Sister Renee Yann, RSM, D.Min, is a writer and speaker on topics of spirituality, mission, and ethical business practice. After twenty years in teaching and social justice ministry, she served for over thirty years in various mission-related roles in Mercy Health System of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Today, in Mercy, God tells Ezekiel that each person will be judged according to her/his own ways – not according to the deeds of our parents, family or friends.
In the Gospel, Jesus blesses the innocent children and says that those in the Kingdom of Heaven must be like them.
Most of us are a long way from innocence. We have our agendas, our politics, our status, our possessions, our grudges, our prejudices that often come between us and a spiritually pure heart.
If we want to be different, today’s Psalm 51 allows us to lay it all on the heart of Jesus. Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.
(I hope you enjoy this gentle rendering of the psalm in Hebrew.)
Music: Choneni Elohim, from Psalm 51 (Be Gracious to me O G-d) ~ Christine Jackman
Today, in Mercy, our readings focus on the covenant between God and God’s People.
Ezekiel recounts the infidelity of Israel which is met with the infinite fidelity of God. In our Gospel, Jesus parries with the Pharisees as they test him with questions about fidelity in marriage. Both readings reference “the word” which comes to us carrying truth and revelation. Today’s Alleluia Verse directs us to receive the Word of God with openness.
How will the Word of God come to us today? Will it be a single message, mysteriously hidden somewhere in the voluminous activities and distractions of the day?
No, instead it will be hidden in plain sight in ALL those activities and distractions. The Word of God is the abiding presence of Love which sustains our lives at every moment. It is the language that only a faithful heart can hear, a language throbbing in all Creation. We learn this language by silence, prayer and loving service of others.
May we be open to receive the Word of God as it comes to us, clothed in the lights and shadows of this day.
Today, in Mercy, our readings leave us wondering, “Can God get angry?” It’s hard for us, who think of God as Lavish Mercy, to imagine that God would be irrevocably angry with us.
Today’s readings are examples of the ways in which both the Hebrew prophets and Jesus tried to describe the Indescribable God in words we might understand. Sometimes in scripture we find an angry God, an impatient God, a frustrated God, a vengeful God- even a bullying God. All these stories make God seem very human. But God is not like us, just as many other scripture passages assure us.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
What we do know for certain is that God is Love, because only Love could have breathed forth Creation. All the other descriptions are our imaginative struggles to comprehend how God might react to our human situation.
Today, as the news describes the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report on over 300 abusive priests, I cannot imagine how God is not heartbroken and angry. Can there be a greater sacrilege than the savaging of innocence by those proclaiming to sanctify it?
Let us pray for Mercy today for victims and survivors, that they may find some healing in the telling of their tragedies and the affirmation of their courage.
Let us pray for ourselves, a broken Church, where an idolatrous “priesthood” has killed the image of Christ it was thought to represent, where the façade of trust lies dissolved in the tears of children, and the hope of transformation is elusive.
Let our spirits weep with the God of Love, and ask for Mercy to show us the way back to the pure heart of our faith.
Today, in Mercy, Jesus tells us that he wants none of us to be lost. He wants that so much that he would leave the whole flock just to find us. That’s how precious we are to God.
We’ve all felt lost to God at times – maybe through sorrow, depression, doubt, anger, distraction, self-absorption, laziness or a thousand other kinds of paralyses and sins.
We hear people – maybe ourselves – say, “I just can’t pray” or “I don’t have time to pray” or, “I’m too angry with God to pray.” Or, probably the most common excuse, “I’ll pray just as soon as I get everything else done.” Of course, we never get everything else done!
I think that sometimes we stray from God because we are afraid:
that our faith is not strong enough to receive God’s answer
that we are not good enough for God to love us
that we cannot measure up to honest relationship with the God of Truth
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to get past our excuses and fears. He says, “Get up here on my shoulders and let me carry you. I already know all about your excuses and fears – and I love you beyond them. Let’s go home to God’s heart.”
Today, in Mercy,in our first reading, Ezekiel signals that something really important has happened. He does this by means of a prophetic word formula – repeated and patterned phrases found throughout the Bible.
