Jesus, Mediator

"For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all." 1 Tim 2:5

It can be very difficult and dangerous to stand in the margins. Sometimes we do this out of fear. Knowing our lives must change if we give ourselves over completely to God, we hesitate, not ready for the transformation to which the gospel calls us. At other times, we stand in the margins to act as prophets and mediators for others. Knowing that our relationships with important and powerful  people can benefit the entire community as long as we maintain our integrity, we are in a position to voice our concerns and objections to injustice.

This second position takes deep faith and a vibrant prayer life and it is the story of Jesus, Mediator. Being willing to give voice to the heartache of everyday people can be agitational and upsetting to those who wield power, but it is vital to the hopes of those who are voiceless. In recent history, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Martin Luther King, Jr, following the example of Jesus, lived this role. Though each of these key historical figures was personally flawed, they knew God wanted them to be prophets, and, at great personal cost, stood on the margins demanding justice for all.

Today, come out of the shadows and live a public life of faith.

Are there people in your life who were like Nicodemus? How did they affect your life?

Rocky Ground

 "A sower went out to sow his seed...Some seed fell on rocky ground " Luke 8:4, 5

There is rocky ground in all our lives, and while we have to acknowledge it and accept it, we should not obsess about it. Whether our early years were difficult and confusing, or your marriage was sour almost from the beginning, we need to find a way not to let our dark days dissuade us from living with joy and hope. Our parents or our partners may have disappointed us, but God cannot abandon us, and faith demands that we ask God to be the ground of our lives. Only then can we be sure that no matter how rocky life is or might become, God's love will sustain us.

Letting God find the good ground in our lives and asking for the grace to let go of our failures is an important step on our spiritual journey. If we worry too much about the rocky ground, we will miss the good God is already doing within and through us.

Today, be grateful for the God has done in you. Let go of failure.

How has God surprised you on your pilgrim journey?

Sts Cornelius and Cyprian

 “He deserves to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation and he built the synagogue for us.” Lk 7: 4-5

Sts. Cornelius and Cyprian were friends, and when the church was under enormous pressure in the third century, their friendship became an important tool for reconciliation and healing. When Novatian insisted that anyone who denied faith, along with murderers and adulterers, could not be reconciled under any circumstances, Cyprian interceded with his friend Pope Cornelius, and Novatian's position was condemned. The fragile nascent church, with only 50,000 believers and 50 priests, was sustained because of the friendship of Cornelius and Cyprian.

Not infrequently, like Cyprian and Cornelius, we do things for friends who ask a favor on their own or their family's behalf. It is not difficult to be gracious, especially when the request is something we do easily or naturally. Jesus is able to hear and respond to the request of the Jewish elders to heal the centurion's sick slave because they asked him to do something as a friend of the Jewish nation.  In the long run, however, while loyalty and friendship captured Jesus' attention, it was the faith of the centurion that moved Jesus to act. 

Today, be grateful for a faith filled friend.

How can a friendship, strengthened by faith, help us live the Gospel more powerfully?

Our Lady of Sorrows

 “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” Jn 19:25

In the Office of Readings today, St Bernard of Clairvaux, writing in the 12th century, calls Mary “a martyr in spirit,” because of her compassion, never abandoning her son even on the cross. Bernard writes: “Perhaps someone will say: “Had she not known before that he would not die?” Undoubtedly. “Did she not expect him to rise again at once?” Surely. “And still she grieved over her crucified Son?” Intensely. Who are you and what is the source of your wisdom that you are more surprised at the compassion of Mary than at the passion of Mary’s Son? For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through a love unlike any other since his.”(1)

Standing with others in their suffering, not taking it away, not offering empty words of consolation, not trying to understand it, is a kind of death, a martyrdom. Helplessness is often the price of compassion and Mary, the mother of Jesus and our mother, helps us learn this vital Christian virtue.

Today, perhaps as you gaze at a crucifix, try to stand in solidarity and compassion with all those suffering alone.

Who stands by you compassionately when you are struggling or lost?

The Exaltation of the Cross

 "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." Jn 3:13

The cross of Jesus Christ, as St Paul says, is a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness for Gentiles, (1 Cor 1:23) but the believer continues to hold the cross high, to exalt it, as a sign of God's unconditional love for us. Never easy to understand or to penetrate its mystery, the cross remains for those who believe a book of life, or as St Francis said, the only book we will ever need.

How we read the book of the cross is fundamental to our growth in faith. How, for instance, do we understand or interpret suffering? How should we approach death and dying? What can we expect from God when we carry our own crosses? Martin Luther King, speaking of what he labels unmerited suffering, writes, "Recognizing the necessity for suffering I have tried to make of it a virtue. If only to save myself from bitterness, I have attempted to see my personal ordeals as an opportunity to transform myself and heal the people involved in the tragic situation which now obtains." (MLK)

We should never be turned away from a full Gospel life because it makes others uncomfortable and us suffer, but rather ask the Lord for the grace to "Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and humble of heart." (Mt 11:29)

Today, ask God for the grace not to be afraid of the cross.

What about living a Gospel life causes you the most suffering?

St John Chrysostom

 "The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one Body, for we all partake of the one loaf." 1Cor 10: 16-17

It is clear in the Gospel that there is little more important to Jesus then the unity of his disciples. Near the end of St John's Gospel he asks his father for a final gift, “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you....that the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (Jn 17:20-21, 23)

St John Chrysostom, who desired only to live simply as a monk, was called to be bishop of Constantinople, one of the most important sees in the 4th century. A dynamic preacher, John was alarmed that the lifestyle of the bishops and the wealthy was so distancing them from the poor that the unity of the church was threatened. Setting a very simple table, he challenged everyone to think first of their unity in Christ and not of their ability to eat better than others! Eventually, his pointed sermons so upset the rulers of his day that he was exiled from Constantinople and died.

Today, pray for unity with someone from whom you have been separated.

What do you think are the greatest challenges to the unity of the Body of Christ?

Unnecessary Divisions

"First of all, I hear that when you meet as a Church there are divisions among you, and to a degree I believe it." 1 Cor 11:18

St Paul was more than a little upset with the Corinthian community. Hearing that they had divisions between rich and poor especially over the quality of food, he condemned them. Listen: "When you meet in one place, then, it is not to eat the Lord's supper, for in eating, each one goes ahead with his own supper, and one goes hungry while another gets drunk." That some in the community were hungry because others refused to share with them, St Paul was outraged. Unfortunately, these kinds of divisions have always befuddled us and continue to do so.

When the Berlin wall was toppled in 1989, many touching but painful stories of families living on both sides of the wall without any means of communication emerged. Anna Kaminsky left her baby in Berlin to visit her fiancé in Sweden. The next day the wall went up and left her with a terrible choice. Because her fiancé, a writer, was an enemy of the state, she could not return to East Berlin with him, but if she stayed in Sweden she would not be able to visit her son. Pregnant with her second child, a daughter, Anna returned to East Berlin to raise her children, a choice that prevented her new born daughter from ever meeting her father who died before the wall came down.

Are there unnecessary divisions in your parish or community? Pray about this.

Whose example challenges you to work for unity among all people and for basic human rights/