Blessed Action

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of the blessings we experience when we abandon selfish pursuits and seek humility and grace to build a community where all people are brothers and sisters.

Building community

In the reading from the First Book of Kings introduces Elijah who predicts a drought in Israel.

 * [17:1–24] The story of Elijah is in three parts. The first (chap. 17) describes how Elijah proclaimed a drought on God’s authority and how he survived during the drought. The second (chap. 18) describes how he ends the drought by bringing the populace back to exclusive worship of the Lord. The third (chap. 19) describes Elijah’s despair at the failure of his prophetic mission and his consequent attempt to resign from the prophetic office.1

Psalm 121 offers assurance of God’s protection.

 * [Psalm 121] A blessing given to someone embarking on a dangerous journey whether a soldier going on a campaign or a pilgrim returning home from the Temple. People look anxiously at the wooded hills. Will God protect them on their journey (Ps 121:1)? The speaker declares that God is not confined to a place or a time (Ps 121:2), that every step is guarded (Ps 121:3–4); night and day (Ps 121:5–6) God watches over their every movement (Ps 121:7–8).2

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew by presenting the Beatitudes.

 * [5:3–12] The form Blessed are (is) occurs frequently in the Old Testament in the Wisdom literature and in the psalms. Although modified by Matthew, the first, second, fourth, and ninth beatitudes have Lucan parallels (Mt 5:3 // Lk 6:20; Mt 5:4 // Lk 6:21b; Mt 5:6 // Lk 6:21a; Mt 5:11–12 // Lk 5:22–23). The others were added by the evangelist and are probably his own composition. A few manuscripts, Western and Alexandrian, and many versions and patristic quotations give the second and third beatitudes in inverted order.3

Colleen Chiacchere shares how a conversation with her daughter propelled her into a different but related perspective about how the Beatitudes apply to our world in this coronavirus pandemic.

 Blessed are those who sacrifice their own comfort and security for others…
Blessed are those on the front lines during this pandemic….
Blessed are those who are sad and missing their loves ones and struggling with isolation…
Blessed are those who are dying alone…
Blessed are those who are working tirelessly for a vaccine…
Blessed are those on the margins, who feel the brunt of the pandemic in deep and acute ways…
Blessed are those who are turning to God for help in balancing the upheaval of their lives…
These experiences of struggle, of hurt, of pain and of vulnerability are ways where we are invited to see God.  These are experiences where we are invited to know God’s intimate care and mercy for us.  Which invitations are we accepting?  Which invitations are we declining?4

Don Schwager asks: Is God enough for you? God offers us the greatest good possible - abundant life in Jesus Christ (John 10:10) and the promise of unending joy and happiness with God forever. Don quotes “Perfect blessedness is humility of spirit,” by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD).

 "'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' The Lord taught by way of example that the glory of human ambition must be left behind when he said, 'The Lord your God shall you adore and him only shall you serve' (Matthew 4:10). And when he announced through the prophets that he would choose a people humble and in awe of his words [Isaiah 66:2], he introduced the perfect Beatitude as humility of spirit. Therefore he defines those who are inspired as people aware that they are in possession of the heavenly kingdom... Nothing belongs to anyone as being properly one's own, but all have the same things by the gift of a single parent. They have been given the first things needed to come into life and have been supplied with the means to use them." (excerpt from commentary ON MATTHEW 4.2)5

The Word Among Us Meditation on Psalm 121:1-8 notes many Scripture scholars believe that in this particular psalm, the mountains represent danger and a source of anxiety. And that’s striking because the psalmist is declaring that even in the face of the most towering of obstacles, God will always help.

 We all have mountains in our lives—seemingly insurmountable obstacles that can obscure our vision of what lies ahead. We wonder how to care for an aging parent or a wayward child, how to find a job or pay the rent, or how to deal with a health crisis.
It’s in times like these that God wants us to focus not on our “mountains” but on him, the One who is creative and powerful and who “will guard your life . . . both now and forever” (Psalm 121:7, 8). As you look for his answer, persist in praying and searching the Scriptures. Be prepared for the possibility that God will help you through an idea that unexpectedly pops into your mind or through the wise counsel of a friend. He may even prompt you to act in a way you never imagined but that turns out to be the best course.6

Friar Jude Winkler provides background to the mission of Elijah in the northern kingdom of Israel in connection with Baal worship and Jezebel, wife of the king. As the crime, so the punishment is a theme in the Hebrew Testament. Friar Jude connects the Beatitudes to our humility, compassion, and brokenness.

