Weekly Reflections
Start Living the Kingdom Today
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord: 5-8-16
Peace be with You,
As we near the end of the Easter Season, we have come to another great celebration in the life of the Church, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Though a bit difficult to conceptualize, this feast has a beautiful message for us. Let us begin by recalling that last Sunday, Jesus told us that “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” With these words, we were made aware that by living a life of love, we participate in the very life of God through Jesus Christ. That this is not mere metaphorical language is clarified by the feast we celebrate today.
Recall Whom we believe Jesus Christ to be: the Son of God & the Son of Man; completely God and completely human. We believe Him to be the One Who unites us to God by having been put to death and rising again, thereby conquering sin and the subsequent death which had become our rightful inheritance after the fall. Moreover, His resurrection makes evident that the body is not something to be escaped, but rather, the body was made good by God and restored to goodness by Christ. For its part, the Ascension, tells us that we, as complete human persons, body and soul, are meant to live for eternity in loving communion with God! What could be more perfect?! In fact, it’s so good it’s almost unbelievable! Well, it gets better!
You see, we are not simply meant to live the life of Heaven once we pass from this life. Rather, we are meant to begin living the life of Heaven here and now! As St. Augustine says: “While in heaven [Christ] is also with us; and we while on earth are with him...We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there (i.e. Heaven) by love.” My friends, we are the Church, the Body of Christ, meant to make His life present to the world, through lives of self-giving love! To the degree that we accomplish this, we bring God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven to the here and now! Today, you are called to live and to share in the life of that Kingdom!
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Bound by Love
Pentecost Sunday: 5-15-16
Peace be with You,
Friends, with the feast of Pentecost, we come to the end of the Easter Season, and there could not be a more perfect way to culminate this season in which we celebrate the new life Christ has won for! For, what we celebrate today is He Who brings life to the Church, the Holy Spirit.
We believe the Holy Spirit to be the Third Person of the Trinity, Who proceeds from the Father and Son. To describe how this takes place, Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that as the Father and Son gaze at one another for all eternity, they are so overwhelmed with love that they sigh, and this breath released from each is the Spirit of Love, the Holy Spirit. Notice, that by its very character, the Holy Spirit is a binding force. In the Trinity, it is the Love exchange by Father and Son, and within the Church, this same Spirit binds us all together in the One Body of Christ. Moreover, this binding force is so superabundant that those in whom It comes to dwell cannot contain it, not as an individual member, not as a family of millions. Rather, this Love, is so overpowering that in order to sustain It, It must be shared!
This is precisely what we see taking place in our reading from Acts this Sunday. When the apostles receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, they begin to proclaim “the mighty acts of God” in many diverse languages. Notice please, the Spirit here is undoing that which happened at Babel, when men attempted to reach Heaven by their own ingenuity and God confused their language, scattering them. Here, that which cannot be done by human will is accomplished by God Himself. For, through indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the apostles at once both shared in the life of God, and proclaimed ’the mighty acts of God’ that allow all people to come to share in this life: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Friends, this same Spirit that lived and breathed in the early Church is alive and well today! He lives in you and me and longs to share ’the mighty acts of God’ with all we meet! Let us allow the Spirit to live and move in us, so that all may come to share in the life of God, through this same Spirit.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
You Are God's Delight
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: 5-22-16
Peace be with You,
Though the Easter Season has ended with the celebration of Pentecost last Sunday, the Church now instructs us in greater detail as to what the Paschal Mystery means for us in today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Notice please, the beautiful attention to detail which the Church observes in its placement of this celebration. Jesus tells us in the gospel today that when the ’Spirit of truth comes, he will guide us to all truth.’ Having awaited and witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit last week at Pentecost, we have been prepared to receive the truth which that Spirit has to reveal to us. For, just as Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians that ‘none can say Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit,’ so too no one can accept the mystery of Who our God is save by that same Spirit.
The message centers around the words of Christ spoken near the end of our Gospel message for today where Jesus says the Spirit will “take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.” Notice the implication here; everything the Father possesses belongs to Jesus indicating a deep unity. However, this unity is not limited to the Two, but rather the Three, for Jesus says that the Spirit will take from what is His, indicating mutual possession.
