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Reflections on Privilege, Faith, and the Beatitudes

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for February 16, 2025:

  1. Jeremiah 17:5-8
  2. Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 & 6
  3. 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20
  4. Luke 6:17, 20-26

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

Contrasts stand out. I see contrasts between fertility and barrenness, between emptiness and fullness, and between sorrow and joy. The readings tell me that making room for God makes room for life and growth. In contrast, putting all one’s trust in the ways of human beings, especially in individual humans, is misleading. It prevents a person from being part of a circle that expands easily   so he she can grow and embrace life. It leads to dissatisfaction instead of openness and depth because no human is all-knowing or all-powerful.

What Someone Else Is Sharing about This Week’s Readings:

The readings for February 16 inspired Julia Murphy to reflect on the effect privilege can have on a person’s relationship with God. She reflects on this topic through the memory of a service immersion trip experience. She also points out that, regardless of how a person is or isn’t privileged, the Beatitudes aren’t telling the people who receive them to be passive. She reminds us that God calls us to wake up so we can tell the difference between wants and needs. Once we’ve discerned what’s needed, God calls us to cooperate with each other and with the prompting of the Holy Spirit to address our needs and the needs of others.

What I’m Saying:

Before I read Julia Murphy’s words, I didn’t know what to write in this section other than to repeat the themes of the text in different ways. The passages seem pretty self-explanatory, and especially in the case of the Beatitudes in the gospel passage, so familiar. What could I say about the Beatitudes that’s more than a list of “shoulds?” How does my gut react to the Beatitudes?

When I went back to this week’s gospel passage seeking answers to these questions, the passage reminded me of something that stood out when I first revisited it. The reading makes a point of telling us that when Jesus preached about the Beatitudes, he didn’t stand on a mountain or in a boat. He’s not depicted as looking down on the great crowd of his disciples. He’s not separated from them by the framework of a boat. Rather, we are told “he stood on a stretch of level ground” (Luke 6:17). I get the idea He was scanning the crowd as he spoke, meeting the eyes of this individual, then that one. I imagine Him seeming to each person as if he spoke only to him or her.

To anyone who sees him or herself in the blessed group, he offers encouragement. To anyone who recognizes him or herself in the opposite group, His warnings might imply questions:

If you’re rich, how did you get that way? Who helped you get there? Have they reaped the benefits as well? How can you show your appreciation? How can you share your more-than-enough with those who don’t have enough?

  • If you’re filled, what are you filled with? Does it take care of and treat kindly the body and mind God has given you? Where do you make room for God? For recognizing the injustice in your midst?
  • If you’re laughing now, what are you laughing at? Are you laughing at someone else’s expense? Someone else’s misfortune? Or can you laugh at your own frailty, imperfections, weaknesses? Can you left so that you don’t take them so seriously that you think God can’t work with you through them and despite them.

Many of us who can read these words might be rich by the standards of the much of the world. And yet lack of privilege can take different forms in different people’s lives at different times. Why? Because different factors contribute to each person’s sense of agency and independence. The truth is, a sense of independence isn’t permanent for anyone. We’re born needing others, and we die needing others. So many events in between lead us to ask God and one another for help. And that’s okay. That’s honest.

This Week’s Prayer:

Lord, grant us the grace to make room for You in our lives so we can see and hear as You do. Amen.

Scripture Translation Used:

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Lectionary: 78.” 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.usccb.org/bible/readings/021625.cfm.

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Finding Strength in Candlemas Scriptures

Posted in Feast of the Presentation, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 30, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for February 2, 2024:

  1. Malachi 3:1–4
  2. Psalm 24:7, 8, 9, 10
  3. Hebrews 2:14–18 
  4. Luke 2:22–40

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

For he is like the refiner’s fire,
or like the fuller’s lye. . . .
Refining them like gold or like silver
that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD

Malachi 3:2-3

Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.

Hebrews 2:14-15

. . . Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted  . . . .

Luke 2:33-34

She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

Luke 2:37-38

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

When I first revisited the Scripture passages for February 2, the first quotation brought to mind the Kelly Clarkson song “Stronger” (What Doesn’t Kill You).” I actually felt that since Jesus took away the fear of death, as the epistle says, what else did I really have to be afraid of? The things people say can’t kill me. Neither the mistakes I make nor their consequences can kill me either, if I trust in the Lord and learn from those mistakes.

