Category: Gospel

Don’t Worry; Be God-like

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, holiness4 Comments

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062318.cfm

lilies of the field

Today, in Mercy, Jesus once again blows all our human instincts to smithereens! He says don’t worry about what you’ll eat or wear. Seek God’s Kingdom and all your needs will be filled. Really?

We may be tempted to picture a hippie type, bird-watching and sun-bathing in a field of of flowers – all agog with the Kingdom, but not too swift with the world!

But that’s probably not what Jesus envisioned. After all, Jesus himself worked hard to secure the necessities his family needed in Nazareth. He worked hard at his ministry throughout the Holy Land, and cared deeply about the success of his message.

What He didn’t do was worry. 

Worry is what happens when we think it all depends on us. It’s what happens when it’s all about us. Worry is a windowless, doorless room where we run around aimlessly. Even God has a hard time getting in to reason with us.

To break out of that room, Jesus says seek God’s way of looking at things. Work hard and do your best – but make sure it’s for important stuff like love, honor, mercy, justice, charity, and peace. Make sure it’s not for “mammon” stuff like greed, selfishness, domination, prejudice and a host of other sins that love to worry us.

If we can make these distinctions in our life, we will have a freedom like the beautiful lilies and the unfettered sparrows. It will be an amazing liberty that the evil-hearted cannot understand or compromise.

Music: Consider the Lilies of the Field (Words below)

Consider the lilies of the field,
How they grow, how they grow.
Consider the birds in the sky,
How they fly, how they fly.

He clothes the lilies of the field.
He feeds the birds in the sky.
And He will feed those who trust Him,
And guide them with His eye.

Consider the sheep of His fold,
How they follow where He leads.
Though the path may wind across the mountains,
He knows the meadows where they feed.

He clothes the lilies of the field.
He feeds the birds in the sky,
And He will feed those who trust Him,
And guide them with His eye.

Consider the sweet, tender children
Who must suffer on this earth.
The pains of all of them He carried
From the day of His birth.

He clothes the lilies of the field,
He feeds the lambs in His fold,
And He will heal those who trust Him,
And make their hearts as gold.

He clothes the lilies of the field,
He feeds the lambs in His fold,
And He will heal those who trust Him,
And make their hearts as gold.

Where Is Your Treasure?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Gospel, Jesus, justice, Truth3 Comments

Friday, June 22, 2018

Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062218.cfm

Today, in Mercy, Jesus continues to teach us how to live a truly Gospel life. He does it with two small sermons and closes each with a blockbuster statement.

Mt6_19_23

Have you ever sat in church, suffering through a rambling sermon that never got to the point? Then you can understand the beauty and effectiveness of these statements of Jesus:

Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

If the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.

The first statement leaves us to ponder what really matters to us. Where do we spend our time, talent and treasure? If we say we love God and God’s vulnerable ones, do our “investments” prove it?

The second statement challenges us to be profoundly honest, to stop naming as “good” only that which is self-serving. We see blatant examples of this in our political life: policies and tactics tied to greedy, prejudiced outcomes – outcomes fed by the suffering and oppression of vulnerable human beings. These tactics challenge us to look at our own heart and test what we proclaim as “light”.

.

Our Father

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus2 Comments

Thursday, June 21,2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062118.cfm

Today, in Mercy, our readings are a study in contrasts.  Our first reading from Sirach describes the fiery majesty of the prophet Elijah. Everything about Elijah was thunder and lightning.  He toppled kings and raised the dead, and generally cast a path of fire as he preached. At the end of his life, he passed into heaven in a chariot of flames.

The Gospel presents a Prophet of a gentler stripe – Jesus, who is teaching us how to pray.

Jesus says to pray simply, humbly, to ask for forgiveness, and freedom from temptation. He tells us to forgive others, avoid evil and be content with our daily bread.  No fiery chariots; no tumbling governments.  This gentle man will die in the agony of the cross.

No wonder those who hoped for a Messiah like Elijah were disappointed in Jesus.  No wonder we still struggle to understand the contradiction of the Cross.

However, Walter Brueggemann says this:  The crucifixion is

“the ultimate act of prophetic criticism
in which Jesus announces the end of a world of death…
and takes the death into his own person”.  

Still, the witness of Calvary would remain nothing but a contradiction without the transformative act of the Resurrection.

cross ressur

Through the combined witness of Good Friday and Easter, Jesus not only confronts the old order, he embraces and transforms it.  He takes to himself the same suffering and death that we all must face, but he shows us that it cannot destroy us. He proves that, ultimately, death has no power over those who believe in Him and in the Father Who has sent Him.

