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 God’s Lavish Mercy, we are blessed with some of the most beautiful passages in scripture.
Psalm 105 invites us to sing praise as we confidently seek God in our lives, and to always remember God’s merciful goodness to us:
Sing to God, sing praise, proclaim all God’s wondrous deeds. Glory in the holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD! Remember the marvels the Lord has done!
Psalm 105: 2-3
Our first reading from Wisdom gives us one of the most gloriously imaginative images in Scripture.
Although the passage is a poetic recounting of the Exodus experience, it always makes me think of Christmas.
Midnight on a starry night
Peaceful stillness over the earth
The all-powerful Word transformed
Appearing among us like a comet in our darkness
Hope renewed for an otherwise doomed land
Praying with the passage this morning, I realize that my “Christmas lens” on the reading is right on target.
The Christmas event begins our Exodus story, a story completed in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ.
Just as the God of Moses reached into ancient Israel’s life to free them, transform them and make them God’s People, so God reaches into our lives. God does this not only on Christmas, but in every moment of our experience.
As our media and consumer culture bombards us, all too early, with all the secularized images of Christmas, let today’s verses bring us back to the true startling grace of our own Christ/Exodus stories:
We are not alone in the midnights of our lives. Listen underneath all the distractions to the, at first, softly emerging sound of Love humming under all things. Watch for the small lights of heaven longing to break into our human darkness. Give yourself to their Light.
No matter where we are in our lives right now, no matter the joy or pain of our present circumstances, God wants to use these realities to be with us and to teach us Love. Let us invite God into our willingness to learn that Love, to become that Love.
Music: Winter Cold Night – John Foley, SJ
Yes, it is an Advent/ Christmas song. But it fits so perfectly. Please forgive me if I am rushing the season too. 😉
Oh, the depth of the riches of God And the breadth of the wisdom and knowledge of God For who has known the mind of God To Him be glory forever
A virgin will carry a child and give birth And His name shall be called Emmanuel For who has known the mind of God To Him be glory forever
The people in darkness have seen a great light For a child has been born, His dominion is wide For who has known the mind of God To Him be glory forever
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our two readings remind us that the journey into God is an ever-deepening passage to which we must continually open our hearts.
The Wisdom writer addresses those who sincerely seek God, but who cannot see beyond God’s handiwork. So they are satisfied to make gods of these created wonders:
All persons were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan; But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods. Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them.
Wisdom 13:1-3
The writer seems astounded that these seekers get lost on their way to full knowledge of God:
For they search busily among his works, but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair. But again, not even these are pardonable. For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its Lord?
Wisdom 13: 7-9
I don’t find it so astounding. The invisible God we love and worship can be elusive, and the world through which we seek that God can be deeply distracting. I think it’s pretty easy to get stuck worshipping signs of God (which we can see) rather than God (Whom we cannot see). I think that’s what Jesus might have meant when he said, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”
Our Gospel reading gives us a hint about truly seeking God. It’s a reading I have always found a little bit scary. As a child, I envisioned myself, or the dear person next to me, getting swooped up in some unexpected divine tornado. It wasn’t a comfortable image.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left.” They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the body is, there also the vultures will gather.”
Luke 17: 34-37
I mean, really, this is nobody’s favorite scripture passage! But what can it teach us? Maybe this: just like the unfulfilled worshippers in our Wisdom passage, the folks Jesus describes were distracted by the necessities and frivolities of life. In their spiritual journeys, they had not fully opened their hearts to the holy expectation of God. When God comes in a swoop of Infinite Grace, they’re just not ready for the swooping!
In our readings today, both the Wisdom writer and Jesus are encouraging us to meet every life experience as an opportunity to move deeper into the mystery of God.
The Wise One tells us to look beyond the beautiful distractions of our lives into the One Who ordains them:
Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them.
Wisdom 13:3
And Jesus very bluntly tells us that our visible experiences hold a deeper meaning that we will never know unless we yield our life fully to God’s transforming grace:
Whoever seeks to preserve their life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.
Luke 17:33
Poetry: If only there were stillness, full, complete – Rainer Maria Rilke
If only there were stillness, full, complete. If all the random and approximate were muted, with neighbors’ laughter, for your sake, and if the clamor that my senses make did not confound the vigil I would keep —
Then in a thousandfold thought I could think you out, even to your utmost brink, and (while a smile endures) possess you, giving you away, as though I were but giving thanks, to all the living.