StAnthonyCompanions · June 8, 2020

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that for a long time, he naively hoped that racism was a thing of the past. Those of us who are white have a very hard time seeing that we constantly receive special treatment [because of social systems built to prioritize people with white skin]. This systemic “white privilege” makes it harder for us to recognize the experiences of people of color as valid and real when they speak of racial profiling, police brutality, discrimination in the workplace, continued segregation in schools, lack of access to housing, and on and on. This is not the experience of most white people, so how can it be true? Now, we are being shown how limited our vision is.

 Of course, we all belong. There is no issue of more or less in the eyes of an Infinite God. Yet the ego believes the lie that there isn’t enough to go around and that for me to succeed or win, someone else must lose. And so we’ve greedily supported systems and governments that work to our own advantage at the expense of others, most often people of color or any highly visible difference. The advancement of the white person was too often at the cost of other people not advancing at all. A minor history course should make that rather clear...
Power [and privilege] never surrenders without a fight. If your entire life has been to live unquestioned in your position of power—a power that was culturally given to you, but you think you earned—there is almost no way you will give it up without major failure, suffering, humiliation, or defeat. As long as we really want to be on top and would take advantage of any privilege or short cut to get us there, we will never experience true “liberty, equality, fraternity” (revolutionary ideals that endure as mottos for France and Haiti).7

Fr Richard reminds us that like Jesus, St Francis, St Clare, and many other humble mystics, we then rush down instead of up. In the act of letting go and choosing to become servants, community can at last be possible. The illusory state of privilege just gets in the way of neighboring and basic human friendship. In humility, we have the opportunity to experience the blessings of the Beatitudes is our poverty, compassion, brokenness, and concentration on the image of God in all people and nature.

References

1	(n.d.). 1 Kings, chapter 17. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1kings17
2	(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 121. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/121
3	(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 5. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/5
4	(n.d.). Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries - Creighton University. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
5	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
6	(n.d.). Mass Readings and Catholic Daily Meditations for June 8, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2020, from https://wau.org/meditations/2020/06/08/
7	(2020, June 8). The Unspoken Privilege of Being White — Center for Action .... Retrieved June 8, 2020, from https://cac.org/the-unspoken-privilege-of-being-white-2020-06-08/

Living in the Light

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today use the image of the Light of God reflected by people to illuminate the action needed to achieve justice for the disadvantaged.

Light to see the need

The passage from the Prophet Isaiah describes the authentic fasting leads to blessing and our light shall rise in the darkness.

 * [58:6–12] Fasting is not genuine without reforming one’s way of life. A true social morality will ensure prosperity.1

Psalm 112 cites blessings of children, wealth that enables people to be magnanimous, and virtue by which they encourage others.

* [Psalm 112] An acrostic poem detailing the blessings received by those who remain close to God by obedience to the commandments. Among their blessings are children (Ps 112:2), wealth that enables them to be magnanimous (Ps 112:3, 5, 9), and virtue by which they encourage others (Ps 112:4). The just person is an affront to the wicked, whose hopes remain unfulfilled (Ps 112:10). The logic resembles Ps 1; 111.2 

The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians urges our response to proclaiming Christ crucified where His exalting power is paradoxically at work in the emptying, humiliation, and obedience of death on the cross.

* [2:3] The weakness of the crucified Jesus is reflected in Paul’s own bearing (cf. 2 Cor 10–13). Fear and much trembling: reverential fear based on a sense of God’s transcendence permeates Paul’s existence and preaching. Compare his advice to the Philippians to work out their salvation with “fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12), because God is at work in them just as his exalting power was paradoxically at work in the emptying, humiliation, and obedience of Jesus to death on the cross (Phil 2:6–11).3 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus uses similes of salt and light to describe our role in the world.

 * [5:13–16] By their deeds the disciples are to influence the world for good. They can no more escape notice than a city set on a mountain. If they fail in good works, they are as useless as flavorless salt or as a lamp whose light is concealed.4

Molly Mattingly finds the image of light undefeated by darkness gives her hope for the Church. If we are really trying to follow the Light, to follow Christ and discern what is of God, we’ll be on the right track.

