No stop at the Samaritan town

The Gospel of the Evangelist Luke in the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary today recounts Jesus turning point in His journey to the cross to leave Galilee and “set His face” toward Jerusalem. The passage from the Hebrew Testament prepares and foreshadows the decision to answer the call with resolute action. Father Larry Gillick SJ notes that God keeps the Prophet Elijah very busy in Chapter 19 of the first Books of Kings. This business is not unlike the lives that many experience today. God wants Elijah to anoint Elisha as the successor to the great Prophet. The description of the encounter where Elijah throws his cloak, the prophetic garment, over Elisha is, according to Father Larry, a sign of taking possession. The chosen successor is a wealthy young man with twelve yoke of oxen who is now presented with a deep decision. Our decision for love is the vocation experience of our lives. When we need to respond to being taken possession by Love, our response is unpredictable. Elisha knows at least two things which we also experience. The call is for the pattern of his life to change and a decision is required. Friar JudeWinkler notes that Elisa commits to accepting the change by slaughtering the oxen and boiling the flesh. Things will never be the same again. We voice our acknowledgement of this change in our “Yes” or “I do” as we respond to the call of vocation. Paul addresses the Galatians about the nature of our call to live in freedom as disciples of Jesus. The aspect of freedom in the rituals of vocational calling is essential. We make a free choice. The concupiscence of the human person, identified by Thomas Aquinas, to pursue our passions and desires is presented by Paul as movement of the flesh contrary to the Spirit of God which directs us toward the Divine and others and away from satisfaction of our own self serving passions. Friar Jude suggests that the penitential life style is an essential practice when we set our face on our vocational journey. This life style practices denial of self so that it can become our habit. Through the penitential preparation, we are able to respond first for others and only after moving toward the other, might we be tempted to recall our passions as second choice. The response of James and John to the rejection of Jesus in the Samaritan town because of His direction to Jerusalem might be avoided through practice of empathy for the other and attempting to be in their shoes before we jump to the decision of our passion for power, privilege or prestige. Father Larry shares the advice he gives to those involved in discerning ministry in the Church that ministry is what we learn as we deal with the events of life and the interruptions of preparing for ministry. The apparent harshness of Jesus with the potential disciple who seeks to bury his father is seen in a slightly different light when Friar Jude explains the burial custom among theJews for a son to be 12 months in a process of respect for the deceased father which began after the burial which in Jewish practice occurs as soon as possible after death. This potential disciple is not seeking to follow Jesus now, but to think about it for 12 months. The life changing vocation decision is not what this person is considering. This is not a “set your face” for the life journey of Love moment. Our “I do” for the life journey has the strength of no turning back in the commitment of ourselves.

Indispensable how?

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary are for the Eucharistic liturgy to commemorate the Apostles Peter and Paul. Episode V, THE INDISPENSABLE MEN: PETER, PAUL AND THE MISSIONARY ADVENTURE, of the magnificent video series Catholicism is previewed by Father Robert Barron in his commentary on this feast day. In the account of the life of Peter from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke describes the action of an angel of God to free Peter from imprisonment by Herod who was seeking to execute him. The psalmist praises God who finds ways to keep the righteous man from mortal harm. In the second letter to Timothy, Friar Jude Winkler indicates that Paul is aware of his coming martyrdom. His life has been poured out in marvellous service for Jesus. The journey of our life is the means whereby we are able to serve God and bring experience of His Love to others. When we review our path, we can see times when “but for the grace of God” a different outcome would have resulted from our actions. Like Peter, we can draw from our experience, events where the angel of God (perhaps our Guardian Angel?) has been an active force in the direction of our journey. Our response is thanksgiving. We can also identify with Peter at Caesarea Philippi as presented in the Gospel from Matthew when the insight of the nature of Jesus as Messiah, the Christ, comes not from the rational and considered reflection of this man but from an insight given by God to the environment of Love in which he finds himself in company with Jesus. Our response to the flash of insight from God is thanksgiving. We are capable as humans to put ourselves mentally in the place of Paul reflecting as He is on a life with a purpose. We pray that our acceptance of our mission guided by the angel of God and inspired by Divine insight will call out our “yes” to be glorified through suffering and humility as we run the race and fight the good fight.

Change to trust

The Covenant between God and Abraham is detailed in the text today from the Book of Genesis in the Roman Catholic Lectionary. God changes the names of both of both Abram and Sarai to mark the change in their lives and to indicate that they have become “father” and “woman”. Friar JudeWinkler notes that we are changed by our encounter with God. The name change isa sign of the deeper life change. The attitude of Abraham to laugh in the Presence of God is not a sign of disbelief but it does present the free disposition of Abraham in relation to God. The depth of the trust of Abraham in the promise of God is not based on any physical evidence. He trusts the Covenant that he will be the father of a multitude, yet in his life, he will know only Isaac and Ishmael as his children. We are offered this “fear of God” as the character of our relationship with the Divine. The psalmist declares the realization of the fullness of life in relationship with God through the fruit of being blessed by a good wife and children around your table. In the vocation of family builders, we are partaking in the Covenant initiated with Abraham.The Gospel of Matthew is written by a Jew to Jews in the last quarter of the first century. Friar Jude notes that after the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches His fulfillment of the Law of Moses, Matthew shows the Divine authority of Jesus through ten actions which are in the realm of God. The passage today is the confirmation of the Divine power of healing in Jesus as He cures the leper. The fulfillment of the Law of Moses is in the extension of the Love and healing of God to the ritually unclean. The adherence of Jesus to the Law is demonstrated to the audience of Matthew by the instruction to the leper to show himself to the priest. The tension of change as a result of living a relationship with God is evident in the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Our path is shown by Jesus as one which honours and keeps the Tradition as it also fulfills our mission to be Jesus to all people. We participate through the trust of Abraham that our efforts, largely unseen, will assist to gather the family of God as numerous as the stars.

