And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them. Mark 10:13-16
Jesus once again makes it clear that the Reign of God flows unreservedly to the humble, poor, and childlike among us. The roaring cataract of that Lavish Mercy cannot be prevented by any human interference, control, or ignorance.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: May we learn to trust God’s love as a child trusts that of a loving parent. Childlike faith is not immature. It has been deepened and seasoned through a life of prayerful service and reverent relationship with God and all Creation.
Poetry: Nada Te Turbe – St. Teresa of Avila
Nada te turbe nada te espante Todo se pasa Dios nose muda. La paciencia todo alcanza. Quien a Dios tiene nada le falta Solo Dios basta.
Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you, All things are passing. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God is enough.
Music: Nada Te Turbe – A Virtual Choir of Carmelites
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.”
At that time, John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.” Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward. Mark 9:38-41
The earliest disciples were learners just like we are. As they have listened and watched the power of Jesus, they have placed complete trust in him. They begin to realize that Jesus is sharing that power with them. Jesus instructs them that this realization must be handled humbly. It must not allow alienation from other believers who also carry the power of faith in Christ. If one is for Christ, they cannot be against him.
Beware the religion that turns you against another one. It’s unlikely that it’s really religion at all.
Joan Chittister, OSB
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We seek that openness that Jesus inspires in his disciples – to recognize, encourage, hear, and consecrate all the gifts which the body of believers brings to the Church. Institutionalization can breed classism and elitism anywhere, even in our beloved Church.
Poetry: Sermons We See – Edgar Guest
I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way. The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear, Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear; And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds, For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.
I soon can learn to do it if you’ll let me see it done; I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run. And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true, But I’d rather get my lessons by observing what you do; For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give, But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.
When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind. When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong one stays behind Just to see if they can help him, then the wish grows strong in me To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be. And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.
A good person teaches many, who believe what they behold; One deed of kindness noticed is worth forty that are told. Who stands with those of honor learns to hold their honor dear, For right living speaks a language which to everyone is clear. Though an able speaker charms me with their eloquence, I say, I’d rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.
Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Christ Jesus destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel.
Today’s readings may strike us as grim. The Book of Ecclesiastes acknowledges our discomfort with the darkness inherent in faith. We believe because we do not know. If we knew, there would be no need for faith. But at times our believing is challenged by our life circumstances. Thus is the story of Ecclesiastes – all in life that confronts our faith.
In our Gospel, Jesus introduces the hard reality of his impending death. He challenges the faith and commitment of the disciples as the time of testing approaches.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Acknowledging the truth of today’s readings, we choose to pray with them in the light of the Resurrection as it is so beautifully and simply stated in our Responsorial Psalm.
Poetry: from John Donne’s Holy Sonnets – Death Be Not Proud
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
The heavens laugh! The earth shouts with joy and what she bears in her bosom. The creator lives! God most high triumphs and is free from the bonds of death. He who has chosen the grave for rest, the Holiest, cannot decay.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. And as for those who do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.” Then they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the Good News and curing diseases everywhere. Luke 9:1-6
That’s what Jesus said – NOTHING – “Take nothing for the journey”! Within their coming journey, everything already awaited his disciples. He asked them to empty the box of their acquired possessions so that they could see through to heaven.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: I picture myself when I go on a journey of a week or two. Almost always, I carry at least one suitcase I never need. Instead, I have dragged a bag full of inessentials through most of Europe and the U.S.! We carry so much with us we do not need – both materially and spiritually.
Whenever I read this Gospel, I am reminded of a verse from Janis Joplin’s smash hit song of 1971, “Me and Bobby McGee”. Janis was a tortured soul but a magnificent artist. Her song captured the transitory nature of anything we try to possess in life
The line I love is this – take it for whatever truth it can offer you:
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.
Poetry:On Freedom – Hafiz
We have not come here to take prisoners, But to surrender ever more deeply To freedom and joy.
We have not come into this exquisite world To hold ourselves hostage from love.
Run my dear, From anything That may not strengthen Your precious budding wings.
Run like hell my dear, From anyone likely To put a sharp knife Into the sacred, tender vision Of your beautiful heart.
We have a duty to befriend Those aspects of obedience That stand outside of our house And shout to our reason “O please, O please, Come out and play.”
For we have not come here to take prisoners Or to confine our wondrous spirits,
But to experience ever and ever more deeply Our divine courage, freedom and Light!
Music: Me and Bobby McGee – written by Kris Kristofferson, sung by Janis Joplin
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.
Beloved: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace. James 3:16-18
It appears that the moral tumult of our world already existed in James’s world over 2000 years ago. And no doubt it has existed in every age in between. Jealousy and selfish ambition drive so much of our public life. It takes great insight, patience and wisdom to cultivate peace:
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to be agents of peace in our world despite the inverse image of our culture offered by politics and media. We want to lessen the influence of these negative factors in our lives and open ourselves to the promptings of faith and goodness.
