Thoughts on honesty

 

Honesty in Speech

In Sunday's Gospel Jesus calls his disciples to do as he does and speak to one another from the love in their hearts.

Don't try to dominate, to prove wrong, to gain advantage, to show superiority. Jesus' message is always that of humility. He is the Son of God but chooses to be the Servant of All and he calls us to imitate him. He teaches us that we are all brothers and sisters and should speak to one another out of that truth. Be honest about who I am and who you are.

   Twelve Step groups recognize and value honesty as an absolute necessity in serene, peaceful living. They promote the practice of asking myself three questions before speaking to another: does this need to be said? do I need to say it? and does it need to be said now? If the answer to any is No; don't say it. Let us ask the Lord for his grace and help to be honest with ourselves and each other.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.

Thoughts on grace

 

Mark 9:38–40

Friends, today in the Gospel, John complains to Jesus that someone not of their group was driving out demons in Jesus’ name. Jesus responds, “Do not prevent him. . . . Whoever is not against us is for us.” What a wonderful, generous attitude!  John was undoubtedly angry that someone outside of their little circle was going to get credit. If you think that this sort of thing only happened in biblical times, you haven’t spent too much time around the Church! I’m a proud churchman, and I love and admire all of the great people who do so much for Christ’s kingdom, and for very little compensation. But I’ve also been around long enough to see this problem on parish staffs, in diocesan offices, within rectories, and among parish communities. We get so tied up in our little games and protecting our turf and making sure things go according to the bureaucratic structures that we have established that we forget what the mission is about. What Jesus saw was that the mission is what matters. Bringing God’s love to the world, being a conduit of grace: that’s what matters. All of our personal glory, position, privilege—all of that is finally a matter of indifference. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Holy Spirit

 

Intimate Communion

The intimate relationship between the Father and the Son has a name. It is Spirit. Holy Spirit. “I want you to have my Spirit.” “Spirit” means “breath.” It comes from the ancient Greek word pneuma. “I want you to have my breathing. I want you to have that most intimate part of me so that the relationship that is between you and God is the same as between me and God, which is a divine relationship.” What you need to hear with your heart is that you are invited to dwell in the family of God. You are invited to be part of that intimate communion right now.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”   - Acts 1: 8

Thoughts on Prayer

 

Prayer, Our First Concern

Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is “Do your best and God will do the rest.” When life is divided into “our best” and “God's rest,” we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when all our resources are depleted. Then even the Lord has become the victim of our impatience. Discipleship does not mean to use God when we can no longer function ourselves. On the contrary, it means to recognize that we can do nothing at all, but that God can do everything through us. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”   - Proverbs 3: 5 – 6

Thoughts on Lent

7^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

                                                                                                           

Luke 6: 27-38

Lent begins in only ten days. Most of us are probably not planning what we will do for Lent, the Serious Season of our Church’s year. In fact, some us may even be in the midst of “carnival season,” looking forward to how we will soon celebrate Mardi Gras, the opposite of seriousness.

     What will we do to live our Catholic Faith more seriously during Lent? 

• Repent? We know we must turn to the Lord.
• Pray? We know that Lent should be a time of greater prayer.
• Penance? Sorrow for our sins and acts of self-denial are essential for Lent.
• Charity? We know that we always need to grow more charitable in thought, word, and deed.

     Upon reflection we know how far short we fall from what we should be. We know we need to follow Christ more closely. But how do we do it? How can we change? How can we become more Christ-like?

           Today’s Gospel is taken from the Sermon on the Plain, Luke’s version of Matthew’s Sermon

on the Mount. As I read this Gospel, I see a very specific (and very difficult) plan for Lent. Here are

“Ten Commandments” for repentance and spiritual renewal. We might call them the “Lenten Ten Commandments.”

The Lenten Ten Commandments or The Call to a Higher Standard

1       Love your enemies (Practice a love that is not only an emotion, but willing, wanting, working for the good of the other.)

