1st Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the first Sunday of Advent:

1. Isaiah 2: 1-5
2. Psalms 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
3. Romans 13: 11-14
4. Matthew 24: 37-44

• Instructed in God's ways
• Faith formation is a life-long work that never really ends.  But for so many of us, we get to some milestone, often Confirmation, and think that our learning, our formation, our transformation is somehow at an end.
• Imagine a place where we all teach the ways of the Lord to one another.  What would that be like?
• How could we make such a community happen?
• Where can we start?
• What can we do today? 

• Action and contemplation
• Action without contemplation can often be frantic, seeking to find direction in movement, and meaning in accomplishment.  Contemplation without action can become decoupled from reality, sterile for lack of connection.
• How do you know when you have enough contemplation in your life?
• How do you know when you have enough action?
• Is the goal here for a proper balance, or something deeper?
• What might that be? 

• Awake from sleep
• A person sleeping may be present, but not aware, not engaged, to one extent or another, not conscious of the meaning of what is going on around them.  Full, conscious, and active participation in our lives is the goal of mindful living, intentional engagement.
• How much time do you spend trying to make sense of what is going on in the larger context?
• How do you achieve that greater awareness?
• If you had more time for it, how might you spend that additional time?
• What role does prayer play in that awareness? 

• One will be taken, one will be left
• I think that most of us are called to be "in the world, but not of the world.  To some extent, the reason that we do what we do makes all the difference.  Both to the good and the bad.
• Think of a period in your life when your work (paid or not) was particularly rewarding.  Why/how did you get into that work?
• Do you feel that you were, at least in some small way, bringing about the Kingdom of God?
• Do you think that anyone doing that work necessarily would be bringing about the Kingdom?
• Do you think that it is possible to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons, and do harm in the process? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• When did I stop learning more of God?
• Is my prayer informing my obedience, and is my obedience informing and shaping my prayer?
• Where is God calling me to greater awareness?
• Where might God be calling me to examine my motives more deeply? 

What Does it All Mean?

Survivalists know how to prepare for Armageddon.

Diesel generators, canned goods, vegetable gardens,

A home deep in the woods, with plenty of guns & ammo. 

All aimed at living off the grid, relying on no supply chain.

 

What preparation for the days ahead should we make?

Imagining coming persecution, taunts and jeers.

Should we form a commune in some remote location?

Form an alternative community away from it all?

 

That way, we could be pure in spirit, free of contagion.

Able to live how we want, worship how we want,

Pray how we want.

After all, who wants to live in Sodom and Gomorrah?

 

Or is our calling far more challenging?

To be that leaven in the dough of the world around us?

Serving as witness to a very alternative way of life,

That stands out in hope in the midst of despair.

 

But what if no one listens?

What if our very lives bring nothing but a chuckle,

Or worse, a yawn,

From those around us?

 

What if we never see that our lives make any difference.

Then are we total failures, spiritual nobodies in life?

Or is there something deeper, more meaningful for us?

Some hidden meaning, some deep purpose that's hard to see?

 

Is it possible that perseverance faithfulness, even hope,

Are what are asked of us.

Not notoriety, not success, not even notice.

Just steadfastness in the face of cynicism & despair?

 

I hope so. 

 

Shalom!

Christ the King Sunday

Our readings for Christ the King Sunday:

1. II Samuel 2: 1-3
2. Psalms 122: 1-2, 3-4, 4-5
3. Colossians 12: 1-20
4. Luke 23: 35-43

• Servant leadership
• We often seek God to lead us.  If God is a leader, how does God's leadership stack up against other great leaders?
• Have you ever had a leader that you would say is "Godly"?
• In what way?
• Have you ever been in a position of leadership?  Perhaps as a teacher, manager, parent, council member?
• What Godly qualities did that position call for?
• Were you able to the that Godly leader? 

• Can you go with me?
• Living virtuously can be a lonely way of life.  Not only are we in a culture that has little use for anything that does not contribute to the "bottom line", but to some extent each of us must find our own path to holiness in Jesus.  No two of us have exactly the same path to travel.
• Where do you go when you feel the need for an understanding listener?
• Do you look to them for advice, or as a "sounding board", a place and time where you can better listen to the voice of God as someone else listens to you?
• Do you see yourself being that spiritual companion to anyone else? 