Doing His Word

The psalmist in the texts from the Roman CatholicLectionary today implores God to remember him when God shows favour to his people. The passage from the Book of Genesis describes the birth of the first son of Abraham, Ishmael. He was the son of Hagar, the Egyptian slave girl of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Islamic tradition identifies Ishmael as the ancestor of ProphetMuhammad. Genesis presents the promise from God of a multitude of descendants to both Abraham and Hagar. The traditions of Christians, Jews, and Muslims give thanks to God as descendants of the line of Abraham. This favour to His people is the action of God which the psalmist prays will be his experience. The Gospel from Matthew today, which was written by a Jew for a Jewish audience, addresses the need for believers to strive to act according to the will of God. Jesus is teaching the people with an authority about God and His Will that the people identify as authentic. The Evangelist underlines the importance of acting on the Word and moving our lives in a direction which responds positively to our call to show the continued favour of God for His people through our example of living as Jesus disciple.

Good fruit over time

The Gospel from Matthew today in the Roman CatholicLectionary advises us to beware of false prophets and to judge the tree by its fruit. Friar Jude Winkler notes that there are many distortions of the Christian message being proclaimed today. He refers to some televangelists and preachers who proclaim particular countries as blest by God. Our discernment of good fruit includes comparing the words of the person to the example of Jesus in the Gospel. The difficulty of a view which considers one incident and does not look at the action of others over time is for us to falsely dismiss brothers and sisters who in God’s time are producing fruit for the kingdom. The act of judgement is difficult. Our own sinfulness may impact of our assessment of others. We need to be patient and allow time to help our discernment. The passage from Genesis presents the Elohist account of sealing of the Covenant between Abram and God through a vision of carcasses being passed through by God in the form of a smoking fire pot. The introduction to the promise to Abram refers to the events of Genesis Chapter 14, where Melchizedek gives thanks to God for the warrior service of Abram as he fights to return his nephew Lot who had been captured during a battle between the cities of the plain south of the Dead Sea. The hospitality and generosity of Abram are also mated with an ability to be a warrior in defense of family. The descendants promised to Abram by God are the fruit of his life. The promise will not be realized during the life of Abram yet he will demonstrate the deep trust in God which is the fertile ground for bearing the fruit of Life.

Lot in life

Someone not familiar with the phrases spoken in Western culture may wonder  if there is a connection between Lot, nephew of Abram, in the text from the Book of Genesis chosen for the Roman Catholic Lectionary today and our understanding of our “lot in life”. The MacMillan Dictionary describes some of the meanings of “lot”.  Friar Jude Winkler explains the decision of Abram and Lot to separate to deal with the very scarce pasturage and water resources of Palestine. The concept of “lot” as a small piece of land may touch the nature of the pasturage problem. Friar Jude notes the great generosity of Abram to allow the younger Lot to have first choice. Culturally, Lot should have deferred to the choice of his uncle. The decision of the nephew to “cast his lot” among the people of the plain south of the Dead Sea in Sodom will turn out to be an unfortunate decision. The promise made by God to Abram at Hebron in the hill country where he could see the land before him would not be fulfilled in the lifetime of Abram, yet the trust of the patriarch, who would be renamed Abraham, in God is an example to believers of faith beyond what our rational experiences normally allow. The nature of the believer in the promises of God is expressed by the psalmist as one who “stands by his oath even to his hurt”. The Gospel from Matthew presents some wisdom sayings which are means to encapsulate in clichés the direction offered for our lives by those who have experienced the journey before us. The disciple on the journey should not become frustrated with those who react aggressively against the message. The graphic description of pearls thrown before swine puts the responsibility for the reaction with the disciple. The “golden rule” which Jesus puts in the positive sense was offered as wisdom by Rabbi Hillel in Jerusalem at about the time of Jesus birth. The generosity of Abram, the righteousness of the believer in the psalm and the self sacrifice and detachment from material things of the traveller entering through the narrow gate will equip the disciple of today with a lot of wisdom to choose the fertile pastures for his life mission.

