Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 136 – a short course in Bible history – some of which we also read in the first reading from Joshua:
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: In times past your fathers, down to Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, dwelt beyond the River and served other gods. But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt ……
Joshua 24:2-4
Didn’t you love Bible History when you were in school? I remember my little 1950’s McLoughlin Notes and my old Benzinger Bible History book.
An exciting Bible story was a welcome change to droll history and geography. Sister Stella Mercedes had the great Bible figures pinned over the blackboard, just above the permanent, perfectly painted border which warned me, (fruitlessly🤣), never to lie:
Oh, what a tangled net we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Psalm 136 could serve as an index for those wonderful Old Testament stories. As Walter Brueggemann notes:
In Psalm 136, the whole history is again recited, punctuated this time with the repeated refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” All of Israel’s history, indeed all of world history, is an arena that exhibits God’s abiding fidelity.
Walter Brueggemann: From Whom No Secrets Are Hid
With this encouragement, today we might reflect on what our own catalogue of God’s fidelity might look like.
How has God’s mercy and love endured in my life?
How has God loved, protected, and delivered me?
How has God deepened in me the call to responsive love?
Poetry: We might like to pray with Rev. Christine Robinson’s prayer “Mercy Forever”:
Give thanks to God, who is good— whose mercy endures forever. Whose love expands with the expanding universe– whose mercy endures forever. Whose breath gives life to matter– whose mercy endures forever. Who animates life with spirit– whose mercy endures forever. Who plants a fierce unrest in our hearts– whose mercy endures forever. Who bends the universe towards justice– whose mercy endures forever. Who holds the whole world, and our hearts– whose mercy endures forever. Give thanks to God, who is good— whose mercy endures forever.
It was brought to my attention this morning that today is the Feast of Our Lady of Knock.
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, commonly referred to as Knock Shrine, is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site and national shrine in the village of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, where locals saw an apparition in 1879 of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist, angels, and Jesus Christ (the Lamb of God).
Wikipedia
Here’s a lovely hymn for your prayer and enjoyment. And thanks to the leprechaun who reminded me of the Feast today.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 114, eight short but extremely powerful verses. They summarize the entire faith journey of Israel, a People born in the Exodus and coming to full promise as they pass over the Jordan.
Crossing the Jordan by James Tissot
Our first reading describes the Jordan passage which mirrors the miraculous passage through the Red Sea. Joshua becomes the new Moses leading the people, finally, into the Promised Land.
As early as the 6th century, Psalm 114 was included in funeral and burial liturgies in order to emphasize the triumphant and joyful character of our final passage into heaven.
It’s hard for us to think of death that way. On a purely human level, death feels sad – like an end or a loss. But our faith says differently.
Even throughout life, in all our smaller losses, frustrations and failures, our faith encourages us to see things differently. Faith calls us to see each “exodus” , each “crossing”, as the beginning of a journey to a new promise. It calls us to remember that the seas and rivers will part – that God always makes a way.
Faith calls us to receive life’s contradictions and impasses as opportunities to learn a different way.
In Psalm 114, the poet-psalmist uses natural metaphors to remind us of God’s transformative presence in our lives. The Red Sea disappears. The Jordan River opens a path. Mountains skip and hills leap out of our way.
Why was it, sea, that you fled? Jordan, that you turned back? Mountains, that you skipped like rams? You hills, like lambs?
Psalm 114:5-6
When we face turbulent seas, overwhelming passages, exoduses from the comfortable places, may we find courage in remembering God’s faithfulness as Psalm 114 encourages us to do.
Poetry: The Valley of Vision – Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett.
Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess all, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive, that the valley is the place of vision. Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine; let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy life in my death, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy riches in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings confirm the power of call and community.
In this final reading from Deuteronomy, God shows Moses the Promised Land. The description is sweepingly triumphant in tone:
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the LORD showed him all the land— Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as Zoar.
Deuteronomy 34:1-3
There in front of Moses is the entire vision of what his life’s call was all about. Moses’s journey is now complete and his death is memorialized by the Deuteronomist in the uttermost terms:
Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face. He had no equal in all the signs and wonders the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his servants and against all his land, and for the might and the terrifying power that Moses exhibited in the sight of all Israel.
