THEIR HEARTS ARE FAR FROM ME

Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Dear Friends.

Often in the Gospels, we find that Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees and Scribes leads to a deeper dimension of his message. In today’s passage from Mark, Jesus addresses the distortion of the purity laws. Over time, these good practices had lost their way. They eventually became a source of division and elitism, hypocrisy and isolation. This is very often the case in all religious practice. It had become almost a full time job to respond to the endless details of the purity laws. For working poor, the actual implementation of the multiple and intricate laws had become an impossible burden. As an example, the shepherds were considered totally out of the realm of respectability because of their failure to ritualize the overwhelming demands of these laws.

In the beginning, the purity laws were a guide to true integrity. They were a means to express the true holiness of the Chosen People in the midst of their pagan neighbors. However, their distortion over time had evolved into an expression of power and control as well as a source of income for the élite.

Jesus cut right to core of the issue in the quote for Isaiah.

This people honors me with their lips,

But their hearts are far from me;

In vain do they worship me

teaching as doctrines human precepts.

In the midst of this controversy with the Jewish leaders, Jessus presents a fundamental truth to guide all people at all times. True holiness flows from a heart in love with God. All the laws of Moses are a guide to encounter this God of love. All the laws are truly a pathway to personal integrity and authenticity. The law, properly understood, was not a source of potential punishment, but an invitation into holiness, a holiness reflecting the life and love of God.

In this life-giving relationship with God, the fundamental issue is the heart. This core presence within the person nurtures all true and genuine morality. Any use of the law that is not rooted in the true faithfulness of the heart soon becomes a caricature. It reduces commitment to lip service and empty compliance. When there is a disconnect with the heart, hypocrisy is never far behind.

Jesus’ constant message is about faithfulness that is the product of a pure heart. For the heart to attain this sense of holiness and purity, it needs the word of God. The power of God’s word, especially the connection with Jesus, will guide and inspire in all circumstances.

Another issue is self-knowledge. This involves a growing awareness of the potential for evil within each person. This self-knowledge is a critical component of the gospel experience. Listing twelve common expressions of evil, Jesus then says: “All these evils come from within and they defile.” (Mk 7:23)

Jesus is constantly inviting the crowds and the disciples and us to move beyond the letter of the law to the deeper domain of the spirit, the home arena of the heart. This is a call to see in Jesus the one who truly is the absolute revelation of the God of love and mercy. He is the fullness of truth and freedom. In our effort to walk with Jesus, which is the true Christian life, we will find the rightful law which is the fount of all true morality. This is the gift of Jesus’ new law, love of God and love of our neighbor.

Till the end, the Church will have to deal with the awesome pull of hypocrisy and the temptation to weaponize the laws for the control and privilege of the few. Till the end, all of us as individuals, will struggle with a fragmented heart that distorts Jesus’ teachings for our personal advantage. Till the end, we will need to pray to Jesus for mercy and the elusive treasure that is purity of heart. This will help us hear and respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth in our daily life.

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“MASTER, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time

John 6:60-69

Dear Friends, In these last five weeks we have been pondering Jesus as the Bread of Life. The heart of the lesson is that Jesus is the revelation of God, a saving God who calls us to eternal life through his beloved Son. “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (Jn 6:63) The faith that Jesus demands is not about making everything crystal clear but about a steadfast allegiance in spite an enduring ambiguity of life’s ups and downs.

Today’s final words of Jesus center on this need for faith, a faith open to the Spirit’s call. Underlying and permeating this entire examination of the Bread of Life, and throughout the Gospel of John, is the stunning reality of the Incarnation, “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14). Jesus will return to the Father in the self-sacrificing event of his death and resurrection. To accept the wonder of this invitation into love, we need faith to let the Spirit fill our hearts. We have before us the answer to the deepest longing in our hearts. We have before us the Bread to satisfy our deepest hunger. We have before us the call to total freedom and everlasting life. We need to join Peter’s marvelous declaration, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:69)

Jesus’ words opened the eyes and hearts of the disciples. In proclaiming himself as the Bread of Life sent down from heaven Jesus touched their deepest longings. They still remained confused and humble. They still longed for the clarity and the security of a better understanding. Yet they had come to the conviction and commitment to accept Jesus as “the Holy One of God.” (Jn 6:69) Their faith had set them free to begin the pilgrimage to God by embracing Jesus as the Bread of Life.

There is a profound message for us in this faith-inspired but bewildering situation facing disciples. It is clear they did not totally comprehend the profound message of Jesus as the Bread of Life. While their understanding remained partial and incomplete, while their commitment would bend to the limits on the journey to Jerusalem, while the coming disaster of “the fatal weekend” held a future of unimaginable darkness for them, they stayed faithful and open to growth acne in the midst of their human weakness and uncertainty. They have shown us that faith is not about having a flawless answer. It is about steadfastness in spite of life’s relentless expressions of our mortality. The disciples, in their very flawed humanity, have shown us the way.

This same challenge of accepting Jesus is ever-present in our life. It is the most basic choice that faces us as human beings. We must answer Jesus’ question which is similar to his statement in Mark, “Who do you say I am?” (Mk 8:27) We need to accept God on God’s terms no matter how shocking Jesus’ statement: “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.” (Jn 6:54) We need to let go of the deceitful world our common sense builds to blind us in our self-serving sense of security and comfort. We need to embrace faith in the great and incomprehensible mystery of Jesus as the Bread of Life. He has taken flesh in our world so we may be transformed in the Spirit. Our faith and commitment to walk in his footsteps will carry us through death to eternal life.

