Thoughts on vengeance

 

Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Luke 9:51–56

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus rebukes James and John for their desire for vengeance. We are walking with Jesus and his disciples as they make their way to Jerusalem. As they pass through Samaria, they are refused hospitality, for their destination is Jerusalem and this annoys the Samaritans. Bothersome? Stupid? Racist? Sure, all of those things. As a result, James and John (the sons of thunder) cry out: “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Can you hear echoes of this cry up and down the ages? Whenever people have been unjustly treated, excluded, looked down upon, they experience, naturally enough, feelings of hatred and a desire to get back. Correctly enough, they will say that their family or their race or their country was offended, and so they, with justification, react.  But Jesus turns only to rebuke them. Why? Because following him and his way of nonviolence is more important than race or country or ethnic group. Our feelings for him have to go beyond even our justified feelings for these good things. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on a crisis

 

Crisis and Power

Every time we see a major crisis in the history of the Church, such as the Great Schism of the eleventh century, the Reformation of the sixteenth century, or the immense secularization of the twentieth century, we always see that a major cause of rupture is the power exercised by those who claim to be followers of the poor and powerless Jesus.  What makes the temptation to power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.

"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.  “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'”   - Matthew 4: 8-10

Thoughts on good stories

Luke 16: 19-31

Lazarus and Dives

         

This Sunday’s Gospel has the basic characteristics of all good stories:      

           ● It is interesting (with an unforeseen reversal);

           ● It has a well-constructed plot;

           ● It is engaging (it relates to us; it gets us to think).

According to Aristotle a well-constructed plot has two essential characteristics:  There is a reversal of fortune and it relates to the audience. For Aristotle there is only tragedy or comedy. In tragedy the reversal of fortune is the tragic fall.  In comedy the reversal of fortune leads to success and a happy ending.

In Our Lord’s story of Lazarus (whose name means “God is my help”) and Dives (meaning “rich”), the plot contains a double reversal of fortune.  And in our lives there can also be various reversals of fortune:

● A reversal of fortune can prompt us to remember God. 

● A reversal of fortune might move us to thank God, or perhaps to curse Him.

● A reversal of fortune can cause us to reflect, to reevaluate, and to learn. A reversal may even help us  to grow in wisdom.

Aristotle’s third necessity of a good story teaches that the plot should be engaging and relate to the audience. Perhaps see ourselves in this story. We may even worry and ask if we are a bit like Dives. But even if we do see a little of Dives in our life, we are not heinous sinners. We probably don’t do things that are terribly bad.  The more important question is – How often do we do things that are truly good?

Perhaps many of our sins are sins of omission. That was Dives’ sin.  Dives didn’t do evil; he did nothing; so, he didn’t do good. Dives never even noticed; he was too concerned with himself, with his own self-indulgence. It has been said: “It’s not what Dives did that got him into trouble; it’s what he didn’t do that got him into hell.”

Perhaps I need a reversal of plot in my attitudes, in my life?  Perhaps the plot of my life needs to be amended from potential tragedy to comedy, from a possible terrible fall, to eternal success and happiness.

Unlike Dives, may we pray for the grace to notice our sins of omission. May we notice the needs and the sufferings of others, and may we do something good, something to help. Most importantly, may we remember always to examine our conscience and ask, not simply, “What did I do?"; but also, “What should I have done?” and "What will I now strive to do?"

For us, the Gospel story ends happily, because Our Lord has risen from the dead. He never tires of forgiving us, and He never tires of guiding us in His ways each day. May we always seek His guidance not only to avoid evil, but to do good. 

  Don Saunders, S.J.

Thoughts on evangelization

 

Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 9:1–6

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples on mission. He “summoned the Twelve . . . and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” As members of the Mystical Body, we share the mission of evangelization. In accord with the subjectivism of our culture, many Christians think of their spiritual lives in an individualist way, as the cultivation of their personal friendships with God. But this overlooks something that the New Testament authors took for granted—namely, that Christians exist not for themselves but for the world. Jesus compared his followers to salt, which is designed to preserve and enhance something other than itself, and to light, whose purpose is to be set on a stand in order to illumine what is around it. Pope St. Paul VI articulated the same truth as follows: The Church doesn’t have a mission; the Church is a mission.  We go forth, therefore, with God’s authority and empowered for his work. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, he will ask whether we have taught the world how to praise, how to reverence the truth, how to go out vigorously on campaign to extend the kingdom of God. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on disciples

 

Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest

Luke 8:19–21

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus identifies his disciples as his family. I want to say something about our becoming disciples in his family. Once we make the decision to follow Jesus, then every other claimant to supremacy must fall away. As I’ve argued many times before, every one of us has something or some set of values that we consider greatest. Perhaps it is money, material things, power, or the esteem of others. Perhaps it is your family, your kids, your wife, your husband.  None of this is false, and none of these things are bad. But when you place any of them in the absolute center of gravity, things go awry. When you make any of them your ultimate or final good, your spiritual life goes haywire. When you attach yourself to any of them with an absolute tenacity, you will fall apart. Only when we make Christ the cornerstone of our lives are we truly ready for mission. Keep in mind that every encounter with God in the Bible conduces to mission, to being sent to do the work of the Lord. If we try to do this work while we are stuck to any number of attachments, we will fail. Period.  Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on gratitude

 

Gratitude Transforms

The opposite of resentment is gratitude (from the Latin gratia = favor). Gratitude is more than an occasional “thanks be to God.” Gratitude is the attitude that enables us to let go of anger, receive the hidden gifts of those we want to serve, and make these gifts visible to the community as a source of celebration.