• I can only imagine
• Jesus is the image and likeness of God.  Amazingly enough, we were created, are created, are being recreated in the image and likeness of God.  I look at my sagging visage, feel the steady march of aches and pains in my body, and I'm pretty sure that however long I have left to live, when the end comes for me, it ain't going to be pretty.  Will I be a better image and likeness of God by then?
• Who are some folks that you would say are an image of God for you, someone who shows you by their life who God is?
• What is it about them that makes you say that?
• Are they getting better at being God's image as they age?
• How is that possible? 

• Listening through it all
• It's easy to let personal issues like having half inch spikes driven through your wrists and feet distract you from listening to someone else.  Especially if you've just paid good money for a manicure.  But Jesus was able to be true to His identity in spite of all that.
• To be truly generous to others, do we have to deny ourselves?
• What does that denial of self actually amount to?
• How do you tell when your self denial has become toxic, to you and others (a martyr complex)?
• Is it possible to be generous by being truer to your essential identity? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where might God be calling me to servant leadership?
• Who around me needs a good listener?
• How am I imaging God today? 
• Where might God be calling me to greater mercy? 

Awed by Mercy

There was a dry, dusty breeze that day.

The sun beat down on us mercilessly.

Sweat gathered and ran down my body.

The heat of today's hammering burning me.

 

I glanced at my knotted arms.

Rippling muscles testament to many days

Spent impaling prisoners to crude wood.

And hoisting them high for all to see.

 

My commander is proud of me, my work.

Tells me that we help keep the rabble orderly.

"Nothing like good crucifixion" he'd say

"To help put things into proper perspective."

 

At first, "proper perspective" was simple:

"I'm glad that I'm not that poor sod" I'd say.

Then I changed and began to realize

Sometimes they stole to feed their babies.

 

And I'd realize that I was lucky to have steady work.

Gruesome though it may be.

I began to wonder if this sort of punishment

Was the only way to keep Rome great.

 

Out of curiosity, at first anyway,

I started to ask the prisoners what they were in for.

Some for heinous acts, some for petty thievery,

Others for unfortunate adultery with the proud and prominent.

 

All, all of them sent here to dangle and die.

No risk of pardon, no second chance, no dignity.

The sorry likes of me & my cohort here

The last human faces that any of them would see.

 

None of them thinking of anyone but themselves.

Not that I could blame them.

And once they were hoisted between heaven and earth -

The searing pain and fatigue soon took over.

 

But this man, Jesus.  He listened to another doomed man.

Jesus had been stripped, beaten, spat upon.

Everything taken away from him.

Except for His mercy.

 

And He gave that freely to a complete stranger.

And I'll never be the same again.

My longtime buddies won't understand.

My family will think that I've "gone native".

 

But somehow, I need to find a life -

Where I can start showing mercy rather than efficiency

Give honor to this miracle of mercy that I've witnessed here

And maybe find this Jesus still walking our streets today.

 

Shalom!

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time:

1. Malachi 3: 19-20a
2. Psalms 98: 5-6, 7-8, 9
3. 2 Thessalonians 3: 7-12
4. Luke 21: 5-19

• You're going to get yours!
• It's easy to regard the second coming as a great restoration, a giant "reset" in the world and a point in history when suddenly all wrongs will be righted, those who have steadfastly persevered in their faith will be rewarded, and the rotten folks who made the faithful's lives miserable will finally get what's coming to them.
• Has there been anyone who deliberately set out to make life difficult for you?
• How did you pray for them?
• How did you pray for yourself?
• How did God respond?
• If you were as merciful as God is, how might you have handled the situation? 

• Justice on the installment plan
• What are some injustices in the world around you today?
• What do you think is God's will in those circumstances?
• When do you think that God wants for His will to be accomplished?
• What do you see as your place in making that part of God's kingdom to come to earth?
• What do you think is our place as your community? 