Prose: Cultivating Peace from Pope Francis
War begins in here, in the heart, inside the person, and finishes out in the world. The news we see in the papers or on television… Today so many people die, and that seed of war, which breeds envy, jealousy, and greed in my heart, is the same – grown up, become a tree – as the bomb which falls on a hospital, on a school, and kills children. It is the same. The declaration of war begins in the heart, in each of us. For this reason, the following question arises: ‘How do I care for peace in my heart, in my interior, and in my family?’. The answer is: Care for peace; not only care for it, but make it with your hands every day. Just so, will we succeed in spreading it throughout the whole world.
As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Matthew 9:9-13
From their very first encounter, Jesus clarifies for Matthew the essence of his mission: mercy not sacrifice. Jesus uses a phrase from the Hebrew scriptures with which Matthew and all of his listeners are familiar:
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:22
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray for a deeper understanding that to live in loving obedience to God is to live in mercy toward all Creation.
Prose: from “The Climate of Mercy – For Albert Schweitzer” by Thomas Merton
Thus, Law without mercy kills mercy in the hearts of those who seek justification solely by socially acceptable virtuousness and by courting the favor of authority. This legal holiness, in its turn, destroys the hope of mercy in those who despair of the Law.
We must, therefore, remember the religious and Christian importance of not implicitly identifying external “Law” with interior “Mercy,” either in our doctrine (and in this we usually manage to keep them distinct) or in our lives (here we tend in practice to confuse them by making the fulfillment of the Law’s inexorable demand either a condition for receiving mercy or a guarantee that one has received it).
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. 1 Corinthians 15:12-14
Paul takes his listeners to the foundation of their faith – the Resurrection. Believing in it, we are freed from our greatest common fear – the fear of Death.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: In rising from the dead, Jesus changed Darkness to Light. Every dawn transforms our nights to Easter if we allow Christ to rise in us, making all things new.
Poetry: excerpts from The Exultet
O wonder of your humble care for us! O love, O charity beyond all telling, to ransom a slave you gave away your Son! O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour when Christ rose from the underworld!
This is the night of which it is written: The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment….
Simon, when I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; because she has shown great love. Luke 7:37-38;44-47
Mary (identified in John’s Gospel as Mary of Bethany) loves Jesus beyond words. Sensing that his Passion and Death are near, she pours out that love in silent tenderness.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Prayerfully imagine the alabaster jar, holding it gently in your hands. It is fine and delicate, easily broken unless handled tenderly.
As we express our love for God and for God’s Creation, we carry it in delicate wrappings, like alabaster. Sometimes, we may doubt our capacity for love, faith, and hope. We may see our “sinfulness” rather than our spiritual strength.
But if we, like Mary, focus our hearts on God, and fearlessly pour our love over God’s Creation, our fragility becomes our strength.
Poetry: Anointings at Bethany – Irene Zimmerman, OSF
Solemnly, Mary entered the room, holding high the alabaster jar. It gleamed in the lamplight as she circled the room, incensing the disciples, blessing Martha’s banquet. “A splendid table!” Mary called with her eyes as she whirled past her sister.
She came to a halt at last before Jesus, bowed profoundly and knelt at his feet. Deftly, she filled her right hand with nard, placed the jar on the floor, took one foot in her hands and moved fragrant fingers across his instep.
Over and over she made the journey from heel to toes, thanking him for every step he had made on Judea’s stony hills, for every stop at their home, for bringing back Lazarus.
She poured out more nard, took his other foot in her hands and started again with strong, rhythmic strokes. She felt her hands’ heat draw out his tiredness, take away the rebuffs he had known —the shut doors, the shut hearts.
Energy flowed like a river between them. His saturated skin gleamed with oil.
But she had no towel!
In an instant she pulled off her veil, pulled the pins from her hair, shook it out till it fell in cascades and once more cradled each foot, dried the ankles, the insteps, drew the strands between his toes.
Without warning, Judas Iscariot spat out his anger, the words hissing like lightning above her unveiled head: “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”
“Leave her alone!” Jesus silenced the usurper. “She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.”
The words poured like oil, anointing her from head to foot.
Music: Pour My Love on You – Craig and Dean Phillips
I don’t know how to say exactly how I feel And I can’t begin to tell you what your love has meant I’m lost for words Is there a way to show the passion in my heart Can I express how truly great I think you are, My dearest friend. Lord, this is my desire: To pour my love on You
Chorus: Like oil upon your feet Like wine for you to drink Like water from my heart I pour my love on you If praise is like perfume I’ll lavish mine on you Till every drop is gone I’ll pour my love on you.
Lavish Mercy 