Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the one through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Luke 17:1-2
Jesus is serious about the importance of good example and moral living. I mean, look at the heft of that millstone! It ain’t no necklace! If you’re thrown into the sea with that around your neck, there’s no coming back.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray for the spiritual sensitivity to be aware of our motivations, our influence on others, and any selfish or concupiscent choices we make.
Poetry: House of Light – Mary Oliver
Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled— to cast aside the weight of facts
and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world. I want to believe I am looking
into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing— that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom rising and falling. And I do.
He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” Mark 12:41-44
We often hear the term “All or Nothing” to describe a superhuman effort perhaps on a sports field or in a gambling effort: “Leave it all on the field!”, “Give it everything you’ve got!”.
But let’s think about the phrase in reference to today’s reading. What would make this poor widow give her livelihood – everything she had – to the Lord’s treasury?
Jesus makes it clear that to assure ourselves of entry into Heaven, we must allow grace to convert every aspect of our lives. As long as we hold on to even a small uncoverted corner of selfishness, we will not be ready to receive the fullness of God. The parable in only minimally about money. It is about the riches of our hearts.
Poetry: The Widow’s Mites – Richard Crashaw ( c.1613 – 1649)
Two mites, two drops, yet all her house and land, Fall from a steady heart, though trembling hand: The other's wanton wealth foams high, and brave; The other cast away, she only gave.
Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy. Corinthians 3:16-17
How different our world would be if we believed this passage! How could we damage the precious gift of God’s Presence in ourselves or in one another!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to the Spirit Who dwells in us, Whom we can never dislodge through transgression, to grant us a deep awareness and respect for the Holy in ourselves and all Creation. Today’s feast does not celebrate a building. It celebrates a symbol of who we are created to be in the power and oneness of God.
Poetry: St. John Lateran – Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829-1925)
Of temples built by mortal hands, Give honor to the Lateran first; ‘Twas here the hope of many lands– The infant Church–was nursed:
And grew unto a great estate, And waxed strong in grace and power, With Christ for Head and Faithful Mate, And Learning for her dower.
Since first this house to Him was raised, Three times five hundred years have run; For this let Constantine be praised, An English mother’s son!
He with his own imperial sword Did dig foundations broad and deep, That henceforth in His hand the Lord Rome and her hills should keep.
In after ages, one by one, Arose the altars vowed to Heaven; Each crest is sacred now, but none Like this of all the Seven!
Behold she stands! The Mother Church! A queen among her countless peers! Ah! open be that sacred porch For thrice five hundred years!
Video: A Virtual Visit to St. John Lateran Cathedral in Rome
Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ Luke 16:1-4
When I was a kid, this parable was referred to as the Parable of the Wiley Steward. We’ve gotten sophisticated now and call it the “Unjust Steward” or the “Penitent Steward”. But I still like “wiley”, maybe because I love the cartoon character “Wile E. Coyote” (pictured above.) Like the Gospel steward, Wile E. continually tried to advance himself by devious plots against the Roadrunner or Bugs Bunny. These deceptions always backfired and Wile E ended up in worst shape than before.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray not to try to fool God or ourselves by false excuses or self-serving plots. We ask for the courage to be good stewards of God’s gifts, using them generously and truthfully for God’s purposes.
Prose: St. Augustine on The Wiley Steward – (Sermon 359 A.10)
Why did the Lord Jesus Christ present us with this parable? He didn’t approve, surely, of that cheat of a servant; he cheated his master, he stole from him, and didn’t make it up from his own pocket. On top of that he also did some extra pilfering; he caused his master further loss, in order to prepare a little nest of quiet and security for himself after he lost his job. Why did the Lord set this before us? Not because that servant cheated, but because he exercised foresight for the future, to make Christians blush, who make no such provision, when even a cheat is praised for his ingenuity. I mean, this is what he added: Behold, the children of this age are more prudent than the children of light. They perpetrate frauds in order to secure their future. In what life, after all, did that steward insure himself like that? What one was he going to quit when he bowed to his master’s decision? He was insuring himself for a life that was going to end; won’t you insure yourself for one that is eternal?
