33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

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

• Doing good is its own reward
• All of us like to see the good guy win in the end.  In fact, one model of a dramatic story arc consists of the good guy finally realizing who they are, emerging into a dangerous situation that calls for the very best from them, early setbacks while they come to terms with the demands that their destiny makes of them, followed by a final triumph of virtue over vice, good over evil, courage over fear.
• What do you think of when you think of leading a victorious life?
• Is that victory something that you are contributing to now, or something that you plan to get started on when you have the time?
• Who are some folks in your life who were victorious in their own way?
• How do you define victory?

• Praise is natural
• David Whyte has a poem that I invite you to read at: https://onbeing.org/poetry/everything-is-waiting-for-you/ that invites us to be alert to our place in the cosmos, and the place of the cosmos in each of us.
• St. Ignatius wrote in his Spiritual Exercises a brief paragraph called the Principle and First Foundation.  You can read about that here: https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/what-the-principle-and-foundation-calls-us-to/.  There, Ignatius reminds us that all of creation exists to help us draw towards God.
• If then, all of physicality cooperates with our journey toward God, how ought we to regard those things that we posses?
• What about the people in our lives?
• How can we do better at a "balanced" attitude toward this world that we find ourselves in?
• How can we come to better appreciate the beauty that is all around us, sustains us, and inhabits us?

• Earning your keep
• Earning a living is more than merely an obligatory grind that we go through to put food on the table and a roof over our heads.  It is a doorway into the emergence of creation, an opportunity to join our hand with God's as creation continues to grow and evolve.
• How did you decide on the career/retirement that you have currently?
• Did you expect for it to be fulfilling?
• If it is not fulfilling, is that bad?
• For whom?

• Missing the forest for the trees
• It's so easy to lose sight of the why of things and get caught up in the what.  The Jews of Jesus' day found their national and historical identity in the temple of Jerusalem, but by the time that Luke wrote his Gospel, all of that had been reduced to rubble, and both the Christians and the Jews were trying to find the meaning of it all.
• What are some things that are truly essential to your life?
• What would happen if one or more of those suddenly disappeared for some reason?
• If that happened, would you still be able to say that God is good?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I willing to give to achieve victory in my life?
2. Are the things in my life helping me to live more prayerfully?
3. How is my work bringing God's kingdom to earth?
4. What do I need to let go of in my life?

Beauty

The ceramic vase occupied a place of honor on the mantel.

Fresh flowers always on display bursting from its throat.

It was a bargain, a find, a steal even from long ago

Passed from mother to daughter for generations.

That vase had witnessed many family gatherings,

Wakes, and baptisms, weddings and funerals, and much much love.

Whenever the family members saw that vase, 

It put them in touch with who they were, who they were becoming.

It seemed to say, in its own mute way "times come and they go,

But love and what nurtures love will last forever."

One night, a fire broke out in the house, and they all had to leave.

Everyone made it to safety with hardly the clothes on their backs.

And someone remembered the family vase, there in the home's funeral pyre.

And no one had the heart to tell grandma that no one had thought to get it.

When they finally had the courage to tell grandma, she closed her eyes awhile.

And then she opened them, looked around at family and loved ones gathered.

And said "you are all far more precious to me than any remembrance.

All of you are dying, and reemerging as you go through life.

Each passing to make room for the next flower to arise from the ashes.

As long as we have each other, we don't need anything to remind us.

Let this event, this memory, remind us always that the important things

Can never be taken from any of us."

Shalom!

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 2 Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14
2. Psalms 17: 1, 5-6, 8, 15
3. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 - 3:5
4. Luke 20: 27-38

• Doing good is its own reward
• The danger in doing the right thing because you expect that "they will get theirs" in the end is that God's notion of justice is probably far more liberal than mine, and "getting theirs" may look very different in God's eyes than it does to mine.
• At the end of the day, what is the reason that you make the tough calls, the hard decisions?
• Do those tough decisions ever get any easier?
• If someone were to tell you that there were some colossally hard decisions coming your way, how would you prepare for that?
• What's stopping you?

• Mighty in prayer
• History is festooned with men and women of prayer who are bold before God to the point of seeming audacious.
• Do you think that God wants bold followers?
• What do you think leads to that sort of relationship with God?
• Is it worth it?

• Finding strength
• There is more to strength than moving weight around.  Profound strength can be found in those who have the courage and determination to keep working at something long after conventional wisdom would conclude that they are wasting their time.
• Where do you find the strength to do the difficult things in your life?
• Is that strength increasing?
• What are you doing to pass that strength along to others?

