Living God's Desire for Us

 “Who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him? But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Cor 2:16

It is incomprehensible to think we can counsel God, but unfortunately that is exactly what some try to do. Upset with what they don't understand about the world, faith and life, they want to tell God how God ought to act. There is a humorous saying about those who do this. Do you know the difference between you and God? God  never thinks he's you.

Living with the unknown and submitting ourselves to God with absolute trust is always difficult. It is natural to want to know what tomorrow will bring, but no matter how we plan or scheme, each day unfolds outside of our control, and our task is to live each day with faith and hope. When we are able to do this, life is simpler and more honest. Yes, we are more vulnerable than we like, but this is the price of a living faith.

Today, let the Christ guide you in every way. Listen to him.

What practices help you to let go of your compulsions?

Preaching with our Lives

  "They preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them." Mt 23:4-5

Most of us preach from time to time, even if don't intend to. Listen to someone go on about the baseball. Convinced there is only one right way to play the game, baseball preachers will bore you for as long as you are able to take it. But it is priests who can be the hardest preachers to listen to, especially if they are encouraging or demanding a kind of behavior that they rarely practice.

Jesus had a lot to say about preachers, most of it harsh and dismissive. He was especially disenchanted with the Pharisees and Sadducees who have may have been fine fellows, but seemed unable not to interpret the law in ways that led everyday Jews into guilt and shame without changing their own lives.

Although transformation is clearly the goal of every religious tradition, unless we practice our faith with conviction and joy, our preaching will do little good. Who wants to listen to anyone who is more interested in evangelizing others than in living the Gospel themselves?

Today, make a review of your faith life and ask God for the integrity to live its challenges with delight.

Whose commitment to faith has most formed you in your own religious practice?

Naomi and Ruth

 Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16-17

Ruth's love for her mother in law reminds us of Jesus' love for us. Unable to leave us behind, the Lord promises to go before us to prepare a place for us so that where he is we too might be. That the scriptures help us understand God's love through the love of a woman for her mother in law should not surprise us. Anything and anyone can help us understand and appreciate the mystery of God's love if only we open ourselves to it.

At other times, it is the women and men who are always around our parish churches who remind us of God's fidelity. The church seems magically to open every morning, the altar is prepared for the Eucharist even before the priest enters the church, and coffee is made Sunday after Sunday because so many of God's faithful servants complete the everyday tasks without notice or accolades. How fortunate we are to have them.

Today, be grateful for God's faithful service of all.

What events and people help you to appreciate God's everyday fidelity?

St Bartholomew

 "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Jn 1:47

Some people are naturally open, transparent and accepting. Most of us, however, are not. We fear and resist the judgment of others. What can others know about us, we wonder, who have only just met us? While the question is valid, it can reflect an unhealthy desire for independence. Only when we realize that the wisdom and insight of others can be a gift for our own journey do we embrace it and grow from it.

St. Bartholomew is the poster boy for innocence and openness in the gospel, and if we can be open to the lessons he teaches, our lives can be much simpler. People are given to us in life as guides and mentors, and while some remind us what not to be, most can help us take the next step if only we will listen. Bartholomew blurts out, "How do you know me?", but as soon as the Lord answers, his resistance crumbles and he acknowledges Jesus as Son of God and King of Israel.

Today, ask for the gift of openness before God and others.

What helps you put aside duplicity and seek transparency?

God's Generosity

 "‘These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’....Are you envious because I am generous?’" Mt 20:16a

Upon first reading Matthew's parable about the laborers who worked only an hour and received a full days wage, we are puzzled. Trained to believe that when we work hard we will receive our reward, Jesus' story turns our expectations upside down, and that is the point. The parable is not about the workers at all. It is about God and God's generosity, and its purpose is twofold: to remind us that God is good beyond our imagination and to challenge us to live more generously than we have in the past.

No matter how hard we try to understand God's greatness, the scriptures keep reminding us that God and God's graciousness have no parallels in human life, and while it is helpful to think of metaphors and similes that open up our understanding, they will always fail to capture the fullness of God's goodness. Most of us have gazed at a sunrise, sunset, the ocean or a majestic mountain and been unable to describe what we experience. The grandeur and power of nature defies description, and  the love of God's is even more impossible to label or name. Only awe and silence seem a proper and fitting response.

What we can and must do is accept God's challenge to live lives of limitless generosity and learn how to spend the love we have been given with humility and delight. While a tall order, even this is possible with God's help.

Today, give someone something they have not deserved or earned.

Do you  have a favorite way or story to desribe God's generosity/

The Queenship of Mary

 "We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith." 2 Thess 1:11

St Bernard of Clairvaux invites his readers to think of Mary as a Queen in a very different way. Because Mary has no secular power or even an honorary position in her society, the crown she wears is made up of the virtues she embodies: compassion, understanding, kindness and moral strength. Without the trappings of the secular world, Mary proclaims her queenship by the way she lives.

Afraid at first of the call from God to be the mother of his son, Mary puts her fear aside and becomes Jesus' first disciple. She follows him and urges others to do so, not so much in word, but in deed. If Jesus must endure suffering, so will she. Refusing to abandon him, she accompanies Jesus on the way to Calvary and is with him as he dies.

Ignoring the taunts of those who urge him to prove his royal lineage and come down from the cross, Mary stands with her son in compassion and solidarity. The call of Jesus to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves becomes her mantra, her simple path to life and hope. Mary is Queen of heaven and earth because her example empowers all to love God as Jesus did.

Today, be an example of compassion by caring for someone to whom you have no responsibility.

Who has shown you the virtue of compassion without words?

St Pius X

 "What if I want to give this last one the same as you?" Mt 20:15

The ministry of the Pope, St. Pius X, is a good example of why the church is always in need of reform. Realizing that 19th century spirituality had disenfranchised many, especially children, from a full sacramental life, Pius X, in 1902, wrote: "The chief aim of our efforts must be that the frequent reception of the Eucharist may be everywhere revived among Catholic peoples....For the soul, like the body, needs frequent nourishment; and the holy Eucharist provides that food which is best adapted to the support of its life." (Mirae Caritatis)  The Eucharist, Pius reminded us, is real food and real drink. Our senses are the pathway to our souls. It is through them that we know the glory of God and God's love for us in a bodily way.

Today's gospel passage insists that those who are often last in our societies will be first because they recognize these truths more naturally. Never far from the earth and its riches, the poor and lowly never take food or simple shelter for granted. Rather, they treasure the gifts of the earth each day and eat and sleep with gratitude.

Today, be grateful for all you eat, especially the Eucharist.

What or who helps you to remember the nourishing and nurturing gifts of creation?