Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings encourage us to live lives of Charity and Light.
Today’s first reading opens two weeks of inspiration from the Wisdom Literature of the Hebrew Scriptures. These books include Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and parts of Psalms.
Wisdom literature differs from other books in the Old Testament in that the authors were sages rather than prophets or priests. Priests and prophets typically dealt with religious and moral concerns whereas sages generally focused on the practical aspects of how to live and the intellectual challenges that arise when contemplating the human experience.
from: compellingtruth.org
Our passage from Proverbs offers a good dose of that sage advice with these basics of mutual charity:
Refuse no one the good on which they have a claim
Plot no evil against your neighbor,
Quarrel not with someone without cause,
Envy not lawless persons
Choose not their ways …
If we all followed that list, the world would be in pretty good shape. And, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says that once we get that shaped-up, we can take it up a notch — into the Light:
No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, you place it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.
Matthew’s version adds this line:
Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify God in heaven.
So how do I let Charity kindle God’s Light in me? The list from Proverbs can get me started, but what might my own “Charity Challenges” look like?
Poetry: Charity — The Greatest of All Three – Robert Morris
The soul serene, impenetrably just, Is first in CHARITY; we love to muse On such a model; knit in strictest bonds Of amity with spirits like disposed; Aiming at truth for her own sake, this one Passes beyond the golden line of Faith, Passes beyond the precious line of Hope, And sets foot unmoved on CHARITY . “A soul so softly radiant and so white, The track it leaves seems less of fire than light.”
Music: Lampstand – Ben Bigelow
(Spoiler alert: Those who are still able may want to dance by the end of this video!🤩 I just did a very good finger-snapping routine)
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Isaiah cuts his listeners no slack — and, remember, we too are his listeners.
In this powerful passage, the prophet shatters the pretenses of those who make a show of religion. Speaking with God’s voice, Isaiah lambastes those who fast and pray but practice no works of justice and mercy.
Lo, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers. Yes, your fast ends in quarreling and fighting, striking with wicked claw.
These “fake fasters” are left wondering why God doesn’t answer their prayers. The prophet tells them that God isn’t fooled by their pretenses:
Is this the manner of fasting I wish, of keeping a day of penance: That a man bow his head like a reed and lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Isaiah says that God’s not into sackcloth and ashes. God’s into good works of mercy and justice. These are the actions that change our hearts, opening us to deeper relationship with God.
This, rather, is the fasting that I wish: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke; Sharing your bread with the hungry, sheltering the oppressed and the homeless; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own.
Listen, dear friends. It can’t be clearer than that.
In a world full of “prosperity gospels”, false piety and pretend religion – used to justify all kinds of injustice – we may get mixed up sometimes about what pleases God.
Let’s really open our hearts to Isaiah’s message and try to rid our own lives of any pretense about these things.
Let’s confront such hypocrisy when we see it used to subtly oppress rather than to lift up others.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed.
Perhaps we might spend sometime today thinking about that “wound” we need healed. Might there be some harbored prejudice, indifference, fear, or ignorance that distances us from others who are different, vulnerable, or in need?
Isaiah cautions that until that wound is healed, we will never hear God’s true answer to our prayers.
Poetry: from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
Then said a rich man, “Speak to us of Giving”.
And he answered: “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 overprudent 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, 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 men 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 free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.
Music: Respond – Collin Campbell (Lyrics below)
Oh how long will you cry out And never truly seek my face You come to me with heavy hearts But you ignore what makes mine break
I see your thoughts, I hear your words And I have watched you as you’ve prayed I’ve told you my desires But you don’t follow all the way
Children, I’m crying out Break the chains Let the oppressed go free Empty yourselves to those in need Be my hands Be my feet What you do unto them You do unto Me
Every day you lift your voice And await my swift response But I see only what’s inside And it’s (what i see on the inside) an offering I don’t want
Children, I’m crying out Break the chains Let the oppressed go free Empty yourselves to those in need Be my hands Be my feet What you do unto them You do unto Me
Then your Salvation will come like the dawn And my glory will be your shield When you call on My name I will not turn away I am Your God And I am here And your light it will shine from the dark You will be like a free flowing stream And when you call on My name I will not turn away I am your God And I am here
Today, in Mercy, Paul gives us one of his most heartfelt and beautiful passages, and Jesus offers us a puzzling parable about the kingdom.
Paul’s exhortation to sincere holiness is a passage that warrants frequent reading. At any given point in our lives, one or another of its encouragements will seem to ring profoundly true with our circumstances.
One of the lines that I particularly cherish goes like this in the old Douay-Rheims version, which is where I first encountered it as a young girl:
Love one another with fraternal charity: with honor preventing one another.
The bolded phrase fascinated me. I didn’t understand what it meant. From what were we to prevent one another?
It was not until I came to the convent that I begin to discern the power of this verse. At the time (during the Dark Ages, of course), the Sisters lived under the 1952 Constitutions of the Sisters of Mercy, an adaptation of the ancient Rule of St. Augustine. As postulants, we each received a 4×6, 128 page copy of the Rule. In direct and intentional language, it set the frame for our whole lives.
I nearly memorized it, especially Chapter 14 on Union and Charity. Right in the middle of the Chapter, I found this precious line:
They (the Sisters) shall sincerely respect one another. The young shall reverence the old and all shall unceasingly try in true humility to promote constant mutual cordiality and deference, “with honor preventing one another”.
Sister Inez, our dear early instructor, explained that this meant to anticipate the needs of our beloved sisters, especially the elderly; to do for them what might be difficult for them before they had to ask. In other words, to prevent their need. She said that this anticipatory charity should mark our service toward everyone, especially the poor, sick and ignorant whom we would vow to serve.
The more all of us can live together with this mutual love and respect, the closer we come to the kingdom of God, to the banquet table described in today’s Gospel. Jesus came to gather us all around this table. Pity on those who resist his invitation because their lives are entangled in self-interested endeavors. Their places are taken by “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” and all those on the margins of society.
As we join our sisters and brothers at the banquet of life, may we love and serve one another sincerely, always with honor preventing one another.
Music: a little motion mantra this morning. Maybe you might want to get up outta’ that chair and join in🤗
Lavish Mercy 