I tend to respond in one of two ways when someone disagrees with me:

  • Someone’s criticizing me. I must be in the wrong. I need to do what the critic expects.
  • I’m doing what Simeon said the “sign that [would] be contradicted” wants me to do. That’s why I’m being criticized. The backlash is a good sign.

I think I tend to respond the first way more than the second. But option one might be more accurate in one situation, while option two might be more accurate in another. I find consolation in the message that it’s the [R]efiner’s fire that allows me to “make due sacrifice to the Lord,” to choose what’s right regardless of what others think of my choices (Mal. 3:3). My refinement isn’t finished yet, and that’s okay, as long as I stay open to being refined.

Then last night, anxiety caught up with me, as if to counteract the freedom I’d felt listening to “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You).” Plenty of experiences don’t make me feel stronger or freer, even though they aren’t death.

I read in the Gospel passage for February 2 that the prophet Anna had lived a long time, especially for a first-century woman. She spent years not remarrying, as many women might have been expected to do or would have had to do to survive. She spent years fasting, and praying, and waiting. Then baby Jesus came into the temple, she told everyone she could about Him. Anna’s life couldn’t have been easy. But once she’d lived through her experiences, seen Jesus, and heard what Simeon said about Mary and her baby, she refused to be silenced.

We are all social creatures, but not all relationships we have the opportunity to take part in are healthy. The Kelly Clarkson song is about breaking free of a harmful relationship. Other relationships might be healthy but aren’t the right fit for us or aren’t right for right now. I wonder if the prophet Anna had experience with these realities. Were such experiences part of what made her open to those years of fasting, praying, waiting, and trusting in the temple?

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

Anna Robertson explores insights we can gain from the prophet Anna’s appearance in the Gospel passage. She also points out that we may not hear about this prophet at Mass. Including her story in the Gospel passage for the Feast of the Presentation is optional.

This week’s prayer:

Lord, help us to persevere in even the most difficult times. Help us to maintain hope. Help us to discern what thoughts, words, and actions will do the most good in various situations. May we follow where discernment and wise advice leads. Help us to be a source of hope and truth for others. Thank you, Lord for giving us opportunities to be sources of hope, May we show love in concrete ways. Amen.

Scripture Translation Used:

“Feast of the Presentation of the Lord — Lectionary: 524.” 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.usccb.org/bible/readings/020225.cfm.

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Finding Refreshment in Spiritual Teachings

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for January 26th:

  1. Nehemiah 8:2–4a, 5–6, 8–10
  2. Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15
  3. 1 Corinthians 12:12–30
  4. Luke 1:1–4; 4:14–21

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

In the first reading, the people in the temple don’t seem encouraged by hearing God’s law. They seem in awe of it. They seem to accept that it’s trustworthy, that it’s wise to obey it. At the same time, they seem bowed down by it. They seem to focus on how they fall short of fulfilling it. But Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Levites tell them, ““Today is holy to the LORD your God. Do not be sad, and do not weep” (Neh. 8:10).

The psalm reinforces that the law of the Lord “is trustworthy,” “refresh[es] the soul ” and is cause for “rejoicing” (Psalm 19: 8-9). The Lord’s words “are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

The epistle presents God as a life giver through the Spirit. The passage also highlights the human tendency to focus on the gifts we lack rather than the ones we have.

This focus affects how the people see who’ve grown up with Jesus see Him. The reaction of the listeners isn’t included in this week’s passage, but when I read past this week’s excerpt, I see that they say the following about what Jesus reads and says:

“. . . all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, ‘Isn’t this the son of Joseph?'”

Luke 4:22

They can’t envision this son of Joseph, who trained to work with his hands, bringing “glad tidings to the poor,” “sight to the blind,” and “liberty to the captives” (Luke 4:18). Perhaps behind their questions is not only that Jesus isn’t prepared for the mission he tells them he’s on. Maybe the townspeople also remember that he was born too soon after Mary and Joseph’s marriage. Their vision of who Jesus is limited by their preconceived notions and biases.

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

Often, I don’t experience the law of the Lord as “refreshing” to the soul (P Psalm 8). l feel smug and indignant when I think of God’s commands and perceive myself as the one whose been wronged. I sometimes feel constrained when I’m tempted to do something that might not refresh my soul or someone else’s, something that could make my reflection less like God’s.

