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Archive for August, 2024

I Couldn’t Say It Better

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , on August 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

This isn’t me. I don’t have any pictures of me in action. This image was generated by WordPress AI.

Readings for September 1:

  1. Deuteronomy 4:1–2, 6–8
  2. Psalm 15:2–3, 3–4, 4–5
  3. James 1:17–18, 21b–22, 27
  4. Mark 7:1–8, 14–15, 21–23

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week, the theme of the passages is more apparent than it sometimes is. I’m tempted to express that theme using all kinds of clichés: “Don’t just talk the talk; walk the walk. Practice what you preach.

There. I just succumbed to cliché temptation. They’re clichés, and the second version doesn’t exactly include people like me, who use wheelchairs, but the non-cliché versions that bounced around in my head sounded unnecessarily stilted.

And whose word am I called to preach? Whose walk am I called to walk? Whose hands am I called to be? God’s.

This is one of those weeks in which each passage contains a verse or verses that popped out at me for encapsulating the central message for me. I don’t feel like I could convey that message in a more accessible way then these verses do. So this week, this section will feature them.

In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. . . . Observe them carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’

Deuteronomy 4:2 and 6

The one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

the refrain sung between verses during Mass that also functions a statement of theme for Psalm 15

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves . . . .
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James 1:22 and 27

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.

Isaiah 29:13 quoted in Mark 7:6-8

Beyond this week’s readings:

The refrain that is used with the September 1 psalm got me thinking about what it means to “do justice.” I got to thinking about this because I noticed some resistance in me as I read it. I think this resistance comes from my gut reaction to the word “justice. ” My initial reaction tends to associate it with revenge and punishment.

But when I give the word further thought, I’m reminded that justice means recognizing the negative consequences of an action, taking steps to prevent further negative consequences, and extending mercy. One part of extending mercy is seeking to heal the wounds that led to the injustice. Another part is recognizing that any of us could have suffered those wounds. If we haven’t, it’s only thanks to the grace of God and neighbor. We’re all in need of forgiveness and healing. Because I think many of us want forgiveness and healing and have received them from God and hopefully from our neighbors (though not always in the ways I want or expect, in both cases), we have mercy and healing to share with others. This sharing is an essential component of mercy.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

Hope, in the biblical context, doesn’t mean to stand still and quiet, but rather groaning, crying and actively striving for new life. Just as in childbirth, we go through a period of intense pain, but new life springs forth. It’s not enough for us to be listeners!

Susana Réfega, in her reflection on this week’s readings

This week’s prayer:

Our Father,
Who are in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day
our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,
but delivery us from evil. Amen

Work cited (but not linked to):

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. ” 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time — 1 Sept. 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.192, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 30 July 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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The Challenges and Graces that Come with Commitment

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections on Scripture, Who Am I in God, Who is God, tagged , , , , , on August 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for August 25:

  1. Joshua 24:1–2a, 15–17, 18b
  2. Psalm 34:2–3, 16–17, 18–19, 20–21
  3. Ephesians 5:2a, 25–32 or Ephesians 5:21–32
  4. John 6:60–69

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings speak to me about commitment. What makes commitment difficult? What’s worth committing to, and what does committing to something worth committing to look like?

The first reading asks me whether I want to commit to God or to something else that’s taking the place of God. It reminds me that when I commit to God, I’m committing to the Source of liberation, the Source of protection, and the Source of perseverance and growth. This Source is Someone worth committing to and imitating so I can be a channel for the qualities of God.

What does the psalm, the same one that’s been used for the past two weeks, have to say about commitment to God? It says that commitment to God means honoring God in word, spirit, and action. Living this way helps others have the faith to honor God in word, spirit, and action as well. This way of living also serves justice, even though serving the causes of justice is seldom easy. Yet a person who serves justice is never alone in his or her work. God always supports those who work for justice.

The choices for this week’s epistle characterize justice in terms of relationship. They compare the relationship between people and Christ to a relationship between a husband and wife.

