"Beloved: Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show his works by a good life in the humility that comes from wisdom." Jas 3:13
Success in the spiritual life is not measured by traditional standards. It does matter to the seeker whether he or she has rich and consoling experiences at prayer. Neither is the recognition of others important. Aware that every gift she has is God given and to be spent to announce the Gospel in word and deed, the only thing that matters is that God's mercy is proclaimed to all.
An attitude like this is rooted and grounded in the simple truth of God's sovereignty and gracious love for all, and when we acknowledge and accept this grace, we cannot not be humble. Like a child seeing snow for the first time, we are filled with delight in the miracle of water falling from the sky and covering the ground. God is working in us, through us and around us, and we can only pause, reflect and rejoice, not in our own triumphs, but in God's graciousness.
God's goodness to us is all the more remarkable when we consider our own faults. God seems to ignore our sins, to look beyond them, to use them in ways we could never imagine. When David admitted his sin, God first punished him appropriately and then loved him even more. Humbled, David begins life again and lives the law fully. The wisdom to trust God in every circumstance and to accept whatever God wills confirms David's new found humility. We must do the same.
Today, pray for humility.
How do you counter your own pride?
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Loving Our Enemies
“You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart....Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Lev 9: 17-18
Rooted in the Book of Leviticus, Jesus' command to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us is one of the more troubling of Jesus' hard sayings. How can we pray for those who persecute us, especially if they are members of our own family or parish? Isn't it more natural to avoid them, to not think about them and live without them as companions in faith?
At the time the gospels were written, Jesus' insistence that we love our enemies was especially difficult since most his followers were considered unclean. Willing to interact with Gentiles and sinners, Jesus' disciples were sometimes excluded from their own families. Indeed, the early Christians had a very rough road to walk, and they needed to hear and remember that Jesus taught his disciples to think like God, to be like the Forgiving Father of Luke's gospel, to welcome sinners and sit at table with them like Jesus did. (Luke 5:29)
There is no doubt that learning to love our enemies is an ongoing battle, one that we will often lose, but one which we cannot avoid. Nothing speaks the Gospel more clearly or deeply than the lives of believers willing to go beyond what seems reasonable in order to proclaim Good News. When we love our enemies, no one can deny the power of Jesus' life and teaching alive in us, and while our enemines might not choose to join us, they will surely respect our faith filled lives.
Today, for the sake of the Gospel, pray for the grace to reconcile with someone who hurt you.
What are the hardest sayings of Jesus for you to understand and accept?
Rooted in the Book of Leviticus, Jesus' command to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us is one of the more troubling of Jesus' hard sayings. How can we pray for those who persecute us, especially if they are members of our own family or parish? Isn't it more natural to avoid them, to not think about them and live without them as companions in faith?
At the time the gospels were written, Jesus' insistence that we love our enemies was especially difficult since most his followers were considered unclean. Willing to interact with Gentiles and sinners, Jesus' disciples were sometimes excluded from their own families. Indeed, the early Christians had a very rough road to walk, and they needed to hear and remember that Jesus taught his disciples to think like God, to be like the Forgiving Father of Luke's gospel, to welcome sinners and sit at table with them like Jesus did. (Luke 5:29)
There is no doubt that learning to love our enemies is an ongoing battle, one that we will often lose, but one which we cannot avoid. Nothing speaks the Gospel more clearly or deeply than the lives of believers willing to go beyond what seems reasonable in order to proclaim Good News. When we love our enemies, no one can deny the power of Jesus' life and teaching alive in us, and while our enemines might not choose to join us, they will surely respect our faith filled lives.
Today, for the sake of the Gospel, pray for the grace to reconcile with someone who hurt you.
What are the hardest sayings of Jesus for you to understand and accept?
