Selfish Ambition

  "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice." Jas 3:16

Selfish ambition is a tough nut to crack, especially in a culture like the United States. Almost every day our children hear that they can strive for anything in this country, and if they work hard enough they can fulfill their dreams. While this is part of the "myth" of the United States and continues to draw people from all over the world to our country as immigrants, it is a dangerous notion when left unexamined.

Ambition can be a virtue when it is sandwiched by compassion and integrity. Who would challenge a young person wanting to do something to help the hungry, homeless and jobless in our country or around the world?  But when ambition is naked and unaccompanied by compassion for others and deep integrity it can lead to selfishness and the inability to consider any one else's needs or rights in the pursuit of one's dream.

All of us know people like this, and, of course, there is a bit of the selfish, worried, and self -absorbed person in all of us, but we cannot allow the "sinner" in us to direct, much less, dominate our behavior. Selfish ambition may lead to success in a career, but it can also leave us empty and confused. As Jesus says, "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" (Mt 16:26)

Today ask God to fill you with compassion and integrity to combat any naked ambition.

Has ambition ever undermined your life or the life of your community? Please leave a comment.

St Matthew Apostle

   "Follow me." Mt 9:10

Matthew must have been amazed and delighted when Jesus called him to follow. Amazed because he was a tax collector, a man despised for what he did and who he was. Tax collectors were most often Jews who worked for the Romans. Upfront, they would pay the Romans the taxes of those from who they collected taxes and then charge Jews whatever they could, and this would often be exorbitant and excruciating.

Matthew also would have been delighted. Here was Jesus, a prominent Jew and rabbi, calling him, accepting him, sitting down at table with him when everyone else in the community was shunning him. Matthew knew that he was being given a second chance and he was anxious to take it.

The message of the gospel is clear. All of us will get a second chance and it is up to us to take it, to follow the Lord and let go of behaviors and practices that oppose God's law and God's desire for us. As long as we are willing to admit that we are in need of a physician, the Lord will come to us like a doctor who sees only that we are in need. The Lord wants to heal us. How wonderful.

Today, acknowledge your weakness.

Who looked at you with love when you could not accept or love yourself?

Saint Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs

 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” Lk 8:5-7

It never fails to move me when I read about God's generosity. No matter how often the seed God throws so lavishly on the land falls into cracks and crevices and places unable to nurture  the seed into a full life, God doesn't give up. God keeps trying to find a place in our hearts and in our communities where the seed will grow and produce a hundredfold. If only we were so generous!

The Korean martyrs. Andrew, Paul, Columba, Peter and all who we celebrate today were brutally tortured and killed in ways that defy belief, but the recent beheading of American news reporters reminds us that this kind of violence exists and continues. Grisly and overwhelming, the awful deaths of those who were beheaded, and the brutal murders of so many martyrs, force us to face the violence that people can inflict on other humans. Nevertheless, though God knows how cruel we can be to one another, God never gives up on us. God keeps sowing seeds until they find good ground, and God's goodness fills us with hope.

Today, ask God to help you find a place where the ground is ready for God's love.

Does your faith help you explain the kind of violence we witness so often in our world?

God's Merciful Eyes

  "Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears." Lk 7:37

Jesus is forever pushing us to look beyond people's past to see how they are behaving in the present. The woman who wipes his feet with her hair becomes an icon of what it means to be a Christian, But because most of us see sin in others first, especially in the powerful, it is difficult to see her with God's eyes. If an athlete or a politician is caught in an adulterous relationship or using public monies for his or her private gain, we pounce. See, we say, why do we trust people like this? When we do this, we ignore the mercy of God.

No doubt the leaders of the Jewish community were doing the same with the woman who is "wasting" money anointing Jesus' feet with costly perfume. That Jesus does not pull away or correct her annoys the Pharisees. They impose their judgmental eyes on Jesus and try to undermine him and his authority by suggesting that his inability to recognize that she is a sinner ought to condemn him. But Jesus turns the tables. He asks: Do you see this woman? The answer of course is "no". They have reduced her to her sin and do not value her humility or recognize her tears.  We need to avoid this error in our own lives.

Today, look at all people with God's eyes and don't get lost in their past.

Have you know people who turned their lives around and helped you?

Sharing our Love with All

 "Love is patient, love is kind." 1 Cor 13:4

Often when a liturgical scriptural reading is from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians our spirits drift to the passage we have heard so many times at weddings. Love is patient, kind, does not hold grudges, and we affirm what we hear, but it hardly reflects the the fullness of what Paul wants to say to the Corinthians. 

In fact, Paul castigates the Corinthians for many of the their practices, the worst of which was the failure of the more affluent Corinthians to share their pre Eucharist meal with the poorer members of their community. Paul is scandalized by their behavior and lets them know it.

It can be difficult for adults to hear or accept correction, even when we need it. Americans can be especially resistive to anyone suggesting that their lives are less than exemplary, but all of us need to reflect upon our behavior. At times we can attack the messenger, a reaction that is both a disservice to someone trying to help us, and decidedly unchristian.

Today, ask someone to help you reflect on your unexamined reactions that injure others.

Can you remember a time that a friend challenged you to change and helped you?

Loving Others for God's Sake

 "Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way." 1Cor 12:31

More has been written about love than almost any other subject and still its description remains elusive. The Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu once say, "those who say don't know, and those who know don't say," and though he was writing about beauty, or the attempt to describe the beautiful, it could just as easily apply to love. Describing authentic love can trivialize it, even demean it. Being loved unconditionally, especially by God, is one of the foundation stones of our faith. Because we believe that God loves us unconditionally, we are free to live without constraint or fear. Living in God is not something we earn, but a gift we accept with gratitude and delight.

St Paul reminds us to strive for the great spiritual gifts: to desire peace of mind and spirit, to want an open and still heart, and to reach for humility and wisdom. At the same time, the Apostle to the Gentiles reminds us that the gift which surpasses all the others is love, and cannot be merited, only celebrated.

Today, ask for the gift of loving others for the sake of the Gospel.

What gift do you desire from God to live the Gospel more fully?

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. 

Not wanting to trouble Jesus with a visit to his home and being very aware of the differences between them, the centurion insists that he is not worthy of Jesus' care. When the centurion further suggests that a word from Jesus will be enough to heal his slave, Jesus uses the centurion's faith to teach the Jews saying, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” Faith, like the centurion's, and friendship and faith, like Cyprian and Cornelius shared, can forge a church of great power and strength.

Today, be grateful for a faith filled friend.

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