Restored to peace

The theme of seeking and maintaining peace is expressed by the Prophet Ezekiel in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Friar Jude Winkler comments that Ezekiel is writing from exile in Babylon and he understands that the love of God will see them through this difficult time and bring back what seems to be both a restored political order of a Davidic king and a renewed Covenant with a restored understanding that the united Hebrew people are people of God. The relationship of blessedness with God and political stability seems to present, in Jesus time, and continuing today, some confusion and cognitive challenge for the leaders of society. Jesus proclamation in the Gospel of John that He is the Resurrection and the witness of His many signs of mercy, compassion and healing have garnered Him a large following. The traditional control of the religious authorities over the behaviour of the people is slipping away. The decision for political peace, voiced by Caiaphas, is reminiscent of the political maneuvers prior to the Babylonian exile. John proclaims the glory of God, Who will love humanity to death through    
the crucifixion of the Son which is the consequence of the political decision to maintain peace with Rome. The political peace achieved is at the cost of beginning to live in the transcendent eternal relationship with the Divine offered to all, at all times. Our temporal needs and concerns move our decisions toward short term peace with our environment as we hesitate to accept the peace beyond knowing.

The truth will be hard to see

The blindness which comes over us when we are presented with evidence of the truth is a theme of the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary.  The passage from the Book of Jeremiah, the section described by Friar Jude Winkler as his "confessions", reveals that the prophet is aware of the rejection of his pleadings for the people of Israel to return to the practices of trust in the Lord. His confidence that the Lord will be with him in his trial is well placed, yet this Presence will see him through even more distress and pain. The Gospel of John tells of Jesus pointing out to the religious authorities that the deeds He has done in public are those of One from God, in fact One who is a Son of God. His persecutors cannot get beyond the radical change Jesus calls them to consider in their lives and see Him as a blasphemer who threatens the status quo. The Gospel indicates that some in the region where John was baptizing and to where Jesus has retreated could see that the words of John about Him were true. The path of His disciple will be like His path and the disciple will live with the rejection and the deep peace of those who begin to agree that "everything John said about this man was true" (John 10:41)

Before Abraham

The Gospel of John in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today sets the scene of Jesus declaration which was completely unacceptable to the religious authorities of His time and remains an enormous obstacle to be overcome by faith, even today. Jesus proclaims "before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58).  The passage from the Book of Genesis presents the Covenant between God and the person of faith, Abraham. The faith developed in Abraham through his relationship with God empowered him to trust God beyond the limits of his human understanding. The Divine is inviting Abraham to transcend the restrictions of time and place in relationship with God. The fulfillment of the Promise to Abraham might not make sense to us. Why should God desire the people who number as the stars to be in relationship with Him? The essence of Love is relationship. This Divine Love exists in the eternal,  from the beginning, relationship of the Trinity. Jesus reveals His Nature as God with the name " I AM". The desire of God for people to experience existence with Christ within is the mission which brings Jesus to the Cross, which according to Friar Jude Winkler, is the glory of God expressed by the Evangelist John. We need to pause and dwell in this Promise and convert our resistance to the implications of it to thanksgiving and praise for Life as Transcendent being.

Witness a Relationship on the Path

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today presents texts from the Book of Daniel which encourage us to call out to God during difficult times on the journey to Life in communion with the Divine. We pray for the type of favourable response which Shadrack,  Meshach and Abednego received when they were cast in the furnace for failure to obey the command to worship other gods. Friar Jude Winkler places the authorship of this text in the time of the Seleucid Empire based in Assyria. Israel was under pressure from this empire to adhere to the common religion of the empire. Today modern religions like individualism, hedonism and mediocrity have been placed before us for our worship. The challenge of living and testifying to the Way of Jesus is real today. The Gospel of John identifies the slavery we accept when we do not hear the Word which calls us to freedom from the habits and addictions which support the modern ethic of things that feel good should be done. Our blindness to the mission of Jesus will take us to experiences of emptiness where we repress the indwelling Spirit which is seeking intimacy with the Divine Spirit. Jesus calls us to follow Him and  live the will of the Father which brings us into the relationships within the Body of Christ to the Father and to our brothers and sisters where we live and proclaim mercy, compassion and love for all.

