Today in Mercy, Beloveds, our first reading allowed the reflection to almost write itself. Savor the sweet words. They are all we need today.
Walk in Him.
Trust in Him.
Hope in Him.
Delight in Him.
Risk in Him.
Act in Him.
Love in Him.
Rest in Him.
Believe in Him.
Walk in Him. (Hold hands.)
Music: Just a Closer Walk with Thee – anonymous composition from the 1800s, sung here by the great Patsy Cline and the inimitable Willie Nelson
Lyrics below
1 I am weak but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Refrain:
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
2 Thro’ this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee. [Refrain]
3 When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore. [Refrain]
Today, in Mercy, Paul and Jesus share a similar situation.
Paul is imprisoned in Rome. Visited by Epaphras, a citizen of Colossae, Paul seizes the chance to write to these Christians whom he has never seen in person. Paul tells the Colossians that his singular intention is to preach the truth of the Gospel so that they, and all the world, may be transformed in Christ.
to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past.
That “mystery” is the nature of God as Love, only fleetingly accessible before its full revelation in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus too, in today’s Gospel, is in a sort of prison. The prison consists of the entrenched resistance of people like the Pharisees. They are so entangled in the deceitful and self- serving interpretation of Law that they are blind to the revelation before them. They wait to pounce on Jesus if, contrary to the laws of the Sabbath, he heals a man’s withered hand.
Jesus tries logic in today’s account:
Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?”
Unable to resist the logic, the Pharisees retreat to anger. They begin to plot the removal of this Truth they cannot counter. The saddest part of these resistances is that they estrange the resisters from their own good, from their own freedom, from their own salvation.
In our world, we see so many places closed off to the Mystery of Love.We see people imprisoning themselves in their own resistance and hate while they plot to build barriers against others. We see it in our geo-political world, in our Church, in our workplaces, in ourselves.
It takes courage to recognize and turn from such self-destructive fixations. We must be alert and brave to cooperate with our own transformation in grace.
This is why Paul writes of …
the great struggle I am having for you and for those in Laodicea and all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged as they are brought together in love, to have all the richness of assured understanding, for the knowledge of the mystery of God, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
This is why God continues to offer grace in the gift of Jesus Christ, healing all that is “withered” in us when we lift it up in faith.
Today, in Mercy, the Church links three readings which, at first glance, seem unrelated.
Our first reading from Wisdom reminds us of God’s infinite wisdom, incomprehensible to our human minds.
Paul, in his letter to Philemon, begs for the loving inclusion of Onesimus, an enslaved person, into the Colossian community.
In today’s Gospel, Jesusmakes the harsh pronouncement:
If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
How might we interpret these disparate passages to find a message of wholeness for our prayer?
Let’s start with Jesus. In no uncertain terms, he challenges his disciples to move out of their small worlds into God’s big world. That Godly world is not defined by family, nor by any condition other than our common Creaturehood in God … not by:
Jesus says the sacred community is defined only by shared and irrevocable commitment to the Gospel of love and mercy.
Paul knows and loves Onesimus, the slave, as a brother in this community. In his letter, Paul encourages Philemon to do the same.
Sometimes as human beings, filled with all kinds of insecurities, we tend to build enclaves that make us feel safe. We like to be with “our kind”. We invent borders to filter out those whose differences we don’t understand. We allow fear to grow out of that lack of understanding. Within the enclosure of our self-protectionism, we eventually forget that we are all one, equal, precious, beautiful and beloved by God.
Such toxic attitudes are the soil for slavery, war, ethnic cleansing, racial supremacy, human trafficking, destructive nationalism, and all the other sacrileges committed by humans against the human family.
Wisdom reminds us that only God can open the tight circle of our fears, judgments and isolations – only God whose infinite love encompasses all. Jesus tells us that we find that love only by lifting up the cross and following him.
Wisdom tells us to put it in God’s hands, and to respond to God’s challenge in the preaching of Jesus Christ.
Who can know your way of thinking, O God … except you give us wisdom and send your Holy Spirit from on high thus stretching the hearts of those on earth
Today I pray, may God do this for me, and for all our tight, convoluted and troubled world.
Music: Who Has Known (an Advent hymn, but perfect I think for today’s readings)
Today, in Mercy,Paul references some pretty mean-spirited Colossians:
You once were alienated and hostile in mind
because of evil deeds.
Whoa! Where did these meanies come from amid all the blessed populace?
They must have been nice to be around!