• Missing the point
• Resurrection promises fulfillment.  Not necessarily of our passing fancies, but of our deepest longings, those longings put in our hearts by God Himself.  For my part, I long to truly understand those around me.  Not so that I can predict what they will do, but to know who they truly are and to empathize with them fully.
• Unfortunately, most of us, myself included, do not have the depth of character for that sort of awareness beyond a few close friends.  Any more is just too much of a strain.
• What do you long for at bottom?
• What are you doing to achieve that?
• Do you think that longing will last into eternity?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where do I need discernment?
2. Where is God calling to me to be bold in prayer?
3. Where must my strength lie?
4. Where are my God-given desires calling me?

Shalom!

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Wisdom 11:22-12:2
2. Psalms 145: 1-2, 8-9,10-11, 13, 14
3. 2 Thessalonians 1: 11-22
4. Luke 19: 1-10

• Kindness and mercy
• Think of a time when you felt led to correct someone else.  Maybe they did the right thing, but went about it in the wrong way, or they were not seeing the bigger picture, or they lost their patience and were unnecessarily harsh.
• How did you prepare for that encounter?
• Were you more interested in how you would be received, or whether you would be able to make that other a better person?
• How could you have been more like God in that situation?  Perhaps more humble, more patient, more courageous, ...?

• The bowed down
• There is a telling scene in The Green Book about a successful black pianist during the early 60s on tour in the deep south.  This pianist is a refined gentleman, accomplished, one of the first music PhDs, and yet discriminated against.  He and his driver end up stopping next to a farm field, and there in the field are a number of black farm workers, doing much the same labor that their ancestors had done, probably in that very field, likely under very similar conditions.
• We think of the "bowed down" in literal terms, someone overwhelmed by the pressures of life, barely able to make ends meet, falling exhausted into bed night after night with barely enough energy to turn off the lights.
• Who in your life would you consider "bowed down"?
• How do you think God should lift them up?
• Whose hands will do that lifting?
• When do you think those hands will arrive?

• Glory in the Lord
• We equate glory with eternity.  Some among us consciously look forward to joining God in His glory at the end of our journey in this life.
• What is glory?
• Do you think that any of that glory could come our way in this life?
• Should it?

• Saving that which was lost
• Loss is hard to bear.  It speaks of something, someone that was with us, and now is gone.  Sometimes, maybe if we're lucky, we can get that lost thing or person back, but if we are honest with ourselves, life is never the same again.
• But another sense of "lost" speaks about losing our way.  Maybe we take a wrong turn, or we stopped paying attention at a critical turn off and now we're not where we thought we were, or, more profoundly, we have lost sight of our final objective, and no longer have a direction at all.
• Do you think that our Church overall needs a strategy, something that gets published every 5 years or so, and is carefully considered?
• Do you think that some sort of strategy at the parish level would make sense?
• What about in your family?  No one thinks twice about starting a college fund for babies, given the high cost of an education.  Why don't we ever ask ourselves where we want to be as a family community in the years ahead?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Who in my life needs kindness from me?
2. Where do I need to be the hands of God today?
3. Where might God be calling me to glory?
4. What in my life is God helping me to let go of?

He's Out of His Tree

Zaccaeus, I see you in that tree, scanning the crowd looking for me.
But what you really want to find is hope.
Hope that somehow you can find your way back
Back to family, to friends, to the peaceful village you once knew.

But today, I have a gift for you, a surprise.
I'm going to show you how to build community
In the midst of the ruins that you think cannot be repaired.
I'm going to show you how to show mercy.

I'm going to get so close to you, that your shame will become mine.
Others will not want to be seen with me because I am seen with you.
Others will doubt my wisdom because they have never known mercy.
But you, you are going to see what healing compassion can bring.

You are going to become my disciple in ways you could not imagine.
Spreading my Love to the unloved, restoring dignity to the oppressed,
Sharing the compassion of today for the rest of your life.
In losing your defenses around your heart, you will gain everything.

So, let's get down out of that sycamore and change the world together.

Shalom!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Sirach 35: 12-14, 16-18
2. Psalms 34: 2-3, 17-18, 19, 23
3. 2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18
4. Luke 18: 9-14

• Justice and humility
• In the movie The Butler, Ronald Reagan, in a rare moment of true heart to heart, asks one of the white house black butlers "am I on the right side of history with regards to apartheid?"  I have no idea if that conversation ever occurred, but it speaks powerfully to me of the difference between a prophet and a politician.  The prophet's concern is whether speaking out against an injustice agrees with God's timing.  A politician asks whether the people are ready to be stirred into action over that same injustice.  Subtle difference there.
• How would you define oppression?
• By that definition, who are the oppressed in our nation, your community, even your family?
• As long as that injustice doesn't impact you directly, why do you worry?
• Or do you?

