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Posts Tagged ‘Humility’

Pondering What’s Left Unsaid

Posted in Lent, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

April 6, 2025 Readings All in One Place:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040625-YearC.cfm

Readings in the context of each Bible book:

  1. Isaiah 43:16-21
  2. Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
  3. Philippians 3:8-14
  4. John 8:1-11

What I’m saying (about the readings and beyond) this week:

I’d be a hypocrite if I wrote here as if the words of the epistle – any of them — could be my own. If there’s one thing it seems like I can never do, it’s “[forget] what lies behind [and strain] forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13).

So the approach I decided to take for this week is to focus on one passage. Meanwhile, the journaling prompts I responded to this morning me to consider my relationships. Wilderness asked me to return to the roots of what distorts my ability to reflect God. It prompted me to consider how those roots affect my relationships.

I responded that when I’m paralyzed and silenced by fear, I don’t give others the opportunity to receive grace from what I might contribute — regardless of whether my contribution is flawless. God is present in all circumstances, though two things are often true. The first is that God’s presence can be hard to recognize in the most painful circumstances. The second is that even if we recognize God in such circumstances, what we recognize may not take the form we’d like it to. We may not experience it in the way we’d like to.

When I’m paralyzed and silenced by fear, I also feel ashamed hypocritical, and frustrated by my invisible bindings, frustrated at not making myself seen and heard. I regret. Then I take my feelings out on the people around me, and the crack in the mirror through which I am meant to reflect gets God’s wider and longer.

What stands out to me from this week’s readings:

What stands out to me from this week’s readings is the gospel passage. What stands out to me within that passage is how little Jesus says to the woman who faces being stoned for being caught in adultery. I also notice how little the woman says to Jesus.

We also aren’t told whether Jesus knows that what the accusers say is true. We aren’t told that Jesus tells the woman he doesn’t condemn her because he knows she’ll heed his exhortation: “Go, and from now on do not sin any more” [sic] (John 8:11).

And yet we’re told elsewhere in Scripture Jesus knows things about people without those people revealing those things. The encounter with the woman at the well comes to mind as described in John 4:1-42. She tells everyone about him because, as she says, he “told [her] everything [she] [has] done (John 4:29). As is the case with the woman facing stoning, the text doesn’t tell us whether she ever went back to her previous life. Similarly, in the encounter in which Jesus promises to stay with the tax collector Zacchaeus, we don’t learn whether the tax collector keeps the promises he makes in public after he encounters Jesus (Luke 19:5).

But as I’ve written on this blog before, I heard somewhere that when a name is handed down through Scripture, it’s because the person was well-known to early Christians.

Fewer women are named in Scripture than men. But maybe the fact that the stories of the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery have been handed down means that these women were well known within the Christian community.

Or maybe we have their stories, though not their names or more about what happened before or after these encounters because the primary lessons we’re meant to take from them aren’t meant to be based on what they do.

The story of the would-be stoning is as much about the men who threaten to inflict the punishment as it is about the woman who would have received it. After all, the passage tells us the authorities bring the women to Jesus because they want to “test him” (John 8:6). He takes this test as an opportunity to teach them about mercy.

The encounter takes me think of Luke 6: 41-42:

“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.”

It also calls to mind a line from the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The key to not being condemned is not to condemn others. Even as I repeat this familiar message, it makes me ask questions:

  • How many cries for justice reveal not only the injustice that’s being called out but also the injustices committed by the person or people whose sense of justice has been violated?
  • How can I ask God for justice without condemning the person or people who participate in injustice?
  • How can I treat myself and others with compassion and humility without making excuses for the harm my choices and the choices of others may cause?

The limited instruction and the few words this passage contains are both an answer to this question and not very much of one. Maybe passages like this invite us to wrestle with the questions, to answer them as best we can and apply the answers as best we can to the situations we encounter. When, whether in the midst of reaching those answers or later on, we decide they’re unsatisfying, maybe recognizing our limitations and our dependence on God’s grace is all we can do.

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

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help me to offer to others what I’d like to receive from you — forgiveness, understanding, and empathy. Amen

Works cited:

Garrett, Sr. Josephine. Wilderness Within. Kindle version, e-book ed., Ave Maria Press, 2024, A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation, Accessed 23 Feb. 2025.

