Great Love Celebrated Today

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene


The Roman Catholic Lectionary today offers texts to celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene. The passage from John’s Gospel has been at the centre of much theology. The USCCB web page on John 20:1-2, 11-18 gives a starting point. The psalmist and the passage from the Song of Songs speak of great love. This is one of the life events which Richard Rohr suggests can open people to the movement of the indwelling Spirit towards the Divine through the suppression of the ego. Mary addresses Jesus as ‘teacher”. The tradition tells us that Mary’s great love of Jesus is rooted in her personal understanding of the forgiveness of her sins through Jesus love. The forgiveness and mercy of God blossom into love as Mary learns the Way from Jesus. It is a day to reflect on the transcendent power of great love.

The Good Soil is within

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today includes the Parable of the Sower from Matthew’s Gospel. This story tells the fate of seed that falls in four locations; the path, rocky ground, among thorns and in good soil. Recently, the media have featured articles about the “bad seed”. The implication of the bad seed is someone who is inherently bad. This is not the idea in today’s parable. Today the preparation for growth and the environment for growth are probed. The will to hear the news for growth is an essential first step. What creates this desire to hear? Some observers of human spiritual development like Richard Rohr suggest that great love and great suffering are pathways to defeating the ego and opening the person to hear the “good news”. The commissioning of the prophet Jeremiah is in response to an invitation from God, with which Jeremiah expresses much unworthiness, yet he is open to allow God to heal the unworthy sense which holds him back. This is the “good soil” which was the spiritual environment of Jeremiah. He tells of hearing the Word of God and of a revelation that he has always been “known” to the Divine. This foundation of intimacy with the Divine exists in all humanity through the indwelling Spirit. The preparation for the sowing of seeds for growth is to connect with the inner “good soil” within all people which is in communion with God.

We are Family

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today presents texts which celebrate the compassion of God and discuss the meaning of kinship for humanity. Micah and the psalmist address the nature of God that delights in showing clemency to humanity which has not been faithful to the will of God. Matthew relates an episode where Jesus uses an apparent visit by his human family to offer the kinship with the Divine that his disciples are discovering to all who will seek and do the will of the Father. Micah uses the image of God as shepherd. He encourages God to “use His staff” to guide the people. The staff is the shepherd’s tool to be more forceful in guiding and protecting the flock. The “staff” points out the plan of the shepherd. The will of the Divine is the desired movement of the kin of Jesus. It is the guide for “family” action. As we participate as brothers and sisters of Jesus in the Body of Christ, we look to the Shepherd to point out the plan of the Father and we allow the Spirit to resonate within to move us to action in response to the plan revealed to “family”.

Open our eyes to see the Way

Matthew’s Gospel in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary, today, shows Jesus response to the desire for a sign from the Pharisees. The request of the Pharisees is often our request. The prophet Micah addresses the need of a “direct answer” from God about what He requires with a detailing of the great saving deeds of God and of the inappropriateness of the ‘easy’ response to God. The message is to be love as we have experienced love, but Micah yields to provide some ‘concrete’ strategies to be Love. The psalmist echoes “Divine exasperation with humanity”. The path which the Divine offers requires discipline and surrender. We seek the list of things to do but the process is difficult and we want to try it some other way. Jesus invites us to open our eyes. The Spirit makes the Kingdom immanent. We need to “open the eyes of Faith” and see the Way.

Hospitality, anger, priorities and Providence

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today features texts which can begin thoughts of “what is really necessary?” Hospitality is a background and a counterpoint for the discussion. Luke tells of Jesus visit to friends Mary and Martha. We know people who are Martha. They do the hospitality for the guest. They prepare the food. They set it out. They attend to the guest. Maybe they complain for lack of help? The desire to be justified and approved in our work is strong and perhaps needs control. We are presented with many distractions and often the attention given to distractions causes us to miss the more significant opportunities for wholeness which may be right in front of our face. Jesus directs Martha to consider this. Paul exhorts the Colossians to awake to the greatest opportunity in the message he brings that is “Christ in you”. The Divine is intimately present in humanity. The distractions which draw us away from this relationship need to be identified. The actions which pull us into this relationship perhaps like those described in Genesis by Abraham towards his visitors need to be fully explored. The psalmist lists some characteristics and qualities of those who “will not be moved” from the relationship with God. Is our path crystal clear? I think not. Clarity comes from considering each circumstance in the light of the desire of the Divine to draw us in and allowing ourselves to be drawn. Larry Gillick, S.J. of the Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality offers an insight into hospitality, anger, priorities and Providence in reflection on the texts for today.

Not religious nor political but working through both

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary and the homily at Mass this morning can be placed together in a reflection on the place of Jesus and Christians today in the conflicts of religion and political activism. The Gospel of Matthew indicates that the Pharisees, the religious authorities had formed a plan to destroy Jesus. Today’s homily indicated that the account of this in Mark’s gospel indicated that the Herodians, the supporters of the political monarchy also sought the death of Jesus. It seems that both religious practice and civil practice were disturbed by the “rabbi” who did not follow the rules. The social action which is based primarily in political action and the worship which is based in religiosity are not recognized by Jesus. We need to be wary of giving our attention to these means. The psalmist reminds us of the deep concern of God for the poor (another translation: the afflicted). It is the concern that humanity finds in the indwelling Spirit that will bring the care of God to the people. This is the care of brother for brother and sister, of parent for child and grandchild. Our fidelity to love and our action to care is rooted in the movement of the indwelling Spirit to be intimate with the Creator. It is beyond religion and politics yet it may be evidenced at work in both these fields.

Sacred and Intimate

The texts in the Roman Catholic lectionary, today, offer a line of reflection around intercession and the distance between humanity and Divinity. The texts from Isaiah reflect a realization of the promises of the prophet coming to fruition in the illness of Hezekiah and the appeal of the sinful one to avoid his fate of eternal damnation. The prophet Isaiah intercedes for Hezekiah and the mercy and forgiveness of the Divine is demonstrated. Matthew tells of Jesus questioning some of this ‘distance” from the Divine by posing a response to the “harvesting” of some grain to eat on the Sabbath. Humanity has a sense of sacred which can be visited by looking at a baby or billion stars in the sky. We need to preserve, revere, set aside, make special all the sacred genetic, cultural and spiritual events which connect with that sense of sacred. Christian history, perhaps from the time of Paul, has indicated that we are the Body of Christ. The “distance” of the Divine is the distance to our indwelling Spirit. Jesus is reminding us that the blocks we put up to this intimacy may not be so much an honouring of “sacred” as a reluctance to live our state as intimate relatives of the Divine.
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