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Posts Tagged ‘Love’

Faith, Generosity, and the Lessons of Sacrifice

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Social Justice, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for November 10th:

  1. 1 Kings 17:10–16
  2. Psalm 146:7, 8–9, 9–10
  3. Hebrews 9:24–28
  4. Mark 12:38–44

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings call us to:

  • Have hope, and be unafraid.
  • Share what you have.
  • Trust that when you give to God or give to others in God’s name, God will give back far more. You will receive more than what you gave.
  • Do your part, and when you do, give your best.
  • Be welcoming.
  • Be introspective.
  • Broaden your vision, and look beneath the surface of what’s around you.
  • Follow those who follow strive to live the practices described above.
  • Remember that only Christ — God incarnate — can live them perfectly.
  • Remember that Christ can help us do the same on the other side of death.

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

When I think of the messages from this week’s readings and the ways I just presented them, they seem wise. These messages read as reasonable lessons to live by.

But this week’s readings include uncomfortable, even disturbing details. I find myself wrestling with God about these details and the message their inclusion sends.

In the first reading, I notice Elijah asks a woman for the last bit of food she has. She doesn’t seem to be able to get the raw materials to make more meals once these materials are gone. She figures that she and her son will die once they’ve eaten all they have left.

Now I understand that the lesson is that they can give all they have left to Elijah. God will see their generosity and faith and will respond to it by providing for them. The same goes for the woman in the gospel passage who puts all the money she has into the treasury.

Maybe another teaching of these readings is that God is generous, even when people are less so. God is generous even when people forget God.

Maybe a third teaching is not to give for appearances’ sake only. Serve causes that are just by doing more than what is comfortable or convenient.

But I hesitate to suggest that God wants people to leave themselves none of the necessities for life. I do more than hesitate when I read the first reading and the gospel passage. If I’m honest, the examples these two readings set make me angry. These readings present a God who asks everything of God’s people.

And I suppose God does, giving everything back that the people can imagine and more. Christ did die for us. He died so that I, you, and whoever the ubiquitous “they” are could live forever with Him.

I don’t feel the need to pretend. Giving everything to God and in God’s name is a big ask. I can imagine the widows in both the Old Testament passage and Gospel passages experiencing anger before they gave. If not anger, they might have felt anxiety and doubt. They might have questioned whether they were acting with wisdom. As I imagine them wrestling with these emotions and then acting in spite of them, I’m reminded of a famous quote:

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

I think a modified version is true as well. Faith is not the absence of doubt or fear but acting in spite of the doubt and fear.

I think it’s valuable not to rush past the parts of these passages that trigger uncomfortable feelings. I believe it’s important to reflect on the “giv[ing] until it hurts.” It can be helpful not to skip to the parts in the passages that describe God giving in return. This can be helpful because we can’t fast-forward past the challenges in our own lives. But we can acknowledge them for what they are. And we can trust that God is with us as we navigate them.

Outside of these passages, we don’t know what the giving back is going to look like. Who will give us what we need? We don’t know what we’re going to go through before we receive or when the receiving is going to come.

I take comfort that most faith communities wouldn’t expect members to give until they had literally nothing left. Some ask this only when the members must choose between loyalty to a faith community and loyalty to another community. I’m not going to pretend like I’m comfortable with faith communities asking their members to make this choice. I’m also not going to pretend I’m comfortable with God asking people to make this choice.

I believe in a God who is personal and is the source of everything, including who each of us is. How can I betray the source of who I am, who each of us is?

Here’s a glimpse behind the curtain of this blog in case I haven’t made something clear before. I write most posts over the course of a week. After writing the previous paragraph, I went on about my day. Then, I remembered a verse. It says Jesus came so we could “have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). After he remembered this verse, I remembered how the passage from Hebrews 4 November 10th ends. It says:

Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.

Hebrews 9:28

Calling to mind these verses remind me that God doesn’t want suffering. God desires to save. It’s injustice that creates suffering, and sometimes standing against injustice means a person acting with justice suffers. Jen Frazer, OSB reflects on this perspective.

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

In the end what meaning should we take away from these readings? It is the very generosity of our two widows (in the first reading and in the Gospel) that highlights their social oppression. Even if the sacrifice is unjust, God who knows our hearts honors that sacrifice as the act of love that it is. God is on the side of the oppressed because they are in need of God’s protection.