Deuteronomy 34: 10-12
Joshua now assumes a leadership role among the people who have been formed by God, under Moses’s mentorship, into the community of Israel. Joshua, with the people, will continue to shape Israel into a true “People of God”.
Our Gospel reading today describes how the power of community also shapes Christian life.
In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches his disciples a lesson in a particular element of community: fraternal correction. Fraternal correction is a concept often misinterpreted by its would-be practitioners. Here is a good description of what fraternal correction is and is not:
Fraternal correction is an ancient, Christian understanding of what it means to help each other grow in holiness. It is not a reaction to injury suffered, it is not vengeance, it is not revenge, it is not a reaction because I am hurting. But instead, it happens when I am moved by love for my brother or sister. It happens when I am moved to assist my brother or sister in growth or holiness.
Fr. Matthew Spenser, OSJ, Provincial of the Oblates of St. Joseph
Sisters of Mercy Community – Buffalo Founding Event, 1991
A community gathered in God’s Name depends on its members to exercise leadership, followership, sororal and fraternal correction, and unlimited goodwill for one another. Moses did it. Joshua did too. And Jesus certainly modeled and taught us how to live with and for one another in community.
Today’s readings might inspire us to consider the level of our own commitment to the communities which sustain our life: family, Church, religious community, as well as the civic, global, and universal contexts in which we live. We are leaders in some of these communities. We are followers in others. In all of them, we are members – a graced status that calls us to active and responsive love.
Prayer: Prayer for Community This prayer comes from the same site as our readings – The USCCB: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Embracing Father, You grace each of us with equal measure in your love. Let us learn to love our neighbors more deeply, so that we can create peaceful and just communities. Inspire us to use our creative energies to build the structures we need to overcome the obstacles of intolerance and indifference. May Jesus provide us the example needed and send the Spirit to warm our hearts for the journey. Amen
Music: even Sesame Street can offer a little community “theology” 🙂
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with our dear Mother, Sister, and Friend – Mary, mother of Jesus.
For this feast and others over the years, I have offered a good bit of Marian theology which you can access through the search function on the right of my homepage. But for today, I feel like just a simple, quiet prayer with Mary might be the right thing for our reflection.
This passage is from The Flowering Tree by Caryll Houselander.
She is a reed,
straight and simple,
growing by a lake
in Nazareth:
a reed that is empty,
until the Breath of God
fills it with infinite music:
and the breath of the Spirit of Love
utters the Word of God
through an empty reed.
The Word of God
is infinite music
in a little reed:
it is the sound of a Virgin’s heart,
beating in the solitude of adoration;
it is a girl’s voice
speaking to an angel,
answering for the whole world;
it is the sound of the heart of Christ,
beating within the Virgin’s heart;
it is the pulse of God,
timed by the breath of a Child.
The circle of a girl’s arms
has changed the world–
the round and sorrowful world–
to a cradle for God….
Be hands that are rocking the world
to a kind rhythm of love;
that the incoherence of war
and the chaos of our unrest
be soothed to a lullaby;
and the round and sorrowful world,
in your hands,
the cradle of God.
Music: Ave Maria – Daniela de Santos playing the Bach/Gounod version of this beautiful prayer
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Moses recounts for the people God’s immense generosity toward them.
Have you ever heard yourself, or someone dear to you, saying, “God has been so good to me!” Such a statement rises out of our awe at God’s love and mercy to us.
The deeper our faith, the clearer our insight into these gifts. I have heard people in the sparest of circumstances utter such a prayer. How can they do that, we might ask?
In all cases, there is a beautiful humility, trust, and generosity emanating from their spirits. Gratitude has transformed them. Hope, not wishing, has freed them.
Moses wants his People to be like that. He says:
Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, your God, as well as the earth and everything on it. Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants …
This is your glory, he, your God, who has done for you those great and awesome things which your own eyes have seen.
I want to be that kind of grateful, faith-filled person too. Don’t you?
Today’s profound advice from Moses can help us as we pray its words into our own lives.
Poetry: Praying the whole of today’s Responsorial Psalm 147 can also help us recognize our blessings. I love this transliteration by Christine Robinson.
Psalm 147 - Mother of All Creation
It is good to sing praises to you,
Mother of all creation.
And to recognize the touch of your love.
You bring us home, help us heal,
You love your creation
You call every one of your stars by name.