Baptismal mission

The Roman Catholic Lectionary presents texts today to celebrate the Nativity of St John the Baptist. This occasion offers the opportunity to recall the threefold mission of those baptized as Christians. We are anointed as priest, prophet and king. The text from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah is described by Friar Jude Winkler as belonging to the section of that Book which tells of the Suffering Servant of God to whom Jesus draws comparisons to Himself in the Gospel. This suffering servant is called from the womb to fulfill his mission to bring light of the experience of relationship with God to the people of Israel and the people of the world. This commission is in our Baptismal anointing as servant king and prophet. The sharp sword of our mouth and the polished arrow of our strength from God make up our nature as the psalmist celebrates our formation by God in the womb. Like the son of Zachariah, who is named John, in the passage from the Gospel of Luke we have a unique name given by God in the spirit of which we are called to live out our mission in life. The text from the Book of Acts is a declaration of the discernment of John the Baptist that he is not the Messiah for Israel. He is the one to announce the coming of Jesus. Friar Jude notes that the path followed by John in response to the direction of God may have taken him to the Essenescommunity of Qumran, They were a separatist Jewish sect of the Second Temple Period, a portion of whom had formed an ascetic monastic community in Qumran. Our discernment of our name and mission requires openness to the direction of the Holy Spirit, through piety and prayer of our Baptismal priesthood, to lead us through our preparation and performance of the mission written in our being by God.

Self off centre

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today make us aware that we live in a tension which pulls us toward placing ourselves at the centre of our lives and consciousness. Father Larry Gillick SJ reflects on how easy it is for our attention to be taken to how we are and our imagination and vision of the events of our day. The passage from the Prophet Zechariah is described by Friar Jude Winkler as a foreshadowing of the Passion of Jesus. Some historical interpretation of this passage points to the mourning of Israel over the loss of the last good king, Josiah. This loss in death is compared to the loss of the hope for a Messiah. Our attention is diverted from self, thankfully, in the face of loss. We are able to be empathetic and compassionate with others. Our self can become unimportant when we are presented with our need to love others. The desolation of the prayer of the psalmist expresses our deep desire for love in relationship with God. Paul proclaims the primacy of our relationship with Jesus which makes our other human characteristics like ethnicity, gender, career and social status of much less and secondary importance. We continue to be internally interrupted by messages which drag us to that self centre where our status, success, pleasure and pride are given time and space to bring us mourning and grief as described in the first reading. We also can be called to the Life which is associated by the proclamation of Peter who vocalizes his understanding that he is living in the company of the Messiah. Our incarnation of Jesus through the Spirit puts us with Peter in the Presence which will give all and take all. We trust the Love of carrying the cross to be the Way to transformation of self love to Love of all. 

Strength in weakness

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today takes us to passages from Scripture which help us consider how our brokenness and weakness can be used by God to bring the Word to others. The psalmist praises the understanding of the person who fears separation from the Love and Presence of God. It is such a person who is aware of the truth of the declaration of Jesus in the Gospel from Matthew that people cannot serve two masters. We can be dominated by our passions and desire for material possessions and thereby become deluded into believing that we are self sufficient and not in need to journey toward Life in deep relationship with God. Friar Jude Winkler notes that the text, today, from the second letter to the Corinthians is part of the angry letter of Paul (Ch 10-13) wherein he battles the Gnostic heretics with a testimony of the great revelation he experienced from Jesus and the plan of God, with which he is compliant, that he show his strength through the weakness, suffering, persecution and thorn in the flesh he has known. The grace of God is the sufficient power for Paul and believers today to live according to His Will and be among the cloud of witnesses to the Life in the journey with Jesus. Today the Church commemorates three saints who are two bishops and two martyrs in that cloud of witnesses.

Seeing clearly

 The evidence that Paul presents to the Corinthians about his credentials as an Apostle who is presenting the Truth of Jesus as the path to righteousness before God is a method of evangelization for Christians today. The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge our culture of celebrity and our reliance on our material wealth and our pursuit of personal pleasure led by our eye for temptation. Friar Jude Winkler notes that Paul counters the super natural power proclaimed by the Gnostic heretics to the people of Corinth with the real power of the Spirit in Paul to endure much suffering in the service of Jesus. The path of selflessness and service which Paul lived is our model and we certainly can experience our powerlessness to live a service witness without the help of God. The Gospel of Matthew today continues the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus advises that our attraction to material wealth will be a temptation to draw our heart away from Love of God and others to attempt to satisfy our personal needs for security and comfort. The saint of today, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, lived a short time afflicted with sickness. One account of his life notes that his commitment to living professed virginity was marked by his practice of keeping his eyes down in the presence of women. The temptations to abandon service and selflessness in modern society come easily to our eyes. When the desire in our vision becomes a direction for our heart we are moving away from the advice in the Gospel to maintain a sound eye. The reflection of our soul, the eye, is a powerful window to our compassion, forgiveness and desire to include others. Let us pray to keep this window clear.

