For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28
The faith we share with other Christians makes us one in Christ. If someone has become “the other” for us, the integrity our faith is damaged in some way.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to truly be clothed in Christ – to so espouse his Gospel that we live in charity and reverence for all Creation.
Thought: from St. Augustine
O Sacrament of Love! O sign of Unity! O bond of Charity! They who would have Life find here indeed a Life to live in and a Life to live by.
An argument arose among the disciples about which of them was the greatest. Jesus realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed it by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.” Luke 9:46-48
In the Gospel both today and yesterday, the disciples are struggling with their pride and expectations. Jesus calls them to live with a mature and humble innocence.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Our commitment to a Gospel life suffers when we become concerned with our status or importance. We ask for the humble courage to embrace a sacred innocence sustained by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit – Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord
Thought:
“Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.”
Jesus said to the crowd: “No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care, then, how you hear. To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” Luke 8:16-18
Jesus indicates that the only way to spread light in the world is to do it together. Some have been given more, some less. But pooling all we have creates a Divine Fire illuminating a shadowy world.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask for the courage to recognize, claim, and offer our light in a world that longs for it. We ask for the humility and insight to encourage holy fire in others.
Poetry: I Understand This Light to Be My Home – Mai Der Vang, the author of Afterland (Graywolf Press, 2017), which recounts the Hmong exodus from Laos and the fate of thousands of refugees seeking asylum. The book received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets.
In the awareness, I am brought closer to my being from long before. In my awareness, there is only what I can take from the small spaces of
knowing, an earnest ascendance imparted by way of transmissions from the grid, a voice calls out unbroken below and above as the aura of faraway light.
There is a light that
shimmers so deep it never goes anywhere but to shimmer.
Light assumes its job is to shimmer, and so it is, but more than that, light is ancestral. Light is witness. Light is prehistory,
blueprint of vibrations shifting through all directions of time.
Light as hidden winter that leads to shadow as the growth. Light as first language of source. Light as both terrestrial and celestial. Light of long nights far up
in the sky, I stare to the heavens and weep for the stars whose light I have always known and understood to be my rooting.
I once shared a life with the name of this light as I know it in the stars who gave me
my body. As I know it in the frequencies of my footsteps,
as I hear it in the code of a landscape imprinted on my fingers, as I spirit my eyes open from the inside, as I know and understand this light to be kin.
Consider then the pain of leaving this light, of losing the stars to spaces
no longer lit by its truth. I am shaped in the spaces where the light does not reach, a need for what does not shimmer
but opening to the shadow to receive just as much light. I miss this light always.
Then more light.
Ever more light. Deficit of light to bring more light.
Template of light to bring more love.
That is my one true wish, as I know and understand
this light to be my home, as a knowing up there in the galaxy is me,
and I am up there in my bones built from stars.
Music: Dark Sky Island – Enya – a beautiful song in which she names some of the stars.
Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his widowed mother. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Luke 7:11-15
In today’s Gospel, we read the deeply moving phrase, “… the only son of his widowed mother“. Reading it, we can feel that same pity Jesus felt as the small group of mourners passed him in the road.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We assess our own hearts to measure our Christ-like tenderness for those who are suffering – often, right before our distracted eyes. As Irene Zimmermann suggests in the poem below, in attending to these suffering people we also attend Christ.
Poetry: First Born Sons and the Widow of Nain – Irene Zimmerman, OSF
Jesus halted on the road outside Nain where a woman’s wailing drenched the air. Out of the gates poured a somber procession of dark-shawled women, hushed children, young men bearing a litter that held a body swathed in burial clothes, and the woman, walking alone.
A widow then—another bundle of begging rags at the city gates. A bruised reed!
Her loud grief labored and churned in him till “Halt!” he shouted.
The crowd, the woman, the dead man stopped. Dust, raised by sandaled feet, settled down again on the sandy road. Insects waited in shocked silence.