That’s what saints do. Both the psalm and the Gospel today call us to live out our baptism, our participation in the life of Christ as his Body, in a public way: not hidden, secret, or private, but not exhibitionist, either. We are called to be foci of the Light not to draw attention to ourselves, but to point others towards Christ.
As a catechist, I attempted to answer a first-grader’s question about why saints have halos in paintings. The actual question was, “Why does St. Brigid have a pizza on her head?” (It was a rather orange halo with a gold border.) I said, “Remember how we talked about the Easter candle as the Light of Christ? The halo is a way to show in paintings that the light of Christ shone through that person’s life.”5 

Don Schwager quotes “The Light of Truth,” by Chromatius (died 406 AD).

 The Lord has already called his disciples the "salt of the earth" because they seasoned with divine wisdom the hearts of the human race which had been made tasteless by the devil. Now he also calls them the "light of the world." For, illumined by his very own self who is the true and eternal light, they too become light within the darkness. For since he himself is the sun of righteousness, he rightly also calls his disciples "light of the world." Through them, as if through shining rays, he poured the light of his knowledge on the entire world. For by showing the light of truth, the Lord's disciples made the darkness of error flee from people's hearts. (excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 19.1.1-2)6

Suzanne Guthrie, At the Edge of the Enclosure, offers her meditation on how some people seem to embody the Sermon on the Mount... Some are like cities set upon a hill - beacons relaying hope and challenge from hilltop to hilltop - torch to torch, light to light- against the darkness. They lean into the danger of the times in which they live, giving their lives to principles larger than themselves - dissidents, truth-tellers, reformers.

 How many lights to the world gutter like a failing candle through sheer poverty and want? How many salts-of-the-earth shiver in refugee camps in Europe and the Middle East and on the border of Bangladesh and the United States, or waste away by starvation in Somalia or Northeastern Nigeria or South Sudan? Or, for that matter, what blessings of hope and love diminish in any neighborhood in any part of the world for want of necessities of body and mind, soul and spirit?
Arrogance, indifference, laziness stealthily hardens the heart into its own pleasant dungeon lit by its own selfish light.
God have mercy! What can I do? Isaiah answers:
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?7

The Word Among Us Meditation on Matthew 5:13-16 comments this passage might make us feel like we have to get out on a soapbox and start preaching on a street corner—right now. Of course, we should talk to people about our faith, but it’s not the only way to be a salty, light-filled, positive influence.

 One of the most effective ways you have an impact on the world around you is in how you behave. Your actions speak volumes to family, friends, neighbors, even strangers. Jesus himself says that our “good deeds” help people see and glorify God (Matthew 5:16). Isaiah goes so far as to say that actions like sharing what we have and not turning our back on people have the power to turn the gloom around us into “midday” (58:10).
If you look around, you’re certain to see areas that seem dark. Gossip might be out of control in your neighborhood. At home, your spouse might be deflated by a setback at work. A child you know might be the victim of bullying. There may even be a poor or homeless family huddled just outside your church door.8

Friar Jude Winkler discusses the Scripture passages for today.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, quotes Paula D’Arcy who says, “God comes to us disguised as our lives.” While Christians emphasize Tradition and/or Scripture as sources of truth, she believes we balance them with our own experiences. We can only know God and reality within the context of our own personal experiences of time, place, culture, class, education, etc. There are as many ways of knowing as there are people who have lived! Fr. Richard reflects:

 How we know and what we know are shaped by our experience. Speaking for myself, it is clear that my privilege as a white, formally educated, financially secure man (even though I am a Franciscan) influences what I see and how I understand it. My privilege also limits my perspective in many ways. While I didn’t choose to “have” while others “have not,” if I’m not actively working toward equity, even my passive participation enables systems of inequality and injustice. Jesus continually invites me to see differently by encountering and engaging with those on the bottom.  
The system benefitting me was never intended to benefit all. And because the system benefits me, I don’t need to see it clearly. On the other hand, those who do not receive its benefits are required to see it for their very survival. Thus, God calls us to “not conform to the pattern of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds” through relationship with those who see life from a different perspective than we do (see Romans 12:2)9.

The Light of Christ reveals the world around us and makes clear our mission to join the Good Shepherd in bringing Love and Peace to the chaos that is the consequence of poor choices in our lives and those of our fore bearers.