Music: Jessye Norman – Sanctus from Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile in G major, by Charles Gounod
I never hear this piece without being awestruck by Ms. Norman’s magnificent voice. I had the great joy of meeting her and working with her briefly on a project over thirty years ago. She was majestic in every way. May she rest in Peace.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have two beautiful readings. Like rich fruit from a fructuous tree, each word and phrase can be savored long and separately.
Our first reading offers the consummate description of Wisdom, the Spirit Who is of and with God. If you can, take time to mentally finger the words in the first reading, the way you would your rosary beads. Let the power of each syllable sink into your heart as you imagine the Unimaginable Beauty who is God:
In Wisdom is a spirit:
And then listen to Jesus as he speaks to the Pharisees (and to us) in our Gospel.
Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
Luke 17:20-21
Jesus tells us that this Incomprehensible Divinity, this Reign of Wisdom, is already among us in the Person of Jesus Christ made flesh among us. We are to look clearly and deeply into our lives to find the Face of God.
Prose: from Evolutionary Faith by Diarmuid O’Murchu
“It is time to outgrow . . .
our rational anthropocentric need to impose order, structure, and closure on every sphere of experience. Our fear of wild eroticism, of creative chaos, and of the radically new possibilities often condemns us to the imprisonment of our fretful imaginations, which then drive us to impulsive action and an irrational desire to dominate and control.
“It is time to embrace . . .
horizons that stretch our minds and hearts to their very limits, trusting that the creative Spirit, who breaks down all rigid boundaries and barriers, will spearhead a new relationality in which we and every other organism will rediscover its true cosmic and planetary identity.”
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 82 considered, by at least one Biblical scholar, to be:
“.. the single most important text in the entire Christian Bible.”
John Dominic Crossan
Council of the Gods by Raphael
Psalm 82 best summarizes for me the character of (the early Biblical) God. It imagines a scene in which God sits among the gods and goddesses in divine council. Those pagan gods and goddesses are dethroned not just because they are pagan, nor because they are other, nor because they are competition. They are dethroned for injustice, for divine malpractice, for transcendental malfeasance. They are rejected because they do not demand and effect justice among the peoples of the earth. And that justice is spelled out as protecting the poor from the rich, protecting the systemically weak from the systemically powerful.
Crossan: The Birth of Christianity
Rise up, O God, bring judgment to the earth. Defend the lowly and the fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the lowly and the poor; from the hand of the wicked deliver them. Psalm 82: 3-4
Ten Lepers by James Christianson
To learn more about this enthralling painting, see:
In today’s Gospel, we encounter this just and supreme God in the person of Jesus when we witness the cure of the ten lepers.
You know, it would be startling enough to run into one leper on your daily walk, right? But TEN! That must have been an astounding situation. For Jesus’s followers, it must have been an overwhelming sight to meet those people – sad and disfigured by disease – and to watch them be restored to wholeness.
Can you imagine that the recipients of such a miracle wouldn’t have clung in gratitude to Jesus for the rest of their days??? But, wow, only one even bothered to say “Thank you”.
What might have kept the other nine away, locked in their blind ingratitude?
Perhaps it’s not such a mystery if we allow ourselves to examine our own often ungrateful hearts. We don’t necessarily mean to be boorish in the face of God’s kindness and the generosity of others, but we sometimes suffer from … (of course, I’m only speaking for myself here 🙂 )
Distraction: our lives are filled with frenetic activity which causes our blessings to flit by us into dizzying forgetfulness
Entitlement: we think we deserve or have earned those blessings
Self-absorption: we are so wrapped up in ourselves that we don’t even notice that our whole life is a gift
Laziness: we might say thanks if we get around to it. But we never get around to it.
Unresolved anger: we’re mad that we even needed help
Non-intentionality: we fail to live with intention and reflection, thus missing the opportunities for gratitude
Pride: we are too proud to acknowledge that we need anything
Fear: we are afraid something will be required of us in return for the gift
Spiritual blindness: we just don’t see the nurturing power of God and others in our life
It’s likely that our nine ungrateful lepers had these human frailties. But don’t be thinking about them, or your acquaintances who share their failings.
Let’s think about ourselves and how we want to be more grateful. Let’s think about our omnipotent God who is always Justice and Mercy.
The story is a powerful wake-up call to do better than the poor lepers did by living this prayer:
May I live humbly and gratefully today.