That this unity precedes time is seen in our first reading from the book of Proverbs. Therein, we hear the Wisdom of God speak. The fact that Wisdom is speaking should alert us to the fact that this is not wisdom as an abstract concept, but a Person, Whom Paul recognized as Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 1:24). We also see that Wisdom is the delight of God, harkening back to our reflection last week where we recognized the deep love which is shared by the Father and Son which produces the Holy Spirit. Friends, notice the joy expressed in this reading! And notice too that this joy is not limited to the dynamics of the life of the Trinity, but rather spills over as the Trinity delights in all it creates, most especially, the human family, meaning God delights in you! He delights in you so much, that He wishes to share His life with you, which He has made possible through the events we have celebrated during the Easter Season! Today, live the joy of God which is yours through the Holy Spirit!
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
The Gospel of Beauty
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity: 5-20-16
Peace be with You,
This weekend, though passed the Season of Easter, a season of celebration continues within the Church as we observe the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. Following closely upon the heels of Pentecost, this Solemnity proclaims the character of our God, and reveals to us our end.
The words of Jesus in this Sunday’s gospel reading from John, though in an obscure way, reveal the Trinity. However, though obscure, this revelatory language is quite fitting. When speaking of the dynamic relationship of the Trinity in today’s gospel, Jesus uses language of common possession: “Everything that the Father has is mine...He [the Holy Spirit] will take from what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:15). The reason for this is that the Trinity is a dynamic communion of Divine Persons, wherein Each gives of Themselves in totality to the Other. It is out of this radical sense of gift that the Trinity carries out the creation of all that is, as we see alluded to in our first reading from the book of Proverbs today. Moreover, the act of creation did not end the Trinitarian involvement within that creation, rather, as the book of Wisdom teaches us, our God continues to sustain all that is in being (cf. Wisdom 11:24-26), and therefore, in a sense, is constantly creating all that is. This constant and consistent relationship between our God and all that is, impresses upon all of creation the mark of the God which brought it into being; as St. Bonaventure wrote, ‘all of creation testifies that God is Three.’ Consequently, the beauty we find all around us, be it the trees that line our sidewalks, the birds that fill our air with song, or the sun that gives light to our world, is meant to lead us to contemplate the true essence of Beauty found only in our Creator.
However, though all of creation testifies that God is Three and reflects His beauty, none proclaim this deep truth like the human person, whom God has created in his very image and likeness. “You alone are made in the likeness of that nature which surpasses all understanding; you alone are a similitude of eternal beauty, a receptacle of happiness, an image of the true Light; and if you look to Him, you will become what He is, imitating Him Who shines within you, Whose glory is reflected in your purity” (Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on the Song of Songs, 804A-808B). My friends, it is precisely this likeness that both bestows upon us inviolable dignity and tells us that we have been created to share in the very life of the Trinity! Moreover, a life lived in harmony with God has the potential to powerfully radiate His Beauty, and thus proclaim the very dynamic of His existence in a way with which no words could compete!
Today, as we celebrate this great mystery of the One Who is Three, I invite you to take a moment to see the presence of God reflected in the beauty all around you. Allow yourself a moment to meditate upon the gospel of Beauty which every aspect of creation proclaims: the lily of the field, the stars that illumine our night, and most especially, those whom you love! For all will lead you to the same place, to the One Who is Beauty Itself!
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
One Bread One Body
Solemnity of Corpus Christi: 5-29-16
Peace be with You,
Friends, this weekend the Church celebrates Corpus Christi. As we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity last Sunday, this celebration could be no more perfectly placed; for, if the Trinity is that which is our source and end, the Eucharist is that which maintains our unity with that same Trinity.
Last week, we saw that the Person of Wisdom spoken of in our first reading from the book of Proverbs was indeed, Jesus Christ. We saw how Wisdom was present from all eternity, alongside the Creator as He spoke all into being. St. Paul, recognizing this, wrote in his Letter to the Colossians, that Christ “is before all things,” and then quickly adds “and in him all things hold together” (1:17). Paul then immediately proceeds to speak of the church as the Body of Christ, and that in Christ, all has been reconciled to God. My friends, this is the desire of God, that all may be one in Him, as Jesus prayed. The Eucharist is the means of accomplishing this beginning here and now. For, consider that all of us, who believe in this most holy sacrament become the very same Body we receive.