From Kingdom to no trial

Sometimes the words of the psalmist are the means whereby people focus on the essential experience of God in our life as the source of great deeds wonderful works, grace and mercy. The Roman Catholic Lectionary today offers texts which open our mind to the some different interpretations of the nature of God and prayer which are part of the experience of the Apostles. Friar Jude Winkler discusses the section of the second letter to the Corinthians which is part of Paul’s angry letter to these people he loved. (perhaps actually a 3^rd letter). The Apostle to the Gentile is likely trying to address the teaching of Gnostic “super-apostles” who have tried to persuade the Corinthians that the Jesus humanity is too close to the evil flesh of humanity to be considered Divine. Friar Jude provides evidence that this community in Corinth, like modern communities, is swept up by “new” philosophies which change their direction like the wind. The Gospel from Matthew offers the most familiar version of the Lord’s Prayer. Friar Jude notes that the version in Luke 11:1-13 is more in accord with Jesus likely description of prayer which is different from the prescribed verses of pagan worship that are more like a magic formula. We often seek that “magic” for situations when we realize that God is the only direction for our needs to be addressed. Luke proposes that we frame our conversation with the themes of kingdom, bread, forgiveness and no time of trial. Our need in the moment may be better presented, when words are inadequate, like the psalmist with praise and trust backed up by the familiar wording of Matthew. The grace and compassion of God understands the heart of humans which is often divided and deluded.

Power in quiet giving

The texts today from the Roman CatholicLectionary help us gain insight into the role of almsgiving, prayer and fasting in our spiritual growth. Friar Jude Winkler comments on the advice of the rabbis to the Jewish community about how to seek reconciliation with God after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The formula involves prayer, almsgiving and fasting. Early in July, this year, the Islamic season of Ramadan will begin and Muslims will pray, fast and give alms. The psalmist today praises God for His gracious gifts and notes that the righteous person is generous in sharing his wealth with the poor. Paul appeals to the Corinthians to continue to be generous in their support as cheerful givers who will know a rich relationship with God through their generosity. The care of people in need is not disputed as action which is modelled in our Tradition beginning with the hospitality of Abraham and shown in the care of the “widows and orphans” by Jesus. In recent times, the Gospel of Prosperity has perhaps come close to tying our material wealth to our generosity in giving. The motivation for our prayer, fasting and almsgiving is brought to focus by the passage from the Gospel of Matthew where we attend to Our Father who is in secret by being discreet and quite when we pray, give and fast. Friar Jude details many of the benefits of fasting to spiritual growth as he gets to the apparent paradox between letting our light shine before others (Matthew 5:16) and the advice in the Gospel today. Our nature to seek self aggrandizement is so easily brought into play. We grow spiritually from turning away from focus on ourselves. Prayer, almsgiving and fasting are practices which give us the opportunity to put the needs of the other before our continuous self concern. An ancient formula continues to bring life today.

Love beyond the tribe

When we google the phrase “collection for theChurch in Palestine” we find, not surprisingly, that the request of Paul to the Corinthians in the text today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary is relevant to our current situation. The poverty of Jews living in Jerusalem was brought to the attention of Paul during his visit to Peter to discuss how the requirements of Jewish Law might apply to Gentile converts, according to the commentary ofFriar Jude Winkler. The psalmist praises God who gives food to the hungry and secures justice for the oppressed. Paul exhorts the believers to be receptive to being moved by the Spirit to reflect on the generosity of God in calling them to Christ. In this reflection, we are able to hear Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew as He extends the practice of love beyond our neighbours and tribe to all people, even our enemies. The radical generosity which Jesus proclaims is a challenge, as Friar Jude suggests being clever and compassionate in our giving. The world around Christianity is coming to realize that we have the ability in our highly technologically sophisticated world to end extreme poverty. The poorest people in the world are not our tribe, they are not Christian and some support military and terrorist action against us. Jesus says they are brothers and sisters who we love as God loves.

Being understood

The challenge of being understood has produced frustration for many of us. The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary point to situations where the Paul and Matthew write to provide some clarification to their audiences. This portion of the second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians is identified by Friar Jude Winkler as having a defensiveness related to Chapters 10-13 as the “letter of reconciliation” to make peace for attacking the Gnosticheretics who were finding an audience among the Corinthian Christians for a philosophy of superhuman spectacular spiritual gifts to separate believers from the evils of the world. The litany of human experience of service and suffering is to try to make the point that through living in the messy world and being subject to the reality of life, we find our opportunity to praise God like the psalmist for the steadfast Love with which He carries us in struggle. Paul often uses dualistic arguments, rooted in his culture as a Jewish Pharisee, to frame his presentation. The tendency of people to seek a simple answer to questions, particularly in the areas of law and justice, made the prescription of appropriate compensation and retribution for anti social behaviour important to limit over reaction in revenge. The ‘eye for an eye’ of the Gospel of Matthew probably is a cliché to refer to a legal prescription rather than an actual description of rough justice. The text today has inspired other cliché approaches identified collectively sometimes as the Third Way. The sense that neither violent response to violence nor passive submission to evil are acceptable is another dualistic framework from which we need to discern the direction offered us by the Spirit of God  which uses kindness, gentleness, service and suffering as the preparation to address injustice. From the example set by the life of Paul we can depend on the Spirit to guide a real fight for Life for all which is based on giving all to those in need.