A Leap is required

The texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present episodes which remind us of the need to accept the challenge to take the leap of faith. The passage from the Book of Numbers tells of the impatience and discontent of the Israelites with God and the leadership of Moses which had taken them into the arid and desolate parts of the Arabian peninsula. This movement away from the trust in God, that had saved them from slavery in Egypt, exposes them to mortal danger from the bite of snakes in that region. The call to God from the position of desperation brings a healing response. Friar Jude Winkler reminds us of the liturgical practice in people of that time to put the icon of the healing they had experienced on a staff for all to be reminded of the gracious action of God. The dialogue of Jesus with the religious authorities in the Gospel of John reveals the stubborn attitude that we all take when faced with the challenge of change. The leap of faith is not often begun from a position of comfort and contentment with the status quo. The psalmist cries out to God from a position of distress and is sure and reassured of the merciful response of God who "releases those doomed to die".  Jesus confronts the stubborn Pharisees with their choice of death over the life which He invites them to embrace. This movement for Jesus and His followers to Life is through the giving of self to glorify God, in Jesus case, the gift of I AM to I AM as Love for all. A great Leap!

Like Mary

The texts today of the Roman Catholic Lectionary raise the question of how we should model Mary, as people who desire to respond to the call of God for greater intimacy. The texts tell of the promise made to the people in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah that a sign would be given of a virgin bearing a son who would testify to all that the Covenant is that "God is with us". Tradition holds that Mary was aware and learned about the Law and Prophets. Friar Jude Winkler adds some linguistic research into the translation of the Greek in the text from the Gospel of Luke in which the "future tense" of the verb is used by the angel who declares Mary as "one who has found favour with God" (full of Grace). Winkler teaches that this choice of tense indicates something true today which had always been true. Mary has always been full of the Grace of God. Does this make our imitation of Mary more difficult? In what way can our intimacy with God be deepened? Our invitation as Christians is to hear Jesus call "Follow Me". The physical and temporal Presence of Jesus in the world is in the Body of Christ, living humanity who, like Mary, carry Jesus in their being. We may meditate about our "state of grace" and worthiness to be in the role of Mary. It is the Letter to the Hebrews which gives us the consolation that our unworthiness and the lack of the use of the "future tense" in the translation of our position before God is not relevant to our "yes". The Life of Jesus, His Passion, Death and Resurrection are the actions of God towards humanity through which God enables for all people, for all time to say "Yes" as "Christophers" who carry Christ into the world every day.

Prayer, Paradox and Glory

The themes of the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today lead us to examine the intimacy with God which is the fullness of life we are invited to experience. The Prophet Jeremiah positions our understanding of the Way of God as being written on our heart. Friar Jude Winkler explains that the understanding of "heart" among the Israelites was the location of deep understanding within people. The psalmist joins Jeremiah in the dual understanding of our sin always being before us, yet it is forgiven by God in the Covenant whereby we "teach" by our lives the mercy and faithfulness we know of God in our heart. The Letter to the Hebrews sheds light on the method of Jesus and therefore, the Way for us, to live and teach. This requires our movement toward the invitation of God through prayer and supplication. In our communion with the Divine, through the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Holy Spirit, we will be called to obedience to the Will of God. This obedience, Friar Jude explains, was highly valued in Greek culture, the audience to whom the Letter was written. The Gospel of John presents teaching of Jesus to some Greek converts about the love of God to which Jesus testifies by the example of giving all, including life itself, to the transformation of humanity by that Love. The great paradox, which is shown to be the Great Truth of the Resurrection, is that Life comes from death. Jesus uses the image of the seed which is buried to rise as life giving wheat. Father Larry Gillick exposes our delusion that the life we surrender is ours. It only has meaning in relationship with the Creator of Life and our gods, addictions, habits of self aggrandizement and movement with our desires block our path to hear the call to glory which John presents as the complete Love in Jesus on the throne of the cross. Follow Me is written on our hearts.

Everything changes?

The local opinion from an observer of the Pope's visit to Mexico is that "everything changes, the Pope must change too". The message of change is part of the Word to humanity from the beginning of our history of being called to greater intimacy with the Divine. The Roman Catholic Lectionary today uses passages from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah and the Gospel of John to highlight a response of people to the call to life giving change. The Prophet Jeremiah, according to Friar Jude Winkler, is thought of as one who is cursing the Israelites and bringing disastrous changes to their social and political lives. This rejection of his actual message of the desire of God for them to change and return to their former practice of attending to the leadership of God in their lives is so strong that Jeremiah fears for his life.  The debate caused by Jesus messages to the people in Jerusalem centre around His nature and the impossibility, in spite of the observation that "Never before has anyone spoken like this man." (John 7:46). Nicodemus is moved to offer the people the wisdom of their tradition of not condemning a man before he has a chance to be heard. The parallel between those who carry the message of God today and the situations of Jesus and Jeremiah is strong. The remedy and prayer of the psalmist still applies "My God in you I take refuge" and "save me from all my pursuers.