Now I’m not married, so I’m not going to sit here and write about how Paul says husbands and wives should relate to each other. If I did, the sentences would sound too much like I’m telling married people what to do without knowing the circumstances in which they find themselves. I find that an unhelpful and ineffective way to help myself reflect on how to apply the Gospel message to my life or — God and readers willing — to help others do the same. If you want to read the advice that both of this week’s epistle choices have for husbands and wives, you can look them up here. As an unmarried person, I want to consider what the passage from Ephesians listed at the beginning of this post has to say about what committing to Christ and Christ’s commitment to us means for us.

The passage says to me that committing to Christ means caring for my body and treating it with dignity. My body has dignity and is deserving of care because it’s part of Christ’s mystical body, and it bears God’s image.

The same is true of everyone else’s body. Accordingly, the reading calls me to treat others in ways that reflect this reality. It invites me to do for others what will bring them to God, as Christ has done for me. It invites me to imitate Christ, even though doing so is hard, so hard we that we can sacrifice for others only with help of the Holy Spirit.

As if sacrifice weren’t challenging enough, so is believing in what’s difficult to see and what challenges our instincts. The prospect of it being necessary for eternal life to consume someone’s flesh and blood is instinctively revolting in many human cultures. Apparently, the culture of first century Judaism was no exception. I learned in church recently that consuming blood, a creature’s life force, was considered a pagan practice. This understanding puts the people’s reaction to Jesus’s teaching about the power of consuming His body and blood into perspective. Jesus would have understood as well as anyone the responses of those who were hearing Him.

So what does the fact that he doesn’t back down from the teaching when people object to it say? On this reading and with the bit of context I now have, the doubling down reminds me that committing to live with faith isn’t just about adhering to tradition and avoiding activities that don’t adhere to that tradition. Instead, it’s about being aware of who and what my actions serve, whether those actions are traditional or less so. Jesus’ teaching reminds me that God feeds us and never stops offering to do so.

The same cannot be said of anything else we might confuse with God. By reminding me of this spiritual truth, the Gospel passage circles back to the message of the Old Testament passage.

Beyond this week’s readings:

Do I have an unwavering commitment to serving God in how I relate to the people and use the resources around me? I wish I could say I did. I’m glad making a commitment isn’t a one-time event, an opportunity that appears once and then dissolves. I’m glad that I have opportunities moment by moment to recommit to serving God in the world around me as well as to believe in and receive the nourishment God offers me to power my recommitment.

This week’s prayer:

Thank You, Lord because, as Anna Robertson says, no matter how often each of us wavers in our commitments to what is good, You never waver in Your commitment to each of us.

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Divine Love Engages and Challenges the Senses

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Social Justice, tagged , , , , , , on August 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Thays Orrico on Unsplash

Readings for August 11:

  1. Proverbs 9:1–6
  2. Psalm 34:2–3, 4–5, 6–7 (and 9)
  3. Ephesians 5:15–20
  4. John 6:51–58

What this week’s readings say to me:

The first reading presents wisdom as a nurturing homemaker, someone who provides shelter and food. Perhaps the extended metaphor of the passage says something about how practical wisdom is necessary for meeting basic needs and how having basic needs met is necessary for a person to grow in “understanding” (Prov. 9:6).

This week’s psalm, the same as last week’s, continues to call us to recognize that God provides for our physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. God doesn’t run out all the means to provide for all of these needs. Ever.

Maybe because I focused on some of the psalm verses last week, the psalm refrain stands out to me more than the verses this week: “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord (Psalm 34:9). It invites us to use our physical senses — particularly taste and vision — to receive “the goodness of the Lord . . .” (Psalm 34:9).

Now there’s the old cliché “seeing is believing.” While it is cliché, it’s also often true for people. So it’s powerful to be able to see concrete signs of God’s goodness around us. How can the way each of us lives offer those concrete signs, not just by showing compassion, helping people see it, but by helping people experience it with their other senses.