This is precisely why St. Katharine Drexel strove to center the life of her community around the Eucharist. For, dedicated to serving the least of God’s people, Katharine understood that the Eucharist could be a constant reminder and sign that all are one in Christ. Held together by the Eucharist, we are no longer strangers, but the very same Body working for the health and growth of this Body. No longer can we disregard those who have not, for their poverty is our poverty, their hunger is our hunger! This is the lesson Jesus teaches the disciples today. When they come to him saying he should send the crowds away because they had no way of feeding them, Jesus responds, ‘Feed them yourselves.’
My friends, as you receive the Eucharist today recognize Him Whom you receive and are united with! It is the very same Christ that came to give His life for the many! As you approach the altar today, remember the words of St. Augustine: “When you hear “The body of Christ,’ you reply ’Amen.’ Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your “amen may ring true!”
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
The Voice that Speaks Life
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 6-5-16
Peace be with You,
Having celebrated the feasts of the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi on the heels of Pentecost, we now settle into Ordinary Time a bit more this weekend. However, though our festive season may have passed, we continue to have set before us the reality of who Jesus Christ is and what He means for us.
In today’s Gospel reading from Luke, we meet Jesus and the disciples as they are approaching a small Galilean village called Nain. As they are near the edge of the village, mention is made that they are near the city gate. This is significant because Luke is making connection to the Old Testament practice of having seats of judgement located at the city gates. It was here that disputes would be resolved for the people of Israel. Therefore, let us look at today’s gospel event as a resolution of conflict.
The conflict: a widow has lost her only son. In those days, what this meant for her is that her very life is at risk. For having lost her only two providers, her husband and son, she will now be completely dependent upon the community to provide for her. Therefore, in a very real way, the difficulties of the human experience are brought before our eyes in order that we may see the response of Jesus. Luke tells us that the response of Jesus was compassion. The word “compassion” means, literally, to suffer with another. Confronted by the suffering of another, Jesus chooses to suffer with her, which he continues to do with each and every one of us who allow him to approach us in difficult times. But not only does Jesus suffer along with us in our moments of trial, he transforms these moments.
Approaching the bier, Jesus touches it, and commands the dead body to rise. This is reminiscent of the work of God in creation, Who spoke all things into existence. By relating this miracle, Luke, then, is sending a very clear message: this man is indeed God. My friends, it is precisely that we might not have to experience the lasting affect of death that the Son of God came into the world! But it is not only the death at the end of life that God desires to liberate us from, it is the death that sin causes here and now as well. Like the widow’s son, today we too are called to life by the Savior, who gives us breath that we may resolve the conflicts around us as we imitate His love.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
An Honest Look in the Mirror
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: 6-12-16
Peace be with You,
Last week in the episode of the raising of the widow’s son, we were reminded that, not only does Jesus desire to accompany us in our difficult moments, but he wishes to transform them for the good. This week, the transformational power Jesus has on our lives is again on display as he meets a woman at dinner.
If we take an honest look at this Sunday’s gospel reading from Luke, a first reading of it may leave us a little confused, or even embarrassed for the women whose actions are recorded therein. She comes into the scene in sort of a desperate fashion, as Jesus brings to our attention, going far beyond the norms of hospitality for the time, which were already very formal. But might we ask why we have this sort of reaction. Why do we blush at such extraordinary attention given to our Lord?
There are perhaps two ways to answer this question. First, we my take the position of the Pharisee and say, ‘How embarrassing for that women, she has no place here after what she has done. No amount of tears and expensive ointment are going to wash her sins away!’ Sadly, all too often we fall into this trap of self-righteousness, looking at others whose failings have become public, and say, ‘WOW! Glad I am not that bad!’ But notice friends the words of Jesus to this type of response, “the one to whom little is forgiven loves little.” Notice what is said here: if we assume we have little to be forgiven for, we place our selves in a position where we really have little need of a Savior. Why bother with Jesus if we are self-justified?