Father needs spirit of mother

Our expectations about our relationship with God are brought forward by the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. In the passage from the second book of Samuel, the prophet Nathan reminds King David of the great giftedness he has experienced through the grace of God in his life. The prophet confronts David with his sinful action of adultery with Bathsheba and the arranging of the death of her husband, Uriah, after Bathsheba becomes pregnant. David admits his sin. He receives forgiveness. As Father LarryGillick SJ notes we might ask about the justice. The different work and attitude of women and men, in Father Larry’s observation, in the Church offers the challenge of broadening our concepts of righteousness, justification and peace with God Friar Jude Winkler comments on the letter of Paul to the Galatians which makes our faith the source of our peace with God and not the works or action we accomplish. The male tendency to do what you tell me gets the job done. Yet we might tend to credit that work to our own skill and ability. The place of grace before God praises the life which is ours through surrender to His Will as we come to know Him through the growth of our relationship with Him. The Gospel of Luke is noted as Scripture where women are given specialattention. The faith of the woman with many sins that she would find peace and restoration of Life with God through Jesus moves her to ignore the cultural custom of Jewish Pharisees to shun sinners because of fear that sin is contagious and minister to Jesus by washing and anointing His feet. Her expectation that relationship with Jesus would bring Life is fulfilled. When the rules, the surface appearance of justice and the quick and easy solution present themselves as attractive to our minds because they do not involve relationship, mercy, forgiveness and compassion we need to hear Paul and see Jesus.

New Creature New Insight

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today brings us texts which explore how we understand the nature of the New Creature we are invited to be through our relationship with Jesus. The letter of Paul to the Corinthians reveals the transformation of understanding which Paul experienced in his reconciliation with Jesus. His eyes were opened to see that the gift of reconciliation and acceptance by God is for all peoples. Friar Jude Winkler comments that our example of how to view others is as precious creatures of God with great dignity. In contemplation of this revelation, we stand with the psalmist in praise of the steadfast love, mercy and slowness to anger of God. The Gospel from Matthew, which continues the Sermon on the Mount, is Jesus exhortation to keep it simple in our presentation of our lives to God and others. We seek the comfort of keeping our brokenness and selfish motives secret by nuanced expressions of our position. In front of God, the New Creature stands naked with all imperfection visible and God smiles to welcome us.

The view of our relationship to others changes in many aspects of our life as we experience the perspective shared by Paul. When we enter married life, we are drawn together by that Love which simply knows that our spouse is and calls from us some experience of the New Creature with a view of the precious nature of people. The challenge as we grow in a married relationship is to grow that view in the face of life in a world culture which offers counter claims that the most important person is you and your career, satisfaction and prestige are necessary and deserved for this marriage to succeed. If we only did things my way, we could make a success of this. The bigger picture we strive to accomplish may actually be a smaller picture of the world with our passion and privilege at the centre. The transformation of Paul through intimate contact with Jesus is the model for transformation of self centered living to selflessness of Divine Love. Perhaps our times of stress and struggle with the expectations of the world offer the opportunity to pause and let the message of Love re-enter through the steadfast presence of our spouse, the simple openness of our children or giving without consideration of repayment by members of our community. These are calls to transformation. The stage of committed married life presents many opportunities to seek the grace of God to return to Love as the motive for our lives, or our day, or for this morning. Our Trust in a Truth greater that our human eyes can see but which, through the Divine Spirit, we incarnate by our “yes” to selfless Love is the Full Life

Fragile and supported

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today offers texts which invite us to consider the way in which our lives as the fragile earthen vessels, described by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians, show the death to self which is the path of the disciple of Jesus which Friar Jude Winkler comments plants the seed of Jesus Love in those with whom we have contact. The mission of evangelism happens as we trust in faith that we can surrender our self centeredness with the grace of Providence to bring about transformation in life. The areas of our need to deny self are many. The Gospel from Matthew today addresses the areas of lust and divorce. Friar Jude Winkler mentions the great spiritual author of the early Church, Origen, as one who fought the temptations of lust to lead us to self gratification by severe action. Friar Jude advises that the Gospel written by Matthew to a Jewish audience uses exaggeration to make a serious point. We begin the process of taking advantage of others for our own gratification long before the culture would accuse us of infidelity. The target or aim of the believer, as the exhortation from Paul declares, is to live in the direction of self denial and service to others. Our fragility, in earthen vessels, is the characteristic of our being which makes our dependence of the grace of God essential.

Finding the Way

The Letter of Paul to the Corinthians in the Roman Catholic Lectionary proclaims the great revelation to Paul of the resurrected Jesus which in his experience is the lifting of the veil of understanding of God which he compares to the veil which shielded the face of Moses from the people of Israel. The Christian boldness before the face of God is a difficult position for those in the Jewish Tradition. Paul who lived as a righteous Pharisee, attending scrupulously to the letter of the Law and the Tradition of the Prophets, has a profound deepening of his mission to be the slave of the Gentile people as he brings the message of Love through the power of the Spirit. Friar Jude Winkler emphasizes the incredible gift which the revelation of Jesus is to believers. The Gospel from Matthew continues the Sermon on the Mount to deepen the practice of the Law among followers of Jesus to live filled with compassion so that anger is rejected as a direction which brings death and sin under the Law. Our righteousness, we are reminded by Friar Jude, calls us to worship as we live and to be persons who celebrate and defend life daily in our action in society. Our Life in the Spirit is to radiate Love as clay vessels which shine only because of the Love of Jesus which is incarnate and visible as we continue to say “yes” to His mission.

