he raised the daughter of the synagogue leader (see Mark 5:21-43). The reason for that seemed more obvious, in that it created a space of faith for Jesus to work. Why, then, step away from this enthusiasm, and the apparent faith of the crowd? Perhaps Jesus had a sense that the deaf man was unable to connect with that enthusiasm, and felt all the more isolated looking around him at the crowds. Perhaps to have a genuine encounter with Jesus it needed to be more personal and intimate and away from all the bustle and noise, however celebratory and positive it may have been.

He put his finger into the man's ears

and, spitting, touched his tongue;

then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,

"Ephphatha!" (that is, "Be opened!")

Jesus truly engaged with this man, with a healing process that progressed in intimate steps. This may have allowed the deaf man to gradually connect to what was happening if he had previously been somewhat dissociated and adrift among the crowd. The steps Jesus performed would have brought him fully into the present moment as an embodied creature. It was so such an intimate process that it might have been embarrassing for others to see transpire, but was nevertheless a miracle he would treasure, as evidenced by the fact that he couldn't help but proclaim it, no matter what Jesus told him. 

The crowd, after seeing the results, realized that in Jesus they were witnessing the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

then shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy (see Isaiah 35:5-6)¹

We may not be deaf or mute. But we may not be ready and attentive listeners to the word of God, at least not as much as we would like to be. And when we know we should proclaim the Gospel do we find ourselves to be mute? Do we listen to what God says about us and our situation rather than what the world would have us believe, and do we in turn speak our agreement with God's word? Or are we silent as the world insinuates about us something less than our full identity as beloved children of God? If so, we too need healing. A crowd, full of enthusiasm, may help get us to the doorstep. But the only thing that we truly avail for us is a personal encounter with Jesus himself. But we need not fear. He continues to do all things well and desires to say, "Ephphatha" within our own hearts.

1) Healy, Mary. Gospel of Mark, The (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) (p. 148). Baker Book Group - A. Kindle Edition. 

Delirious - Shout To The North

8 February 2024 - not hearing a no

Today's Readings

(Audio)

She came and fell at his feet.

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,

and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.

Although Jesus was trying to keep a low profile this woman managed to seek him out. She clearly had such deep concern for her daughter that no obstacle was too great if there was some possibility of hope. Jesus himself represented that possibility, as he had by now acquired the reputation for authority that allowed him to drive out demons. In spite of being from a different ethnic and religious background she nevertheless fell at the feet of Jesus and begged him for the favor she sought. 

He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.

For it is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs.”

She had already humbled herself and made herself vulnerable before Jesus. This initial response from Jesus represented a real test of her faith in him. Was such a test even fair? Her faith that Jesus was someone who could help was new and most likely still fragile. She had already lowered herself to fall at his feet. Wasn't such a test just as likely to provoke her and push her away? Yet Jesus only said it because he believed that she was able to make a response like the one she did, that it would draw from her, not rejection, but still deeper faith.

She replied and said to him,

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

She noticed perhaps that Jesus had not said no. He only mentioned what should happen first, not that the dogs would never be fed. This referred to the promises of God to the Jewish people, that salvation was first to them, and only later to the world, because "salvation is from the Jews" (see John 4:22), and as Paul and Barnabas said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you" (see Acts 13:46). But it was always the plan that God's blessings would eventually go forth from Israel to the entire world. This would happen when Jesus, in his own flesh, tore down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (see Ephesians 2:14), removing the veil, and opening the presence of God to all people (see Hebrews 10:19-20). Her faith reached out to a future not yet come and drew it into her present moment. She chose to trust in the overwhelming abundance of God which made it so that feeding even the dogs would in no way deprive the children. Rather than retaliating against the apparent slur, she creatively appropriated it in order to make the case for the favor she desired.

Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.

The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed

and the demon gone.

Her faith was able to attain the goal of the salvation of her daughter because and not in spite of the fact that it was tested. In similar situations we tend to infer too much from what Jesus says to us, hearing refusal when he says not yet. And we often disengage or rebel when our faith is tested such that what is not yet remains in the future whereas if we instead humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God our faith might grow enough to draw the future, the life of the resurrection, into the here and now.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (see Romans 8:11).

Let us opt for the faith of the Syrophoenician woman rather than the idolatry of Solomon. If we do not seek our satisfaction and fulfillment in God we will have no alternative but to chase after fleeting pleasures and false gods just as Solomon did. Even great wisdom is no guarantee against this temptation. What matters is the disposition of our hearts. The anonymous woman in the district of Tyre is an icon of how this is meant to look whereas the great king is a cautionary tale.

Hillsong - This Is Our God