Friday, February 21, 2014
The Chair of St Peter
"Tend the flock of God in your midst, overseeing not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock." 1Pt 5: 2-3
Learning to be a Christian leader, especially if it is something to which you were elected or appointed, is difficult and confusing. Too often leaders think they rule by divine right, deep intelligence or superior insight. In fact, while we hope our leaders are gifted, their primary call is to be servants, people who think first about the people they are called to lead, not their own power or responsibility.
Christian leadership is also confusing because there are very few models or examples to follow, although it is clear that Pope Francis is trying to change what we expect from church leaders. Committed to building a "a church that is poor and for the poor," Francis is asking all Christians, but especially its leaders, to reimagine their roles and goals. When leaders live more simply, as Francis is trying to do personally, they become more approachable and more compelling. We want to listen to them because of their integrity, not just their office.
More important, the personal integrity and simplicity of life of those called to leadership lays the ground for an authentic conversation between all trying to live their Baptismal promises which is not based in roles or titles but in the shared desire to announce the Good News. When our leaders our approachable, listen and are willing to seek solutions to common problems through dialogue, they not only model Gospel values, they invite others to do the same.
Today, listen to someone you might easily ignore.
What do you want our leaders to be?
Learning to be a Christian leader, especially if it is something to which you were elected or appointed, is difficult and confusing. Too often leaders think they rule by divine right, deep intelligence or superior insight. In fact, while we hope our leaders are gifted, their primary call is to be servants, people who think first about the people they are called to lead, not their own power or responsibility.
Christian leadership is also confusing because there are very few models or examples to follow, although it is clear that Pope Francis is trying to change what we expect from church leaders. Committed to building a "a church that is poor and for the poor," Francis is asking all Christians, but especially its leaders, to reimagine their roles and goals. When leaders live more simply, as Francis is trying to do personally, they become more approachable and more compelling. We want to listen to them because of their integrity, not just their office.
More important, the personal integrity and simplicity of life of those called to leadership lays the ground for an authentic conversation between all trying to live their Baptismal promises which is not based in roles or titles but in the shared desire to announce the Good News. When our leaders our approachable, listen and are willing to seek solutions to common problems through dialogue, they not only model Gospel values, they invite others to do the same.
Today, listen to someone you might easily ignore.
What do you want our leaders to be?
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Dying with Christ
"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it." Mk 8:35
One of the most basic requirements for anyone committed to a Gospel life is to lose one's life for the sake of God and God's reign. It is also one of the most difficult challenges we face and something that requires effort our entire lives. Losing one's life means focusing not on personal success, power or influence over others, but on living the Gospel faithfully and fully no matter the personal cost.
We hear Jesus' demand to let go in the sacrament of Baptism. When a child or adult is plunged into the waters of Baptism, it is clear that while the waters cleanse and renew the person being baptized, the church also wants us to realize that Baptism is about death. St Paul says it this way,
Today, do something simple and lovely for someone you don't like.
What gives you the strength to die to sin and selfishness on a daily basis?
One of the most basic requirements for anyone committed to a Gospel life is to lose one's life for the sake of God and God's reign. It is also one of the most difficult challenges we face and something that requires effort our entire lives. Losing one's life means focusing not on personal success, power or influence over others, but on living the Gospel faithfully and fully no matter the personal cost.
We hear Jesus' demand to let go in the sacrament of Baptism. When a child or adult is plunged into the waters of Baptism, it is clear that while the waters cleanse and renew the person being baptized, the church also wants us to realize that Baptism is about death. St Paul says it this way,
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Rom 6: 3-4)The ritual of Baptism is designed to guide us throughout life. Plunged only once into the waters of Baptism, we renew our baptismal commitment every time we die to sin, selfishness and self absorption. More, our witness to Christ by living an other centered life invites others to know the power invested in us through the sacrament. Those who know Christ and his promise to prepare a place for us in heaven have the freedom and courage not to grasp for every passing pleasure or cling to every kind word, but to sing with joy about the God who can never stop loving us.
Today, do something simple and lovely for someone you don't like.
What gives you the strength to die to sin and selfishness on a daily basis?
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