A Lesson for Men

The verse from Colossians 3:21 - "Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord,"  is one that I like.  Don't think me a chauvinist; but, hear me out. I have a reason this is a favorite verse. 

Every time this verse is read in mass, I hear these or similar comments.         

•   "I bet your wife doesn't want you to include that in the readings."   
•  "Why did you read that part, isn’t that the optional bracketed text." 
•  "Surely, you don't think in today's world, women are inferior to men." 
•  "I would never get my wife to consider herself subject to me."

The reason this verse is a favorite is because the verse is not about any of these ideas. 

This passage does contain directions for a Christian Family.  But it is not instructions for wives; it is an instruction to men.  Throughout the bible, it is stated that the husband must be the spiritual head and model of worship for the family; but, Christ brought a new model.

To understand this verse, look at the beginning of the passage.  "And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection." (Col 3:14)  This is the model the husband should follow. This Christian husband is one that a Christian wife should have.  The wife would love the husband and respect him in the love that Christ teaches.

The husband must not be the dominant oppressive patriarch with a stern unyielding rule. A loving family is absent the selfish power and compulsion that will cripple and distort love. The family is to "Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." (Col 3:12)  To love is not easy, that maybe is why we fail as Christians and why many families fail.  The family is where we learn to love.  Love is this where the family grows. 

Maybe when we discuss this verse, we should look at Jesus command - love others as you love yourself.  One ancient philosopher put it even more simply.  Let us not impose on others we would not impose on ourselves. So following Christ's directions it would also be husbands subordinate to your wives, as is proper in the Lord. 

The reason this is one my favorite verses is it teaches me to be a better man.

God Have Mercy (Mt 9:27-31)

When I was a boy, we played a game called "Mercy."   Two players would interlock their fingers.  Each would try to get the advantage through strength or leverage.  They would then bend the other player's fingers backward, making them ask for "mercy."  The winner would then have mercy and release the other player.

An act of mercy is one that removes hurt and suffering.  The winner in a game of mercy could do this.  The players were connected.  Each shared the struggle of the game. The winner knew the hurt of the loser, because many times before, this winner may have have had asked for mercy.

The truths we can learn in a child's game are surprising.  As in the game, a true act of mercy shares in the suffering of the other person. This is something we do not want to do in real life.  How many of us really can say we practice mercy by sharing in the suffering?

The Father sent the Son to know mercy.  Jesus was a man; yet, also divine.  In Jesus, God experienced the human condition from birth to death.  God shared in our suffering, our hurt, our misfortune, our angst, and our condition.

When we see the need and only feel bad, we do not show mercy.  Each of us, can easily see the affliction of others and feel compassion but it is hard to bring ourselves to share the suffering.  God did.  God became man. So that God could have mercy.

I Got My New Glasses Today

I got my new glasses today.

Over time my eyes have gotten worse, nothing I did; just age (too old), circumstance (an old sports injury to my eye), and environment (sunshine and glare). With my new glasses, I can see what I did not know I couldn't see.  My eyes were opened.

My glasses broke and I had to send them in for repair.  So only having an old prescription pair, I took some vacation.  During this time, I worked with some folks who had nothing, not even heat, and it has been cold. Some were elderly.  Some were sick.  Some had nothing.

A human faults sometimes let us place ourselves above folks worse off.  We just can not see as well as we need to see.  The world has affected us in our age, our circumstance, and our environment.

The predicament of the poor many times is nothing they control; just age, circumstance, and environment.

I see people talk in loving words about their children and the great things they have accomplished.  I see how alone they are.  I wonder how did they get in these predicaments of poverty.

I put on the glasses of love and my eyes are opened by the one who loves us all.

I got my new glasses today.

contrary 2 love

A love poem to my wife and to God

contrary 2 love   by WEGoss2

Still,

water is tickled

                              by a pebble

beginning an inviting intrusion.

Separate,

never the same,

                            ripples, outward

in beautiful symmetry.

Contrary 2 love

      (self-ness)

                              awakened -

meeting in opposites

Contrary 2 love

      (Individualistic-ness)

                             distinctively -

merging 2 one.