As I reflect on this reality of my experience, I think about what might change my feelings about God’s commandments. I remember something I once heard a priest say in a homily. I’ll paraphrase what he said like this: rephrase the commandments as statements about what we should do.

I don’t remember how he rephrased them, so I’m going to do that in my own words as follows:

  • Remember that the material world is passing away; hold onto and prioritize what isn’t.
  • Remember that you didn’t get where you are alone. Give back those who have given to you.
  • Recognize that a holy and healthy life is one with a routine that balances work and rest, activity and contemplation. Celebrate the resurrection and its message for all of us. Recognize that we all need community. When one of us suffers, we all suffer. This happens whether we realize it or not. When one of our community members is absent, we are all affected, whether we realize it or not. Live as if you know you are made to belong.
  • Take care of the life you’ve been given, and take care of the lives of those around you.
  • Make commitments and enjoy the security and stability of honoring them.
  • Be mindful of what you have. Be happy with others for what they have.
  • Respect others and what belongs to them.
  • Tell the truth with love.

As I read this week’s epistle, I see it can celebrate the beauty of differences. It can teach that the Spirit makes individuals members of Christ’s body. It teaches that these members are indispensable to the function of Christ’s body, no matter how different the gifts of one member may be from another member’s. It can be used as an antidote against envy and resentment.

Still, I can’t help but think how it can be used to justify never speaking out against inequities, never considering change to be necessary. It could be used to justify rigid social structures. It could be used to justify unjust discrimination and the perpetuation of stereotypes. It could be used to confirm biases and preconceived notions. “What? You don’t feel your voice is being heard, I can hear someone with more authority and/or education asking someone with less. What? You don’t feel seen? You don’t feel your gifts are being appreciated to the fullest?” Don’t worry. Jesus uses them fully even if you don’t feel like the Church, or your work, or your family, or the organization you volunteer with does. You’ll know this someday. You’re important to your communities even though you don’t and can’t have high-profile roles in them. Your communities need you to do work their leaders aren’t doing while they’re busy doing other, more visible, things. You’re essential. Be content and at peace with this. “

I think to myself, “What if Jesus had believed He couldn’t fulfill his mission because of who Joseph was? What if Jesus had thought the fact that Joseph was a carpenter meant that the Spirit wasn’t calling Him to His ministry?

Let’s not underestimate the value of contributions that go unnoticed. Let’s look more closely, deeper, for the gifts in ourselves and those around us. Let’s respect the Spirit’s freedom of movement in us and around us.

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

Find out what role a colorful beach towel plays in Pilar Siman’s reflection on the readings for January 26th.

This week’s prayer:

Lord help us to see in ourselves the gifts that others may or may not see in us. Help us to be open-minded and creative in how we use the gifts You give to care for Your creation. Help us to trust that when our gifts are employed by cooperate with Your spirit, they will accomplish what You had in mind when You gave them to us. Help us to experience Your commandments as gifts to us. Amen.

Work cited:

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

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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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The Spirit Is in the Details (As Well As in the Familiar Themes)

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Scripture Readings, Social Justice, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Readings for July 28th:

  1. 2 Kings 4:42–44
  2. Psalm 145:10–11, 15–16, 17–18
  3. Ephesians 4:1–6
  4. John 6:1–15

What this week’s readings say to me:

I’m used to hearing that this week’s readings are about the following:

  • God’s providence
  • God’s power over nature, demonstrated differently than in the calming of the storm
  • Christ feeding His spiritual family members his own Body and Blood, an ongoing act of love that comes to us from His apostles because He extended it to them on the night of his Last Supper.

And it is all of the above, but I feel prompted to highlight what else stood out to me as I read the passages this time around:

A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God, twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits, . . . . Elisha said, “Give it to the people to eat.” But his servant objected, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” . . . . And when they had eaten, there was some left over, as the LORD had said.

2 Kings 4:42-44

This passage and the New Testament one tell me that questions and doubts are only obstacles to God to the extent that they keep a person from acting with faith. In both passages, people act as God inspires them to do, and God works with what they give. God keeps his promises and gives more than the people hope for.

The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season . . .

Psalm 145:15

This verse reminds me that God’s timing may be different from mine. It doesn’t say God will give me what I want right now. Instead, it says God will give me what I need in due season — when the timing is best for me and for the overall plan.

Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience . . .

Ephesians 4:1-2

This excerpt relates to how God provides for us by giving Himself because we need God’s humility, gentleness, and patience to allow God to provide for us in other ways. God doesn’t force-feed us. Instead, God waits for us to be open to receiving Him.

Trusting in God, who isn’t limited by our sense of time and timing also takes patience.

Feeding others from the gifts we have received, in other words, making Christ visible in what we do, requires the virtues mentioned in this excerpt as well.

“’Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.'”

John 6:12

In addition to reinforcing the lessons of the Old Testament passage, the New Testament passage includes the above instruction. Not only does God give us more than we hope for in due season, but also we must be careful not to waste the abundance we receive. What we don’t waste can meet future needs.

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

Dr. Alice Prince points out that the virtues highlighted in this week’s epistle don’t just make room to receive God’s abundance. God’s abundance is one of those proverbial two-way streets. Receiving God’s abundance helps us experience and practice those virtues.

Beyond this week’s readings:

It’s easy enough to quote Scripture passages as evidence that God provides. I even posted last week about the ways I’ve noticed God providing for me lately. Even so, I know there are plenty of situations in which it doesn’t seem like God provides. I listed some of those situations at the end of last week’s post. I find myself asking, “Lord, if you can use five loaves and two fish to feed more than 5,000 people, why aren’t you making sure everyone in Gaza, the U.S. or everywhere else in the world has enough to eat right now? Don’t you care about food insecure and starving people anymore?

Faith tells me the answer is “yes.” But I wonder how often humans get in the way of God’s providence. I know that too often what’s left over gets wasted and doesn’t make it to the people who need it.

This week’s prayer:

May we never interfere with God’s providence. May we participate in it instead. And may we never waste what we have to share, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Work cited:

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. ” 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time — 28 July 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.191, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 21 July 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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The Easter Season Means Mercy Can’t Be Confined

Posted in Easter, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , on April 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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This week’s readings:

  1. Acts 4:32–35
  2. Psalm 118:2–4, 13–15, 22–24
  3. 1 John 5:1–6 
  4. John 20:19–31

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings provide a variation on the truth that conversion and growth are ongoing processes. I would express the variation that’s introduced today like this: Easter isn’t just one day. Liturgically, it’s a fifty-day season, just as Lent is a forty-day one. Life is a recurring cycle of Lenten seasons and Easter seasons with seasons that connect one to the other. These between seasons called “Ordinary Time” offer gifts of their own that, perhaps, I don’t always recognize. Life presents a series of highs and lows. We don’t get to summits directly from valleys and vice-versa. We can’t teleport ourselves from one to the other. Moving in either direction is a gradual and often painful process.

On this year’s encounter, this week’s readings say to me that the Easter season presents a process. Last week, we read that on the first Easter morning, Jesus’ followers saw the empty tomb with only their physical eyes — at least that’s how I interpreted last week’s Gospel passage. In this week’s Gospel passage, Jesus helps those who have locked themselves away after running from the empty tomb to develop their spiritual sight. The first way He does this is by letting them see His resurrected body with their physical sight. Second, He gives them his spirit so they can use it to carry the Easter message beyond their group.

He sends them to take part in reconciling His brothers and sisters to Himself and to each other. He tells them that the process of reconciliation isn’t cosmetic work or lip service. It requires action on the part of both the one who forgives and the one seeking forgiveness. It also requires openness of heart and willingness to support with a combination of honesty and compassion others who want to make difficult changes in their lives. While the passage shows Jesus’ first followers getting the physical proof and spiritual support they need to move beyond the locked doors, it also offers encouragement to the disciples who wait beyond those doors and in the future. “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,” John 20:29 says.

The second reading reminds us what it means to follow Jesus and offers further encouragement to His disciples:

In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 2-6

The message I’m getting is that the way of the Trinity doesn’t keep people who follow it behind spiritual locked doors. The Trinity helps us see healthy guardrails and giving, not as deprivations but as gains. Giving and living within guardrails are the ways to receive and to share the unending mercy the psalm praises. The first reading describes what living that mercy look liked for the early church. That passage brings to my mind the corporal works of mercy and the spiritual works of mercy and how the two types of works are inextricably linked to each other. We are called to take part in these works, to do our part in helping the world experience that “[God’s] mercy endures forever” (Psalm 118:4).

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

Layla A. Karst shares that this week’s readings explore “what it means to be church.”