Music: Stewards of the Earth – Omar Westendorf
A little addition for those who never heard of Wile E. Coyote:
Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:8-10
Today’s powerful Gospel passage follows on yesterday’s theme of rejoicing. Don’t we all know how it feels to lose or misplace something that’s very important to us? How many times in my life have I said my three Hail Mary’s and the Prayer to St. Anthony!!!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: In prayer, I have often placed myself beside the woman of the coins, to assess her emotions as she searches and then finds. Note the essential dimension of her discovery – she gathers her friends and REJOICES! She teaches us that faith expresses and enriches itself in community.
Poetry: Homemaker God – Irene Zimmerman, OSF
The Homemaker God has come to my house to search for the lost coin of me which I, in my miserly morning, thinking this frugal and wise and worthy of praise and grace, hid in a safe “good place.”
The Homemaker God has taken her broom and swept from attic to basement, moved cupboards and dressers, stripped beds, emptied drawers— now she’s checking each pantry shelf for the silver coin of myself.
The Homemaker God will find me, I trust— she knows how to raise dust.
Music: O Breath of Life, Come Sweeping Through Us” by Bessie Porter Head (1849–1936)
Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you. In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me. Philippians 2:15-18
Being a Christian is not easy. It was not easy for the Philippians, and it’s not easy for us. We still live in the midst of a “crooked and perverse generation.” And its crooked perversity is not always easy to discern as the culture becomes more clever in deceitful jargon and technological manipulation.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to have a clear vision that sees into the heart of life in God. Despite challenges, Paul rejoices in this insightful faith of the Philippians and invites them to rejoice as well. Let’s consider our own faith journey and those aspects of it that cause us to rejoice:
God’s faithfulness and our perseverance
what we have given for love, and what we have received in return
the freedom faith has granted us, and the freedom we have fostered in others
the contentment of a long fidelity, and the assured hope of a promised eternity
Poetry: Mindful by Mary Oliver
Every day I see or hear something that more or less
kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle
in the haystack of light.
Music: Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring – arranged by D. Qualey
Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and, found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:7-11
We are accustomed to these words, having heard them multiple times over the years. But read them slowly today. They are stunning! That the Son of God took flesh to restore us to the fullness of grace! All Creation must bow to that Infinite Love.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We let the immense truth of this reading sink into our souls. We rest gratefully in its reality, its daily Presence and invitation to us.
Poetry: On the Mystery of the Incarnation – Denise Levertov
It's when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do, and shudder to know the taint in our own selves, that awe cracks the mind's shell and enters the heart: not to a flower, not to a dolphin, to no innocent form but to this creature vainly sure it and no other is god-like, God (out of compassion for our ugly failure to evolve) entrusts, as guest, as brother, the Word.
Brothers and sisters: If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Philippians 2:1-2
In our readings today, both Paul and Jesus advise believers on how to live in rhythm with the Gospel. When we love, support, invite, forgive, and encourage one another’s faith, we will find true joy.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask for the strength and insight to love as Jesus loves. It’s not easy because people can be deadly dull. We can be deadly dull. But if we strengthen our hearts on the heart of the Gospel, we will learn to truly love.
Poetry: from Winnie the Pooh – A.A.Milne
“Today was a Difficult Day,” said Pooh. There was a pause. “Do you want to talk about it?” asked Piglet. “No,” said Pooh after a bit. “No, I don’t think I do.”
“That’s okay,” said Piglet, and he came and sat beside his friend. “What are you doing?” asked Pooh. “Nothing, really,” said Piglet. “Only, I know what Difficult Days are like. I quite often don’t feel like talking about it on my Difficult Days either. “But goodness,” continued Piglet, “Difficult Days are so much easier when you know you’ve got someone there for you. And I’ll always be here for you, Pooh.”
And as Pooh sat there, working through in his head his Difficult Day, while the solid, reliable Piglet sat next to him quietly, swinging his little legs…he thought that his best friend had never been more right.”
Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Matthew 12:38-41
In my old Baltimore Catechism, the Church, or the Communion of Saints, was divided into three levels: the Church Triumphant, The Church Suffering, and the Church Militant.
Those terms, steeped in 19th century culture, have been softened a bit today: The Church Triumphant, the Church Expectant, and the Church Pilgrim
Having just celebrated All Saints (Triumphant) and All Souls (Expectant), today’s readings give us ironclad advice on what is required of us, the Church Pilgrim.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to hear and respond to today’s readings: JUST LOVE! And that should be taken in two ways: only love, and love justly.
Poetry: Five Dialogues on the Greatest Commandment – Malcolm Guite
The poet and God have a conversation about his readiness to live the Great commandment.