Poetry: The Ten Lepers – by Rosanna Eleanor (Mullins) Leprohon who was both a poet and novelist. Born in Montreal in 1829, Rosanna Mullins was educated at the convent of the Congregation of Notre Dame.
’Neath the olives of Samaria, in far-famed Galilee, Where dark green vines are mirrored in a placid silver sea, ’Mid scenes of tranquil beauty, glowing sun-sets, rosy dawn, The Master and disciples to the city journeyed on.
And, as they neared a valley where a sheltered hamlet lay, A strange, portentous wailing made them pause upon their way— Voices fraught with anguish, telling of aching heart and brow, Which kept moaning: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us now!”
Softly raised the gentle Saviour His eyes like midnight star, And His mournful gaze soon rested on ten lepers, who, afar, Stood motionless and suppliant, in sackcloth rudely clothed, Poor Pariahs! by their nearest, their dearest, shunned and loathed.
Not unto Him prayed vainly those sore afflicted ten, No! He yearned too fondly over the erring sons of men, Even sharing in their sorrows, though He joined not in their feasts,— So He kindly told the Lepers: “Show yourselves unto the priests.”
When, miracle of mercy! as they turned them to obey, And towards the Holy Temple quickly took their hopeful way, Lo! the hideous scales fell off them, health’s fountains were unsealed, Their skin grew soft as infant’s—their leprosy was healed.
O man! so oft an ingrate, to thy thankless nature true, Thyself see in those Lepers, who did as thou dost do; Nine went their way rejoicing, healed in body—glad in soul— Nor once thought of returning thanks to Him who made them whole.
One only, a Samaritan, a stranger to God’s word, Felt his joyous, panting bosom, with gratitude deep stirred, And without delay he hastened, in the dust, at Jesus’ feet, To cast himself in worship, in thanksgiving, warm and meet.
Slowly questioned him the Saviour, with majesty divine:— “Ten were cleansed from their leprosy—where are the other nine? Is there none but this one stranger—unlearned in Gods ways, His name and mighty power, to give word of thanks or praise?”
The sunbeams’ quivering glories softly touched that God-like head, The olives blooming round Him sweet shade and fragrance shed, While o’er His sacred features a tender sadness stole: “Rise, go thy way,” He murmured, “thy faith hath made thee whole!”
Music: Hymn of Grateful Praise – Folliott S. Pierpoint
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings share a common theme of “worthiness“.
In a passage familiar to us from the many funeral Masses we have attended in our lives, the Wisdom writer assures us that God will find us worthy if we are just:
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace. For if before observers, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because they have been tested and found worthy by God.
Wisdom 3: 1-5
The Wisdom writer seems to be so practical! He imagines life as a test, but one that God assures us we will pass if we live justly.
The word “just” comes from the Latin word meaning law, or right. To be just, in the sense of our first reading, is to be in alignment with the Divine Balance Who created us … to be “in the hand of God”.
But life does test our balance, doesn’t it! And if, by the poor use of our free will, we have climbed or tumbled out of God’s hand, the test can upend us.
Still, Wisdom instructs us that all is never lost. God loves us too much not to pick us up again into the palm of grace and mercy:
Those who trust in God shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with God in love: Because grace and mercy are with God’s holy ones, God cares tenderly for us beloved.
Wisdom 3:9
In our Gospel reading from Luke, Jesus gives us some advice about how to keep that graceful balance which aligns us with God. He compares us to devoted servants who, so deep is their gratitude, cannot do enough for the master who loves them:
When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.”
Luke 17:10
Indeed, as grateful creatures, we are obliged to love the God who deigned to create us. But the more we deepen in that love, the less it is an obligation. It becomes a delight, a reciprocal exchange, a sustaining source of the grace and mercy that justifies us.
Poetry: from Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood – William Wordsworth.
I cite only a section here. If you would like to read it in its beautiful context, click here. This poem is so worth your time!:
O joy! that in our embers Is something that doth live, That Nature yet remembers What was so fugitive! The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed For that which is most worthy to be blest; Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:— Not for these I raise The song of thanks and praise But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realised, High instincts before which our mortal Nature Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised: But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, Are yet a master-light of all our seeing; Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, To perish never; Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor Man nor Boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather Though inland far we be, Our Souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have only three weeks left in Ordinary Time before Advent. Today, we begin a week of first readings from the beautifully written Book of Wisdom.
