NEW BLOG

Thank you to all of you who have been following my Religious Education reflections here at Echoinghope. I will be moving my Sunday Gospel reflections as well as others to a new blog:

 mountcarmelmv.blogspot.com

The new blog will feature similar and more frequently updated content that will be geared a bit more specifically to the my parish faith community in Mill Valley, CA through applicable to much wider audience! I hope that many of you will still stay connected and give me feedback on how I can grow in echoing the hope that is among us. 

Love one another!

Jonathan

Sunday Gospel Reflection: October 23rd, 2011

Matthew 22: 34-40

We should all memorize part of today’s Gospel:

What is the greatest commandment? "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. “

In his first letter for the benefit of all Catholics (encyclical), Pope Benedict XVI gave us a beautiful reflection on how our God is a God of love and what that means for us as followers of Jesus. Reflecting on the two-fold commandment in today’s Gospel he writes that the “love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment.” We need both and they mutually enrich and inspire the other.

It is not enough to just to love other people, for, “if I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God.”

But it is also not enough to just sit in prayer and love God, for “if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper”, but loveless.”

“Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me.” (Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love (Deus Caritas), 18)

*Interested in reading more? You can read it here! Check out Part II of Deus Caritas Est.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

-How can we love God if we cannot see Him?

-Isn’t love a feeling? How can I love someone who I am mad at or who annoys me?

-Why is it difficult to love others if we do not love God?

-Why is it difficult to love God if we do not love others?

-What are three ways we can love people in our life (be concrete!)? Commit to following through with one of those ways this week.

--What are three ways we can love God? (be concrete!) Commit to following through with one of those ways this week.

October 16th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 22:15-21

What belongs to God?

In today’s Gospel passage the Jewish leaders are trying to trick Jesus into getting in trouble with the government (Roman Empire) by trying to get him to say that a person need not pay taxes (since paying taxes wasn’t one of the Jewish laws).

Jesus responds by asking them: whose face is imprinted on the coins? When they respond “Caesar” He tells them that they should “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God”.

It is important as Christians for us to live a life of justice: giving each person what is owed to them. But how do we give God what belongs to Him? What belongs to God? We believe that God created the world, every person, and everything. Every day God continues to give us life and love as a free gift. While Caesar’s face was imprinted on coins, the face of God is imprinted on each of our hearts. We are called to give God our whole selves, everything that we are, nothing less. We do this by resembling God in our thoughts, words and actions.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

-What is one way I resemble God and share His presence with others?

-What is one way I need to work on resembling God and sharing His presence with others?

-Imagine that the laws of the Government and God’s laws worked together. What would be different here in Mill

Valley?

A Morning Prayer

Dear God, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings this day. I believe that I am your beloved Son/Daughter. Help me to be the best version of myself so that I may resemble Jesus and share His love with everyone I see today. Amen.

October 10th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 22: 1-14

God lovingly created each person so that each of us might love God in return and be the happiest we can be! In the Old Testament we hear stories about how God created covenants (or pacts) with His Chosen People, the Jews (Abraham, Moses, Noah, etc.). God promised that He would never leave them and always help them if they were faithful to God.

When God sent Jesus into the world he created a New Covenant (or pact) which was not meant just for one group of people but for everyone. Jesus told his followers that He came into the world so that all people might have new life in Him.

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells a parable (or story) about this New Covenant. He tells a story about a King who invited his friends to a wedding party for his Son, but none of them came, they rejected the invitation. As a result the King invited others to the wedding party who might not normally have been invited because they were slaves, poor or didn’t seem to ‘fit in’. Like the King, Jesus invites each one of us, every person to be His follower and to share His life in the loving arms of God.

Will we say ‘yes’ to God’s invitation to us not only in our words but in our actions? In the parable one of the people who said ‘yes’ to the invitation did not show respect for the wedding party by wearing inappropriate clothes. He made a decision that meant he wasn’t able to stay at the party.

We are invited to be in covenant relationship with God. This means (like any relationship) that we have to be good friends of God by loving Him and our neighbors. When we are not good friends of God it is like we are walking away from Him. God is always ready to welcome us back if we turn back toward Him.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion:

-How does God want me to be faithful to our Covenant? (living as an active member in the Church, following the commandments/beatitudes, golden rule, etc.)

-Do I believe that every person is created by God and has equal dignity in God’s eyes?

