December 28, 2014

Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph B

Genesis 15: 1-6; 21: 1-3; Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19; Luke 2: 22-40

Today is a reflection on the Holy Family…was it easy being a member of that family? I remember so many times hearing that the Holy Family stands as the example for all Christian families to pattern their lives upon. The thought came to me when I was young, ‘Well, they certainly don’t live in my family?’ being the youngest, there were times that I felt ‘left-out’; times that I felt all alone; times that I felt that I wasn’t appreciated; times that I felt my family was the greatest; times especially after Christmas that I felt ‘persecuted’ because the ‘present’ that I really wanted wasn’t under the tree. It’s so hard to do any sort of comparison with the Holy Family. What can be said is that they trusted God. How is my trust? What is my trust based on…having my own way…sacrificing…’offering it up’…loving…respect? I imagine that the Holy Family based so much of their ‘trusting in God’ on prayer. I look at the families that have touched me down through the years and they have been characterized by putting God first in their lives. This has been exampled to me by their loving and supporting one another and by praying and going to Mass together and as a family. Fr. Peyton started his mission on “The Family that prays together, stays together.” These families have been outstanding examples to people in the parishes I have served and they never felt that they were doing anything exceptional. I have been blessed by their love.

The New York Times edition on May 8, 2014 published an article that is worth repeating on this feast; it was entitled “Promises that can bend without breaking”

“They have been married for 28 years. Theirs has been a happy life, filled with wanderlust and wonder. They both had fulfilling careers: he is a college professor, she is an accomplished weaver and textile artist.

Their near-perfect life came to an end a year ago when they sold their home and moved into an independent living apartment for the elderly. He is only 50. She is 49.

She is the reason they are now living in this situation. A series of seizures and strokes revealed brain tumors. Over time she became more absent-minded, more forgetful. Her lucid periods are fewer and fewer. After the two surgeries and a painful recovery, he and she talked about the future and what they would do with their lives – but with the new, sobering realization that they would not live forever.

Her dementia is comparable to mid-stage Alzheimer’s. She rarely steps outside the surety of their apartment; he often has to remind her who he is and that they are married.

He now remembers for them both:

In the past we’d had fun with ideal questions about the future: I we could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Or what would we do with a million dollars?

This time it was more serious: What will we do if you don’t remember who I am? We agreed that staying together was the most important thing . . .

Sometimes I think about the vows my wife and I made to each other, 28 years ago and then again last summer. We’re different people than we once were. Does that make the promise easier?

Last summer I said to her: You can trust me. I’ll always tell you the truth about what’s happening. Today I tell her small, comforting lies. Some promises, though, aren’t just things you say or intend to do; they’re about what kind of person you are. That makes it easier to decide what’s right . . .

When I look at my wife I still see the lovely younger woman in our photos and in my memory. Sometimes she looks back at me and smiles. Even though she may not know who I am.”

Today’s feast reminds me that my life is a journey full of challenges and changes and it is the love and care of family that I experienced way back when and in my sister and brother today that enables me to weave my way through those changes, rough roads, hills and valleys. As in those way back early years as now, living encompasses the unconditional love that Christ has for me, each member of my family and for all both in good times and in bad. The Holy Family is a model for me. They loved…they hurt…they had so many crises that threatened their stability and peace yet they trusted in God. What do I have to do today to trust? God is always loving me, so I go to Him, in humility and trust and love.

Reflect: Sacred Space 2015 for the week December 28 – January says, “Something to think and pray about each day this week:

CHRISTMAS, as Told by a Contemplative

The message of Christmas is simple: God is with us. ‘You shall call Him Emmanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.’’ So says the angel to a bewildered Joseph, who must have spent the rest of his live pondering the implications of that statement.

If God is with us in this radical way, what is our response? Are we with God? What does it mean for us, to be with God? Is it impossible for ordinary folk? Do I want to be face-to-face with God?

Drawing from reflections in the Christian contemplative tradition, we can discern two things: first, how simple it is to be with God, and second, the world-changing power of being with God.

What about a New Year resolution for the Sacred Space community? I suggest this: that we would step out confidently into our chaotic world with the firm belief that simply by being with God we are helping to transform it. God, who sees our hearts, will bless us as we go!”