• The sorrow of God
• Most of us are pragmatic.  We don't brood over the bad things that happen in life because we want to be upbeat, positive, cheerful.
• Do you think that there can ever be good to come of spending time in sorrow?
• Have you ever been transformed by a sorrow in your life?
• If you knew for a fact that God would be right there with you as you contemplated some sorrow in your life, and that He could renew you through that, would you?
• What about your life brings sorrow to God?
• Do you think He works hard at being upbeat?

• No regrets
• A person with no regrets is either arrogant or has been loving enough and disciplined enough to lead a holy life.
• We never really know all of the effects that our words and actions will have.  Nor will we ever know what might have happened if we had made other choices.  How do you typically make the big decisions?
• Has any of those big decisions turned out badly for you?
• What do you blame that one?
• What would you do differently if you had the chance?

• The eternal "they"
• Do you feel that you need mercy from God?
• Do you feel that you deserve such mercy?
• Why or why not?
• Do you feel that you're in a position to extend mercy, compassion, forgiveness to others?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I ready for God to do something new in my life?
2. Are there sorrows that God wants to find me in?
3. What am I discerning today?
4. How can I get more in touch with those around me?

Trapped

I recognized the filthy tax collector as I entered the Temple.

Thankfully, as an official, I have my own entrance far from him.

That must be a Pharisee up in front.  He looks so at home here.

I will pour out my heart to God quietly so as not to disturb him.

The God of my fathers is a demanding God, looking to us

For obedience, and careful attention lest we melt into the Gentiles.

I took this tax collector job so many years ago, thinking it temporary.

But expenses mounted, I had nowhere else to go, my family needed the money.

I have been successful as a Jew.  Much hard work, constant attention.

And now, look at me.  A pillar of the community, truly God's favored.

My old friends despise me, and I cannot blame them.

Lepers are better off than I am.  At least they had no choice in their disease.

My children tell me that times are changing, the ancient rites are dead.

I tell them without tradition, we are nothing.  And yet, sometimes I wonder.

God, I see no way out.  Forgive me all of those whom I have extorted.

Forgive me the fear that I have struck in the hearts of your holy people.

There is no way to survive as a people, a nation, a history without our past.

I must stand resolute against the evils around us, defend what Yahweh has bestowed.

Give me the courage to be honest in my work, help my family get by

On the paltry earnings that I will make as an honest tax collector.

God, I thank you that I am righteous in your sight, full of your grace.

Help me to defend you to those who would depart from your ways.

God I thank you for your mercy and compassion.

Give me strength to transform my life from within.

Shalom!

28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. 2 Kings 5: 14-17
2. Psalms 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4
3. 2 Timothy 2: 8-13
4. Luke 17: 11-19

• Learning who you are
• Naaman was a great man in his home country of Aram.  He was a man of undisputed bravery, a man highly regarded by his king.  In spite of all of that Naaman had not come to know God, and so was a man in need.  He thought that he came to Israel for a physical healing, but God's dreams for him were bigger than that.
• When you think of "healing", what does that include?  Is it just a matter of the physical, does it include the emotional, the social, the mental, ...
• What are some things that you have been healed of?
• What/who brought that healing about in your life?
• Was it a process, or an event?
• If you were to relive those events again, would you change anything?

• Revelation
• We all want to be evangelical in the sense that we want to share what makes us happy.  Successfully married men and women rejoice when a friend gets engaged, we look with eager anticipation when a pregnancy is announced, we want to pass along bits of advice to that colleague who just got recently promoted.
• What's the best way for us to reveal God to others?
• Do you think that most "unchurched" hunger for God, for community, for union and just do not know it yet?
• How can we awaken that longing in them, and be authentic to our own brokenness at the same time?

• Creative perseverance
• As we grow in age, it becomes increasingly difficult to just keep on keeping on.  Things that used to be easy gradually become harder and harder, the joy that used to mark things that we did gradually fades, and we ask ourselves, when did this change from being a source of enjoyment, to being a chore?
• As you have aged, matured, how have you known when to leave something behind?
• How do you adjust to that loss?
• Have you really been honest with yourself?  Is it maybe time to admit that you're never going to go skiing again, or that your bungee jumping days are finally over?
• Who cares if the garage of your life is full of things that you cannot let go of?