Beyond this week’s readings:

It’s easy to read that ” his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith” (1 John: 3-4) But I’d be lying if I wrote that it felt true. I don’t know about all of you, so I’ll speak for myself. Hanging onto can feel burdensome when I’m surrounded by so many events that test faith. And taking part in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy can feel burdensome because they ask me to get out of my comfort zone, to put the basic needs of others ahead of my own wants, to risk being criticized or rejected. The part of my nature that isn’t in union with God’s doesn’t want to do these things, so the necessity of doing them can feel burdensome — even though I feel lighter after doing them.

Lord, help me to accept the crosses You call me to carry for my own sake, for the sake of my brothers and sisters, and for the natural world You’ve given me the privilege of caring for. Because You accepted Your cross, died, and rose from the dead, I can find new life by carrying my crosses, by helping others carry theirs, and by accompanying others into the life of communion and dignity You intend for all of us to have. Thank You.

Give me the courage to trust in Your mercy so that I can seek it, receive it, and share it. Help me to embrace and to extend mercy in all its forms.

Thank You for being with me both in times of faith and doubt and in situations in which I experience a mixture of both. Amen.

Work cited (but not linked to)

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Divine Mercy Sunday (Second Sunday) of Easter 7 April 2024: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.187, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 6 March. 2024, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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Wrapping up Advent and Unwrapping Christmas

Posted in Advent, Reflections on Scripture, tagged , , , , , on December 24, 2023| 1 Comment »

This week’s readings:

  1. 2 Samuel 7:1–5, 8b–12, 14a, 16 ·
  2. Psalm 89:2–3, 4–5, 27, 29
  3. Romans 16:25–27
  4. Luke 1:26–38

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings say to me that God has always accompanied humanity in all its joys and sorrows. As part of that accompaniment, God gave the tribes of Israel the special mission of bringing awareness of God’s accompaniment to the rest of humanity by being chosen to receive and to live God’s commandments. Eventually, a king from one of the tribes would be the ancestor of the Savior. This Savior would be for humanity the ultimate model of how to live God’s commandments and would offer humanity the Spirit for help living those commandments.

We can become God’s children and inherit God’s life because one of God’s daughters was given the grace and cooperated with that grace of being the dwelling place for God’s perfect son. Because she cooperates with that grace, God and humanity become one again, and I share in that oneness if I offer myself as a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit — just like she did. The challenge of this opportunity is that being the Spirit’s dwelling place is a gift that is neither easy to give nor to receive,

That gift most wasn’t an easy one for Mary to receive. She’s described as “greatly troubled” by the Gabbriel’s greeting alone, and for me it’s no wonder that her mental and emotional state is described this way when she hears the angel’s salutation (Luke 1: 29). Having a messenger of heaven suddenly appear before her and speak wouldn’t be anything like choosing a tree-topper from a store. A visit from an angel is an experience that few have, and she would’ve been no exception. Angels in Scripture aren’t quaint decorations. They’re overwhelming and disruptive attention-grabbers. Furthermore, Mary’s culture has taught her that finding favor with God carries with it indispensable work — not a comfortable life. I imagine her having thought all this before Gabriel got past “the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28).

That announcement would bring plenty more difficulties along with the wonder that we perhaps associate with it today. Then again, I wonder how often awe accompanies it these days. It’s another one of those passages people tend to know by heart, even if they aren’t very familiar with others Scripture passages. I find that the more familiar something is, the more complete my numbness to its specialness becomes, and I know I’m not alone in this experience. That’s why I wanted to reflect in a way that removes the sugarcoating, and perhaps a little of the over-familiarity from this week’s Gospel passage.

Having this goal in mind doesn’t mean I don’t see these passages as bringing Good News. Rather, this goal is an exercise in remembering that not all that is good is sweet. Sometimes this is a challenging reminder to receive. At other times it’s comforting. It might be the latter at this time of year because expectations for this season can get so high. Given this reality, looking at the Gospel passages associated with this season, beginning with this week’s, without the lenses of what we think they should feel like can provide some very helpful perspective, a perspective that makes us feel less alone if we feel sad, alone, overwhelmed, afraid, or uncertain this time of year.