-Who are people who I don’t like or who I don’t have respect for?
-What can I do this week to show them the love God has for them? 

October 2nd 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 21: 33-43  

God created us with free will so that we will flourish and have life “to the full”. Since God gave us the freedom to love him it means we also have the freedom to turn away from God. Even when we turn away from God, He continues to love us and reach out to us. The ongoing story of God loving us is called Salvation History.

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells a parable of a landowner (God) who leases his land (the world) to tenants (human beings/us). When the landowner sends workers (prophets and saints) to collect the harvest the tenants mistreated them and even killed them! Finally the landowner sent his own Son (Jesus) and they even killed him!

In this parable Jesus is teaching us that sometimes we are like the tenants and that it is our responsibility to listen to God’s voice and to be good tenants by caring for God’s creation and our neighbor.

Other times we are like the workers (prophets and saints) who are sent into the vineyard to do the landowners’ will. Sometimes living out our faith and right relationship with God will be unpopular; we may be mistreated or made fun of. Yet, Jesus reminds us, the stone that the builder rejected has become the cornerstone; Jesus was rejected and died for us so that we can be with Him forever. Jesus is the cornerstone for all of history and for our lives, that most important piece without which the whole building will fall down!

Jesus already suffered and died for us and promises us that if we say ‘yes’ daily to follow Him, sometimes even when it is difficult, we will be most happy in the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion

-What/who has God given us in our lives to care for?

-How can I better care for what God has entrusted to me?

-Am I willing to do what is unpopular because of my faith and love of God?

-Is it better not to do or say the right thing because it might be unpopular? Or Is it better to do what is right even if there are some negative consequences?

-Give an example when you have done the right thing because of your love for God and others that was not popular.

Image Credit

September 25th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 21: 28-32

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells a story about two sons who are each asked by their father to go out to the vineyard to work. One son says ‘yes’ but never goes, the other says ‘no’ but ends up going after all. The message of Jesus is that we are called to be authentic people of Faith. Jesus does not care if we say the right things but rather that we be the right kind of people.

When we remember and believe that we are loved abundantly (even irrationally!) by God then we will choose to love Him in return. When we choose not to love God and our neighbor we become less whole and send a message to our friends, and family that what we believe might not be true.

A Franciscan priest, Brennan Manning, once wrote that: 

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle…

that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." 

Today we have an opportunity to be authentic, the best versions of ourselves that we can be. When people see us love others as radically as God loves us they will know that there is something different about us, that God is with us and that we (all) are the Beloved Daughters and Sons of God!

Questions for Reflection/Discussion: 

-In what ways to I not act in a way consistent to what I say about being a follower of Jesus?

-Who are the people in my life who are looking for an authentic Christian example?

 -What is one way that I can be that example by loving someone radically this week?

Photo Credit

September 18th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 20:1-16

In today's Gospel Jesus tells a parable that does not seem fair. Some workers came to the vineyard and worked a full day, some a half-day, and some only a few hours; they each were paid a full day's wage.

We do not think as God thinks; this is Good News. God loves us radically and extravagantly no matter what we do. He has a plan for each of us and promises us that if we stay close to Him He will lead us to a life full of abundant joy. Certainly the God who made us knows what is best for us, right? Perhaps He even knows better than we do! We will be truly happy if we respond to God’s abundant love with a radical faith and trust in God. 

Respond Today: 

-When we are faced with difficulty, frustration or injustice, practice turning to God in prayer.

-Love someone radically in a way they might not deserve.

-Advocate for someone who is not receiving what is just.

Image Credit

September 11th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 18:21-35

“Wrath and anger are hateful things,

yet the sinner hugs them tight.”

Today Americans across the country celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. Youth born after 1995 may have no personal experience about the tragedy beside annual memorials or anecdotal references through each of them are growing up in a “post 9/11” world. Terrorism, violence, and war continue to plaque our world and worldview adding fear to attending school, visiting large cities, and traveling. Moments as stark as 9/11 allow us to see clearly the existence of evil and serve as a reminder that we were not created for evil and that God did not create evil. We were created and blessed by God and in His image and likeness to be blessing to one another. Out of love, God gave each of us free will so that we could freely love Him and one another in return.