Away,

runs together

                             water & pebble dance

a sparkling togetherness

Contrary 2 love

       (uniqueness)

                             agitation  -

freeing the soul.

Always,

water & pebble

                             polished to a gem

absorbing the polished.

Contrary 2 love

       (differenceness)

                             friction -

making us more.

Together

Some despair

                             in ripples of

identity, meaning,

Contrary 2 love

      (worldliness)

                             crisis -

bonding the 2.

Forever,

1 beginning

                             2 to 1 but 2

the pebble heart of  water

Contrary 2 love

        (self…)

                             but 2 -

growing to 1.

Who is this Pope?

I received a text message.  It was a question that asked, “Who is this Pope? Is he Peter the Roman?”  If you do not know, this is a reference to the St. Malachy prophesy.  These prophesy are of the last pope supposedly attributed to St. Malachy from the 12^th century.

My answer was this: He is man who recognizes he is a man with faults and weaknesses like every man.

Peter the Roman is identified as a good Christian leader.  Many Popes could be identified as Peter the Roman. The Pope sits in the Petrine Chair, as the Bishop of Rome.  Peter the Romans is said to guide the church through many tribulations before the coming of final judgment.  Throughout history, the Popes have guided the Church through tribulation, scandals, war, and attacks by those against it.  The origin of the Pope is Christ’s words, “You are Kepha, and on this very kepha, I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”  Kepha is rock, which translates to Greek as Peter. This was a promise of a continued line of Peter of Rome. Many Popes (Peters) would lead the church against many different tribulations - heresy, wars, plagues, schisms, injustice, and internal controversy.

I called and asked this person what his concerns were.  It was stated all that was being heard and attributed to what the Pope said.  Tribulations made by not understanding what Pope Francis says in relationship to Church teachings.  An Interpretation of Pope Francis words written without even an exploration the catechism by writers who do not know the Church.  Many journalists may be trying to spread agendas.  These are not the same as the Catholic Church’s agenda but may legitimize secular thought by linking them to the Pope’s words.

All of this comes from Pope Francis humility.  When asked in an interview, “Who is the man Jorge Bergoglio.”  The Pope thought and said, “I am a sinner.”  This is the defining statement that supports all that he has said so far.  We are not to judge others, only offer the love of Christ, who is the ultimate judge of what is in a person’s heart.  We are all sinners, how can someone imperfect judge another imperfect soul.

Christ is the perfect man, Christ is the one without sin, and Christ will be the judge of all. As sinners, we are to respect with dignity each and every person.  We are to tolerate others, tolerate them because we are all sinners and be examples of Christ love.  Show them the path of Christ, show them that they are to “Love the Lord God with all their hearts and all their souls and all their minds, and love their neighbors as themselves.” We can only do this completely, if we recognize that we are all sinners.

A Thank-you for the Music Ministry of My Friends

Victor Hugo said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”   

Our spoken word does not always voice what we need to say, especally in our prayers.  Only in the silence of prayer can our hearts truly reveal our inner most thoughts.  After that, music comes nearest to articulating the expressions of our soul.   Sacred music is these prayers which we cannot put into words because of our earthly limitation.  Music is the  soul's projection of a vision of joy or sorrow; life or death; love or remorse.   In it, we know of prayers that we cannot speak aloud.

Martin Luther said, "...music is one of the most magnificent and delightful present God has given us."   It is a gift that is the expression of  our soul to the outward world.   Like a breath, it escapes from what is in us.  

There is an old Hebrew teaching that every breath we take is a prayer to God; with your help,  the breath of our words of prayer are magnified with your gift of music.  In our pride, we do not thank God enough and we do not thank those who work for God enough.    Thank you and thank God for the gift of music that you bring.  

  

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you...  - Philippians 1:3

Homiletic's Class - Reflection for Holy Thursday

The following was an assignment for my Homiletic's Class 
A Reflection for Holy Thursday.

We all look up to someone -  our father, mother, or even a grandparent.  Maybe we have someone who was a mentor to us.  A lot of people followed Jesus and his disciples, listening to his teaching.  Some of the followers may have been tied to them by circumstance, maybe before Jesus, the disciples were their mentors.  Have you ever wondered about those who followed?  Maybe it was an apprentice fisherman.