With this encouragement in mind, let’s go back to sitting with Mary as she receives the angel’s message. Sure, she’s being offered a role in history more important and unlike any other, and yes that’s an honor and a gift, but it’s a gift that comes at a higher price than she could’ve guessed from the angel’s greeting. For one, nowhere are we told that Gabriel included in his message that Mary’s parents were told of her role in God’s plan before she was. I imagine her being awestruck by the announcement but also but also dreading how people would treat her when her pregnancy became apparent. Remember that in this culture, the law evidently said she could be stoned to death for adultery for being unmarried and yet found to be with child — and not by her betrothed. Remember also that she would likely have been a young teenager, given her culture and that she hadn’t lived with her betrothed yet. I imagine she must have participated in the basics of managing a household and caring for a family for as long as she could remember, under the guidance of older female relatives. Still, being the wife and the mother in a household had to be different than being the daughter, the niece, or the cousin. And that’s just in terms of responsibility. Then there are the massive physical and emotional changes that motherhood entails. On top of all that, her calling was to be the mother of God. I imagine her feeling so small upon learning that this was her call. I imagine her finding comfort in a few thoughts as she received it:

  • If this news wasn’t just a hallucination (maybe she’d been out in the sun too long, she might have thought), what an amazing call it was. She could bring hope and righteousness to her people, to the world. And the role was hers to accept or to refuse.
  • The angel hadn’t left her without a way to test the truth of the announcement. She could visit her cousin Elizabeth, and see if the older woman was, in fact, pregnant.
  • If Elizabeth was, she would know the message was from God, and she already trusted that whatever the Divine Plan was, it would be brought to fruition, regardless of whatever obstacles were placed in its path, whatever hardships she’d have to weather as a result of being so central to it. I imagine that, in any circumstance, and especially given these consolations, she discerned the best and right course of action was to cooperate with the Divine Plan. I imagine her thinking she could never go wrong by declaring her intention to do that. God would use her proclamation of faith to do whatever God willed.

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

Karen Sue Smith ties this week’s readings together in greater detail than I have.

Beyond this week’s readings:

Tonight is Christmas Eve, so I’m considering this post to be my reflection for both the fourth week of Advent and Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. If you’re juggling a lot this Christmas, you’re not alone. So did Mary, Joseph, and the innkeeper.

I see innkeepers getting bad raps in interpretations of biblical accounts of the Nativity. In so many stage adaptations, several innkeepers turn Mary and Joseph away before one offers a stable to the couple. The innkeepers who turn the Holy Family away are characterized as unyielding, heartless. If Mary and Joseph did inquire at more than one inn, maybe the proprietors wouldn’t have thought they were being heartless. Maybe they thought they had no accommodations to offer the couple that wouldn’t offend them, especially given Mary’s condition and that many animals were considered unclean. Maybe the last innkeeper was better at staying calm under the pressure of the influx of travelers. Maybe he saw the wisdom, under the circumstances, of dispensing with expectations, tradition, and rules, and offering the best he had left, humble though that offering is said to have been. (And for the record, Luke’s account mentions the inn whose stable the couple was provided with as if there were only one inn in town. We aren’t told that anyone turned Mary and Joseph away.)

May I be more like that innkeeper, wisely discerning what actions are best based on what situations require from moment to moment. May I see the value in what I have and what I have to offer.

May I remember that whatever my circumstances are this Christmas, God is with me. The accounts of Jesus’s earliest years remind me that:

  • If traveling, especially at peak travel times stresses you out, Mary, Joseph, and countless others understand.
  • If you are “greatly troubled” by unexpected events that are disrupting what you hoped to give the people in your life, Mary, Joseph, and the innkeeper understand (Luke 1:28).
  • If you are headed home after a long time away or are away from home this Christmas, Mary and Joseph can relate.
  • If you are grieving this Christmas or someone you love is, Mary and the weeping mothers of the Gospel can relate.
  • If you’re setting off on a journey with an uncertain destination, the Wise Men can relate. The Holy Family can too.
  • If you feel like you don’t fit in, the shepherds and the Holy Family can relate. Check out this reflection on shepherds from last year.
  • If you are a parent-to-be or a new parent, Mary and Joseph can relate to whatever you’re feeling.
  • If you are living amid or fleeing violence or are a refugee for another reason, the Holy Family can relate.

God is with us in each aspect of and participant in the Nativity story and in the stories unfolding around us this Christmas — the ones involving strife and struggle and the ones that are sappy and sugar-coated.

