Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent, Cycle A - March 21, 2014

Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent

March 21, 2014    8:30am

Our first reading from Genesis has a good lesson for us today.

The context is that Jacob has twelve sons by different women.

This, of course, took place in ancient times and in another culture.

Monogamy was not the law or morality of the land.

At any rate, Jacob clearly favors his son Joseph because his mother is Jacob’s favorite and Joseph is born in Jacob’s old age.

Jacob’s other eleven sons are jealous of Joseph.

Today we hear the lengths to which their jealousy carries them.

This leads me to two thoughts about jealousy.

First, it is always helpful and always a good spiritual practice to focus on what we have instead of on what we do not have.

It is always important to express our gratitude to God.

In fact, some prayer of thankfulness is important each day.

This is important in itself and it is also helpful in dealing with feelings of jealousy.

It can keep jealousy in check and in control.

And second, Joseph’s brothers would have done well to express their jealousy and resentment to their father.

Their real issue or upset was with their father and not their brother Joseph.

Had the other eleven brothers gone directly to their father and expressed themselves, they may well have worked out the problem and their feelings would never have gotten to the destructive level.

Jealousy or any king of upset can usually get resolved this way – by going directly to the source of the problem and trying to work it out.

So, a classic Old Testament story leads us to some reflections that remain always valid.

Monday of the 2nd Week of Lent, Cycle A - March 17, 2014

Monday of the 2nd Week of Lent

March 17, 2014    8:30am

In everyday life, our natural tendency is to judge.

We judge today’s weather as good or bad, we judge food as tasty or tasteless, we may judge someone’s clothes as stylish or shabby, and on it goes.

Our natural tendency is to form an opinion and judge just about everything.

This often includes making judgments about people.

We may judge others because of something they say, their hairstyle, their political opinions, their ideas about faith and religion, and on it goes.

One author says, I think insightfully, that when we do this, there is a triple loss: our loss, their loss, and the community’s loss.

First, our loss – because we fail to see and appreciate the real person.

We cannot judge another unless we have been in their position.

And since we can never be in exactly the same place and life circumstance as another person, we really cannot judge them.

When we judge them as good or bad, as worthy or unworthy, it is our loss because we almost always miss the real person that is there.

Then it is also their loss – because we are all injured when we are judged.

We are stereotyped and pigeon-holed.

We get frozen in place.

When we are judged, it is hard to grow and hard to feel connected, much less supported by others.

And finally, it is the community’s loss – because the community is injured.

People are not valued and respected when this kind of judgment takes place.

The community loses out from having the potentials of people unfulfilled.

And the community may not grow in its ways or thinking because of this.

So Jesus gives us quite a challenge today.

He calls us to be as caring and as empathetic as God himself and to refrain from judging one another.

Taking people where they are and moving on from there – that is Jesus’ way and it had some pretty good results.

Jesus calls us to take the same approach.

2nd Sunday of Lent, Cycle A - March 16, 2014

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2nd Sunday of Lent

Cycle A

March 15-16, 2014       9:30am and 11:00am

Saint Margaret Parish, Bel Air

Others – More Than Meets the Eye

It is easy to label people.

It is easy to slide into the habit of summing up others with a one or two-word description.  We might say that a co-worker is lazy, or that a neighbor is moody, or that an in-law is very self-absorbed.

Sometimes we make quick conclusions about the character of others and sum them up in a word or two.  We may even be partially correct.

But, if we are honest, we also have to admit that we are likely seeing only part of the picture.  We all know that there is a lot more to an iceberg than what shows on the surface.

Well in a similar way, we cannot sum up ourselves or another person in one or two words.  There is more to a person than what meets the eye.

  

Jesus – More Than Meets the Eye

Today’s gospel gives us a similar message about Jesus.

It says that Jesus is transfigured – or transformed – before the disciples.  The voice from the heavens proclaims: “This is my beloved Son.”   

And then there is the presence of Moses and Elijah.  Up to Jesus’ time, they did not refer to the Scripture as the Bible.

They simply called the sacred writings “The Law and the Prophets.”  So when Moses – the giver of the law, the Ten Commandments – and Elijah – the last great prophet – when they appear with Jesus in the middle between them, the meaning is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets – the fulfillment of everything in the Scripture.

So Jesus’ unique relationship with God and his unique mission shine through here.  His divinity shines through.

Before this moment, the disciples had been seeing just the tip of the iceberg.  Here the disciples discover that there is a lot more to Jesus than what meets the eye. 

For Us – More Than What Meets the Eye

There is also more than what meets the eye in each one of us.

We are composites of many qualities.  Our task is to allow the divine, God-like qualities shine through us more and more. 

Maybe this is a good way of understanding the mission we have for our time here on earth.  We are to allow Jesus to transfigure or transform us.

So maybe we are demanding, but we can also allow our gentleness to emerge.  Maybe we are very task-oriented and hard-working, but we can also allow our easier, person-centered self to shine through.

Maybe we are cranky at times, but we can also allow our positive self to be seen.  The idea is that there are divine-like qualities in each of us, like forgiveness, imagination, generosity, joy at the accomplishment of another, and on it goes.

There is more to us than what meets the eye.  The gospel calls us to allow Jesus to transfigure or transform us too.

How to Be Transfigured/Transformed?

I want to recommend one specific way of doing this.

My thought is that we use the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass to help us with this.  And on the other days of the week, we do a brief examination of conscience on our own.

Pick out just one thing in my life that is blocking a divine, Christ-like quality from emerging.  Just pick one thing and keep bringing that to God maybe for three or four months.

Ask God’s forgiveness for this as we feel it is needed.  And also ask God’s grace for the flip side of that quality to emerge in us – like patience instead of impatience.

Maybe even think of a way to take the initiative and express in a specific situation the divine, Christ-like quality that needs to shine through.  Over time, this will be a way to allow what is more than meets the eye in us to emerge, a way to be transfigured or transformed.

Friday of the 1st Week of Lent, Cycle A - March 14, 2014

Friday of the 1st Week of Lent

March 14, 2014    8:30am

Today’s readings assume that we have some freedom to change.

They assume freewill.

Ezekiel in the first reading calls those who are doing wrong to turn away from what they are doing, and those who are doing good not to turn away from what they are doing.

Jesus in the gospel calls us to use our freewill to go beyond the letter of the law.

Instead of just not killing someone, we are not even to act out of anger or use abusive language.

These are challenging passages – challenging because they set lofty ideals for us – good goals for our behavior, but still lofty.

They are also challenging because sometimes things affect our freedom.

Maybe we were verbally put down and abused in our young, formative years.

Maybe that lies at the root of frequent anger or hostility toward others. 

That early life experience can impinge on or limit our freedom.

We can also develop habits that are bad.

Like a habit of using profanity when we are frustrated – things like that.

After a while, habits like this can also impinge on or limit our freedom.

In these situations, the freewill or freedom that the Scripture assumes we have can still emerge.

But it emerges in this way: that when we are aware of a past hurt or a habit that negatively affects us, we then have the freedom to start to address this.

We then have the freewill to choose to explore and work at managing the past hurt, or of getting hold of the habit by replacing it with another habit that is good.

Then it is in using our freedom to try to deal with these hurts and habits that we are indeed choosing God and responding positively to God’s Word.

They are my reflections on these Lenten Scripture passages this morning.