Five Dialogues 1: With All Your Heart With all my heart? You know my heart too well, It’s Yeats’s rag and bone shop. Will it do To start my loving in that little hell, Closed on itself and still excluding you? Could I not offer you some empty room, Some small apartment full of light and air, Some portion of my life, above the gloom, But not this pit of pride, not this despair.
Only your heart will do. Let me begin, To break the ground and plant a seed that grows Up through the closing darkness of your sin Till your unsightly roots brings forth my rose. For I have learned to make the broken true Since my heart too was broken once for you.’
Five Dialogues 2: With All Your Soul With all my soul? I scarcely know my soul. The age I live in doesn’t think it’s there, They cut me up, where you would make me whole, And think your promise only empty air. They say I’m hormones, chemical extremes, Enzymes unwinding blindly, selfish genes, Just empty gestures and repeated memes. With all my soul? I don’t know what that means.
Before the first life stirred my spirit called you, I knew you when I wove you in the dark, I made you more than all the forms that mould you, And kindled in your depth my hidden spark So let them say your soul is empty air, Love with your soul and you will know it’s there.
Five Dialogues 3: With All Your Strength With all my strength? What little strength I have Is shadowed by the instruments of death. I crawl from dawn to dusk towards my grave As frail and fleeting as my every breath, And all the strength of broken humankind Seems only spent on pain and cruelty, To magnify the malice of the mind And crush the poor in deeper poverty.
And that is why you need to love with strength, And offer all that little strength to me, That you might let me mend it, till at length We bear the weight together, set you free, As one who knows how all is borne above, And meets all malice in the strength of Love.
Five Dialogues 4: With All Your Mind With all my mind? With all my open questions? My restless questing after hidden truth? With all my science, all my suppositions? My search for certainty, my lust for proof? With all my mind? its logic and obsession, Its wordless reveries, its language games, Its reason and its deep imagination Its mysteries, its riddles and its dreams?
With all your mind, with every gift I gave you, For every drop of truth is drawn from me. Not that your mind itself will ever save you, But that it lives within my mystery. Ask and be answered, seek and you will find I am the life of every loving mind.
Five Dialogues 5: Your Neighbour as Yourself My neighbour as myself? I cannot learn To love myself at all. I look away, The dark glass only shames me and I burn At what should never see the light of day.
I’ll be the judge of that, for in my light Judgment and healing meet you equally. The self you loathe is precious in my sight And I will have you love it into me. You and your neighbor, both must made whole. Her heart’s as dark and needy as your own, So you must love her in her hidden soul, The very soul she’s trying to disown. Love her as you are loved and you will find Love is your heart, your soul, your strength, your mind.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble; they shall judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord shall be their King forever. Those who trust in God shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with God in love: because grace and mercy are with God’s holy ones, whose care embraces the Elect. Wisdom 3:7-9
All Souls Day is a glorious feast, and yet it is threaded with a tinge of sadness. We remember those we have loved and lost into the incomprehensible dimensions of eternity, into an infinty of Love.
The gifted Wisdom writer consoles us with the verse we are all so familiar with from many funerals:
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.
Wisdom 3:1
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We place our trust in God’s promise to hold our beloveds in tenderness until we see them again.
Poetry: from John O’Donohue
Though we need to weep your loss, You dwell in that safe place in our hearts, Where no storm or might or pain can reach you.
Your love was like the dawn Brightening over our lives Awakening beneath the dark A further adventure of colour.
The sound of your voice Found for us A new music That brightened everything.
Whatever you enfolded in your gaze Quickened in the joy of its being; You placed smiles like flowers On the altar of the heart. Your mind always sparkled With wonder at things.
Though your days here were brief, Your spirit was live, awake, complete.
We look towards each other no longer From the old distance of our names; Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath, As close to us as we are to ourselves.
Though we cannot see you with outward eyes, We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face, Smiling back at us from within everything To which we bring our best refinement.
Let us not look for you only in memory, Where we would grow lonely without you. You would want us to find you in presence, Beside us when beauty brightens, When kindness glows And music echoes eternal tones.
When orchids brighten the earth, Darkest winter has turned to spring; May this dark grief flower with hope In every heart that loves you.
May you continue to inspire us: To enter each day with a generous heart. To serve the call of courage and love Until we see your beautiful face again In that land where there is no more separation, Where all tears will be wiped from our mind, And where we will never lose you again.
Lavish Mercy 