Jen Frazer, OSB, in her reflection on the Mass readings for November 10th

This week’s prayer:

May I give for no other reasons than for love of God and neighbor. Help me to trust in Your presence wherever there is also injustice. Help me to experience that all things work “for good of those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). Amen.

Work cited (but Not Linked to)

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

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Grappling with How Scripture Says to Love God

Posted in Lent, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for November 3rd:

  1. Deuteronomy 6:2–6
  2. Psalm 18:2–3, 3–4, 47, 51
  3. Hebrews 7:23–28
  4. Mark 12:28b–34

What this week’s readings say to me:

The first reading reminds me:

  • to approach the world around me with humility. Remember that I don’t yet have the fullness of God’s vision or understanding.
  • that God’s vision wants only the prosperity and growth of God’s family. God’s instructions serve only these purposes. With this understanding, we receive the words of Moses to the people of Israel:
  • “[Y]ou shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:5-6).

The psalm features the perspective of someone permeated by the above instruction from Moses. The permeation spills into the person’s recollections and words. I imagine voicing the recollections helps them keep their power for the narrator.

The epistle for October 26th focused on Jesus’ humanity in his role as the perfect high priest. The epistle for November 3rd focuses on his divinity in his role as the perfect high priest. He can live Moses’ his teaching more fully than any other human being because of his divine nature. This nature also allows Him to continue living Moses’ teaching. He has conquered death because he is fully human and fully divine. A priest who isn’t fully human and fully divine can’t conquer death on his own.

Often, Gospel passages provide insight into Old Testament passages. However, the November 3rd Gospel passage simply reminds hearers and readers of the central message of the Old Testament passage. It urges hearers and readers to put that message into practice.

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

The commandment from Deuteronomy is beyond hard to live out. If I said “I lov[ed] God with all [my] heart, all [my] soul, and with all [my] strength [emphasis mine],” I’d be lying to myself, to you, and to the Lord (Deut. 6:5-6) .

First, the verse prompts me to think about what it means to love. I’ve often heard in churches that love is an action, not just a feeling. But I experience love as a feeling. It’s a feeling that’s a response to an action or years of actions, but a feeling, nonetheless. And it’s beyond hard to have that feeling for Someone I can’t see. Sure, I can use my mind to accept what I’ve been told about the Lord. I can also accept what I’ve been told the Lord does and has done for me. My heart, however, seems to have a difficult time letting the reality of it all sink in. I have a hard time experiencing it, and I’m a person who wants to experience intense feelings. I long for concrete experiences of God’s presence.

As for a soul, how does it love? By obeying and imitating God? As I consider this as a possible answer, I think of the verse that talks about the disciples being friends of Jesus rather than his slaves (John 15:16). They’re his friends because they know what he’s doing. He’s shared everything with them. They know Him intimately. They collaborate with Him because they want what He does, not because they’re afraid of Him.

When I think of loving with all my strength, I imagine hanging onto the edge of a cliff. I hang there until I have no energy left to hold on. I suppose God is the cliff. However, I can’t lose my grip on God unless I shove myself away from the ledge.

It seems impossible to love God with every last drop of energy, endurance, and maybe even blood. Yet Jesus did it. And I remember reading that “nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). I try to think of times in my life when what seemed impossible became possible. Nothing comes to mind right now. I can think of times when I did what was difficult, but difficult is different than impossible.

I wonder when faith softens impossible into difficult and when the impossible becoming possible is nothing less than a miracle. But then I suppose faith is a type of miracle too. Maybe it often goes unappreciated for the miracle it is.

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

Eilis McCulloh, HM reflects on how we can begin loving “the Lord your God with your whole being.”

This week’s prayer:

Lord, may we experience the grace of Your presence in our lives every day. May we recognize that You are the source of all that lives and all that provides. Help us to share everything with You and to receive everything you share with us. Help us to remember that love in all its forms begins with listening. It continues with discerning and is made authentic by responding to careful discernment with action. Amen.

Work cited:

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

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Sacred Readings and a Dictionary Bring Wisdom to Life

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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This week’s readings:

  1. Wisdom 7:7–11
  2. Psalm 90:12–13, 14–15, 16–17
  3. Hebrews 4:12–13
  4. Mark 10:17–30

What this week’s readings say to me:

The first reading shares characteristics with a love poem. Someone prays for a beloved one to come into his life. The prayer is answered. The one praying chooses the beloved over power. The beloved is more valuable to the one praying than jewels are. Compared to the beloved, gold might as well be dust, and silver is no better than mud. The beloved is more important to the one praying than health or physical attractiveness. Unlike the sun, the beloved’s brilliance never fades. The narrator chooses the beloved over all the visible things I mentioned before. However, the beloved brings all of the above with her.

