Today, in Mercy, Paul, follows on yesterday’s magnificent passage about
the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The power of this Gospel is the “treasure” about which Paul writes in today’s first reading.
In this passage, Paul describes the miracle of contradiction in us who believe. We carry theinfinite light of God’s Glory in the fragile, imperfect vessels of our existence. By the power of God, the omnipotent sublime shines from within the ordinary.
We see, in these lines, Paul the humble and tested preacher. He has grown in his deep understanding of himself as God’s imperfect instrument.
All of us who want to live the Gospel are called to experience a deepening like Paul’s. The poet Mary Oliver reflects such a transformation in her poem On Thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate (Psalm 145). Here is the last delightful stanza, which may inspire our prayer today. (I will send the full poem a little later.)
Every morning I want to kneel down on the golden cloth of the sand and say some kind of musical thanks for the world that is happening again—another day— from the shawl of wind coming out of the west to the firm green flesh of the melon lately sliced open and eaten, its chill and ample body flavored with mercy. I want to be worthy—of what? Glory? Yes, unimaginable glory. O Lord of melons, of mercy, though I am not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing toward you.
Today, in Mercy, we celebrate the feast of St. Anthony. Many of us are close friends with him, as we mislay our keys, glasses, phones and wallets on a regular basis. But we might want to consider St. Anthony’s more universal contribution to the Church. A Franciscan friar, Anthony was noted by his contemporaries for his powerful preaching, expert knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick – virtues we are called to imitate by his canonization.
On another note, today’s readings for Ordinary Time focus on seeing past the letter of the Law to its Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, preaching charity over ritual, says:
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
In the magnificent passage from 2 Corinthians, Paul, describing the Old Law of requirements as a veil over our eyes, writes:
Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.
May our lives, blessed by the freedom of the Holy Spirit, move gratefully, humbly, and joyously “from glory to glory” – growing ever more deeply into the merciful Heart of God.
Today, in Mercy, our Gospel reveals a lot about the relationships and personalities among Jesus and his disciples.
John is described as “the one whom Jesus loved”, indicating that there was a unique affection shared between them. What was that like? John was younger than most of the other men. Perhaps he needed more overt direction and care from Jesus. We know from John’s later extensive contributions to scripture that he was a poet and a visionary, someone with heightened sensitivities. Perhaps John expressed his love for Jesus more openly, triggering a similar response in Jesus.
Peter, once again, appears as the questioner. Throughout the Gospels, he is always asking Jesus to explain, to define, to assure. In today’s reading, Jesus has given Peter the prime call to follow him. But Peter wants more. Looking at John, Peter wants to know, “What about him… will he follow?”
Maybe Peter is a lot like some of us, a little unsure of where we are in God’s love. Maybe he wants to know how he compares to John, the obvious “Beloved Disciple”.
Jesus doesn’t coddle Peter. He wants Peter to “man up”. Peter has immense leadership responsibilities ahead of him. He needs to rely totally on Jesus’s promise to him.
So Jesus tells him not to worry about how others are loved and called by God. He tells Peter, “ You follow me!” – that’s all you have to be concerned about.
Everybody’s call to follow is personal and different. It comes dressed in our particular life circumstances, gifts and awarenesses. God wants Peter and God wants John. He doesn’t want clones of either.
And God wants and calls each one of us in our uniqueness. By entering deeply into our own spirit, we will find our answer to God’s call.
Teresa of Avila said this:
It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.
May dear, questioning Peter inspire us today to be brave, confident and complete in our own response to God’s call.
Today, in Mercy, Acts gives us a brief lesson on the difference between John’s and Jesus’ baptism. John’s is a baptism of repentance, cleansing and preparing the soul for Christ.
Baptism in Jesus unites us with Christ through the power of the indwelling Spirit. It is a dynamic and life-changing transformation.
But we are often so unaware of its power within us!
We are like the disciples in today’s Gospel. They think that, because they understand Christ’s word, they have it all together. But Jesus warns them:
Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone.
The distractions of this world can distort and muffle our Baptismal call. Jesus is warning his disciples that it is not easy to live a truly Christian life. Jesus tells them and us to “take courage”, to open our hearts to his power in us. And our Gospel verse from Colossians shows us the way:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
We are to make the higher choice always:
mercy over harshness
justice over retribution
forgiveness over vengeance
honesty over pretense
love over indifference
service over selfishness
In this way, our Baptismal power will shine, strengthening not only us, but the world we touch.
Music: The Lord Bless You and Keep You – John Rutter
Let pray this prayer for one another today, Beloveds. May God strengthen and uplift your hearts in the power of your Baptism.
