A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a rotten tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. So by their fruits you will know them. Matthew 7: 18-20
Jesus speaks these words to warn his followers about false prophets. These charlatans may be clothed in a gentle sheep’s skin, but inside they are voracious wolves consuming everything for their own gain. They are liars, thieves, cheats, and pretenders.
Yet many people trust and believe them. How can that be? Are we just too naive to see them for what they are? Maybe. But I think it’s more likely that we want to believe their lies because we think we will benefit from them. We excuse their cheating and veiled thievery because it hasn’t hurt us, just the “other guy”. We espouse their pretenses because we mistakenly believe they will advance us as well as the “wolves”.
Jesus knows we’re not stupid. He says there is one clear and sure-fired way to identify a false prophet. By their fruits you shall know them – and those “fruits” should be the fruits of the Holy Spirit. If, despite the rotten fruit they have produced, we follow them then we will end up in the fire just like they will.
An image today instead of a poem
Music: Ubi Caritas – Where Love and Charity Abide, There is God
At the time for offering sacrifice, the prophet Elijah came forward and said, “LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things by your command. Answer me, LORD! Answer me, that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have brought them back to their senses.” The LORD’s fire came down and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench. Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!” 1 Kings 18:36-39
Elijah was certainly a colorful character, similar in pattern to John the Baptist. They were both so filled with love and commitment to God that their actions could seem outrageous to unbelievers. In today’s reading, Elijah creates an almost impossible situation then calls on God to show that all things are possible with faith.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the grace to live a passionate faith. May we grow in understanding that the love of God is a consuming love, not compartmentalized into a Sunday devotion or an isolated spiritual habit. May we fully give ourselves to this Love which has given Itself for us.
Poetry; Come, My Love – Thomas Merton
Come, my love, Pass through my will As through a window Shine on my life As on a meadow I like the grass to be consumed By the rays of the sun On a late summer’s morning
Come, my love, All through the night I lay longing Eagerly to wait For love’s union Like dawn’s flower awaits For the wedding with the sun Consummated in the light
Your light, my love, Is stealing my heart As a secret I’m left Like a vanishing form That leaves no shadows Exposed naked, alone Between the heavens and the earth Lifted high on the cross with the Savior
O life-giving tomb, Prepared through the night For dawn’s dying Like a moon Like the mansions of heaven Await the rebirth of a child New Jerusalem So come to my life, Light of Heaven
Come, my love, Pass through my will As through a window Shine on my life As on a meadow I like the grass to be washed By the rays of the sun On the late summer’s morning
Music: Veni, Creator Spiritus – Rabanus Maurus
English Version: Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest; come with Thy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry, O heavenly gift of God Most High, O fount of life and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known; Thou, finger of God’s hand we own; Thou, promise of the Father, Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue. Kindle our sense from above, and make our hearts o’erflow with love; with patience firm and virtue high the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread, and grant us Thy peace instead; so shall we not, with Thee for guide, turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow the Father and the Son to know; and Thee, through endless times confessed, of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death, be glory given, with Thou, O Holy Comforter, henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen.
Latin Version Veni, Creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita, imple superna gratia quae tu creasti pectora.
Qui diceris Paraclitus, altissimi donum Dei, fons vivus, ignis, caritas, et spiritalis unctio.
Tu, septiformis munere, digitus paternae dexterae, Tu rite promissum Patris, sermone ditans guttura.
Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
…This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. Deuteronomy 4:32-33;39
Moses invites the people to fix their hearts on God Who amazes us in Divine Self-revelation.
With the solemn celebration of Trinity Sunday, the Church acknowledges the fullness of this revelation in Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Have you ever heard the expression, “I will cover you in prayer”? When a friend says that, we are blessed with the gifts of presence, comfort, accompaniment, hope, and love.
In revealing the Trinity to us, God has covered us with the same gifts. We are called to “fix” our faith and living on this indescribable blessing, the way one would fix a tent by placing the pegs with care and attention.
Prose: from Pope Francis
We can study the whole history of salvation, we can study the whole of Theology, but without the Spirit we cannot understand.
It is the Spirit that makes us realize the truth or — in the words of Our Lord — it is the Spirit that makes us know the voice of Jesus.