Close to the brokenhearted

The Roman Catholic Lectionary brings texts today which allow us to consider the coming commemoration of Jesus Passion on Good Friday. The passage from the Book of Wisdom suggests that the actions of the holy person may provoke severe reaction by those who are revealed as living in the darkness by comparison. The rejection of Jesus by the religious authorities, according to Friar Jude Winkler, is the event about which we are invited to meditate today. Even in this rejection, which according to the Gospel of John, was to the extent of trying to kill Jesus, He continues the will of the Father by returning to the Temple to preach to those who "don't get it". The psalmist praises the intimacy of God for and with those who are brokenhearted as they pursue faithful trust in the guidance of God for their faith journey. The Divine Plan, in which Jesus trusts, unfolds to bring Him through the trouble of the episode of the Feast of Tabernacles and prepares , in God's time, for His Life to be the Witness in His Resurrected Glory of the love of the Father for all humanity. 

Stiff Necked rejection by the beloved

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary remind us of the long history of the movement of people who experience the works of Divine liberation in their lives toward God and then turn back again toward the idols and habits which replace God with something more controllable. Our "stiff-necked" resistance to listening and living completely in the Way of God is not due to the absence of evidence of the favour in which we are held by the Divine. The psalmist's words declare this dualism in our nature which experiences the Divine yet turns toward our own gods. The relationship of Jesus and the Father continues to be proclaimed in the Gospel of John. Works and Scripture testify to the people of Jesus place as One coming in the Name of the Father. The identity, or Name of Jesus, comes from the Father and that identity is the I Am of Moses. Our relationship with God is the source of our identity, our name. Identity is defined by relationship. I am husband in relation to my wife. I am father in relation to my children. I am instructor in relationship to my students. I am beloved in relationship to God.

Family images intimacy

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present an understanding of the relationship that God desires with people in the terms of family figures. Friar Jude Winkler discusses the different images of God in the first reading from Deutero-Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55). This is written during the Babylonian exile and it presents consolation to the exiles from Jerusalem that God would not forget their trials. Winkler notes that it was very unusual for Jewish authors of the time to use feminine images in reference to God. The mother who cannot forget the child so attached in her womb is the intimacy God invites people to know. The praise of the psalmist today is for the graciousness and mercy of God. The text from the Gospel of John is a continuation of the discourse after the healing at the pool in the Gospel yesterday. The decision of Jesus to heal with out delay leads Him to proclaim the nature of His relationship to God. The relationship is that of Father and Son. He becomes a blasphemer in the eyes of the religious authorities as he declares and demonstrates the qualities of the Divine in actions of compassion, mercy and healing as a consequence of He and the Father have the same nature. The Gospel of John is an invitation to people to be included intimately in the flow of love in the Divine Family.

Not one more second

The first reading in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel who according to Friar Jude Winkler was a priest of the Temple during the Babylonian exile. He is expressing the great effect for healing, growth and fertility of spirit that flow from an intimate relationship with God which he experiences through the practices of worship around the Temple. The understanding that the relationship with the Divine is not restricted to being experienced in the 'holy place" was one of the revelations of the Exile. As we come to be in touch with the Divine Spirit through the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Scripture, prayer and liturgy we appreciate the role of special places and time to focus like a lens our attention of the experience of communion with God. This spiritual well being and healing, Friar Jude's vertical dimension, creates harmony with the horizontal dimension, our relationship with others.  The text from the Gospel of John tells of a healing place, confirmed by archeological evidence, in Jerusalem where healing was experienced. Jesus angers the religious authorities by placing the healing of the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years at a higher priority than the observance of the Sabbath traditions which prohibited work, including healing. Friar Jude raises the question of why Jesus would not wait until the next day because the man had waited so long already. The theme that Now is the appropriate time is clear. The intimate union and reunion with God is only delayed by the reluctance of people. God gives Life now!

