Care and Compassion

 The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today resonate with our experience of real life loss and the need to re-work our reconnection to our community through the companionship of people who offer care in mourning.

Family and Remembrance

The Reading from the Prophet Jeremiah expresses the expectation that the Lord would reunite Israel and Judah as one kingdom under a just Davidic king.

* [30:1–31:40] These two chapters contain salvation oracles that originally expressed the double expectation that the Lord would return the exiled survivors of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and reunite Israel and Judah as one kingdom under a just Davidic king. They were probably composed early in Josiah’s reign (the reference of v. 9), when he took advantage of Assyria’s internal disintegration and asserted control over northern Israel (cf. 2 Kgs 23:15–17). With the destruction of Jerusalem, the oracles were re-worked to include Judah and their fulfillment along with the renewal of the Davidic dynasty became associated with the eschatological “day of the Lord.”

* [30:21] His leader: cf. v. 9. Approach me: i.e., in the sanctuary of the Temple for worship. This new David is given a priestly function to perform on behalf of the assembly. To approach God on one’s own brings death; cf. Lv 16:1–2. (Jeremiah, CHAPTER 30 |USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 102 recalls God’s venerable promises to save the poor.

* [Psalm 102] A lament, one of the Penitential Psalms. The psalmist, experiencing psychological and bodily disintegration (Ps 102:4–12), cries out to God (Ps 102:1–3). In the Temple precincts where God has promised to be present, the psalmist recalls God’s venerable promises to save the poor (Ps 102:13–23). The final part (Ps 102:24–28) restates the original complaint and prayer, and emphasizes God’s eternity. (Psalms, PSALM 102 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Matthew religious leaders ask why Jesus’ disciples are breaking the tradition of the elders.

* [15:2] The tradition of the elders: see note on Mk 7:5. The purpose of the handwashing was to remove defilement caused by contact with what was ritually unclean.

* [15:1–20] This dispute begins with the question of the Pharisees and scribes why Jesus’ disciples are breaking the tradition of the elders about washing one’s hands before eating (Mt 15:2). …Then with a wider audience (the crowd, Mt 15:10) he goes beyond the violation of tradition with which the dispute has started. The parable (Mt 15:11) is an attack on the Mosaic law concerning clean and unclean foods, similar to those antitheses that abrogate the law (Mt 5:31–32, 33–34, 38–39). After a warning to his disciples not to follow the moral guidance of the Pharisees (Mt 15:13–14)...

* [15:2] The tradition of the elders: see note on Mk 7:5. The purpose of the handwashing was to remove defilement caused by contact with what was ritually unclean.

* [15:13–14] Jesus leads his disciples away from the teaching authority of the Pharisees. (Matthew, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Keeping one's own heart with all watchfulness,” by Origen of Alexandria, 185-254 A.D.

"These things are what 'defiles the person' when they come out from the heart and, after they have gone out from it, go through the mouth. Thus if they did not occur outside of the heart but were held by the person somewhere around the heart, not being allowed to be spoken through the mouth, they would very quickly disappear and the person would not be defiled any longer. Therefore the source and beginning of every sin is 'evil reasonings.' For if these reasonings did not prevail, there would be neither murders nor acts of adultery nor any other of such things. Because of this each one ought to keep one's own heart with all watchfulness. (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 11.14-15) (Schwager, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler shares that the passage from Jeremiah is a lament on the woes of Israel that has not opened a way out of sin. So then God can restore them. He will restore and return them to what He wanted them to be purified and turn back to Him. The one planting will overcome the one harvesting. It will lead to a new Covenant. Jesus and disciples don’t wash before eating and the Pharisees and Scribes, who take the Law to its greatest extent, and wash hands before praying in the Temple also wash hands before eating. What goes into your mouth does not make you unclean. What you do externally means nothing. Superficial acts and not seeking to be transformed makes them Blind Guides not leading to truth. The final editor of the Gospel of Matthew is believed to be a converted Pharisee rejected as being connected to Jesus. Friar Jude suggests this might account for the number of passages where rejecting Pharisees is a means of getting back at his former friends?

