Spirits which reveal our nature

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invoke the mystery of our nature as spiritual beings. The understanding which is associated with the gifts of the Spirit is a sense and awareness that our indwelling Spirit resonates with the Presence of the Divine Spirit which the psalmist proclaims is unchanging and faithful to His creatures. The spirits which inhibit and attempt to separate the indwaelling Spirit from the Divine are discerned by those in communion with the Divine. The Divine Spirit is the force which eliminates all evil spirits

Humility and Hospitality

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today brings two fundamental qualities of holy people to our attention. The Prophet Sirach advises that those who are friends of God are the humble who realize the place of humanity in relation to the Divine Luke recounts Jesus telling of the parable of those who seek the high places of honour only to be reminded that those places were not reserved for them. The battle for humility is perhaps one of the most difficult in our lives and in these times.

Talents for the unwise and humble

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today encourage us to consider our gifts and both our unworthiness to be called to live them fully and the mission we have been given to celebrate and multiply those very talents. “Good and faithful servant” is the title which the landowner addresses those who enter into the joy of the master after multiplying the master’s wealth and being given even more of the master’s gifts. The servant who fails to spread the riches of the master is identified as being evil and slothful. In his homily today, Fr Roberto points out some items which a quick reading of the Gospel of Matthew may not appreciate. The “talent” was a very large amount of gold. The generosity of God (landowner) is immeasurable. The servants are filled with as much as they can hold. (Different amounts for different people). The good and faithful ones enter into the joy of relationship with the Divine. The ones who live in fear of God or of breaking the “rules” risk not finding that intimacy and joy. The parable has perhaps been cited to encourage entrepreneurial activity and risk taking. Perhaps we like to see reward proportional to effort here but the only risk or decision which is required is to be open to the gifts of the Father and the invitation to intimacy which is the way these gifts are multiplied. The text by Paul from the Letter to the Corinthians reminds us that the unwise and the insignificant have been chosen to be the bearers of the Light. Our humility is requested and required to fully use the gifts which bring intimacy with the Divine.

Oil for the lamp may not be used immediately

The texts from Scripture in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today continue a theme of preparedness. Paul proclaims a creed which is difficult for humans to comprehend “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles”. The faith we are required to have is to trust the experience of the Divine Presence beyond the parts of our heritage which demands a sign and the part which is tied to strict logical reason. The “oil for our lamps” is the desire to be open to the movement and invitation of God to resonance of our being with the eternal infinite Divine Presence. The Church celebrates the memorial of St Monica today. Her son, Augustine, became a great theologian and Doctor of the Church. Monica pursued her son for decades to renounce his self absorbed existence and be baptized. The resonance of his indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God brought oil to his lamp which, in God’s time became a lamp to guide many.

Boy Scout prepared for Divine Guide

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today evoke a memory of involvement with the Boy Scout organization. “Be prepared”, the Boy Scout motto has a peculiar place in the lives of believers. The contradiction that involves being prepared to act and move and address opportunities while at the same time understanding that God takes the initiative, is inherently faithful to loving all creatures and is the path for our fullness as creatures in intimate desire to follow the Divine Will is the mark of our lives as believers. The sense of the parable in Matthew’s Gospel is that our preparedness is to be open and aware of the opportunities in daily live to encounter the Divine and respond as the faithful sltve and the psalmist with praise for the goodness and righteousness of the Divine plan.

Life is breathed into dry bones

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today were set in the image of the graveyard below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by Fr Rob in his homily. The Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy and bring life back to the dead bones of Israelites. The action of God to breathe Spirit into those separated from Him is the action to contemplate. Culturally the “Messiah” will bring life to the bones in the graveyard in Jerusalem when He comes (or returns). The life of those who have lived the Great Commandment cited by Jesus when questioned by the Pharisee lawyer continue to be celebrated by friends and family after death has had its word. Jesus and Ezekiel indicate that death does not have the last word.

Thankful to complete the dash day by day

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today inspired Fr Rob to reflect on the “dash” in his homily this morning. The “dash” can be found on older tombstones in the cemetery.” Born 1950-Died 2011” is the use of the “dash” which was his theme. We live the “dash”. Ezekiel reveals God’s plan for our direction during this short time over which we learn we do not have much control. The “plan” is written in our heart. For those times when we ditch the plan, the psalmist offers the most reconciliatory words in the Bible to bring us back. We are invited to the Great Feast described in the parable Jesus tells in Matthew’s gospel. No excuses! We cannot deserve the Feast. We can be thankful today that the indwelling Spirit resonates with the Divine Presence to move us all the “dash” intimate with Him!