For five weeks we have seen the two sides of Jesus as the Bread of Life. He is both the unveiling of the wisdom and power of God and the gift of love in the Eucharist. John will further expose the depths of that great gift of his body and blood at the Last Supper. In the washing of the feet, we encounter the true nature of the Eucharist. It is Jesus as God’s gift for the life of the world. We are nourished by the flesh and blood to continue that revelation of self-giving that Jesus has modeled for us in the washing of the feet. It is all about love leading to life. We enhance that life in the service of others. It is all about love leading to our life eternal.

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4. THE PRAYERFUL READING OF THE BIBLE

An Opportunity for Deep Personal Prayer

The Prayerful Reading of the Bible: Lectio Divina

Vatican II brought the word of God in the Bible to the center of all Christian spirituality. This revival has led to a growing practice of prayer that has had a long tradition in the church. This is called lectio divina. Literally, this means divine reading. Another description would be the prayerful reading of the Bible.

This prayerful reading seeks to listen to what God has to say to us. It will lead us to know and embrace God’s will. It is all about the transforming encounter with God’s special means of revelation, the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

When approaching the Mystery unveiled in the Scriptures, we need the attitude of Samuel: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10).

There are four steps to this prayerful reading of the Bible:

1. A slow meditative reading of a selected text of the Scriptures.
2. A reflection on the text that connects it with our life experience.
3. A response in prayer to this reflective activity.
4. Finally, a quiet resting in the Mystery of this encounter.

Four Steps

It is essential to prepare for this serious time of prayer. We need to create an atmosphere of silence, with minimal outside distractions. Next, we select the text. We then invoke the Holy Spirit.

In the initial step, we have to seek out the meaning: What does the text say? Silence is important for listening and avoiding the trap of making the text say what we want. We need to bring the heart into the process as well as the mind. A particular phrase or sentence may burst out as a light, sometimes gently, sometimes with great force. Hold on to it.

In the second step, we want to ask: What does the text say to us? We enter into a dialogue with the text. Here we want to make the connection to our life. The reflection leads to building a bridge between God’s word and our life situation at this moment. In this process, the distractions will never be far away. To cast out these disruptions in the mind, always return to the text. The all-important matter here is that we must return to the text and away from the mind’s ever-present wanderings. This discipline maintains a recollected and focused approach to the job of reflection in the second step.

In the third step, we try to discover what the text leads us to say to God. We are moved to prayer. We speak to God of how we know that we want to change. We acknowledge the struggle. We cannot do it by ourselves. Honesty is the true gold of this form of prayer. We seek help perhaps in healing a flawed relationship or getting rid of a bad habit. We ask assistance and guidance. We make resolutions to be more generous in walking with Jesus. Patience is truly important. This is always a slow journey from the head to the heart to life. This is about self-knowledge, a topic decisive to any authentic effort at prayer.

The fourth step, quiet listening and resting in the Lord, generates a contemplative mood. This is the goal of the prayerful reading of the Bible: opening ourselves up to the transforming love of God. Silence is the language of God. We slowly grow in the wonder that God loves us. While we do not always have this deep encounter of loving silence, it remains the goal. It is the gift that transforms us into the image of Christ.

Spiritual Transformation

When we approach the prayerful reading of the Bible in lectio divina, we should see ourselves as the one to whom the Bible is directed. It was formulated to address us here and now. However, we are always a member of a community. The Bible is not a personal prayer book but God’s gift to the community.

Our search for the meaning of the Scriptures needs to include the church’s guidance in biblical studies. Praying the Scriptures should lead us to seek an understanding of the biblical meaning. Prayer and study need to steer us away from making the Bible fit our demands and desires.

We need to keep the concrete reality of our life, our family, our community, and the larger circumstances of the political, economic, and social reality front and center. The first three steps are an encounter with Christ-for-us. He is our Savior calling us to new life. In the final, and most important step, we meet Christ-in-us. This presence grows in the gradual transformation of our being that results from our faithful and generous reading of the Bible. We are truly walking with Jesus.

The faithful practice of lectio divina helps us move out of our false self and to seek the gift of our true self. We slowly grow out of illusions of self-importance. We recognize the destructive power of self-absorption. This often-painful growth surprisingly is a growth in humility. This draws us toward the goal of the human journey, being one with God.

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JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

John 6:51-58

Dear Friends, Today we continue our journey with John’s theme of the Bread of Life. Up to this point, the message has been Jesus the Bread of Life as a gift of wisdom. He is the full revelation of God including the loving plan of redemption and the call of the Father to eternal life. Now there is a subtle switch to incorporate Jesus as the Bread of Life that nourishes us in the Eucharist.

It is very helpful to keep in mind the rich biblical themes as we ponder the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel passage. The whole of chapter six of John looks back to the manna in the desert. It also recalls the Passover meal along with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. Finally, it is all gathered together in the Passion and Death of Jesus. In these topics we encounter Jesus as Word and Sacrament.

The first thing we must remember is that Jesus is not speaking in the language of modern science, that of chemistry, biology or medicine. He was speaking the language of the heart as it related to the abundant scriptural tradition of the Jewish people. He was talking about his human person as the presence of God’s message. Both the New Passover of his death and resurrection and the New Manna of the Eucharist are a message that divided the crowd. He was presenting himself as the gift of God far beyond the generosity of God’s manna in the desert. He is now the bread that offers ever-lasting life. He is the new Pascal Lamb that will lead to deliverance from slavery in all its seemingly endless expressions of evil. He will set us free from all that keeps us from loving God with our whole heart and anything that hinders true human development.

