Today, in Mercy, Paul, follows on yesterday’s magnificent passage about
the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The power of this Gospel is the “treasure” about which Paul writes in today’s first reading.
In this passage, Paul describes the miracle of contradiction in us who believe. We carry theinfinite light of God’s Glory in the fragile, imperfect vessels of our existence. By the power of God, the omnipotent sublime shines from within the ordinary.
We see, in these lines, Paul the humble and tested preacher. He has grown in his deep understanding of himself as God’s imperfect instrument.
All of us who want to live the Gospel are called to experience a deepening like Paul’s. The poet Mary Oliver reflects such a transformation in her poem On Thy Wondrous Works I Will Meditate (Psalm 145). Here is the last delightful stanza, which may inspire our prayer today. (I will send the full poem a little later.)
Every morning I want to kneel down on the golden cloth of the sand and say some kind of musical thanks for the world that is happening again—another day— from the shawl of wind coming out of the west to the firm green flesh of the melon lately sliced open and eaten, its chill and ample body flavored with mercy. I want to be worthy—of what? Glory? Yes, unimaginable glory. O Lord of melons, of mercy, though I am not ready, nor worthy, I am climbing toward you.
Today, in Mercy, our Gospel describes the Ascension of Jesus into heaven – a glorious and bittersweet moment for his disciples.
Our second reading from Ephesians is so perfectly chosen for that moment. Even though the passage is written by Paul much later, one can imagine Jesus blessing his surrounding friends with a similar prayer just as he returns to the Father.
This beautiful passage and the song accompanying it need no further words from me. Let us be with Jesus on this holy day and receive all the blessings and love he wishes to give us.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe…
Music: Ephesians Hymn I – Suzanne Toolan, RSM
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ
Through him, we were chosen to live through love in his light
That is why I never cease to give thanks to God for you
And pray that the God of Our Lord, Jesus Christ
May grant you the Spirit of Wisdom and knowledge if Himself
That you may Glory, Glory in his goodness.
Today, in Mercy,our readings focus on the inviolable power of covenant.
The word “covenant” is derived from the Latin “convenire ”- to gather, to assemble, to fit.
We get the sense of an artist pulling together the pieces of a mosaic to form a masterpiece. Or we may think of a poet choosing the perfect words to convey feelings otherwise unwordable.
In our first reading, God fashions his covenant by weaving together the family lines descending from Abraham:
I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Jesus deepens the Abrahamic promise by revealing that he is the Son of God sent to fulfill the ancient promise:
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
These promises are passed on to us in many ways. Today’s reading might remind us of the role our families have played in transmitting the faith to us. They, together with our early teachers, opened our hearts to the amazing possibilities of grace.
I pray in thanksgiving today for my parents and all the generations who formed them. I pray for the good Sisters who modeled a captivating holiness to me. I pray for my beloved Mercy family as they continue to show me the face of God.
For whom would you offer a grateful prayer today? You might simply say their names in your prayer, or write their names in your own mosaic of thanksgiving. Or just listen to this music and let them bless your heart today.
Today, in Mercy, Hosea, the composer of passionate love songs, tells us this:
I will heal your weaknesses, says the LORD, I will love you freely; for my wrath is turned away. I will be like the dew for you: you shall blossom like the lily; You shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth your shoots. Your splendor shall be like the olive tree and your fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again you shall dwell in the shade and raise grain; You shall blossom like the vine, and your fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
The passage sings of new life, strength, vigor – the hope of Easter! Today as we pray, what withering branches in our lives do we wish to place in the warmth of this promise?
You are not far from the kingdom of God
In our Gospel, the good scribe asks for Jesus’s confirmation that he is on the right track to holiness. Jesus blesses him by saying:
You are not far from the kingdom of God
God is so good to us. Let us ask God’s generous help as we seek to grow in holiness, goodness and peace this Lent, so that we may be blessed by the same promises.
The mnemonic has been helpful to me as an adult too. It reminds me to communicate with God only many levels, not just to ask for something. I know how I feel about someone who never talks to me unless they need something. I don’t want to be that way with God.
In our first reading, Esther prays a prayer of supplication for the deliverance of her people from death. Her prayer is not a simple, passing, “Please”. The passage tells us:
She lay prostrate upon the ground,
together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, (praying)
In our Gospel, Jesus describes the prayer of supplication :
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
My prayers of supplication haven’t always seemed to get the results Esther got or that Jesus describes. Ever feel that way … that your prayer really hasn’t been answered?
