Last week, I wrote about how, being human, I have a tendency to turn flowers into plans that stunt growth. Either that, or I tend to expect weeds to be ugly, and when they aren’t, I let them choke growth. This week’s readings have more to say about these tendencies and how God responds to them. The readings also concerning the weeds I didn’t plant or allow to takeover and yet they still pop up in the fields and gardens of life.
I invite you also to join me in this prayer: Lord, I surrender the weeds within me to Your gardening. Thank You for your patience with me. Help me to extend this patience to the people and experiences in my life and to discern how to be just and merciful as You are just and merciful. Amen.
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.
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
As I rejoin Jesus’ first followers, they have been praying behind locked doors, huddling in fear. In their time with Jesus, they’ve experienced hope, joy, grief, and fear. These experiences are repeated and shared in Christian life, and indeed, in human life.1 Peter reflects this reality, acknowledging, “now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith . . . may prove to be for praise, glory, and and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” the perfect union with others in Him that is Heaven (1 Peter: 7). This union in its fullness won’t be revealed now, but is “ready to be revealed in [that] final time” (1 Peter: 5).
There are times, even prior to that perfect union, when the pouring out of Divine Love becomes apparent in overtly supernatural ways. One such occasion is when Jesus comes through that locked door into the room where the apostles are praying and breathes the Holy Spirit onto them. (To read a story based on John’s account of when the apostles received the Holy Spirit, follow this link to a post I wrote around this time last year.) Another comes later in the same chapter when Jesus comes again through the locked doors and shows Thomas his wounds (John 20: 26-28).
The other account of the descent of the Holy Spirit is in Acts. In Acts 2:4-11, The Spirit allows the apostles to speak languages they haven’t previously known. In my my imagination, they not only speak these languages but do so enthusiastically, animatedly — to the point where observers think they must be drunk (Acts 2: 13).
But they aren’t. What’s happened is the Holy Spirit has given the disciples what they need to fulfill their calling. They have new skills and greater understanding of what they’ve experienced. The Holy Spirit has replaced their grief and confusion with faith, joy, and generosity. The reading from Acts tells me, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and positions and divide them among all according to each one’s need” and that “[e]very day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area into breaking bread in their homes” (Acts 2: 44-45). The reading adds, “They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people” (Act 2:46-47). This description doesn’t paint a picture of a reserved or sedately appreciative people. These people are overflowing with qualities that draw others to their community.
I read that “many signs and wonders were done through the apostles,” but it stands out to me that I read this after I read that the first Christians “devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles . . . to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers” (Act 2:42-43). It’s after I read this summary of what early Christian life was like that I’m told “Awe came upon everyone, and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles” (Acts 2:43) The passage doesn’t focus on these “signs and wonders” (Acts 2:43). Instead, it focuses on the wonders that come forth from the soil, along with the gifts of generosity, sincerity, faith, community, and joy. These qualities are just a few of the facets of God’s mercy. It isn’t made visible only through a single supernatural event. It “endures forever”(Psa. 118:4). It works in acts of sincerity, faith, gratitude, generosity, and joy and has immeasurable power to bring people along on a journey toward God.
Lord, I ask that the gifts of your Holy Spirit shine forth from me and from the communities in which I share so that they may draw everyone to You. 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
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.
1 Corinthians 1:17
This verse from the readings for this past weekend is the one that grabbed my attention. It did so because it left me with questions.
What does Paul have to say to me with the words “Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 1:17)?
He did baptize people, didn’t he? Verses 14 through 16 say he did. So why does he say Christ didn’t send him to baptize? It seems to me that he provides the answer in verse 13. One question in that verse reminds the flock in Corinth it isn’t in his name that they come together. It isn’t in his name that they share what they have with those who have less. It isn’t in his name that they forgive one another and love and pray for those who persecute them. It isn’t in his name that they share their spiritual gifts. Rather, it’s in Christ’s name that they do all these things, as it was in Christ’s name that they were baptized, not in Paul’s. Christ worked through earthly leaders of the Church in Corinth to baptize people. None of those leaders were acting on their own behalf.
This first part of the verse also reminds me that while different members of Christ serve different functions within his mystical body, (for example, some regularly baptize new members, while others normally don’t) all members are called to preach the gospel — and not just with words. Conveying the limitations of language seems part of the message of the verse’s second half: “and not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning”[italics mine] (1 Cor.1:17).