One pattern that we’re accustomed to is, “Amen, Amen, I say to you..” Jesus used it to say, “Listen up! Important info to follow!”
Another pattern is the specific setting of time and place to mark an event as pivotal. One such beloved phrase: “It came to pass in those days, that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
Ezekiel’s formulaic phrase is a marker in his spiritual life:
On the fifth day of the fourth month of the fifth year, that is, of King Jehoiachin’s exile, The word of the LORD came to the priest Ezekiel…
If we look back over our own lives, we will remember moments when God clearly entered our experience. We may not have realized it until long after. We may be surprised to remember a point in time as the opportunity God took to embrace us. But through reflective prayer, we begin to see that God is with us, even in our darkest moments, bringing the revelation of God’s infinite Love and Mercy.
What if we filled in the blanks in Ezekiel’s formula with our own life markers? What if we thanked God for each of them, dark or light – asking for the grace to understand their revelation?
Each of our lives is its own scripture, telling the story of God’s love and presence. Spend time with yours today.
Today, in Mercy, our readings capture the essence of life in God through Christ.
The first reading from Kings tells how Elijah, after eating the food God had provided him, was able to endure the long journey to God’s mountain.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus makes clear that no one makes that journey into the heart of God unless God calls us. But Jesus says that the invitation is given to all who believe. He says that, just as with Elijah, the Father gives us food – Jesus himself – the bread of life.
The second reading from Ephesians says that we have already “been sealed for the day of redemption through the Holy Spirit.” Paul says that, given this amazing gift, we have only one job:
So be imitators of God, as beloved children,
and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
We are so accustomed to hearing these astounding passages that we may miss how astounding they really are. But Macrina Wiederkehr says:
When Jesus’ words begin to sound naive to our 21st century minds, let us look through the words, in between the words, underneath for a deeper truth.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the great Jesuit mystical theologian, upon reading these passages,saw the mystery of the Body of Christ. He saw our call to be the heart of Christ in the world. He saw Christ’s promise to become one with us in Eucharist. He saw that, through this Infinite Love played out in our ordinary lives, God continues to redeem Creation.
In each soul, God loves and partly saves the whole world which that soul sums up
in an incommunicable and particular way. ~ The Divine Milieu ~
Music: Quintessence – Spencer Brewer
May this lovely instrumental piece help take us to a deeply prayerful place as we contemplate God’s gift in Jesus.
Today, in Mercy, we have a rare appearance from the prophet Habakkuk, whose contribution to the Hebrew Scriptures is brief — three short chapters. The first two chapters are known as the First and Second Complaint of Habakkuk.
In his first complaint, Habakkuk is upset with the way the world is going. You know what he feels like. He saw the political infrastructure rife with corruption, enemies attacking the heart of Jewish religion, and economic deadlock. Habakkuk asks God to explain why this is happening.
God says that Habakkuk has to have faith, that ultimately God will work things out.
That doesn’t float with Habakkuk, so he complains again. He basically tells God that, as the all-Powerful One, God should be able to do better.
Have you ever talked to God like that in your prayer – just so frustrated with your life or the world situation that you pour it all out in one massive complaint?
The fullness of Habakkuk’s faith evolved over time, because God abided with him, telling Habakkuk to be patient:
Write down the vision Clearly upon the tablets, so that one can read it readily. For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; If it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late. The rash man has no integrity; but the just man, because of his faith, shall live.
This passage is a good incentive to maintain a spiritual journal. When we go back over past challenges, we are often amazed to see how God did, indeed, abide with us — just as God did with Habakkuk.
Ready for some haunting beautiful Gaelic? (English lyrics below.)
Music: Bi Thusa Mo Shuile (Be Thou My Vision) ( Be Thou My Vision is a traditional hymn from Ireland. The words are based on a Middle Irish poem often attributed to the sixth-century Irish Christian poet Dallán Forgaill. The best-known English version was translated by Eleanor Hull and published in 1912. Since 1919 it has been commonly sung to the Irish folk tune “Slane”.)
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art
Today, in Mercy, on this feast of St. Lawrence, our readings are all about wheat. Then, again, they’re really not.