What Jesus is saying in the gift of his flesh and blood is that we are called not only to new life but eternal life. Like the story of the vine and branches, Jesus is using the plea to be one with him in his body and blood. This will make his life and our life one in a mission of love. This life-giving participation in the Eucharist, the New Passover and the New Manna, helps all who partake of the body and blood to share Jesus’ sacrificial and saving love for the world. Through sharing communion with Jesus, we participate in his love for all people. We are called into the fundamental message of all the Gospel: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn13:34)

Those in the crowd who rejected the message understood clearly. They were not ready to leave their old tradition. Jesus was proclaiming a new day. Jesus was transparent. God is now speaking through him. We have to unite with Jesus to truly hear the word of God and to embrace it in our life by sharing in the love for all. All barriers are to be broken down. All forms of exclusion are to abolished. This is possible by the gift of the Eucharist where Jesus gives us the Bread of Life to walk in the way of love. This new life takes flesh in our service and sharing with all our brothers and sisters, with our care for all God’s creation.

John’s message in chapter six is that Jesus feeds us in two ways. The first is the revelation of God’s truth and wisdom. The second is in the Eucharist of his flesh and blood calling us into communion in a life of love. Both gifts are Jesus as the Bread of Life. In the Word made flesh that is the Incarnation of Jesus, God goes beyond the freedom of the Exodus and the nourishment of the manna. God far surpasses his providential generosity. God wildly exceeds the grasp of our human understanding. This is why we spend these five weeks pondering God’s love in Jesus as the Bread of Life. In the end only faith will open our heart to this divine gift. In Jesus, God transcends mere information. God is inviting us into the Mystery of Love that is the true nourishment for the hunger in our heart and the call to transform the world.

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THE BIBLE AND PRAYER

An Opportunity for Deep Personal Prayer

I

The People’s Experience of God

The Bible is a love story of God and his people. It is simple and clear. Yet, it is also complicated because this love absorbs human frailty and sin covering centuries.

The creation accounts in Genesis are written in their own symbolic and narrative style. They contain complex insights about the human experience and our historical reality. They portray the human venture based on three fundamental and deeply connected relationships with God, our neighbor and creation. The Genesis account relates a basic brokenness in these three relationships. This is sin. Adam and Eve, our first parents, set the pattern. We follow it as we place ourselves rather than God at the center of all reality. We refuse to acknowledge the constraints of being creatures.

While the Bible is the story of salvation, the consequences of sin are at the center of the story in Genesis’ first eleven chapters. They lay out the need for salvation. Cain and Abel, Noah and the Ark, the Tower of Babel and, of course, Adam and Eve and the apple are examples of humankind’s pulling away from God. God’s instruction “to have dominion over all the earth” (Gen 1:28) is mangled in our selfish patterns of behavior. God also told us to “till it and keep it.” (Gen 2:15) Our failure on both accounts has severely disrupted the balance between God, humanity and creation. This rupture is expressed in our time in wars, violence, abuse, neglect of the most vulnerable and the continuing violation of nature.

Pope Francis describes this sin that places ourselves at the center in today’s historical experience as “practical relativism.” He defines this practical relativism as follows: “When human beings place themselves at the center, they give absolute priority to immediate convenience and all else becomes relative.”

This relativism, a powerful and pervasive expression of sin in our day, leads to the exploitation and neglect of others at all levels. People are reduced to objects. Abuse of others, economically, racially and sexually, is a natural consequence of this mentality. We see all of this expressed in the invisible forces of the market, in human trafficking, in organized crime, in malignant consumerism, in the drug trade, unrelenting racism and in the rampant misuse of the land and the sea and air, flora and fauna. All these destructive forces flow from a false vision and denial of human dignity.

The story of salvation begins in chapter twelve of Genesis with the call and promise made to Abraham. What follows is nearly two thousand years of the evolution of that promise leading to Jesus in the epic struggle of sin and grace.

In its broadest sweep, the story flows in a time-frame across two thousand years from Abraham to Moses to David, moving to the prophets and climaxing in Jesus. Throughout, there is a continual expression of God’s faithfulness and human ambivalence. The story moves from the promise to Abraham, destined to become the father of a great nation, to Moses liberating the people on the way to the Promised Land. The era of David and the kings introduces the idea of hope for God’s final intervention in the person of the Messiah. The enlightenment of the prophets’ message expands and deepens this hope. Along the way, we are gifted with the collective wisdom of the people in other books, especially in the psalms. Each draws us deeper into the mystery of this ever-active, always loving and saving God.

Throughout this journey of Abraham’s family evolving into the Jewish people, the hope of the promise advances in spite of consistent and profound infidelities to the Law of the Covenant. Likewise, there is a slow but steady growth in the communal understanding of who God is and what God wants. Many centuries after Abraham, the people came to the deepest truth of all: there is only one God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.

The entire thrust of the movement of this salvation history leads to Jesus, the Word of God. In Jesus, we have the fullness of God’s revelation. We have the invitation to enter into the Mystery of Love reflected in the beautiful harmony between the Jewish Scriptures and the great event of Christ crucified and Christ risen. The fullness of God’s grace and truth is revealed in Jesus in the abandonment and utter poverty of the Cross. Here we encounter the ultimate truth of God, a God of saving love and mercy.

II

The Bible as a Source of Prayer

The Bible’s story of salvation was put together by the people reflecting, sharing, and praying about their experience of God. Most of the writings in the Bible are the conclusion of the community’s deep discernment. Their on-going encounter with God took place over a long period of time. There was a steady process of maturing in their knowledge and acceptance of God. The gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit directed the journey leading to Jesus, the final and absolute Word of God in the flesh.

