Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we are once again enjoined:
Alleluia, alleluia. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
In other words, just listen!
This verse is repeated so often because it’s so important! And the rest of our readings illustrate that fact.
In our first reading King Ahaz is in a mess with a lot of cleverly named guys trying to take over Jerusalem. Apparently Ahaz is a nervous wreck about the situation when God says, “Just listen – it’s going to be OK!”
And don’t you just love the way God encourages Isaiah to support Ahaz. God tells Isaiah to stay calm and calls the bad guys “two stumps of smoldering brands”:
Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear; let not your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans, and of the son Remaliah,
In our Gospel, Jesus warns his Capernaum neighbors about what can happen when we ignore God’s voice. Jesus loves this little village and has settled there in his early ministry. But he is upset with them:
And as for you, Capernaum:
Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the nether world.
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
Matthew 11: 22-24
So, even though today’s readings are pretty heavy, the message is simple:
Soften your heart in silence and reflection
Just listen to God speaking in your life
Act on the loving Word given to you
Prose: from Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse repeats one of the treasured yet challenging Beatitudes:
Alleluia, alleluia. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Sometimes, the word “righteous” can fall harshly on the mind. Over the years, it has acquired a tinge of Bible-banging fundamentalism. Even in secular culture, a “self-righteous” person is repellent.
But the “righteousness” which is our heritage from both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures is a caring and dynamic discernment born of Wisdom and Mercy. It is a virtue the disciple seeks in imitation of the Beloved.
Israel’s characteristic grammar in speaking of Yahweh, governed by active verbs, regularly insisted that Yahweh is a major player in Israel’s life and in the life of the world. Yahweh’s characteristic presentation in Israel’s rhetoric is that Yahweh acts powerfully, decisively, and transformatively. Yahweh is morally serious and demanding, so that Yahweh is endlessly attentive to distinctions of good and evil, justice and injustice. Indeed, it is palpable power and moral seriousness that distinguish Yahweh from all rival gods, who have no power to act decisively and no capacity for moral distinctions.
In our first reading, we meet this righteous God who is fed up with the people’s dissembling.
When you come in to visit me, who asks these things of you? Trample my courts no more! Bring no more worthless offerings; your incense is loathsome to me.
Isaiah 1: 12-13
Instead, Isaiah’s God states clearly what makes one righteous:
Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.
Isaiah 1: 16-17
Jesus tells us that it’s not easy to be such a person. You’re going to suffer for your acts of justice and mercy because we live in a world that honors vengeance and oppression instead. You’re going to be insulted, mocked and ostracized for your righteousness – for your desire to “right-balance” life for all human beings.
Brueggemann tells us that, nevertheless, this is our call:
The purpose of human life, a life of vocation, fellowship, and witness is to attest the truth of God’s solidarity with is, that is in justice, righteousness, compassion, steadfast love, and faithfulness.
Poetry: A Psalm of Life – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Anyone with a little interest in English poetry, must have had this poem etched into memory; hence no guesses about Longfellow’s best poem. Such is its evocative eloquence, such is its superior effect on every person regardless of class, religion and nationality that it transcends the boundaries of a mere song, and in the right sense, transforms into a psalm – a path to be followed for glorified and righteous life. Recited at Senate meetings, public gatherings and even at churches, this poem is sometimes speculated to have inspired Longfellow after he had come across a board in a German graveyard. Certainly his greatest, ‘Psalm of Life’ seems to have varied ideas where each quatrain is a guideline in itself. (from classical poets.org)
A Psalm of Life – (1839) What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act,—act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
Music: I just had to offer a beautiful song from the Righteous Brothers on this “righteous” day. 🙂
I believe for every drop of rain that falls A flower grows I believe that somewhere in the darkest night A candle glows I believe for everyone who goes astray Someone will come To show the way I believe, I believe
I believe above a storm the smallest prayer Can still be heard I believe that someone in the great somewhere Hears every word
Every time I hear a new born baby cry Or touch a leaf or see the sky Then I know why, I believe
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings take us on a centuries-long journey from Sinai nearly to the foot of Calvary.
Our guideline for the pilgrimage is the Word:
given first to Moses
cherished in Psalms
and finally revealed in the full glory of the Incarnated Christ.
Throughout the ages, each of us receives the same direction to holiness as that given by Moses thousands of years ago:
If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God…
The young man in today’s Gospel requests such direction straight from the mouth of Jesus. And he receives it in the form of an iconic story which holds in simplicity all the ponderous theology of the ages:
Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
With this story, Jesus translates into action that age-old Biblical Word:
Hear Mercy
Love Mercy
Do Mercy
Become Mercy
Poetry: Ramadan – Erik K. Taylor
It was the month of Ramadan,
the month when Muslims fast.