Jesus talks about the kind of blowback his disciples can expect for living their faith inan inimical world. He gives us some “if … then” statements:
If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
Reading these verses makes me wonder if I am really living the Gospel, because I don’t feel all that persecuted.
And then I think that this is because I really live in two worlds. I live in first world comfort and security. But there is also a part of me that agonizes daily over the injustice rampant in our shared world. Today’s Gospel challenges me to live more intentionally in that second world.
Walter Brueggemann says this:
Faith is both the conviction
that justice can be accomplished
and the refusal to accept injustice.” – Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out
Jesus was not persecuted simply because he did miracles and preached love. This loving, life-giving ministry confronted the dominant, government-generated culture which relied on the subjugation and despair of those they dominated.
I don’t aspire to martyrdom. But I do want to be a true disciple of Jesus. The way available to us is to live and act with mercy and compassion for the poor, marginalized people Jesus so loves. We can do this by voting, advocating for, and sponsoring programs and agendas for social justice.This link from the Sisters of Mercy is a help on how to do that:
Compassion constitutes a radical form of criticism, for it announces that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness. In the arrangement of “lawfulness” in Jesus’ time, as in the ancient empire of Pharaoh, the one unpermitted quality of relation was compassion. Empires are never built or maintained on the basis of compassion.” (Prophetic Imagination)
May our hearts be moved by grace to the depth of compassion we have learned from Jesus.
P.S. I know that many of you have responded to this request I placed on Facebook. Thank you. For those who don’t do Facebook, this is an urgent request for help for refugees at our southern border. It’s an easy way to do some good things.It was received from Sisters of Mercy Leadership Team in D.C.
Today, in Mercy, our Gospel gives us the powerful metaphor of the Vine and the Branches.
How do we grow more deeply into God? Or how do we let God grow more deeply into us? Or do we even want those things to happen?
If our lives seem to be riding along on their own, we may not pay all that much attention to God’s Presence in our experiences. And that’s where we miss the opportunity to be grafted on to the Vine.
How unfortunate if we never learn to befriend our own souls, because that is the place where God speaks to us. St. Teresa of Avila put it this way:
What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we will or no, must ever bear us company? — St. Theresa of Avila, The Interior Castle
Some practices to help that “befriending” are the appreciation of quiet, the routine of prayer, the love of scripture, the reverence of nature and humanity, and the practice of charity.
The Little Flower offers us great insight into friendship with God:
I understand and I know from experience that: ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ Jesus has no need of books or teachers to instruct souls; He teaches without the noise of words. Never have I heard Him speak, but I feel that He is within me at each moment; He is guiding and inspiring me with what I must say and do. I find just when I need them certain lights that I had not seen until then, and it isn’t most frequently during my hours of prayer that these are most abundant but rather in the midst of my daily occupations.” ― St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul – the Autobiography of St. Therese
Lest my men readers fear I’ve gone all girly with these women saints (and by the way, they were not girly. They were powerhouses of spiritual dynamism!), try this from St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits:
Try to keep your soul always in peace and quiet, always ready for whatever our Lord may wish to work in you. it is certainly a higher virtue of the soul, and a greater grace, to be able to enjoy the Lord in different times and different places than in only one. ― Saint Ignatius, Letter to Francisco de Borja, Duke of Gandía
Summary of all this thought: God lives in us and we live in God, as branches live in the Vine. May we let ourselves absorb, cherish and celebrate this astounding Gift!
PS: Sending another personal thought on a little later this evening.
Today, in Mercy, our readings celebrate the New Creation given us in Jesus Christ.
Acts describes the continuing whirlwind journey of Paul and Barnabas. They buzz all over the Mediterranean basin, carrying the Good News to Jews and Gentiles. Their work and enthusiasm teach us what the word “apostolic” truly signifies- reaching out to all people with the message of Jesus. Paul and Barnabas return home jubilant,
… reporting what God had done with them and how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
In our second reading, John, the visionary and poet, has another kind of door opened for him. His vision is of a New Creation, joined with God in a covenant of love. God renews the promise once made to Abraham, this time embodied in the gift of Jesus Christ to all humanity:
Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.
In our Gospel, Jesus tells us once again how it is that we become part of this New Creation:
I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.
All of these glorious images may help us see our life in God through new eyes. Perhaps there are a few half-closed doors in our lives that need to be oiled with the grace of renewal. Simply recognizing these in prayer, in God’s presence, is a step toward a New Creation of our hearts and spirits. We are so beloved of God! Let us open our hearts to that renewing love.