Lord, help us recognize your presence among us, especially when doing so feels most difficult. Amen.

Work cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “4th Sunday of Advent, Sunday 24 December 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.183, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 31 Oct. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.

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A Lesson in What to Praise and Prioritize

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Who Am I in God, Who is God, tagged , , , , on October 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Priyansh Patidar on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Isaiah 45:1, 4–6 
  2. Psalm 96:1, 3, 4–5, 7–8, 9–10
  3. 1 Thessalonians 1:1–5b
  4. Matthew 22:15–21

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings praise and honor God and advocate for my never ceasing to do the same. They also remind me that everyone and everything exists because of God’s power and with God’s consent. Without this power and consent, nothing would exist and nothing would be held together. But there is life, and there is relationship because God is life and relationship. There is life through relationship to God and one another.

The third reading continues to praise God while also highlighting the relationality of life in God. It also highlights how virtues are related to one another, saying:

We [Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy] give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father, knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God, how you were chosen.

1 Thessalonians 2-4 [italics mine]

While nothing exists without God allowing it to, God wants us to love freely, and anything not done freely isn’t done in the love, so God doesn’t force us to bend to the Divine will. God gives us the freedom to be co-creators. The result of this freedom is that God isn’t the creator of everything. Some things are created by the tempter and accuser. Others are created by humans. We can use the things humans have created for good or ill.

Upon this reading of the Gospel passage, I feel like Jesus is asking me to think about what I value and to ask God to help me value my life-giving relationships more than the things I can use to benefit those relationships. It also challenges me to discern how the things I use affect my relationships with God and others. To what extent are these effects positive and negative?

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

Chanelle Robinson’s reflection offers one possible response to the question with which I ended the previous section.

Beyond this week’s readings:

Lord, grant me the grace to recognize what belongs to you and to employ it to bring myself and others into union with you. Give me a deep awareness that this union is the source of all beauty, growth, and peace. Help me to remember to thank you for inviting everyone to share these gifts. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

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Perspectives on Working in the Vineyard

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Social Justice, tagged , , , on October 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Jonathan Farber on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Isaiah 5:1–7
  2. Psalm 80:9, 12, 13–14, 15–16, 19–20
  3. Philippians 4:6–9
  4. Matthew 21:33–43

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings use the imagery of the vineyard to illustrate what cooperation with and lack of cooperation with God looks like. The first reading looks at the vineyard of Divine will and work from God’s perspective, while the second looks at this vineyard from the perspective of a child of God. The third reading, the epistle, gives advice on how to cooperate with God, saying:

. . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Phil 4:8

The tenants in the Gospel parable don’t live by instruction like that given in Philippians 4:8. They seem to be impatient, greedy, and even violent in their pursuit of what they want.

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

Carmen Ramos reflects on this week’s readings by focusing as much on the experience of the servants in the parable as on the experience of the tenants. She closes her reflection with some questions to bring to prayer. These questions, which follow are helpful for living the lessons of this week’s readings.

Beyond this week’s readings:

You have been given the gift of dignity; you have a purpose in this world. Do you acknowledge it?

You are baptized; you have a stake in this Church. Will you claim it?

Were you rejected for speaking the truth? You are an heir to the Kingdom. Will you build it?

Carmen Ramos

To me, it feels easiest to answer “yes” to the first question, but am I fully understanding and responding to what my purpose is? Probably not. As the days grow shorter, I feel like I have less energy to recognize and to live that purpose and to feel like I have that “stake in this Church.” This experience seems ironic — even as I don’t think I’m alone in having it — because wouldn’t it make sense for harvest time, more than any other time, to bear fruit?

Have I been “rejected for speaking the truth?” Maybe sometimes, but when I was rejected, was I really speaking the truth, or was I instead speaking fear or anger masquerading as the truth? And when did I let fear keep me from speaking at all?

Lord, energize me with the Spirit so that I say “yes” to helping to “build” the Kingdom Ms. Ramos reminds me about. Energize me so I can get to work on the action that accompanies that “yes.” Help me to remember that what the epistle encourages me to think about isn’t always easy or pleasant, and yet these things are sources of truth. They can be the sources of energy behind my “yes and the actions that accompany it. Amen.