“Fifth Sunday of Lent Year C— Lectionary: 36.” Daily Readings, Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, 2nd typical ed, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2025, https://bible.https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040625-YearC.cfm.

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Humility and Justice Go Hand in Hand

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on October 1, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Austin Kehmeier on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Ezekiel 18:25–28 
  2. Psalm 25:4–5, 6–7, 8–9
  3. Philippians 2:1–11
  4. Matthew 21:28–32

What this week’s readings say to me:

The third reading says the following:

. . . humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also for those of others.

Philippians 2:3

I think this clause ties together this week’s readings. It takes humility to trust and to be in harmony with others and God and to be at peace when situations don’t go the way I want them to. So far, I’m sorry to say, I don’t seem to have given the virtue of humility the upper hand in my life.

The first reading tells me that if I did, I wouldn’t complain to God that what happens to me is unfair. My vision doesn’t have the expanse that God’s vision does, so who am I to make a judgment about what someone else deserves and what I deserve. When I cooperate with God, God lives in me and works through me. When I don’t, the Holy Spirit has to carve an alternate path within and around me. And even when I cooperate, I do so only with the help of the Holy Spirit. I wouldn’t be alive without the Spirit, and so I don’t deserve anything.

I don’t say this to be negative and self-effacing. Another way to frame this sentiment would be to say that there is nothing that I alone am entitled to. I have dignity because I live, and I live because of God. So does every other living thing. Every living thing lives because God’s nature is relationship, and relationship requires more than one. That’s why I’m thinking that I don’t deserve anything. I may or may not be prevented from receiving something good by one factor or another. Sometimes that factor is me; sometimes it isn’t, and my perception of what would be good for me is often distorted and is always limited. Given this distortion and limitation, how can I say what I or anyone else deserves?

One part of the Good News is that God doesn’t operate in terms of what’s deserved. I didn’t need to deserve to live before I came into being. And if I humble myself, God doesn’t let any negative consequences that may spring from my actions or anyone else’s to destroy me. Instead, if I ask Him and accept the crosses that will come with the answer, He’ll show me how to turn unpleasant or even painful consequences into something positive — in other words — in other words something that cooperates with His will, Hs work. As the psalm puts it, He guides the humble to justice / and teaches the humble his way (Psalm 25:9).

Another part of the Good News is that, while God wants us to know that making room for Him in our lives means humbling ourselves, he doesn’t ask us to do it alone. He does it with us. As Philippians tells me:

Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.

2:6-11

The Gospel reading offers a lesson in contrasts to teach me how to live with an attitude of humility. It teaches me that to live with an attitude of humility means to understand that no group I belong to and nothing about my past determines whether God works in my life and whether that life reflects God. It’s humility that makes room for God in my life. So if I keep returning to humility, eventually when death puts its fingers on me, its grip won’t be able to contain the truth and power of who I am in God. For me, this image of the fingers and the grip unable to stay closed is one way of thinking about eternal life. I saw a quote on the Hallow app today that gave me another way of thinking about eternal life. The quote advises me to:

Begin now to be what you will be hereafter.

St. Jerome.

Lord, help me to remember that intentions and plans mean nothing and do nothing if they aren’t put into action — and not just in the future but now. After all, though I can’t understand how, for You, everything is happening now. Help me to live in union with You and Your other children, not just some time today but at this moment and in the next. Amen.

Works cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 1 October 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.182, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 21 Sep. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

St. Jerome. “Begin now to be what you will be hereafter.” 30 Sep. 2023, https://hallow.com/daily-quote/2023-09-30/.

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Another Source of Faith’s Power Is Humility

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on August 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

This week’s readings:

Photos by Lulu Rutledge
  1. Isaiah 22:19–23
  2. Psalm 138:1–2, 2–3, 6, 8
  3. Romans 11:33–36
  4. Matthew 16:18

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings say to me that the power of faith comes not only from perseverance, as I was reminded last week, but also from humility. A person in with a humble mindset is able to trust even when he or she doesn’t understand a situation. Trust isn’t rooted in knowing all the details. It’s rooted in hope, and not speaking and acting on behalf of oneself but on behalf of God. Not speaking and acting on behalf of God as if we have God’s perspective — more like making room in and around us for God to speak and act through us, for it is God who “builds up strength within” us — if we allow the construction (Psalm 138:3). “For from him and through him and for him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). The “servant” in the reading from Isaiah understands this (Isa. 22:20). His understanding of this must be why God gives the trappings and responsibilities of authority to him, after apparently having removed it from someone people recognized as a leader (22:21-22)

From what I understand about Jewish culture when Jesus walked the earth, the family, friends, and community of the man eventually called Peter wouldn’t have seen spiritual leader material in him. Before Jesus called him, he wasn’t studying with a rabbi. He must not have been considered a skilled enough student to do that. He was working in his earthly father’s business. And yet, the Holy Spirit gives Peter the heart knowledge that Jesus is the Christ and gives him the grace, the humility, to acknowledge who Jesus is.

