Jesus said to them: “Offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to them as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand them your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with theme for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”
Although the word “reverence” is not specifically mentioned in our readings, it summarizes their core message.
Jezebel has no reverence for human life. She is a conspirator, thief, and murderer. Jezebel has no moral code and only one interest in life – herself.
Jesus calls his followers to be the antithesis of Jezebel. We are to so reverence life and truth that we become like Jesus. We are to be peaceful, non-violent, forgiving, and generous – even toward the “jezebels” of this world.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Wow! No easy challenge, but nonetheless essential for discipleship! We ask Jesus to give us insight into any selfishness in our hearts, and the courage to live according to his mandate.
Prose: from Dorothy Day
“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?
When we begin to take the lowest place, to wash the feet of others, to love our brothers and sisters with that burning love, that passion, which led to the Cross, then we can truly say, ‘Now I have begun.'”
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree, like a cedar of Lebanon shall they grow. They that are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. Psalm 92:13-14
This verse from Psalm 92 ties together all our readings for today.
In the passage from Exodus, God takes a tiny twig, protects and nourishes it, and it flourishes. The analogy describes God’s relationship with Israel and with us. We are called to flourish in the Kingdom of God.
In Corinthians, Paul expresses the conviction that we will receive our recompense according to how we flourish in response to God’s grace.
And in our Gospel, Jesus teaches that our faith – God’s gift to us – is the small seed that flourishes into eternal life, the fullness of life in God.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that each of these flourishings begins with a tiny hope – a twig, a courageous aspiration, a mustard seed.
Such is life. It is the small but consistent acts of faith, hope, and love that eventually yield abundant harvest. – embracing us with all Creation in God’s complete Love.
Poetry: 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!
Music: The Ride of the Valkyries – Richard Wagner
I love to listen to this masterpiece when I imagine God opening heaven to all Creation at the end of time.
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. Matthew 5: 23-24
Jesus teaches a profound lesson in today’s Gospel. We cannot be in balance with God if we are out of balance with our neighbor.
In the “court” of God’s justice, that balance resides not in judgment or vengeance. It resides in a love beyond “liking” — in reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, hospitality, reverence, and service toward one another.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that we can’t like everybody. We can’t feel good toward everybody. We can’t approve of everybody. But we can choose to be Christlike to everybody.
May we grow in that grace, inspired by the awareness that we are One in God with all Creation.
Poetry: One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII – Pablo Neruda
I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:14-16
Jesus tells us to let our light shine before others. Is this an invitation to show off or be prideful? Definitely not. It is a call to shine with “beatitudenal goodness” that gives glory to God.
We can take Jesus’s words as an invitation to spiritual transparency. We should, by our actions and choices, proclaim that we live in faith, hope, charity, and gratitude. The important part of the lampstand is the flame that it lifts up. So too with us – the important part of our faith is the witness it gives to the Gospel.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray for the simplicity and integrity of soul that allows God to shine through us.
Poetry: Let Your Light Shine – Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Music: We Are the Light of the World – Jean A. Greif
When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. Luke 2: 48-51
Mary’s heart is formed in the image of the God who was her child. She, our Mother and Sister, conveys to us in human tenderness, the Divine Compassion that may sometimes seem inaccessible to our imperfect faith.
She was just a young girl when God espoused her for the purpose of our redemption. Still her utter “Fiat” opened her soul to the transformation that only sacrificial love can accomplish.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We reflect on Mary’s immutable alignment to the heart of Jesus, begun in the womb, confirmed on Calvary. We ask her guidance in patterning our hearts to Jesus as we meet him in the Gospel.
Prose: Caryll Houselander – The Reed of God
In this great fiat of the little girl Mary, the strength and foundation of our life of contemplation is grounded, for it means absolute trust in God, trust which will not set us free from suffering but will set us free from anxiety, hesitation, and above all from the fear of suffering. Trust which makes us willing to be what God wants us to be, however great or however little that may prove. Trust which accepts God as illimitable Love.
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31
In this Gospel passage, Jesus really puts the spiritual life in a nutshell: Love God and love neighbor.
It’s pretty self-evident that to achieve holiness one must love God. But loving the neighbor is a far different story. Depending on our views in life, we might have a hard time with the annoying, Democrat/Republican, irresponsible, refugee, gay, unemployed, or subsidiary-dependent neighbor. Who is our neighbor, really? Or more to the point, who isn’t?
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let’s work to understand and embrace all persons, indeed all Creation, as neighbor. Doing so, what is required of us in response?
Thought: from Fred Rogers
“All we’re ever asked to do in this life is to treat our neighbor —especially our neighbor who is in need— exactly as we would hope to be treated ourselves. That’s our ultimate responsibility.”
Prayer: from Walter Brueggemann
On our own, we conclude: there is not enough to go around
we are going to run short of money of love of grades of publications of sex of beer of members of years of life
we should seize the day seize our goods seize our neighbours goods because there is not enough to go around
and in the midst of our perceived deficit you come you come giving bread in the wilderness you come giving children at the 11th hour you come giving homes to exiles you come giving futures to the shut down you come giving easter joy to the dead you come – fleshed in Jesus.
and we watch while the blind receive their sight the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised the poor dance and sing
we watch and we take food we did not grow and life we did not invent and future that is gift and gift and gift and families and neighbours who sustain us when we did not deserve it.