A centerpiece of this journey for God’s people was the Exodus: the liberation from slavery in Egypt. This included the passage through the desert and the entry into the Promised Land. The singular power of this experience guided the people down through the centuries of an often-torturous history. Again, and again, the children of Abraham reflected on the faithfulness of God who set them free. They found strength and fortitude in encountering the revelation of this God of the Exodus in their constantly troubled plight

The same is true of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This ultimate expression of God’s saving love has become the gateway to the new day, the New Exodus, in Christian history. We see in it the continual opening to hope, no matter how dark and stinging the ravages of life may be.

The central point of the story of salvation in the Bible is this. The message, in all its breadth and depth, comes from the people’s experience of the saving power of God who is active in their lives and their history. The Bible teaches us that the same God of the Chosen People is in our life. The word in the Bible gives us the light that enables us to encounter, understand, and embrace the reality of God’s continuing presence in our life. We are invited to participate in the call and promise today. This is the pilgrimage through history to the kingdom of God. The gift of God’s word in the revelation of the Bible is always a call to new life and new horizons.

III

Study and Prayer

Our approach to the Bible requires two distinct methods. One is to study the Bible to absorb the story and to grow in familiarity with the word of God. This should be done with a reverent spirit. However, it is an exercise of the intellect. We must develop a familiarity with the overall story. This should include a broad sense of the general themes, major events and the basic timeline from Abraham to Jesus. Pope Francis calls for this bible study in the The Joy of the Gospel. He says, “The study of the sacred Scriptures must be a door opened to every believer. It is essential that the revealed word radically enrich our catechesis and all efforts to pass on the faith…Let us receive the sublime treasure of the revealed word.” (#175)

The second method is the prayerful reading of the Scriptures. This task goes beyond the mind to the depth of the spirit within us, a truly different tactic. The prayerful reading of the Bible seeks primarily to listen to what God has to say to us in the midst of our lives. This demands an openness and emptiness that echoes Samuel as we approach the Holy Word: “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10)

We need to always be aware that the text is more than fact. It is a symbol, a window, and a reflection that lets us see the past as a mirror of today’s experience. This prayerful reading of the word of God needs to lead us into our present historical reality in a way that it discloses the mystery of God’s saving presence here and now.

Our search has three goals:

We want to acquire a personal understanding of God’s word.

We want to let God’s will for our life situation to become clear and practical.

We want to live the call to walk with Jesus.

These goals prepare us to face the challenge of the brokenness and confusion of our daily experience. In this prayerful reading of the Bible, we need to receive the message as if it is addressed to us personally at this specific time in history because it is.

In this time of prayerful reading of the scriptures, it is important to set aside any sense of study or preparation to share our understanding with others. We prayerfully read the Bible for one purpose. We want to grow in faith and simply be in the presence of the living God.

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JESUS AS THE BREAD OF LIFE IN THE EUCHARIST

Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

John 6:41-51

Dear Friends, In today’s liturgy we continue the discourse on the Bread of Life in chapter six of John’s Gospel. Jesus’ message emphasizes his identity as the Bread of Life. It is only through him, as the Bread of Life, that we will get to know the Father. Likewise, it is only through him as the Bread of Life that we will be fed by the Father on the journey to eternal life. Next week full attention will be on this second element of this discourse, Jesus as the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. Today we continue the emphasis on the person of Jesus as the Bread of Life as our invitation into the Divine Mystery.

The crowd’s rejection of Jesus in today’s Gospel has to do with the Incarnation. The people’s limited image of God did not allow them to see that God could use one like us to reveal God’s truth. With many echoes of the Exodus story, the conflict shows Jesus testing the limits of their cramped imagination. In their limited worldview, Jesus, as the Bread come down from heaven, just does not connect as a possibility. They do not want to move much beyond the surface of their world and culture. They truly appreciated God’s generosity in the manna of their ancestors. Yet, they failed to see how much greater was God’s gift of the Bread of Life in Jesus right before their eyes. In the time of the Exodus and here in the gospel time of Jesus, we have the response of the people to God’s gift of bread. The people murmured and complained. Is it that different in our day? We are being challenged to put away our grumbles and our doubts, our confusion and our anxieties and let Jesus guide us through the ever-present darkness and bitterness of life. We must let Jesus be the Bread of Life for us.

The great event of Christianity is that through the humanity of Christ we are called into his divinity. This truth becomes available not by turning away from the traditional truths of the religious tradition of the Chosen People. Jesus points out our calling is to enter more deeply into the tradition by accepting Jesus as the Bread that came down from heaven. Jesus completes and replaces that initial revelation to the family of Abraham. Jesus is God’s continuing offer of life more abundant than we could imagine. The manna in the desert is only the slimmest glimmer of God’s ultimate gift in Jesus as the Bread of Life.

Jesus is telling the people, and us, that the only way we can understand him is through a faith that draws us to a much deeper level. That deeper level is available to us when we open ourselves to the most intense hungers in our hearts. These are hungers only God can satisfy. St. Augustine spoke eloquently of this God-hunger: “You have made us for yourself O Lord and our heart is restless until we rest in you.”

Jesus is challenging the crowd, and us, to go beyond ourselves, beyond our petty world controlled by rigid traditions and limited and routine religious practices. Jesus is inviting us to encounter him and his message as the Bread of Life as the most genuine truth within our lives. We need to allow the Spirit of God open us to the Bread of Life. Again and again, Jesus is offering the wisdom of the Bread of Life. Again and again, this chapter six in John has the offer of eternal life. In today’s Gospel we are called to accept Jesus as the gift of God. This is the gift leading to the ultimate yearning in our heart, happiness forever. Now, in our present moment, this gift of God that is Jesus, helps us to find direction and meaning in our life. Jesus shows us that the authentic truth of our lives will be found in service, reconciliation and love for all in the footsteps of Jesus.