Man with Many Holy Attributes

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today celebrate the feast of St Joseph the foster father of Jesus. The liturgy establishes the link to Joseph from the promise in the second book of Samuel that the descendants of David would build a Temple in Jerusalem for the people of Israel to worship God. This dynasty would last until the Babylonian exile. Joseph would be from the tribe of David thus linking Jesus to the promise of a Messiah from the house of David. The text from the Letter to the Romans, which Friar Jude Winkler describes as the great presentation of Paul of the Justification by Faith which is so essential to our understanding of the gracious, steadfast love of the faithful God praised by the psalmist, who proclaims the "line" and "throne" of the Lord will last forever.
The background of the person of Joseph is steeped in faith. This will open in his person the trust that would allow him to believe and act in a manner beyond what his senses told him was possible. The transcendent faith of Joseph is foreshadowed in the father of faith for all nations described in Romans as Abraham who was obedient to God and is the father of both Arab, through Ishmael, and Jew, through Isaac. Fr Jude points out the "totality" of people expressed in the mention of Arab and Jew as the two peoples of the world of Abraham. The Gospel of Matthew brings obedience, compassion and humility to the front of the holy qualities of Joseph as "spiritual journey person". The engagement of Joseph to Mary, who is pregnant, creates a great cultural pressure for Joseph. The compassion of the interpretation of Fr Jude is clear. The "quiet divorce" will literally save her life. A penalty of stoning to death was imposed for adultery in the culture of Joseph. Another interpretation of this event brings Joseph to a place where his faith in God and his understanding of the traditions associated with the Messiah bring him to the conclusion that he is so unworthy to be the foster father for the Hoy Child who is being born "of the Spirit". The humility, which with faith and compassion, fill Joseph's attitude to life make him the model candidate to whom Jesus was obedient in His development in Nazareth. The Life of Joseph cleaned from the scripture, tradition and resonance of the Spirit with our exploring the topic leaves us with no question that he is patron of so many vocations, countries and groups of people. He is a man of many qualities which are so worthy of emulation on our road to eternal intimacy with God being the normal relationship for all people of all times and tribes.

Leading to the Light

The Roman Catholic Lectionary for today, the fourth Sunday of Lent, tells of breaking the darkness in our misdirection away from the will of God with a call to return to the Light of Living in intimate relationship with the Divine. The texts from the Second Book of Chronicles are, according to Friar Jude Winkler, a reflection on the Exile of the people of Jerusalem in Babylon, which resulted from the unfaithfulness of the people to their tradition of looking with trust to God for guidance in dealing with the real world situations which impact their community. The psalmist presents the lament of the people in exile as they live this separation from the Temple and Jerusalem. The Persian King Cyrus, the pagan, the foreigner, the outsider is the agent of freedom who sends them back to Jerusalem to the New Temple. The light of the relationship with God will shine in the hearts of the remnant who return. Fr Larry Gillick urges us to ensure that we listen to the passage from Ephesians very carefully and that it be read very slowly to allow the deep richness of each phrase to sink in. The graciousness of God toward humanity is the source of the desire we have to follow Him in the manner of Nicodemus who comes to Jesus by night to understand better the Light which Jesus radiates. The trust which we are called to have and present as Light to others is that we live in an intimate relationship with God that informs our actions. Our actions become the Light and the lifting up of the Son of Man today. The extent to which we have the empowerment to be Christ to others is the extent indicated famously in John 3:16. He gave all ( His Only Son). Following Him opens our heart to be His Presence in the trust that there is no limit to the grace available to show the world "the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:7)

Humility helps

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary bring us to reflect on the waves of firm resolution and frequent set back which often mark our journey to deeper intimacy with the Divine. Like the Prophet Hosea, we are aware of the division between the direction toward holiness that our relationship with God shows us and the decisions to remain in our comfort with our habits of self satisfaction. The psalmist through the great words of Psalm 51 captures the tension and the passion of God to delight in us and our call to be the example to others living in communion with His Presence. The Gospel from Luke tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Friar Jude Winkler warns that our faithful practice of religious customs may generate a false pride and deceptive sense of righteousness in our being. We may be so satisfied with our behaviour that our righteousness is more of the Pharisee form than the humble awareness of our need for the mercy of God voiced for us by the tax collector.
 

Faithful Relationship is number one

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today underline the goal of those on the journey to remain faithful to their relationship with the Divine. The Prophet Hosea, we are reminded by Friar Jude Winkler, struggled with a wife who had great difficulty in being faithful to him. Hosea saw the struggle of Israel to be faithful to the will of God in the experience he lived. The northern kingdom, at the time, was attempting to curry favour with the Assyrian kingdom by adopting their gods and worship practices. The rich life of intimacy with God can be sensed in the description of the goodness of the land which shall be blessed with the sights and smells of Lebanon. The distraction of the gods which appeal to our senses will never outdo the sensual overpowering of intimacy with God. The psalmist details the desire of God to delight in His people with whom so much has been done to take them to freedom from false gods. The stubborn hearts which choose to follow paths of their own desires are reminded of the consequence which removes them from knowing the overwhelming generosity and graciousness of life in communion with God. Friar Jude points out Jesus acknowledging the wisdom of a Scribe, in the Gospel from Mark, who understood the Great Commandment  which places our relationship with God at the full attention of our thought, emotion, spirit, desire and strength. The "horizontal dimension" of our faith, the love of neighbour, will follow as a consequence of the practice of the "vertical dimension" of desiring deeper intimacy with God.

