John 14:1-16 I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

A friend became a Benedictine monk.  He was given the comfort and assurance of knowing that he would always have a place at the monastery and that when the time comes for him to die, he will be buried in its cemetery, and that his soul will be perpetually prayed for.  It took a leap of faith for him to leave the comforts of the world, but at the same time he finds great comfort of knowing just as much comfort if not greater peace of mind comes to him for he knows that the monks are following God's Way as much as they can; and that he was called, and given a dwelling within the monastery mimics what will come in the eternal life when Jesus says, "I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be."

There is a place in heaven for everyone.  We are each called in our different vocations in our lives to the Father.  Because we are not like St. Teresa or a mystic like Padre Pio doesn't condemn us, just makes us called in a different way.  God loves you.  He calls us to himself through Christ.

Reflection Mt 25: 31-46 The Face of God Is in Our Brother

“You shall not bear hatred in your heart for your brother.” The Lord commands through Moses.  How many times have we each felt someone’s wrath, annoyance toward us, or just that look that left us crushed?  When we acknowledge how we feel, then suddenly we know it is wrong to hate others.  Perhaps our anger will melt into compassion and understanding especially when we recall in today’s Gospel that Jesus reminds us that he is those people that we help, that we give encouragement; he is within the hungry, the thirsty and the poor.  Mother Theresa called this Jesus’ “distressing disguise of the poor” when he appeared to her in the form of those who needed help. 

Christ is in each of us.  Do you recall Jesus told us that he would send us the Paraclete to help us discern what we must do to continue on the Way?  Jesus also told us “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (Jn 14:15) And what was his command?  “Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you should love one another.” (Jn 13:34)  Isn’t that what Jesus is reiterating today when he tells us, “I was hungry and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me,” explaining that whenever the disciples or we ‘do it for the least brothers of mine, you did it for me.” (Mt 25:35-36, 40)  Let us be certain that when we give, we give to Christ and for Christ in whatever form we meet him with charitable hearts that preserves the dignity of our brethren for our love of God.  Amen.

Mark 6:53-56 Crossing the Waters

Marriage is a reflection of the relationship that we have with God, and the Church's relationship with Christ.  For those reasons it is very sacred. Two of the sets of relationships that we are given in today's Gospel are the intimate relationship between Jesus and the Apostles after they have been called, and that between Christ and the people whom he loves and has great compassion for. 

A Jesuit taught me once that for better understanding of the Gospel sometimes it is helpful to put yourself into the story.  I imagined myself as one of the Apostles.  It was almost overwhelming until I realized that it is how we are called to service even now in our personal lives.  Then I imagined myself as one of the people waiting for the Lord, and recognizing him.  How I realized that this was my true Spouse, the one from the Song of Songs, whom I would recognize as a lover and want to be with always: the one whose gentle touch could free me from everything around me, pulling me out of troubled thoughts, and make me forget everything around me as we joined thoughts and are healed in that communion. It reminded me of the prayer of St. Ignatius: "Lord receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my will...give me only your love and grace, and that is enough for me." 

But there is another entity entirely missed within the story: the Sea of Gennesaret.  The beautiful sea created by God himself and animated with the movement of the Spirit.  Upon its surface the light is reflected.  The sea is molded and shaped by the Master continuously. From within it comes forth life.  Yet when others and perhaps even the sea itself seems barren, the Lord commands the nets be lowered into its deepest parts, which brings forth abundant life, like the Lord himself living within the deepest parts of us just waiting for us to need him enough to be seen and heard from those quiet recesses within.  We are more than that too.  We are the sea which becomes that vessel carrying Christ and his teaching to others; we are the living water bringing a quenching drink to the thirsty and food to the hungry through His generosity when we share his Way, his Truth, and his Life.  The people we read about today are healed by the mere touching of the Lord's tassel.  Are we that that vessel of his love too? 

Every day I pray this prayer, and today it finds new meaning. I share it here with you.

 "Lord, temper my heart with the fire of your mercy

so that I may be a worthy vessel for your love. Amen. "

~ H. Hurley

Mark 4: 1-20 The Sower Went Out to Sow

Jesus gives his Apostles and us a very clear reason why he gives us parables, "to those on the outside, everything comes in parables so that they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and forgiven."  He then fully breaks down the parable of the sower for them to understand. 

If you grew up with the Way, then you have no difficulty understanding parables, but there are those in RCIA programs and other Christian faiths who do not understand and strive to know better how we come to know what we know.  This was true of Jesus' own disciples as they start following him compared to the others whose parents were followers or who had been with Jesus since the beginning.  There were those too who watched him heal, but did not stay to hear him preach, and also those who plotted against him.  Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God in images that were common to the people.  What a wonderful thing because they could go back home and in their daily work, they could meditate upon his words about the sower as they themselves sowed in the field planting the seeds in the rows by throwing it and leaving what grew up to God.  How much more poignant would the lesson come!  To understand that the sower plants the seeds of the Word in each life, but then to see the crows come and snatch the seed away, like Satan comes to take away the Word sown in their hearts.  But the seeds are also sown on rocky ground, and although they "receive it with joy.  But they have no roots; they last only for a short time."  How many of us have known someone try to make a new year's resolution only to drop it after several months?  Sometimes people do that with faith too in trying to understand better they jump fully into their faith without realizing that faith is a way of life, not some commodity easily come to a person.  "Those sown among thorns...they are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things choke the word."  To those who are fertile ground, those who are nourished in the way of life, those who find loving and supportive friends and families, those are the ones who will bear good fruit and whose lives will bear the fruit of the Kingdom and share it with others, Jesus indicates.  It is through their lives that they follow the Way.   Jesus tells them that they will "bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold, "  which are incredible percentages of the harvest to yield.  They would have been amazed and it would have been more than they could imagine.  That is our hope too, that God will allow us to have that kind of good fruit be produced in us to the point that we can't even imagine the good it does for others.

Luke 1-26:38 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Today's Gospel reading is the same as those from Tuesday, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  A beloved deacon I knew used to tell me that whenever I saw a reading twice in the same week, pay attention! 

In the story of the Annunciation we are given only two phrases that Mary speaks herself, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" and, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to  your word."  What should impress us most is that these words contain no fear.  In one she asks a question relating to a fact that she knows to be true.  In the second she fully commits herself with courage and faith to God's plan.  It indicates that she knew that she had a choice.  She could have said 'no'.  She could have been apathetic, which is also a choice.  Instead she chooses to live out God's will through her. 

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  We honor Our Lady and remember the story as she appeared to St. Juan Diego calling him to serve God, similar to the way that the Angel Gabriel appeared to her calling her to serve God. Through her, Juan Diego was led closer to her son, Jesus Christ. Through following God's will, so many more would come to follow the Son and know the Way, the Truth and the Life that leads to the eternal kingdom.  Because of her eternal love, watchfulness and protection that leads to Christ, we honor our Lady who bore the Christ Child.  Indeed as she appeared to Juan Diego, Christ radiated from within her. 

Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe from St. Juan Diego's tilma