Turning Always Toward God

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
February 8, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020824.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings leave me wondering about what makes God tick.

We really know nothing about God for sure, except what we have learned and believed in Jesus. The writers of the Hebrew scriptures stretched their imaginations to understand and portray God to the people. Sometimes their metaphors work for us, sometimes not. Today’s, I think, is tricky.

In this first reading, God exacts justice for Solomon’s unfaithfulness, but He does it sort of like a prosecutor in a plea bargain.

I will deprive you of the kingdom … but not during your lifetime
It is your son whom I will deprive … but I won’t take away the whole kingdom.

What’s going on with God in this reading? Well, it’s more like “What’s going on with the writer who tries, retrospectively, to interpret God’s role in Israel’s history?”

The passage is much more than a report on exchanges between God and Solomon.

It is a testament to Israel’s unwavering faith that God is intimately involved in their lives. In every circumstance, the believing community returns to the fact that experience leads to God and not away from Him.

So “Solomon … had TURNED his heart to strange gods” 
BUT God had not turned from Solomon. 
Nor would God EVER turn because 
God has CHOSEN Israel.

In our Gospel, the Syrophoenician woman tries to get the favor of Jesus to turn toward her. And actually, Jesus sounds pretty mean and stingy about it.

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”

Mark 7:26-30

The writer Mark is portraying, retrospectively, a significant time in Christ’s ministry. Jesus has really gone into hiding in a remote place. Apparently, he wants space to figure some things out. The story indicates that one of those things might be whether or not his ministry should embrace the Gentiles.

The persistence of this woman’s faith is a turning point for Jesus Who evolved, as we all do, in his understanding of his sacred role and meaning in the world.

These passages encourage us to constantly turn toward God Who lives our life with us. Such “turning” helps us to grow spiritually. As we become bigger in heart and soul, so does our concept of God and what God’s hope is for us.

Poetry: All this “turning” brought to mind some favorites lines from T.S. Eliot:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

Music: Perfect Wisdom of Our God – The Gettys

The Queen of Sheba

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, spirituality1 Comment

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
February 7, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020724.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, the Queen of Sheba visits Solomon. It’s another Solomon story worthy of the big screen where, in fact, it has been loosely fictionalized and adulterated many times.

sheba

Many trusted scripture scholars question the historicity of the story. Several agree that Solomon never rose to the kind of material glory described in the passage. The two books of Kings were written 500 years after Solomon lived. In many aspects, the writings offer a reflection on the meaning of his reign in Israel’s covenanted life rather than a strict account of his life.

So what might we glean from today’s passage on the mysterious queen. The story demonstrates that Solomon is so accomplished that a revered leader will come to learn from him. Once she arrives, she is overwhelmed by his material successes and strength. Solomon has constructed a dominant, rich and subservient culture.

But wait. Is there a bit of ironic judgement and, perhaps, prophetic reminder woven into the Queen’s accolades? Shifting the focus from an increasingly arrogant Solomon back to Israel’s God, she says:

Blessed be the LORD, your God,
whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel.
In his enduring love for Israel,
the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice

1 Kings 10:9

In fact, the great wealth and power of Solomon’s kingdom was built, not on justice and judgement, but on the backs of the poor and excluded. For example, Walter Brueggemann says this:

(Solomon’s kingdom) … was an economy of extraction that regularly transferred wealth from subsistence farmers to the elite in Jerusalem, who lived off the surplus and the device and the strategy for that extraction was an exploitative tax system.

When the Biblical scribe puts the words judgment and justice into the Queen’s remarks, it may be intended to forecast the miserable end Solomon will meet because he has abandoned his responsibilities to care for all the people according the the Lord’s covenant.

This glorious, shining realm which so impressed the Queen is a kingdom built on corruption, greed, militarism, and manipulation of the poor.

The lessons for our world are obvious.

As Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, it doesn’t matter whether we’re gilded in gold on the outside and spin our words in glorious promises. What matters are the true intentions of our hearts and the compassionate actions they inspire:

But what comes out of the person, that is what defiles him.
From within, from the heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

Mark 7:20-23

Ultimately, the great Solomon misses the boat on this. May his story help us not to do the same.

Poetry: The Queen of Sheba by Hadewijch
English version by Mother Columba (Elizabeth) Hart, OSB
Original Language Dutch

The Queen of Sheba
Came to Solomon;
That was in order to gain wisdom.
When she had found him, indeed,
His wonders streamed upon her so suddenly
That she melted in contemplation.
She gave him all,
And the gift robbed her
Of everything she had within --
In both heart and mind,
Nothing remained:
Everything was engulfed in love.

Music: La Reine de Saba – Raymond LeFevre

Covenant of Mercy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Faith, Prayer, spiritualityLeave a comment

Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs
Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
February 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020624.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings might lead us to consider what we pay attention to in our spiritual lives and why.

In our first reading, Solomon prays simply and sincerely before the presence of God. It is the prayer of one who is spiritually vulnerable to God’s grace in whatever way it comes.

Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD
in the presence of the whole community of Israel,
and stretching forth his hands toward heaven,
he said, “LORD, God of Israel,
there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below;
you keep your covenant of mercy with your servants
who are faithful to you with their whole heart.

1 Kings 8:22-23

Solomon’s focus in prayer is to honor and acknowledge God and to ask mercy for himself and the people for whom he is responsible.

Today’s Responsorial Psalm 84

The Pharisees, on the other hand, fear the presence of God in Jesus because he threatens the collapse of their false religionism. To protect their man-made securities, they have constructed an elaborate maze of rules and judgments which hardens them to renewing grace.

Rather than listen to Jesus who offers them redemption, they focus on the lifeless particularities of the Law:

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.

Mark 7:1-2

The Pharisees’ recalcitrance disappoints and angers Jesus:

He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites,
as it is written:

This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say,
“How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!

Mark 7:6-8

We live our lives always in the Presence of God. Do we even realize this? Do we pray, like Solomon, with an open heart for the grace to grow ever closer to God in every circumstance that is offered to us? 

Do we ask for the grace to see where judgments, measurements, and definitions limit our spiritual growth?

As I read today’s Gospel, I think of Pope Francis’s recent decision to allow the blessing of same-sex couples. Francis looked beyond traditional constraints to offer healing mercy to those seeking God’s love. Some people, caught in strictures similar to those of the Pharisees, have not only resisted but condemned the Pope for his decision.

The situation is not dissimilar from that of today’s Gospel. What can we learn about our own attitudes and spiritual openness as we pray with these readings? What can Solomon teach us about sincere, humble, and transparent prayer?

Poetry: Peace Is This Moment Without Judgment – Dorothy Hunt

Do you think peace requires an end to war?
Or tigers eating only vegetables?
Does peace require an absence from
your boss, your spouse, yourself?…
Do you think peace will come some other place than here?
Some other time than Now?
In some other heart than yours?
​
Peace is this moment without judgment.
That is all. This moment in the Heart-space
where everything that is is welcome.
Peace is this moment without thinking
that it should be some other way,
that you should feel some other thing,
that your life should unfold according to your plans.
​
Peace is this moment without judgment,
this moment in the Heart-space where
everything that is is welcome.

Music: Heart of Gold – Nicholas Gunn

I think this song can be like a prayer asking God’s warmth and mercy in our judgments and prayers.

Presence

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, holiness, Holy Spirit, spirituality4 Comments

Memorial of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
February 5, 2024

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, both our readings lead us to pray with the mystery of God’s Presence.

In the passage from Kings, Solomon has completed his most memorable task – the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Today’s verses describe the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant from its holding place to its permanent home in the Temple.

Upon the completion of that festive transfer, the Divine Presence is manifested by a cloud which fills the Holy of Holies.