The second reason we may have such a reaction to the actions of the woman is that what she expresses outwardly, we feel interiorly. Notice friends, the woman is labelled by the Pharisee as being a great sinner (which evidently she recognizes as her actions testify), but we are never told what she has done. I would propose that Luke has intentionally not included this detail in order that we may see ourselves in her position. The relating of this story reminds us that we all are in need of recognizing our need for Jesus, our need to be forgiven. And, in recognizing that we have much to be forgiven for, not only will we love much, but we will be much loved.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
The Door to Love
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: 6-12-16
“He who is forgiven little, loves little.” These are the words Jesus spoke to the Pharisee with whom he was dining after something quite remarkable happened. A woman, whom the Pharisee recognized as being a sinner, had just bathed the feet of Jesus with her tears, and anointed them with expensive ointment. We may wonder why Jesus has directed such a comment to the Pharisee then, was he trying to explain the actions of the woman, or did he have another message for him?
We may begin by recognizing that, as opposed to the Pharisee, the woman has recognize Jesus as being God Himself as only God can forgive sins. For, as Luke tells us, when she learned where Jesus was, she made her way directly to him. The woman, recognizing her need for forgiveness and for a savior, is more open to and indeed hungry for the appearance of such a savior, which is why she reacts so desperately when she hears Jesus is close enough to reach. In contrast, the Pharisee and those seated at table with him have quite a high view of their state before God. He thinks to himself, ‘if this man [Jesus] knew that this woman was a sinner, he would never let her near him, much less touch him,’ for in those days to make contact with one who was unclean would make one unclean as well. In short, the Pharisee finds himself righteous, and as such, he was not looking for forgiveness, he was not looking for a Savior.
The world we live in today makes us susceptible to seeing ourselves as being self-sufficient. With just a couple pounds on our smartphone keyboard we can find the answer to almost any question or purchase any item we happen to desire at the time. Who would need saving when the world is at our fingertips? This illusion is blinding. Like the Pharisee, it gets us too focused on what we are capable of doing rather than recognizing what we can’t, saving ourselves. Consequently, it is good that we should deliberately set aside time to reflect upon where we have fallen short of living the life of the gospel. Where have we not ‘allowed Christ to live in us,’ as St. Paul speaks of in our second reading for today?
My friends, there is only one door to the love of God, and that is forgiveness. If we desire to live life to the full, we must be reconciled to our God Who is the source of all life, and reconciliation can only come through unity with Jesus Christ, the Savior. But, unity with Jesus can only be had through love of neighbor (cf. Matthew 25). Now the dominos all fall. Jesus tells us that only if we forgive others their offenses against us will our offenses against Him be forgiven (cf. Matthew 6:14-15). In other words, if we want to experience the love of God, we must love our neighbor. One of the best ways we can do this, is by forgiving offenses willingly (the Archdiocese Year of Mercy theme for the month of June). In forgiving others we truly ‘put on Christ’ as Paul wrote, for in so doing, we extend the unmerited gift of love God has given to us through His Son. Yes, forgiveness is the only door to the love of God, and it only opens by holding it open for another. Open a door for someone in your life today.
Lunatic, Liar or God?
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 6-19-16
Peace be with You,
Over the last couple of weekends, we have been discussing the transformational power the presence of Jesus can have in our lives. Today, having seen some of the wonders worked by Him, Jesus turns to us and asks a question: Who do you say I am?
Who do the crowds say that I am? This is the first question Jesus addresses to his disciples. They respond with answers of John the Baptist and Elijah, or one of the other great prophets. Notice, these are great compliments; John the Baptist had garnered a large following and Elijah was the prophet expected by the Jewish people to return just prior to the coming of their long-awaited messiah. However, though complimentary, these responses miss the mark. We may liken them to the responses we hear today. For our Jewish brothers and sisters, Jesus is viewed as a miracle worker and respected teacher (by some); for those of the Islamic faith, Jesus is viewed as a prophet; and for those of Hindu or Buddhist faiths, Jesus is a good man and moral teacher, similar to Gandhi. These are safe answers that are politically correct; they are not, however, an option that is on the table and instead completely avoid the issue.