We will always be made in God’s image; nothing can change this. Yet in our human brokenness we sometimes freely choose things which shackle us (sin) and smudge our likeness to the God who loves us. We sometimes hug sin tight, be it anger, jealousy, pride, selfishness, etc. On this day of national remembrance we are called by God to let go of those dark things that harm us and to embrace the light!

Just as violence, anger, or a grudge can spread and infect others, so too, prayer, peace and virtue can flow from us to those we encounter and helps to increase our family resemblance to our loving Father. Our challenge is to live as Jesus asks: “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God”. May we bring peace and blessing to another person’s life today.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

-How do I think God felt when He saw his children being harmed and killed?

-Do I believe that acting with peace and love can affect others’ lives?

-Who is someone I am not at peace with? What can I do to bring blessing to that person?

*For more reflections on 9/11 visit the US Bishop's Conference Site: The Catholic Church Remembers

September 9th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 18:15-20

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In today’s First Reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome he encourages them to live according to the Golden Rule: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” Paul believed that  if we truly love others as we ought we have no need for any laws or commandments. How would your household function with no norms/laws/rules?

    

The reality is that we do not always live golden-ly and as a result, rules help us to stand upright as God created us. God gave us free will and knew that we would not always choose rightly. In God’s Wisdom, He has given us one another to be co-workers and guides in this world. We are responsible for each other.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus lays out the authentic way for us to support each other in mutual responsibility: turning away from gossip and toward relationship. Jesus rejects all gossip as well as a primary authoritarian or institutional approach. Instead, Jesus asks us to first go and talk to the person face to face with whom we are not in right relationship. It is so much easier to complain to others or run to someone with more authority but such an approach only strikes division between us and harms authentic relationship in the process. We were made for communion with each other in God and anything that fractures that communion must be removed.

If a person is unresponsive to questioning or fraternal correction ultimately Jesus instructs His Apostles, the leaders in the Church community to play a role for the sake of communion. Jesus tells His Apostles that “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” To bind or to loose means that Jesus has passed on to Church leaders the responsibility to discern, interpret, and teach the law and how it is to be applied. We are responsible for each other and ultimately, the Catholic Church, founded on the Apostles, is responsible for supporting us as well by discerning and serving God’s law here on earth. With such a weighty responsibility no wonder the Church moves so slowly in changing matters of moral teaching.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion:

-How do I deal with tension or confrontation in my family/life?

-What role does passive-aggressiveness or gossip play in my relationships?

-Do I believe that the Church helps to communicate God’s law?

-Am I open to fraternal correction, even from the people I do not like? From Christian leaders?

Photo Credit: Normal Rockwell

August 28th 2011: Gospel Reflection

Matthew 16: 21-27

We don’t like to deny ourselves. We are told that it is oppressive or guilt-based to deny ourselves. Instead we are encouraged to get whatever we feel like: food, money, the newest toy, etc. Whether we intend to or not we are formed by this cultural expectation both to get what we want and to get it now. Heck, I get frustrated when I have to wait more than five seconds for my phone to access the internet or for the car ahead of me to wait more than one second to go after a light turns green!

In today’s Gospel Jesus is trying to help us and His disciples see the big picture, God’s view. If we only exist to satisfy our pleasures today then perhaps we should seek immediate gratification. Jesus reminds us, however, that we were created for more, for eternity, to be eternally loved. Because we were created to live eternally we have within us eternal longings that cannot be satisfied by the finite world around us. Too often we turn to earthly or worldly things to satisfy a hunger that is so much bigger.

How do we satisfy our hunger? Fist, we have to think about what we are consuming and whether or not it is nourishing us. Sometimes this means making tough choices to give up addictions, power, busyness or other ‘stuff’ that unsuccessfully tries to fill a hole within us; these are the crosses in our lives. This denying can be painful and causes us real suffering, but like our own muscles, we have to be broken down in order to grow stronger. This is certainly the example of Jesus who embraced his cross, took on our sins, suffered and died for us so that He might overcome death and sin for us through His resurrection.

Secondly we need to find proper food: Eternal Dynamic Love. Living in relationship with the Person of Jesus in the Holy Spirit is our guide to healthy living. Sometimes this is difficult, frustrating and even painful but if we believe that we were created for eternal love then it is the only way for us to be truly happy.

-What is something in my life that would be hard to live without?

-When in my life do I expect immediate gratification?

-What are some of the things in my life that I might need to let go of to be healthier?

-What are the crosses that I have to carry in my life?

