Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with our dear Mother, Sister, and Friend – Mary, mother of Jesus.
For this feast and others over the years, I have offered a good bit of Marian theology which you can access through the search function on the right of my homepage. But for today, I feel like just a simple, quiet prayer with Mary might be the right thing for our reflection.
This passage is from The Flowering Tree by Caryll Houselander.
She is a reed,
straight and simple,
growing by a lake
in Nazareth:
a reed that is empty,
until the Breath of God
fills it with infinite music:
and the breath of the Spirit of Love
utters the Word of God
through an empty reed.
The Word of God
is infinite music
in a little reed:
it is the sound of a Virgin’s heart,
beating in the solitude of adoration;
it is a girl’s voice
speaking to an angel,
answering for the whole world;
it is the sound of the heart of Christ,
beating within the Virgin’s heart;
it is the pulse of God,
timed by the breath of a Child.
The circle of a girl’s arms
has changed the world–
the round and sorrowful world–
to a cradle for God….
Be hands that are rocking the world
to a kind rhythm of love;
that the incoherence of war
and the chaos of our unrest
be soothed to a lullaby;
and the round and sorrowful world,
in your hands,
the cradle of God.
Music: Ave Maria – Daniela de Santos playing the Bach/Gounod version of this beautiful prayer
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Moses recounts for the people God’s immense generosity toward them.
Have you ever heard yourself, or someone dear to you, saying, “God has been so good to me!” Such a statement rises out of our awe at God’s love and mercy to us.
The deeper our faith, the clearer our insight into these gifts. I have heard people in the sparest of circumstances utter such a prayer. How can they do that, we might ask?
In all cases, there is a beautiful humility, trust, and generosity emanating from their spirits. Gratitude has transformed them. Hope, not wishing, has freed them.
Moses wants his People to be like that. He says:
Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants …
This is your glory, he, your God, who has done for you those great and awesome things which your own eyes have seen.
I want to be that kind of grateful, faith-filled person too. Don’t you?
Today’s profound advice from Moses can help us as we pray its words into our own lives.
Poetry: Praying the whole of today’s Responsorial Psalm 147 can also help us recognize our blessings. I love this transliteration by Christine Robinson.
Psalm 147 - Mother of All Creation
It is good to sing praises to you,
Mother of all creation.
And to recognize the touch of your love.
You bring us home, help us heal,
You love your creation
You call every one of your stars by name.
You bless the young, the poor, the ill
You wait forever for the lost to turn to you.
Your love is music to our hearts, and we sing.
You are in the clouds that darken the sky
You send the rain which gives us life.
The cycles of the seasons and the growth of the plants
are your delight.
You provide food for the wild animals
even the young ravens when they cry.
You love the horse’s proud strength
and the athlete’s prowess.
You crave our love and attention.
And so we pray.
We give thanks for life, for children, for the beauty of the snow
that lies soft in the morning.
We give thanks for the storm,
the hail, scattered like popcorn on the grass.
We are in awe of your power.
When the seasons turn, the growing warmth
reminds us of your warmth
The flowing waters remind us
of the life which comes from you.
Thank you, Mother of us all, help us
to keep your love in our hearts and to love your creation.
Music: Your Grace Still Amazes Me – Philips, Craig and Dean
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray again with beautiful Psalm 85, so famous for its described eschatological “kiss”.
I thought this painting captured the Kiss of Mercy and Justice. I could not find an attribution.
On this 19th Sunday, each of our readings invites us to deep meditation. We might choose one of the passages to deeply explore by reading it slowly several times. Be attuned to any single word that catches your heart. Rest in that word to hear what it is saying to you.
Our Psalm serves as a bridge connecting Elijah’s gentle whisper with Paul’s impassioned wish and Jesus’s invitation to walk on water.
These powerful readings will carry a personal message to every one of us if we take time to listen. As Psalm 85 confirms:
I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD — Who proclaims peace. Near indeed is salvation to those who stand in awe of God, glory dwelling in our land.
Psalm 85:9
We are shaped by our personal experiences as well as the culture of our times. Let’s take a look at our circumstances today, allowing these realities to speak to our praying hearts.
Like Elijah, how is God whispering to me today?
Like Paul, what great desire for faith and blessing rises in my prayer?
Like Peter, what invitation to profound faith is God speaking to me?
Poetic Prose: from Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen
There comes a time when our eyes are opened. And we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions.
And, lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we get back even what we rejected. For mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.
—the character General Lowenhielm
Music:When God Whispers Your Name – Matthew West
When nobody listens When nobody cares When you lie wounded And no one is there
When darkness surrounds you And when your best friend is fear When the words “I love you” Are all you long to hear
That’s when God whispers your name He’s never ashamed To call you His own That’s when God whispers your name
In your darkest night You’ll never be alone When God whispers your name For the tired and weary For the hopelessly lost His arms will surround you His blood has paid the cost When all you hold onto Is slipping through your hands When there’s no one to turn to And no one understands
That’s when God whispers your name He’s never ashamed To call you His own That’s when God whispers your name In your darkest night You’ll never be alone When God whispers your name
Listen ! A still, small voice Calling Calling
That’s when God whispers your name He’s never ashamed To call you His own That’s when God whispers your name In your darkest night You’ll never be alone When God whispers your name
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our reading from Deuteronomy presents us with the central prayer of the Jewish faith and a key component of the Christian tradition. The prayer is called the Shema (pronounced Schma), and it captures the essence of what our faith is about.
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Shema Yisrael is a Jewish prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: “Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one” found in Deuteronomy 6:4.
Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a mitzvah (religious commandment). Also, it is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night.
Wikipedia
In our prayer today, we might consider three key components of Shema for our personal faith life:
“Hear” – The Presence and Voice of God is central to and inspires all my life
“our God” – It is my choice to live in covenantal relationship with God
“the Lord alone” – There will be no other gods in my heart.
We could unpack any of these three elements to reflect extensively on the vitality of our relationship with God. For example:
“Hear”
How do I open my mind and heart to God?
What spiritual practices keep me focused on God’s Presence in my daily circumstances?
When I am confused or spiritually inert, how do I invite the inspiriting Voice of God into my consciousness?
Answering these questions does not have to lead us through a big theological maze. It can be as simple as waking up and saying,
"Dear God, good morning. Thank you for my life. Please be with me throughout this day."
Or before we close our eyes at night:
"Holy One, thank you for this day. I am sorry for any chance I missed to serve You. As I sleep, please refresh my love for You and Your Creation."
The essence of the Shema is this: God is not simply a part of my life. God is my life. And every thread of my life should be woven into that wondrous Truth.
For those who might be interested in a more in depth study of the Shema, I found this article very helpful.
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener. It is to keep the vigil of mystery, earthless and still. One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit, strange as the wind’s will.
The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows turns like a wandering weather vane toward love. It may lament like Job or Jeremiah, echo the wounded hart, the mateless dove. It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow that emulates the freedom of the sky. Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing; it has cast down forever from its hand the compass of the whither and the why.
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover. It is becoming love, and like to Him toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures: fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim. The soul is all activity, all silence; and though it surges Godward to its goal, it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday, the peace that is the listening of the soul.
Music: Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni– played by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings continue to take us through Deuteronomy, and for the next two weeks, through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
The word “Deuteronomy” means “second law” because the book is a reiteration and refinement of the Law given in Exodus. The Book of Deuteronomy is basically three big speeches by Moses, the commissioning of Joshua as Israel’s next leader, and a recounting of the death of Moses.
Today’s speech is powerful and beautiful. Moses calls on the people to remember and give thanks for the immense blessings they have received at the hand of God.
Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Deuteronomy 4:32-33
At length, Moses recounts the sacred history of the people and tells them that, because of it, they are called to respond in covenanted fidelity.
This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.”
Deuteronomy 4: 39-40
Moses offered these encouraging and directive speeches because he sensed he was near the end of his life and that Israel was moving into a new phase of its life.
In our Gospel, Jesus feels the same way. In the section immediately preceding today’s reading, Matthew says this:
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised
In today’s passage, Jesus calls his disciples to live in covenanted fidelity by imitating his life.
Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
Matthew 16: 25-26
I’ve read this Gospel passage a thousand times in the past sixty or seventy years. And I ask myself each time, “Do you really take this seriously? Do you really understand that your life is not for yourself but for God and all of God’s beloved creatures?”
It takes radical courage to live that kind of understanding. But continually remembering God’s Presence and Promises throughout our own lives strengthens us. That’s what Moses was trying to tell his people. That’s what Jesus is encouraging his disciples to recognize.