Directional Control

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today on our journey through Lent raise the question of the control of our direction. The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah tells of the prophetic warnings of Jeremiah to the people of Israel that the trust and control they were placing in the hands of men and politics was going to have consequence in their lives. As Friar Jude Winkler points out, we readily cast blame for our set backs on others. The control of our lives is seemingly better exercised by circumstance and external forces than by our own decisions. Winkler is reminded today of the choice in Deuteronomy between life and death. This choice in the moment is presented as which direction our desires carry us, toward greater intimacy with the Divine or away from that goal. The psalmist exhorts us to listen to the voice of God and rejoice in our status as sheep of His flock. The decision to hear the shepherd is ours. When we harden our heart it is our movement. We are not under control of an external force that "made me do it". The division which is necessary between the direction toward the freedom from demons in the Presence of the Divine and the possession of our plans by our desires for self is clearly made by Jesus in the passage from the Gospel of Luke about the impossibility of a divided "kingdom" continuing to exist. Decisions are required.

Following the Law

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary focus on the gift of the Law to the people of God. The Passage from the Book of Deuteronomy has Moses praise the gift of the Law to the Israelites as the evidence of a people who God wants drawn close to Him. The fear of the punitive and arbitrary actions of ancient gods would not be the experience of Israel. Friar Jude Winkler expands this thought in his commentary today. This Law will become a tradition as each generation will instruct the next. Matthew writes his Gospel about the life of Jesus to an audience of Jews who have decided to follow Jesus. The portion of the Gospel today is from the section devoted to the Sermon on the Mount. As Friar Jude points out, Jesus like Moses delivers messages from God on the mountain. Jesus message is that He is the fulfillment of the Law given to Moses. This link to the discipline of keeping the Law is a tension within Christians and Christianity. It is contrasted with the thoughts of Paul in the important domination of the Law by the Spirit. The Jew and Gentile come to Christ from different spiritual journeys. Today we may long for the discipline of being more observant of the Law. At the same time, the intimacy of the resonance of the indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God which directs our desire to move closer to God in the moment is the Life in the Spirit. The tension is needed and is an opportunity to praise the Wisdom.

Forgiveness and shame

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today bring us to meditate on forgiveness. The Jewish people are in exile in Babylon. Azariah prays with a humble and contrite spirit about the situation in which they find themselves with no prince, no prophet and no leader. The culture which holds them exile has begun to demand their loyalty by signs of the acceptance of their lifestyle and worship of the cultural norms. The prayer of Azariah is to not be put to shame. This is not shame in the eyes of their oppressors, but shame in the eyes of God to whom they profess their decision to follow unreservedly. We know that the path to holiness passes by many distractions, temptations and invitations to deviate toward the desires of our addictions. The society in which we live attempts to hold us in exile from the Presence of God.  Our change of direction as we listen more to our ego brings us in touch with the shame felt by Adam in Genesis. The attitude of Azariah, which is praised by the psalmist, is humility. This position leaves us open to hear the truth and learn the Way.  In the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, Peter discusses the forgiveness which the followers of Jesus should have towards humanity. He proposes, according to Friar Jude Winkler, the "perfect number" of 7. This is understood as the sign of the whole complete universe or what we might call "infinity". Jesus response is to exaggerate the infinite number of Peter to make the point of forgiveness which has no possible limit. Our forgiveness of others is not based on our sense of the "justice" of the situation. Friar Jude points out that we have no idea of how God has gifted others with His grace. Our motive for forgiveness is that our brothers and sisters need it! The shame which we cast at the unforgiving servant in the parable told by Jesus in the Gospel today is the assessment of our behaviour in which we share in the prayer of Azariah to avoid.

Simply put

The episode in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today of the healing of Naaman, the Syrian army commander, from the Second  Book of Kings tells us that truth may be revealed by the example of the outsider. Our expectations about the action of the Divine in our lives may delay or defer our experience to quench the thirst which the psalmist finds fills his desire. Naaman expected incantations and a significant challenge as Friar Jude Winkler explains was the fashion of the prophets of Syria. The simple instruction of the Prophet Elisha to go wash in the Jordan is almost rejected by Naaman. The persuasion of one of his entourage to obey the simple request results in the healing and the praise of Naaman for the one true God of Israel! We may let our pride hold us from hearing the simple invitation. The teaching of Jesus to the people in his home synagogue, in the passage from the Gospel of Luke, points to the closed state of mind which can hold us back from knowing the path of greater intimacy with God. "God is God and we are not" is a simple thought which may help dampen our tendency to "know better" and encourage us to open our senses to accept the evidence  of Presence in this moment.