There is an obvious call to share the gift of the heavenly and earthly bread we have received. We need to open our hearts and our pocketbooks to the hungry near and far. We need to see in the homeless and the migrants an opportunity to give flesh in our day to the Bread of Life that is our gift from Jesus.

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AN OBSTACLE TO DEEP PERSONAL PRAYER

Prayer of Petition: Complex and Easily Distorted 

I

There are two fundamental points about the prayer of petition. We start with an awareness of our dependence on God. Second, whatever our petition may be, it must lead to God’s plan for our salvation, the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus in the Gospels. As we slip away from these central points, there is a change of focus from God to ourselves. We move gradually into deeper levels of superstition and magic. This is a denial of God and a gross distortion of our faith. It is amazing how flawed Christian prayer fades into the same structure of petition as practiced in witchcraft.

Moving away from a journey of faith and trust, we move toward the magical. We create our own image of God as our personal Divine Manipulator. This is how we become the center, and God is there in heaven at our beck and call. Now, it is not God’s Kingdom but our kingdom that is front and center. Most often our desires are for security and the elimination of anxiety. Usually, our prayer falls into a pattern of seeking some form of prosperity usually defined not by God’s Kingdom but by the norms of our consumer society with its assurance of wealth and comfort. Likewise, much prayer is brought on by a crisis whether personal or communal.

II

The Church’s prayer for a blessing of a car gives an important insight into this complex issue of the integrity of prayer of petition. The prayer of blessing makes three points: safety of those in the vehicle, the responsibility of the driver for the safety of others, and that Christ always be a companion of those in the vehicle.

This call for personal responsibility and accountability is critical to all prayer. God expects us to use the talents and gifts we have received. This task of human effort is spelled out beautifully in what we call the transcendental precepts. We express this human effort in the following guidelines for all authentic human activity:

1. Be attentive.
2. Be intelligent.
3. Be reasonable.
4. Be responsible.
5. Be loving.

In this way, whether in driving a car or any other genuine human activity, we are using our humanity as God wants. Only after this engagement should we enter the arena of the prayer of petition. By following the precepts, we develop a proper image of God. This is the loving providential God who operates within the limits of our sinful and broken human condition. God’s saving plan was made manifest in the death and resurrection of Jesus. God invites us to share in that great act of love by our service and surrender.

This is our final and complete entry into God’s loving plan. Along the way, everything we pray for needs to be measured in how it helps us achieve this final good that is God’s will for us.

Jesus has much to say about prayer in the Gospels. In Luke, Jesus makes it very clear how to decide about our concerns and God’s concerns. “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Notice the ravens: they do no sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds!…Indeed, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides… for where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Lk 12:22–24, 31, 34).

In all of its complexity, the prayer of petition comes down to this. God is God. We are creatures. This is the basis of our relationship with God. As creatures we are ultimately defined by our mortality resulting from our sinfulness. Our basic petition is for freedom from this bondage. That is God’s plan for us: a freedom and love in this life that opens in the passage through death to life eternal.

God’s Plan and Our Plan

Most often, when people pray, their petition fits into their plan. They want God to respond when their strategy for happiness needs some help. But God also has a plan, and God wants us to respond to the divine plan. Here is the conflict, the two plans: God’s and ours. This is a significant problem with prayer. However, in the end, this difference can be a great source of life in our prayer.

I had my first experience of the conflict of the two plans in high school. The loss of a championship football game seemed like the end of the world to me. In fact, it was the beginning of a new and ever-so-more-wonderful world. After the loss of the game, I entered what seemed like an unending funk totally new to my teenage experience. What it was, in reality, was God making space so I could hear his call to enter the seminary, one of the best decisions in my life. It took me many years to understand that the pain and anguish of the loss were a true blessing. Life is always coming from death when we walk with Jesus.

For most people, a good part of their journey as Christians and searching people involves this transition from our plan for happiness to God’s plan for our happiness. We are clear with what we want and what we think we need. Deep personal payer opens up the wonder of the Gospels to let us see life in a new way. This is the transition from our kingdom to God’s Kingdom. In this way, we turn the prayer of petition into a true opportunity rather an obstacle to deep personal prayer.

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I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE

Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

John 6:24-35 

Dear Friends, The folks in today’s Gospel were happy with the free meal of fish and bread but they had their eyes on much bigger stakes. They were hoping Jesus would be the answer to the centuries’ old longing for a return to glory for Israel. They had visions of a new day of prosperity and wealth. The hunger in their hearts went deeper than the hunger in their stomachs. They hoped that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the one who would finally fulfill the promises that permeated the 2000-year history of the Jewish nation. 

Jesus, in turn, offers them a very different alternative. Jesus was well able to see beyond their desires for power and glory, wealth and privilege. Jesus knew well that there was a great difference between what the crowd wanted and what they truly needed, God’s invitation to eternal life.

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A TRUE TREASURE

In the very first days of his Pontificate, Pope Francis proclaimed the importance of prayer. In a daily homily he said:

“The Lord tells us the first task in life is prayer. But not the prayer of words, like a parrot; but the prayer of the heart gazing on the Lord, hearing the Lord, asking the Lord.”

This Blog, Praying Alone Together, has the goal to explain, support and encourage the prayer Pope Francis describes. I use the term “deep personal prayer” to identify this kind of prayer.

In The Catechism of the Catholic Church there are several definitions of prayer. One from St. John Damascene states: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God”.

Our “good things” often conflict with God’s “good things”. A significant part of the Christian life is learning to discern the difference and importance of our self-perceived “good things” and the “good things” of God. More often than not, our “good things” are wrapped in the false values of our materialistic and consumer driven culture rather than the values of the Gospel.