Jesus promises that, at the end of time, each will be repaid according to the level of their generosity. But the repayment doesn’t wait for the end times. Remembering our lives in grateful prayer will convince us of this: there is no true happiness, no deep joy, unless we learn to live beyond our own self-interests.
Poetry: Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls into the Ground and Dies – Malcolm Guite
Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth
And die away from all dry separation,
Die to my sole self, and find new birth
Within that very death, a dark fruition,
Deep in this crowded underground, to learn
The earthy otherness of every other,
To know that nothing is achieved alone
But only where these other fallen gather.
If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,
Then fall upon me with your freeing flail
To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear
As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall
May be more fruitful and my autumn still
A golden evening where your barns are full.
Music: Unless a Grain of Wheat – Bernadette Farrell
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
If we have died with him then we shall live with him; if we hold firm, we shall reign with him. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
If anyone serves me then they must follow me; wherever I am my servants will be. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Make your home in me as I make mine in you; those who remain in me bear much fruit. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
If you remain in me and my word lives in you, then you will be my disciples. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Those who love me are loved by my Father; we shall be with them and dwell in them. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; peace which the world cannot give is my gift. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 112, particularly chosen for the Feast of St. Lawrence
Blessed the one who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in God’s commands. That one’s posterity shall be mighty upon the earth; the upright generation shall be blessed. Well for the one who is gracious and lends, who conducts all affairs with justice; That person shall never be moved; the just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.
After the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II in 258 AD, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. St. Ambrose is the earliest source for the narrative that Lawrence asked for three days to gather the wealth. He worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the indigent as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to deliver the treasures of the Church he presented the indigent, the crippled, the blind, and the suffering, and declared that these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, “The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.” This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom.
– Wikipedia
There are many lessons for us in the life of St. Lawrence. The most striking for me is his gift for seeing the most vulnerable people as the Church’s greatest treasures.
Praying Psalm 112 today, we might ask God to deepen in us that gift of sublime generosity which imitates God’s own Mercy:
Lavishly they give to the poor, Their generosity shall endure forever; Their name shall be exalted in glory.
Poetry: Khalil Gibran- On Giving
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have– and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes, He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold? All you have shall some day be given; Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.
You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.” The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving? And who are you that the poor should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
And you receivers… and you are all receivers… assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings; For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.
Music: God Loves a Cheerful Giver – Steve Green has fun with the kids. I hope you do too!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our reading from Numbers is about trust versus fear. The Israelites have finally made it to the front door of the Promised Land. But they hesitate to go in. They get Moses to bargain with God to allow scouts to go ahead of them, checking out the lay of the land. These scouts return with a mixed report: arable land, but ferocious current residents! The community freezes in fear, refusing to go farther.
The Israelites Cross the Jordan River by Gustave Doré 1832-1883
So what’s this all about for us? Is it wrong for us to be deliberate about our decisions, reversing them when the situation becomes threatening? No, of course not. So what’s the difference here in our Numbers community?
At this moment in Israel’s history, God has made clear what is expected of them. They are in covenant with God – “all in” to follow God’s plan for their lives. God has demonstrated an irrevocable commitment to them in numerous ways, and forgiven earlier disloyalties.
The question before them now is have they given God their whole hearts.
Or will this be a sham covenant in which they pick and choose when they will be for God and when they will be just for themselves?
The life of deep spiritual commitment to God is not always smooth. We get really mixed up sometimes in our self-concerns and fears. Many years ago, one of my eighth grade students asked me this: what if there really is no God and you’ve wasted your life believing there was?
It was quite a question, and I’ll bet you want to know my answer.
I said that I wouldn’t change a thing about how I have chosen to live my life. Trusting God and giving my life to God has given me a freedom beyond the limits of this world. Even if, at the end, her doubt proved true, I would have had a blessed and joyous life.
The fact is that we, just like those Israelites standing on the edge of Canaan, don’t know what will happen to us if we trust God. Life and the future is an intimidating open border that challenges our faith and resolve.
But if we constantly hedge our self-gift to God, we will never be capable of receiving the fullness of God’s gift in return.
Today, let’s pray for the trust to step over into God’s country by our acts of faith, hope, love, mercy, generosity, truthfulness, hospitality and courage.