He walked to the litter, grasped a dead hand. “Young man,” he called in a voice that shook the walls of Sheol, “I command you, rise!”
The linens stirred. Two firstborn sons from Nazareth and Nain met, eye to eye.
He placed the pulsing hand into hers. “Woman, behold your son,” he smiled.
Music: Tender-Hearted – Jeanne Cotter
Be tender-hearted as you love one another as I have loved you And forgive one another with endless compassion as I forgave you.
Clothe yourself with kindness, patience, and humility. Let the peace of Christ live in your hearts and above all else, put on love. And be tender hearted.
Be tender hearted as you live a life worthy of your calling. You are God’s work of art, holy temple. The Spirit is at home in you.
Walk always as children of Light Keep the flame of faith alive. God’s love has been poured into your heart. You are reborn by that love.
So be tender hearted for you’ve put on a new self hidden with Christ in God. You are no longer stranger. You’re one of the chosen holy and beloved
Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful. Luke 6:31-36
“Even” can be a parsimonious word – as in “get even”, “even-steven”. In such phrases, “even” means we settle things without forgiveness or generosity. It means we get our due without considering the other’s need.
But Jesus says the Gospel heart is not about “evenness”. Rather it is weighted on the side of extravagant mercy, generosity, and forgiveness.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray for the courage to model our relationships with others on God’s incredible kindness to us.
But to take the Gospels seriously, to assume that they say what they mean and mean what they say, is the beginning of troubles. Those would-be literalists who yet argue that the Bible is unerring and unquestionable have not dealt with its contradictions, which of course it does contain, and the Gospels are not exempt. Some of Jesus’ instructions are burdensome not because they involve contradiction, but merely because they are so demanding.
The proposition that love, forgiveness and peaceableness are the only neighborly relationships that are acceptable to God is difficult for us weak and violent humans, but it is plain enough for any literalist. We must either accept it as an absolute or absolutely reject it. The same for the proposition that we are not permitted to choose our neighbors ahead of time or to limit neighborhood, as is plain from the parable of the Samaritan.
The same for the requirement that we must be perfect, like God, which seems as outrageous as the Buddhist vow to “save all sentient beings,” and perhaps is meant to measure and instruct us in the same way. It is, to say the least, unambiguous.
Brothers and sisters: Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
Paul writes that the meaning of the Cross depends on who you are. If you believe, it manifests God’s Power. If you do not believe, it signifies foolishness.
The Gospel and the Cross turn the realities of the world upside down. For those who have falsely believed that power exists in egotism, legalism, division, aggression, vengeance, and greed, Paul says, “No!”. These are only signs that you are perishing.
The power of the Cross is manifested in mercy, justice, community, peace, forgiveness and generosity. This is the path to salvation.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask for the courage to trust the contradictory wisdom of the Gospel, and to live a life that reveals the “foolish” power of the Cross.
Poetry: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross – Malcolm Guite
See, as they strip the robe from off his back And spread his arms and nail them to the cross, The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black, And love is firmly fastened on to loss. But here, a pure change happens. On this tree, loss becomes gain, death opens into birth. Here wounding heals and fastening makes free,
Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth. And here we see the length, the breadth, the height, Where love and hatred meet and love stays true, Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light, We see what love can bear and be and do. And here our Saviour calls us to his side, His love is free, his arms are open wide.
We ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, as is fitting, because your faith flourishes ever more, and the love of every one of you for one another grows ever greater…
… We always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 1: 3-4; 11-12
How grateful we should be for the communities of faith that nurture us! In today’s beautiful words, Paul prays in gratitude for the faithful and generous Thessalonians community.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: If we have been blessed by the faith of family, friends, parish, school, religious community, or place of ministry, we can echo the words of Paul in his gratitude for the Thessalonians community. Let’s take the time to recall and give thanks for those who bless us with their faith. Doing so will make us more grateful, humble, generous, and courageous.