For most people, a good part of their journey as Christians or as searching people involves this transition from our plan for happiness to God’s plan for our happiness. We are clear with what we want and what we think we need. It is like the adult list for Santa. However, through the experience of life’s many trials leading to a more loving awareness of the wisdom and beauty of the gospel, we gradually see the need for change. This eventually leads to the long and costly process of letting go and letting God. We become serious about making God the center of our lives. This spiritual growth is one of the important functions of the journey to contemplative prayer, the true goal of all spiritual growth. Deep personal prayer plays a critical role in this transformation.

In these pages I use two spiritual giants to define the prayer that I describe as deep personal prayer. Thomas Merton explains prayer as follows: “Prayer then means yearning for the simple presence of God, for a personal understanding of God’s word, for knowledge of God’s will, and for the capacity hear and obey God.”

In Merton’s definition of prayer, God is our true focus. We search for understanding and direction in our lives that will guide us toward God. Our call to contemplation becomes clearer in this style of prayer. We find five key points in Merton’s definition of prayer.

1. All prayer must raise our awareness and lead us to pay attention to God’s presence.
2. We need to engage God’s word. This is first and foremost through the Bible but it also is in the experiences of life.
3. The involvement with God’s word leads us to God’s will. This begins a process of undermining selfishness and encouraging generosity toward God and others. Prayer is critical in this enlightenment.
4. In this style of prayer, listening is the most important feature.
5. Finally, as we grow in understanding of God’s word and seeking God’s will, the Spirit directs us to follow Jesus.

Teresa of Avila offers this description of prayer: “In my opinion, prayer is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know love us.” (Life VIII, 5). In all of Teresa’s writings, the emphasis is unquestionably on the God “who we know loves us.” There is a continual growth in that love when we continue to be faithful to Jesus.

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JESUS ​​TOOK THE LOAVES AND DISTRIBUTED THEM

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary time

Jn 6:1-15

Dear Friends, For the next five weeks we move from Mark to John for our gospel readings. We take time to consider selections from Johnn’s Discourse on the Bread of Life in his marvelous chapter six. John presents two major themes in this remarkable teaching on the Bread of Life. Two interwoven themes are Jesus as the life-giving revelation from heaven and as the life-giving bread from heaven. The focus is Jesus as Word and Sacrament. Only verses 51-58 are explicitly about the Eucharist though implications of the Eucharist appear often in this special chapter.

Today’s story of the loaves and fishes appears six times in the four Gospels. It has its roots in the Old Testament and it points toward the Eucharist. It is a powerful display of the theme of divine hospitality of the kingdom. One difference in John’s version is very significant. Jesus himself feeds the people. The message portrayed in Jesus’ action is this: the people receive the nourishment directly and abundantly from Jesus.

This relates this feeding to the feeding of the multitude is the manna in the desert. Likewise, right after the similar desert feast in John, we have Jesus walking on the water. This is a shadow of the Israelites walking through the Reed Sea on the road to freedom.

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HIS HEART WAS MOVED WITH PITY FOR THEM

Dear Friends, Jesus has a plan to take the disciples away for rest and prayer. He is sidetracked by the large gathering of people. Mark says, “His heart was moved with pity for them.” (Mk 6:34)

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time 

Mark 6:30-34

This Greek word that is here translated, pity, is used two other times in the Gospels. In these two cases, it is translated, “compassion”. It means very strong feelings of deep concern. The Good Samaritan experienced these feelings as he came upon the victim on the roadside. (Lk 10:33) The father of the Prodigal Son is described with the same feelings. “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.” (Lk 15:20)

Another beautiful description of compassion is an old saying: One shows compassion that sees another person weep and tastes the tears. Compassion is the bridge from sympathy to action.

One of the most powerful and sensitive statements from Vatican II captured this rich evangelical call for compassion: “The joys and the hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well.” (Gaudium et Spes #1)

As Jesus is filled with compassion, his first response is to teach the people. Jesus’ basic message to the people is of a God of love. He heals some and shortly he will feed the hungry crowd but his fundamental gift is an invitation into a love that will go far beyond the necessary healing and the urgent hunger of the large crowd that is a symbol for all humanity.

Jesus’ message to all is that in our broken and troubled human condition there is an opening to new life and the wondrous love of a gracious God. The fundamental struggle of the Gospel of Mark is the failure of the disciples, as a mirror of us, to trust in the goodness and love of the God revealed by Jesus.

Jesus, acting in the desolate countryside and throughout his gospel journey, makes the divine message of love very real. He did this by always responding to the needs of those in his presence. This is how he is calling us to share in his mission to make the divine love real in our world. We are invited to share this love first with those present in our relationships and responsibilities. Then we are urged to continually expand our horizons of inclusion.

Our faith journey is similar to the disciples’ described by Mark. We, too, are burdened with the urge to move ahead on our own agenda. Like the disciples, we often find fault with Jesus’ plan and much prefer a plan of our own. The gospel lays out what should be the true goal of our life: to move away from our own self-centeredness to Jesus’ summons to make God the center. It is a struggle for us all the way.

Jesus, in his compassion, is patient with us as he was serene and peaceful with the crowd on the seashore, and especially with the disciples. Yet, he insists that his message is the way to truth, freedom and true happiness. His words are the gift of wisdom and light no matter how much his poverty and rejection and apparent failure shatter our common sense idea of reality. The Jerusalem call with the clear implication of suffering and death was a major impediment for the disciples. It remains the same for us today. Losing our life just does not seem to be the way to save our life.