Who is the beloved? Prudence, the passage says. This quality is personified as a woman in this week’s Old Testament passage. Merriam-Webster.com defines the quality as follows:

  1.  the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason
  2. sagacity or shrewdness in the management of affairs
  3. skill and good judgment in the use of resources
  4. caution or circumspection as to danger or risk

Breaking down this definition even further offers insight. Sagacity is the state of being sagacious. Miriam-Webster online defines sagacious as:

  1. of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment: discerning
  2. : caused by or indicating acute discernment

The same dictionary defines discernment as “the quality of being able to comprehend what is obscure”. It defines “obscure” as “dark, dim,” or “not readily understood or clearly expressed.”

One of the ways it defines “shrewd” is “given to wily and artful ways of dealing” and “wily” as “crafty.”

So to have wisdom in decision-making is not to rush the process. Wisdom slices through superficial concerns that cloud the process. To be open to wisdom is to be open to giving love, even though this Divine Love is difficult to understand and practice. Nonetheless, God loves wisdom, and wisdom loves God.

God sees the potential in each of us to be open to wisdom and love. God loves us for that potential. God loves us, too, in the midst of our struggle to be open to that potential.

The psalm prays for wisdom. It then offers a vision of what being open to that wisdom looks and feels like. Sometimes the experience of being open to wisdom isn’t easy. But the narrator suggests that a difficult experience is preferable if it helps him grow. He prefers it over having a pleasant experience that doesn’t contribute to growth.

The epistle uses sharp language to describe just how discerning God’s wisdom is. A paraphrase of it might be God’s wisdom is deeper and wider than any x-ray vision a person could imagine. Each of us will one day see ourselves and our actions the way God sees them.

The Gospel passage says that receiving the wisdom of God means more than just following the letter of God’s wisdom. It means letting go of whatever tries to stand in the way of that wisdom’s active spirit. The passage acknowledges that we need help to let go. It also promises that when we remove obstacles to the spirit’s movement, wisdom operates more freely within us. We will receive more than we let go of.

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

This week’s readings inspire Donna Orsuto to pray and to issue a challenge.

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help me to remember that authentic wisdom comes with humility and without superficiality. Help me to take an honest look at my priorities. Enable me to make well-reasoned decisions. Let wisdom guide me. Amen.

Work cited (but not linked to):

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. ” 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time — 13 Oct. 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.193, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 23 Sept. 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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Lessons on the Law of Love

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , on October 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Mayur Gala on Unsplash

Good morning! I hope you’re having a great Sunday, and I hope you have a great week. I’m taking a break from the blog this week.

Here are today’s Scripture readings:

  • Exodus 22:20–26 
  • Psalm 18:2–3, 3–4, 47, 51
  • 1 Thessalonians 1:5c–10
  • Matthew 22:34–40

I welcome your comments if you’d like to share what the readings are saying to you.

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Let’s Unpack Love

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , on September 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Ezekiel 33:7–9
  2. Psalm 95:1–2, 6–7, 8–9
  3. Romans 13:8–10
  4. Matthew 18:15–20

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings unpack concepts that the English language zips into a suitcase its speakers call love. The first reading tells me that one concept that love suitcase holds is looking out for each other. The first reading goes on to remind that the drive within us to protect each other is often painful because we don’t always appreciate protective efforts or recognize them for what they are. We especially bristle against warnings, advice, and other kinds of help when we didn’t ask for it.

If is looking out for each other is one half of a pair of glasses that go into the love suitcase, not harming each other is the other half. Maybe a better metaphor for these concepts is a set of hearing aids rather than a pair of glasses. Or maybe the love suitcase contains both a set of hearing aids and a pair of glasses. To look out for each other, we have to be able to see our surroundings through God’s eyes and to hear through God’s ears. Wearing God’s glasses and God’s hearing aids also allows us to recognize and appreciate the protective efforts of God and our neighbors in our lives. This is one message I get from the second reading.

