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.