Even Christ’s words, by themselves, didn’t keep sin and the suffering that resulted from having the final say. The words themselves didn’t unite to himself and to one another anyone who wanted to be united. His death on the cross and the resurrection that followed made that possible. He carried our wounds and our weaknesses to the fullest extent he could — to the point of death. He was victorious after he offered his life on the cross. But in the final hours of that pre-resurrection life, when he spoke at all, he didn’t tell parables or give sermons as he once had. He spoke in short phrases.
Jesus’ words prepared hearers to receive the union with the Divine that he would offer through his body on the cross and through His Spirit on Pentecost.
The words themselves didn’t complete the adoption, yet they paved the way for the proceedings. Nevertheless, despite the important role words sometimes play in bringing us closer together as members of Christ’s family, and of the human family Paul writes that “human eloquence” can empty the cross “of its meaning (1 Cor. 1:17).
How can this happen?
One answer is that words themselves are a means of dividing the people, ideas, and objects they represent into categories that separate one thing from another. Language distinguishes between an apple and an orange, between people from one tribe or place and another. Language defines an “us” and a “them.” It names God and the elements of God’s creation. Such differentiation has its place because recognizing our differences can help us learn from each other and grow in humility. Certainly recognizing that we are not God can help with the latter.
But problems arise when we let ourselves believe that the ways we are different from other people make us better than them. This belief won’t let us celebrate others as the unique reflections of God that they are. Problems also arise when we get so focused on the challenges that our differences present that we don’t recognize what we have in common. Third, problems arise when we focus so much on our separateness from God that we don’t grow in our relationship with God. These problems are some forms sin can take.
The effects of sin are the opposite of the effect of the cross of Christ, which has the power to close the painful gaps we create between ourselves and others and between ourselves and God. Is this closure complete? No, because each of us has to receive healing (the reception of which sometimes means carrying crosses of our own) so that we can share it again and again. Also, this healing is not complete because we haven’t yet reached the end of time as we know it.
And there’s another reason besides the frequent divisiveness of “human eloquence” that can empty the cross “of its meaning” (1 Cor. 17). Human eloquence can have this effect when it isn’t supported by action — which is not to say that words cannot be actions in and of themselves. Sometimes words can help us comprehend the full meaning of actions. Yet they can also be attractive but devoid of meaning. Presenting an eloquent argument in favor of one solution to a problem doesn’t, in fact, solve the problem. For that to happen, someone has to put the solution into action. Talking about giving someone a meal or a drink of clean water is not the same as actually providing it. Eloquent prayers and reflections by themselves are empty unless they are accompanied by actions. And yet, it can feel so much easier to talk about doing something and to tell someone else to do something than to participate in doing it myself
Lord, help me to recognize how I can be an answer to prayers today. 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
Click this link to read, to listen to, and/or to watch Lisa Frey’s reflection on this week’s readings. God willing, I’ll be back to posting my own reflections next week. Thanks for visiting Sitting with the Sacred. I hope you’ll come again soon.
I want to go to the place described in Isaiah 11:1-10. The passage describes what a kingdom united to one on whom “the spirit of the Lord shall rest” will look like (Isa. 11:2). I’ve just quoted a single verse from the passage, but the excerpt in its entirety offers such beautiful imagery. Read the entire passage. If you’re like me, you’ll come away feeling all kinds of warm fuzzies.
In case you don’t have time to look the passage up right now, I still want this post to make sense, so I’ll summarize the verses. The Anointed One is wise, humble, and just. He “lifts up” every valley and makes every hill “low” (Isa. 40:4). In other words, he smooths everything out. His virtues effect eternal peace among and within all that is. The psalm further expands on the presentation of what this peace will look and feel like.
So does the third reading, even though it doesn’t paint an idyllic picture of the future and instead instructs the members of the early Christian community in Rome about how to conduct themselves. They are to look to the Scriptures for “encouragement that [they] might have hope” as they endure successive present moments that fall short of the promises that the first two readings make (Rom. 15:4).
When I first heard the third reading this time around, I don’t think I actually got its message. I found it difficult to see Paul’s instructions as part of fulfilling those promises. Romans 15:5 says to “think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The source of my struggle was that between most recently hearing this reading and returning to it as I prepared to write this post, I remembered it including a verse that tells Christians to be “of one mind.” These aren’t the words I’m seeing either in publications of the Sunday Readings or in my Bible. Nevertheless, a quick Google search for where “of one mind” appears in the New Testament letters brings up Philippians 2:2, whose message is very similar to Romans: 15:5.