The third reading points me to several ways we harm each other when we don’t wear God’s glasses and hearing aids, when all we can see is our own desires rather than what’s best for us and the people and resources God has given to us. Not wearing the assistive devices God wants to give us doesn’t just result in blurry vision or distorted hearing. It results in a variety of wounds or diseases. The preventative medicine and treatment for these is love. Like an antibiotic, acting with love provides an answer to numerous problems. The fourth reading first recommends that when someone wounds us, we try to treat the injury ourselves. But sometimes we run out of bandages or ice packs and have to get some from a neighbor — or a store. Then there are the times when these over-the-counter treatments don’t do the trick, and we have to seek professional help and sometimes prescription remedies. This is the extended analogy that came to my mind when I read the Gospel reading’s guidance about what to do when someone “sins against” me (Matt 18:15). So maybe this container that represents self-giving love holds not only a special pair of glasses and hearing aids but also special bandages, ice packs, and the ultimate prescription drug — one that doesn’t cease to be effective if we turn to it too much. Instead, I’m told, the more we rely on it, the more powerful it becomes.

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

The reflection on this week’s readings offered by Carolyn Jacobson, MSW, PhD doesn’t use my analogy of the suitcase of love and its contents. Frankly, I’m glad because making that analogy work involves quite a stretch. However, if Dr. Jacobson’s reflection had used my analogy, it would say that we aren’t meant to use the items in the suitcase in a vacuum. Their power lies in their ability to facilitate connection.

Beyond this week’s readings:

My first reaction when I thought about what to write for this section was that the first reading is really uncomfortable to read. Reading it doesn’t give me the cushion of forgetting the passage’s commission and warning as I move on to the next part of the Mass.

And it’s warning is unpleasant to hear. Why? Because it’s easiest to warn someone when there is physical evidence that something he or she is doing clearly hurts himself or herself and/or others. But spiritual harm can be harder to detect than physical harm. I hate even the thought of telling people what I think they won’t like hearing if I can’t prove that what I’m warning against is harmful.

Sharing and being open to correction is especially difficult today when so many voices have access to audiences, and not all opinions can coexist in healthy, productive ways. I wonder if the amount of access many people these have these days to a variety of opinions and information means there are fewer incidences of innocently not knowing something. I wonder if there’s choosing not to find out or choosing to ignore is more common now than these responses have been at other times. Or has humanity simply ignored different individual and societal ills in different ways at different times in different places?

On one hand, I recognize not making assumptions is important, but if I’m reasonably sure that someone has access to the same information about what’s right and wrong and I do, it doesn’t seem helpful to, or warn him or her, even if I haven’t done so before and I don’t know whether someone else has.

I’m wrestling with part of the Gospel reading too. It says that if someone wrongs me and doesn’t want to make amends, even when other people, including those in authority tell him or her to, I should treat the person like a Gentile. To many characters in the Bible, treating someone else like a Gentile means avoiding them as much as possible. And yet, while Jesus might challenge Romans and Sumerians, He doesn’t reject them. Maybe the message is that He doesn’t reject people who are open to Him but that I don’t need to feel responsible for the choices of people who reject my concern. I don’t need to keep opening my concern to dismissal. Rather, the time to consider reopening that door is when the person opens it a crack him or herself.

I want to close this post with a prayer for parents, guardians, teachers, and mentors. God bless advisers and caregivers and grant them Your wisdom, courage, and consolation. Amen.

Work cited

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

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Return and Persevere to Learn that God’s Has No Limits

Posted in Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , on August 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Belinda Fewings on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Isaiah 56:1, 6–7
  2. Psalm 67:2–3, 5, 6, 8
  3. Romans 11:13–15, 29–32
  4. Matthew 15:21–28

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings say to me that God’s love knows no limits. It plays no favorites. It operates to the extent that trust in it allows it to operate. Therefore, because both the Canaanite woman in this week’s Gospel and Jesus trust in it, it works through both of them. No geopolitical border or cultural distinction can limit this love. Only lack of trust born of human frailty can.

But this week’s readings remind me that Good News can be found in the midst of this unfortunate reality. People’s egos and fears give God an opportunity to show just how boundless divine love is. When I see this love causing barriers to disappear, when I see it at work around me as it is in the Canaanite woman of this week’s Gospel, persevering in a life that reflects faith feels possible.

The third reading tells me Paul understands this relationship between love and growth. It’s why he has hope that the people who nurtured him, who taught him and with whom he studied and worshipped would come to reap the rewards of the covenant God had with them, even though his ministry had taken him far from them.

Lord, I ask you for this hope for myself and for the people in my life, especially for the people who have shaped and continue to shape me. I also ask that the people who seem furthest from me, the most different, also receive this hope, the hope that is the reassurance of God’s mercy. Amen.