Our agenda, like the crowd and the disciples, is for Jesus to fix our problems. Jesus, indeed, has compassion on our predicament of being flawed human beings. However, Jesus wants to fix us in a much deeper and total way. Jesus’ plan goes way beyond our very limited program. Jesus has a plan of compassion that shatters the narrowness and constraints of our dreams and hopes. The love revealed in his life and word open the possibility of satisfying the deepest hungers and longings of our heart that so often escape our awareness in the rush of life.

We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and be open to a new and marvelous journey of love in the midst of all our anxieties and fears. His compassion holds a hope we have hardly dreamt of. Deep personal prayer is the surest way to get in touch with this reality of true life and freedom buried behind the fear and disquiet in the depth of our hearts.

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OUR CHRISTIAN CALL TO BE MISSIONARY DISCIPLES

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary time

Mk6:6-13

Dear Friends, Jesus invited the Apostles to join the battle between good and evil, sin and grace. Their weapons were their experience with Jesus, the power of God’s word, the call to confront the demons and the healing power of God revealed in Jesus. These elements are the basic seed of what we have come to call evangelization. This is proclaiming the saving word of Jesus to transform individuals and all reality. This is the Church’s thrust into the ongoing conflict of good and evil. Like the Apostles, we are called to share in this glorious struggle. As Pope Francis continually tells us it is absolutely crucial to our Christian call to be missionary disciples.

The problem is that the work of being missionaries, particularly in our Catholic tradition, has been set aside for the “professionals”. The call to be missionaries for the folks in the Sunday pews has been woefully neglected in our Christian formation. For most of us, our awareness and connection with the Church’s missionary activity has meant to be generous with the second collection.

Mark’s words today possess a very unsettling consequence. Our identity as Church members means we have been sent. Like the first Apostles on this very first missionary journey, we are called to travel light and proclaim the word.

The only preparation the first Apostles had was their encounter with Jesus. Their message was a call to repentance. Their action was to confront the power of evil in the reign of the demons. They were to present the wonder of God’s healing power. The highlight of the mission was to proclaim the miracle of God’s saving word.

Today, Pope Francis never tires of calling us to understand our Christian vocation is one of being missionary disciples. The heart of the missionary message will always be the same. It is the love of God calling all to new life in Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. Early in his exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, the Pope says, “being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but an encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

All of this seems so far from the average experience of the faithful Church members in our time. Yet, today’s gospel is just part of a clear mandate found in all the Gospels: to follow Christ includes preaching the gospel. This is part of Vatican II’s call to lay responsibility in the Church.

Pope France has consistently called us to take up the challenge to be faithful to Jesus’ directive to preach the gospel. His call is consistent in appealing to us to see ourselves as missionary disciples. This truly challenging duty should begin with two fundamental tasks to initiate this missionary effort. First and foremost is the continual encounter with Jesus that will express itself in the witness of our life. Secondly, we must be open to change how we see ourselves as good followers of Christ. We must begin to be open to learn how we can develop missionary skills. We need to see ourselves as people who are “sent” to join the battle of good and evil. Our primary weapon is our relationship with Jesus. The other particulars of the missionary task is where we need help and guidance.

Today’s selection from Mark offers us a few key a few insights for our missionary efforts. By reason of the limited resources the Apostles had, Jesus was making sure that his missionaries were embracing the culture of the people to whom they were preaching. The gospel proclamation must always be sensitive and respectful to the culture while maintaining the goal to transform the culture through the power of God’s word. In other words, we must always take people where they are.

Secondly, by going two by two, Jesus showed the importance of community in the process of proclaiming the Good News. The Church is always a community with a mission.

Thirdly, the lightness of the travelers’ resources also has a message about their missionary undertaking. The fewer the resources, the freer we will be able to point out the prophetic consequences of Jesus’ teachings. The more entrenched the Church becomes in the culture, the cost will always be paid in reducing the cutting edge of the gospel message.

Near the end of The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis says the following:

“I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, time and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.”

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FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B

Mark 6:1-6

Dear Friends, In today’s Gospel we read in verse two: “Many who heard him were astonished. They said where did his man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given to him: What mighty deeds have been wrought by his hands!” (Mk 6:2)

No doubt, the residents of the town had heard of the raising of Jarius’ daughter, the cure of the woman, the healing of the demoniac and probably the quieting of the storm at sea. In a town with no evening news on TV and no morning paper, Jesus gave them quite a bit to talk about at their break time and all throughout the day.

The surprising conclusion was strong and clear. Their opinion of Jesus was forceful and without hesitancy in their opposition. In verse three we read: “Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?...And they took offense at him.” (Mk 6:3).

The townsfolk showed their astonishment in the many deeds of Jesus. On the other hand, they showed no interest in the wisdom and truth and healing generosity flowing from the witness of his mighty deeds.

Jesus understood the challenge he was placing before the people of Nazareth. It is the same issue for us today. The first public words he proclaims lay out a clear invitation to change, to move out of the comfortable rituals and prejudices that reduce God to a manageable size and image. Jesus said, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15).

The folks had no confusion about Jesus. He was calling them to change. Jesus was calling them out of their contented niche, their clinging to a past and a present of convenience and comfort. Jesus was calling them, and us today, to a future that demands a deep trust and faith and change!

Jesus was not into accommodation, easy adjustment or reassurance. Jesus was and is inviting us into a Mystery that shatters our little world. He wants to draw us into a faithful response that deals with the paradox of the first being last, of the leader being the servant, of losing your life to save it, of taking up your cross to walk with the Savior to Jerusalem.