Two Churches

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today presents texts which open our consideration of the relationship between the Jewish Tradition in which Jesus is rooted and the practice of Christianity as preached  initially by Paul to the Gentiles. Friar JudeWinkler comments that perhaps we may see two different Churches in these texts. The argument of Paul to the Corinthians that the glory of the New Covenant must outshine the glory of the Covenant with Moses uses dualistic comparisons between letters that kill and Spirit that is life. He compares condemnation under the letter of the Law with justification in the Spirit. This presentation of the New Covenant to Paul’s audience of Gentiles does not work for Matthew, who was a Jew writing to Jews. Matthew tells of Jesus proclamation that He is not coming to replace the law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. Jesus specifically chastises those who would choose to break the Law as being least in the Kingdom of God. Those who struggle to keep the Law and teach others to do so will be greatest in the Kingdom. What value does the Law and Prophets bring to Christians today? The commitment to live as followers of Jesus ties us to the same mission to fulfill the Law. We stand with the psalmist as we praise God for the guidance He provides through the Tradition of Moses, Aaron and Samuel. The dualistic argument is always just a starting point for our contemplation and faith to guide us to the Way which unifies all that is good and holy.

Bold as Barnabas

The text today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary tells of the response of the people of Antioch to the attention of those Nazarenes and followers of the Way who like Barnabas came to that great Greek colony to evangelize with the Good News of Jesus. The psalmist expresses the nature of thanksgiving which we celebrate when the victory of the Lord is made known to the nations. In Antioch, the believers became known as Christians. The commissioning of Paul and Barnabas by the Holy Spirit to travel and continue the mission is described in the passage from Acts. Friar Jude Winkler comments that though it is not an ordination as we celebrate liturgically today, the elements of laying on hands to invoke the Holy Spirit speaks to the role of the believer to be personally involved in the work of God. The US lectionary today continues to follow the Gospel of Matthew with the continuation of the Sermon on the Mount from yesterday. The Canadian Lectionary uses the next section of the Gospel of Matthew to declare the instructions of Jesus to his disciples as they go to spread the Good News. The action which He commissions for them includes curing, casting out demons, cleansing lepers and raising the dead. These signs are to be performed in simple poverty where the missionary is obviously dependent on the grace of God and the Holy Spirit to do the work. Our mission is to continue to rely on God to provide the circumstance and Spirit for our “yes” to move in accord with His will.

Paul and Beatitudes

The journey as followers of Jesus will involve affliction and consolation. This message comes through the texts today in the Roman CatholicLectionary. Scholars have proposed, as Friar Jude Winkler notes, that the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians is an amalgamation three separate letters. They identify parts of the letter which point to the 1^st letter and contain a 3^rd and 4^th letter. The passage today is a reminder that we all will experience affliction and suffering as we move to live as disciples of Jesus. Paul may be referring to the particular affliction and suffering which he experienced as a consequence of an angry previous letter to Corinth calling them to adhere to the message of Jesus. The consolation received by Paul through his relationship to God prompts the seeking of forgiveness and reconciliation with the people in Corinth. The Gospel from Matthew is another reconsideration of life through the presentation of the Sermon on the Mount through the eyes of a converted Pharisee who scholars believe assisted in the completion of this episode which Matthew the Jewish author of this Gospel wrote to a Jewish audience. Friar Jude comments that Jesus, like Moses, opens His teaching of the nature of God from a mountain. The scrupulous adherence to many laws of the Pharisee is replaced by eight proclamations of those who are blessed by God in lives which attend to spiritual values of humility, mourning, meekness, thirst for righteous compassion, mercy, peace of “Shalom”. These blessed of God will know the affliction which attacks the followers of Truth through ridicule and persecution and they will live the consolation of Paul which will prompt seeking to restore relationships and pursue forgiveness from others. 

Compassion calls

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today concentrate our thinking about compassion. The situation which the Prophet Elijah encounters in the passage from the First Book of Kings is that the widow who has taken him in and fed and sustained him through a time of famine is now faced with the death of her son and she is wondering if that death is connected to the presence of the prophet in her house. Some rabbinical writing about this text identifies the possibility that the righteous presence of the prophet Elijah has illuminated her sinfulness for which the death of her son is punishment. Father Larry Gillick comments on how so much of our prayer and relationship with God is about us. This is quite human but our relationship with God invites us as some rabbis think it invited Elijah to see the love and compassion of God as witnesses who are not the focus of the event. Our perspective as we consider Elijah at Zarephath and, through the Gospel of Luke, Jesus at Nain is one of witness to compassion for literally, the widow and the orphan. The tragic truth about our world today, as noted by Bill Gates at the International HungerSummit, is that we have the capacity to feed all the people of the world. The revelation of the truth of Jesus which Paul experienced, and which, according toFriar Jude Winkler, gave him the role of Apostle to the Gentiles. In this role, Paul declared the freedom of the Gentiles from the prescriptions of Jewish tradition. As we work with the Spirit to detach our need and story from our prayer to God may we move with compassion to address the needs of the widows and orphans of today?