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Hebrew Testament scholar Ellen Davis who points out that before Job’s friends launch into their lengthy speeches trying to justify Job’s suffering, their most compassionate action is to simply sit with him in his grief and suffering.

And they lifted up their eyes from a distance but could hardly recognize him. And they lifted up their voices and wept, and each one tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads into the air. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights without speaking a word to him, for they saw how great was his pain. (Job 2:12–13)

Those seven days of silence are surely one of the most influential acts of pastoral care ever performed. The Jewish practice of “sitting shiva” (literally “sitting seven,” when friends come to sit with mourners at home over the period of a week) memorializes the friends’ wise compassion in this long moment of shared grief. More than twenty-five hundred years after the book of Job was written, this one act of Job’s companions is imitated on a daily basis by comforters all over the world. Silence kept with others has a special quality. It is like a fine veil, preserving separateness, yet strangely heightening mutual awareness. Silence requires us to be present to the unexpressed needs of others, needs of which they may themselves not yet know. It is a powerful means of fostering mutual encouragement among us, whom God has entrusted to one another in this wilderness of pain and doubt. (Rohr, n.d.)

We are grateful for the comfort, counsel, and contemplation offered through the Spirit when we share the distress and concern of the people we encounter through our openness to join them in sorrow and to accompany their return to the rhythm of daily life.

References

Jeremiah, CHAPTER 30 |USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Reflections. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/30?1 

Matthew, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/15? 

Memorial of Saint John Vianney, Priest | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080426.cfm 

Psalms, PSALM 102 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings, Audio and Video Every Morning | USCCB. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/102?16 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Suffering and Silence. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/suffering-and-silence/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). It Is What Comes Out of the Mouth That Defiles. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 4, 2026, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/ 

Life Tokens

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to recall life experiences, events, and “tokens” that have made the love and care of God visible on our journey.

Tokens and Life

The reading from the Book of Numbers proclaims the Bronze Serpent.

* [21:5] This wretched food: apparently the manna is meant.

* [21:6] Seraph: the Hebrew name for a certain species of venomous snake; etymologically the word might signify “the fiery one.” Compare the winged throne guardians in Is 6:2, 6; see also Is 14:29; 30:6.

* [21:8] Everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover: in the Gospel of John this scene is regarded as a type for the crucifixion of Jesus (Jn 3:14–15).

* [21:9] King Hezekiah, in his efforts to reform Israelite worship, “smashed the bronze serpent Moses had made” (2 Kgs 18:4). (Numbers, CHAPTER 21 | USCCB, n.d.)

Psalm 102 is a prayer to the Eternal King for Help

* [Psalm 102] A lament, one of the Penitential Psalms. The psalmist, experiencing psychological and bodily disintegration (Ps 102:4–12), cries out to God (Ps 102:1–3). In the Temple precincts where God has promised to be present, the psalmist recalls God’s venerable promises to save the poor (Ps 102:13–23). The final part (Ps 102:24–28) restates the original complaint and prayer, and emphasizes God’s eternity. (Psalms, PSALM 102, n.d.)

In the Gospel of John, Jesus, the Father’s Ambassador, foretells His Death.

* [8:21–30] He whose ambassador I am is with me. Jesus’ origin is from God; he can reveal God.

* [8:21] You will die in your sin: i.e., of disbelief; cf. Jn 8:24. Where I am going you cannot come: except through faith in Jesus’ passion-resurrection.

* [8:22] The Jews suspect that he is referring to his death. Johannine irony is apparent here; Jesus’ death will not be self-inflicted but destined by God.

* [8:24, 28] I AM: an expression that late Jewish tradition understood as Yahweh’s own self-designation (Is 43:10); see note on Jn 4:26. Jesus is here placed on a par with Yahweh.