Outside of the grace of humility, he can’t acknowledge needing a Messiah — the Messiah — knowing him, or trusting in him. When Peter doesn’t have room for the gift of humility because his fear and/or pride crowds it out, Jesus doesn’t refer to him as “the rock on which [He] builds [His] church” (Matt. 16:18). Instead, Jesus tells Satan to “get behind” Him (16:23). At these times, he knows Peter is relying on his own mind to make sense of the world around him — not God’s — as the Holy Spirit allows him to do when his fear and pride don’t get in the Spirit’s way.

When he doesn’t start to think that his fear is more powerful is than God is, he not only can recognize Jesus as the Christ, but also he can walk on water, and he can share the message of Jesus’s ministry and his resurrection despite the risk to his earthly life, a life that he will eventually hand over as a result of the mission that Jesus gives him. It’s a mission that, thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit in him and his spiritual siblings and descendants, we can be bound together by what gives life and freed from what doesn’t.

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

While this week’s readings spoke to me about humility as another fuel for faith, for the ability to recognize Christ, along with perseverance, Mary Margaret Schroeder invites us to explore how each of us recognizes Christ personally. She invites us to recognize Christ in our everyday experiences rather than by relying only on knowledge and ways of talking about that knowledge that have been handed down to us.

Beyond this week’s readings:

So who do I say Christ is:

  • the ultimate storyteller, the hero of that story, and the author of my story within that master story.
  • the One who walks ahead of me, beside me, stands behind me, and lives within me.
  • the One who carries me
  • The experience I have when I read a book and
    • relate to what we find there — pain, joy, fear, and every mixture of emotion
    • don’t relate to what I read, but what I read makes me appreciate what I have
    • long for the friendship, love, transformation, and growth I find there
  • the experience of driving alone in my neighborhood — not in a car, but in my wheelchair — and I feel the sun warming my neck, back, and shoulders. I feel the breeze, too, and I see roses blooming in front of my neighbors’ houses. Flowers spill over the brick retaining walls between the sidewalks and the streets.
  • the experience of my family and my neighbors throwing a surprise party for my birthday
  • the experience of wanting to say something that, at best, won’t help a situation, and might make it worse and actually succeeding in not saying it.
  • the experience of seeing a task through rather than putting it off for another day and instead playing games on my phone
  • the experience of not pretending to be somebody someone other than God wants me to be
  • The relief of being able to acknowledge to myself and God that I’m not the person God plans to love me into becoming, and yet experiencing that God loves me anyway

Now I have this list. Maybe I’ll revisit these memories when God feels distant. Maybe I’ll think of things to add to this list over time. Help me, Lord, Amen.

Who is Christ to you, personally? Maybe you’d like to journal or to pray about this yourself. Share your thoughts here, if you’d like.

Work cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 27 August 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.181, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 8 Aug. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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Sharing in God’s Vision Requires Perseverance and Humility but Reaps Eternal Rewards

Posted in Reflections on Scripture, Who Am I in God, Who is God, tagged , , , , , , on July 2, 2023| 1 Comment »

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
This picture was one of the results when I searched Unsplash.com for “God’s-Eye View.”

This week’s readings:

  1. 2 Kings 4:8–11, 14–16a
  2. Psalm 89:2–3, 16–17, 18–19
  3. Romans 6:3–4, 8–11
  4. Matthew 10:37–42

I’d say this week’s readings are about how seeing the world through God’s eyes affects a person’s outlook and behavior. They’re also about how seeing this way reaps rewards, though often not one’s that come quickly or easily.