It is truly amazing how we can domesticate and trivialize Jesus’ gospel message to fit our limited measure of God. For some, it is the gospel of prosperity. For others it is the safe and secure answers to all of life’s mysteries some find in their limited interpretation of the Baltimore catechism. We are fearful of the unknown and the ever expanding challenge of the future. In one way or another we are inclined to create a Jesus to distract or eliminate that basic fear of our mortality.

Jesus comes to call us in faith to that future. He wants us to know he is with us in the sicknesses and trials, the ever growing demands of aging, the losses of security in today’s economy where the average CEO earns two hundred times the average worker.

Jesus wants us to be open to the poor and down trodden. Jesus pleads with us to see his presence in the immigrants. There is no crisis, communal or personal, that faith cannot overcome if we are willing to walk with Jesus on his terms not ours.

The folks of Nazareth were among the first of legions down through history to suffer the scandal of the Incarnation. For them, there was no way “the carpenter, the son of Mary” could do all these mighty deeds. In their closed mentality, God could not come that close to our daily struggles. God had to be hidden far away. Our only contact with God was through our religious rituals and traditions. This was the safe way.

The Incarnate Jesus was offering another way to experience God. Jesus was revealing a God present in our daily life and struggles. God was being displayed as one in our midst through our relationships and responsibilities. As Teresa of Avila so famously stated, “We will find God among the pots and pans.”

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THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Mark 5:21-43

Dear Friends, In Jesus’ time, people had a much different idea of the presence and the power of the demons than our Hollywood version so popular today in movies like “The Exorcist”. In the time of Jesus, people had a basic vision of good and evil. Evil and the demons were fundamentally the same in the view of the people. Evil was the power of the demons. It was the driving force that controlled people in a way that seriously limited their freedom.

Today’s Gospel passage presents Jesus as the victor in these two battles with the wicked demonic powers. Jesus invites his followers to see in his presence a gracious God setting the woman free from the curse of twelve years. In the young daughter, Jesus reveals a message of hope in the ultimate expression of good over evil. The combined story of the two females verifies the power of Jesus over evil expressed in sickness and death. These two dramatic incidents mirror Jesus’ own ultimate victory in the Resurrection. Like the Resurrection, we have a message of the victory of life and love on the journey to our original innocence.

There seemed to be no remedy to both the woman and Jairus, the father. This just set the scene for the revelation of Jesus’ compassion and tenderness. The interactions of the woman and the father with Jesus express human desperation encountering a God of tender mercy and compassion. The woman had come up empty on all fronts. In total abandonment and weakness, she reached out to touch Jesus. She walked away not only healed, but transformed in the depth of her being. She now was saved, now at peace, and most of all, now a very special daughter of God. The father was engulfed in hopelessness and desperation. Jesus revealed the source of all hope in the gift of his daughter’s return to life.

The stories also show Jesus’ power over the demonic effort to crush human freedom. The laws of cleanliness in the practice of the Jews often had unintended consequences. For the bleeding woman, not only did she have the burden of her personal sickness, she was totally isolated socially from the community because of the state of her impurity. She was, for all practical purposes, as isolated as a leper. When she touched Jesus, it was a gross violation of the laws of purity and even more, an incredibly daring gesture for a woman in her times.

Jesus transformed the violations of the woman into an expression of independence and hope. When he touched the dead body of the young daughter, he was also in grave defiance of the purity laws. He turned his actions into a message that those on the margins have a place of honor in God’s kingdom.

The message for us is clear. We need to bring our burdens and anxieties to Jesus. We need to know and trust that Jesus also wants to heal us and to set us free. The two beautiful females in today’s story, along with the despairing father, are models for us. The message is clear and strong. Turn to Jesus!

The Jesus who shines out in the drama of these two stories is an incredible display of kindheartedness and warmth. Facing the suffering and death of the two”daughters”, he crashes through the restraints of the purity laws. He talks to a woman in public and he touches a corpse!

Jesus identifies faith as a basic trust in God. The essential message of today’s gospel passage is, “Your faith has saved you.” (Mk 5:34) Jesus continues to call forth that trusting faith as a benediction for all his followers of yesterday, today and tomorrow. God is a God who fosters hope as He is always calling us through the apparent barriers of death to new life.

After all these centuries, we must continue to seek the power of the Strong One over the evil that still diminishes woman’s role in the Church and in society; still falls short in celebrating the GLTBQ community’s dignity in all of life; still is weak in hearing the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. We still are in need of the healing touch for families wracked by the addiction of a member and of families being destroyed by pathological divisions of one sort or another. Likewise, we are in need of the hunger for justice that flowed from the heart of the bleeding woman and the grieving father. They took the first step on the road to freedom and justice. We are called to be the same as vessels of Jesus’ love and healing power for our brothers and sisters.

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TWELFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Mark 4:35-41

Dear Friends, The first words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark are, “This is time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” (Mk 1:15)

Jesus then proceeds to teach, to call the disciples and to heal. All of these actions are expressions of the kingdom. They all lead to the question of who is this person, Jesus.

In our own lives we all approach Jesus in the beginning as one who will help us, one who will solve our problems and one who will, indeed, heal us.

In today’s story from Mark, Jesus is drawing the disciples into a deeper experience and challenge. He is with them in the storm. The storm is a symbol of the vulnerability of life. It gathers all that is fragile and frightening about our daily experience. It exposes the profound and pervasive truth that as creatures, the security of life is ultimately out of our control.

The disciples are not really asking Jesus to stop the storm. They simply want him to share their fear and anxiety and maybe help remove some water from the boat.

Jesus has a different agenda. “Quiet. Be still’. Then the wind ceased and there was great calm.” (Mk 4:39)

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