This beautiful reinterpretation of today’s Responsorial Psalm may inspire you as it did me. It is from the website of Christine Robinson, a Unitarian Universalist minister: Click here for Psalm renderings
Psalm 106: Returning “Give thanks to God, who is good whose mercy endures forever.”
We stand in awe of an infinity which we cannot begin to comprehend We set ourselves to live in tune with the universe— that we may be glad with the gladness of people of faith. Yes, time and time again we have gone astray,
We have despoiled this beautiful, wonderful world dealt unjustly with our compadres The law of love is a hard law. In our prayer and then in our lives, we return to the Way.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 51 which expresses the ardent desire for forgiveness and reconciliation.
The psalm reflects back to our first reading – an episode of sibling rivalry, jealousy, and hidden motives.
Moses, favored of God and leader of the people, makes a questionable choice. He marries outside the tribe, after telling everyone else not to. Hmmm. His siblings, Aaron and Miriam, don’t like that. So they indignantly complain:
Is it through Moses alone that the LORD speaks? Does God not speak through us also?
Numbers 12:2
God hears their complaint and sees through it. God sees that they are less concerned about the marriage and more concerned about themselves. They’re tired of Moses telling them what to do. They think God could have picked a better leader — one of them!
God sets them straight about how special Moses is, and their responsibility to support, not undermine, him.
Should there be a prophet among you, in visions will I reveal myself to him, in dreams will I speak to him; not so with my servant Moses! Throughout my house he bears my trust: face to face I speak to him; plainly and not in riddles. The presence of the LORD he beholds.
Numbers 12:6-7
The whole story is really about motives. Everything we do must be done out of love – out of reverence for God, and out of respect and hope for ourselves and others. This is what it means to have a clean heart. And it is the plea of Psalm 51.
A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not off from your presence, and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
Psalm 51: 12-13
Prose: This is a great piece by Sister Joyce Rupp on a clean heart (published in America magazine)
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, with passages from Numbers and Deuteronomy, we begin a week and a half of readings that complete our scriptural journey through the Pentateuch.
The Book of Numbers, so named because of the two censuses within it, draws the Exodus journey to a close. The people are nearly at the edge of the Promised Land – but not yet. They are tired and frustrated and they let Moses know it:
The children of Israel lamented, “Would that we had meat for food! We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now we are famished; we see nothing before us but this manna.”
“Not Yet” is one of the hardest times in a journey. Driving from Philly to Knoxville to visit my family, I marveled at how the last two hours seemed so much longer than the eight which had preceded them! If there are kids in the car, the point is painfully driven home:
Are we there yet? x 1000!= Frustration
In today’s reading, the Israelites frustrate Moses with their “Are we there yet” attitude. Moses begs God to give him a break because his leadership is crumbling in the hungry unrest of the people:
“Why do you treat your servant so badly?” Moses asked the LORD. “Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Was it I who conceived all this people? Or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers?
Numbers 11:11-12
A core message from today’s Numbers passage is that the people need to be “fed” or they will not continue on the journey. Jesus acknowledges this universal fact in today’s Gospel. The story recounts the miracle of a physical feeding of the crowds, but the real miracle is the resuscitation of their faith because they witness the power of God in Christ.
We, individually and as a Church, need to be fed in order to continue our journey of faith. It is important for each of us to build into our lives those practices which will nourish our faith and spirituality: reflective prayer, enlivening spiritual reading, and merciful service. It is also critical for us to assess the kind of communal nourishment we receive within our faith communities and, where that nourishment is lacking, to acknowledge distress and seek alternatives as the hungry Israelites did in the desert.
Recently I was with a group of deeply faithful Christians where this shocking phrase was spoken and acknowledged: “The Catholic Church is dead“. What the phrase connotes is that, in light of the clerical abuse and other institutional scandals, coupled with the absence of inspirational Church leadership, many Catholics are starving for nourishment on the journey. Clearly, the same may be said of other Christian Churches.
To varying degrees, we may be familiar with the Synod 2021-24 initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021.
The word synod comes from the Greek: σύνοδος [ˈsinoðos], meaning “assembly” or “meeting”; the term is analogous with the Latin word concilium meaning “council”.
The word synod comes from the Greek meaning “assembly” or “meeting”; the term is analogous with the Latin word concilium meaning “council”.
Traditionally, we are familiar with such gatherings being constituted primarily by the hierarchy of the Church. Synod 2021-24 is different.