When the priests left the holy place,
the cloud filled the temple of the LORD
so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud,
since the LORD’s glory had filled the temple of the LORD.
Then Solomon said, “The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud;
I have truly built you a princely house,
a dwelling where you may abide forever.”

1 Kings 8:10-11

In Mark’s Gospel today, the townspeople of Gennesaret become aware that Jesus is present in their vicinity. They have heard about his miracles. As Mark puts it, they scurry to gather all their needy friends and relatives into Christ’s healing Presence.

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.

Mark 6:53-56

As we pray these passages, we might long for the tactile presence of God in the cloudiness of our own lives. Sometimes God seems far away, hidden somewhere beyond the stars – disconnected from the flesh-and-bone challenges of our existence.

But as we pray today we might remind ourselves that we are a Temple. God dwells in us as truly as God dwelt in the Holy of Holies. Any felt distance is not on God’s part, it is on ours and our restrained and anxious faith.

May these readings inspire us to be as sincere in our prayer as were the Gennesarenes – to scurry to the hem of Christ’s garment, to grasp its tassel in the fullness of faith, hope, and love.

Thought:

‘The mystery of God hugs you
in its all-encompassing arms.”-

Hildegard von Bingin

Music: Invocation: Hildegard von Bingen ~ Written by Emma Bergen, sung by Anonymous 4

Traditionally the Hebrew term Shekinah שכינה means ‘dwelling’, as a way of describing the Presence of the Divine. As the term is feminine, it also has come to be used to describe the feminine aspect of the divinity: the Divine Feminine.

Emma Bergen writes: “I came to learn about the Shekinah while I was writing about the Gnostic Sophia, and was inspired to write my ‘Invocation’ as a way, both of expressing what such a contact means to me personally, and to reach out in the spirit (and within myself) to what has been described as ‘the feminine face of God’. Oppression has many faces, some serious, and others so subtle that they might remain unnoticed by others. I invite you to join me in this invocation, written for all women everywhere, in whatever circumstances they might find themselves.”

(To see the words more clearly in the video, click on the little white square in the lower right-hand corner of the YouTube screen.)

Praise God Always

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, Prayer, Psalms, spirituality4 Comments

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 4, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020424.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 147 which invites us to:

Praise the LORD Who is good;
    sing praise to our God, Who is gracious;
   the One it is fitting to praise.

It is a psalm for the left-brained who, like Job in our first reading, might need some explanation about just why we should praise when life seems so unpraiseworthy at times!

Job spoke, saying:
Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?
    Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
    a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
    and troubled nights have been allotted to me.

Job 7: 1-4

Job, like many of us when we suffer, feels crushed under life’s burdens. However, an extended reading of the Book of Job reveals that humility and repentance allow Job to “see God”, and to rediscover the richness and flavor of his life.

Calling us to the same kind of awareness, Psalm 147 presents a series of reasons for praising God, including God’s continual attention to the city of Jerusalem, to brokenhearted and injured individuals, to the cosmos, and to nature.

For me, the most moving of these reasons comes in verse 3:

The Lord heals the brokenhearted
    and binds up their wounds.
The Lord tells the number of the stars;
    calling each by name.

This is a beautiful picture of our infinitely compassionate God who is able to recognize our broken-heartedness. 

This loving God, who knows the stars by name, knows us as well. We, like Job, begin to heal within the divine lullaby God patiently sings over our broken hearts.

Jesus is that Healing Song, the Word hummed over the world by the merciful Creator. In today’s Gospel, we see that Melody poured out over the suffering:

When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Mark 1: 32-34

As we pray today, 
let us hear God’s song of mercy 
being sung over all Creation. 
Let us rest our own brokenness 
there in its compassionate chords. 
Let us bring the world’s pain to our prayer.

Poetry: A Cure Of Souls by Denise Levertov

The pastor
of grief and dreams
guides his flock towards
the next field
with all his care.
He has heard
the bell tolling
but the sheep
are hungry and need
the grass, today and
every day. Beautiful
his patience, his long
shadow, the rippling
sound of the flocks moving
along the valley.