Reflect:

• I feel that God’s presence is constantly in my life and that there are no flukes or coincidences. I try to spend time each evening looking at my day…can I do that more frequently these next days so that perhaps a good habit will form?
• Do I acknowledge in my life that the celebration of Christmas marks the beginning of God’s promise of everlasting life? Do I live this?
• How do I model Mary’s loving acceptance of God’s will and trust in my life?
• When people see and hear me do they see a reflection of the gift God gave through the life and death of His Son? How?
• How are love and forgiveness featured in my life?

A Prayer from Sacred Space 2015:

“Loving Father of good beginnings, You start anew with us in all the stages and circumstances of our lives. We thank You for being always present for us in Jesus.

With Jesus we look forward eagerly to being sharers throughout 2015 in a confident message of faith, of peace, and of hope for our world.”

December 21, 2014

4^th Sunday of Advent B

2 Samuel 7:1-5; Romans 16: 25-27; Luke 1: 26-38

With Christmas celebration a few days away, it is difficult to set a little time apart to reflect on God and ‘me’. God understands this, but do I understand this? Do I continue the rushing around and adding ‘more’ to my Christmas preparations? ‘I forgot … and they just gave me a gift? I’ve finished my shopping but this little item would be just perfect for … and maybe I didn’t give them as many presents as I gave that person. It seems that I can come up with all sorts of reasons and so many of them very valid, for not taking time to reflect on God and ‘me’.

The main point of the readings today is that God ‘BROKE INTO’ the lives of David, Paul and Mary. Am I allowing Him to break into my life?

David wanted to ‘do something really nice for the Lord by giving Him a fitting dwelling place’. Certainly this was a really nice gesture but God has eternal plans. God is providing an eternal house that David could never imagine: God will establish David’s lineage and his descendant will become heir to a throne that will last forever. God will build the house of David.

In Paul’s conclusion to his letter to the Romans, he summarizes various themes from the letter. The bottom line is that if we are looking for God, look to Jesus. As Jesus said, ‘If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.’ Alice Camille in Exploring the Sunday Readings says, “The Old Testament is the story of God viewed from the perspective of God’s people. The New Testament tells the story from the encounter with God’s Son. Through teaching and healing, in living and loving and dying, Jesus demonstrates for us what God is like. God is our companion from the moment of conception to our final breath. And that’s only the beginning of the companionship, as Jesus makes clear. If we want to know the rest of the story, we have to follow Him through the doorway to new life.”

Today’s gospel gives another example of God ‘breaking into each person’s life’ in the story of Mary. Just imagine a teenage girl living a quiet life with her own hopes and dreams and along comes an angel who says that he is God’s messenger. The message is that she is to be the mother of God’s Son who is to be the Savior of the World. It sounds like a Hollywood script, yet no human author could have written a script so stunning and brilliant. Mary was a real girl who received this visit and message. She was a prayerful person who loved God and was faithful and obedient to Him. She was totally open to God working in and through her although she had NO IDEA of what the future would hold. SHE REFLECTED… Scripture repeats a few times that Mary “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19). What did her reflection bring? Certainly an affirmation of her faith and trust in God and the courage to continue on with God’s plan, knowing nothing about where this would lead her. One of the spectacular places that I have visited was the house of Mary at Ephesus where she lived with John after the crucifixion and death of Jesus. It is an ‘L’ shaped house with two rooms both very small. There are a few statues, icons, paintings and candles and incense all around. The feeling of awe and holiness permeated me as I entered. There was a long line coming into the site and as soon as people entered it seemed to me that all were overcome with being in the presence of the holiness of Mary and of God.

The bottom line is what the readings tell us…each of us is a temple of God…and since God is with each of us all the time, we are holy. Do I act this way? Do I take time to be with God in gratitude and in expectation? Can I readjust my ‘schedule’ from now to Christmas and ‘put God there’?

Reflect: We are the body of Christ. How can I be the fragile receptacle for God-life today?”

SOME THOUGHTS ON CHRISTMAS Fr. Richard Rohr in his, Preparing for Christmas, Daily Meditations for Advent shares this reflection on John 1:18, the Gospel for Christmas Day.

