Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Goodness gracious!  This Lent has flown!  I was struck by a thread woven throughout these readings and the Psalm for today -- one of communication.  It seems the Israelites have grown, too, through these Lenten readings.  If anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together in the first reading is such a contrast to Judas betrayal in the Gospel.  Coming together is being open, it is an invitation to dialogue to solve disputes.  Earlier in the reading we see a transformation, a gentleness -- an open ear, a back to support and a face to reflect God's glory and to melt the hardest of hearts.  This is what your daddy and I strive for in our dialogue.  It is what we attempt to teach couples on the Weekend.  If we could all practice this in our everyday lives, our world would be at peace.  

The Psalm is poignant and points a finger at my own situation with my brother and to a lesser extent my sisters. I feel tremendous sadness.  Creating an outcast or being that outcast, a stranger to each other is not what God wants for us as family.  He would much prefer that we sit at the dining room table as was described in yesterday and continued in today's Gospel.  He wants only the best for us which is open and trusting relationships that listen to each other, support each other, heal woundedness and grow to even greater wholeness -- or holiness!  Chugwater and Big Horn Summits are good, but they are only a beginning.  As your daddy would say, we "need to keep the ball in the air!"  I regret that as a child I was not taught open communication, our feelings were not validated.  I look at my parent's background and I understand.  I also know that we are adults, we've grown, we've changed and things could be different.  Perhaps we, too, can follow suite and have our own Summit!

I had no idea where these readings would lead this morning.  I am grateful I took time to reflect.  MJ called us she was sick and up vomiting during the night.  It is probably not a good day to travel.  Please keep her in your prayers as we attempt to figure out what we can do with her ticket and her/and our disappointment.

Love,
MF 

Monday March 24th 2013

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032513.cfm

I read over the first reading three times, thinking about it through several perspectives. The term servant is an ambiguous term that could easily apply to many of the great leaders that arise in the Old Testament, it could apply to the prophesied leader in Jesus of the New Testament, or it could apply the reader, us, the faithful followers. This is one of the many readings in Isaiah that challenges us to become something more than our current state of being. This reading missions us to become a voice for the voiceless, to work endlessly to make this a kingdom where all persons feel an equal share in all that God has to offer.

Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
Upon whom I have put my Spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
Not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.

How do we bring about justice? How do we answer the call of the spirit? Sometimes its difficult to chose the right path, to do the right thing, or to stick up for the people that truly need to be protected. But this reading and this passage is the heart of our mission as Christians. We don't do this through meaningless banter and speech but through actions, through relationship, and through love.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

As we transition into Holy Week, I find today's readings consoling -- that the people of Israel are in a place to accept a Covenant of Peace with God.  Praise be to God!

I will make with them a covenant of peace;
it shall be an everlasting covenant with them,
and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.

Even more consoling is the Psalm Refrain:  The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards his flock.  This is so gentle and protective compared to all of the warrior images that we have been reading from the Old Testament earlier this Lenten Season.  The image of our God as a Shepherd is one of the most comforting images in the entire Bible. 

John's Gospel is almost like an ongoing saga of espionage.   Mind games, power struggles and sinister plots.  I find myself longing for the Parables and ready for the positive, formative readings from the Acts and Paul in the Easter Season.  I fully realize we need to walk the road to Calvary before we can experience the gifts of the resurrection, but it seems more painful this year.  

So, Jesus has been forced to withdraw from public, but not from his Mission, in that there is consolation.  

So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews,
but he left for the region near the desert,
to a town called Ephraim,
and there he remained with his disciples.

Now the Passover of the Jews was near,
and many went up from the country to Jerusalem
before Passover to purify themselves.
They looked for Jesus and said to one another
as they were in the temple area, “What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast?”