Music: God Heals My Broken Heart – Patty Felker

If Job were singing his sadness today, it might sound like this song.

Selflessness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, spirituality6 Comments

Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
February 3, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020324.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings offer us insights into the ministry of leadership. They are insights worth pondering for at least these two reasons:

  • We are all called to be leaders in some way in our lives, be it as parent, teacher, supervisor, team captain, committee lead, board chair … you name it.
  • We need to be able to recognize good leaders in order to follow wisely, otherwise we are following self-interested fools determined to re-create us in their likeness.

In both our readings, leadership is characterized by this key element: selflessness.

Solomon, when given the chance to ask for anything he wants, asks for a gift that will benefit the community.

Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart
to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.

1 Kings 4:9

Jesus and the disciples, exhausted from the press of the crowd, still respond in mercy to their relentless needs

Jesus said to the disciples,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.

When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

Mark 6: 30-34

As we daily focus our lives on becoming more like Christ, the practice of selflessness can be tricky – how to live selflessly without losing one’s self; how to foster common and individual good without depleting one’s own spiritual strength. To my mind, these things are important:

Honesty: I think the grounding virtue of a good leader is honesty – with others and with self. Once a leader starts to pretend, deceive, equivocate, feign ignorance, or outright lie, (even to themselves), they are no longer fit to lead.

Spiritual Discipline: When we look at Jesus’s life, we see that he practiced a cycle of ministry and prayer. Several times in the Gospel, Jesus withdraws to commune with the Father. Although Christ was in union with the Father at all times, he exercised his ministry around a personal discipline of solitude and prayer.

Discernment: Solomon understands the importance of this gift. What Solomon actually prays for is the sensitivity to practice the “cardinal virtues” that we learned long ago in catechism class. Remember? Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.

Prose: Remember the Baltimore Catechism? Well, maybe some of you are too young to remember, Here’s how wikipedia defines it:

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Prepared and Enjoined by Order of the Third Council of Baltimore, or simply the Baltimore Catechism, was the national Catholic catechism for children in the United States, based on St. Robert Bellarmine’s 1614 Small Catechism. The first such catechism written for Catholics in North America, it was the standard Catholic school text in the country from 1885 to the late 1960s. From its publication, however, there were calls to revise it, and many other catechisms were used during this period. It was officially replaced by the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults in 2004, based on the revised universal Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Throughout my adult life, I have retained an appreciation for what I learned from the now-defunct edition of the Baltimore Catechism. While it conveyed the impression that a recipe for holiness could be compacted into a small manual, its inimitable Thomistic logic left valuable lessons with me to which I often return. Here are a few that informed my prayer today as I reflected on “selflessness”:

Besides the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity there are other virtues, called moral virtues.

These virtues are called moral virtues because they dispose us to lead moral, or good lives, by aiding us to treat persons and things in the right way, that is, according to the will of God.

The chief moral virtues are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance; these are called cardinal virtues.

These virtues are called cardinal virtues because they are like hinges on which hang all the other moral virtues and our whole moral life. The word “cardinal” is derived from the Latin word “cardo” meaning hinge.

  • Prudence disposes us in all circumstances to form right judgments about what we must do or not do.
  • Justice disposes us to give everyone what belongs to them.
  • Fortitude disposes us to do what is good despite any difficulty.
  • Temperance disposes us to control our desires and to use rightly the things which please ourselves.

Music: Song of Solomon – Martin Smith

We Shall Behold Him

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality4 Comments

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
February 2, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020224.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, that time when Jesus is brought to the Temple to be dedicated, just as any Jewish boy would have been.

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Luke 2: 22-24

This event is one of the many throughout Jesus’s life that show us two things:

  • Jesus honored Jewish Law
  • Jesus, although God, lived a human life

This Gospel scene in particular is layered with a poignant and tender humanity. First off, Jesus is a baby, small and vulnerable in the vastness of the Temple.