Seeking Signs

The Book of Exodus contributes the passage of God communicating the Ten Commandments to the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the third Sunday in Lent.  Friar Jude Winkler celebrates the great gift that the commandments were to the Israelites in a time and place where popular culture held the gods to be capricious and the natural tragedies of life like sickness and floods were thought to be punishment for displeasing the gods. The Law given to Moses was a sign of the justice of God and means to determine "what God wants'. The discipline of Lent, prayer, fasting and almsgiving is cited by Fr Larry Gillick SJ as those opportunities to focus on the Will of God and be mindful of the addictions and practices which move our desire in a direction away from intimacy with God. The letter of Paul to the Corinthians puts our preference to be Jews requiring "signs" and  Greeks demanding "common sense" in our contemplation of the mysteries of the journey within which we are invited to follow Jesus who upsets the rules of being religious and posses the great paradox of death leading to life as John relates in the text from his Gospel where Jesus cleanses the Temple. Friar Jude comments that this is the first of three visits to Jerusalem at Passover in John's Gospel. From this "sign" we have proposed Jesus public ministry was about 3 years. The "New Temple" which Jesus indicates He will build in 3 days is the sign, according to Father Larry, of the shift in the locus of the Presence of God from the Holy Place to within each person with Jesus as the Man-God model.

Father loves all difficult sons

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today returns to the parable of the prodigal son from the Gospel of Luke. The texts from Micah and Psalm 103 prepare us as we hear the description of God as mercy, compassion and steadfast love. The parable and our experience indicates that this love is not dependent on our behaviour. The Creator has gifted us with free will. God does not override our free will even when the consequence of our decisions may lead to personal and social suffering. The youngest son in the parable chooses to leave his father's house, requests and is given his inheritance, and pursues his desire for to please himself in an attempt to satisfy a hunger deep in his being. In the madness of his journey he encounters poverty and physical hunger. Perhaps he was repentant as he turned home or maybe he was just hungry but "while he was still a long way off" his father saw him and ran to him. The hint of the depth of the love of God from the prophet and psalmist today is turned to the miraculous movement of the father to the son as an example of the movement of the Divine toward the seeker. Our choice is to move toward God and be open for His response. We are still in our sin and we are not sure of our motivation to return. The Father rushes toward us to reclaim us as His child. Too Much!
 

Will against will

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary bring the reality of the different life experienced and presented by those who attempt to follow the Will of God. Joseph is the son of Israel's old age and his union with his beloved Rachael. His is chosen as the favourite and he experiences special attention from his father. Friar Jude Winkler indicates that the eldest son was expected in the culture of the time to be the "chosen". Today parents seem to try hard not to identify and mark a favourite. The obedience of Joseph to the will of his father becomes the event which peaks the jealousy and anger of his brothers to the extend that he is sold into slavery in Egypt and exiled from family and country. The decision to follow the direction toward greater intimacy with the Divine will draw us into situations where the fruit and attitude of our choice is in conflict with the ideas and life style of others. The parable of the wicked tenants indicates the delusion of direction which comes upon us when our needs for control, prestige, power and privilege dominate our decisions. The action of the tenants to kill the heir seems completely irrational. The strength of truth in this parable to the chief priests and Pharisees becomes a prophesy, (especially in the version in Mark 12:1-6, according to Friar Jude) of the rejection of Jesus by the religious authorities and His death at their hands.

Living our choices

The selection of texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today puts the life and death choice of Deuteronomy, a powerful theme on the spiritual journey, before us again in this joyful season of Lent. The context of the passage from the Book of Jeremiah, according Friar Jude Winkler, is the time just before the Exile. The people of Judah are feeling the heat of imminent political collapse of their society. The choice to trust in the direction in their heart from the resonance of their Spirit with the Divine Spirit is the path in the direction of the will of God. This direction will prevent the choice of devious action and betrayal which will lead to dependance on self serving motivation and ultimate isolation. The psalmist describes the life of the tree planted close to the stream which can stretch in the direction of nourishment and growth. We are advised to bloom where we are planted. Our life and fruit bearing comes from our direction toward the life giving stream of the Will of God.  The Gospel of Luke uses the blindness of the rich man to the condition of Lazarus to indicate how this disregard of those in need will move us toward the isolation from others that weakens our intimacy with God. As we choose to be more and more detached from the will of God for us to be intimate communion with the Divine our lives spiral down to the desolation fitting to our decision to trust in our own vision of the good life in which the consequences of our self serving choices are spiritual death.