Music: O Lux Beata Trinitas – An Ambrosian Hymn, arranged by Ola Gjeilo, sung by ACJC Alumni Choir (Singapore)
The Ambrosian hymns are a collection of early hymns of the Latin liturgical rites, whose core of four hymns were by Ambrose of Milan in the 4th century. The hymns of this core were enriched with another eleven to form the Old Hymnal, which spread from the Ambrosian Rite of Milan throughout Lombard Italy, Visigothic Spain, Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire during the early medieval period (6th to 8th centuries); in this context, therefore, the term “Ambrosian” does not imply authorship by Ambrose himself, to whom only four hymns are attributed with certainty, but includes all Latin hymns composed in the style of the Old Hymnal.
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Acts 2: 1-4
Prayer: from Bob Holmes
May the quiet fire of God's love and compassion arise in your heart. May its flames of love, joy, and peace enlighten the steps of your path in this world. And may you be like the burning bush, the presence of God for each other, that holy healing light of love.
Video: Imagine being there for the first Pentecost!
I will send to you the Spirit of truth Who will guide you to all truth.
John 16: 7, 13
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
This Saturday morning, we stand at the threshold of the great Feast of Pentecost. Let us simply take quiet time to prepare our hearts for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. We each know the places where we, and our suffering world, most need the awakening touch of God’s Life. Let’s ask for it!
(Over the next few days, you are invited to pray with lovely videos shared with me by my dear and creative friend, Sister Mary Kay Eichman. Here is one for the Vigil of Pentecost.)
And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated. Acts 20:32
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. John 17: 17-19
Both our readings today describe the act of consecration. In Acts, Paul blesses the presbyters in Ephesus, anointing them for Gospel ministry. In John 17, Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples – that they may be blessed and confirmed in the Word which is Truth.
At some point in our lives, each one of us has been consecrated in that same Truth. We may have been baptized, confirmed, blessed, ordained, and professed. Through those consecrations, the Holy Spirit has been breathed into our hearts to form us in Truth which is God’s Word.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let’s gratefully remember the fullness of our consecration. By the grace of God, we embody the Divine Power of truth, love, and mercy. How often do we remember to call on this Power when life threatens to overwhelm or confuse us?
Poetry: A Blessing for Wedding – Jane Hirshfield While Hirshfield’s poem is directed toward the marriage vow, it is clearly applicable to all consecrations in which God is the sacred partner.
Today when persimmons ripen Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song Today when the maple sets down its red leaves Today when windows keep their promise to open Today when fire keeps its promise to warm Today when someone you love has died or someone you never met has died Today when someone you love has been born or someone you will not meet has been born Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace Today, let this light bless you With these friends let it bless you With snow-scent and lavender bless you Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days
Music: Sanctus – Jessye Norman
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. John 16:12-13
In this passage, Jesus indicates that the “Truth” can be overwhelming. He tells the disciples that they cannot bear it all just now. But the Holy Spirit will guide them to receive the Truth.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Isn’t that a fact for all of us? Don’t we need to grow into the Truth rather than comprehend it all at once?
At best, we live in a world of appearances and, at worst, a world of fabrication. We may be tempted to judge reality based on these thin and misleading surfaces.
To respond to the deep truths of life, we need to prayerfully follow the Spirit – to be gradually strengthened in our capacity to see the world as God sees it, to respond to the world as God would respond. – in Truth.
Poetry: Witness – Denise Levertov
Sometimes the mountain is hidden from me in veils of cloud, sometimes I am hidden from the mountain in veils of inattention, apathy, fatique, when I forget or refuse to go down to the shore or a few yards up the road, on a clear day, to reconfirm that witnessing presence.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. John 15:9-11
What would it be like if we loved as the Creator loves – eternal life flowing out from Trinitarian Love to sustain all of us for always?
Jesus says that this is how the Father loves, and how Jesus loves all of us. He says that we abide in this Love when we indeed love God above all and our Neighbor as ourselves.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Honestly, can there be a more ubiquitous word than “Love”, and yet we find so little of its true practice in our increasingly self-absorbed and violent culture!