• Growing through loss
• When we seek a healing, we often want for things to "go back the way that they were" so that we can resume life as though nothing had ever happened in the first place.
• Think back to a time when you were restored in some way.  That might have been getting a job back, healing a relationship that had suffered, receiving a loved one back after a serious illness or injury, ...  Were things really just as they had been before?
• Was that good or bad?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Who am I in God's eyes?
2. Do others find me winsome for God?
3. What do I need to let go of today?
4. Where is a painful healing going on in my life today?

I Hate that Name

Minding my own business in the local watering hole.
Enjoying a little brew and relaxation that I've missed for so long.
I thought that it would be good to be back.
Then I hear an old familiar voice ring out

Hey, Simon, Simon the leper, is that really you?
What are you doing here, I mean, with all these people?
For some reason, my friend Jacob's voice
Has always had a piercing quality about it.

I'm not sure if that's just a matter of the pitch,
Or something deeper about Samuel.
But what I do know,
Is that it's annoying every time that he opens his mouth.

I almost want him to think that I'm still a leper,
Just so he'll keep his distance.
But then I realize that will only make him have to yell.
So I turn, pull out my certificate from the priests, and tell him I'm well.

Samuel runs over, hoists his ample backside onto a stool and turns to me
His face familiar, with a few more lines and creases
Witness to life he's lived in my extended absence
And he bellows "so where have you been?"

How do I tell him that I've been in exile in my own country?
That the spaces between villages and cities all look alike.
Nothing but wild animals and other lepers out there.

Occasional furtive contacts from loyal family members.

So I give him an answer that he'll understand.

"Here and there, up and down the coast, sight seeing if you will."

"So what brought you back" Samuel asks.

"Because, in all the places that I visited, this is the only one I call 'home'" I say.

Samuel gets quiet for a blessed moment, looks at my glass, and says 

"Barkeep, my friend's glass is unaccountably low.

And I'll have a round of what he's having.  Put it on my tab."

And then I know I'm truly home again.

Shalom!

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Habakuk 1: 2-3, 2:2-4
2. Psalms 95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9
3. 2 Timothy 1: 6-8, 13-14
4. Luke 17: 5-10

• Persevere or give up?
• No one wants to work and not see any results.  Faith, hope, and love work together.  Faith tells us that God is operating, whether we see Him or not.  Hope tells us that His work will bring about good.  Love guides us so that our actions can support His.
• What are you hoping for?  Do you think that "things" are improving?
• If you're old enough to remember the 60s, for many, that was a season of great hope, a time when change for the better was possible.  How have those dreams turned out?
• Do you see any forces for change for the better in our world today?
• How can we, as God's children, awaken our world to something better?

• Prove to me that you care
• God's people were in the desert without direction, no maps, terrible cell phone coverage, and their flocks were dying of thirst.  Clearly Moses had gotten it all wrong and some horrid mistake has happened here.
• Have you ever had a calamity in your life?  Some event that suddenly eclipsed everything else that you were doing, grabbed center stage in your life, and would not let go?
• What was your prayer life during that period?
• Do you think that you were particularly sensitive to God's guidance?
• What would have helped during that time of crisis?

• The good old days
• The reactionary finds all of their answers in the past.  They are convinced that somehow, we took the wrong off ramp and left behind some critical piece of our rightful heritage, and that's why we are in the mess that we find ourselves in.
• An authentic reform often looks to the past, not to return there, but to learn from who we have been, to discern who we are becoming, and be more faithful to that ongoing emerging, that ongoing act of creation.
• Who are you becoming?  Is today's you a better person than the one that you left behind 20 years ago (if you've been alive that long).  Is today's you a better person than the one that you left behind 10 years ago?
• Who are we becoming?  What role do you have in that larger emergence?
• How can we be more attuned to God's guidance along the way?

• Virtue is its own reward
• Think of someone that you would describe as a person of great faith.
• What makes you think of them that way?
• How do you think that they attained that faith?
• Is faith a gift, a consequence of our work, a grace?
• If you had greater faith, what would you do with it?
• What's stopping you?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How am I making this world, God's Kingdom, a better place?
2. What should I be praying for today?
3. How/what is God creating in me today?
4. How am I exercising my faith today?

Baptismal Font

My scientific mind knows that the water flows 
over the top of the font
Down the sides
And into a pump.
And starts all over again.

But the poet within me sees something far grander.
An entire ecology, gazed at through the eyes of water.
Gently warmed and wafted into the heavens.
There to form clouds and come back as rain.
Flowing through secret channels to join a bubbling brook.

All of the earth cloaked,
Soothed
Nourished
Bathed
In its waters.