Faithful heart

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionaryfor Canada offer contemplation on the Immaculate Heart of Mary through passages from Isaiah, Samuel and Luke. The action of God to grow the faithfulness and rich relationship of people with Him is proclaimed by Isaiah. The text from Samuel celebrates the turnaround and flipping of fortune for the faithful Hannah as she becomes a mother through the grace of God. The Church points to the great faith of Mary as she moves to obey God with the “yes” based on deep faith that opens the door for the Son to be Incarnate as her child and for our faithful continuation of the mission of Jesus as we incarnate His Spirit through the Church. Friar Jude Winkler notes that Luke uses a technique called “foreshadowing” as he presents the Gospel. The disappearance of Jesus as the boy transitioning to Jewish Man and accepting His mission as Son to be in His Father’s House for three days is the foreshadowing of His disappearance for three days in the tomb. The heart of Mary is contemplated as the site of the resolution of the anxiety and turmoil of life as the human mother of Jesus with the faith walk in which she witnesses to acceptance of the incomprehensible through complete Trust in God. The witness of Mary is the key to open our relationship with God to the possibilities of intimacy and inversion of fortune proclaimed by Isaiah and Hannah.  

Having heart

The Roman Catholic Lectionary presents texts today to commemorate the Most SacredHeart of Jesus. This feast is routed in devotions among Franciscans and Dominicans in the 11^th and 12^th century which contemplated the depth of the Love of Jesus through the physical presentation of His five wounds. The passage from the Prophet Ezekiel was written in exile in Babylon according to FriarJude Winkler. The Jewish Diaspora is beginning and God is understood as the Good Shepherd, who can continue to love and care for His people even when they are separated by time and space from Jerusalem. The passage expresses the promise of return to being fed by God in the mountains of Israel. The 23^rd psalm is used today as the image of the Love which is personal and protective to the sheep of the Good Shepherd. In modern culture the understanding of “having heart” for the dispossessed and the distraught is an appropriate sense of the feast day. Paul tells the Romans that the compassion and Love of Jesus is directed to people who are still sinners. It is not sensible that God should seek out those who are turning away from Him. We are so oriented to think that they must do their part. The “heart” of Jesus is for the lost sinner. The Gospel from Luke makes the ridiculous assertion that we would leave the 99 sheep to search for the one who is lost. This is not practical. It does not make rational sense. Yet, as Friar Jude notes, in families the “black sheep”, with social and behavioural problems, receives much parental attention in a loving attempt to restore the wayward to the path of fullness of life. We know this is the action of the Good Shepherd for us. We are to incarnate this Life and “have heart” for those who we are asked to seek out and return to love.

Open to the Commands

The scribe who approaches Jesus in the text from the Gospel of Mark in the Roman Catholic Lectionary is described by Friar JudeWinkler as one who is seeking truth rather than trying to trap or ridicule Jesus. The response of Jesus to the question of the greatest commandment reminds us of The Shema, the central prayer of the Jewish prayer book, wherein the One God is to be loved with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Friar Jude reminds us that the heart is more in Jewish understanding than the centre of emotion in western culture. It is the place of deep decision making and reason to the people of Jesus time. The traditional great commandments are means which continue to bring us close to the kingdom of God. As the scribe understood and we can contemplate, the Kingdom provides guidance and direction to the members. The Great Commandments are the direction. In prayer and respect for God, the fortunes of Tobias and Sarah, in the passage from the Book of Tobit, are reversed from death and despair. The psalmist praises the gift from God of family which is fully appreciated by the people who walk in the way of the Lord. The daily prayer, Shema Israel, orients life to be about love and opens the mind for all the help from God to dwell in His Kingdom. 

Pray for Deliverance

 The psalm today in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary is Prayer for Guidance and for Deliverance. The psalmist petitions God to act with steadfast love to instruct us in the ways of God which will support the humble against shame and embarrassment at the hands of the haughty and treacherous. The scenario presented in the Book of Tobit is one of good people finding that their suffering with illness and misfortune has placed them in the category of outcast and sinner according to their neighbours. Their prayer for release from these situations is heard by God who leads the resolution of the situation by bringing the faithful suffering together. The Gospel from Mark is described byFriar Jude Winkler as a test case brought to Jesus by the Sadducees, a sect of the Jewish religion who held that is no resurrection of the dead. The scenario Jesus is asked to consider gives Him the opportunity to clarify for the Sadducees that the resurrected life is not bound by the restraints of living in time. Friar Jude comments that possessive love is superseded by universal inclusive love. Jesus refers to the encounter of Moses with God through the burning bush, which would be very familiar to this audience and instructs them that the text indicates that God is shown to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the present tense, God of the living, which indicates that they have an existence after death. Our hope in God is exercised by our acts which relieve suffering and shame as we anticipate the universal love of our resurrection.