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

Prof. Margaret Susan Thompson reminds us that we ask God for mercy at every Mass. She also helps us understand the Gospel reading in light of the cultures that gave birth to it, as well as helping us find inspiration in the reading for the cultures in which we find ourselves today.

Beyond this week’s readings:

I told you I was eager to see where the Spirit would lead, and as you can probably tell based on the fact that the content of this post doesn’t relate to the book I recommended last week, that Spirit is already leading me somewhere I didn’t expect.

When I heard last week’s readings, I wished I had at least briefly written about what they said to me. They included some of my favorite passages. The readings were:

  1. 1 Kings 19:9a, 11–13a
  2. Psalm 85:9, 10, 11–12, 13–14
  3. Romans 9:1–5
  4. Matthew 14:22–33

The truth is, other commitments mean that I’m just not able to spend as much time working on this blog each week that I have in the past. This reality is the reason it makes sense not always to reflect on the weekly readings. I’m giving myself permission to publish posts that are influenced by the calendar. I still want to publish a post every week, but that may not always happen, and I need that to be okay with myself and with you. It means so much to me that you’ve taken the time to follow this blog, whether by subscribing or by checking in occasionally. Whatever interaction with this blog works for you, I’m glad that it does.

I’m wrestling with the relationship between acceptance and action in the spiritual journey. In future weeks, I may sometimes use God, I Have Issues: 50 Ways to Pray No Matter How You Feel by Fr. Mark Thibodeaux, as a guide in this process, or I may write about some quotations relating to the subject. I may also post my general reflection on Scripture readings, or I may link to someone else’s more developed reflection on them. Thank you for coming along with me while I work on keeping an open mind and heart about the ways we can find grace in this space on the web that we share.

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God’s Love Has More Power than Fear and Pain

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , on August 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Sara Fairbanks, OP, reflects through this week’s readings on love’s power to sustain us in the midst of fear and pain.

Yet pain can feel consuming and take so many forms – physical and emotional, yes. But emotional pain can be named more specifically. I tend to name it resentment, envy, anger, frustration, anxiety, and negativity-filled longing. These are the names I’ve learned to give my spiritual struggles. So that these struggles don’t overwhelm me, I need clarity, renewal, and strength the Holy Spirit can provide when I’m open to receiving these gifts.

I’m going to turn to Fr. Mark E. Thibodeaux’s God: I have Issues: 50 Ways to Pray No Matter How You Feel to shine the light of the Holy Spirit on the feelings I listed above. In doing so, I trust that with time and persistence, I will more often recognize light and love as more powerful than any emotion darkness tries to use to make me unable to recognize its opposite.

I also trust that making this book a companion to this blog for the time being will remind me to invite God into and recognize God’s presence in my pleasant, joyful, and simply routine experiences as well as my unpleasant ones.

Fr. Thibodeaux’s book is a guide to living and praying through the gamut of human emotions. Each chapter is dedicated to a different emotion or life experience and begins with a story from the author’s life about when he experienced or shared in someone else’s experience of that emotion.

After each introductory story, which is imbued with relatability and often humor. comes a long list of related scripture passages taken from both the Old and New Testaments.

After this list comes the “Prayer Pointers” section. I’ve consulted this book on and off for years, and while I’m not offering a professional perspective here, I would say that this section combines the wisdom of counseling, meditative, and pastoral approaches. Fr. Thibodeaux often suggests imaginative prayer and visualizations. This section also makes clear that the issues each chapter touches on are not resolved in one day. They are wrestled with in a healthy way by praying to be open to a shift in perspective and practice and by giving helpful habits a chance to become deeply rooted in daily life.

After the “Prayer Pointers” come inspirational or thought-provoking quotes. These are from sources other than scripture.

At the end of each chapter is a list of other chapters that might be related to the one I’ve just worked through. This section acknowledges that emotions are complex. (For example, grief can involve a mixture of sadness, anger, and guilt.) The index is also helpful when I’m not sure which chapter is most relatable to whatever I’m currently experiencing. In it I can look up experiences that weren’t used in the chapter titles.

Maybe in some future posts I’ll share a story of my own that the author’s story made me think of. Maybe I’ll share how his story got me thinking. Maybe I’ll reflect on one of the suggested scripture passages using approaches similar to those of used in the past. Or maybe I’ll share my experience with a visualization. Whatever happens, I’m eager to see where the Spirit leads and to hear what God has to tell me — and us.

Work cited

Thibodeaux, Mark E. God, I Have Issues: 50 Ways to Pray No Matter How You Feel, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2005.

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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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