You bless the young, the poor, the ill
You wait forever for the lost to turn to you.
Your love is music to our hearts, and we sing.
You are in the clouds that darken the sky
You send the rain which gives us life.
The cycles of the seasons and the growth of the plants
are your delight.
You provide food for the wild animals
even the young ravens when they cry.
You love the horse’s proud strength
and the athlete’s prowess.
You crave our love and attention.
And so we pray.
We give thanks for life, for children, for the beauty of the snow
that lies soft in the morning.
We give thanks for the storm,
the hail, scattered like popcorn on the grass.
We are in awe of your power.
When the seasons turn, the growing warmth
reminds us of your warmth
The flowing waters remind us
of the life which comes from you.
Thank you, Mother of us all, help us
to keep your love in our hearts and to love your creation.
Music: Your Grace Still Amazes Me – Philips, Craig and Dean
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray again with beautiful Psalm 85, so famous for its described eschatological “kiss”.
I thought this painting captured the Kiss of Mercy and Justice. I could not find an attribution.
On this 19th Sunday, each of our readings invites us to deep meditation. We might choose one of the passages to deeply explore by reading it slowly several times. Be attuned to any single word that catches your heart. Rest in that word to hear what it is saying to you.
Our Psalm serves as a bridge connecting Elijah’s gentle whisper with Paul’s impassioned wish and Jesus’s invitation to walk on water.
These powerful readings will carry a personal message to every one of us if we take time to listen. As Psalm 85 confirms:
I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD — Who proclaims peace. Near indeed is salvation to those who stand in awe of God, glory dwelling in our land.
Psalm 85:9
We are shaped by our personal experiences as well as the culture of our times. Let’s take a look at our circumstances today, allowing these realities to speak to our praying hearts.
Like Elijah, how is God whispering to me today?
Like Paul, what great desire for faith and blessing rises in my prayer?
Like Peter, what invitation to profound faith is God speaking to me?
Poetic Prose: from Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen
There comes a time when our eyes are opened. And we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions.
And, lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we get back even what we rejected. For mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.
—the character General Lowenhielm
Music:When God Whispers Your Name – Matthew West
When nobody listens When nobody cares When you lie wounded And no one is there
When darkness surrounds you And when your best friend is fear When the words “I love you” Are all you long to hear
That’s when God whispers your name He’s never ashamed To call you His own That’s when God whispers your name
In your darkest night You’ll never be alone When God whispers your name For the tired and weary For the hopelessly lost His arms will surround you His blood has paid the cost When all you hold onto Is slipping through your hands When there’s no one to turn to And no one understands
That’s when God whispers your name He’s never ashamed To call you His own That’s when God whispers your name In your darkest night You’ll never be alone When God whispers your name
Listen ! A still, small voice Calling Calling
That’s when God whispers your name He’s never ashamed To call you His own That’s when God whispers your name In your darkest night You’ll never be alone When God whispers your name
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our reading from Deuteronomy presents us with the central prayer of the Jewish faith and a key component of the Christian tradition. The prayer is called the Shema (pronounced Schma), and it captures the essence of what our faith is about.
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today. Drill them into your children. Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest. Bind them at your wrist as a sign and let them be as a pendant on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Shema Yisrael is a Jewish prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: “Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one” found in Deuteronomy 6:4.
Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a mitzvah (religious commandment). Also, it is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night.
Wikipedia
In our prayer today, we might consider three key components of Shema for our personal faith life:
“Hear” – The Presence and Voice of God is central to and inspires all my life
“our God” – It is my choice to live in covenantal relationship with God
“the Lord alone” – There will be no other gods in my heart.
We could unpack any of these three elements to reflect extensively on the vitality of our relationship with God. For example:
“Hear”
How do I open my mind and heart to God?
What spiritual practices keep me focused on God’s Presence in my daily circumstances?
When I am confused or spiritually inert, how do I invite the inspiriting Voice of God into my consciousness?
Answering these questions does not have to lead us through a big theological maze. It can be as simple as waking up and saying,
"Dear God, good morning. Thank you for my life. Please be with me throughout this day."
Or before we close our eyes at night:
"Holy One, thank you for this day. I am sorry for any chance I missed to serve You. As I sleep, please refresh my love for You and Your Creation."