Indeed, the Our Father is a most powerful, prophetic prayer. It teaches us how to be in the presence of God even in the midst of our daily life. It shows us how to express our faith in God’s Kingdom even as we live in our earthly one.  It helps us to become a little more like gentle, powerful Jesus.

Music: Aramaic Our Father – in the orgs that Jesus likely used.

But WHY, for God’s Sake?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, Mercy3 Comments

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061918.cfm

Today, in Mercy, Jesus continues to instruct  us in the way of Christian perfection. As we look back over history, and contemplate the present, we realize that these are instructions many Christians have chosen to ignore.

Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you.

But WHY, for God’s sake??? Why should we love our ENEMIES???

And that’s exactly the answer: for God’s sake.

Jesus tells us that this is the way God loves, and that if we want to be like God, we must love that way too.

sun on good

God lets his rain – his grace – pour out to everyone. God does not withhold the hope for good from any creature. It doesn’t mean that God, or we, don’t recognize evil and sin in another. It means that we love despite it.

We may have a few people in our hearts whom we consider so evil or mean-hearted (people who hurt us or the world so egregiously) that we have withdrawn our respect and love from them.

These are the very people Jesus tells us to pray for today. May they be opened to God’s grace. May they be healed by Love. And may we.

Music: Tender Hearted~ by Jeanne Cotter

 

Peaceful Defiance

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Gospel, justice, Mercy, peace3 Comments

Monday, June 18, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061818.cfm

Today, in Mercy, we encounter one of the most difficult passages of the Gospel – the admonitions to turn the other cheek, and go the extra mile. 

Wow, these go against every natural instinct (at least mine! 👿) If someone slaps me, I’m slapping back! If someone grabs my goods, forces my labor, or has the guts to borrow my necessities, I’m gonna’ resist! What about you? Even the Book of Exodus supports “an eye for an eye” kind of justice, right? Well, Jesus says, “No, not right!”. 

In this passage, Jesus shatters our natural inclinations for retribution, retaliation and even self-preservation. 

He says that when we are struck or insulted, we should not respond in kind. Rather we should continue to stand our ground without being diverted into the violence of the attacker.  

He says that when laws are used unjustly against us, we should not respond in kind. Rather, we should stand our ground and expose the unjust law by our willingness to engage it in the public forum.

He says that when unrecompensateded work is demanded of us, we should give it and more, thus doubly exposing the demander’s offense.

He says that to turn our back on a borrower, no matter how inopportune, is a form of violence against the borrower.

What Jesus is asking of us is a non-violent response to the insults and outrages thrown at us. But He is not asking us to be victims or doormats. Each of the admonitions instructs us not to ignore evil, but to respond to it with positive, peaceful strength.

defiant

Jesus himself is the quintessential example of this prophetic, non-violent lifestyle. He condemned evil for what it was, but he did not adopt its methods to do so.

Eileen Campbell

Sister of Mercy Eileen Campbell, arrested at the White House
for peaceful protest of inhumane immigration policies.

Recent history offers us stellar examples of individuals who have understood and practiced this Gospel passage: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Berta Cáceres, and other modern peace activists – ordinary Christians like you and me.

They have heard and responded to today’s Gospel. Can we?

On This Father’s Day

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Courage, Gospel, Hope, Uncategorized1 Comment

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061718.cfm

2 Cor 5_7 faith

Today, in Mercy, our Sunday readings are filled with the hope of new life, spoken out of the abyss of suffering.

Both Ezekiel’s and Paul’s communities were suffering under exile or persecution. In both cases, a powerful state has dehumanized and enslaved them – rendering them as “other”, unworthy of fraternal compassion.

These suffering communities hunger for the encouragement of their prophets, Ezekiel and Paul.

They long for Ezekiel’s majestic cedar, born from a single, hopeful branch – a life-giving tree where all can dwell in fullness and joy. It is a precursor of heaven, where they will be free and restored to honor.

They draw hope from Paul’s example of courage, believing with him that there is a new day coming where they will be known as precious and worthy in God’s sight.

What might these readings suggest to us, as we celebrate Father’s Day today?

As we contemplate the gift of fatherhood from the perspective of our own experience, let us be mindful of fathers and families experiencing exile and persecution similar to Ezekiel’s and Paul’s communities.

migrant fathers

The Bible tells us stories of our ancestors in faith, but it is also a living Word – speaking to our current experiences. Just this week, we have heard some in power positions use the Bible to justify the infliction of pain and hardship on other human beings. God must weep at such sinful arrogance!

