Gratitude for the Everyday

 "Brothers and sisters: I know how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance." Phil 4:12

I am a very rich man. I am in good health. I am very well educated. I live in a home with running water, electricity, heat in the winter and room air conditioners in the summer. We have computers and television. We have a full kitchen, and indoor plumbing. We eat each day without worrying whether we can afford the meal. I have a car for my use and enough money to put gas in it. I can go to a doctor when I am sick and pay for medication when I need it.

Unfortunately, like most people in the developed world, I often take all of this for granted, and even feel entitled. If the phone does not work for two days, I might threaten the service provider with switching to another company. You get the idea. I have been given so much that when I read today’s passage from St Paul, I realize that my one task is to stay awake in gratitude and too often I am asleep, even to the gift of faith.

When we stop to notice, acknowledge and offer a word of gratitude for whatever and whomever comes to us each day, we are different. We are rich and as Jesus reminds us, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much.” Don’t be afraid of this warning. Be grateful for the gifts you have been given, and share them generously. God gives us all the strength to live our faith and give it away with joy and exuberance.

Today, make an inventory of all you have been given and take five minutes of silence to sit with your gifts in gratitude.

What gets in the way of being grateful everyday for everything? 

Going Beyond Essentials

 "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it." Lk 11:28

There are some who might get upset with this passage from Luke. When a woman in the crowd seems to praise Jesus’ mother saying, "Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed," Jesus reacts. A person’s life is not of value, he says, because of her parents or relatives, but by her willingness to listen and live the good news.

The Jesus of the gospels would never disparage his own mother’s goodness, but he would and does use the words of an anonymous woman in the crowd to remind his listeners that being born a Jew guarantees nothing. Were he alive today, he might well say that being born a Catholic means little unless one lives one’s religious faith and tradition.

Today ask God for the grace to go beyond the essentials of religious practice.

Have you had experiences that helped you appreciate the great gift of religious faith?

Facing Divisions and the Church and World

 “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house." Lk 11:17

Though  I rarely comment on politics in this blog, the text today certainly seems to apply to our nation and church these days. Like most Americans, I am befuddled by the inability of the Congress to find a compromise that protects the voiceless and poor in our society, and I am angry. What happens to us as a people when we fail to look at issues and concerns from the other side of wherever we stand, and more important, what happens when we only think about protecting our own assets?

Jesus faced this in his life and warned his sisters and brothers in the Jewish community against being so divided that they collapse. Surely, he would say the same to us in the church in the United States today. How is it possible not to work for a deeper unity when so many believers have walked away from the regular practice of their faith? 

Are we not listening to one another? Are we so rigid that we can't find a way to move beyond the "theologies" that divide us at our core? Are we only speaking about issues but failing to hear the person behind the issue?

Today, be silent. Say nothing for a while and see what happens when you listen.

What do you think most divides as a country and a church?

Persistence in God's Ways

 "I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he because of his persistence" Lk 11:8

Persistence in the spiritual life is important. Most people, especially as they age, develop spiritual practices that help them but do not always bring them comfort or solace. Nevertheless, they continue to pray, reflect and serve others. They do this because they know that the spiritual life is a pilgrimage that demands consistency and faith. When pilgrims learn to accept the difficult roads they are asked to travel, they discover ways to seek God and God's will even when they experience few consolations. When believers place all their trust in God, they know and come to accept that even when God seems very far way, they need not despair.

The mission of St Francis de Sales to the Calvinists is a good example of this. When Francis proposed to his friends that they organize themselves and go to Switzerland to preach to the Calvinists, everyone laughed at him. Undeterred, Francis left for Switzerland with a cousin only to be rejected everywhere he turned. People slammed doors in his face and threw rocks at him, but Francis persisted even when no one listened. After three years he had not made a single convert but, convinced that his was the work of God, he slipped his sermons under people's doors. Eventually the Swiss listened, and many thousands returned to their Catholic faith.

Today, keep praying even if it feels like no one is listening.

What are you most persistent about in the pursuit of God?

Learning to Pray

 "Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'" Lk 11:1

What did Jesus' disciples see or sense when Jesus was praying? What did they want to learn from him? Did he seem especially quiet or reflective when he prayed? Were his disciples afraid of what they were experiencing?

Learning to pray, while simple, is difficult, but studying the Our Father can be powerfully instructive. Acknowledging God's sovereignty before all else is important because it reminds us that God is always among us, aware of our needs and anxious to be near us. Only after we put all our trust in God do we ask for forgiveness and our daily bread. In other words, asking for help is secondary to honoring the God who is always near. When we follow these simple directives, no matter what prayer we say, we will be praying as Jesus taught us and the results will not matter.

Today, say the Our Father with gratitude.

What are your biggest obstacles to a more consistent prayer life?

 

The Need for Penance

 "Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God." Jon 3:8

Sometimes there is a line in the scriptures that both amuses and startles us. The book of Jonah tells us that when the King of Nineveh heard Jonah's warning that his huge city would be destroyed unless he repented, he not only put on sackcloth and sat in ashes, he ordered the cattle to be dressed in sackcloth as well. Even as I write I am trying to picture the scene. The text suggests, however, that Jonah was neither impressed nor moved by the king's show of repentance. Jonah didn't want the people of Nineveh to repent. He wanted them punished, but God was impressed, which is all that matters.

God knows our hearts, and while most of us are not inclined to make a show of our repentance and dress our animals in sackcloth, we can be sure that when we turn to God with sincerity and sorrow, God hears our cry. Perhaps even more important, God hears the cries of our enemies, and the challenge to rejoice in their repentance is before us everyday.

Today, pray for someone you don't like.

What does it take for you to let go and let God direct your life?

The Good Samaritan

 "But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight." Lk 10:33

The story of the good Samaritan is one of the most well known and powerful stories in the Gospels, and for good reason. Samaritans were hated by the Jews. Accused of being syncretists, people who mixed religious traditions for their own self centered purposes, Samaritans also built their own temple to which non observant Jews were welcomed in contradiction to Jewish law.

If some of this sounds familiar, it should. Too many people label others in ways that not only challenge their belief systems, but denigrate their persons, and Jesus will have none of it. The Good Samaritan, he reminds us, not only risks his own life by responding to the fellow who has been robbed, he brings him to an inn so that he can rest and recover from the attack. We know nothing else about this particular Samaritan. Whether he worshiped in the  "false" temple on Mt Gerazim in Samaria and therefore was judged unclean by the Jews was irrelevant. That he stopped and aided someone in need is Jesus' only concern.

Today, help someone in need.

What aspect of the story of the Good Samaritan most moves you?