Music: Stars Go Dim – Heaven on Earth (This will wake you up!🤗)
Today, in Mercy, Paul continues his preaching in Antioch. He delivers a very powerful, and condemnatory line about the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders …
Though they found no grounds for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have Jesus put to death…
Being unable to accept the Truth that Jesus was, they conspired to destroy him.
Understanding, accepting and living within the Truth of God and of ourselves is the way to eternal life. In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that he is this Way, Truth and Life.
It sounds so straightforward and simple, doesn’t it?
But in our world, truth has lost its definition. Its edges have been stretched beyond recognition by propaganda, moral convenience, political pretense, false advertising, manipulative social media, and other forms of self-serving deceit.
The distortion of truth has become epidemic among us, infecting us all in one way or another.
Just as in the presence of any disease, we need to take precautions to keep ourselves healthy – true to God and to ourselves:
placing ourselves honestly before God in prayer
practicing a brief examination of conscience at the end of each day
discerning how we use power and advantage in terms of self-interest
living by self-respect and respect for others
evaluating our actions and choices in the light of the command to love one another
In the Father’s House there are many dwelling places. Truth is their entry key:
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me.
Today, in Mercy,Acts describes Peter in the full energy of his discipleship. The infant Church was at peace, being built up by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Peter, completely filled with this sacred power, raises a woman from the dead. He does this in the Name of Jesus to Whom he has given his entire being.
Our Gospel describes the moment of Peter’s total commitment. Some have turned away from Jesus because of his teaching on the Eucharist. Jesus asks the Twelve if they to wish to go too.
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
At pivotal points in our faith life, Jesus asks us the same question. May we always have the strength and insight to turn toward Christ. May we pour our hearts into the welcoming love of Jesus, just as Peter did.
Music: To Whom Shall We Go – Robin and Staci Calamaio – Father and daughter team
Today, in Mercy, we move out of the intense blessings of Easter’s Octave into a time called “Eastertide”. For the next six weeks, we will continue to pray with Acts and John’s Gospel.
Eastertide is a time of great joy in the Church. This joy takes voice in special prayers used only, or with greater frequency, during this time, for example:
Vidi Aquam
Te Deum
Regina Caeli
and a proliferation of Alleluias
We, as Church, are celebrating our rebirth in Christ. It is a miracle even to have been given the gift of life. But, as Jesus tells Nicodemus in today’s Gospel, it is a gift beyond description to be reborn in the Spirit of God:
What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, “You must be born from above”.
Let’s pray in thanksgiving today for the gift of life for ourselves and all those we love. Let us pray for the continual rebirth of our spirits in the abundant Easter grace of the Risen Christ. (Below the music is a Birthday Prayer that you might save for your own birthday celebration.)
Music: Gradual and Alleluia – Catholic Songs, Gregorian Chant
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you… (Jeremiah 5:1)
On this, the day of your birth, God says to you:
Of all the myriad gifts of my creation, this is the day I made you. Rest in that thought. I made you – For this time in history, to be in the world with these people, to live in this place, to know these times, these cultures, this evolution of my creation.
On the day I made you, I made thousands of other creatures. Human beings, each reflecting some facet of my infinite image. Beautiful birds, riotous monkeys, infinitesimal ants. My lava broke through earth’s crusts to form new islands. I folded unseen mountains into yet undiscovered gorges, bent rivers into surprise journeys, washed entire beaches onto new shores. I was busy the day I made you. War raged and I welcomed its many victims into heaven. More creatures died on your birthday than were born. More came home to me than went out to begin their journey.
But you were one who went out. When I opened my hand and breathed your journey into you, I smiled. I saw the wonders that could bless the world because of you. I saw a rainbow of love, generosity, mutuality, happiness, encouragement, and faith gathered like an unhatched egg in your heart. I saw the storms and winds that would release that prism in your soul. I saw it spread across a wide sky because of all the years and experiences that I would give you.
I saw the hint of sunrise in you. Its name was mercy. It was a gift fired by the energy of My own heart. I looked beyond you to the cold and shadowed world that you would comfort with its light and warmth.
I was happy on the day I made you. I was filled with hope for the blessing you would be. I am still filled with joy, hope and love for you on this your long-after birthday. You have tried to live my sacred dream for you.
As the sun rises glorious in the eastern sky, I promise you a future full of love. Notice that the western sky reflects the brilliance of the sunrise, just as all the years now past assure you of my presence at the core of your life. You have been and are infinitely loved. Be love in return. Your days are replete with mercy. Be mercy in return. Be born again this day!
The distortion of truth has become epidemic among us, infecting us all in one way or another.
Lavish Mercy 