SOMEONE TO SURRENDER TO

“On this Christmas Day, let me begin with a quote from twentieth-century writer G.K. Chesterton: ‘When a person has found something which he prefers to life itself, he [sic] for the first time has begun to live.’ Jesus in His proclamation of the kingdom told us what we could prefer to life itself—and it would work! The Bible ends by telling us we are called to be a people who could say, ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ (Revelation 22:20), who could welcome something more than business as usual and live in God’s Big Picture. We all have to ask for the grace to prefer something to our small life itself because we have been offered the shared Life, the One Life, the Eternal Life, God’s Life that became visible in this world in Jesus. We do not get there by being correct. We get there by allowing the connection. It is like a free wireless connection!

The kingdom is finally to be identified as the Lord Jesus Himself. When we say ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ on this Christmas Day, we are preferring His Lordship to any other loyalty system or any other final frame of reference. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not! If Jesus is Lord, then the economy and stock market are not! If Jesus is Lord, then my house and possessions, family and job are not! If Jesus is Lord, than I am not! That multileveled implication was obvious to first century members of the Roman Empire because the phrase ’Caesar is Lord’ was the empire’s loyalty test and political bumper sticker. They, and others, knew they had changed ‘parities’ when they welcomed Jesus as Lord instead of the Roman emperor as their savior.

What we are all searching for is Someone to surrender to, something we can prefer to life itself. Well here is the wonderful surprise: God is the only one we can surrender to without losing ourselves. The irony is that we find ourselves, and now in a whole new field of meaning. This happens on a lesser level in every great love in our lifetime, but it is always a leap of faith ahead of time. We are never sure it will be true beforehand. It is surely counter-intuitive, but it is the promise that came into the world on this Christmas Day, ‘full of grace and of truth.’ Jesus is the gift totally given, free for the taking, once and for all, to everybody and all of creation. This Cosmic Risen Christ really is free wireless, and all we have to do is connect.

Henceforth humanity has the right to know that it is good to be human, good to live on this earth, good to have a body, because God in Jesus chose and said ‘yes’ our humanity. Or as we Franciscans love to say, ‘Incarnation is already Redemption.’ The problem is solved. Now go and utterly enjoy all remaining days. Not only is it “Always Advent,’ but every day can now be Christmas because the one we thought we were just waiting for has come once and for all.”

“Reflect: Today just “taste and see the goodness of the Lord”’ (Psalm 24:8)!”