All of us have been in the presence of such off-kilter people. They seem all twisted in their own negativity and judgmentalism. There is no joy in them, no warmth, no kindness. Unhappily, we may even have such a person at times.
Paul is clear on the cure for such ill-temper:
Reconciliation through a persevering faith
Stability in hope, grounded the Gospel
If you have ever used a GPS device while driving, you have probably had the same experience as I have. At least five annoying times per journey, the gal is my dashboard shouts:
Recalculating route!
Paul says that with our reconciliation through the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, there is no need to recalculate. As our Responsorial Psalm tells us:
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father except through me.
Once again in our Gospel, the Pharisees try to distract from the clarity of Jesus’ message. They worry about the tiniest grains rather than the Radiant Truth in their midst. They keep trying to recalculate a route through their circuitous laws rather than opening their hearts to the Way.
It’s easy to get infected with such running around in circles. The bigness of God can be scary. We sometimes make up useless curves to avoid God’s awesomeness.
Indeed, God is a sliding board with no handrails! But, Paul assures us that we are riding it in Christ’s arms.
Music: I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life – Bob Hurd
Today, in Mercy, our readings challenge us to see things differently- to see with God’s eyes.
Paul invites us first with the glorious Colossians Hymn. No words can enhance it. Let us savor it in itself:
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the Body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he himself might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the Blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Ancient wineskins were not like the fancy botas we see today. They were formed from the entire skin of the animal. As the new wine fermented inside, the skin expanded with the fermentation. It ultimately stretched beyond further use. – thus the necessity for new skins for new wine.
Jesus, in our Gospel, tells us we must become new wineskins in order to hold the vibrant gift of new life in Christ. He says the old ways, stiffened by pharisaical pretensions, have lost the elasticity of grace. He warns us to avoid the accretions of showy religious practice which may bury and inhibit sincere faith.
Jesus is the new wine of love and mercy, and our hearts must become his new wineskins.
As we pray, this poetic musical piece may inspire us. … in Him, all things hold together …
Today, in Mercy, Jesus and Paul teach us how to pray for one another.
I like to call it “gifting prayer” because it is, indeed, a generous offering we give to others.
Little Prayers
I sometimes pray for simple things – that a family member wins the lottery, or it doesn’t rain on a friend’s wedding.
And I pray for consequential things – improved health for a neighbor, safety for travelers, deliverance from disaster.
These prayers are rooted in the wish for material improvement. But there is a deeper kind of prayer that we can offer.
The Big Prayer
Gifting Prayer is a wide halo of love and hope we generate by our desire for someone else’s eternal good – for their holiness.
This kind of prayer is much bigger than the small prayers we say for others.
Paul describes what such prayer should ask for – that our beloved:
be filled with the knowledge of God’s will
gain all spiritual wisdom and understanding
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord
be fully pleasing, in every good work
bear fruit and grow in the knowledge of God,
be strengthened with all endurance and patience,
and give thanks, with joy, to the Father for the gift of faith
Now THAT’S a prayer!
Gospel Clues
Jesus, in today’s Gospel, gives us a clue about how to pray such a prayer. He says that it’s kind of like catching fish. The Gospel fishermen have labored all night with no results. Sometimes our prayer feels like that, doesn’t it?
Jesus says no matter. Keep on fishing – keep on praying. Shift perspective a little bit “to the other side of the boat” – to God’s way of seeing good for those we pray for.
Ask for God to do what God deems best. This attitude in prayer opens us to divine possibilities. It hopefully brings unimagined resolutions to those we pray for.
Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch… …When they had done this, they caught so great a number of fish that their nets were bursting.
Let God burst the tight net by which we might define our prayer. Let’s be amazed by all that God desires to give us beyond our small wishes.
Today, in Mercy,we begin a little over a week of readings from Colossians. Paul loves this community in a way similar to the Thessalonians. The Colossians’ faith has been tested and has proven true.
But Paul wants to protect their faith because it is being newly tested by a round of heresies and social challenges.
The words of these scriptures want to protect and direct us too.
We, like the people in today’s Gospel, are familiar with Jesus. But familiarity can breed things not so obvious as contempt. It can breed indifference, ingratitude, unexamined expectations, taking our blessings for granted. (Examination of Conscience Alert!!)
Both Colossians and Luke today encourage us to recognize the unparalleled gift of our faith – to protect, nurture, rejoice in and share it.
Just as in the whole world the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so also among you, from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth.
