Tag: Pope Francis

The Jealousy of God

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, joy, MercyLeave a comment

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

June 20, 2019

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Today, in Mercy, we continue to read from Paul’s ardent letter to the Corinthians.

2 Cor 11_2

Second Corinthians gives us Paul, preaching at his passionate height. Paul loves the Corinthian community. I think the city’s personality was a good bit like his own. 

A dynamic cosmopolitan center, Corinth is situated on the southern side of an isthmus between two gulfs. This geography predisposed the site to become an active shipping center, highly populated with merchants and travelers from all over the known world.  

An informative article on preachingsource.com quotes Leon Morris, noted New Testament scholar, in describing the city as “intellectually alert, materially prosperous, and morally corrupt.”

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This population would present just the kind of challenge to motivate Paul. His intellectual acuity, familiarity with prosperity, and repented moral challenges made him the perfect evangelist for this morally hungry community.

And he is highly successful in giving them the Gospel.

It is after he departs to continue the mission elsewhere that problems arise. New preachers come behind him, distorting the core message of the Cross and Resurrection. In today’s letter, Paul begs his beloved community not too be wooed by this diluted preaching.

Today’s Church is not immune from such dilution. Some preachers bend the Holy Word to fit their own agendas. We have, for example, the errancy of the “prosperity gospel”, the divisiveness of strident tradionalism, and the distortions of a flawed fundamentalism which equates faith with nationalism, ethnic supremacy, and economic domination.

When Paul speaks of loving the Corinthian community with the “jealousy” of God, he fore-echoes Pope Francis in his first Apostolic Exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium”, (The Joy of the Gospel). Here are a few compelling excerpts for our prayer today as we consider what the Gospel means to us:

  • “The Gospel, radiant with the glory of Christ’s cross, constantly invites us to rejoice.”
  • “Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.”
  • “On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: ‘Jesus Christ loves you; he gave his life to save you; and now he is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.’”

Music: The Gospel – Ryan Stevenson

The Good, The True and The Beautiful

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Prayer, TruthLeave a comment

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

June 16, 2019

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Trinity

Today, in Mercy, we celebrate the feast of the Blessed Trinity, a mystery of our faith beyond full human comprehension. Clearly realizing this, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist religion said this:

Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man,
and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.

Still, as we pray, we have some limited conceptualization of this Divine Mystery. We reshape it into human terms we can relate to:

Father, Son, Spirit
Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier

These give us some insight into the heart of the Triune God, but only from the limits of our human perspective. It is a mystery so infinite that even in heaven we may not plumb its depths.

Many theologians and philosophers have tried to stretch our perspectives. The great Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar writes:

The One, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, these are
what we call the transcendental attributes of Being,
because they surpass all the limits of essences
and are coextensive with Being.

It may be helpful in our prayer to think of the Trinity in these terms- The Good, The True, and the Beautiful. These concepts, while we can experience them clearly in an individual or an object, far surpass that one particular presence or circumstance.

So it is with the nature of the Trinity. We perceive it simply in glimpses. Though Its totality far surpasses our comprehension, perhaps these glimpses are enough:
C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun
which you could never get from reading books on astronomy.
These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’
in the woods of our experience.

What does all this mean in our daily spirituality? How can we find a Trinitarian spirituality in our daily encounter with God? How can we find the “patches of Godlight”?

Pope Francis brings it down to our experience of family:

All of the love that God has in Himself,
all the beauty that God has in Himself,
all the truth that God has in Himself,
He gives to the family.

So, in the sincere love – given and received – of a family or community, we find the reflection of this immense mystery.

And St. Catherine of Siena confidently prays about this truth in this way:

You, Eternal Trinity, are my Creator,
and I am the work of Your hands,
and I know through the new creation
which You have given me in the blood of Your Son,
that You are enamored of the beauty of Your workmanship.

Music: Amazing Love – Billy Martin, Peggy Dequesnel, Steve Hall

Faithful Servant

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Courage, Faith, Love, Mercy, Prayer4 Comments

Thursday, August 30, 2018

     Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083018.cfm

Mt. 24_25 faithful servant

Today, in Mercy, Jesus describes the faithful and prudent servant – the one who has devotedly overseen the master’s holdings in his absence. This faithful servant will have administered according to the master’s own example, and not for a moment divert into his own pursuits and entertainments.

Paul, in our first reading, offers a sublime prayer of thanksgiving for such servants in Corinth:

I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus…
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, and by him you were called.

I am moved this morning to pray this prayer for our beloved Pope Francis, who is sorely tested by the sins and rivalries of the Church he cherishes. 

May God give our brother Francis the strength to lead according to Christ’s own example, keeping him strong and confident in God’s faithfulness. May each of us, too, shoulder our part in building up the Body of Christ in mutual love, mercy and justice.

Music: Great is Thy Faithfulness – sung by Chris Rice