December 14, 2014

3^rd Sunday of Advent B

Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-24; John 1: 6-8 19-28
Ten days from today is Christmas Eve. For the most part by the end of that day all our shopping will be done; cards written, meals planned, the house more or less cleaned up and maybe just the wrapping of presents left. Eleven days from today is Christmas.
When I was young, the celebrations began on Christmas. We all went to the midnight mass, and then had a big breakfast with a few very close friends. The rule in the house was that when everyone was up on Christmas day, the presents were distributed by dad and then could be opened. The wait was interminable. I was the first up, and it seemed that it was many hours before the rest of the family gathered around the Christmas tree. Everyone was thankful that this moment had arrived and different degrees of exhaustion set in. Still there was left all the preparations for the annual Christmas dinner feast.
It seems strange that the Church labels this third Sunday in Advent as Gaudete Sunday, which means ‘Rejoice’ Sunday. There is so much left to do; it certainly isn’t time for rejoicing is it? The readings today are about rejoicing, in fact they are insistent that everyone is to rejoice.
In the first reading the prophet Isaiah is rejoicing in regard to the restoration of Israel. They had been conquered. Previous rulers over Israel had brought only suffering and hardships upon the people because of their not being faithful to the practices of their religion. As a result they were in exile living as captives and prisoners in a foreign land. Today Isaiah is telling them that ‘the anointed one’ will bring liberty and freedom for the people because He rules by heaven’s standards. The beginning of today’s passage were the words that Jesus used to begin His ministry. Luke 4:18 share when He was in the synagogue in his home town, Nazareth, and was handed the scrolls of Isaiah, He found this passage and used it to describe His mission. Now the Old Testament hopes and dreams have been fulfilled in Jesus. A time to rejoice, give praise and be thankful.
Paul writes to the Thessalonians and is overwhelmed by all that God has done. As a result he shares that each Christian is to live in God’s presence every moment, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” The question for today is, ‘How am I to do that?’ How can I live continually in my more than hectic life every moment with an awareness of God? Am I living in gratitude for His love and His gifts?
How can I not be happy and rejoice when I look at the people who have brought me to this moment? I look at my parents from whom I learned love mostly by watching their love and devotion to each other and to the five of us children. I see my siblings…each had their own personality and hang-ups. Each had their hopes and dreams and each touched me and each other in so many ways. I learned that love meant forgiveness and ‘turning the other cheek.’ I learned that love meant being a real person and a person of love.
St Teresa of Avila had so many wonderful words of wisdom to live by…one of my favorites is her prayer: Lord, deliver us from silly devotions and sour-faced saints.” This season of busyness calls each person to pause to recall why they are so busy. If I dwell on the busyness and inconveniences than I can become sour-faced. Pope Francis warned Catholics not to become ‘sourpusses’. At this time of year it is more important than ever to acknowledge God’s total goodness to me in all circumstances of my life. Dorothy Day, the twentieth-century social activist put this so beautifully when she wrote that when we act lovingly we begin to feel loving, so certainly acting joyful brings joy to others---this makes us feel joyful. She lived by the maxim that each person is called to the “Duty of delight.” As Living the Word states, “When we bring joy to others, even and perhaps especially when we do not feel particularly joyful ourselves, we are like a mirror that reflects God’s joy in Creation. Like John the Baptist, we are not the light, but bear witness to the light. Yet even as we bear witness to God’s joy, we come to share in it ourselves, caught up in what we reflect.”
The bottom line is that this season is about love. So often in my life I examine how I am loving. It seems that at this time of year when I ask this question, I feel good because much of what I do is about loving others in gift selecting, card writing, special baking and being present to others. When I love, I am doing what God does: love. This love is a selfless love if I am loving in the way God loves. So in these ‘love acts’ that occupy the busyness of this season, I am ‘God-like.’ Do I take time to reflect on this? Do I take time to just stretch my busyness to include an awareness of the gifts and generosity of God?
Brother Lawrence was a 17^th century French monk who tried all sorts of devotions and prayers to get close to God and to realize His love. He found that all of these were not right for him until he learned to practice the presence of God at every moment in his life. His two writings are The Practice of the Presence of God and Spiritual Maxims. I have found tremendous wisdom and direction from these. He wrote, “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen…I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.” What was his secret? I have found it in this little prayer of his:
“Before beginning any task I would say to God, with childlike trust: ‘O God, since You are with me, and it is Your will that I must now apply myself to these outward duties, I beseech You, assist me with Your grace that I may continue in Your Presence; and to this end, O Lord, be with me in this my work, accept the labor of my hands, and dwell within my heart with all Your Fullness…When I had finished, I would examine how I had performed my duty: If I found well, I gave Him thanks; if ill, I asked His pardon, and without losing heart I set my spirit right, and returned anew into His presence, as thought I had never wandered from Him. Thus, by rising after every fall, and by doing all in faith and love, without wearying, I have come to a state in which it would be as little possible for me not to think of God, as it was hard to discipline myself at the beginning.”
God is always with each person. It does not matter how I feel about myself. John said that ‘God is love’ so God is always loving me. There are so many times that I need to know this…do I ask God how much He is loving me now? He does, always.
So I reflect on:

• Is my life characterized by joy? What things make me joyful?
  
• What can I do to cultivate joy? St. Theresa the Little Flower said that she has found her ministry, “O Jesus, my love, at last I have found my calling: my call is love.”
  

Sacred Space 2015 adds:

“Does anyone think of me as witnessing to the light by the quality of my life? I listen to Jesus as He tells me that I am meant to be a light for the world.

I ask humbly that He may illuminate me more. Perhaps I ask Him to place His hands on my head in blessing so that I may be more lightsome.”