If, when we “love”, it does not strengthen sacred life in another or in the world, then we have not truly loved. We may have desired, admired, adulated, or ingratiated, but we have not loved as God loves.
Let’s pray to be open and responsive to the gift of God’s Love flowing into our hearts.
Prose: from Embodied Love in John of the Cross – Richard P. Hardy, Ph.D.
For John of the Cross, being wholly converted into divine love means actually living God's own life: The soul lives the life of God.
And the will, which previously loved in a base and deadly way with only its natural affection, is now changed into the life of divine love, for it loves in a lofty way with divine affection, moved by the strength of the Holy Spirit in which it now lives the life of love. By means of this union God's will and the soul's will are now one.
Finally all the movements, operations, and inclinations the soul had previously from the principle and strength of its natural life are now in this union dead to what they formerly were, changed into divine movements, and alive to God.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. John 15: 1-4
What a tender and comforting passage! When we are invited to “remain” somewhere ( as in, “Please stay for dinner.”), it indicates that we have already arrived into that inviting presence.
Jesus tells us that we are already living in God’s Presence and that he wants us to always remain there in God’s Love. He tells us that we are established in that Presence – that we are already “pruned” for God.
We don’t realize how holy we are. I live with almost 100 spiritually noble women. I have the joy of knowing Mercy Associates, dear family, and personal friends who enrich my life by their desire to live in God’s Light! They would probably never describe themselves as “holy”.
But they are. They have spent their lives steeping themselves in the things of God, and God has delighted in them – invited them to “remain” in Love.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let’s take time to think about our holiness, not in pride but in humble thanks for the gift God has given us. Each of our lives has “pruned” us in a particular way to reflect God’s glory. Let’s remain – let’s linger – in that blessing as we pray today.
Poetry: To Live with the Spirit of God – Jessica Powers
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener. It is to keep the vigil of mystery, earthless and still. One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit, strange as the wind’s will.
The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows turns like a wandering weather vane toward love. It may lament like Job or Jeremiah, echo the wounded hart, the mateless dove. It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow that emulates the freedom of the sky. Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing; it has cast down forever from its hand the compass of the whither and the why.
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover. It is becoming love, and like to Him toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures: fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim. The soul is all activity, all silence; and though it surges Godward to its goal, it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday, the peace that is the listening of the soul.
Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our dwelling with them…
I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name — will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.
Through the gift of Baptism, the power of the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts — a Waterfall of Grace to nourish us throughout our lives. This is the promise Jesus gives in today’s reading.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to recognize and open ourselves fully to the Spirit Creator’s desire to be in our hearts.
Prayer: The Holy Spirit Prayer of Catherine of Siena
Holy Spirit, come into my heart; draw it to You by Your power, O my God, and grant me charity with devoted awe of You. Preserve me, O beautiful love, from every evil thought; warm me, inflame me with Your dear love, and every pain will seem light to me. My Father, my sweet Lord, help me in all my actions. Jesus, love, Jesus, love. Amen.
Music: Ablaze – Ken Walther (Lyrics below) Inspired by the wisdom of St. Catherine of Siena, Ben Walther composed an upbeat song to encourage today’s generation to set the world on fire with God’s love.
[Verse 1] By His grace, we are conceived To be mercy, to be peace To be light amidst the darkness In His image, we are made To be brilliant, to be great To present the world His likeness
[Chorus] Let’s set the world on fire Let’s raise His banner higher Let’s set a broken world ablaze, oh Let’s hear a generation Proclaiming His salvation With every breath and endless praise And set the world ablaze
[Verse 2] All aflame but not consumed We are burning with the truth For His presence makes us holy Fanning flicker into flame Till His love is what remains For to Him belongs all glory
[Chorus] Let’s set the world on fire Let’s raise His banner higher Let’s set a broken world ablaze, oh Let’s hear a generation Proclaiming His salvation With every breath and endless praise And set the world ablaze Set the world ablaze Set the world ablaze Let’s set the world on fire Let’s raise His banner higher Let’s set a broken world ablaze, oh Let’s hear a generation Proclaiming His salvation With every breath and endless praise And set the world ablaze Set the world ablaze
Lavish Mercy 