From the day’s first light,
when they could tell a white thread from a black one,
until evening hid the difference again,
they did not eat, did not drink, and
– here in rural Liberia –
did not even swallow their own spit.
We were three thousand miles from home
when the telegram came.
My mother’s father had died.
From Gbapa, three miles away,
five dark-skinned Mandingo men
came walking to our house.
Students from her English class,
a class in a building with mud-brick walls
and a tin roof that pinged in the rain.
She drove to them several nights each week,
teaching them to write “hut” and “mat” and “cat,”
drawing little pictures beside the words.
But this day, they came to her,
walking over dusty, rust-colored roads,
under the African sun.
They came to sit with her,
to offer what comfort they could.
We could not offer them water or coke or tea.
For a few hours they sat, talking in soft voices,
stepping out occasionally to spit.
Then home again…
waiting for black and white to merge back into one.
Someone once asked Jesus
what it meant to love our neighbor.
He said it was to be those men.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse captures the mixed and even contradictory conditions awaiting a dedicated disciple of Christ:
Alleluia, alleluia. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of God rests upon you.
This brief verse immediately brought to my mind the image of Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. He had wonderful, faith-filled dialogues with God about his seemingly contradictory “blessings”.
So here’s a snapshot of how I prayed with our verse today:
God: You’re going to be insulted for your faith, but consider it a blessing. Me: What! Wait a minute! Maybe I’d prefer some more obvious blessings! God: No, you’re going to be insulted for your faith, but it’s a sign that my Spirit rests upon you. Me: ….. Crickets
I have been insulted and harassed for my faith, but not too often. Usually that occasional insult has come from a sad or dysfunctional source who caused more harm to themselves than to me.
The greatest insult to my faith has come from within the Church itself. The clerical sex abuse scandals and cover-ups of recent years deeply shook the investment I had made in service of the Church. The revelations mocked the innocent trust I had unquestioningly placed in the institutional Church. They invited public insult toward me and toward all of us associated with that now exposed institution.
Although my pain cannot be compared to the trauma of survivors of abuse, it has been a seismic insult and has forced me to a deeper discernment of my faith. While profoundly painful, this “insult” has, indeed, been a blessing which has helped me to separate my true Catholic faith from any misplaced institutional devotion.
The closing verses of today’s Gospel are both a warning and a pledge for those who commit themselves to Christ:
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.
Poetry: The Break of Faith – Renee Yann, RSM
My father walked with me each day in Lent
past neighbors’ homes with names
and histories like mine,
to church, where laborers in solid faith,
received a Host before the Mass began
and left to be at work on time.
Some days, my father left but I remained
secure among the faithful whose
religion was a sure as rock.
I trusted and believed their saying
salvation was reserved for those
within the Church, praying
at ten or twelve to be like
the elite who held the ancient definitions
of the God I longed to know.
Those devoted people were
the heroes of my youth.
I beat my breast with secret joy and knelt
beside them in the unexamined truth.
Some were robed in black and wafted
scents of incense and of candle wax
that were to me like fine, intoxicant perfume.
Through them, I chose the worship of a God
who was the slim abstraction of my mind
the mute extension of my whim.
But my mind is not the tender thing it was.
The years have passed and I have hardened
to them, like a lone, maturing tree.
The deeply venerated guides I loved
have journeyed with my father to the pale,
expanded universe of memory.
That I stand questioning them now is jeopardy
against the very pegs that ground my life.
I am outside the Church they held for me
because it seems a box remote from God,
who, with the years, assumed Creation’s face,
became a fire in my heart, consuming
those securities I designated once as faith.
The theologian says we walk in footsteps of a God
who comes to us from futures we cannot define.
That God of paradox is breaking in my mind
like lava breaks from stolid earth
to recreate the world. But,
with an utterly profound regret,
I leave the heroes and the saints of youth behind.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse makes an amazing promise.
Alleluia, alleluia. When the Spirit of truth comes, you will be guided to all truth and reminded of all I told you.
John 16:13-14
We will be guided and re-minded by the Spirit of God! We will have a refreshed mind and sense of sacred purpose!