These will be counterpointed by readings from Luke 17, filled with familiar images like millstones, mustard seeds, ungrateful lepers, a grateful one, and the one plowman taken from a field while the shocked other is left.
While our Gospel readings call us to be alert to the end of time and the coming of the Reign of God, our Wisdom readings – while cautionary – stretch us beyond time to the awareness of an Eternal Love rooted in our own hearts:
For wisdom is a kindly spirit, yet she acquits not the blasphemer of their guilty lips; Because God is the witness of the inmost self and the sure observer of the heart and the listener to the tongue. For the Spirit of the Lord fills the world, is all-embracing, and knows what the human heart says.
Wisdom 1: 6-7
In our Gospel, Jesus calls us to model goodness, practice forgiveness, and exercise an outrageous faith.
And the Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
Luke 17: 5-6
Perhaps we’re not really too interested in throwing a mulberry tree into the sea, but let’s desire to live our faith so fully that the world considers us outrageously foolish for the sake of Christ.
Thinking about that this morning, I remember dear Mr. Stein, the owner of the delicatessen where I worked throughout my high school years. The Stein family loved me and all were so kind to me. But when I told them I would be leaving to enter the convent, they were shocked and terribly upset. You would have thought I was leaving for a life sentence in Sing Sing! Mr. Stein took me aside and said, “Renee, please don’t be so foolish and waste your life! I’ll buy you a new car if you don’t go!”
Besides the fact that I didn’t drive at the time, Mr. Stein’s offer didn’t sway me. I knew the treasure I had found. I just hoped that, watching my life unfold over the coming years, Mr. Stein (and quite a few other skeptics!) might recognize the treasure too. (P.S. I didn’t learn to drive for almost another twenty years!)
Poetry: The Mustard Seed – Meister Eckhart
I.
In the Beginning High above understanding Is ever the Word. O rich treasure, There the Beginning always bore the Beginning. O Father’s Breast, From thy delight The Word ever flows! Yet the bosom Retains the Word, truly.
II.
From the two as one source, The fire of love. The bond of both, Known to both, Flows the All-Sweet Spirit Co-equal, Undivided The Three are One. Do you understand why? No. It best understands itself.
III.
The bond of three Causes deep fear. Of this circle There is no understanding. Here is a depth without ground. Check and mate To time, forms, place! The wondrous circle Is the Principle, Its point never moves.
IV.
The mountain of this point Ascend without activity. O intellect! The road leads you Into a marvelous desert, So broad, so wide, It stretches out immeasurably. The desert has, Neither time nor place, Its mode of being is singular.
V.
The good desert No foot disturbs it, Created being Never enters there: It is, and no one knows why.
It is here, it is there, It is far, it is near, It is deep, it is high, It is in such a way That it is neither this nor that.
VI.
It is light, it is clear, It is totally dark, It is unnamed, It is unknown, Free of beginning or end. It stands still, Pure, unclothed. Who knows its dwelling? Let him come forth And tells us what sort it is.
VII.
Become like a child, Become deaf, become blind. Your own something Must become nothing; Drive away all something, all nothing! Leave place, leave time, Avoid even image! Go without a way On the narrow path, Then you will find the desert’s track.
VIII.
O my soul, Go out, let God in! Sink all my something In God’s nothing. Sink in the bottomless flood! If I flee from You, You come to me. If I lose myself, Then I find You, O Goodness above being!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 63, a prayer of deep longing and faithful intimacy.
The psalm is complemented by the lyrical passage from the Book of Wisdom which immediately reminded me of my favorite verse for the Christmas season:
For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night had now run half its swift course, Wisdom’s all-powerful Word leapt down from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the shadowed land.
Wisdom 18: 14-15
Using delicate feminine images, our first reading from Wisdom describes the God for whom we long – a God who longs for us with infinite eagerness:
Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire –
Wisdom 6: 12-13
This reading forms a sort of dance with our Psalm – the first describing God’s desire, the second describing ours:
O God, you are my God whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory, For your kindness is a greater good than life; my lips shall glorify you.
Psalm 63: 2-4
Our reading assures us that God readily meets our gaze:
Whoever watches for Wisdom at dawn shall not be disappointed, for they shall find her sitting by their heart’s gate. For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence, and whoever for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude.
Wisdom 6:14-16
In our prayer today, let us open our deepest hearts to this Wisdom God who seeks us. Let our thirsty souls be satisfied in that loving Sacred Bliss.