August 21st 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matt. 16:13-20

Imagine that someone was walking around your town saying that he was God. Most people would assume he was crazy without even listening to him. Others might have heard what he said and be inspired by his words. What if someone said that she saw him heal someone who was sick or dying! What would you think of him? Would you try to find out more about him? Would you be too busy to care? It would be really hard to know who this person was or what our response to him should be. This is the dilemma that Jesus’ followers had too.

They were not born Christians they had to really reflect and discern if they should listen to Him and follow Him. Some began to follow Him and then left because they didn’t like His message or didn’t want to have to change their lifestyle. For those followers of Jesus, especially his closest followers, the Apostles, it took a ton of faith and trust to follow some guy who said he was God. Peter and the Apostles were able to know that Jesus was God because they were open to what God wanted from them; they witnessed His words, actions and were open to the possibility of miracles. We too can see miracles, God’s work in this world, if we look with eyes of faith.

In the Gospel Peter exclaims with joy, you are the Christ (the anointed one), the Son of the living God. Jesus replies that Peter is blessed because God has revealed that truth to him. Because of this faith Jesus made Peter the rock (the word peter in Latin means rock) for his community of believers, the Church.

We too continue to need that faith in Jesus as members of Jesus’ Church. Science, logic, and prudence cannot allow us to know the God who is sometimes mysterious, illogical, and recklessly loving. Only faith in the everlasting God who made us and who placed everlasting hearts within us can open our eyes. Jesus is asking us to grow our faith, our inner life, so that we can see Him and know Him more and more. He loves us and wants us to be with Him, isn’t that  a miracle?

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

-What do you believe about Jesus?

-What is the hardest part about having Faith?

-How can you grow your faith? What does prayer have to do with growing Faith? Being a part of a Christian community?

Photo Credits: www.tlc.org

Blessed are the Poor...

How can we embrace poverty as a way to God when everyone around us wants to become rich?   Poverty has many forms.  We have to ask ourselves:  "What is my poverty?"  Is it lack of money, lack of emotional stability, lack of a loving partner, lack of security, lack of safety, lack of self-confidence?  Each human being has a place of poverty.  That's the place where God wants to dwell!  "How blessed are the poor," Jesus says (Matthew 5:3).  This means that our blessing is hidden in our poverty. 


We are so inclined to cover up our poverty and ignore it that we often miss the opportunity to discover God, who dwells in it.   Let's dare to see our poverty as the land where our treasure is hidden.

-Henri Nouwen

August 14th, 2011 Gospel Reflection:

Matthew 15: 21-28

Do you ask God for the things you want or need? How does it make you feel to ask God for things?

In today’s Gospel a woman asks Jesus for help when she was in need. The woman though, was not a Jew, one of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament. Jesus responds to her that He came to reach out only to the lost sheep of Israel, the Jewish people, yet the woman remains humble and persistent. Humility and persistence pay off with God.

The woman knew she was not worthy to have Jesus heal her daughter, but she know she needed him to and had faith that He could. We see through this story the heart of God moved and affected because of persistent prayer. As a result of her persistence Jesus teaches his followers and us a very important lesson: Jesus came to save everyone.

While the Old Covenant (Testament) was the story of the Chosen People, the Jews, the New Covenant (Testament) was opened for everyone. As we hear from Paul in the 1^st Reading “God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all”. All of humanity is in need of mercy and redemption and Jesus offers it to all.

It is through the woman’s humility, faith, and perseverance that Jesus reveals this message. Perhaps the best model of the persistent woman is the persistence of a child when they want something, crying out mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. The child has complete faith that their mom can bring about what is asked for and asks with sometimes mind-numbing persistence.

We have something to learn from the virtue of the asking child, to have faith like a child. If we are persistent and humbly ask for what we need God will answer our prayers. Sometimes this means we have to change ourselves before we are ready to receive the answer, sometimes the answer does not come as we expect, but comes in God’s time and way, but God is always faithful.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7: 7-8

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

-What is something I have asked God for?

-Has God answered my prayer? How or how not?

-Is my heart open to receive a different answer than I expect?

August 7th 2011: Gospel Reflection II

Matthew 14:22-33

-Where do I look for God? Where do I expect to find God?

-Is there a time in my life when I discovered God in an unexpected place?

-Are there times during the day when I am quiet with no one around?