Shepherds and vineyard workers

Shepherds should feed the sheep according to the text from Ezekiel in the Roman Catholic Lectionary for today. The Lord God will seek out the sheep from the evil shepherds and rescue them. The psalmist in Psalm 23 proclaims how the Lord acts as Shepherd and provides everything that is required for life including protection from fear of enemies. Matthew’s Gospel relates the parable of the workers in the vineyard who work all day for the usual daily wage. The landowner chooses to pay the workers who worked for an hour or a few hours the same wage as those who had worked all day. This compensation plan is not the usual one for workers today or then. The payment for time or effort seems just. The Shepherd recognizes each individual sheep

Self Worship is blinding

The pride of humans causes us to believe in our infallibility and our power derived from business or social success. The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today contain warnings against the idolatry of self. Jesus advises the difficulty for those who are attached to the riches of this world to move with Him to the service of others and intimacy with the will of the Divine. The focus on self is 180 degrees away from the focus of God toward the other. Tyre was the seat of opulence and wealth in the ancient world. The leaders were revered as gods. Today we might advise people not to believe their own publicity releases lest they begin to live as their story suggests. Our need to stay grounded as beatitude people in meekness, humility and peace seeking is one strategy to avoid self worship.

Faithful to being open to change

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are related to the concept of faithfulness. Ezekiel delivers a prophesy of a tragedy for the people of God. This is a consequence of being a perverse generation who are not faithful to the plan of God for them. The observance of faithfulness is important on the spiritual journey. It is the quality observed when the believers gather again and again for liturgies. The Gospel from Matthew suggests that being faithful is more than keeping the Law and attending to the Prophets. It involves faithfulness to be called or invited to change. Jesus loved the rich young man. He invited him to move along the spiritual journey by dealing with the idolatry of possessions and wealth. The young man declined the invitation this time. God remains faithful to humans. The young man will have another invitation to grow.

Mysteries usually defy logic

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are related through imagination and Gospel narrative to Mary, Mother of Jesus who is the Son of God. The fully human nature of Jesus is supported by birth as all humans of a mother. The Catholic Church today proclaims the Assumption of Mary, that is the bodily transport of Mary’s being to heaven. This is the final earthly state of the one who proclaims the complete magnificent intimate communion with the Divine as she began to respond with “Yes” to the mission offered her by God to be the human mother of the “Word made flesh”. As Fr Larry explains this feast is on that is authentically Catholic and is not based on Scriptural evidence. We pray that the direction of “Catholic tradition” offers us an opportunity to understand better the mysteries of the relationship with the Divine. We are praying with our awareness of how blessed is fidelity when it is lived within the human experiences of letting go to clarity and quick results. (Gillick, 2010). The images in the texts from Revelation are reminiscent of Mary and the birth of Jesus but it is not likely, according to Scripture scholars, that the images were meant by the author to represent Mary. Fr Larry Gillick S.J. discusses the usual explanation for this vivid description.

Gillick, L. S. (2010, August). Daily Reflection. Retrieved August 15, 2010, from Creighton University's Online Ministries: http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/081510.html

What is found in faithfulness?

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today bring thoughts of faithfulness to others to mind. The texts from Ezekiel portray the rejection of God by Jerusalem as the unfaithfulness of a beloved woman and bride. The message of the faithfulness of God to the relationship is clear. The breakdown of the relationship is because of the moving away from will of God in the actions of humanity. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is asked about marriage and divorce in the light of the ability in Mosaic Law to divorce your wife. It is clear that the marriage relationship is an invitation to be faithful as God is faithful. The invitations in a faith tradition to self discipline are paths to a deeper relationship between the indwelling Spirit and the Divine Presence. The words of the psalmist underline the freedom, trust and joy found with the Holy One of Israel!

Achieving Justice for Humanity

And the LORD said to him, “Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. (Ezekiel 9:4) This instruction to the angel of the Lord precedes the “smiting” of all those who did not receive the mark. The issue of the justice of the Divine is raised by the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today. Human emotion demands justice. Human justice and Divine justice are related but they are not the same. Is human justice supported by God? The text from Matthew 18 may indicate that the decisions concerning wrongdoing made in the Spirit by believers in communion with Jesus will be honoured by God. There are profound possibilities here. Is God’s justice only a rubber stamp of human action? Does the resonance of the Indwelling Spirit with the Divine presence bring the decisions about justice to the “will of the Father?” Today the Church commemorates St Clare who in partnership with St Francis brought renewal to the Church through the development of communities who adhered to the simple chaste and obedient life style of the “Rule of St Francis”. The Franciscans have impacted the lives of believers of many traditions since the thirteenth century.