Think what a powerful sense taste is. It’s inextricably linked to smell. Think of what emotions can be invoked by the taste and smell of a meal that reminds a person of a past special occasion. Without smell, it’s very difficult, if not impossible to taste. Think of how powerful it is to smell or taste something that you smelled or taste in the past not long before becoming sick. Given the power of these associations, the psalm refrain says to me that truly engaging with God and what God gives involves all the senses. This reality is why the celebration of the Eucharist and other sacraments engages all the senses.

This week’s epistle urges readers and listeners to engage all the senses as well and to be careful to engage all of them in the movement of the spirit, and the pursuit of wisdom, rather than dulling the senses with activities that make it more difficult for the spirit to move within and among us.

The Gospel passage reminds readers that Christ’s message engages all the senses, and in doing so, challenges them. To the crowds, he says that he’s bread, and that whoever eats this bread “will live forever” (John 6:51). The crowds see a man speaking to them. They were already wondering how this could be, and he was going to challenge them even further (John 6:52). He goes on to say that “the bread that [He] will give is [His] flesh for the life of the world and that “[w]hoever eats [His] flesh and drinks [His] blood remains in me and I in him” (John 6:51 and 56).

Christ had to give all of himself — body, blood, soul, and divinity, “for the life of the world” and for every individual in the world who will receive that life (Jon 6:56). Receiving that life in its fullness will involve all the physical senses — taste, touch, sight, and hearing — of individuals open to receiving it. It will also engage the mind and the spirit. It will challenge all of these by inviting them to enter into what self-preservation instincts tell us to run away from.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

Sarah Hart’s reflection on this week’s readings looks at different ways to “remain in” Christ, as the Gospel passage asks us to do, with none of the ways of doing so being separate from each other or less essential than another (John 6:56).

Beyond this week’s readings:

Thinking about how important smell is for taste and how important engaging all the senses is to relationship with God and others reminds me of a phrase from last week’s excerpt from Ephesians about being “imitators of God,” liv[ing] in love” (Eph. 5:1-2). This way of living that Christ modeled is described as making oneself a “sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma” (Eph. 5:2).

This week’s prayer:

Lord, grant me the grace of courage to remain in You as You remain in the Father. Help me not to turn away when You challenge me with what You offer and with Your vision for the Kingdom of God. Amen (John 6:56-58).

Work cited:

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. ” 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time — 18 Aug. 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.192, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 30 July 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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To Receive God’s Provision and Guidance, Notice and Respond to it.

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Who Am I in God, Who is God, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for August 11:

  1. 1 Kings 19:4–8
  2. Psalm 34:2–3, 4–5, 6–7, 8–9
  3. Ephesians 4:30—5:2
  4. John 6:41–51

What this week’s readings say to me:

I think I’ll use a very current term to distill what the first reading says to me this time. It’s about the importance of self-care. When the passage begins, it seems like Elijah is physically and spiritually depleted. He asks God to end his life because he’s “no better” than anyone who came before him. (1Kings 19:4). I imagine him thanking that realizing this must mean he’s failed at the mission God has given him. After all, how can someone who’s no better than anyone who came before him be an effective prophet?

The situation is a reminder that God is at work even when we’re depleted. Sometimes, we’re most open to God working within and around us precisely when we feel we have nothing left to give. If we turn to God at no other time, many of us do so when we can’t see anywhere else to turn. I acknowledge this truth of human experience not to say that God wants us to be depleted. The Old Testament passage gives evidence to the contrary.

God knows that we need food, drink, rest, and to feel cared about to do our work and to be whole. God usually doesn’t force what we need upon us. Instead, God offers it, and it’s up to us to receive it. It was up to Elijah to acknowledge to God that he felt defeated and depleted, to rest, and then to take the nourishment that God offered.

The psalm reinforces that God provides for those who are open to receiving what God offers and to doing God’s work. It also reinforces the role the speaker has in finding what he needs, but it does so in a different way than the Old Testament passage does. The speaker says, “I will bless the Lord at all times” (Psalm 34: 2).