My name is Moshe. Yes, I remember Jesus.  I am an old man now, but I have lived my life by the model he gave us.  What model?  Let me tell you the story.

  I was down by the sea of Galilee.  I was not much more than a boy, just old enough to become an apprentice.  I was working with my mentors Simon and his brother Andrew.  They were teaching me to fish, make nets, handle the boat, and all the things a man needs to know.   A teacher named Jesus came to the shore, preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven.  He said to Simon and Andrew, "follow me, I will make you fishers of men."  I was thinking, this sounds funny, so I asked them if they knew this man, "Where does this man come from, where does he eat?"   Jesus said to me, "Come and see."  So, I did.   

  I followed Jesus as he went from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom to come.  He spoke and taught in the synagogues.  Everyone that heard him, praised his teaching.   They were amazed that he taught with so much authority.  He did not teach like the scribes or Pharisees. There was a realness about him.  You believed what he taught.  

I remember one time, a scribe asked him, what is the greatest commandment.  Everyone knew what Moses taught, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind."  But Jesus added to this, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  It was the same law we all knew but so much more when he spoke it.

Wherever he entered some place new, people were waiting. Whether it was the countryside, a village or even a great city, people came.  The sick would be laying on the streets in the market place just asking to touch the hem of his cloak, and many touched it and were cured.  

  Jesus did the most wondrous and glorious things. He calmed the sea in a storm. He fed thousand with just a few loves and some fish.  He raised the dead.  

Yet, even with such great things, the most learned of men in the Law, still tried to trap him with questions.  He always gave answers they could not refute.  And in all of this, Jesus could have become angry against those who doubted him, but he remained so humble.   

He rejected no one and was friends with tax collectors and sinners.  All those that others looked down upon, came near Him to listen.  The Pharisees called out against him because Jesus sat and ate with sinners.  I was among the sinners who sat listening to his words.

In his words and deeds, Jesus taught us faith.  Jesus taught us to forgive ourselves and to forgive others.  Many were healed because of their faith.  Yes, and many were healed because their sins were forgiven. He taught us to pray "forgive us as we forgive others." 

Many, many people grew to believe in Jesus, people said that even some of the rulers believed in Jesus, but could not follow Him because they were afraid that they would be persecuted and loose power and their office.  I do not think these people heard his words.

Jesus was a man, I know this.  He shed tears and became hungry; but, he was more than a man because of his love.  It was a love that forgave us our sins.  A love that allowed us to believed in the power of forgiveness.  When Jesus forgave us of our sins, our sins (all our sins) were forgiven.   This was Jesus' true humility, living less in himself and doing all for the Kingdom of Heaven. 

I could go on, because there is so much more to tell. But I must tell you of the things that occurred at that  Passover meal. At the end of the meal, Jesus took the bread and blessed it.  He said "This is my body. This is a cup of the new covenant."  All those at the table shared in the bread and cup.  

Then Jesus did the most remarkable thing, he took off his robe and tied a towel around his waist and washed everyone's feet.  Simon, who Jesus call Peter, did not want the master to wash his feet. The master washing the feet of his disciples.   Everyone was in awe.  Jesus then said, "I have given you a model to follow, as I have done for you, you should also do."  

     I can tell you the story over and over, and remember something different every time.  But every part of Jesus teachings were in the washing of the feet.  His message, his ministry, and his life was simply this expressed so simply:  

• Jesus loved us, he washed our feet for love;
• Jesus forgave us, he washed away what soiled us; and 
• Jesus humbled himself in everything, putting every one before himself.  

     
     This was the model he gave us after that meal and in his life.  Not just in washing our feet with water and a towel but in all he did.  He humbled himself to wash us with forgiveness  and dried us with love.  He did this even the next day when they took him, beat him, and crucified him.  Humbled on the cross, he forgave us and still loved us even in what was done to him.

     Many took his model and began to teach and heal those in need.  They served, they loved, and they forgave sins by his authority.  My friend Peter said that "Jesus was the living son of God."  I know this is true.  Many others also believe.