-How does it feel to spend time in silence?

-Do I believe that I am the beloved son/daughter of God?

-If that is true what does it tell me about who I am? How I should live?

August 7th 2011: Gospel Reflection

Matthew 14:22-33

Today’s 1^st Reading tells the story of the prophet Elijah waiting for God. God told Elijah to go up on a mountain and that God would soon pass by. On the mountain Elijah sees driving winds, earthquakes, and fire, yet he knows that those things we not the presence of God. Then, in the quiet, there came to Elijah a tiny whispering sound; God was in the whisper.

Mother Theresa said that “in the silence of the heart God speaks”, yet how often do we take time in our busy and sometimes monotonous daily lives to be quiet and to let God speak? We tend to constantly surround ourselves with people, music, TV, and other distractions. It is so much safer and comfortable to be distracted, though as the 1^st reading reminds us, we will never find God if we remain distracted and constantly busy.

The Gospel reading tells the story of Jesus walking on the water toward the disciples as they are being tossed around in a boat. Peter, with an initial firm faith walks toward Jesus on the water but becomes distracted and loses focus on his faith in Jesus; he begins to sink.

Soren Kierkegaard says that a saint is a person who can “will the one thing”. Though initially confident, because of fear and doubt Peter lost his ability to will the one thing. When we become so surrounded by stimulus and distraction and conflicting ideas we sometime lose our own focus, our rootedness in the One Thing—God and His love for us.

When we create time in our days to be silent—even if for a few minutes, we create the space for God to speak for us and for us to be able to listen. Slowing down to hear the voice  of God call us His beloved sons and daughters strengthens us to allow that identity as the beloved to ground our lives. It empowers us to consistently will the one thing, that in everything we do to God be the glory—Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

July 31st 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection II

Matthew 14: 13-21

"At the core of that faith comes the conviction that you and I, 

we are the beloved daughters and sons of God" Henri Nouwen

Empowering Video Reflections by Henri Nouwen.  A multi-part series of a living saint--Henri Nouwen's reflections at the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, CA.

Awesome version of the song "Come to the Water" by Catholic musician Matt Maher...

July 31st 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 14: 13-21

Henri Nouwen reflected that our lives mirror what Jesus did at the Last Supper when he instituted the Eucharist to be with us forever. He took bread, blessed the bread, broke it and gave it to his disciples. We too are called to be bread for the world, Eucharist for others. We too are chosen, blessed, broken, and given.

In the First Reading we hear God calling his chosen ones, each of us, to come to the water to be abundantly nourished. We are chosen.

In our Second Reading we proclaim one of the most inspiring Christian writings of St. Paul, telling the followers of Jesus that we are intimately connected to the Lord and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Our identity as the blessed ones, the beloved of God, ensures each of us a peace that can only come from a God who is ever-faithful. We are blessed.

In the beginning of the Gospel reading we hear a moment of pain for Jesus. His cousin, John the Baptizer, has died and Jesus withdrew himself in solitude to mourn. Jesus’ sufferings were not exclusive to the cross, though all suffering finds its fulfillment there. Jesus was fully human and suffered from brokenness just as each of us do through fear, loneliness, insecurity, depression, divorce, etc. We are broken.

Finally, as the crowds follow Jesus, He does not turn them away but, allows God’s grace to shine through His brokenness. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples. Chosen and blessed by God Jesus transforms His brokenness (and the brokenness of each of us) by multiplying physical bread to feed his followers; they all ate and were satisfied.

Jesus prefigures in the miracle of the loaves the perpetual institution that He leaves with His followers: the Eucharist. Jesus humbles Himself to give us His own Body so that we might be sent into the world as Eucharist for others. We are given.

July 17th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matthew 13: 24-43

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery 

furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. 

This Sunday’s Gospel is one of those Gospels where, after the priest proclaims, ‘The Gospel of the Lord’, the congregation half-heartedly responds from memory: ‘Praise to Lord Jesus Christ’, when really everyone is thinking, ‘Did Jesus just say what I thought He said? Or, Whoa, scary Jesus!’ In can seem that way if we do not understand the context and arc of Jesus’ message in this passage.