These final days are a real test of faith, both that of the human Jesus and my own faith.  I was gifted with the opportunity to console a woman yesterday whose husband had taken his life 2 days prior with a gun.  They were both patients.  She presented for a routine scheduled appointment and that was the first we learned of the suicide.  They have both struggled with depression and both been very supportive of the other.  My strongest consolation to her was the gift of faith.  That her husband can see in her grief how much she truly loved him.  Faith that a loving and forgiving God will welcome him home and restore him to the fullness of eternal life, that he can continue to walk with her in the days ahead.  The Israelites were so dependent upon a physical sign.  Not to sound arrogant, but their faith was really limited.  God, give us evidence and we will build an altar to worship you!  Yesterday I was challenged to see and to share the presence of God when it is indeed difficult.  That is faith.  As I listened to this woman pour her heart out I was able to love her and offer consolation, forgiveness and healing.  This, too, is faith -- recognizing and responding to the presence of God when it is right in front of us.  
 
May we continue to grow in faith as we enter into the final phase of this Lenten Season! And, YES, Jesus WILL come to the feast and he will welcome us with open arms.  
Love,
MF

Friday, March 22, 2013

Unlike you, I have never studied the Old Testament.  I am hardly attracted to the images of the Warrior God.  But I found some of the analogies in the Psalm intriguing:  

I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!

I love the image of God as a River as sung by Peter Mayer.  The bottom line is Let Go and Trust, Let God be God.  Do not cling to the Rock, but trust your faith and enjoy the journey.

I must admit my mind is very concrete and I could never be a Theologian or a Philosopher.  I found the Gospel a bit of a mind twist.  We have been reading the Lenten Readings in a book that daddy picked up at the back of Suzanne's church in Fairbanks, Give Us This Day.

It has a reflection on the Readings.  Today's was written by a nun and she asked the question "What is the heaviest burden that Jesus had to carry?"  His empathy, the cross of all the sins of humankind, the rejection of his mission by so many that he longed to heal?  She ventures it is the burden of being God and man.  

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;

but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,

believe the works, so that you may realize and understand 

that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

For me, believing in the Trinity is one of the greatest acts of faith as is believing in the real presence in the Eucharist -- but it is also one of the greatest gifts of our Catholic faith.  I will copy her words -- she is obviously a mystic:

What was it like to be humanity, the wondrous goal of created life and the image of eternal truth?  What was it like to bear the cross of the divine on human shoulders?  What was it like to fee oneself torn and battered by the limitless personality at the core of one's being?  Torn and shredded by everlasting stillness, laid bare to the last pulse of one's heart, possessed and enkindled by the great Other who is oneself and still another.  Who can measure the strain and the weight of standing against the siege-works of the almighty, knowing and being a love whose lightest touch is depth incalculable, in which one cannot help but flounder, an ever-insistent love drawing from the heart a response beyond any imagining?  Sr. Miriam Pollard

It is a mind-trip, kind of like knowing and being able to feel everything yet also experiencing it as an ordinary human being -- it was something on which I could reflect on this snowy day!

Enjoy the snow headed your way!

Love,

MOM

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

The first reading brings me back to my first semester of my sophomore year at Creighton in Dr. Legaspi's Old Testament course. I have to admit, while I entered college with an understanding of my faith and of the general teachings of the Church, my knowledge of the Old Testament was embarrassingly low. Who knew the book of Exodus was almost entirely about Moses? I just knew the song haha. I remember sharing some of these thoughts and having some people express utter astonishment toward my ignorance. But I did not see it that way, for the first time in my adult life I was gifted the opportunity to read through a book that had absolutely shaped me from the day of my baptism, and I got to do it with a guide that genuinely appreciated my enthusiasm for knowledge. I remember reading this portion of Genesis and emailing Dr. Legaspi with my wonderings about God's gentle and loving relationship with this human. I remember thinking, wait... isn't the God of the Old Testament the one that is mean and scary? As always, the images of God throughout this book are just that, images and they are human created images from a suffering people trying to make sense of the world that seemed to constantly reject them. What I love so much about this covenant is its permanence.
                                          I will maintain my covenant with you
                                                        and your descendants after you
                                                        throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
                                                        to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Lucky for us, God isn't going anywhere no matter how many times we screw up. What I wish was that this reading was coupled with a Gospel describing the new covenant. In a way the Jesus of John's Gospel is attempting to bring this covenant to light, but unfortunately the message does not sink in. Which is not a surprise. Rarely is there a concept that I teach within my classroom that students achieve on the first try. Learning is change over time through the engagement of activity. Gradually and the apostles and desciples became more engaged in Jesus' work, ministry, and teaching they came to better understand his message and existence here on earth. But the truth is, understanding God's presence in our lives is a constant journey, it is not something that we ever come to fully understand or know because God is not something we can ever come to fully understand or know. We are in a constant state of becoming while God just IS. As we grow and develop we are able to orient closer to our creator, but we are also able to orient further away. We chose whether or not we wish to deepen our relationship with God. We choose to do good and we choose to do evil. We break our relationship but we can also replenish our relationship. God is a constant that will always BE. God's door to relationship is always open, it is up to us to choose whether or not we wish to see what is on the other side.