     This is end of the story of a man's life; but, that is not the end of the story. The rest of the story is the one of Christ Jesus, which is greater still.  But we will save that for another time. 

     Now many years later, people go to the 5 Gospels to hear Jesus' story, to discover the model - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.  Yes, Yes, I know that is only 4 gospels.   The fifth gospel, I hope is found in me, following Christ's model of love, forgiveness, and humility.  Please, let an old man finish by asking you this: Is the fifth gospel your life as well?

Thank you my friend, Moshe.   It is such good news to hear the gospel coming from you.   I too challenge you to follow the model Jesus gave us, be the gospel living in the world.

Prayer of the Faithful - 23 Week in Ordinary Time

1.      That the Church, the People of God, be witnesses of hope and
healing to those who bear a cross of distress in a challenging world…
We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

2.      That Pope Francis, Bishop Duca, and all priests and deacons
inspire the faithful to bear their crosses each day with patience and
fidelity to the Gospel…  We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

3.      That the resolve of leaders in Syria, Egypt and all of the Middle
East is strengthened by God to end the fighting and choose a future of
peace…  We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

4.      That students and teachers grow in God's wisdom as well as academic
wisdom…  We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

5.      That our community puts Christ first in building a foundation of
faith in our Church, in supporting the Diocesan Appeal, and to those
we minister to…  We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

6.      That those who bear the heavy crosses of severe illness experience
God’s healing and presence… We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

7.      That all who have died may be welcomed into the eternal life
Christ has prepared for us…  We pray to the Lord– Lord Hear Our Prayer

8.      That the Lord comes to the aid of those who have requested our
prayers, those on our prayer list, and those intentions we now voice,
(Pause)   We pray to the Lord – Lord Hear Our Prayer

9.      That we find true strength in God as we add our own intentions
and needs in the silence of our hearts… (Pause)  We pray to the Lord –
Lord Hear Our Prayer

Me Is A Complicated Thought

Recently during a family dinner, one of my dining partners was my great niece, a kindergartner.  When asked why she did something, she gave a wonderful answer. “You wouldn’t understand - it’s complicated.”  The complication's of a six year old life.

It's complicated is what people think about being a Christian.  Jesus taught in parables.  What was Jesus trying to tell us?  Those who seek his word have to think about what was said.   Its complicated.  But, Jesus' simple truth is love, forgiveness, and humility.

Sometimes, we are like that little child.  We live in a world that revolves around us.  Conversation and understanding is based on “me, me, and me some more.”  Nobody understands me, it's complicated. 

As a result of this relativism, the agendas put forth in the world are too often flawed.  If it is important to me, then it should be important priority to the world.  Ideals based on "the me" becomes the social conversation and changes perceptions in the world.  The subjects of our conversation, no matter how contradictory to reason, becomes acceptable.  A conversation without reason is complicated.

 

If however, Jesus' message is in our thoughts, our conversations become based in Christ.  We grow and become like the disciples.  In the Gospel of John, the disciples began to understand and no longer heard only parables but Jesus' message saying “Now your are talking plainly. . . .” (Jn 16:29)   They lost the relativism of their thoughts, language, and conversation.  They changed. 

This change starts within ourselves.  It is a change in "the me" but is not a change based on "the me."   The change becomes our Christ centered thoughts of love, forgiveness, and humility.  We share it and our conversation begins.   Without hate, without violence, and without prejudice, we converse with others.   Soon, it is a conversation to the world.   If everyone is no longer thinking only about themselves and their thoughts are of love,forgiveness, and humility, they will find  "me."  It's complicated, but it is easy to learn with Christ as our teacher.  

Well Done My Faithful Servant: Remembering My Father

My father was a Southern Baptist Minister.  September is the anniversary of his death.  His death pushed me away from God for a while.  Not because I did not believe, but because I was scared.

His death was a slow suffering death.  At the age of 12, he began smoking.  He contracted TB and developed serious lung issues in the military immediately after WWII in Japan.   As long as I can remember, he had problems breathing. 

In the last couple of years of his life, his brain became tortured from lack of oxygen.  A calm, gentle man with a great intelligence outwardly became hurting, angry, and frustrated.  At one point before his death, connected to a ventilator, he could not talk so he suffered even more.