It seems a reward for virtue hasn’t come quickly or easily for the woman in the Old Testament reading. She’s promised a gift that she must worry she won’t receive —a son. The passage tells me “her husband is getting on in years,” and the couple doesn’t have a son yet, so there’s reason to doubt that would change as the husband ages (2 Kings 4:14). And not having a son could mean loss of financial security and social standing for the wife as she gets older, since, it seems, her husband is considerably older than she is. If he dies before she does, and she doesn’t have a son, she won’t have a home or support unless another male relative takes her in or she remarries.

The woman in the story isn’t going to be facing this situation though. Because of the hospitality she shows Elisha, he promises her that “by the same time next year, [she’ll] have a son” (2 Kings 4:16). The next verse reveals the woman’s life changes as Elisha has promised it will , but I think the fact that the reading ends before the prophecy comes true provides a lesson, which is that we can take Elisha at his word because word comes from God. The further message of the passage is that the woman receives her gift from God because she has supported God’s work in recognizing Elisha’s holiness and in offering him hospitality on account of it. In other words, good things happen to people who see the world through the eyes of God and respond to the needs that this way of seeing reveals to them.

This week’s psalm sends a similar message with the following words:

Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, old LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.

Psalm 89: 16-17

The thing is, if a person doesn’t see through God’s eyes, someone “exalted” through God’s justice may not look “raise[d] on high; elevate[d], as the New World College Dictionary defines “exalted.” After all, Jesus was exalted by God’s justice and yet he grew up in circumstances that were humble, to say the least, and he worked hard, traveling long distances on foot. Then he was subjected to an agonizing death. Furthermore, relatively few people were physical witnesses to the signifiers of his exaltation, the resurrection and the ascension. Not even Paul witnessed these events in the way that people who walked with Jesus while he was alive did. And yet Jesus allowed him to see with God’s eyes and to write:

Brothers and sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

Romans 6: 3-4

I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t feel like I’m living in “newness of life” or that I’m going to, so I don’t feel like the people described in the psalm as “rejoicing all the day at [the] name” of God (Romans 6:4). I’ve heard some believers say that the times I least feel like doing this are the times I most need to do it anyway. Come to think of it, a lot of activities and mindsets feel like less of a struggle to me — writing I’m thinking of you here—when I make myself do them even when I don’t feel like it. I suppose this approach to life builds perseverance and resilience. Maybe being intentional about offering gratitude and praise would remind me that God has a broader view of life than I do. God sees which path is best. I can’t on my own, but sometimes, with God’s help, I can. Yet even in situations where the best path seems clear, I need to allow that God sees and knows things I don’t and can’t.

The reality that I’m limited in ways God is why I need God’s help to have healthy relationships. What’s best for relationships and the people in them isn’t always what’s preferred by the people involved. However, when I don’t love God first so that I can see my relationships through God’s eyes, and love the people as God loves them, I distort who the people are. I turned them Into idols. To do so is to give all of us less than we deserve, which is to be seen and treated like the unique reflection of God that each of us is.

Lord, help me to see the world around me as You see it so that I can recognize what reflects You in myself and others and nurture it. Plans whatever is in me and others that doesn’t reflect You, and help me to trust that surrendering to Your vision and Your cleansing will result in an exultation that surpasses anything this world can offer or imagine. Amen.

Work cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm

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Timing Makes a Difference in Where We Follow Jesus

Posted in Reflections on Scripture, Social Justice, Who Am I in God, Who is God, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  • Exodus 19:2–6a
  • Psalm 100:1–2, 3, 5
  • Romans 5:6–11
  • Mark 1:15

When I read the first reading, the Old Testament reading, I thought, It’s easy to zero in on the last sentence of the passage: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (The New American Bible, 2001 Edition, Exod. 19:6). It seems we humans are naturally tempted to put ourselves in God’s “in crowd” and to assume that others who aren’t part of our group are not a part of that “in crowd.”

But Isaiah, sacred scripture to both Christian and Jewish people, says that “The Servant of the Lord” is “a light to the nations,” not to just one group or one nation” (The New American Bible, 2001 Edition, 42:6a). And the second-to-last sentence of this week’s Old Testament reading gives me a different way of thinking about who belongs to God than Exodus 19:6a does. “If you hearken to my voice,” it says, “and keep my covenant, you shall be my possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine (The New American Bible, 2001 Edition, Exod. 19:5). What matters to God is that we “hearken to [the Lord’s] voice,” that we resolve again and again to do what that voice asks of us, to share it, and so offer back to God what God has given to us.