Thus will I bless you while I live; lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name. As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied, and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
Psalm 63: 5-6
Poetry: Our beautiful Psalm 63 for today is a poem beyond comparison. You might enjoy Rev. Christine Robinson‘s interpretation:
My soul thirsts for you, O God
As my dehydrated body craves water.
But I can’t see you.
I often lose touch with your loving kindness
My longing for you is the only real evidence I have
that you are really here.
Still, I will seek You Still, I will do Your work Still, I will remember You from my bed, when I meditate before I sleep and when I wake in the night.
You have been my helper I have taken refuge in the shadow of your wings. Dispatch my fears, O God help me find my center in You. And I will rejoice.
Music: I Long for You, O Lord – The Dameans
I long for you, O Lord With all my soul, I thirst for You.
God, my God, you I seek for You my soul is thirsting, Like a dry and weary land, my spirit longs for You.
I have sought for Presence, Lord to see your power and your glory. Lord, your love means more than life. I shall sing your praise.
Thus will I bless you while I live, and I will call your name, O Lord. As with the riches of a feast shall my soul be satisfied.
Through the night, I remember You for You have been my Savior. In the shadow of your wings, I will shout for joy.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, there is a graceful coincidence of several themes calling me to prayer. I share them with you:
On November 11th, Sisters of Mercy throughout the world commemorate the death of our beloved founder Catherine McAuley.
This year that commemoration falls on the feast of the beautiful St. Martin of Tours.
Our readings for the day prompt us to consider our beloved companions on our spiritual journey who provide a harbor of blessings in a fearsome world.
Not just today, but often, I think about what Catherine would be like if she lived among us today. In her day, she was ever practical, focusing on healing the greatest unmet needs around her.
Her “un-technologized” world was smaller than ours. She encountered need simply by a walk through Dublin’s neighborhoods. Were she here today, need would pour into her awareness from every corner of the earth via technological means. How would she focus the power of her merciful heart for our times?
Our readings prompt me to think that Catherine would do the same three things she did almost two hundred years ago:
She would gather her companions on the journey
Together, they would empty their spirits of anything that was not of God
In that profound spiritual clarity, they would see where God called them to be Mercy for the world.
In our first reading, Paul names a number of his companions, those who strengthened and assisted him in life and ministry. Catherine too had beloved companions without whom she could not have met the challenges of her call.
In our Gospel, Jesus affirms that our hearts must be emptied of the undue love of anything that distracts us from God and God’s Way:
No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him.And he said to them, “You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”
Luke 16: 12-15
While in her times, Catherine encountered the ravages of material poverty, I think that something much less tangible, but exponentially more destructive, would capture her ministerial awareness today.
Our world suffers from an intrinsic and debilitating fear which inclines us to amass power and possessions to the impoverishment of those around us. The fear of not being or having enough drives the systemic predation of the rich upon the poor, and the powerful over the weak. It is a fear that grows in a heart emptied of God.
While Catherine would continue to address the needs of those suffering from poverty and disenfranchisement, I think she would reach out in a new way to the healing of those underlying fears. These fears fester in a culture of spiritual ignorance endemic to our modern society. The naming and healing of that ignorance is deeply congruous with Catherine’s charism and calls to us urgently today.
About St. Martin de Porres, Pope John XXIII said this:
“He loved his neighbors with the benevolence of the heroes of the Christian faith.”
So did Catherine McAuley. So must we.
Poetry: Where the Mind is Without Fear – Rabindranath Tagore
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let us awake.
Music: There is No Fear in Love – The Bible Project
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings are about spiritual wealth, stewardship, and Godly generosity.
Paul starts us off by proclaiming that the wealth/riches of salvation belong to ALL humanity. He presents himself as a unique “steward “ of those riches to the Gentiles.
But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:15-16
Our Gospel gives us a second interpretation of “stewardship” in the parable the wily steward. This fella’ gets called on the carpet for squandering his employer’s resources. Pink slip time!
So the steward calls in some of the debtors and reduces their debt by the amount of his own commission. By doing this, he hopes to make some friends to support him in his impending unemployment.
Many years ago, there was a Talbot’s outlet in the Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philly. You could get an amazing deal on the clearance items. But you got an even better deal if you went to a certain cashier for your checkout.