Faith assures us that all our needs are met … even before we present them to God. God is acting in our lives whether or not we speak with God about it.
Our prayer, as it becomes deeper and truer, allows us to enter God’s action with faith, hope, love and courage. This is the perfect prayer of supplication – it allows us to float, content, in the water of God’s will always flowing around our lives.
David Foster Wallace created a parable you may have heard:
Two young fish are swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and says, “What is water?”
Foster explains, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”
Our reality is that we exist in the “water” of God’s life and presence. May our “asking” of God lead us to understand that our life in God is already the answer.
Music: Prayer Is the Soul’s Sincere Desire – James Montgomery (1771–1854)
Montgomery wrote the lyrics at the request of Edward Bickersteth, who wanted them for his book Treatise on Prayer. Montgomery called this “the most attractive hymn I ever wrote.”
( I have included all the Lyrics below. Quite beautiful, I think.)
Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;
Prayer, the sublimest strains
That reach the Majesty on high.
Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath,
The Christian’s native air,
His watchword at the gates of death;
He enters Heav’n with prayer.
Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice
And cry, “Behold, he prays!”
The saints in prayer appear as one
In word, in deed, and mind,
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.
Nor prayer is made on earth alone;
The Holy Spirit pleads,
And Jesus, on th’eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.
O Thou by whom we come to God,
The life, the truth, the way,
The path of prayer Thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray.
Today, in Mercy, our readings challenge us to consider what we might offer to God in return for all the good we have received.
When I was young, and on a stressful occasion still, I have been known to bargain with God.It goes something like this:
“Dear God, please, if You will only do X, I promise to do Y.”
The process reminds me of a game my Uncle Joe played with me when I was a toddler. He would give me some pennies to buy candy from him that he had just purchased at the corner store. He intended to teach me simple math. But I also learned what is was like to have resources, to possess buying power.
The glitch in the process was this: none of the resources really belonged to me. Everything belonged to Uncle Joe who allowed me to use his resources to learn and grow.
When we think about what we can offer God, it’s sort of a similar model. We have nothing that doesn’t first and already belong to God. We can give God nothing to “buy” God’s love and grace. God gives these freely and without restriction.
All that we really have to offer God is our love, demonstrated by our charitable actions. That’s what Sirach is talking about today.
In our Gospel, Peter – ever a guileless and simple soul – wants to make sure Jesus knows how much Peter has given up for God. Jesus affirms Peter’s offering, but says that God’s generosity exceeds it a hundredfold.
We live in loving relationship with an infinitely generous God. Our only currency in this relationship is the return of love, praise and thanksgiving.
When I regress to my bargaining stance with God, I think God smiles at me the way Jesus probably smiled at Peter. The smile says, “I am already giving you everything you need. Let yourself rest in Me.”
Today, in Mercy, our readings weave together the themes of
Wisdom, Law and Integrity.
Balanced in our soul, these offer the perfection of spiritual life.
Sirach instructs us that the journey to this perfection is challenging but worthwhile.
Wisdom walks with us as a stranger and at first she puts us to the test; Fear and dread she brings upon us and tries us with her discipline until she try us by her laws and trust our souls.
How beautiful this passage is! Picture Wisdom-Sophia walking with you, through your life to your present days. As young people, many of us were challenged in learning spiritual discipline – the Law of Love. Many of us are challenged still at times. But wisdom walks with us, gently testing our resolve for goodness- forgiving, instructing, redeeming, encouraging us.
Eventually, there is between us and Wisdom, as with cherished old friends, a comfort and understanding which allows us to know each other’s thoughts and completely trust each other’s good will. An integrity of goodness grows within us.
Our Psalm 119 summarizes this blessed relationship:
O Lord, great peace have they
who love your law.
In the short pericope from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus drives home to his disciples that the grace of the Holy Spirit – the power for goodness – is not confined by our restrictive definitions, expectations,, or role assignments. All hearts at one with the Law of Wisdom and Love give glory to God.
In my prayer today, I remembered with grateful love the many guides who have taught me Wisdom in my life. I rested in quiet gratitude with Wisdom, my old friend.
My prayer led me to include this quote from one of my all-time favorite books:
(P.S. What five books would you take with you if stranded on an island for the rest of your life? I’d include this one.)