Music: Bless Our God – John Foley (Lyrics below) Just a beautiful song — I love it!
Today, in Mercy, Paul again affirms the faith and prudence of the Thessalonians:
Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.
He paints a dire picture of those “times and seasons”, likening them to the onset of labor pains. But like a mother’s labor, these pains ultimately yield life:
For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So Christ, our Laboring Mother, delivers us – even through seasons of suffering and evil – to a new day. And we – we are the midwives to one another’s salvation:
Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do.
This honest encouragement is so essential for us in our faith communities because, without it, the mystery of suffering and evil overwhelm us.
It is both awesome and fearsome to truly encounter Mystery. In its presence, we are rudderless: we cannot explain, control, or humanly rationalize it. Mystery can only be comprehended by greater Mystery. Suffering can only be plumbed by the greater Mystery of Love.
And we know Love’s Name: Jesus by Roc O’Connor (Lyrics below)
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus
Let all creation bend the knee to the Lord.
1. In Him we live, we move and have our being;
In Him the Christ, In Him the King!
Jesus the Lord.
2. Though Son, He did not cling to Godliness,
But emptied Himself, became a slave!
Jesus the Lord.
3. He lived obediently His Father’s will
Accepting His death, death on a cross!
Jesus the Lord.
Today, in Mercy, our readings share the common theme of humility, instructing us that the virtue is essential to our salvation.
Humility, of course, gets a bad rap in our dominating, “me” culture. We tend to think of humiliation, servitude, inelegance rather than the actual root of the word: humus -“of the earth”.
I was fascinated last week by a small fracas arising from the unconsidered remarks of one of our Phillies baseball players. The team has been running hot and cold – with a little bit too much cold for some fans. The famous Philly “boos” have been flying. Frustrated with these, outfielder Sean Rodriguez referred to the disgruntled fans as “entitled”.
Uh oh! They didn’t like that. We prefer to think of ourselves as “deserving “, right?
Humility is that virtue which helps us realize that we are not “entitled” or “deserving” of anything over and above other human beings. It roots us in the respect for each other that refuses to rank the worth of other human beings.
The social leverage that comes from wealth, power, and influence can beguile us. We become lost in a maze of stereotypes, rankings and prejudices which are the foundation of social injustice.
We hear among ourselves justifying phrases for our entitlement like:
well, I earned what I have
at least I paid for it
“they” need to work if they want to have …(food, healthcare, housing…)
it’s their own fault for … (dropping out of school, taking drugs, ….)
that’s just the way it is in “those” countries. The people are …(lazy, stupid, violent …)
“they” don’t need what I need. “They” are used to being … (poor, disabled, sick …)
And probably the most dangerous of all the phrases:
it’s not my problem
I’m not the one exiling, bombing, blocking, trafficking, enslaving “them”
Today’s readings enjoin us: it is my problem. My attitude, choices, vote, conversation, and lifestyle matter at the banquet of life we are all meant to share.
My intention to humbly join and rejoice with all Creation, to take a seat beside and never above my sister and brother – this is my “entitlement” to the one banquet that matters.
When you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Music:A Place at the Table – Lori True and Shirley Elena Murray
Today, in Mercy, Paul again shows his great admiration for the commitment of the Thessalonians:
You have no need for anyone to write you about fraternal charity…
( in other words, you already live it.)
Don’t we all wish that line could be written, without reservation, to us?
In our Gospel, Jesus tells us the familiar parable of the talents which shows what God would look for in order to say as much to us.
On the surface this story looks like one about material goods or personal capabilities – about how we use our individual gifts to further God’s reign. Certainly that is one valuable interpretation.
But think about the talents in the story. They did not belong to the servants. They belonged to the master.
This parable is about God’s talents, God’s nature, and how we either frustrate or facilitate their effectiveness in God’s Creation.
We are the means by which God is present in the world.
God invests God’s own heartin us – Unconditional Love, Lavish Mercy, Infinite Hope, the Perfection of Compassion, Sacred Accompaniment, Abiding Fidelity.
If we tender these divine “talents” to others with care and generosity, we become good and faithful reflections of God’s own presence.
What about the poor soul who buried the talents under his own fear and small-mindedness? Sad, right? But that self-protective, parsimonious little burier hides in all of us.
We know the blockades we put up against God’s Grace. Let us look sincerely at them today, asking to be worthy of the trust invested in us to multiply God’s grace in the world.
Lavish Mercy 