He was a tall, flamboyant and loudly funny guy. If a price tag was missing on an item, you got it virtually for free. He would make outlandish comments like, “Oh, honey, this isn’t your color so let’s discount it 50%.” If you bought two of the same item, he might announce,”Two for one today”, charging for only one. He was a living example of the Biblical steward! Over time, he developed a devoted buying community – those who had learned the secret of why people waited in his long line!
In today’s parable, Jesus isn’t advocating that we cheat our employers. The parable isn’t really about that at all. It is about the way Jesus wants his disciples to be profligate in preaching the mercy of God.
Remember that this parable comes in between two blockbusters about Mercy- the Prodigal Son and Lazarus and the Rich Man. In a way, you might say Jesus is on a tear about the unbounded generosity of God in forgiveness and hope for us. He makes clear that the wealth of Divine Love is delivered to us by our unbounded Christian love for one another.
So today, maybe we can think about the Talbot’s guy. We have been abundantly blessed by God’s love for us. Let’s pay it forward over and over today… and every day. Let’s generously share the infinite discount of Mercy.
Poetry: from Day of a Stranger by Thomas Merton
I am out of bed at two-fifteen in the morning, when the night is darkest and most silent. . .. I find myself in the primordial lostness of night, solitude, forest, peace, a mind awake in the dark, looking for a light, not totally reconciled to being out of bed. A light appears, and in the light an ikon. There is now in the large darkness a small room of radiance with psalms in it. The psalms grow up silently by themselves without effort like plants in this light which is favorable to them. The plants hold themselves up on stems that have a single consistency, that of mercy, or rather great mercy. Magna misericordia. In the formlessness of night and silence a word then pronounces itself: Mercy.
Music: Jesus Paid It All – Elvira M. Hall (1865) This rendition of the hymn by Kristian Stanfill (born 1983) is so interesting. Offered here with modern instrumentation, the words date back to the era of the US Civil War. Past and present meld in the ever eternal love God has for us.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate a rare type of feast day – one that marks the dedication of a church building. For many, that seems a little odd. We are accustomed to celebrating Mary, Joseph, and other saints and feasts of Our Lord.
Here’s the thing: we are not actually celebrating a building. We are celebrating what the building represents – the Body of Christ, the Church, made of living stones – us.
The Lateran Basilica, founded in 324, is the oldest public church in the city of Rome, and the oldest basilica in the Western world. Standing before it, one can sense the entire drama of our 2000-year-old Church whispering its secrets to us. We hear the echoes of human courage, hope, perseverance, and fidelity which, over centuries, have transmitted the faith to us. We can hear the now stilled voices of those who loved the faith enough to give it visible and glorious expression for all who would follow them.
Today’s feast reminds us that sometimes it helps to have visible symbols of the things we venerate and celebrate. That’s why we have medals, rosary beads, and candles – so that we can SEE something as we try to conceptualize a spiritual reality. Can you imagine the awe and joy of the early Christians when, after centuries of hiding from persecution, they were able to gather and worship in this magnificent edifice!
St. John Lateran is the Pope’s parish church. Since he is the Bishop of the whole People of God, his physical church has come to symbolize the universal Body of Christ, the world Church.
Pope Benedict XVI in his Angelus Address, on November 9, 2008 said this:
Dear friends, today’s feast celebrates a mystery that is always relevant: God’s desire to build a spiritual temple in the world, a community that worships him in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:23-24). But this observance also reminds us of the importance of the material buildings in which the community gathers to celebrate the praises of God. Every community therefore has the duty to take special care of its own sacred buildings, which are a precious religious and historical patrimony. For this we call upon the intercession of Mary Most Holy, that she help us to become, like her, the “house of God,” living temple of his love.
As we pray today, we might want to consider the gift of faith on which our own lives are built – a faith whose cornerstone is Jesus Christ. In our second reading, Paul says this:
Brothers and sisters: You are God’s building….. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
And in our Gospel, Jesus speaks of his own body as a temple which, though apparently destroyed by his enemies, will be raised up in three days.
By our Baptism, that same spiritual temple lives in us and in all the community of faith. That same power of Resurrection is alive in us! So in a very real sense, what we celebrate today is ourselves – the Living Church – raised up and visible as a sign of God’s Life in the world.
Happy Feast Day, Church (and I’m talking to YOU, dear reader!)
Research: For the Church History buffs among us, this Wikipedia article on St. John Lateran Basilica can serve as a syllabus on the annals of the Roman Catholic Church.
Lavish Mercy 