The Synod on Synodality represents a new and exciting phase in the life of the Church. This phase deepens the ecclesiology of the People of God developed at the Second Vatican Council and invites us to generate processes of conversion and reform of relationships, communicative dynamics and structures in the Church. This will require a process of common discernment and formation in the short, medium and long term to stimulate the awareness of a Church lived and understood in a synodal key.
Boston College – School of Theology and Ministry
Many of us are old enough to remember the intense enthusiasm and hope which sprang from the Second Vatican Council a half-century ago. The inspired Vatican II documents fueled a dynamic revitalization for the People of God.
But over the course of 5o years, the Church’s landscape has changed:
plummeting numbers in religious and priestly vocations
scars from the sexual abuse scandal
misalignment between practice and teaching on sexuality, gender, and marriage
disaffection of women and young adults with the Church
widespread persecution of the missionary Church in totalitarian and extremist Islamic states
These are issues that must be addressed by the whole Church acting in a synodal manner similar to that of the inaugural Christian community:
At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.* Select from among you seven reputable disciples, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task.
… The proposal was acceptable to the whole community.
Acts 6:1-5
The aim of the current synodal process is not to provide a temporary or one-time experience of synodality, but rather to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more synodal Church in the long-term. A basic question prompts and guides us: How does this journeying together allow the Church to proclaim the Gospel in accordance with the mission entrusted to Her; and what steps does the Spirit invite us to take in order to grow as a synodal Church?
Vatican Commentary on the Synodal Process
The prayers, participation, and support of faithful people are critical to the success of this Synod because it is truly a synod of the people. It is important for us to pray for the Church, for the Pope, and assess the level of our own contribution to the life of the community. I know I need to take my awareness and attention up a notch, and I thought perhaps some of my readers might too. Many of us may look to this synod as the sign of hope we need in deeply challenging times.
Prose: from Pope Francis on World Youth Day
We recall that the purpose of the Synod is not to produce documents, but to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands.
Music: I Am the Bread of Life – Suzanne Toolan, RSM
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this glorious Feast of the Transfiguration, we pray with Psalm 97 which prophesies the messianic era when God will reign supreme over the earth. Its verses announce God’s sovereignty, the establishment of justice, and universal joy.
Transfiguration by Giovanni Bellini
Our Gospel describes the moment when Jesus gave his three disciples a glimpse of that future glory in order to sustain them through the sufferings to come.
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light…
Matthew 17:1-2
As we pray Psalm 97 today, we might think of our experiences of God’s beauty, tenderness, and joy. Remembering and storing these small, accumulated revelations helps us to hold faith in times of darkness or trouble.
In Martin Luther King’s final speech the night before he was assassinated, he spoke of his own transfiguring moments and the courageous faith they inspired in him:
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Also in our prayer today, we are mindful of the anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, events which represent the complete inversion of God’s will for the Peaceful Kingdom.
Majesty, turned inside out by our sin, becomes terror.
Oppenheimer is a popular film showing in theaters right now. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the designers of the atomic bomb, reflecting on the bomb’s first test, said that as he watched the huge blast wave ripple out over the New Mexico desert, a line from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita came to mind: “Now I am become Death the Destroyer of Worlds.”
Psalm 97 reminds us that all Creation belongs to God:
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. Clouds and darkness are round about him, justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
Psalm 97:1-2
If, by faith, we learn to see and reverence God’s glory in all things, we can be delivered from the terrors of war, racism, and every other deathly weapon which threatens us. As Psalm 97 so encouragingly closes:
You who love the LORD, hate evil, God protects the souls of the faithful, rescues them from the hand of the wicked. Light dawns for the just, and gladness for the honest of heart. Rejoice in the LORD, you just, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Psalm 97:10-12
Poetry: Origami by Joyce Sutphen
In Hiroshima’s Peace Park there is a statue of Sadako Sasaki lifting a crane in her arms. Sadako was two years old when the atomic bomb was dropped; she was diagnosed with leukemia ten years later. The Japanese believe that folding a thousand origami cranes brings good fortune. Sadako spent the last months of her young life folding hundreds of paper cranes. She folded 644 before she died.
Origami
It starts with a blank sheet, an undanced floor,
air where no sound erases the silence. As soon as
you play the first note, write down a word, step onto the empty stage,
you've moved closer to the creature inside. Remember—
a square can end up as frog, cardinal, mantis, or fish.
Lavish Mercy 