Give Give Give

The Roman Catholic Lectionary investigates the concept of generosity through the texts for the day. The Letter to the Corinthians reminds us that the Lord loves a generous giver. Paul quotes the tradition that the Lord is partner in our generous giving and will ensure that the seed of generous giving will reap bountifully. The Gospel of John indicates the extent to which Jesus and His are to be generous. That point is to give all. The seed dies to bring life. Those who serve Jesus follow Him to give all in communion with the will of the Father.

The Glory of Intimacy to Death

Jesus and the Temple Tax


The text from Matthew’s Gospel in the Roman Catholic lectionary today takes us to the relationship between Jesus and the civil authorities. The payment of tax was required by the civil authority. The tribute owed this authority is clearly identified as secondary to the respect and awe to be directed to God the Father. The miraculous way in which the tax was paid underlined the truth that all authority and power comes from the Divine. The disciples are greatly distressed that Jesus is telling him that He will be killed by the authorities in Jerusalem at the same time as He indicated the power of God over the civil power. Jesus tells them that he will rise in three days. It is not likely that they understood the meaning of these words. In His humanity Jesus will move to an inglorious death. The texts from Ezekiel and the psalmist demonstrate the attitude of praise and shock and awe that the Divine Presence invokes in humanity. The mystery of the intimacy of the Divine with the whole human condition, including suffering and death is the question for contemplation.

Waiting with and for faith

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time is filled with faith. The faith of the people in the Scripture texts is intertwined with waiting for a response from the Divine. As the joke goes, ”Lord, give me patience, Right Now!”. The position of waiting is difficult. The trust which people need and develop while waiting for a person, an event, a diagnosis or a break is the faith which is gifted to us by God. The demands of this trust in Judeo-Christian faith history have been huge. Abraham followed the instructions of God in faith beyond reason that the promise of many descendants would be fulfilled even as he and Sarah grew old and he was asked to sacrifice the child of their old age to God. Mary, Jesus mother, was asked to accept a miraculous birth to a virgin. This would leave her as an unwed mother in a culture for which the consequence could be stoning to death. Why don’t I get an answer? What does God want from me? These are difficult. Much of our impatience comes from our strictly logical, time linear, finite view of ourselves and our universe. The faith we have been given is the trust in an intimate relationship which the Divine, the transcendent and infinite through the indwelling spirit communion with God.

Ancient wisdom to underlie modern faith

The nature of the Divine revealed in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is that the relationship requires faith for growth and development of intimacy. The faith of the personages of the Hebrew Scripture, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was a trust in God who asked them to do difficult tasks. This biblical faith was a trust that God would provide and that any request that was understood to have come from God was acted upon. The hope is that this not be dismissed as the “old time religion”. In our time the tendency is to ask “What’s in it for me? (WIIFM?) The clamour of people for signs and miracles after which belief and faith will abound is getting the cart before the horse. The faith and trust which permits transcendent action of the Divine precedes the sign, work or miracle. The miracles are always trumped by the compassion, empathy and forgiveness of the Divine and the believers who are seeking the intimacy offered by the Divine Presence. The believer attempts to replace WIIFM with WWJD (What would Jesus do?).(Oremus link)

Visions which invite transformation

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary for today are an invitation to consider the transcendent nature of the Divine. The Gospel of Luke tells of the experience of Peter, John and James as they accompanied Jesus in a trip up the mountain to pray. The attempt to put in words the ecstasy and sense of transformation of the indwelling Spirit in communion with the Divine presence is the subject of the Gospel account and the reflection in the letter of Peter. The author of the Book of Daniel and the psalmist express the glory of God in vivid imagery. The indescribable is difficult to put in words. The work of the poet, musician and visual artist is required to complement the narrative descriptions. The transfiguration of Jesus points to the possibility that all humanity may experience the intimate and infinite Presence in a similar mode. We are advised to seek openness to such an event in our lives.

