The Persistent Widow

 "Because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her." Lk 18:5

Weariness afflicts us all from time to time. An adult child can't find a job or worse, a path of peace to walk. A marriage has become drudgery or a friend seems always to be needy, and no matter how often we try to stay positive, our energy seeps away and life becomes an unending series of tasks to complete, not an adventure. We smile thinly when friends ask how we are, but the best part of the day is getting in bed and going to sleep. Some of our struggles come to everyone, but others seem never ending and we wonder where God is in all that is happening within and around us.

How good it is to hear Jesus remind us that God never grows weary and is always ready to walk with us even when the road seems endless. Jesus knows what he is talking about. He keeps reminding us that the Jewish nation, forgetting God and God's law, regularly slipped into idolatry and turned their back on God. Dragged into exile, God went with them into Babylon because God had promised to be with them always and would not break the Covenant.

We can be sure that God will always be as faithful to us as he was to the Jews of old. While we might grow weary and seek solace in places and people that offer only temporary relief, God will not abandon us, and Jesus' coming among us is the proof.

Today, take a few moments to remember how faithful God has been to you.

What circumstances in life make you most tired and doubtful?

St Teresa of Avila, Doctor

 “Let nothing disturb you, 

Let nothing frighten you, 

All things are passing away: 

God never changes. 

Patience obtains all things. 

Whoever has God lacks nothing; 

God alone suffices.” 

St Teresa of Avila

The bookmark of St. Teresa is fascinating. We wonder if she read it everyday. Tradition suggests it was written in her own hand and was a reminder to live in peace with Christ despite the struggles she would experience throughout her life.

Committed to the reform of the Carmelites in a Catholic world threatened by the Protestant Reformation, her life was difficult. Accused by some friends that her "visions" were diabolical, she also suffered deeply when the Carmelites forced her to retire to one of their monasteries for years before finally allowing her the freedom to spread her renewal to other convents and monasteries. In all, she founded 17 monasteries of reformed or discalced Carmelites and wrote treatises on the spiritual life that remain classics in the Christian west.

Whether Teresa reflected on her prayer and plea each day matters little.  On her feast, we can read and pray it with care hoping to interiorize her desire to let nothing disturb or frighten us, but to remain patient with ourselves and God in all matters of the spirit.

Today, pray for patience.

What most impresses or moves you about St. Teresa's prayer?

Drawing Closer to Jesus

 “Do not be afraid of those who kill he body." Lk 12:4

The disciples were drawn to Jesus for many reasons. He spoke to their hearts. He addressed them with dignity. He was a healer and prophet. He spoke with power. But they were also cautious and afraid. When Jesus spoke to and about the Pharisees he was dangerous. Because the Pharisees were able to intercede for them and help them with a meal or clean clothes, the poor were not going to bite the hand that fed them. That is why today’s gospel from Luke is so telling.

Luke tells us that there are so many people trying to get close to Jesus that some are being trampled. No doubt Jesus’ disciples were impressed and hopeful. The prophet they were following was popular and powerful. More important, he was a rabbi who cared about them, but his warning about not being swayed by the leaven of the Pharisees had to make them very anxious. No doubt some chose to leave him, but others heard him at a deeper level. Believing they were worth more than many sparrows, God would protect them, guide them and strengthen them when they were threatened.

Being willing to hear Jesus’ word today is no different. There will be times when we want to fade into the background, afraid that we might lose the little we have. Jesus’ assurance that we should not fear those who can kill the body but not the soul will fall on deaf ears. When we feel threatened it is natural to retreat, but we should resist. Allowing ourselves to feel the fear will help dissipate it. More important, when we ask the Lord to enter the fear with us, we will sense a kind of companionship that is empowering and helpful.

Today, ask God for the faith to believe in your own worth and not to let your fear get in the way of a deeper relationship with the Lord.

Do you believe that God cares about you and all people personally?