His young parents, although knowing he is God, bring him to be blessed in the ancient traditions of their faith. They certainly must have wondered how to handle teaching the Messiah the faith! How to guide the human development of one Who is Divine! It’s challenging enough for young parents to adapt to a new human being in their lives, let alone one who is also Divine!

Edited in Prisma app with Hunter

But how fortuitous that the sage and comforting elders await them at the Temple doors, dear Simeon and Anna. These two are steeped in a wise faith, deepened by a long patience.

Put yourself in the scene of this beautiful passage and listen to Simeon. Watch his eyes as he looks upon the sweet face of Jesus:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:

“Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”

Luke 2: 25-32

Now turn toward beautiful Anna, filled with the grace of prayerful years, as she takes the Holy Child in her arms:

There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

Luke 2: 36-38

As we pray with the Holy Family and these two ancient prophets, how do we feel about the presence of Christ in our midst? What might we have said to Jesus, to Mary or Joseph had we been in the Temple that morning? What might we have seen or heard from Anna and Simeon that would have fueled our own hope and faith? How open is the door of our heart’s temple to welcome the Holy One? What Grace are we awaiting in our deepest hearts?

Poetry: Wait and See (Simeon and Anna) by Richard Bauckham

Richard Bauckham is a renowned English biblical scholar and theologian, whose many published works include The Theology of the Book of Revelation (1993) and Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (2006).

In the drab waiting-room
the failed travellers, resigned, sleep
on the hard benches, inured
to postponement and foul coffee.
Hope has given up on them.
There are also the impatient,
pacing platforms, and the driven,
purple with frustration, abusing
their mobiles, for the hardest part
of waiting is the not doing.
Truly to wait is pure dependence.
But waiting too long the heart
grows sclerotic. Will it still
be fit to leap when the time comes?
Prayer is waiting with desire.
Two aged lives incarnate
century on century
of waiting for God, their waiting-room
his temple, waiting on his presence,
marking time by practicing
the cycle of the sacrifices,
ferial and festival,
circling onward, spiralling
towards a centre out ahead,
seasons of revolving hope.
Holding out for God who cannot
be given up for dead, holding
him to his promises – not now,
not just yet, but soon, surely,
eyes will see what hearts await.

Music: We Shall Behold Him – LaKisha Jones and the Woodlands United Methodist Church

One of my top ten favorite hymns… “the sweet light in his eyes”!
Lyrics below.

The sky shall unfold
Preparing His entrance
The stars shall applaud Him
With thunders of praise
The sweet light in His eyes,
shall enhance those awaiting
And we shall behold Him, then face to face

O we shall behold Him, we shall behold Him
Face to face in all of His glory
O we shall behold Him, yes we shall behold Him
Face to face, our Savior and Lord

The angel will sound, the shout of His coming
And the sleeping shall rise, from there slumbering place
And those remaining, shall be changed in a moment
And we shall behold him, then face to face

We shall behold Him, o yes we shall behold Him
Face to face in all of His glory
We shall behold Him, face to face
Our Savior and Lord
We shall behold Him, our Savior and Lord
Savior and Lord!

Now It’s Your Turn

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, dying, Faith, Gospel, spirituality2 Comments

Thursday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
February 1, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020124.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, as February’s deep season unrolls, we are just about two weeks away from the beginning of Lent. Our first readings during this time will give a little taste of 1 Kings and then briefly shift to James’s epistle before we pick up the treasured readings of the Lenten Season.

The passage today bears a royal gravity. After preparing his son Solomon for kingship, David solemnly dies.

Keep the mandate of the LORD, your God, following his ways
and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees
as they are written in the law of Moses,
that you may succeed in whatever you do,
wherever you turn, and the LORD may fulfill
the promise he made on my behalf….

… David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.
The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years:
he reigned seven years in Hebron
and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

Solomon was seated on the throne of his father David,
with his sovereignty firmly established.