Every truth is a reflection; behind the reflection and giving it value, is the Light. Every being is a witness; every fact is a divine secret; beyond them is the object of the revelation, the Wisdom witnessed to. Everything true stands out against the Infinite as against its background; is related to it; belongs to it. A particular truth may indeed occupy the stage, but there are boundless immensities beyond. One might say a particular truth is only a symbol, a symbol that is real, a sacrament of the Absolute. ~ Antonio Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life
Music: The Perfect Wisdom Of Our God – Keith & Kristyn Getty, Stuart Townend
Now, my mother done her dying,
I come back again to my own life
that I had taken off,
the way you take a coat off
and hang it on a hook behind the door
when seasons change,
sometimes forgetting where it is
until you feel the cold again.
When word that she was ill
fell like a wounded bird
into time’s tranquil pool,
I just ignored the cold.
I walked out into night
to take her hand as she
left quickly for its distant edge.
Through four cold months, we pulled
stars down to light that edge,
blue-hot stars we’d fired
in long years of love.
Family, friends and names that
dozed like dormant flowers in a field
flew up in such a rush of love
around us that November turned to May.
Then, one icy day in January,
I cleared our sidewalk of a heavy snow,
in brief, staccatoed intervals,
lest leaving her too long, the
fragile thread would break
without my benediction.
It was Tuesday, I remember,
but time was caught behind
a wall of silence. It moved
at half-speed. Within its womb
that birthed my mother to another life,
I was timeless, still, unborn again.
When my mother died, she did it
just as I had left my life
four months before, with
love and not a glance behind,
no brief regret to do
what faith required her to do.
She drew that thin last breath
from air we shared, as my cheek
laid tenderly on hers, I whispered,
“Go on … and I love you.”
Music: Halleluia – Leonard Chen – played here by:
Violin: Leonardo Barcellos: Cello: Daniel Enache; Guitar: Leonardo Barcellos
Today, in Mercy, our passage from Hebrews is a strong encouragement for its readers to stay faithful to the hope that has been given us through our call.
from today’s Responsorial Psalm
Paul traces the evolution of that call by reminding his readers of Abraham who trusted God’s promise and patiently waited for its fulfillment. Paul says that God not only promised Abraham, God swore an oath to bless and multiply Abraham’s life.
This promise and oath of God’s faithful covenant is the root of our Christian hope, and the “anchor” of our life.
On this day, when the Church prays for the protection of unborn children, let us be conscious that the “right to life” extends beyond the womb, from “cradle to grave”.
Let us pray to honor and reverence all life and all Creation – those who are troubled, poor, sick, different from us, homeless and seeking refuge. Let us pray for political and economic systems that protect both unborn and born children, resident and refugee, privileged and marginalized … nourishing their right to life, freedom and the happiness of well-being.
Beloveds, let us give thanks for the life and faith we have been given, and let us share it generously.
Today, in Mercy, on this New Year’s Eve, our spirits are occupied with the passage of time – the endings and beginnings that compose a life.
In the public domain, this night is often characterized as one of wild celebrations, almost as if we need to prove our endurance within time.
But in the privacy of our hearts, there are the moments of quiet nostalgia, bittersweet memory, and vulnerable gratitude for all that has been in this past year and the years preceding.
On this Sacred Eve, as people of faith, we will hold time’s hourglass up to the Light of eternity, knowing that – in God – there is no time.
In God, there is only love – the only human capacity which endures beyond time. In heaven, we will not need faith because we will see. We will not need hope, because all will be fulfilled.
But we will always need love.
In the end, there are three things that last –
faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
So before the tolls welcome midnight, let us raise up to God our Eucharist of 2018:
those whose lives have been completed; those who have just begun
the efforts we made which succeeded; those which failed
the dreams secured; the dreams abandoned
the opportunities for grace that we seized; those lost which we hope to have renewed
the prayers answered as we had desired; the prayers answered in ways we didn’t recognize
all that we have loved; all that we hope to love more worthily
As John says in our first reading, “Children, it is the last hour …”
May we let it go with gratitude, wisdom and joy.
But as John also says in our Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God …
…. and from his fullness we have all received,
grace flowing upon grace …
May we welcome this grace of eternal life and hope given to us in another New Year.
Blessed 2019, dear friends.
Music: Amazing Grace ~ Salt Lake City Vocal Artists