My memory can recall Easter Vigils held there.
Eager, yet frightened elect
Immersing themselves in the font
Attentive alter servers with towels at the ready
And an entire gathered assembly holding its breath

As a new life blossoms from within that person
As a new life blossoms from within us at that Mass
As a new life blossoms from within our parish
As a new life blossoms from within the heart of God
Bringing us all into His life, with, in, and through all that all of us bring.

And so, as each of us sprang from the dust in the Garden so long ago,
We are watered continually again and again

Lord, let me never look at water without seeing You.
Without seeing the entire earth that you have created us in and through.
Keep me ever mindful of those who are lost, alone, marginalized.
Remind me of those of your children without clean water to drink,
Without the fellowship of loved ones to sustain them.

I dip my fingers into the font,
But all of me plunges in.
Let me ever arise anew in You.
Strengthened in all of You, everywhere, every one.
That you and I may be one in everyone.

Shalom!

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Amos 6: 1a, 4-7
2. Psalms 146: 7, 8-9, 9-10
3. 1 Timothy 6: 11-16
4. Luke 16: 19-31

• How do you know when you care enough?
• Bill and Melinda Gates chair the world's largest private charitable foundation.  Looking up Mrs. Gates online, I see that she's Catholic.  More than the money that they have given away is their time.  These two individuals could do anything that they wanted to with their talents, and yet they chose to give themselves away.
• The rest of us have to earn a steady paycheck to stay alive, but we can all support the poor in some capacity or another.  How are you doing that support?
• We can always give more.  How do you balance your own needs, those of your family, your parish, this planet?
• Do you ever take time to look back over those decisions to see if they still reflect God's will in your life?

• Who is my neighbor?
• With our global economy, I could easily be wearing a shirt made in a sweatshop in Indonesia, shoes manufactured in unsafe working conditions in Malaysia, and a wedding band made with gold mined by slaves in Tunisia.  I was feeling pretty good about myself until just now!
• If God loves the just, He must have some plan for how His children can be just.  What do you think that plan might be?
• Does it include studying the supply chain of every good/service that we consume?
• Does it include electing politicians who support sustainable trade?
• Does it include trade sanctions against countries that have human rights violations?
• Are we as a nation in a place to tell anyone else what is moral and what is not?

• Name calling
• We each have a name given us by our parents.  What we make of that name is up to us.
• Have you ever tried to advise someone based on who they are, their fundamental nature?
• Remaining faithful to who God has called us to be, allowing His creation within us to emerge is the work of a lifetime.  None of us can really do it alone.  How have you helped other participate in their own creation?
• How would you like others to do that for you?

• Smelling like sheep
• A friend of mine has worked at the Long Beach Mission several times a week for years.  Once he was there, organizing some of the supplies.  It was hot work, and he was dressed accordingly.  Someone came in to make a donation and mistook him for one of the homeless clients, and treated him poorly.  My friend suddenly found a deep mystical connection with those he had been serving for so long.
• It's easy to pretend that you don't see the homeless guy at the freeway off ramp with his cardboard sign.  There's a chasm between you and him.  You work hard for a living, he stands in the hot sun with no shelter and a cardboard sign.
• You hear of corrupt governments that oppress their innocent citizens and you quietly thank God that you live in a democracy.  Another chasm: between a government of the people, by the people for the people, and a government that merely serves the ambitions of a few privileged despots.
• You hear that a percentage of the homeless lining our streets are mentally ill.  Another chasm: your mental health is superb, and they languish, unable to meet the challenges that life throws at them day in, day out.
• Do you think God expects us to bridge any of those chasms?
• What are some other chasms that divide us from those in need?
• What is God asking of us?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What of myself am I giving away?
2. How can I contribute toward greater justice in the world around me?
3. Is there anyone in my life that I care about enough that I would challenge them to be more faithful to their identity in God?
4. How can I be a bridge?

Table Prayer

Blessed are you Lord
God of all creation
For through your goodness we have received
The bread and wine on this table
Fruit of the earth, and the work of human hands.

Bless those hands who have labored over this fare.
Let us never forget them and their toil.
Let us always treat them with dignity
And treat them fairly.

Let this meal remind us of all of creation
And our humble place within it.
Show us how to steward the earth gratefully,
That we and this world sustain each other.

Let this meal remind us of those in need.
The forgotten, the oppressed, the marginalized.
All of us are your children, You love each of us.
Let us build a world based on that love.

Let this time and food that we share at this table
Nourish us in heart and body.
Take our stories, our lives as we share them here, now.
And show us how they fit into Your story, creation's emerging.

Shalom!