I’m glad the epistle for this week was the passage from Romans and wasn’t a passage including Philippians 2:2. My gut reaction is that the instruction to be “of one mind” means that to be united with God and with each other means to agree about everything, to be essentially the same person, or maybe to be multiple robots produced by following one blueprint. But contrary to this (lack of) understanding, Paul assures the flock in Corinth that “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:4).When I went back to Romans 5:5 in light of this message, I noticed that the verse wants us to be in “harmony with one another. [Italics mine]”
Here’s what I’ve learned from my time in school and church choirs about what it means to be in harmony: it means one singing part blending with another so that the parts enrich each other’s qualities. When I hear a choir, my ears don’t perceive the parts as separate components unless I work hard to distinguish the individual parts. Instead, I perceive the components as one, rich sound that would be missing something without each part. Harmony fills out a musical competition, giving it movement, depth, and nuance. A musical composition without harmony sounds thinner and flimsier than one with it.
Applying my limited musical knowledge and skills to the third reading reminds me that being in harmony doesn’t mean that we must never disagree, nor does it mean that we should all be the same. Rather, it means being open to each other’s gifts. Being open to each other’s gifts is essential for each of us to reflect who we are in God. We can think differently and be different from each other and still “[w]elcome one another” (Rom. 15:7). We don’t have to distance ourselves from those who are different from us. To “welcome one another” is not to let fear disrupt the harmony God wants us to enjoy with each other and with Him. It is to recognize the truth that God works through each of us because of our differences — differences that, when employed for “produc[ing] good fruit,” blend to make one sound that’s all the richer for being layered (Mat. 3:8).
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
A while back, I heard someone say that we don’t have poverty today like that which existed when Jesus walked in the Holy Land. I thought, “That’s not true.” Even if we look only at people in the US and say that life below the poverty line in this country is better than the circumstances the Lazarus of Luke 16:19-31 finds himself in while he lives, there are still too many people who don’t know where their next meal is coming from and can’t afford life-saving treatment or preventative medical care. This is unacceptable. We’re the stewards of God’s gifts, and part of being a steward means taking care of the lives that intersect with ours. In one way or another each of our lives intersects with every other life. Each one is a gift from God.
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty”
St. Teresa of calcutta
One of the wonderful qualities of the parables is that they contain enough details and yet are universal enough to speak to people who receive them in a variety of times, places, and circumstances. The parable in Luke 16:19-31 is no exception.
Yes, it’s important to be on the lookout for the members of the human family who lack the material necessities of life, and to share what we have to meet those needs. That is one of the messages of this parable.
Yet, as I’ve heard and read the story again this week, I’ve found myself zeroing in on certain details I haven’t before. I found myself noticing just how near Lazarus is to the rich man. I’ve also noticed the statement “Dogs even used to come and lick his sores” (Luke 16:21). I suspect this detail would be repulsive to a first-century audience. The possibility of this reaction underscores how unaware human beings can be of each other’s needs — so unaware that a repulsive action from an animal demonstrates greater attention than a nearby human does. Meanwhile, some readers and listeners today might say it’s not surprising the dog showed more care for Lazarus than the rich man did.
But this lack of surprise at human obliviousness and/or callousness doesn’t have to feel so familiar. We can appreciate how God shows love for us through all of creation even as we look for ways to share God’s love with the world around us. We can choose to be conscious and proactive conduits of that love.
And not only by tending to the needs of those who lack material necessities. We can reach out to our brothers and sisters who are reaching out to us for companionship. As St. Teresa of Calcutta said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty” (qtd. in Brenninkmeyer). We can also respond to our brothers and sisters who turn to us for guidance. As Lisa Brenninkmeyer reminds us, we can strive to be more aware of and to meet the needs of those closest to us.
I’d like to wrap up this post with the prayer she used to close a reflection for September 25th. You can listen to that reflection here. It comes from her collection of daily devotions entitled Be Still, which I’m listening to through the Hallow app.
Dear Lord, Take the blinders of my eyes so I see the needs around me. Help me to see the interruptions in my day as opportunities to serve. I may never see how significant these little acts of kindness are, but You see. You know. And that is enough. Amen
Lisa Brenninkmeyer
Works cited
The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.
Brenninkmeyer, Lisa. “September 25.” Be Still Devotional, Hallow, 25 Sept. 2022, https://hallow.com/prayers/1008598/. Accessed 28 Sept. 2022
I think the parable in Luke 16:1-13 might be the most perplexing one for me. The variety of interpretations this reflection offers suggests I’m far from the only one who’s not sure how to apply this story to my own life. Maybe it isn’t one interpretation or the other that’s valid. Maybe it’s a parable that’s meant to be understood differently in different circumstances.
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.
Sitting with the Sacred 