How pervasive a Presence!

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary present Presence of God as the all encompassing "unified field" of the universe. This appreciation which Richard Rohr, in his latest book "Falling Upward", associates with deep time awareness is proclaimed in the Book of Wisdom as a kindly Spirit which has filled the world and holds all things together. The condition of our "receiver", a model Rohr uses in his book "The Naked Now" is presented by the Wisdom author as having an impact on the quality of our perception of the Presence. The foolish, distrustful, insincere and those caught up in their addictions have damaged receivers. The psalmist reminds us of God who is part of our most insignificant actions and aware of our intimate thoughts is at our side always prepared to lead us and hold us in relationship. The Gospel from Luke parallels the Presence with the advice that we need be wary of acting against the Will of God, in particular, if we show others ways in which they may be lead away from intimacy with the Divine. Always those who are aware of the Presence have the directive to be forgiving as God is forgiving. The faith which is the fruit and the necessary component of acting in accord with Will of God is Present in sufficient quantity to accomplish the mission.

Is wisdom rare?

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today present an opportunity to reflect on wisdom. The Book of Wisdom personifies wisdom as a desirable aspect of our relationship with God. She is found by those who seek her. We do turn to the Divine for wisdom and our experience is that we do encounter her on our paths and in our thoughts. The letter of Paul to the Thessalonians is one of the earliest Christian texts. Paul addresses the coming of the Lord as an early concern of this community. Friar Jude Winkler suggests that perhaps a member of the community has died and the survivors need to understand the situation of their friend when Jesus returns. The early Church expected Jesus to return within their life times. The liturgical year is drawing to a close and the Church brings us liturgy and Word to encourage reflection on the end times. The Gospel of Matthew contrasts the situation of those who are prepared to enter into the deep relationship with Jesus, the bridegroom with those who appear to be missing the opportunity. Wisdom is presented as the quality of the prepared bridesmaids who have used their resources to acquire enough of the valuable oil to see them through. The ill prepared have apparently decided not to use their resources to prepare to be able to see the bridegroom and as a result will not be able to accompany him into the wedding. The message of Matthew advises that we do not know when the end of our earthly lives will happen. It is never too early to prepare our lamps for that time.

Mastering our service

The Gospel of Luke from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today brings us close to the tension between the use and proper treatment of wealth, especially that of others, and the declaration of Jesus that we cannot serve two masters; "God and wealth". The conclusion of the Gospel passage today reminds us that the thinking of God and people are not the same. The psalmist positions humanity in the proper role of praising and proclaiming thanksgiving for the mighty acts of God which we witness daily. Does this vast difference in power and impact on the universe take away our responsibilities for wealth management?  The "prosperity gospel" may require professional wealth management as a prudent action to maximize our ROI!  One danger may be that the object becomes the "best return" on our financial investment rather than the investment in the love of people which is the work of God. The letter to the Romans which concludes with the passage today praises the action of God through the obedience of faith to send those proclaiming the Good News to the Gentiles who, according to religious authorities, were not the chosen ones. The action plan for using our time, treasure and talent needs to be exercised through trusting our faith in our relationship with Jesus through the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God to use our resources in the service of one Master.

Contrast and contradiction

The texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today initially present some contradiction to our usual assumptions. Paul writes to the Romans about the success he has had in his missionary work. He refers to his boasting about his work. The context of this passage is explained in the commentary today by Friar Jude Winkler. Paul is planning to go to Jerusalem and he is appealing for the support of the community in Rome to present himself in the best way to the Church in Jerusalem who may have reservations about him based on his former life as persecutor of the Way. In the Gospel of Luke, Friar Jude explains that Jesus is using the appreciation of Middle East culture for cleverness to create the contrast between how people are clever about making their way in the world and doing all the clever things to succeed, yet they do not apply similar strategic thinking to the mission of the spiritual journey. We need to deal with a tension between attending to the will and direction of God, as we perceive it, and be open to respond with trust and yes to the prompting of the Spirit and the requirement that Jesus and Paul illustrate today to make use of the strategic skills we have developed in human relations and getting along in the world for the greater victory through the "right hand and holy arm" of God which the psalmist proclaims will be seen by all the ends of the earth.

Of course, we loose!

The spiritual journey includes our path through life and death as Paul speaks to the Romans in the text today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. The psalmist addresses the natural human fear of death with the proclamation that the Lord is my light and my salvation. Richard Rohr, in Falling Upward, emphasizes the necessity of death to self in the completion of the spiritual journey toward transcendent intimacy with the Divine. The Gospel of Luke in Chapter 15, Rohr writes, contains 3 stories of loss. The sheep, a coin and a son are lost.  He comments that these parable are about loosing something, searching for it with some effort, finding it again and rejoicing about the return of the lost. This seems to be the necessary path of spiritual growth. We are always loosing, searching and regaining. The advice of the psalmist as we move through these phases is to believe that we shall see the goodness of the Lord and to be strong and let our hearts take courage especially when we are at the stage of anticipating loss or struggling to find the lost part of our relationship with God. Paul cautions against judgement of our neighbours who may be in the necessary struggle portion of their current search. We trust that they like we will regain the state where "every tongue shall give praise to God"

Faithful and Falling Upward

Today the Church commemorates the faithful departed and the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary are familiar to us who have attended liturgies to mark the passing of friends and family. In his recent book, Falling Upward, Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr addresses the second half of our spiritual journey when we are dismissing the ego which got us through the first phase of the journey and we are accepting the answer of Jesus in the Gospel of John today that the grain of wheat must die to bear much fruit. As part of this change in our approach to growing in intimacy with God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we enter an experience of a second journey where as Rohr puts it, relative to yesterday's texts, that life based on the 8 Beatitudes replaces life driven by the Ten Commandments. We are aware of both the human death to self and the resurrection of intimacy in our relationship with the Divine. This is the intimacy about which Job proclaims that he knows that his Redeemer lives ! The psalmist echoes the praise of the second half journey which is aware through experience of the steadfast love and compassion of God. With Paul we stand today in anticipation of the moment into which we have already entered by intimacy and transcendent Presence when the life of all from all time will be known to us as resurrection

Seeking and seeing

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary on the feast of All Saints point to the state and the struggle of those who pursue an intimate communion with the Divine. The psalmist seeks to answer the question of who shall stand in the holy place. The state of being in that place is one of clean hands and a pure heart. How can broken and tempted flesh get there? The text from Revelation is a vision of those who have been robed in the white garments of pure hearts through being washed in the blood of the Lamb. It is not a triumph of our sheer will power that moves us to the resonance of our indwelling Spirit with the Spirit of God but the love of God, proclaimed in the first letter of John, which empowers us to live as the Beatitude people of Matthew's Gospel  who are poor in spirit; knowing our broken-ness, comfort for those who mourn; from our experience of the Comfort of the Spirit, meek; as we seek humility and death of our ego, desiring righteousness; for the peace which surpasses when we are aligned with the Will of the Father, merciful; for our very being is sustained by His mercy, moving toward a pure heart; which removes the veil through which we see darkly, peacemakers; as He sought to reconcile Jew and Gentile, persecuted in the tension between being in a relationship with the Divine in a world which does not know Him and receiving consolation that the choice to respond to the invitation to seek the face of God is authentic as evidenced by the reaction of the original sin in the world.