• Inspiring one another
• We should all aspire to inspire.  When we grow in holiness, those who have helped us along the way sometimes are privileged to be able to see that, and they rejoice in our happiness.
• Who are some of the folks that you have mentored, catechized,  raised, ... who gladden your heart when you look at them today?
• Do you ever tell them that?
• What about the others, the ones that you are maybe not so proud of.  Do you still pray for them?
• What is that prayer? 

• Lord grant me wisdom and courage
•  It seems as though the need for both wisdom and courage becomes more acute each day.  Not just the ability to tell fact from fiction, right from wrong, but the ability to know when its time to stand up for what you believe in, regardless of the consequences.
• What form do you think persecution might take in your life?  Might it be getting passed over for that coveted promotion, maybe your kids cannot get into the prestigious schools because of your faith, or your kids get picked on at school because your family is "weird."
• What would you pray for in any of those circumstances?
• Where would you go for help with those very real consequences of your beliefs?
• How do you think that God will help in those times? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where might God be calling me to greater mercy?
• Where might God be calling me to right a wrong, remedy an injustice?
• What of my life could/should be inspiring that is not?
• Where might God be calling me to stand up and be counted? 

 

Shalom!

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Our readings the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica:

1. Ezekiel 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12
2. Psalms 46: 2-3, 5-6, 9-9
3. 1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17
4. John 2: 13-22

• Temple worship
• If God dwells in the temple, and He dwells in each of us, that would make us out to be temples.
• If someone were to come to you and say "I realize that I find myself more centered when I am near you.  Things seem clearer to me after we have talked.  I feel the Presence of God in you." what would you say to that?
• Would that make you likely to act/be any different around that other person?
• Perhaps there are some folks, perhaps several, who feel that way about you, but have never said anything.  What then? 

• Fear not
• Rationally, there is plenty to rightfully be afraid of if "the mountains plunge into the sea".  Here in earthquake country, that's more likely than it would be in most other cases.  In our minds we may believe that "God is our refuge and our strength", but in our hearts, that is another frontier to cross.
• When have you been afraid in times past?
• Was that fear reasonable?
• Did you pray at that time?
• How did you pray?
• Did it help?
• Do you think it really matters how we pray? 

• Take me to your leader
• Finding God in our lives is, perhaps, our highest calling.  There seems to be no end of places where He can be found.  Yet we still can feel abandoned, isolated, alone, forsaken.  Why is that?
• If God is among us, that suggests that we all have a part to play in fostering, strengthening that presence.  How do we find out what that part is?
• Can any one of us truly be the Presence of God without the rest of us?
• How far does that community extend?  Is it just whomever is in the room with you, your local parish, the faithful within your city, or is that community even confined to those who are consciously religious?
• What must we do to make that community stronger?
• How do we start? 

• The art of the possible
• A time, place, person, event, ... can be dedicated/consecrated to a specific purpose.  It's hard to dedicate anything to just one use, one purpose.  The favorite chair that you use for prayer might also be where you like to play with the grandchildren.  Does that say more about your prayer time, or the time you spend with your grandchildren?
• What are some things in your life that you know belong to God?
• How do you treat those differently from the "profane" part(s) of your life?
•  Is anything really "profane"?
• If that is the case, what difference does it make to the way that you live? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• How might my life be a better witness for God?
• Where can I gain more trust in God?
• Where can I partner with God more closely?
• Where might there be parts of my life that I need to consciously give back to God?

Honoring God

I like gorgeous places of worship as much as the next person.

The architecture can be a powerful mute witness to the glory of God.

The care lavished on every detail bearing witness to the faith of the builders.

The commitment and perseverance shown by such a structure

Offers a stunning testimony to the faithfulness of the community.

 

But I hope that I have a heart that is even more moved by God's dynamic presence.

A community throbbing with life and generosity.

Giving of itself to those in need,

No matter who they are, nor what circumstances they find themselves in.

Where the voices of children, the elderly, the forgotten are the music heard.

 

Lord give me a heart of flesh, rather than one of marble.

 

Shalom!