Poetry: Common Prayer – Renee Yann, RSM
When she comes to morning prayer, from night’s isolating shadows, she comes from someplace I have never been with invitations to a place that I could never be, save her full divestiture to God, done humbly before me.
Jesus told his disciples this parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.’ Matthew 20:1-4
Jesus tells the parable of the generous landowner who measures out recompense by love not law. Jesus teaches that this new law of love is the Godly means to calculate justice.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to live by the kind of loving justice Jesus calls us to, not by the measurements that keep others in subservience or oppression. We might ask ourselves these questions:
What really belongs to me?
If I have achieved or received much in life is it not by the grace of God and good fortune?
How can I help others have what they justly deserve?
Poetry: from Rumi
When I am with you, everything is prayer. I prayed for change, so, I changed my mind.
I prayed for guidance and learned to trust myself.
I prayed for happiness and realized I am not my ego.
I prayed for peace and learned to accept others unconditionally.
I prayed for abundance and realized my doubt kept it out.
I prayed for wealth and realized it is my health.
I prayed for a miracle and realized I am the miracle.
I prayed for a soul mate and realized I am with the One.
I prayed for love and realized it is always knocking, but I have to allow it in.
Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns; she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine, yes, she has spread her table. She has sent out her maidens; she calls from the heights out over the city: “Let whoever is simple turn in here; To the one who lacks understanding, she says, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.” Proverbs 9:1-6
Proverbs offers us the beautiful image of Divine Wisdom setting a table of grace for our nourishment.
In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that he is the divine nourishment foretold in Proverbs. Some resist Jesus’s invitation. Their faith languishes even while there is sacred food before them.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We give thanks for the Bread of Life given to us in Eucharist, Gospel, Creation, community, and merciful action. We ask for the grace to see God’s nourishing Presence right before us in our daily lives.
Poetry: I Am the Bread of Life – Malcolm Guite
Where to get bread? An ever-pressing question That trembles on the lips of anxious mothers, Bread for their families, bread for all these others; A whole world on the margin of exhaustion. And where that hunger has been satisfied Where to get bread? The question still returns In our abundance something starves and yearns We crave fulfillment, crave and are denied.
And then comes One who speaks into our needs Who opens out the secret hopes we cherish Whose presence calls our hidden hearts to flourish Whose words unfold in us like living seeds Come to me, broken, hungry, incomplete, I Am the Bread of Life, break Me and eat.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Matthew 18:20
Today’s Gospel speaks to the power of community and the responsibility of being a member. Being gathered in the Name of Christ means being gathered in love where each one seeks the good of all others.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We realize that community is itself a ministry and sacrament exercised by a group of people who choose to love God by loving and supporting one another for mission. Whether that be in a family, a religious community, a workplace, a local or universal Church, we owe one another honesty, respect, encouragement, hospitality, and compassion. These gifts release each one of us to minister in love to a broken world.
Poetry: The Things that Count – Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)
Now, dear, it isn’t the bold things, Great deeds of valour and might, That count the most in the summing up of life at the end of the day. But it is the doing of old things, Small acts that are just and right; And doing them over and over again, no matter what others say; In smiling at fate, when you want to cry, and in keeping at work when you want to play— Dear, those are the things that count.
And, dear, it isn’t the new ways Where the wonder-seekers crowd That lead us into the land of content, or help us to find our own. But it is keeping to true ways, Though the music is not so loud, And there may be many a shadowed spot where we journey along alone; In flinging a prayer at the face of fear, and in changing into a song a groan— Dear, these are the things that count.
My dear, it isn’t the loud part Of creeds that are pleasing to God, Not the chant of a prayer, or the hum of a hymn, or a jubilant shout or song. But it is the beautiful proud part Of walking with feet faith-shod; And in loving, loving, loving through all, no matter how things go wrong; In trusting ever, though dark the day, and in keeping your hope when the way seems long— Dear, these are the things that count.
Lavish Mercy 