I remember him lying there and dying.  The ventilator breathing for him in a constant rhythm: woosh-click, woosh-click, woosh-click.  It was the hardest thing to go there and visit my father, the man I loved so much.  I did not want to see him small, fragile, and struggling to live.  Suffering and dying at 55 years old, I did not want to remember him that way.  So, I ran and hid from it.

I only wanted to remember his good times.  I wanted to remember his largeness, his laugh, his smile, his hugs.   I wanted to remember his life for God, the love and kindness showed to everyone.  I wanted to remember the lives he touched.  Changing rough, grumpy, callous people with his presence.  Always ready with a prayer.  Preaching in the pulpit, sharing Christ's message, not for money but for love.

He told me that each and every person has their own relationship with God.    Some have a deep relationship and some only a casual acquaintance.  The God a person's life could be the God of the Bible or maybe a god they thought was God.  A god fashioned to fit their lives.   His ministry was to guide them to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  He was only part of a person's journey to a relationship with Christ.  A relationship found in themselves.

Twenty years later, I lay in a hospital bed, with a ventilator breathing for me.  Woosh-click, Woosh-click, Woosh-click.   I was alone and quite with God.  The first time I had been alone with God for some time.   I remembered my father's funeral.  The sermon came from Matthew, the parable of the "good and faithful servant."   As the minister closed the funeral, he said God was welcoming this man with "Well done my good and faithful servant."  

I looked at the crucifix on the wall, Christ suffering for the sins of humanity.  There in the hospital bed, my father's message continued twenty years after his death.  Mr father had been only part of my journey with God.   In the example of my father's life of faith and suffering death, God spoke to me in the woosh-click of the ventilator.  

Forgotten over the years was the understanding offered by my father.  I had taken what God had given me and made it into what I needed it to be.  My father's gift of faith and example had been buried.  I had done this because I was scared like the foolish servant who buried what the master had given him.  

Christ's parable tells us to take the gifts and talent God gives us and build his kingdom.   The greatest thing God gives us is the simple example of our lives.

  

It's All in Forgiveness

This semester in the Diaconate training program, we are beginning our second class in homiletics -  Preaching.   The focus of this semester will be reflections for special occasions:  holidays, funerals, weddings, and holy days of obligations.  Our first assignment is a homily for Holy Thursday.  

I did not want to reflect on the obvious.  I am sure that there will be several reflections on the last supper or the washing of feet.  I wanted to look at what the readings more deeply had in common.  So I wrote my reflection.  I have changed it. I tweaked it. I ran it over and over in my head.  I knew I had the perfect reflection.

That last paragraph had a lot of  "I"s in it.  However, what I think and what God wants are usually two separate things.   

What God wants me to do I usually do reluctanly.  I don't want to exercise, but God makes me fight my weight.  But my walk/jogs gives me quite times to be with God and my thoughts.   Reluctantly exercising not because I don't want to be alone with God: but, because I can always find and excuse to not exercise.  Again a lot more "I"s.

Last night, as I went around and around on the track at the high school, my homily ran around and around in my head.  Suddenly, the Holy Spirit placed in my heart that what I was saying was not enough.

The true message is forgiveness.  This is what makes our Christian faith different from every other faith.   God's grace found in the love and forgiveness that Jesus brings.  It is the truth of the Eucharist and in the washing of feet.  It is the truth that sums up the entirety of Jesus' public life, the message of His ministry, and the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ's passion.  Through God's grace and our faith, we find forgiveness.

"I" thought "I" had crafted a great homily; but, it was based in pride: all those "I"s.  Christ's true message comes from opening your heart to the inflowing of the Holy Spirit, and as John the Baptist said - "I decrease so that He may increase."  Unless "I" do this, "I" will never truly be able to bring the Lord's message, but only bring my message.  When I truly realize my selfishness and ask, my pride is forgiven.

Strength Lies in the Small Things

To a young lady, who leaves today to begin her journey with the Salesian Sisters of John Bosco.