2       Do good to those who hate you (This is really the way to “love enemies.”)

3       Bless those who curse you (Ask God to look favorably on those who have not been favorable to you.)

4       Pray for those who treat you badly (Learn to pray sincerely for those who mistreat you.)

5       Give to those in need (Give whatever someone may need, even something very simple such as a kind word or encouragement, not expecting any repayment.)

6       Treat others as you would like them to treat you (Try to make the Golden Rule a habit of your behavior.)

7       Be compassionate (Remember that your Heavenly Father is always compassionate.)

8       Do not judge (Then you will not be judged.)

9       Do not condemn (Then you will not be condemned.)

10   Grant pardon (You will then be pardoned.)

What will be the result of following these Lenten Ten Commandments? We will become more and more like Jesus Himself, whom we are meant to imitate.

           These Lenten Ten Commandments are very difficult, much more difficult than the Ten Commandments

of the Old Testament covenant. It is difficult to live these Commandments because we must not simply change our actions, we must try to change our attitudes.

• We must try to be less egotistic, less selfish, less vengeful, less vindictive, less severe. 
• We must try to become less, so that God can become more in our lives.
• We must try to see others as God sees them.
• We must try to treat others as Jesus would treat them.

           

           If you really want a Lenten plan that can draw you closer to Christ, try – with the help of God – these Lenten Ten Commandments. And a practical way to try them is to read today’s Gospel each day this Lent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Fr. Don Saunders, S.J. 

More thoughts on patience

 

Stay Fully Where You Are

There is this wonderful word in the Gospel and it is “patience.” In the Gospel to have patience means to stay fully where you are, to live the moment to the full, to trust that all you need is where you are.

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride.” - Ecclesiastes 7: 8

Thoughts on faith

 

Mark 8:11–13

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign from heaven. They are testing him because they have no faith nor trust in him. Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful person who is God, we are never in control.  This is why we say that faith goes beyond reason. If we can figure it out, calculate precisely, predict with complete accuracy, we’re in charge—and by definition, we are not dealing with a person. Would you use any of those descriptors in talking about your relationship with your husband, wife, or best friend? Instead, you enter into an ever-increasing rapport of trust with such people. One of the most fundamental statements of faith is this: your life is not about you. You’re not in control. This is not your project. Rather, you are part of God’s great design. To believe this in your bones and to act accordingly is to have faith. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on detachment

 

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 6:17, 20–26

Friends, our Gospel for today is Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, less well known than Matthew’s but actually punchier, more to the point. It all hinges on detachment, that decisively important spiritual attitude. Apatheia in the Greek fathers, indifferencia in Ignatius of Loyola. It means that I am unattached to worldly values that become a substitute for the ultimate good of God. How bluntly Luke’s Jesus puts things. Look at Luke’s first beatitude, a model for all: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” What if we translated this as, “How lucky you are if you are not addicted to material things.” When we place material things in the center of our concerns, we find ourselves caught in an addictive pattern. Because material goods don’t satisfy the hunger in my soul, I convince myself that I need more of them. So I strive and work to get more nice things—cars, homes, TVs, clothes—and then I find that those don’t satisfy me. So I strive and strive, and the rhythm continues. Therefore how lucky I would be if I were poor, unattached to material goods, finally indifferent to them. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on choices

 6^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)

Luke 6: 17, 20-26

There is no more common metaphor for following the Christian life than traveling a road. In fact, the first name for Christianity in Apostolic times was simply The Way.

In high school or college, many of us remember reading the poetry of Robert Frost (1874 – 1963). “From 1914 to his death, he was probably the nation’s best-known and best-loved serious poet,” according to the Norton Anthology of American Literature. His accessible imagery, regular metrics, and rhyme have introduced generations of students to poetry. One of his best loved-poems uses the metaphor of a road for our journey through life:

                       I shall be telling this tale with a sigh

                       Somewhere ages and ages hence:

                       Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

                       I took the one less traveled by,

                       And that has made all the difference.

                                                        “The Road Not Taken” 1916

The ideas of a road and a journey were used in the 17^th century by John Bunyan (1628-1688) in his allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), which at one time was second only to the Bible in popularity.

Bunyan describes a journey taken by “Christian,” during which “Mr. Worldly Wiseman” frequently urges Christian to give up his difficult and dangerous journey.