C.S. Lewis framed “the Jesus question” this way: because Jesus claimed to be God, he could either be a liar, a lunatic, or He could be Who He said He was, God. So now we have a decision to make, and I would suggest it is the only real decision you will every make. For how you answer this question will determine how you answer all the questions that follow thereafter. This question is what Christianity is all about, there is nothing else. If we decide that Jesus was a lunatic or liar, then nothing he said matters and we can go about our lives as we wish. On the other hand, if we profess that Jesus is God, the consequence is given to us by the man himself; “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” My friends the life of a Christian is the most noble and yet the most difficult life we could choose. But we do not choose it as a moral paradigm, we choose it because we believe this man to be God, and he has told us, the only way to be in relationship with Him, is to strive to live the way He did; by spending ourselves completely in love, so that all may come to share the life of Him Who makes us one with our God.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
A Singular Desire
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 6-26-13
Peace be with You,
Last week Jesus asked us a question: Who do you say that I am? We had arrived at a point where we could answer that question after witnessing the transformational power Jesus can have on our lives. Today, we find out just how pervasive Jesus desires this transformation to be within our lives.
Follow me, we hear Jesus call to some people as he travels along His journey to Jerusalem. The individuals hesitate, the latter saying, ‘I will follow you wherever you go, but let me go say goodbye to my family first;’ to which Jesus replies, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." We may ask ourselves, ‘isn’t this a harsh and uncompromising response from our Lord? After all, this person just wanted to go and say goodbye to their loved ones.’ We may wish to compare the response of our Lord to that of Elijah in our first reading; when Elijah calls Elisha, Elisha asks permission to have time to do the very same thing and Elijah relents. Why didn't our Lord give this individual the same courtesy? The answer can be found in the actions of Elisha.
His request to go and say goodbye to his family granted, Elisha quits what he is doing immediately, and destroys everything that tied him to his previous way of life. This was no small thing for Elisha to do, we are told he was leading twelve yoke of oxen, a sign of the amount of work to be done and thus, the wealth of Elisha’s family. For Elisha, this is no hesitation, this action represents a definitive break with a former way of life. In other words, when called by the prophet Elijah to do the work of God, Elisha immediately becomes solely about this. Given the response of our Lord in the gospel, evidently this was not the intent of those to whom He spoke.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” To be pure of heart, put simply, means to be desirous about one thing, in this case growing closer to God. Jesus clearly tells us, it is those who are solely focused on this who will ultimately reach the destiny for which we all have been created, perfect communion with God. Jesus came precisely so that this might be made available to us, but He will not force Himself upon us, we all have a decision to make. What is your desire?
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Bearers of a Life-Giving Message
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-3-16
Peace be with You,
Last week, we saw that the call of Jesus is a call to be about one thing, a life of unity with God. This week, we are given a clearer picture of what that life entails.
In our gospel reading this week, we find Jesus sending out 70 disciples (the number patterned on Moses’ commission to 70 elders of Israel to be prophets in Israel; cf. Numbers 11:24-25; N.B. some translations use the number 72). Jesus sends the 70 out as ‘lambs in the midst of wolves,’ suggesting that these disciples would face clear opposition from those to whom they preached the gospel. Unfortunately, this situation has not changed much over the course of time. Today, Christians face passive-aggressive opposition in countries like ours by secularists groups and violent persecution at the hands of various anti-Christian groups in the Middle East. However, though encountering opposition wherever they go, Christians bring a message of peace to whomever they meet, most especially to those who meet them with so much resistance. Notice, Jesus does not say, ‘respond in kind as you are treated,’ but rather He encourages them to not be discouraged, and to move along with their mission, which is an urgent one.
This urgency is indicated by Jesus’ instructions to “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals and salute no one on the road.” No purse indicating both radical dependence upon God for our sustenance; no bag indicating our detachment from material possession; no sandals because as St. Augustine says, we must renounce dead works (for the sandals were made from the leather of dead beasts); and do not salute anyone because we must not be slowed or distracted in our work.
Friends, this is the life of Christian discipleship, a life characterized by radical dependence upon God and detachment from the things of the world. We need have only one thing on our mind: bringing the life-giving message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all we meet in word and deed. In doing so we may rejoice, ’For our names will be written in heaven.’