If your want a message of love to be heard, it has to be sent out.  A message sent loudly in small faithful things.  It is in these small things where strength lies.   It is in the love and charity seen in your eyes.  Sharing with others until it hurts and hurt is no more.  It is in speaking words in the love of Christ to rid the darkness in others lives.  It is in the small faithful things were strength lies.   

Arranged from the words of Mother Teresa

Unity is Sharing Our Diversity (Jgs 2:11-19; Mt 19:16-22; CCC 813-820)

The Trinity is exemplar of unity. (CCC 813)   The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit separate distinct persons, yet one.  This is the basis of the faith of the Church.  But, throughout all times, unity has been disparaged.  

In the early history of Israel, the unity of the nation was God.  However, the people often fell away from God to worship the gods of nearby nations. (Jgs 2:11-19)  The unity of their faith, community, and nation was compromised and the Israelites suffered.

When the young man comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to have eternal life, he was told to "keep the commandments."  The young man feels he is still lacking.  Jesus gives him a lesson in unity.   "Sell what you have and give to the poor," be one with those who need.   The young man was sad because he had many possessions.  In this remorse he showed his failures.  The young man "went away sad, for he had many possessions."  The young man's selfish diversity kept him from unity.  (Mt 19:16-22)

The Church exists in diversity.  (CCC 814)  This sounds contradictory to a statement of unity.  However, this is the mystery that is the Triune God.  We find diversity in the distinct persons of the Trinity.  The Church is a celebration of the diversity of God's gifts and the diversity of those who receive them.  The the richness of diversity is the strength that is the unity of the Church.  Diversity shared in charity. 

Christ gave the Church unity from the beginning.  But like so many, through time people fell away from unity, forgetting charity called for in our diversity.  In the historical schisms in the church, people fell away because of their possessions.  Both sides were at fault in this wrong against unity. (CCC 817)

It is not wrong to be born in non-Catholic denominations. (CCC 818)  Wrong is straying from God for selfish reasons.  Wrong is not to recognizing the diversity of  Christ's church.  It is wrong as Christian not to seek unity.  As Jesus did, we must pray for the unity of Christ's Church. (CCC 820)

You're Not Ugly, You're Just Fat (Jn 21: 1-14)

One of my favorite ministries is working with the St. Vincent de Paul weekend meals for the elderly.  Seeing these people who have lived so long,  happy at the opportunity for a short visit. Sharing brief smiles and words between the visitors is a gift for everyone.  

Usually I do this with my wife and my daughters.  As my daughters have grown up it was a family ministry.  Now, my daughter are grown women.  Our ministry is becoming more often, just my wife and I.  One  Saturday, my daughter was out of town.  My wife and I were delivering meals, when my daughter called just as we pulled up to Ms. Sadie's house.  While my wife chatted with my daughter, I took the meal and knocked on Ms. Sadie's door.  Ms. Sadie was delighted to see me.  She enjoyed the people who visited her with the meals.  One set of visitors she really enjoyed was a young man and his two young sons.  She loved to visit with those two beautiful young boys.

I told Ms. Sadie that God had given me many gifts and good looks was not high on the list.  Usually my daughter and wife knock on the door to delivered the meals.  As big and ugly as I am, I do not want to scare any of the elderly people who lived alone.  Ms. Sadie look at me and summed it all up, "Honey, you're not ugly, you're just fat."  

Sometimes God speaks to you in places and ways you may never recognize.  In this passage from the Gospel of John, a man call's from the shore. "Children have you caught anything to eat."  The apostles then recognized that it was the risen Christ.

Christ was not asking about their physical nourishment or how many fish they had caught.  Christ was not asking them to make sure he had enough fish on the fire for breakfast.  It was a hidden question the apostles should have recognized.  

After Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, his disciples are telling him to "eat something."  Jesus said to them "My food is to do the will of the him who sent me and to complete his work."(Jn 4:34)  So Christ's hidden question was,  "Are you carrying on my work?  Are you fishing for men, are you casting your nets for the Kingdom? Is your food doing my will?"

It was all about their ministry.  Peter and the apostles are to b spreading the Gospel to the world.   Christ already has a few fish; but they are to cast the nets of their ministry and  bring them to me.