Our Lord teaches, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction . . . narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Mt. 7: 13-14). So often we are tempted and even counseled to take the common, wide, and easy way. So often we give in to “worldly wisdom.”                                                    

The Beatitudes, which begin the Sermon of the Plain in Luke’s Gospel, are meant to guide us along The Way. Here is a complete reversal of conventional values and ambitions. Here Christ’s counsel stands in shocking contrast to the urgings of Mr. Worldly Wiseman and the “way of the world.” The poor, hungering, weeping, hated, and reviled – are really the blessed, whose reward will be great in heaven. The rich, satisfied, laughing, with sterling reputation – will be woeful, for they have their reward now.

Here we are face-to-face with an eternal choice that begins in childhood and never ends until life ends:

·        Will I take the way of immediate pleasure and profit –

or the way that may involve toil and suffering for the eternally greater good?

·        Will I choose pleasure and profit of the moment –

or sacrifice for the eternally greater good?

·        Will I concentrate on the world’s rewards –

or concentrate on what I know will be Christ’s rewards?

The “challenge of the Beatitudes” is the question: Will I be happy in the world’s way – or in Christ’s way?

Each day I must beg God’s help in following His Way rather than the World’s Way. In each choice I try to see two roads diverging in a wood – and take the one less traveled by.

                                                                                                                     

 Fr. Don Saunders, S.J.

Thoughts on gratitude

 

Divine Gifts

Gratitude flows from the recognition that all that is, is a divine gift born out of love and freely given to us so that we may offer thanks and share it with others. The more we touch the intimate love of God which creates, sustains, and guides us, the more we recognize the multitude of fruits that come forth from that love. They are fruits of the Spirit, such as: joy, peace, kindness, goodness, and gentleness. When we encounter any of these fruits, we always experience them as gifts.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” - Galatians 5: 22 – 23

Thoughts on evil

 

Mark 7:14–23

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches that evil comes from within. From our hearts “come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”  The Church teaches that such evils are consequences of original sin. The doctrine holds that there is something fundamentally off about us, that all is not well, that we are off-kilter, skewed, mixed up. We Catholics don’t hold to a doctrine of total depravity, but we do indeed hold that original sin has worked its way into every nook and cranny of our lives: our minds, our wills, our desires and passions, even our very bodies. As G.K. Chesterton argued a century ago, original sin is the only doctrine for which there is empirical evidence, for we can feel it within ourselves and we can see the effects of it everywhere. One of the surest signs of our dysfunction is that we tend to celebrate all of the wrong people and despise or look down upon the best people. Pay very close attention to the people that you don’t like, to those that you consider obnoxious; it might tell you a lot about your own spiritual state. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on hypocrites

 

Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 7:1–13

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites because they “disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” For instance: “If someone says to father or mother, ‘Any support you might have had from me is qorban’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.” If you claim to be a person of love but fail to honor your parents, something is seriously off. Thus the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is a disregard of love. In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good of the other as other. To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire.  Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other’s good for the other’s sake. It is an escape from the black hole of the ego, which tends to draw everything around it into itself. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on grace

 

Luke 5:1–11

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus climbs into Peter’s boat without asking permission. He simply commandeers this vessel that is central to the fisherman’s life and commences to give orders. This represents something of enormous moment: the invasion of grace. Though God respects our relative independence, he is not the least bit content to leave us in a “natural” state. Instead, he wants to live in us, to become the Lord of our lives, moving into our minds, wills, bodies, imaginations, nerves, and bones. This commandeering of nature by grace does not involve the compromising of nature but rather its perfection and elevation. When Jesus moves into the house of the soul, the powers of the soul are heightened and properly directed; when Jesus commands the boat of the natural human life, that life is preserved, strengthened, and given a new orientation. This is signaled symbolically by the Lord’s directive to put out into the deep water. On our own, we can know and will within a very narrow range, seeking those goods and truths that appear within the horizon of our natural consciousness, but when grace invades us, we are enticed into far deeper waters. Bishop Robert Barron