Perhaps like Hosea’s community, we have been exhausted, “collapsed” from a lack of grace and spiritual vitality. The lack may be within or around us, from our own negligence or from a world too heavy with evil. But Hosea proclaims that, if we turn to God with our “words” – our prayer – God will respond:
I will be like the dew for my beloved: who shall blossom like the lily; who shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth abundant shoots. My dear one’s splendor shall be like the olive tree with a fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Hosea 14: 6-7
Jesus continues and fulfills that promise in his own time and in ours. We live in a world still plagued by the sinfulness Jesus describes for his disciples in today’s Gospel. It is an overwhelming darkness at times and we can become heavy with it. We may feel we have no strength to stand against it, nor words to speak for change.
Jesus assures us that the refreshing “dew” of Hosea is abundantly available to us through our life in the Holy Spirit.
Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your God speaking through you.
Matthew 10:19-20
Let’s not take that amazing gift and promise for granted. Let’s not fail to believe that the Spirit of Truth is with us to guide and remind us of our immense power for good.
Poetry: The World Is Too Much With Us – William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; For this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, the Alleluia Verse repeats yesterday’s declaration with an added encouragement
Alleluia, alleluia. The Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel.
In the tender passage from Hosea, we imagine God as a tender, grieving mother whose child has turned away from Her Love:
Thus says the LORD: When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to her cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.
Our Responsorial Psalm is a plea from that “child” to be welcomed back by God:
Once again, O LORD of hosts, look down from heaven, and see: Take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted, the beloved creature whom you yourself made strong.
And in our Gospel, we receive the announcement and the urgent invitation telling us WHY it is time to turn toward God:
Jesus said to his Apostles: “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
I think it’s safe to say that in most lives there are elements that jeopardize, or at least inhibit, our relationship with God. We have both responsibilities and distractions that divert our intention from a deep spiritual life.
With today’s readings God is asking us to turn around from these distractions and look into the eyes of Infinite Love. We can begin by praying this simple and powerful verse from our Psalm – for ourselves and for our world.
Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved.
Poetry: ― Rabindranath Tagore from Gitanjali
Day after day, O Lord of my life, shall I stand before thee face to face. With folded hands, O Lord of all worlds, shall I stand before thee face to face.
Under thy great sky in solitude and silence, with humble heart shall I stand before thee face to face.
In this laborious world of thine, tumultuous with toil and with struggle, among hurrying crowds shall I stand before thee face to face.
And when my work shall be done in this world, O King of kings, alone and speechless shall I stand before thee face to face.
Music: Show Me Your Face, Lord – Steffany Gretzinger
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our first reading and Responsorial Psalm encourage us to seek God.
Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the LORD …
And our Gospel proclaims that we have already found God through Jesus Christ.
Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, …. “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
The word “seek” is one we don’t use frequently, except to describe games that hide things from us – “Seek and Find”, “Hide and Seek”. In these games, someone is trying to fool us or outwit us.
But God is not trying to hide from us. Our scriptures are about a whole different kind of seeking. We might think of it like this:
Have you ever opened a kitchen drawer looking for a particular utensil but been unable to find it? You might exclaim aloud, “Where’s that darn corkscrew???!!!”, just as your sister leans in and picks it out of the drawer for you.
It was right there in front of you all the time. You just couldn’t see it — couldn’t put your hand on it.
Jesus tells us it is like that with the Kingdom of Heaven. We may be seeking it with all our effort while all the while it is right at hand. We sometimes fail to see the “touchable grace” in our lives because we throw a camouflage of unawareness or ingratitude over it.
Alleluia, alleluia. The Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel.
The poet Mary Oliver offers the antidote to that kind of blindness:
Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
Mary Oliver
Today, let’s pay attention to the wonder of our lives. Let’s seek God’s face in our ordinary circumstances. God is not hiding – we just have to look with the insightful eyes of faith, love, and hope.
Poetry: Rumi
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, a double-sided theme runs through our readings
Our first reading references idols of silver and gold, “the work of artisans, no god at all”.
The Responsorial Psalm describes in detail how the power of God’s creative Word contrasts to these mute and powerless idols.
Our God is in heaven;
whatever God wills, God does.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the handiwork of men.
R. Alleluia.
They have mouths but speak not;
they have eyes but see not;
They have ears but hear not;
they have noses but smell not.
R. Alleluia.
They have hands but feel not;
they have feet but walk not.
Their makers shall be like them,
everyone that trusts in them.
R. Alleluia
In today’s Gospel, we see the power of the Living Word, Jesus, to release the mute man from his demons. As we pray with this Gospel, we can think of the word “mute” in many ways.