Having heart is a matter of courage

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today complement some reflection on “having heart”. The person who has heart is the one who is approached when we need compassion and empathy. These qualities are attributed to the Divine by Jeremiah and the author of Psalm 51. The Gospel from Matthew shows that Peter’s heart was moved by the resonance of his indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God to proclaim that Jesus is “the Messiah,* the Son of the living God”. As the episode continues Peter’s ‘heart’ for Jesus causes him to protest the death which Jesus foretells for himself in Jerusalem. The understanding which had not yet come to Peter was the primacy of the will of God in the direction for the life of humanity. The archbishop of the Halifax diocese spoke yesterday to commemorate the conclusion of the “year of the priest”. He built his message on the prayer of the Holy Father for courage in the lives of the North American clergy. The root of the word for “courage” and the French word for heart (Coeur) point to the deep linkage between compassion, empathy and moving with courage according to the will of God

The twisting journey home

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, the memorial of Saint John Vianney, invite a close look to see the unexpected stories of the relationship with the Divine. The biography of John Vianney is a story of unexpected events in his journey with God. Jeremiah encourages celebration of the gracious goodness of God as the people are restored to faith and trust in the Divine. This return to the Covenant follows a time of separation which required healing. Healing is the desire of the Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. Initially, this healing is delayed. It seems as if there is a test of faith or a demonstration of the limitation of the “Law” which seems to prevent Jesus from acting on this request. The great chrism of John Vianney as spiritual director and confessor was realized after a path in which his ordination as priest must have seemed very distant at times. The actions of humanity may seem to block or divert the will of God. The free will of humanity to choose, even those paths which, in linear human time appear to be diversions, are perhaps the marvelous continuous redemption of our acts to move us to a restoration of our Covenant with the Divine.

Get out of the boat

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today inspires thought of healing and the impossibility of the Divine to refuse to be the healing force of Creation and Creatures. Jeremiah is instructed to record that God will restore the fortunes of Israel and Judah after the people had abandoned trust in God for trust in human politics and strategy. That offense had resulted in destruction, domination and exile for the people. The psalmist echoes the truth that Lord looked at the earth and freed the prisoners and those doomed to die. What is the desire and delight of the Divine? The book of Jeremiah expresses it as “And you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Jeremiah 30:22) Matthew relates an episode in Jesus story where both trust in God and healing are presented. Peter responds to Jesus invitation to come to Him over the water and finds as he accepts in trust that he is moving over the water to Jesus. The doubts that this will be enough come as they came to Israel and Judah and as they come to all and the communion with the transcendent Divine is broken, until God reaches out once again to rescue and heal and watch for the opportunity to re-invite us to “get out of the boat”.

To tell the truth...

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today brings text which emphasizes the importance of being truthful especially in matters of our relationship with the Divine. When we consider the parable of the loaves and fishes in Matthew’s Gospel, we often struggle to present a rational explanation for the ability of 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed over five thousand people. The image of the nature of the Divine as compassion to the healing needs of the wandering people and the limitless abundance to be found in that relationship to more than fully satisfy the deep hunger of the indwelling Spirit to be in communion with God is the truth of this passage. The tension between Hananiah and Jeremiah is one of verifying that the prophet who speaks for God speaks about peace. The false prophet who speaks and seeks to lead for self aggrandizement is in severe danger of mortal separation from the Divine. Some of the controversy around statements from the Vatican needs to be reviewed in the light of the ancient obligation to God to be truthful and avoid heresy. The “political” demands of the day to say this and do that are properly discerned for traces of the spirit of self serving which hides the truth in motives which on the surface may seem just and fair, yet will bear fruit in power and control which are contrary to the model of Jesus. Three activities of discernment were offered by Fr. Roberto in his homily yesterday. They are prayer (communion with the Divine), study (the Bible gives the information about the model to follow) and experience (the question is WWJD? What would Jesus do? ). The application of thes three steps to the questions which are brought to our attention will assist our search for the direction in the truth.

Words of Wisdom Ancient and Current

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today offers a text from the group of writings called “Wisdom Literature”. Ecclesiastes looks at vanity or the ‘smoke’ or illusions that we have of the important things in life. Our work can posses us and when it does, what have we gained? Psalm 94 reminds us of the damage of “hardness of heart”. So often our movement to completeness is blocked by our inability to be open in heart, mind and spirit to the invitation to change. Paul exhorts “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly” (Colossians 3.5). He gives some examples of some behaviour which will imprison us in the vanity of the needs of self gratification and impede our response to the invitation to respond to our indwelling Spirit to seek full life. Luke recalls Jesus parable of the wealth landowner who built up so much material wealth, but was not apparently aware that it would disappear as smoke at his death. Larry Gillick SJ of the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality offers a fresh insight into the “sacramental” role of things in our lives.