When our response to God falls short of what’s best, God is there to renew the covenant by reminding us of what He has done and inviting us to reenter into the covenant with Him. He has never abandoned it; it is we who have done that, not allowing God to possess us. He doesn’t prevent us from wriggling out of His embrace when we find it uncomfortable, even though “all the earth is [His],” and “[h]is kindness endures forever,/ and his faithfulness to all generations” (The New American Bible, 2001 Edition, Psalm 100:5). God wants everyone to enter the Divine flock, so much so that “Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly” (The New American Bible, 2001 Edition, Romans 5:6).

Considering that He went so far as to die, in the words of Romans “for the ungodly,” His instruction to His disciples “not to go into pagan territory” seems incongruous (Matt.10:5). It seems even more confusing when we recall that Jesus praised that faith of a Roman centurion and “stated that, in heaven, many Gentiles will dine together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Matt. 8: 10; qtd. in Newman). (Check out the source I just linked to. It gives great background on Jewish-Gentile relations in biblical times and what the New Testament says about Jesus’ perspective on Jewish-Gentile interactions. Furthermore, after the resurrection, a disciple and apostle—Paul—discerned that he was called to do the opposite of Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 10.5. (See Galatians 2:7.)

The contrast between Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 10:5 and the inclusion of Gentiles in His teaching on other occasions, as well as Paul’s ministry to non-Jewish people, reminds me that who, what, when, why, and how are key questions to ask when seeking to do God’s will and to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. The mission of each follower of Christ and each person of goodwill has certain things in common. And yet, each person’s vocation is different in some ways than the calling anyone else receives. In addition, what we shouldn’t do in one moment may be something that we should do at a different time. These lessons bring to mind Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, the verses that, in the King James Version, start with, “to every thing, there is a season . . . “The translation I usually turn to begins these verses with “There is an appointed time for everything (Ecc. 3:1-8, The New American Bible Revised Edition).

So as I conclude my time sitting with this week’s readings for now, I’m reminded that God’s timing isn’t my timing, and my timing may not coincide with God’s.

Lord, help me to get out of my own way. Help me not to get in the way of Your work, the work of giving all of Yourself, the work of true love. Help me to remember that when I don’t get in Your way, when I instead imitate You in word and deed, I’ll be on the path of growth and of helping others grow, as this week’s readings remind me that God wants me to do by allowing Him to guide and to care for me. Amen.

Works cited

The Bible. King James Version, Bible Gateway, n.d. Accessed 13 June 2023, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%203&version=KJV.

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

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm

Newman, John. “Jesus and the Gentiles.” New Hope Community Development of Acadiana, 21 Sept. 2020, http://newhopelafayette.org/jesusandthegentiles/.

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The Fifth and Sixth Stations: Persevering through Pain

Posted in Prayer, Reflections on Scripture, Way of the Cross, tagged , , , , , , , on March 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

This post is a continuation of my Lenten reflections on the Scriptural Stations of the Cross. The station titles and scripture and verse citations, except where otherwise noted, are published on USCCB.org.

Photo by Francesco Alberti on Unsplash

Fifth Station: Jesus is Judged by Pilate

(Mark 15: 1-5, 15 [John 18:38 and Romans 8:31 — my insertions])

Jesus, as I read this passage, I imagine Pilate being focused on whether You seek power in the way that Pilate understands it. The power that Pilate is concerned about is a power that would come from an ambition to rule in Your place.

When You “You say so” to Pilate’s question about whether You are “the king of the Jews,” I imagine Pilate being reassured that You were no threat to his own power (Mark 15:2-3). He doesn’t see how You being “born . . . to testify to the truth” is a threat to his own power (John 18:38). He hasn’t been challenged by Your teachings as the Jewish authorities have. I imagine he hasn’t sought the true peace that comes from pursuing truth. He seeks only the appearance of peace that consists of making and keeping allies that suit different purposes at different times. This pseudo-peace concerns itself only with self-preservation. I imagine Pilate has this very limited perspective, and that’s why he reminds You of “how many things” the Sanhedrin accuse You of (Mark 15:4) I him.

But Jesus, You didn’t come to save yourself. You came to save creation. You are not concerned with others’ perception of you, except when that perception aligns with how God sees you. For You, the only approval that matters is approval given based on truth.