Today’s Gospel, like the Parable of the Sower last Sunday, details Jesus’ description of The Kingdom of God. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel we hear about the Kingdom of God from John the Baptist, Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand and in Jesus’ lesson on how to pray, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Notice that the predicate of the sentence is the earth, not some other-worldly escape, as though the Christian’s job is to ‘put up’ with earth before we get to leave! The message of Jesus, signified in His own Incarnation, becoming man, is that God is here. God’s kingdom is here as it is in Heaven.

It is within this context that we should re-read The Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat. We are infinite beings living in a finite world; our actions have eternal consequences and sometimes this can seem scary because there are real consequences for better and for worse.

When we live our lives as followers of Christ we create a space within our hearts for God to dwell (for the seed to grow). When the time comes for us to pass out of this earthly life God’s presence within us will sprout up and bear the fruit of eternal joy! How amazing that every little God-filled thought, action and word in this life are transformed through God’s grace to bring us to unearned eternal bliss with God!

Yet unlike planting a seed in the ground we have the opportunity to choose to grow or not. God did not create us to be robots; He honors our free will to love Him. If we choose not to create that space within ourselves for God’s presence to dwell or grow, or to inhibit that growth in others, then not out of revenge but in spite of His love for us He allows us to freely choose a life without Him. I cannot imagine how painful that must be. Like a crying infant taken away from his mother even more do we need God to hold us and nourish us.  

God does not weed out those who are negative influences in our lives but instead honors his covenant with us and freely allows us to choose our own path, hoping that we will join Him in sowing the seeds of love to build His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

Small Beginnings, Great Endings:

- The tiny mustard seed grows into a bush that can be nine feet tall.

 -The small amount of yeast mentioned by Jesus is mixed with 50lbs of flower to make it leaven.

July 10th 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

Matt 13:1-23

I was away from home housesitting for a family for two weeks and the plant in my room at home went unattended and un-watered the whole time! I forgot about it, did not tend to it, and it is dying. What else should I have expected?

Jesus desperately sought time for prayer and reflection to cultivate his inner life. We all know that Jesus went to the desert for 40 days but throughout His life He regularly went away and found time to be alone with His Father and to pray. In today’s Gospel he goes to the Sea to reflect, then when people crowd around Him, He gets in a boat to get some space; this is a model that we should follow.

-How much time in a given week do I spend on prayer and meditation? 

-Do I go to Mass once a week?

-Do I spend time in the morning, midday, or evening reflecting on the day and God’s presence (or sometimes lack thereof!) in my day?

It is not always easy amid a busy life (even in the Summer!) to slow down and check-in with our inner life, this is why it can be so valuable to get into a routine of incorporating prayer into life: brushing teeth, reflection book next to bed, a prayer to say when you get in the car or public transportation, praying before meals. These moments allow us to reclaim throughout a day our identity: Beloved of God.

The parable that Jesus tells the crowds and teaches His disciples depends upon cultivating this inner life: the parable of the sower. Some of the seed falls on rocky ground, others amid thorns, but some falls on rich soil that grows into an abundant harvest. If we follow the example of Jesus to take time each day to tend the soil of our souls, our inner life, then the seed of God’s love will be able to take root in us and our lives will bear fruit.

If we do not water or tend the soil of our hearts, our inner life, how can we expect it to be healthy, bear fruit, or even stay alive?

“Whoever has ears ought to hear...but blessed are your eyes, because they see,

and your ears, because they hear.”

July 3rd, 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection II

Matthew 11:25-30

When our hearts are as open and trusting as little children to God’s love and truth 

we will find the peace and rest that we desperately long for.

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

-When in my day do I slow down to talk and check in with God?

-How much time to I spend in quiet reflection each day?

-Do I trust that the teachings and message of the Scriptures and the Church are helping me be a better person or do I assume that they are wrong if I think differently?

-If I disagree with something in the Scriptures or that the Church teaches do I try to learn more to understand why it is taught?

-Seeing God as my Father do I act like an attentive, patient, and obedient child?

-What is a part of my life that I am not willing to let God be a part of?

July 3rd, 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection I

Matthew 11:25-30

When our hearts are as open and trusting as little children to God’s love and truth 

we will find the peace and rest that we desperately long for.

In today’s Gospel Jesus uses the metaphor of a yoke (not the egg) to teach us about how we are to live our lives. A yoke is a piece of wood that is placed around the neck and shoulders of two animals walking side by side pulling something behind them (carriage, tilling equipment, etc.). The yoke keeps the animals moving at the same pace so that they pull what is behind them evenly.