The readings, of course, are about eternal life – lessons taught in symbols the listeners could relate to. The agrarian community of Jesus’ time understood clearly what happened to a grain of wheat when buried in the rich soil. They understood, too, how a single grain, fallen on the barn floor and lost underfoot, had no hope of life.
It is a powerful lesson about community, selflessness, and what we need to do to live a full and meaningful life.
We have to die —to our isolation, self-absorption, greed, objectification and domination over others, “me-firstness”.
Basically, we have to resist the Seven Deadly Sins that make life “all about me”:
Self-adulating pride
Vengeful anger
Depersonalizing lust
Ungrateful envy
Consumeristic gluttony
Mean Greed
Irresponsible laziness
To move beyond these sins, we must recognize, respect and care for others – all others – as children of God.
If we can do that, our grain of wheat will land in harmony with the faith community and will contribute to its abundant life – and to our own. That faith community might be as small as my family or as big as the world. But unless I live there in selflessness, I will never come to my full potential a human being.
Musical reflection: A Grain of Wheat ~ Torchbearers
Today, in Mercy, our Gospel reading offers us Peter’s magnificent profession of faith.
This profession might cause us to consider our own faith and how we profess it in our daily lives.
I think about that today in the context of my father’s life. Today is his birthday.
My father, gone to God nearly forty years ago, would have been 103 years old today.
He was born in the midst of the World War — called only that, because we never expected a second one.
His 28- year-old mother died when he was just two years old.
He grew up into a Depression which causedhim to cease his schooling at 7th grade and work the farm with the uncle who raised him.
By the tragic Second World War, he had grown to a man andwould fight in the fields and cities of Europe. He came home with pictures in his head that he would never talk about. And he never traveled again, at least not beyond Wildwood, New Jersey.
With not even a grade school diploma, he was a self-educated man in the skills of plumbing, electricity, painting, paper-hanging, and cement work.Don’t undervalue this unless you have attempted these tasks yourself!
He was a hard-working, blue collar, salt-of-the-earth man who never owned his home but raised a family whose hearts he owned completely.
He suffered a heart injury at work when he was in his 50s and eventually – despite a valiant struggle – became disabled. After several heart attacks, he died a relatively early death at age sixty-six. In the intervening years, he read, prayed, and loved my mother, brother and me without reservation. He never missed a Sunday or Holy Day at Church. He prayed his devotions and novenas every day. He never put a single person down by his words or actions.
Some may read this short synopsis of his life and think it a little tragic. I read it and remember an everyday saint. He was made so by his resolute faith and trust in God; by his honest, inclusive patriotism, by his immense selflessness, and by his abundant kindness. These traits characterized many of “The Greatest Generation”.We should never underestimate the contribution of their character to our national historical wealth.
My Dad died completely fulfilled and happy, leaving a heritage of faith, loyalty, generosity and love. That was his profession of faith, and I take great joy in it today. I think in many ways, Dad was a lot like Peter and I like to think of him that way as I pray this morning .
My dear readers, in your own family trees, I hope you are blessed to have such people- rough, tender-hearted heroes who carried you into the fullness of your life. Think of them, learn from them, and bless them today. Be them – if you have the courage.
Dad loved music. Toward the end of his life, this free and beautiful melody was one of his favorites. You might enjoy it as you pray this morning.
Today, in Mercy,our readings focus on the infinite mercy of God — the Lavish Mercy of God.
Jeremiah speaks God’s voice to the ancient Israelites, forgiving them, consoling them, encouraging them. He promises that, delivered from their captivity, they will rejoice and “come streaming into the Lord’s blessings”.
In our Gospel, even an outcast woman receives the mercy of Jesus. She received this for two reasons: her faith was both extraordinary and unrelenting for her daughter.
Both Israel and the Canaanite woman are in desolate situations. They are bereft of nearly everything but hope and faith. We may have felt like that sometimes. Certainly there are people throughout our world who feel like that today.
As we pray today, we can place any desolation we are carrying, and the desolation of suffering people across the world, into the open arms of God. God has and will always love us and, even though unseen, is guiding us to the fullness of life. May our faith be extraordinary and unrelenting.
Lavish Mercy 