Happy Thursday!

Laura

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Wow!  Am I glad it is Wednesday and I have the day to get caught up on so many dangling loose ends around the house, watering the plants, making travel arrangements for MJ, getting my elbow re-X-rayed, doing year end Bantry Bay business and picking up our 2012 completed income taxes.  It is a good day to be alive and these are all fantastic readings upon which to reflect, unlike the more recent ones upon which I have pondered.  The words of the Psalm refrain are obviously on my lips and in my heart today:

R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!

God is good and worthy of so much more than our praise.  May our every breath we take be an offering of praise.

When I read the first reading, I smiled at the names and the poor lector who may have been caught off guard ; ) but then my mind wanders to the Brother's Grimm Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel -- a gruesome tale of horror that despite the positive ending should never be read to children.  I am sure it was the white-hot inferno that led to my train of thought.  The first reading is a wonderful tale of salvation and teaches us that if we live by faith and trust in our God (and in the fairy tale -- look out for each other/our neighbor) we will be saved.

The first reading as well as the Psalm really set up the Gospel.  I believe the key verse is: 

“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The truth is within us.  It is our belief that we are good, lovable and unique just as God created us.   When we recognize that, we can more easily see the same truth in those around us.  Our hearts are open to empathy and true compassion and we begin to love more deeply not only ourselves, but our 'neighbor' and the loving God who gave us life and invites us into eternal life with Him.  It is then that we understand the fullest meaning of the truth that is written in the Gospel verse.  When we truly believe in our own goodness we are freed from the slavery of greed, power, abuse and the lies of the modern world which can enslave us.  There is tremendous freedom in this gift of truth which is within us and it frees us to move beyond our own needs to see the goodness in others.  We can choose to be merciful to the humble and the poor, to those who come to the doors of our hearts seeking compassion in our daily work, to those with whom we live and in our entire world.  We need to choose to believe in our goodness and begin to see the same goodness in others.  When we do this we experience and live the Hope that Pope Francis spoke of in his inauguration homily yesterday.  

If we believe that Christ truly lives within us and walks with us then we, too, can be like the 3 (who will go unspelled) and were thrown into the blazing inferno to escape unharmed with a 4th in their midst, whom I take to be the presence of Christ within them. Do I believe that I am good, lovable and unique just as God created me?  Or am I still trying to make of myself something that I judge to be even better?  My judgement?  God's creation?  You choose.

Hope you have a great 'hump day!'

Love and Hugs,

MOM 

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Wow!  These readings are crazy!  Twice through and I still cannot make any sense.  I even struggle with the psalm "A just judge is God, a judge who punishes day by day." and to almost take delight in the vengeance of God in the last verse of the first reading.  I find it increasingly difficult to identify with these images of an Old Testament God.  In the Gospel,  is Jesus stirring the  pot or what?  It is obvious it is not yet Jesus time -- no more arguing, yet they weren't ready to turn him in, so each went to his own house.  So be it.  That is probably the line that makes the most sense to me.  I can't help but think that on some level the people in Jesus' time knew they were in the presence of something great -- at minimum, something unusual.  When you don't understand, it is often best to step back and ponder, give it a little time.  Listen, pray and walk by faith with an ear open to the call -- so, each to his own house. . .

May Sunday's readings make a lot more sense!
Love,
MOM