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”   - Colossians 3: 16

Thoughts on discipleship

 

Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 8:1–3

Friends, in today’s Gospel, we learn that some women accompanied Jesus and provided for him and the Twelve from their resources. Jesus invited women into full participation in the life of discipleship. All of those women sat in eager discipleship at the feet of Jesus. Now, don’t get me wrong! I’m not advocating the contemporary feminist agenda, which often runs rough-shod over the real differences that obtain between men and women.  But I am urging you to see the radicality of Jesus’s call to discipleship, which cuts through so many of the social conventions of his time and ours. I am urging you to see that everyone—rich and poor, those on the inside and those on the outs, men and women—are summoned to discipleship and that this summons is the most important consideration of all.  Given all of this, can we see these women disciples as forerunners of all of the great women who have followed Jesus over the centuries? Can we see them as prototypes of Teresa of Avila, Joan of Arc, Clare of Assisi, Thérèse of Lisieux, Mother Teresa of Kolkata, Katharine Drexel, Edith Stein, and Dorothy Day?  Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on human suffering

 

Our Suffering God

God's compassion for all human suffering is exactly what becomes visible on the cross. What this means is that we are called to see God's suffering in the people. Every time we see someone in pain and we wonder how that person is going to live through it, know that God suffered that pain and is suffering that pain with that person. In a way, the whole of history is the showing of the depth of God's suffering. From a Christian perspective, history is the unfolding of the intensity and immensity of God's suffering, but also of God's resurrection, because in the midst of all the suffering, you can see signs of hope again and again and again.

“Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”   - Hebrews 13: 3

Thoughts on mercy

 

Infinite Mercy

To relearn what praying for the world means, we have to realize that the burden of the world has become a light burden because of Jesus. When God saw how humanity's sin made the world an unbearable burden – a burden of painful birth and hard labor, competition and rivalry, anger and resentment, violence and war, sickness and death – God showed us infinite mercy in sending Jesus, not to take our burden away but to transform it. Jesus gathered up the human suffering of all times and places. He destroyed its fatal power by offering it to God through his voluntary death on the cross. Thus Jesus made an unbearable burden bearable. We now have a companion who has tasted the agony of humanity more fully and deeply than any other person in history.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   - Romans 5: 8

Thoughts on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

 

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

John 3:13–17

Friends, today we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. How strange this feast would have sounded to someone in the ancient world! The triumph of the cross! It would have been analogous to someone speaking today of the triumph of the electric chair or the exaltation of the noose. The cross terrified people in Greco-Roman times, and that was the point. The cross was state-sponsored terrorism, a form of capital punishment reserved for those who had in the most egregious ways undermined the authority of the Roman state. So why are we celebrating the triumph of the cross? There is only one possible explanation, and that is the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. All the attempts to soft-pedal and explain away the Resurrection are ruled out by this feast. If Jesus was a victim of that terrible cross tout court, then we should all go home. Once they had taken in the experience of the Resurrection, the first Christians turned with rapt attention to the cross, convinced that in it they would find something decisive. Somehow, in the strange providence of God, that cross was ingredient in the very process by which God would save the world.  Bishop Robert Barron

More thoughts on prayer

 

When Prayer Descends

How do we concretely move from head to heart? When I lie in my bed, not able to fall asleep because of my many words and worries; when I am preoccupied with all the things that I must do or that can go wrong; when I can't take my mind off my concern for a needy or dying friend – what am I supposed to do? Pray? Fine, but how do I do this? One simple way is by slowly repeating a particular prayer with as much attentiveness as possible. Focused prayer, first in the mind and then repeated in the heart, becomes easier the more you practice. When you know the “Our Father,” the “Glory Be to God,” or the “Lord, Have Mercy” by heart, you have something to start with. Just by praying those prayers repeatedly. You might like to learn by heart the Twenty-third Psalm (“The Lord is my shepherd…”) or Paul's words about love to the Corinthians, or the Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…”). As you lie in bed, drive your car, wait for the bus, or walk your dog, you can slowly let the words of one of these prayers go through your mind down to your heart by trying to listen with your whole being to what you are repeating. You may be distracted by your worries, but if you keep going back to the words of the prayer, you will gradually discover that your worries become less obsessive, your attention becomes more focused, and you really start to enjoy praying. As prayer descends from your mind into the center of your being, you will discover its healing power.

“You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”   - Isaiah 26: 3