* [8:25] What I told you from the beginning: this verse seems textually corrupt, with several other possible translations: “(I am) what I say to you”; “Why do I speak to you at all?” The earliest attested reading (Bodmer Papyrus P66) has (in a second hand), “I told you at the beginning what I am also telling you (now).” The answer here (cf. Prv 8:22) seems to hinge on a misunderstanding of Jn 8:24 “that I AM” as “what I am.” (John, CHAPTER 8, n.d.)

David Crawford comments that for the Israelites suffering under Roman rule, Jesus Christ filled that role.  John 3:14-15 makes a direct connection:  And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  In today’s Gospel reading, when Jesus warns the Pharisees that unless they lift up the Son of Man, unless they believe as God would have them believe, they will die in their sins. 

That message resonates with us today.  Perhaps one lesson to be learned here is that when we focus on the troubles nipping at our heels, we are in serious trouble; but when we lift our gaze and put our focus on Christ, raised for all to see, healing and redemption are available to us.  Continually surrender your problems, challenges and worries to God, and continually trust in God.  In the word’s of an old hymn:  Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. (Crawford, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “Aided by Christ's grace,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"God the Father said: 'I sent you One who would seek you out, walk with you, and forgive you. So he had feet to walk with and hands to forgive with. Thus, when he ascended after his resurrection, he showed hands, side, and feet: hands with which he gave pardon to sinners; and side from which flowed the ransom of the redeemed.'" (excerpt from Sermon 16A,10) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Numbers 21:4-9 comments that the Lord wasn’t telling his people to worship a false god. He wanted to bring them to repentance for their lack of trust in him. So he gave them a graphic image of what happens when they turn away from him: sadness, suffering, and death. Looking upon that bronze serpent brought them face-to-face with the very real consequences of their sin.

We live in a world that avoids the harsh realities displayed on the cross. But the only way we can be saved is to confront those realities, confess our sin, and humbly ask Jesus to rescue us. So gaze at the cross today. Fix your eyes on the One who suffered so humbly out of love for you.

“We adore you, O Lord, for by your cross you have redeemed the world!” (Meditation on Numbers 21:4-9, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the bronze serpent that is a totemistic object that appears in Hebrew and Christian tradition to recognize healing by God including at shrines today where people acknowledge healing. Jesus' declaration of “I Am” to the Pharisees is not even subtle. Friar Jude notes that Jesus' exaltation on the Cross is fulfilling the Will of the Father.

Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes (1943–2024) reflects on the desert experiences of Jesus and the early Christians. She describes how we can live out this desert legacy and wisdom today. 

If the desert is a place of renewal, transformation, and freedom, and if the heat and isolation served as a nurturing incubator …, one wonders if a desert experience is necessary to reclaim this legacy.

We are in need of those values central to African [desert] monasticism and early Christian hospitality; they include communal relationships, humility, and compassion. Laura Swan sums up these virtues in the word apatheia, defined as “a mature mindfulness, a grounded sensitivity, and a keen attention to one’s inner world as well as to the world in which one has journeyed.” [1] Inevitably, the journey takes each of us in different directions; however, by virtue of circumstances or choice, each of us will at some point in our lives find ourselves on the outskirts of society listening to the silence coming from within. During these times, we realize that contemplation is a destination as well as a practice. The monastics knew this and valued both. (Holmes, n.d.)

We consider the role of “tokens” on our journey to connect us to events of conversion, healing, compassion, mercy, and love that reveal Divine truth, goodness, and Providence.

References

Crawford, D. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/040825.html 

Holmes, B. (n.d.). Recognizing Deserts Today. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/recognizing-deserts-today/ 

John, CHAPTER 8. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/8?21 

Meditation on Numbers 21:4-9. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/04/08/1243478/ 

Numbers, CHAPTER 21 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/numbers/21?4 

Psalms, PSALM 102. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/102?2 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). When You Have Lifted up the Son of Man. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved April 8, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=apr8