It dawns on us – late rather than soon- that you “give food in due season you open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”
By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity override our presumed deficits quiet our anxieties of lack transform our perceptual field to see the abundance………mercy upon mercy blessing upon blessing.
Sink your generosity deep into our lives that your muchness may expose our false lack that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give so that the world may be made Easter new, without greedy lack, but only wonder, without coercive need but only love, without destructive greed but only praise without aggression and invasiveness…. all things Easter new….. all around us, toward us and by us
all things Easter new.
Finish your creation, in wonder, love and praise. Amen.”
Music: Good Neighbor – Evan Craft
We may not look the same Ya might talk different too Got a long long list of differences Between me and you Different colors different stories Even different politics But He’s calling us now To lay it all down Get back to the heart of it And be a good, good, good Good, good neighbor Learn to love each other with The love of the Savior Make room at the table And share the hope that we got And be a good, good Good neighbor And show the world we got a good God I’ve read the good book Every word in black and red But is my faith alive if I live my life And I don’t do what it says Love your God with all your heart and soul Love your neighbor as yourself And be Jesus to a broken world That’s crying out for help And be a good, good, good Good, good neighbor Learn to love each other with The love of the Savior Make room at the table And share the hope that we got And be a good, good Good neighbor And show the world we got a good God Yeah, we got a good God, oh There’s room for everybody In the family of God There’s room for everybody In the family of God Make room at the table share The hope that we got ‘Cause there’s room for everybody in The family of God The family of God And be a good, good, good Good, good neighbor Learn to love each other with The love of the Savior Make room at the table And share the hope that we got And be a good, good Good neighbor And show the world we got a good God And show the world we got a good God And show the world we got a good God There’s room for everybody In the family of God There’s room for everybody In the family of God
For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord, nor of me, a prisoner for his sake; but bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God. 2 Timothy 1: 6-8
Paul has a deep affection and hope for Timothy. He sees the light of faith burning brightly in him. He encourages Timothy to not take his faith for granted but to ignite it fully by his unwavering commitment to live and preach the Gospel.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We thank God for the gift of our faith, for those who have encouraged its growth, and we ask for courage to stir up that gift by the witness of our lives.
Poetry: As Kingfishers Catch Fire – Gerard Manley Hopkins
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.
I say móre: the just man justices; Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is — Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his To the Father through the features of men's faces.Poetry:
Music: Fan into Flame – John Michael Talbot
I remind you now to fan into flame The gift that God has bestowed When my hands were laid upon you, The gift of the Spirit of God.
The gift that God has given to us, Is no cowardly spirit at all. But one that is strong and loving and wise – The gift of the Spirit of God.
So you, my son, you must be strong, In the grace which is yours in Christ. The teaching you have heard through me, Hand onto the trustworthy ones.
The Spirit, God has given to us Is no cowardly spirit at all.
But one that is strong and loving and wise – The gift of the Spirit of God, The gift of the Spirit of God.
Therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, be on your guard not to be led into the error of the unprincipled and to fall from your own stability. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 17-18
Peter tells his listeners that ” …we await new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” But in the meantime, we must be alert for all that would distract us from Gospel truth and practice.
Peter’s world opposed the message of the Gospel. So does our world, filled now with unprincipled politics, economics, communication, and even “religious” propaganda. These forces fall against the believer like so many dominoes deconstructing the pattern of our faith.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Once again we ask for strength and insight to see the Gospel clearly and to stay aligned to its beauty and truth. This can be accomplished only by prayer, and developing a reverent familiarity with the Gospel. Further, reading reputable spiritual guides is important to enrich our understanding of the sacred word.
Poetry: Am I True to Myself? – Edgar A. Guest
I have to live with myself and so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able as days go by, always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things I have done. I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf a lot of secrets about myself
and fool myself as I come and go into thinking no one else will ever know the kind of person I really am, I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect I want to deserve all men’s respect; but here in the struggle for fame and wealth I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know that I am bluster and bluff and empty show. I never can hide myself from me; I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself and so, whatever happens I want to be self respecting and conscience free.
Music: Keep Me Faithful – written by James Montgomery (1771-1854); adapted by Cornerstone Collective
Beloved: Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing a song of praise…
…The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful. Elijah was a man like us; yet he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain upon the land. Then Elijah prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. James 5:13; 16-18
James tells us that prayer must be woven seamlessly into our lives. His remarks may remind us of Paul’s well-known exhortation to “Pray always!”
In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that a childlike innocence is essential to full union with God. In prayer, we are with God the way a child is with a loved and trusting parent. Jesus taught us this when he chose to begin his prayer, “Our Father …”
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the grace of spiritual innocence, allowing us to trust God’s Presence in every aspect of our lives. Doing this, we keep an inner recognition and dialogue with God – we “pray always”
Poetry: Praying – Mary Oliver
It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.
Lavish Mercy 