Acknowledging our Dark Selves

'When Jesus left, the scribes and Pharisees began to act with hostility toward him and to interrogate him about many things, for they were plotting to catch him at something he might say." Lk 11:54

When someone threatens our person, property or power, we too often react. Rather than ask a question or seek understanding, we designate the threatening person an enemy and withdraw, challenge their opinion or threaten them with retribution.  Too often we see ourselves this way while driving. Someone cuts us off and we call them stupid or a threat to everyone on the road without knowing who they are or wondering what might cause them to act in a dangerous way.

While driving most often is not the most important area in our lives, it too often shows us how close our dark selves are to he surface and sometimes reveals our deepest anxieties. Threatened by the police or neighbors we react with anger or fear and promise ourselves we will not be intimidated or changed. How like the Pharisees we are. Reacting or threatening others is not the way of Jesus.

Today, ask yourself how you react with threatened and pray for conversion.

Who are the people you most admire when you see them under pressure? 

Letting Go of our Opinions

“Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.” Lk 11:46

First the Pharisees, now the scholars of the law. Anyone who imposes burdens on others without helping them to know and do better, has no place in the heart of God. Committed to freeing people from the burdens of the law, and the weight of poverty and illness, Jesus assures his listeners that God wants to set them free. God does not seek to punish us for our faults, even less for our illnesses, but to heal us and fill us with hope.

Sometimes, by insisting loudly on our opinion, we lay heavy burdens on peoples' backs. The force with which we present our point of view is intimidating and dismissive of others whose speaking skills are weak, and makes it impossible to recognize or acknowledge the insights they have. Worse, when we ignore the uneducated, we make them invisible, and fail to profit from the wisdom they have gained "on the streets" of life.

Today, listen to someone from whom you expect nothing.

Have you ever learned about life and faith from the poor and uneducated?

Washing Our Hearts

 "The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal." Lk 11:38

Ritual washing was important in the Judaism of Jesus' day, especially before a meal. Jesus would have known this and the reader wonders if he refused to wash his hands to make a point with the Pharisees who were often trying to trip him up.

Jesus is deeply concerned that the Pharisees, while careful about the rituals of Judaism, were failing to live the law's intent, and he makes this clear when he tells his host to give alms and everything will be clean. Catholics must also be careful in this regard. It is not enough to go to Mass each Sunday, fast and abstain during Lent, and vote as if we have no obligation to the poor or to people around the world.

While it is important to practice our faith each day with prayer and reflection, it is also necessary to let our faith guide us in the bigger questions that we face as believers each day. How we budget our money both to live simply and generously, and how we mentor younger members to have reverence for all creation are everyday ways of practicing our faith that mark us as disciples eager to proclaim the good news with our lives.

Today, give alms without letting your right hand know what your left is doing.

What do you think are the most important practices of faith?

The Sign of Jonah

  "There is something greater than Jonah here." Lk 11:32

When Jonah walked through Nineveh calling the people to repentance, the response was almost immediate. The king instructed everyone, even the animals, to join him in responding to Jonah's prophecy. Together they put on sackcloth and sat in ashes hoping that God would accept their acts of penitence and free them from destruction.

The scriptures are forever reminding us that God always listens and responds to our heartfelt cries. Not only does God lobby Moses to approach Pharaoh and demand the enslaved Hebrews be set free, God also listens to the cries of the poor who he reminds us are always close to him. It should not surprise us, then, that Jesus would be born of poor parents, and like Jonah, would go towards Jerusalem announcing God's desire for our conversion and transformation.

We need to learn to walk with Jonah and Jesus, and respond to their cry.  Unless we commit ourselves to repent of our sins, our selfishness, our failure to recognize a world bigger than the United States, our desire for a kind of security in things, and money and power that only God can give, we risk admiring Jesus' pronouncements but failing to live them.

Today, listen closely and without fear for Jesus' call to conversion.

What does it mean to you to listen and respond to Jesus in the 21st century?