I thought about Ms Sadie during the reflection on this passage.  Maybe it was Christ speaking to me.  The apostles were happy to be humiliated for preaching the Gospel, maybe I need to be as well.  I'm not ugly in God's eyes and I have the right intention; but, maybe what nourishes me is not the will of the one who sent me.   

We should all look at our lives and ask, "Are we still beautiful?  or Have we gotten fat?"   It is not that we have become physically ugly but have become spiritually fat.   How we look to Christ is not our outward beauty.  We are beautiful in God's work.  We do not get fat if we do Christ's work in the world.  We exercise our spiritual selves in our church life, in our ministries, and in our prayers.

You never know when Christ will speak to you, maybe through the words of an 85 year old woman.

Freedom of Conscience

The Feast of the Assumption celebrates Mary's assumption to heaven.  But it also a feast that is a celebration of freedom.  It is celebrating Mary's freedom, humankind's freedom, your freedom, and my freedom.  A celebration of freedom's choices and the freedom that allows us to obtain the same reward.   

Mary's freedom was her ability to say "yes" to God.  Humanity's freedom is in the reason and will that allows growth and maturity in truth.  Our freedom is perfected in our ability to direct it towards God in a "yes" to the divine will. 

Freedom, however,  is hampered by our own fallibility.  The fallibility of sin and refusal of God's plan of love that results in an unjust exercise of our freedom.  Freedom has given humanity a history of oppression and wretchedness from our denial God, forgiveness, and salvation.  Here we find humanity's fallible exercise of freedom that denies the just freedom of others.

One of the most basic attributes of our freedom is the development of a conscience.  The root of the word is from Latin "to know". This conscience is how we make the decisions of our freedom.  Your conscience is the process by which you make the choice between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral choices.  With a just freedom your conscience is going to point to the good, the right, or the moral choice. 

So when a person says they have made a conscious choice it does not mean that it is a choice of conscience.  Conscious means awareness.   If it is a choice that is against the teaching of the moral truths, then it is a conscious choice made without or against conscience.  It is an anti-conscience choice.   It is a denial of what is good, right, and moral.  A choice saying "no" to God.

Mary was given a choice.  It was a choice made in freedom.  A  choice of conscience to say "yes" to  God.  A choice that celebrated her freedom.  It was a choice that has magnified the freedom of others in self dignity and love.  If she had made a choice of conscious based on self, it would been an act of her freedom, but contrary to a just exercise of freedom that God seeks. 

Mary's assumption resulted from Mary's freedom.  She continually said "yes" to God even to the foot of the cross.  The assumption of Mary into heaven is a promise to all of us of what is possible by saying "yes" to God.  A true celebration of freedom is the conscience decision in our conscious choice answers "yes" to God. 

Let's Go Fishing (Dt. 10:12-22; Mt. 17:22-27)

In the gospel reading, Jesus foretells of his death and resurrection.  Then the reading follows with a fish story.  Being charged a temple tax, Jesus tells Simon to cast a hook into the sea and take the first fish.  In it, he will find a gold coin worth twice the amount of taxes, "pay it for both you and me."

Why is this paired with the foretelling of Jesus upcoming death? Some say that it is two separate stories.  Paying the taxes could be about doing what is right and not rocking the boat until it is Jesus's time.   

I am not a great theologian, I only see what I see in stories.  I may not be correct and sometimes the stories can be read in many ways.   This is what I see in the relationship between the gospel and the paired old testament reading.

What God does in the smallest ways has so much rewards.  God took the 70 that came to Egypt as the sons of Israel and made them the nation of Isreal, as numerous as the stars in the sky.  Just like catching a fish would seem a meager attempt to pay the temple tax, it more than sufficed for the debt owed.   Jesus' sacrifice, "The Son of Man"  paid for the sins of the world.   It paid not only for the sins of Israel, but for the sins of the whole world.  This payment by the "Son of Man" was done so that as "Sons of the King" we would be free.

Looking at these examples, what can the God do with the little bit that each of us can offer?  It is not us with our small talents that does great deeds.   God makes our small talents great and bountiful for His needs.

Offer what you have to God in prayer.  Offer what you have to God in all you do.  Offer your self totally to God.