Jesus, help me to recognize the power of truth and to seek and find lasting peace that comes from its power. Help me to trust that You are embodied Truth and that because You are for me no one and nothing can be against me when I rest in You. Amen. (See Rom. 8:31)

Photo by Samuel Lopes on Unsplash

Sixth Station: Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns

(John 19: 1-3)

Jesus, open my mind and heart to the areas of my life in which I need to put up sturdier guardrails for myself. May I base my guardrails on the ones You have established for me — Your teachings and the Commandments by which you lived. Help me to remember that good can come from discipline, even though, when I first subject myself to it, it is uncomfortable. Sometimes, when I’m uncomfortable, I find strength not to flee from discomfort in remember that you endured not just discomfort but agonizing pain and that you gave the same Spirit to me that you possessed when you endured being scourged and crowned with thorns. The same Spirit that made you able to bear such pain and more enables me to face trials without being defeated in the long run — that is, if I trust in the Spirit and follow where it leads.

Holy Spirit, help me see the present moment clearly instead of letting regrets whip me. Show me how to use those regrets to make better choices.

Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, help me not to make daydreams and entertainments into idols. Daydreams and entertainments are gifts of creativity. They can point me to You and to Your will for my life, but I need help to remember that pointing to You is not the same as being You. Help me to find rest and inspiration in creativity without being blinded or numbed by it. Help me to remember that You are the source of all creativity and beauty and to thank you for these gifts. Remind me that with You, I can embrace challenges and hardships. I can rest in daydreams and entertainments without hiding in them. I don’t have to use daydreams and entertainments to avoid hardships out of fear they are stronger than we are together. They are not stronger than we are together, and I can’t avoid hardships anyway. I can only delay facing them. Sometimes I can’t even delay facing them despite all the idols I try to put between me and them.

May I praise what You praise, and may my praise be sincere and thoughtful. Teach me to trust in the power that comes from You rather than in prestige and possessions. Amen.

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

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm

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Leave Room at the Table

Posted in Prayer, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , on August 28, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

In preparation for this week’s post, I’ve been pondering what Luke 14: 1 and Luke 14: 7-14 have to say to me. Luke 14:1 says that Jesus was invited to dinner at the home of a well-known religious leader, and while he was there, everyone else invited was “observing him carefully.”

Luke 14:1 reminds me to strive to focus on what God is asking me to do and to look to others in relation to what situations are calling me to do. It reminds me of that warning against “notic[ing] the splinter in [my] brother’s eye but . . .not perceiv[ing] the plank in [my] own” (Matt. 7:3). Second, it a reminder to be careful about drawing conclusions about people based on their appearance and what they do. My conclusions may not be accurate. Third, it reminds me that I need to ask for God’s help to make my heart and soul match the positive image I would like to project. Fourth, it reminds me to ask God for the grace not to be concerned about appearances for reasons that don’t demonstrate a love for myself, for others, and for God that reflects God’s love for us..

Luke 14:7-14 gives me, you, and the other guests invited to the dinner a parable about not presenting ourselves as if we deserve the highest honors. If we present ourselves this way, the parable tells us, we are likely to be perceived as arrogant and presumptuous. On the other hand, if we honor others, we’ll be perceived as humble and will be honored by others.

Pride makes a social circle small. In its most extreme form, pride would make room for only one person—the one consumed with pride—while humility widens a social circle, making room for those who may be different than we are and those whom we would have otherwise ignored or forgotten.

If I’m humble, I recognize that I need God and the gifts God has given me in creation and in other people, and I don’t take those gifts for granted. I recognize that I can do nothing on my own, without God, God’s other children, and God’s creation. This is not to say that I am nothing. I am — and you are — made in the image of God. I am — and you are — God’s coworkers and partners in the world. This makes each of us immeasurably important.

But if I’m humble, I don’t invite God in only once it seems I’ve exhausted all other sources of help. I make room for God, even when life seems to be running smoothly. I recognize my own flaws in the flaws I see in others and ask God to help me grow in grace while I pray for others to grow in grace as well and to receive the help they need. I ask God to help me see how I can help and to give me the courage to take action to help.

How often do I live up to the images of humility I’ve just offered? Not nearly often enough. I want to change that. God, give me the grace to get out of my own way and to open more and more to Your way — the way that would expand my embrace and would fill me with hope and courage. Amen.

Work cited

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

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