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
A World Full of Neighbors
Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-10-16
Peace be with You,
Last week, we found ourselves being sent out on mission by Jesus as His disciples to proclaim the gospel message to all peoples. This week, we are given further instruction on what it means to be a disciple in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The parable of the Good Samaritan springs from a question addressed to Jesus by a “scholar of the law,” who asks Jesus what ‘he must do to inherit eternal life?’ To this question, Jesus responds that we must follow the law, which the scholar rightly summarizes by relating the two-fold precept of love, i.e. love of God and love of neighbor. In order to perhaps test Jesus or to learn from Him, the scholar asks Jesus a pretty logical question based upon this: who is my neighbor?
Based upon the conversation that came beforehand, we may read this parable as an allegorical explanation of how we should live the two-fold precept of love. For the Church Fathers, the Good Samaritan is none other than Jesus Himself. It is He Who meets the man half-dead on the side of the road, whom they saw as Adam, the stand-in for the fallen human race; half-dead because they had fallen from the life of perfect relationship with God, yet not fully dead for they still bore God’s image, making them capable of coming to know God, and therefore capable of being restored to His friendship. However, as half-dead, the fallen human family was in need of care, of reconciliation with their God to become fully alive once again. Thus, God Himself became man (symbolized by the animal upon which He places the injured man), and brings the injured human family to an inn for care, paying the cost of their healing out of His immense love for God the Father, and the human family (symbolized by the 2 denarii). This place of care, the Church Fathers saw as the Church, the place of healing for the human family, for it is the place where they meet and are brought back into full communion with their God, thus enabling them to live the full life they were created for.
The story does not end here, however, for we are not called to be passive in salvation history, but active. Thus, having experienced healing, we are to be instruments of healing to the world (our neighbors) by being imitators of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ, Who this day calls us to “go and do likewise.”
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Active Contemplation
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-17-16
Peace be with You,
Last week, through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus showed us what it means to live a life in imitation of Him when it comes to loving service of our neighbor. This week, a meeting with two of Jesus’ friends gives us some instruction on how the personal life of a disciple of Jesus is shaped.
A first look at the story of Martha and Mary as related by Luke in this Sunday’s gospel would seem to suggest that Martha had somehow erred, as opposed to Mary, whom our Lord says had chosen “the better part.” While there is certainly a reason for our Lord’s phrasing, I would like to suggest that although Mary certainly has her priorities in the right order, if we take a closer look at the story, Martha has just as much to tell us about living a life of discipleship.
St. Gregory the Great interpreted this particular gospel story as a both/and, not an either/or. That is, we are not to be as Mary rather than Martha, but to learn from both of them. For Gregory, the two sisters exemplified the two dimensions of the spiritual life: the active (Martha) and the contemplative (Mary). This type of constructive dichotomy has been utilized in various spiritual traditions of the Church. For example, we may point to the Benedictine phrase ora et labora (pray and work), or the Jesuit term active contemplation as indications that these concepts are not competitive, but rather complementary. To be sure, as we have seen in prior weeks, the life of a Christian disciple revolves around a relationship which seeks ever greater unity with Jesus Christ. However, as Jesus Himself constantly tells us, if we are to be in relationship with Him, we will actively seek out the good of others. For, as James tells us in his letter, “faith without works is dead” (2:17). In short, there is a healthy tension we must maintain when it comes to our life of discipleship, we must ora et labora. Work without prayer will quickly devolve into an activism which seeks its own ends instead of Jesus’ end of building God’s kingdom here on earth; while prayer without work will leave our relationship with God unrealized, remaining in the world of idea and thus, never coming to life. My friends, Mary has chosen the better part not because she has chosen to do nothing, but because all that she does is informed by the Word of God, Jesus Christ. If we would have our works bring life to the world, we must do the same.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Persistent Prayer
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-24-16
Peace be with You,
Last week through the story of Martha and Mary, we received instruction about how the disciple of Jesus is to order their life. That is, the life of discipleship is shaped by one’s relationship with Jesus, but it is not characterized by sedentary contemplation (prayer), rather our relationship with Jesus gives impulse to a life of faith based work.