Work cited

Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 8 October 2023 27th Sunday in Ordinary time: 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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The Challenge of Opening to Generosity

Posted in Ordinary Time, Reflections from Other Writers and Speakers, Reflections on Scripture, Who Am I in God, Who is God, tagged , , , , on September 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Photo by Pedro Ramos on Unsplash

This week’s readings:

  1. Isaiah 55:6–9
  2. Psalm 145:2–3, 8–9, 17–18
  3. Philippians 1:20c–24, 27a
  4. Matthew 20:1–16a

What this week’s readings say to me:

This week’s readings prompt me to imagine a high wall with a door in it. I’m on one side of that door, and God is on the other. God is knocking, asking me to open that door, to come in and work in the parts of God’s vineyard that occupy the space outside my body and soul. Opening this door will also allow God to work in the parts of the vineyard that God placed within my body and soul. God planted the vineyard, and the human tendency to sin created the weeds in the vineyard and the wall around it. This tendency also created walls within it. These are the walls of pride, anger, and envy.

I couldn’t enter the vineyard, and God couldn’t enter the vineyard of my body and soul if God hadn’t created doors into both. Why? Because “[God’s] thoughts are not [my] thoughts, nor are [my] ways [God’s] ways” (Isa. 55:8). The psalm goes so far as to describe God’s “grandeur” as “unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3). Yet God has created doors so that if I let God move freely in in the vineyards within and around me, whether I live or die, I won’t do so alone, but with God. And if I live or die with God, I do so for God and in God, as the end of Philippians 1:20 says.

The same door stands that stands between me and God stands between God and everyone else. It’s up to each of us how wide we open that door. What can be found through that opening is the same for everyone, regardless of when each person opens the door while he or she lives on this earth. Once we no longer live on this earth, we live on, we are eternal, in God to the extent that we have allowed God, the Eternal, to live in us.

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

In Darlene Jasso’s reflection on this week’s readings, she asks how our world would be different if we treated each other the way God treats us. As last week’s readings told us, God doesn’t treat us the way we sometimes treat God and each other. God doesn’t draw close to us only when He asks something of us or only in difficult times. God doesn’t give us back only what we give to God. God withholds no part of Himself that we are open to receiving.

Beyond this week’s readings:

Ms. Jasso makes important and thought-provoking points about God and us. She says God shows everyone the same generosity. This truth can be difficult to keep in mind. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t make a conscious effort to alter my mindset, I tend to think that God loves and answers the prayers of the people who do the things that God wants when He wants and doesn’t do the same for the people who don’t do what He wants.

And it’s a worthy ideal for me to show everyone the same generosity. I suppose the true ideal would be to withhold nothing good from anyone. It’s easiest to want to do this with nonmaterial goods, such as justice and mercy. But my mind can’t quite ignore that what the landowner in the parable offers is monetary payment.

I realize that parables are highly metaphorical, that what the landowner, who represents God, gives represents more than money. Yet parables also don’t shy away from teaching us about what we should do with our material goods — material goods that none of us have an unlimited supply. Most of us have far less than an unlimited supply of material goods, and some of our brothers and sisters don’t have even what they need to survive, let alone be healthy.

Imagine if all of us found ourselves in this situation of need. Imagine if we all received the same level of generosity that too many societies show those who like the most basic necessities — which is not enough. On the other hand, what if we showed everyone unlimited material generosity? My human mind says resources would run out, that God has unlimited resources, but the physical world doesn’t. Another preachy voice in my head says that this reality is the reason we need to trust God to supply what we lack. And yet God doesn’t always supply what people lack, materially. Otherwise, food insecurity and famine wouldn’t exist. Yet they do, so God wants us to provide for each other and to share what we have.

God also knows having everything we want wouldn’t be good for us because excess lets us believe that we don’t need God and each other, that what we have is a substitute for interdependency on each other and dependence on God. God also knows that once humans have more than we need, we tend to want even more than that, and the more we have, the more we want, and we tend to confuse what we want what we need and to fear losing what we have wanted and received.

I suppose the realization I’ve come to as I write this post is that generosity means discerning what we truly need versus what we want and sharing what we have but don’t need. That which gives some of us what we want can supply what others need.

God doesn’t need us or any other part of creation, but God wants us, and so He distributes what He doesn’t need — all of creation — among various members of His family.

Lord, help me to discern the difference between what I want and what I need and to share my surpluses. This is the generosity you ask of me. Help me to practice it. Amen.

Work cited

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

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