References

1	(n.d.). Isaiah, chapter 58 - United States Conference. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/58
2	(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 112 - United States Conference. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/psalms/112
3	(n.d.). 1 Corinthians, chapter 2 - United States Conference. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/2
4	(n.d.). Matthew, chapter 5 - United States Conference. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/5
5	(n.d.). Daily Reflections - OnlineMinistries .... Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
6	(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
7	(n.d.). At the Edge of the Enclosure. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/epiphany5a.html
8	(n.d.). 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mass Readings and Catholic .... Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://wau.org/meditations/2020/2/9/
9	(2020, February 9). To Know Thee More Clearly — Center for Action and .... Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://cac.org/to-know-thee-more-clearly-2020-02-09/

Avoiding Lazarus

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present stark images of the consequence of living without guidance from the Presence of God.

Boys & Girls Club Annual Breakfast at NSCC Akerley Campus @BGCGreaterHfx pic.twitter.com/3d2PdqHYM2

— Tony Mancini (@TonyMancini_NS) February 28, 2018

The Prophet Jeremiah compares those who trust in human direction rather than the will of God to a barren bush in the wasteland.

In the Gospel from Luke the wealthy man who avoids seeing poor Lazarus experiences an eternal reversal of fortune.

* [16:19–31] The parable of the rich man and Lazarus again illustrates Luke’s concern with Jesus’ attitude toward the rich and the poor. The reversal of the fates of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk 16:22–23) illustrates the teachings of Jesus in Luke’s “Sermon on the Plain” (Lk 6:20–21, 24–25).

Beth Samson reminds us of the responsibility that comes with the privilege we are afforded by our race, or social position.

Who or what has been the Lazarus in my experience?Have I responded with the compassion and sharing our communities need? How can I better notice and tend to the Lazarus around me?

James Sledge does not need much convincing that white privilege is a real problem in North America, but that doesn't mean he truly sees it. He really cannot imagine that if his car broke down a police officer who stopped to investigate might even consider shooting him.

I recently read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It moved me more than any book I've read in a long time because it opened my eyes. By that I mean that it allowed me to see as another does, to experience a terrible fear and dread and anger that I have never known in my lifetime of middle-class whiteness. I wonder if I didn't experience something akin to what the rich man felt when he actually saw Lazarus for the first time (if in fact he ever did; read the parable yourself and see what you think).

Don Schwager quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D. on the Creator of both rich and poor.

"God made both the rich and the poor. So the rich and the poor are born alike. You meet one another as you walk on the way together. Do not oppress or defraud anyone. One may be needy and another may have plenty. But the Lord is the maker of them both. Through the person who has, He helps the one who needs - and through the person who does not have, He tests the one who has." (excerpt from Sermon 35, 7)

Nathan Albright, in the Edge Induced Cohesion blog, reflects upon one of the most striking similarities between late Second Temple Judaism and present day nominal Christianity.

Both of these religious systems believed in a form of “prosperity gospel” that we find roundly condemned in Job.  In this heathen and ungodly mindset, those who are wealthy are considered to be righteous, and those who are poor are considered to be ungodly, as if they were to blame for their poverty and that it was the virtue of the wealthy that made them righteous.  In such a society where wealth and poverty were judged to be the result of morality, poverty was a sign of immorality, as if it meant that one was lazy or some kind of addict.

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the human tendency to hurt those who hurt us as he contrasts this attitude with an undercurrent of goodness in those connected to God. The rich man in the Gospel can't cross a chasm of attitude of selfishness and invulnerability. The Buddhist description of chopsticks 5 ft long in heaven illustrates the error in this attitude.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, draws on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Beatrice Bruteau, to encourage that we recognize two motivations for including some knowledge of science in our contemplative lives.

one, we need to understand God’s artistic work in order to appreciate it properly and relate lovingly to the Creator; two, we need to know something of the work in order to join it, to participate in creating the world from here on. This last is the real way of loving, that is, by joining in the life of the beloved.

When we avoid using the gifts we have been given for the benefit of others we refuse to join in the work of God and the lives of his children.

References


(n.d.). Jer 17:1. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/jeremiah17.htm

(n.d.). Luke 16:19-31. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/luke16.htm

(n.d.). Online Ministries - Creighton University. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2011, April 30). Luke 16:19-31: Lazarus And The Rich Man | Edge Induced Cohesion. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011/04/30/luke-16-19-31-lazarus-and-the-rich-man/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 1, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/

Inspired by Presence to act against greed