Today, Jesus focuses on the prayer dimension of our life of discipleship.
If we were to sum up what Jesus has to tell us about how we are to approach prayer, we would simply say that we must be persistent in prayer. In our gospel for today, Jesus uses the parable of a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night asking for him to lend him some supplies. In the end, Jesus tells us, that if the friend doesn’t get up because of their friendship, he will give him what he is asking for because of his persistence. So, are we to understand that if we pray persistently that God will give us whatever we want? Absolutely not. This would be to completely misunderstand the function of prayer. Rather, persistent prayer is meant to have a double-effect: 1) In praying persistently our wills become united with God’s, so that our desire is properly oriented; & 2) As St. Augustine says, persistent prayer has the effect of ’expanding our capacity to receive the great gifts God is preparing to give us.’
At this point you may protest saying, in the end the man gets what he wants. Yes, we can be assured that God hears and will answer our prayers if they be according to His will. However, the answer may not look exactly like what we had in mind. What this means then, is that we need to be open to God surprising us. Our prayer may be answered in a way which is completely unexpected, so unexpected we may not even notice if we are not looking for the response.
My friends, the journey of discipleship has ups and downs, twists and turns that can be made sense of only from the purview of God. We must trust that He knows how to get us exactly where we need to go, and be ready to walk through the doors He opens, even when they aren’t the doors we expected to pass through. Be open to the surprising plans of God, for I can assure you, the path He maps out will always be more exciting and more fulfilling than anything we could have devised.
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
Praying as Jesus Taught Us
Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-24-16
It may not be so surprising to us that when Christians are asked (be it in survey or interview), if there is one area in their life that they struggle with or that they wish they could improve upon, many will respond with answers that relate to the topic of prayer. For many of us, prayer can be a hard thing to wrap our minds around, and we may find ourselves asking: what is prayer really, and how am I supposed to pray? It is refreshing, therefore, to find the disciples asking Jesus for instruction on this topic in our gospel reading for today.
Many times, we fall into the mindset that prayer must take on a certain form, that some sort of formula should be followed in order to pray correctly, or in order for it to count so to speak. However, though we may speak about what the proper approach may be to prayer (as we will do in reflecting upon the Lord’s Prayer below), prayer is not first formulaic, but conversational. Put simply, prayer is nothing other than speaking with God, or as St. John of Damascus wrote: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God...” (CCC 2559). The problem, then, is not that prayer is a complicated endeavor, but rather, quite often the problem is that we do not see God as someone we would like to talk to. Consider for a moment that it is the most natural thing in the world for us to communicate with those to whom we are close. And how is it that we grew close to them? By spending time with them. Therefore, if we want to improve our prayer life, Thomas Merton would suggest that the first thing we need to do is ‘take the time.’
For the answer of how we should pray, we may look to the Lord’s Prayer. For if we are to pray rightly, St. Augustine of Hippo tells us, “we say nothing than what is already contained in the Lord’s Prayer” (Letter 130, p. 22). To be brief, let us look at the basic structure of the Lord’s Prayer. To begin, it is a unitive prayer, for we say Our Father, not my Father, suggesting that it is only united with Christ that we have truly been made sons and daughters of God, able to call Him Father. Next, we find three petitions asking for the glory of God to be made manifest in our world through our lives, and therefore, draw us to Him: “Hallowed be Thy name...Thy kingdom come...Thy will be done.” The next two petitions: “Give us...forgive us...” help us recognize our dependence upon God for our life here and now ‘to be fed and healed from the division of sin,’ (cf. CCC 2805), and the last two petitions recognize that our life is not limited to the here and now, but we are meant for eternal life “lead us not...deliver us...” In sum, we may recognize then, that the Lord’s Prayer, is, as Tertullian says, the ‘summary of the whole gospel,’ for its words proclaim the human drama in its proper context; i.e. in relation to God.
My dear friends, it has been a great honor to serve you over the past year. In leaving you, I ask you to pray for me as I take the next step in my pilgrimage of this life, and I make the words of St. Paul my prayer on your behalf: “May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it” (1 Thess. 5:23-24).
Your servant in Christ,
Tony