Wherever truth, integrity, kindness and respect are stifled – whether in us or in others – God’s desire to speak to and through us is muted.
Sometimes we mute ourselves by burying our true voice under a blanket of pretenses, frivolities, excuses, or useless ambitions. We can mute others by our prejudices, judgements and indifference. And we can do it all so easily, like flipping a button on the TV remote!
Let’s pray to be amazed today, as were the Gospel crowds, at the power of Jesus to free the Word in us!
Poetry: In Silence by Thomas Merton
Be still. Listen to the stones of the wall. Be silent, they try to speak your
name. Listen to the living walls.
Who are you? Who are you? Whose silence are you?
Who (be quiet) are you (as these stones are quiet). Do not think of what you are still less of what you may one day be.
Rather be what you are (but who?) be the unthinkable one you do not know.
O be still, while you are still alive, and all things live around you
speaking (I do not hear) to your own being, speaking by the unknown that is in you and in themselves.
“I will try, like them to be my own silence: and this is difficult. The whole world is secretly on fire. The stones burn, even the stones they burn me. How can a man be still or listen to all things burning? How can he dare to sit with them when all their silence is on fire?”
Music: Echo of Our Souls – Kerani
Some lovely instrumental music to unmute the Word as we pray.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, the power of eternal life flows in an Almighty Current through our readings.
Hosea imagines an amorous God who allures the beloved to full and faithful relationship.
Beautiful Psalm 145 might be read as the grateful response of that redeemed beloved … of us as we are continually gathered back into God’s heart.
The Alleluia Verse assures us that the ultimate “gathering back” has occurred through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are forever allured, redeemed, arisen in Christ!
Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel.
Today’s Gospel, tells the miraculous stories of two women – one young, one old – touched to new life by Jesus. Each of us could linger in these stories at the thousand places where our own lives might mirror the needs of that breathless little girl or that exhausted woman. We pause with one or the other of them today, have a little talk in our prayer, see how the power of Jesus covered them.
In our scriptures today, all kinds of death are destroyed through the infinite gift of God’s love and mercy. What deathly threats might we bring to God’s touch as we pray today?
That Sabbath day as always
she went to the synagogue
and took the place assigned her
right behind the grill where,
the elders had concurred,
she would block no one’s view,
she could lean her heavy head,
and (though this was not said)
she’d give a good example to
the ones who stood behind her.
That day, intent as always
on the Word (for eighteen years
she’d listened thus), she heard
Authority when Jesus spoke.
Though long stripped
of forwardness,
she came forward, nonetheless,
when Jesus summoned her.
“Woman, you are free
of your infirmity,” he said.
The leader of the synagogue
worked himself into a sweat
as he tried to bend the Sabbath
and the woman back in place.
But she stood up straight and let
God’s glory touch her face.
Music: He Touched Me – Gaithersburg Brothers
This extremely popular American Gospel song was written by Bill Gaithers in 1963. It has been recorded and released over 10 times by artists such as Jimmy Durante, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Lawrence Welk and Elvis Presley.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse encapsulates the message of the readings: Christ is the Source of our peace and our abundance.
Alleluia, alleluia. Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Colossians 3:15-16
Isaiah describes that peace and abundance like this:
For thus says the LORD: Lo, I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent. As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; in Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.
Isaiah 66: 12-13
In Galatians, we meet a community that has been arguing over a few things, but especially whether circumcision should continue to be a mark of faith. Paul sounds a little frustrated with the argument.
He claims his “peace and abundance” from the marks of his long ministry and what he has suffered for Christ:
From now on, let no one make troubles for me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.
Galatians 6:17
In Luke, Jesus indicates that “peace and abundance” will be spread in the New Creation through the sometimes difficult ministry of his disciples:
Go on your way; behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.
Luke 10: 3-9
The Gospel message meant to bring peace will, no doubt, bring fear and judgement to those hostile to it:
The kingdom of God is at hand for you.
If we sincerely open our hearts to this message, how might it affect our daily lives? Peace and abundance? A frantic need for repentance? Or maybe just an angry, indifferent, or deaf ear?
Alleluia, alleluia. Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
Poem: one of my favorite poems, The Heart Cave by Geoffrey Brown
The Heart Cave
I must remember
To go down to the heart cave & sweep it clean; make it warm with a fire on the hearth, & candles in their niches, the pictures on the walls glowing with a quiet light. I must remember
To go down to the heart cave & make the bed with the quilt from home, strew the rushes on the floor hang lavender and sage from the corners. I must go down
Lavish Mercy 