1 Kings 2; 3-4;10-12

David’s advice to Solomon is basically this: there is work to be done for God and God’s People. And now it’s your responsibility. Keep the course!

In our Gospel, Jesus gives the same sort of mandate to this disciples:

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

Mark 6:7-8

The disciples are ready. It is now their turn to spread the Gospel and to continue the ministry that they have learned at Jesus’s side:

So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Mark 6:12-13

If any of us are wondering what we are supposed to do today for the Reign of God, our answer may be somewhere in these readings as we pray them with an open heart.

Poetry: The Poem of Tecumseh – Tecumseh (1768 –1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting intertribal unity. Even though his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history. (Wikipedia)

Music: Heal the World – Michael Jackson

Rejected at Nazareth

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest
Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
January 31, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013124.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, David gets himself in trouble once again.

King David said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him,
“Tour all the tribes in Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba
and register the people, that I may know their number.”
Joab then reported to the king the number of people registered:
in Israel, eight hundred thousand men fit for military service; 
in Judah, five hundred thousand.

Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people,
and said to the LORD:
“I have sinned grievously in what I have done.
But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant,
for I have been very foolish.”

2 Samuel 24: 2;10

In the later years of his kingship, David is pretty impressed with himself. The kingdom has grown exponentially. There is peace and prosperity. David wants a census taken so that he can assess his capacity for new expansion.

So why does God get so mad about this census? The Book of Exodus sets out that a person has the right to number only his own belongings. The People belong to God, not to David. David’s pride and self-satisfaction has taken him over.

Ps32_deep waters

However, as usual, David repents. This is probably the best lesson we can learn from him. Then, in a greatly allegorized treatment, God gives David a choice of three punishments.

Passages like this can confuse us if we interpret them literally. Does God really interact and punish like this? 

It helps to remember the purpose of these writings — not to relay a factual history, but rather to tell a story that helps us grow in relationship with God.

What I believe happened here is that a pestilence did fall upon the country. At the same time, David realized that his heart had grown selfish and graceless. He took the natural event as a sign to turn back to God. And then the writers told the story in a way that the ancient peoples could relate to – with a metaphorical image of a God that forgives but gets even.

In our Gospel, Jesus preaches a clearer and true vision of God – a vision of Complete Mercy, especially toward the vulnerable, weak, and sinful. That pretty much includes all of us.

Jesus releases the power of this Divine Mercy by his words and miracles. But his own family and neighbors reject him. They are more comfortable with a God who behaves like they do – meting out more judgement and punishment (preferably toward others!😉) than mercy and inclusive benediction.

In this Gospel, we begin to see Jesus as One who asks not only for repentance but for conversion – for a new way of being with God and neighbor, the way of Love.

How might we have responded had we been in that neighborhood synagogue? How are we responding today?

Film Excerpt from The Chosen: Jesus is rejected at Nazareth

Music: Today’s Responsorial Psalm 32 – Marty Goetz ( Lyrics below)

Psalm 32 – Marty Goetz

These are periled times we live in, trouble everywhere
Weary hearts will often give in to this world’s despair
But high and over all, our Father knows our every care
And in His Book, if you will look, you’ll find His promise there

(Chorus)
He who trusts in the Lord
Mercy shall surround him
He who trusts in the Lord
Mercy shall surround him
Be glad in the Lord and rejoice
You upright in heart, lift up your voice
For great is His mercy toward all who trust in the Lord

Soon will be the time when we will see the Holy One
Oh how sweet to know that He’ll complete what He’s begun
And blessed is the man who stands forgiven in God’s son
And blessed are they who in that day will hear Him say, “Well done”

(Chorus)

Gracious is He and slow to anger
His loving kindness has no end
With love to embrace both friend and stranger
Reaching out to one and all, who upon His name will call

(Chorus)

Mercy is His reward
For all who trust, for the pure and just
Who put their trust in the Lord
For all who trust for the pure and just who put their trust in the Lord