Let us, instead, be inspired by these Scriptures to open our hearts in mercy. Let us pray for suffering migrant communities throughout the world, forced from their homes by war, crime, and greed. Let us pray for children torn from their families by blind, inhumane policies. 

Today, let us pray especially for these refugee fathers as their hopes are crushed and their families broken. And, where we can, let us do more than pray. Let us act for justice and mercy. Let us, at the very least, not rally behind a power that subverts the preciousness of human life and family.

Music: One Day When We All Get To Heaven written by Eliza Hewitt (1851-1920).

The Tangled Web

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Gospel, spirituality, Truth5 Comments

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061618.cfm

Why do we lie? It gets us so mixed up!

I vividly remember a quotation painted along the chalkboard border of my 6th grade classroom. It is from Sir Walter Scott’s poem Marmion:

“O what a tangled web we weave
when first we practice to deceive.”

Perhaps the quote impressed me so much because I was entangled in a juvenile drama over smoking in the girls’ bathroom. Some supposed friend had reported two of us to the principal, a tiny nun who kept an unused  (but nonetheless threatening) cat-o-nine tails in her desk drawer. When confronted, what was there to do but lie?

Mt 5_37 yes_no

But, oh the complexity of it! Would my partner in crime tell the same story? Would any slight discrepancy render us convicted? Would she instead take the part of the informant? Would my smoker parents be brought in as investigators of the behavior they had inspired? Where would the whole quagmire end!

Wouldn’t it have been so much simpler to just tell the truth? So why do we lie? Why do we swear to what is not true? Why do we boast of things we cannot claim? This is the same challenge Jesus puts to his followers in our Gospel passage.

In my young case, as in many others, we lie because our behavior has fractured us from the image of who we are expected to be. We want to be respected, loved, powerful and right. These are conditions that should be earned by the integrity of our behavior. But when our actions cheat, we often lie, pretend, avoid, distract or otherwise compromise the truth.

Our world is full of this kind of lying. Our politics are crippled with it; our leaders unashamedly expert at it. Our culture is so poisoned with a lack integrity, that it seeps into our own relationships and choices almost unnoticed. Lying becomes normalized.

And the situation is not new. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is warning his disciples to avoid just such corruption.

A remedy? Here’s what Jesus says:

“Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the Evil One.”

It sounds simple enough. But it requires the hard work of prayerful self-examination, loving mutual correction, forgiveness (even of ourselves), and a good old “firm purpose of amendment”. (Remember that one from the Act of Contrition?)

It was a heck of a lesson I was taught in sixth grade – and, like most great lessons – it wasn’t in any textbook! I only hope I learned it somewhat well.

Music: Tell the Truth ~ Eric Clapton (Get ready to jam! Lyrics below.)

Tell the truth.
Tell me who’s been fooling you?
Tell the truth.
Who’s been fooling who?

There you sit there, looking so cool
While the whole show is passing you by.
You better come to terms with your fellow men soon, cause
The whole world is shaking now. Can’t you feel it?
A new dawn is breaking now. Can’t you see it?

Tell the truth.
Tell me who’s been fooling you?
Tell the truth.
Who’s been fooling who?

It doesn’t matter just who you are,
Or where you’re going or been.
Open your eyes and look into your heart.

The whole world is shaking now. Can’t you feel it?
A new dawn is breaking now. Can’t you see it?
I said see it, yeah, can’t you see it?
Can’t you see it, yeah, can’t you see it?
I can see it, yeah.

Tell the truth.
Tell me who’s been fooling you?
Tell the truth.
Who’s been fooling who?

Hear what I say, ’cause every word is true.
You know I wouldn’t tell you no lies.
Your time’s coming, gonna be soon, boy.
It doesn’t matter just who you are,
Or where you’re going or been.
Open your eyes and look into your heart.

Songwriters: Bobby Whitlock / Eric Patrick Clapton / Robert S. WhitlockTell the Truth lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, Music Sales Corporation

Righteousness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, holiness2 Comments

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061418.cfm

Today, in Mercy, Jesus expounds on what a true, faithful life looks like. He uses the word “righteousness”, a word that occurs frequently throughout the Bible. 

“Righteousness” describes the perfect, balanced goodness of the heart of God. It is a balance in which Mercy and Justice complement and infuse each other; a balance of Love so exquisite that it generates the Eternal Life of the Trinity.

Righteousness 6_14_18

Jesus says that we must pattern our lives on that Divine Balance, not on a proud self-righteousness like that of the scribes and Pharisees. If our faith and religious practice do not generate reverence, love, mercy, justice and peace for ourselves and others, then we are skewed in our relationship with God.