December 7, 2014

2^nd Sunday of Advent B

Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8
What is our God like? He created each for heaven. He gifts each to work on getting themselves and others into heaven. With our preparations for Christmas beginning to pile up what is the message God wants deeply implanted in each of us? It seems to me these are the questions that are answered today and they come with a powerful directive.
The words that Isaiah uses today show us some of the most poetic and evocative images of God’s compassion. I spent time and reflect on them as in imagine our loving God filling Isaiah with these words which tell me what God is like. “Give comfort to my people”… tells me that right now, even though I feel fine, God is surrounding me with His presence and love. I do not have to do anything to receive it, just be open and receptive. There is never an activity that God’s comfort would not be welcomed and more so when I am feeling down or lost for whatever reason. God is active and giving and I am His; that’s the meaning of ‘MY people’. “Prepare the way of the Lord”…I am not a passive agent, I have a role. It is very complimentary not only that I have been called but that there is something for me to do; this implies trust and that is affirmative. “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.” There is no fear attached to this and it is a very comforting event to wait for the revelation of the God’s glory.
Now the powerful directive comes: “Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice…” The height of the mountain signifies that this message is huge and is for all. I can personalize it because I am the one, as each person is, to be the conveyer, the proclaimer of the message. What is the message: “Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him.” There is no confusion, I am to spell out who God is and what God wants. His message is for all and it is what Jesus proclaimed as the ‘Good News’: God is love and God loves each person all of the time. Isaiah continues telling us what God is like by using an example known to all: “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” The words are so tender and caring: ‘he feeds his flock in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care. God is showing all that not only is the message to be shouted out but that He is caring for each person in all of their idiosyncrasies’ and worries and fears and enabling them to be His messengers.
Psalm 85 continues the directive conveying the message with the prayer: “Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.” What do I need when I am on a mission, kindness and trust? God is giving these and more.
Peter continues the qualities of God and the details of the mission when he says, “The Lord does not delay his promise, but he is patient with you…” How important it is to be patient, so very often I am impatient with myself and as a result I do too much ‘rushing’. And Peter continues that the Lord wishes that I and all “should come to repentance. “ How important it is that I see that it is all about God’s plan and not mine. So often I become so absorbed with myself that I do not even realize that ‘others’ occupy my universe—I want what I want. I need to come to the Lord in humility and ask for His grace. Peter continues how I should be acting “conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion…Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.” At peace…how important that is…no matter what happens to disturb or distract my living this message, I am to realize that it is all about the Lord and be at peace with that and the Spirit will continue to fill me with God’s peace.
With Christmas coming, the Gospel sets the stage by giving the opening verses of Mark’s Gospel. It is often overlooked but look how Mark introduces this: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” Only the emperor was called the son of God. But Mark is also referring to the prophecies of ancient Israel. The message is clear: a mightier one is coming who will baptize in the Holy Spirit. The time for the fulfilling of God’s plan for the world has arrived. God has chosen me and each person to be part of that plan. My part was to be born at this time, in this culture with these parents and people surrounding me to touch me and influence me in realizing the gifts of God to me. Now the plan comes: I am to use these gifts to proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. Am I doing that? John the Baptist is presented in today’s gospel as a model of one who boldly cries out to proclaim the coming of God. Again, am I doing that?
A wonderful book is the Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel. Pope Francis gives a powerful message about each person’s role. In Article #127 entitled Person to Person he says, “Today, as the Church seeks to experience a profound missionary renewal, there is a kind of preaching which falls to each of us as a daily responsibility. It has to do with bringing the Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be our neighbors or complete strangers. This is the informal preaching which takes place in the middle of a conversation, something along the lines of what a missionary does when visiting a home. Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey.

In this preaching, which is always respectful and gentle, the first step is personal dialogue, when the other person speaks and shares his or her joys, hopes and concerns for loved ones, or so many other heartfelt needs. Only afterward is it possible to bring up God’s word, perhaps by reading a Bible verse or relating a story, but always keeping in mind the fundamental message: the personal love of God who became man, who gave himself up for us, who is living and who offers us his salvation and his friendship. This message has to be shared humbly as a testimony on the part of one who is always willing to learn, in the awareness that he message is so rich and so deep that it always exceeds our grasp. At times the message can be presented directly, at times by way of a personal witness or gesture, or in a way which the Holy Spirit may suggest in that particular situation. If it seems prudent and if the circumstances are right, this fraternal and missionary encounter could end with a brief prayer related to the concerns which the person may have expressed. In this way they will have an experience of being listened to and understood; they will know that their particular situation has been placed before God, and that God’s word really speaks to their lives.”

This is certainly a challenge but it is my responsibility and each follower of Jesus.
I reflect on what Sacred Space 2015 says:

“I mingle with the crowds listening to John the baptizer. I know he suffered a violent death. Where is the ‘good news’ in that?

The good news is that he plays his part in the plan of salvation and bears steady witness to the light. In the wilderness of my life, I ask that I may always witness to light and truth and love.”