The essence of the Shema is this: God is not simply a part of my life. God is my life. And every thread of my life should be woven into that wondrous Truth.
For those who might be interested in a more in depth study of the Shema, I found this article very helpful.
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.
Music: Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni– played by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings continue to take us through Deuteronomy, and for the next two weeks, through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
The word “Deuteronomy” means “second law” because the book is a reiteration and refinement of the Law given in Exodus. The Book of Deuteronomy is basically three big speeches by Moses, the commissioning of Joshua as Israel’s next leader, and a recounting of the death of Moses.
Today’s speech is powerful and beautiful. Moses calls on the people to remember and give thanks for the immense blessings they have received at the hand of God.
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?
Deuteronomy 4:32-33
At length, Moses recounts the sacred history of the people and tells them that, because of it, they are called to respond in covenanted fidelity.
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. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.”
Deuteronomy 4: 39-40
Moses offered these encouraging and directive speeches because he sensed he was near the end of his life and that Israel was moving into a new phase of its life.
In our Gospel, Jesus feels the same way. In the section immediately preceding today’s reading, Matthew says this:
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised
In today’s passage, Jesus calls his disciples to live in covenanted fidelity by imitating his life.
Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
Matthew 16: 25-26
I’ve read this Gospel passage a thousand times in the past sixty or seventy years. And I ask myself each time, “Do you really take this seriously? Do you really understand that your life is not for yourself but for God and all of God’s beloved creatures?”
It takes radical courage to live that kind of understanding. But continually remembering God’s Presence and Promises throughout our own lives strengthens us. That’s what Moses was trying to tell his people. That’s what Jesus is encouraging his disciples to recognize.
Jesus promises that, at the end of time, each will be repaid according to the level of their generosity. But the repayment doesn’t wait for the end times. Remembering our lives in grateful prayer will convince us of this: there is no true happiness, no deep joy, unless we learn to live beyond our own self-interests.
Poetry: Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls into the Ground and Dies – Malcolm Guite
Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth
And die away from all dry separation,
Die to my sole self, and find new birth
Within that very death, a dark fruition,
Deep in this crowded underground, to learn
The earthy otherness of every other,
To know that nothing is achieved alone
But only where these other fallen gather.
If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,
Then fall upon me with your freeing flail
To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear
As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall
May be more fruitful and my autumn still
A golden evening where your barns are full.
Music: Unless a Grain of Wheat – Bernadette Farrell
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
If we have died with him then we shall live with him; if we hold firm, we shall reign with him. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
If anyone serves me then they must follow me; wherever I am my servants will be. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Make your home in me as I make mine in you; those who remain in me bear much fruit. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
If you remain in me and my word lives in you, then you will be my disciples. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Those who love me are loved by my Father; we shall be with them and dwell in them. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; peace which the world cannot give is my gift. Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain with no life.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 112, particularly chosen for the Feast of St. Lawrence
Blessed the one who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in God’s commands. That one’s posterity shall be mighty upon the earth; the upright generation shall be blessed. Well for the one who is gracious and lends, who conducts all affairs with justice; That person shall never be moved; the just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.
After the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II in 258 AD, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. St. Ambrose is the earliest source for the narrative that Lawrence asked for three days to gather the wealth. He worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the indigent as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to deliver the treasures of the Church he presented the indigent, the crippled, the blind, and the suffering, and declared that these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, “The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.” This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom.
– Wikipedia
There are many lessons for us in the life of St. Lawrence. The most striking for me is his gift for seeing the most vulnerable people as the Church’s greatest treasures.
Praying Psalm 112 today, we might ask God to deepen in us that gift of sublime generosity which imitates God’s own Mercy:
Lavishly they give to the poor, Their generosity shall endure forever; Their name shall be exalted in glory.
Poetry: Khalil Gibran- On Giving
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?
And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?
And what is fear of need but need itself? Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
There are those who give little of the much which they have– and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome.
And there are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward. And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue; They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space. Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes, He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding; And to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold? All you have shall some day be given; Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors’.
You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.” The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, nay the charity, of receiving? And who are you that the poor should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
And you receivers… and you are all receivers… assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings; For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.
Music: God Loves a Cheerful Giver – Steve Green has fun with the kids. I hope you do too!
Lavish Mercy 