Jesus says it is not enough to obey the letter of Law, and certainly not enough to boast about it. We must respond generously to the spirit of the Law which brings the soul into reconciliation with itself and all Creation. This is the new law of love …the true righteousness of a humble, faithful heart.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, it does nothing.
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3

Music: Lead Me Lord ~ Samuel Wesley (1861) A lovely old hymn that can serve as a mantra for prayer throughout your day.  Just let your heart sing it gently.

Radical Benediction

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, justice1 Comment

Monday, June 11, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061118.cfm

Today, in Mercy, we begin several weeks of readings from Matthew’s Gospel. In today’s passage, Jesus starts out by turning the world upside-down!

Blessed 6_11_18

In the earlier chapters of his Gospel, Matthew has set the tone for the announcement of Jesus’ message – a new reign of grace and glory. The crowds gather in great anticipation. Most are overwhelmed and beleaguered by life under Roman occupation. Many hope for a political Messiah who will deliver them from their current circumstances, returning to them the material control of their lives. 

Instead, Jesus announces that:

“The kingdom of God can only be received by empty hands. Jesus warns against
(a) worldly self-sufficiency: you trust yourself and your own resources and don’t need God
(b) religious self-sufficiency: you trust your religious attitude and moral life and don’t need Jesus.”
~ Michael H. Crosby, Spirituality of the Beatitudes: Matthew’s Vision for the Church in an Unjust World

We are so used to hearing the Beatitudes that they may have become tamed for us — lovely consolations to the downtrodden that things will eventually be OK. On the contrary, the Sermon on the Mount proclaims a shocking message to those gathered with Jesus — AND to us. The radical blessedness of life is to be found within our ordinary joys and sorrows, embraced humbly, faithfully and joyfully.  It is to be found in right-relationship with all Creation, not in any kind of dominance by one over another – political, economic, or personal.

The poor in spirit, the meek, the bereaved, the justice-seekers, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted: Jesus says these people are blessed – even FORTUNATE – because there are no barriers between them and the fullness of God. Power, prestige and possessions block us, perhaps even cripple us, from our shared immersion in God’s ever-present love and grace.

It is likely that many who gathered on that Galilean Hill didn’t want to hear Jesus’ astonishing message. Their myopic vision of prosperity was turned upside down. They were challenged to an unexpected, comfort-shattering, radical blessedness. Would they accept the challenge? Will we?

Music:  Blessings ~ Laura Story

An Eternal Weight of Glory

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, justice2 Comments

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061018.cfm

Today, in Mercy,  is a powerful Sunday!

woke 6_10_18

In our readings, we encounter one of the more perplexing Gospel passages. Jesus, in the thick of controversy with the scribes and Pharisees, goes home to seek some respite. But the crowds follow, harassing him with questions and demands for signs. His friends and family are increasingly concerned for him, as the animosity to his challenging message rises. Some even think he is unhinged to jeopardize himself by confronting the evils and blindnesses of his society. His mother and brothers arrive, concerned for him. When Jesus learns this, he delivers what may seem a hard-hearted comment, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” — they are the ones who do the will of God.

With this question, Jesus is not disowning his family and those who love him. He is stating clearly that, rather than deter him from his redemptive work, they need to open their minds to the deeper purpose of his life. To use a contemporary phrase rooted in the socially conscious African-American community – they need to be “woke” people. 

How hard it must have been for them! How hard to love a prophet, to fear for their safety in times when truth and justice are assailed!

Walter Brueggemann, in my all-time favorite book Prophetic Imagination, says this:

“In both his teaching and his very presence, Jesus of Nazareth presented the ultimate criticism of the royal consciousness (or self-serving power of the dominant state). He has, in fact, dismantled the dominant culture and nullified its claims. The way of his ultimate criticism is his decisive solidarity with marginal people and the accompanying vulnerability required by that solidarity. The only solidarity worth affirming is solidarity characterized by the same helplessness they know and experience.” 

In today’s second reading, Paul is experiencing the same kind of vulnerability as Jesus. Paul says that he is not discouraged for:

“ … although our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this momentary light affliction
is producing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison,
as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;
for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.”

As Christians, we are called to live prophetic lives in imitation of Jesus. We are called to foster that kind of witness in others, to work together for that “eternal weight of glory”.

The prophet Dorothy Day puts it this way:

“As we come to know the seriousness of the situation, the war, the racism, the poverty in our world, we come to realize that things will not be changed simply by words or demonstrations. Rather, it’s a question of living one’s life in a drastically different way.”

On this powerful Sunday, the message is this: we need to be “woke” people!

Music: Wake Up My Heart ~ The Afters