Render Reflection

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary prompt consideration of an underlying theme which draws people to be over scrupulous in approaching how we are to live in relationship to God. The passage from the Book of Tobit tells of the blindness of the charitable man Tobit who must depend on the extraordinary efforts of his wife, Anna, to earn their living. Illness and difficulty in families is identified by Friar Jude Winkler as a situation where our scrupulosity, like that of Tobit, may spark words or actions which create deep division and hurt. Jumping to the conclusion which suits our attitude is extremely dangerous.  The Gospel from Mark, The Questionabout Paying Taxes, (see also Matthew 22 and Luke 20) relates an attempt by the religious authorities to have Jesus choose a side for or against the Emperor. The spiritual, political and philosophical implications of Jesus instruction on this matter still resonate in the attitude Christianity takes toward government. The deep resentment of the occupied Jewish nation to Roman taxation was compounded by life in a society where they also owed some of their produce to local authorities and in which the Temple taxes were required in support of their spiritual observance. We seek that the choice be clear about which action to take. We would find it so much easier to hear God tell us clearly what to do. We fail to appreciate that the praise and joy proclaimed by the psalmist for the observance of the Commandments of God does not come from blind following of the rules but from the ordering of our lives according to the direction and will of God expressed in the Commandments. We, as Jesus points out in the Gospel today, need to wrestle daily with rendering under to Caesar those aspects of living which give respect to authority acting in the harmony with God, from Whom our tradition holds authority is given, and return to God a life which is growing toward being a living witness to the image of God in which we are created. It is not a black and white choice. Thank God.

Rejection for the Righteous

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary remind us that deciding to do the right thing may lead to rejection, ridicule and worse as people sometimes react to good deeds with responses that come from bad motives. The psychological explanation for our tendency to be critical of the good works of others may involve jealousy or an exposure to risk or the reduction of security of the tribe as we step outside the prescribed boundaries of behaviour as Tobit does in the passage from this book regarded byProtestants as apocryphal because it has never been included within the Tanakh.  It is not considered canonical by Judaism. Friar Jude Winkler notes that the associates of Tobit consider that he is being punished for his actions which put respect for the sanctity of the people of God ahead of the ritual observance of the Feast of Pentecost. The psalmist praises the light of graciousness, mercy and righteousness which shines to glorify God from those who attend to the commandments of love and service to others. Jesus addresses the crowds to prophesy the fate of the Son who would come as Messiah to call forth the fruit of the harvest from the people of Israel who have been working to prepare for sharing of the Covenant with God with all the nations. The call to action is rejected by those who see the threat of loss of privilege and power. The change to the status quo prompts the drastic and escalating serious actions which culminate in the murder of the Son. We are people who can follow either the path of righteousness revealed here by Jesus and Tobit or allow our anxiety, insecurity and selfishness to ramp up our rejection of the right choices.

Thank God

The deep meaning of being fed by God is the strong background of the Scripture texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, the celebration of The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Father LarryGillick SJ ties the celebration of the Eucharist as a meal to the ritual and communion of the family meal. His recollection that his mother worked hard to prepare a “just enough” meal for the family brought with it the family requirement of not being able to say “I don’t want this”.  Father Larry touches the deep chord of regret we feel to hear that expression being used by people about receiving the True Presence of Jesus through participation in the Christian Eucharistic Meal. Friar Jude Winkler concludes his reflection with the comment on the way the Eucharist satisfies the hunger of our heart for intimate relationship with God. In the Gospel from Luke and the other synoptic Gospels, Jesus instructs the disciples to “(You) give them something to eat.” (Luke 9.13, Matthew 14.16, Mark 6.37). The role of the Shepherd (Friar Jude puts the Gospel in the theme of Psalm 23) to care and provide will be the mission of the followers of Jesus as they incarnate His Life through the Eucharist. We will find in this acceptance of Jesus, great motivation, like King Melchizedek of Salem in the text from Genesis to offer thanksgiving to God. The thanksgiving gestures and practices of the Corinthians had drifted to having special consideration for the rich and wealthy in the gathering for the Eucharistic meal which prompted the letter from Paul to bring them back to the communion with Jesus which includes feeding and caring for the family of all people. Our gathering in Love to Love so invites us to share in the transcendent, miraculous, infinite, timeless and eternal. How can we say “I don’t want”?

Wisdom and authority

We understand through the readings from the RomanCatholic Lectionary today that wisdom is an attribute of God which has been celebrated by people from ancient times. Friar Jude Winkler comments that the type of wisdom for which the author of the Book of Sirach gives thanks today is that which comes after lifelong seeking and work to pursue Truth. Gifts of this wisdom are insight into the deeply loving motivation of God for our living and the mixed response which we exhibit to that Love as we know more and more about ourselves, our need for purification and our tendency to hold on to our ways of attempting to manage life for our satisfaction. The Gospel of Mark, according to Friar Jude, is a scenario in which Jesus cleverly uses the survival wisdom which is both necessary and valued in the Middle East then and now to turn the intention of the religious authorities to embarrass Jesus to a situation where they are unable to summon the wisdom to address His response to their question. As our journey continues we may find that the Wisdom of God is presented through events in our lives where we have been able to surrender our will to the direction of God and experience the vision which calls prophets and psalmist to praise.