In this analogy Jesus is walking with us and promises that if we allow God’s yoke to be placed upon us that it will help us to walk happily step by step with Jesus.  The yoke can represent listening to God’s voice in prayer and following God’s laws given through Jesus and the Church. Sometimes placing the yoke of God’s message around us and asking us to walk at God’s pace is something that can seem violent or constrictive but Jesus promises us that the God who made us knows what will make us most happy and that His yoke is not heavy, painful or burdensome, but light and easy.

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that the “wise and the learned” have not heard God’s message but that God has “revealed them to little ones”; we are called to be as trusting and open as a young child to God the Father even though sometimes we rebel like spoiled children when we are told that someone knows what is better for us. When we slow down enough and allow Jesus to walk with us, allowing Jesus to set the pace, we will be happier and more full of peace and joy then we could ever be without Him.

Why do we think that setting our own varied pace or making our own decisions without asking God will make us happier than walking pace by pace with Him who made us and loves us more than we could ever know?

Jesus I trust in you.

Pope Goes Hybrid!

Little is known about Pope Benedict XVI's reflections on ecology and care for God's creation but the possibility of a first-of-it's-kind new hybrid Pope-mobile makes some news!

June 26th, 2011: Sunday Gospel Reflection

John 6:51-58

In today’s Gospel we read from Chapter 6 the Gospel of John, called the Bread of Life Discourse (I would recommend reading the whole passage from John 6:22-71). In this story a crowd follows Jesus in boats across the Sea of Galilee to track Him down.  He had recently performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and many were amazed and wanted to listen to Him and see what He was going to do next. When they track Him down Jesus’ message is that the real miracle is not multiplying physical food but feeding people spiritually, “do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” The crowd did not understand and asked for another miracle from Jesus; they didn’t get it!

When Jesus continued to explain that He Himself was the bread, the food that endures, “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” the crowd got upset with Him and many went away disappointed because, “this teaching is hard to accept”. Instead of calling them back and clarifying that what He meant was figurative Jesus stayed on message and turned to ask His disciples if they would leave Him too. By God’s grace they did not leave Jesus (though they would not fully understand what Jesus meant until later).

At the Last Supper, the night before Jesus was put to death, Jesus instituted a ritual action to make Himself present with us even after His death and resurrection. “Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’”. Jesus’ disciples did what Jesus told them to “do this in remembrance of me”. From the earliest Christian writings we have accounts where the followers of Jesus would gather on Sundays and break bread; they celebrated Eucharist so that they may be strengthened by the Body and Blood of Jesus which St. Ignatius of Antioch (who was born less than 20 years after Jesus died) called the “medicine of immortality”. Through this ritual action handed down from Jesus through the Apostles, other Bishops, and priests for over two thousand years we are able to continue to celebrate the Eucharist. We receive the Eucharist every Sunday to be renewed and strengthened, to become what we already are, both individually and as a community: the Body of Christ. It is not always easy to see Jesus’ presence with our eyes but we take Jesus at His word that this is my body which was given up for us on the cross and continues to be given for us each Sunday.

Jesus cares intimately about you, wants to be near to you and has given us a way to nourish our bodies and souls. Thank you Jesus for the gift of yourself present in the Eucharist. I believe in You.

Gospel in Action

-Sometimes it is difficult to believe in something we cannot see. In these moments we can pray the prayer of St. Thomas (who had trouble believing in the Resurrection): “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”

Happy Father's Day!

It is important that we celebrate Fathers' Day well! Dads are important and sadly their role in many people's lives is underdeveloped or under-appreciated.

Take some time to day to show love and prayer for those fathers in your life: parents, priests, grandparents, and those who have gone before us that have played a role in fathering us. As Christians we can ask for the prayers of the father of Jesus in a special way to pray for our own fathers.

When I was in college there was this twice than life-size statue of Saint Joseph that said "Joseph, father of Jesus, be our father". I think this is an important prayer and an idea one that is often overlooked: as we are brothers and sisters of Jesus we can also ask Joseph to be our father-figure by asking for his prayer and support. He went through the same struggles and joys that all fathers experience and he is our model for what it means to be a holy father; we can learn so much from a man who never says a word in the Gospels!

And to my dad who takes the time to read my random ministerial musings...thank you dad for being an amazing role-model and father and continuing to teach me so much in both word and actions. I love you.