Hard to hear the message

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today offers some reflection on our reaction to the message which disturbs our understanding of the way things should be. Jeremiah complains that the message he brings to the people from God to repent and change their ways has brought threats against him the messenger. Friar Jude Winkler poses the question of our expectation that when we do good for God we should receive good compensation for our actions.  The prayer of the psalmist to be commit his spirit into the the hand of God is the path when trying to understand what to expect. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is foretelling His fate in Jerusalem for the third time. He is quite graphic about His Passion and gives little detail about be raised on the third day. From our point of view, it is difficult to understand why the Apostles, who Winkler mentions were highly respected by Matthew, missed this message of Jesus and even changed the direction of the dialogue from the self giving sacrifice anticipated by Jesus to self aggrandizement in seeking positions in the "kingdom" to be established by Jesus. The "worthless idols" which distract us from receiving the full impact of the intimacy to which we are invited with the Divine include our own need for recognition, affirmation and even control. We might argue the necessity of these attributes to accomplish the good "Christian" works but the example of the Servant Leader indicates our continued need for instruction in listening to hear the message.

Choice discipline hypocrisy exaggeration

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah brings a passage to the Roman Catholic Lectionary about choosing life or death. This is a theme of Lent and the text today compares the people of the time of Isaiah to the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. The choice is one of direction. If we choose to leave the path indicated by the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God, the consequence will be the isolation of self satisfaction, self gratification and searching from one vice to another for the fulfillment of our being. The resultant self destruction is death. The life choice brings us to practice the work of God in our lives by attending to the excluded and marginalized in our environment. These encounters will draw our movement and desire away from ourselves and re-direct us to action which follows Jesus example. The Prophet Isaiah offers the people of his time the "suffering servant" as model of the life lived in the will of God. The psalmist advocates that we need discipline to create the opportunities to hear the words of God and approach our circumstances with the thanksgiving from which our choice of the life direction is more likely. In the Gospel of Matthew, a volume written to a Jewish audience, Jesus paints a picture of the hypocrisy of the practices of some scribes and Pharisees. We know of such religiosity in our own communities. The Recovery Rabbi, Shais Taub, speaking on the CBC Tapestry episode of January 29 2012, compared the suppression of ego by over the top religious discipline to the same suppression of ego desperately sought by the addict through substance abuse. These tortured people may show us hypocritical behaviour which is driven by deep internal hurt. Compassion calls us to be present to them and yet it is so often or distain for hypocrisy that drives us away from them and the institutions in which they display their desperation. Jesus also advises that the words of the hypocrite may be worth listening to. The Pharisees of His time knew the details of the Law. Our "modern Pharisees" can be great sources of the details of the tradition and liturgies. Friar Jude Winkler warns that the Jewish writing style of the time of Matthew tended toward exaggeration. The apparent absolute prohibition of use of some words in this text is likely an example. Contemplation of this text in the quiet of our spiritual resonance will help illuminate the direction wrapped in the hyperbole of the writing style.
      

Present in the Partnership

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary present the power of our petitions to God to be restored to intimacy with Him. Our experience of distance from God, like that shared in the confession from the Book of Daniel, is an invitation to declare to God our desire to return to righteousness. Friar Jude Winkler reminds us that the forgiveness of God for our transgressions is already for us. The Great Mercy honours our freedom and awaits our request. Our contrition for the periods of turning away from the Divine direction tends to be incomplete and partial. We benefit from the attitude of the psalmist to praise God in the moment for compassion and deliverance and in reflection for the great good He has brought to our lives in the gifts to us and our loved ones. Our deeper understanding of our giftedness brings the proper position of thanksgiving and humility to us. From humility and awe we understand the power of the partnership which God desires with us. In the gift of seeing with His eyes, hearing with His ears and being present with His touch is the power of mercy, forgiveness and generosity for all the human community far beyond our capability on our "best day".  The discipline of Lent opens our consciousness to the Love which exhorts us to "Return to Me".