I had a gut reaction to this line, especially because it’s the first one included in this week’s psalm reading. I thought, “I don’t, and I won’t because there’s a lot that happens in the world that doesn’t seem like the will of a loving God, and I don’t understand why God, who I choose to believe is love, would allow these things to happen.

Thankfully, because I believe God is love, I also believe that a lot of things that happen grieve God. And I believe that sharing my grief and anger at what happens around me built as much of a connection to God is giving praise for God’s providence does.

My gut reaction also begins to feel different when I read later in this week’s psalm excerpt that the speaker “sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:5). Maybe having a record and so being able to remind himself of the ways the Lord “answered [him] and delivered [him] from all [his] fears is the reason [“God’s] praise shall be ever in [his] mouth” (Psalm 34: 2; 5).

It might be helpful to consider the ways each of us can keep a record of times we’ve felt we’ve had what we needed and were seen and heard. Keeping such a record in whatever way makes sense for each of us may give us strength in those times when we don’t feel we have what we need or when we don’t feel seen and heard.

Maybe keeping a record of those experiences of abundance and connection, of grace, will help us glorify the Holy Spirit rather than “griev[ing]” it (Eph. 4:30). Maybe this practice will help us avoid what the epistle is urging us to avoid and to embrace what the epistle is asking us to embrace. I find the excerpt’s message easy to hear but difficult to put into practice. Maybe keeping track of empowering memories is a way of experiencing God’s presence with us when we find ourselves in situations that feel less empowering.

In the Gospel passage, Jesus’ contemporaries are having trouble recognizing that He’s God in their midst and that learning from Him, imitating him, and taking His words to heart would feed them, giving them life, not only in that moment, but eternally. Listening to Him and receiving what He provides leads to God, and recognizing how God has guided and provided in the past makes God present among us in the current moment. It points to Christ.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

When we are called on to make sacred sacrifices in order to ‘live in love’ – it is not our very self – our created self- that we are losing. It is the assumptions and projections of who we should be, the expectations and external pressures of others laid onto us by others.

Kasha L. Sanor — in her reflection on this week’s readings

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help us to recognize and to receive You so we can be who we are in You and do what You place on our hearts to do. Amen

Work cited:

The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.

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Trusting God’s Path to True Peace and Freedom

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for August 4:

  1. Exodus 16:2–4, 12–15 
  2. Psalm 78:3–4, 23–24, 25, 54
  3. Ephesians 4:17, 20–24
  4. John 6:24–35

What this week’s readings say to me:

The path to true peace, joy, and freedom — which is to say the path to union with God — isn’t often the same as the path to comfort. The first path I mentioned will require setting off without knowing what the journey will involve or what the destination will be like. In other words, following the path to union with God will ask us to trust what lies beyond our wounds, fears, and desires.

The journey will remind us that listening only to our instinct for self-preservation has led us astray in the past. It has isolated us, keeping us from finding true peace, joy, and freedom together, which is the only way we can find these gifts. We can’t find them alone.

We’re relational creatures who find our deepest sense of meaning beyond ourselves and our experiences, even beyond the communities we build with each other. We find lasting peace, joy, and true freedom when we recognize that while it’s essential to acknowledge our experiences and communities, as well as our practical needs, there is Someone who promises to provide for all of our needs and more, and we’re able to live in this reality.

What someone else is sharing about this week’s readings:

“That feeling of holy discontent doesn’t mean that yesterday’s prayer didn’t work; it means that God is building a relationship of trust with you. Just like the Israelites’ physical hunger kept them looking to the heavens for manna, our spiritual hunger turns us toward God.”

Ariell Watson Simon, in her reflection on this week’s readings

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help me not to confuse comfort with true peace, joy, and freedom. Give me the faith and courage to trust you and to follow You when doing so feels most difficult so that I can find true peace, joy, and freedom. Amen.

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