Calm...Cool...Collected

Tuesday of 15 in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 7:1-9

The Lord is giving Isaiah words to say to Ahaz. 

In the face of particularly meaty threats:

Take care you remain tranquil and do not fear...

Unless your faith is firm you shall not be firm! 

I was looking up the etymology of the word tranquil and found a graph showing the pattern of usage since 1800.  It was at a high in 1840 then slowly declining until 2004 only to begin resurgence. 

Calm, serene, relaxed, unruffled, unperturbed, unflustered, untroubled, composed…calm, cool, and collected;)  Is resurgence evidence of the longing? Is the growing shelf space taken up with “Self-Help/Spirituality” manuals evidence of the longing?

In an ever-expanding universe of over 200 billion galaxies, and an equally unfathomable nano world, being firmly grounded so as to remain tranquil doesn’t come easily.  It takes much deliberateness.

Remaining tranquil

Keeping fear in check

Staying firmly grounded

All these are the fruits of a steady and stewarded relationship with God. 

The invitation:
Come.  Sit with me as you start your day. 

Heads AND Tails

Feast of St. Benedict, Abbot

Monday of Week 15 in Ordinary Time

Matthew 10:34-11:1

I have come to bring not peace but the sword

This is a tough text for me to wrap my head around.  I chalk it up to the particular context when Matthew’s gospel was written.  In the nascent post resurrection community there were real ruptures happening in families as some Jews continued following “the way” when it became apparent that to do so would separate one from the Synagogue community.  There was painfully real “setting against” going on.

It is easy to belong to a group/club/organization that makes no demands.  What does my belonging to the Christian Community demand of me?  My very claim of being a disciple means that I am “set for” the gospel/love/mercy etc.  That’s the “heads” part of the coin.  But there is a “tails.” Perhaps the “tails” is anything that subtly or not-so-subtly gets in the way.  The onus is on me to name the “tails.” 

But I am allowed to ask for help;)

St. Benedict, the master of community living, pray for me.

  

Mercy...Not a Rationable Commodity

15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 10:25-37

“What must I do?”

The homilist at this mornings Mass gave me a lot to chew on.  When Catholics are asked about their favorite parable, Bishop Lynch stated, they overwhelmingly claim the Good Samaritan.

In the pew I shook my head in agreement.

But by the time he wrapped things up I wasn’t so sure anymore…I think that was his strategy!  Have I always liked it because I thought of myself as the Good Samaritan and everyone else as excuse-making passers-by?   Or at least if I’m not the Good Samaritan, surely I'm trying to be! 

How often do I try to rationalize down God-Like-Mercy to fit into something…you know…workable?  The thing that really struck home was the challenge to reflect on how easily I narrow Mercy when the reason someone is in such a mess is their own damn fault!  This relates to the victim in the story who, for Pete’s sake, travelled alone on a road everyone knew was fraught with dangerous thieves and criminals! What did he expect!

I was talking to a friend the other day who makes follow up visits to chronically ill patients in an effort to help patients comply with prescribed therapies and medicines.  The goal is to keep the patients from having to come to the ER with yet another acute episode caused by failure to comply.  It can be so frustrating!  What more could be done?

I am wondering now if the act of caring itself is mercy…period?  The other part of the story isn’t mine to know.  The GS just showed mercy.  He didn’t appear to be interested in how the traveller came to be in his predicament.  He didn’t have a need to measure future decisions in an effort to assess the effectiveness of his intervention.

What must I do?

Do mercy…just for the heck of it. 

Do it, and see what happens…to me!

Oh When Israel Was a Child

Thursday of Week 14 in Ordinary Time

Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9

We are at the end of Hosea’s second prophetic speech…6 chapters long!  It has a rhythmic, long and very descriptive list of Israel’s sins.  Have they forgotten everything God has taught them? God remembers...you  used to be such a nice kid until you started hanging out with the wrong crowd (foreign Gods et al).

The tender language of the remembrance: 

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

Who took them in my arms;

I drew them with human cords,

With bands of love;

I fostered them like one

                  who raises an infant to his cheeks;

Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,

They did not know that I was their healer.

In today’s text, God gets to the end of his rant and realizes that he just can’t do it.  He can’t destroy Israel.  He must try to bring him back.  (Haven’t I had this same emotional experience with my teenagers from time to time?  “the more I called them the farther they went from me.”)

Bottom line: 

My heart is overwhelmed,

My pity is stirred.

I will not give vent to my blazing anger;

I will not destroy Ephraim again;

For I am God and not man,

The Holy One present among you;

I will not let the flames consume you.

I love this language.  These rich prophetic texts of the Bible feel so real to me.  Not the projected image of a God of revenge (we didn’t read the revenge verses;)…but the honest confession of guilt that ended on these pages.  A confession that knows pain and yet can’t let go of hope.  God and God’s people…it isn’t smooth sailing unless we are lying to ourselves. 

Paul Says...

14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Brothers and sisters:

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

through which the world has been crucified to me,

and I to the world.

For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision,

but only a new creation.

Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule

and to the Israel of God.

From now on, let no one make troubles for me;

for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.

Galatians 6:14-17

Sometimes Paul says the most outrageous things!
The salient phrase...from where I am sitting this morning is:
new creation

Whatever is past,

Whatever the marks left on us

     from an old self we would rather leave behind,

Whatever random violence we have participated in

     …along with the scars we have left on ourselves   
     and on others

All that whatever…

God can use in forging a new creation.

In my ministry at the hospital I am big on communicating a God of extreme empathy, mercy, slow to anger rich in kindness…and that is appropriate.  But Paul challenges me to a next step

…to be more than rebuked (see last Sunday) by God. 

Wrestling with God can be downright violent.

Wrestling with God leaves marks!

Not because of God but because of me!

A God who really cares about us will ultimately do everything he can to snap us out of the petulance, the arrogance, the deviousness, the timidity, the excuses that abort our becoming the radiant beings we are meant to be.*

There is no suffering-free Christian life.  

It will leave marks. 

That’s enough to wrestle with today.

*from Living the Lectionary-Links to Life and Literature, Year C, by Geoff Wood, Liturgy Training Publications, p90.