Wednesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A - July 30, 2014

Wednesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time

July 30, 2014       6:30am

The phrase “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven” occurs 122 times in the New Testament.

We hear two of those times in today’s gospel.

Jesus compares the kingdom to a treasure buried in a field and to a really valuable pearl.

This idea of the “kingdom of God” is very rich and has at least three dimensions or layers to it.  

First, Jesus himself is the kingdom of God in person.

So, the kingdom is a person and not a thing.

Jesus, by the way he speaks and teaches, leads us to realize the overwhelming fact that in him God himself is present among us.

He is the kingdom of God.

Then second, the kingdom of God is something interior to us.

Our inner self is the essential location of the kingdom of God.

So the kingdom of God is not located on any map.

Instead, it is in our inner being.

This leads to the third dimension of the kingdom: the kingdom of God is to radiate out from us as individuals and become visible through the community of believers in Jesus, in other words, through the Church.

God is present with us as a community.

We are the living body of Christ on this earth.

And through this presence, God, the kingdom is also to become present in and throughout the human community or society in general.

So, 1) through the kingdom that is Jesus, God with us,

2) the kingdom enters us and dwells within us,

and then 3) the kingdom emerges from within and becomes visible in the community of faith and even in the human community in general.

That is something of the richness of this expression in the Scripture.

Tuesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A - July 29, 2014

Tuesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time

Memorial of Saint Martha

July 29, 2014       6:30am

From the gospels we know that Martha, Mary and Lazarus – 2sisters and a brother – were close to Jesus.

Jesus must have felt comfortable with them and welcome in their home.

Today we honor Martha, and I think she has several messages for us.

First, Martha shows the value of hospitality.

Saint Benedict used to say that the guest at the door is the person of Jesus and we should treat a guest that way.

So hospitality – in our homes or in our church, God’s home – hospitality shows respect to a guest.

It creates a bond.

It makes someone there for the first time feel more comfortable.

It creates an opportunity for reconciliation if that is needed.

It creates a relationship where Christ can be present and alive.

I have to think that Jesus’ words, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst” – those words apply even in the showing of simple hospitality.

So Martha is an example of hospitality, and then, Martha helps us to appreciate those who work behind the scenes.

That’s what Martha was doing here – getting the meal ready, largely unnoticed.

Those who work behind the scenes know what must be done to make someone welcome or make a good event happen for a large group.

Their efforts make hospitality happen and make relationships possible.

Martha makes us recall this and recall the importance of thanking those who work behind the scenes.

So, our thanks to Saint Martha for the good messages and reminders that she gives us!   

Monday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A - July 28, 2014

Monday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time

July 28, 2014       8:30am

I have never made a loaf of bread from scratch, kneading the dough with my hands and then letting it rise and all that.

But I have made bread with a bread machine – kind of the lazy man’s way, I guess.

But even that taught me something about yeast or leaven.

As I remember, you put in several cups of flour and some other ingredients, like water and salt.

But you only add a tablespoon or so of yeast and that little bit of yeast eventually permeates all the dough and makes it rise and turn into a good loaf of bread.

The interesting thing is that when you look at it through the window of the bread machine, you see dough.

I would never say that I saw yeast.

I saw dough.

But the yeast did the trick and without it, I would get a lousy loaf of bread or maybe just some baked, dense four.

Today, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to the yeast that you mix with flour until the whole batch is leavened.

The idea is that God’s presence, God at work in the world, God at work in and through us may not be visible in himself.

This means that we or what we do may not have to be recognized or visible.

That may not be important.

But if we allow God to work in and through us humbly, quietly, maybe invisibly and imperceptibly, well, the kingdom of God is something like that.

We don’t have to worry about being out there or dominant or visible or showy.

If we go about it in the way of yeast within dough, that is the kingdom of God.

And the results will eventually be there, as with the dough.

Wednesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A - July 23, 2014

Wednesday of the 16^th Week in Ordinary Time

July 23, 2014       8:30am

 

This morning’s first reading is from the very beginning of the Book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah recalls God’s words to him:  “Before I formed you in the womb in knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.”

So Jeremiah has this sense, this awareness that God knew him even before he was conceived and born.

And beyond knowing him, God had already dedicated Jeremiah and given him a purpose, a mission, a vocation in life.

I see these words as highlighting how sacred human life is.

Our being, our life comes from God.

God fashions each one of us and brings us into being.

The result is that we are to value the life of each person.

We value that life from even before birth.

And we value that life in childhood, in adolescence, in young adulthood and adulthood and senior years, right up to the time that we return to the One who knew us even before He formed us in the womb.

This deceptively simple message in Jeremiah has far-reaching ramifications.

It calls us to a total, consistent ethic of respect, even reverence for human life – as the saying goes, from womb to tomb.

There will be temptations to shy away from this – when it is challenging to bring a baby to term, or when it seems too expensive to provide health care for everyone, or when we think that the putting to death one has taken the life of another will in some way even the score.

But this sentence from Jeremiah reminds us that life is always from and of God and that the life of each person has a dignity and purpose that cannot be taken away.

So, some thoughts from the Lord’s words to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you.”

Tuesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle A - July 22, 2014

Tuesday of the 16^th Week in Ordinary Time

Memorial of St. Mary Magdalene

July 22, 2014       6:30am

 

In this gospel passage, Mary Magdalene emerges as a model of faith.

We see, right within these few verses, the growth of Mary’s faith.

First, Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb while it is still dark.

The darkness is literal – the sun apparently had not yet risen.

And the darkness is also symbolic – it stands for Mary’s darkness and our darkness when we do not fully understand Jesus or who Jesus is.

Then, Mary notices that the stone has been rolled away.

She is still thinking that Jesus is dead and that someone has stolen his body.

Then, Mary’s first awareness of something special or extraordinary taking place is when she returns to the tomb and sees two angels there.

They ask her, “Why are you weeping?”

This is the first inkling that we are not dealing here simply with Jesus’ death.

Then, Jesus appears to Mary but she does not at first recognize him.

When she does eventually recognize him, she at first calls him “Rabbouni” which simply means “teacher.”

Finally, after she listens to Jesus, she goes and tells the other disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”

So, notice her growth in faith or growth in her relationship with the Lord.

Mary moves from darkness to increasing light; from not recognizing Jesus to speaking of him as a teacher to finally to talk of him as the Lord, as God himself.

I recommend that her message to us is to keep growing in our own faith.

We are never to stop growing in our appreciation of who Jesus is, of what our relationship to him can be, of how we pray and what expectations he makes of us in daily life.

We always have more to learn and more space for growing in relation to the Almighty.