The Long and Short of it

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today compress much material for contemplation into short and familiar episodes in the lives of the characters who are on the journey to live according to the will of God. Friar Jude Winkler points out how the faith of Abraham grows in the accounts we have in the Scriptures to the point, in this passage in the Book of Genesis, where he trusts beyond what common sense and rationalization tells him in the promise that "the Lord will provide" both the sacrifice on the mountain, where he goes accompanied only by his beloved and only son Isaac, and the descendants who will number like the stars. Paul addresses the Romans with the evidence of the total commitment of God to all people by showing the total giving of the Divine Son to the point of death in fulfillment of the Promise to hold nothing back to reconnect in eternal intimacy with humanity. The Gospel of Mark relates the moment of illumination to which Jesus invites Peter, James and John. These mountaintop experiences where clarity and direction overwhelm our confusion and chaos are much richer than our human understanding can grasp in one short period of time. Fr Larry Gillick writes "One of the great joys of human intimacy is that it goes beyond reason" as he comments on the leap of faith of couples who grow in intimacy through marriage. The reflection on the experience is like that of the disciples in the Gospel. They understand confirmation,  by experiencing a Word from God, of the Love of God and the position of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah). The overwhelming sense of being home in this Presence draws them to desire to stay and enter the tents of worship. The Promise to be with them even as the experience ends is carried back to reality where Jesus cautions them to hold this experience close as support for the times ahead when the vision of faith may become less clear and the memory of Presence will sustain them for the long haul.

The Life Contract

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today include the concluding exhortation of Moses to the Israelites to present the conditions of the Covenant with God which he is imploring them to choose. The summary is that the Lord will be their God and they will be His people. The message reveals the desire of God to set Israel above all nations to attract praise, fame and honour as a holy people. The desire of God to delight in humanity is not restricted to the "chosen people". Rather they are to be the example of a people "holy to the Lord your God" for the invitation of all nations into an intimate relationship with the Divine. The psalmist praises the decrees of God where he finds happiness and closeness to God in living according to the will of the Lord. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus underlines and reinforces the message of the desire of God to include all people in contract for Life which draws them to a be holy. The aspect of holiness which Jesus presents today is our need to grow in mercy, compassion and care toward those who we fear as enemies. The opposite movement to loving people is to fear them. We characterize those we fear as enemies. Our road to holiness and being the example to all nations of the Life in relationship with the Divine is to be concerned about the spiritual and material welfare of those who have and perhaps are continuing to hurt us. Friar Jude Winkler offers some practical means to make this difficult action present in our lives. The understanding of St Augustine that the challenging actions which we take toward holiness are only possible through the grace of God may be demonstrated as we "love our enemies".

Checking our direction

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary challenge our diligence in seeking the direction from God for our action. The Prophet Ezekiel speaks of the delight of God in the choice of the wicked to turn away from their sins. The choice is the initial movement. When the journey of life offers the classical biblical choice between life and death, cited by Friar Jude Winkler, it is not often an immediate choice of mortal consequence. We choose to move in a direction towards a target. The understanding of those who navigate across land and sea using compass or gps is that we are moving towards some destination, in some direction at all times. We choose how to set our compass. The path we choose has consequences to our life. Is it leading to a moment of passage into a profound experience of Presence, as my friend Deacon Bob recently wrote, or is it leading to the desolate self destruction of self gratification as Friar Jude points to the residue and consequence of the poor choice in our lives. The Text from the Gospel of Matthew, as Friar Jude notes, is Jesus as God extending the legalistic observance of the Law to a living appreciation that our movement toward "breaking the Law" begins with setting our course away from the direction leading to the kingdom of heaven and intimacy with the Divine. In moving away we begin the sequence of negative consequence for our choice which the Gospel passage advises we reconcile early to avoid complete separation of our spiritual life and health. The plea of the psalmist for the help of the Lord is our path to recalibration of our compass to the direction of Life.

The Most Loving Outcome

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary bring the opportunity to reflect on faith and prayer. The passage of the Book of Esther relates the petition of a Queen of Syria who is about to appeal for the life of the Jewish population against an edict of the Persian Emperor that they all be killed. The very action of appeal could cause her own immediate execution. Friar Jude Winkler highlights the difference between prayer through which we acquire faith and trust in the response of God that the outcome of our petitions will be the most loving option and "magic" in which we actually desire control over the Will of God. The praise of the psalmist today is to God who has responded to prayer by strengthening him to be part of the work of the Lord. In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus exhorts us to develop the faith which trusts in prayer as the path to intimate movement toward the Way of life in which we are in accord with the Divine desire for us to be "the most loving". The Golden Rule appended to this dialogue sets the bar for our treatment of others at how we would like to be treated.  The most loving choice is to put the treatment of others at a level of generosity, mercy and kindness that we extend to ourselves. We are not satisfied with giving as good as we get.