Contemplating

The cover of this month's Give Us This Day is a picture of a white robed figure in a swirl of colors.  The artist, Daniel Bonnel, titles it, Jesus Walking On The Water, Contemplating.  Jesus has spent the night in prayer on the hill.  He is still lost in contemplation as he moves over the water..  The commentator points out that one of Webster's definitions of contemplation is, "a state of mystical awareness of God's being," a beautiful and inviting notion of contemplating.
I'm still waiting for a lab report that would tell us what kind of melanoma is attacking my lung.  That will determine what medicine we will use to shrink it,  Please keep praying,

All will be well?

I have often quoted Julian of Norwich's famous line, "All will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well."  It's a thought that can give us hope with so much suffering and pain and confusion in our world.  But in a welcome article by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman in the August issue of America magazine the author says that Julian took a long time before she could understand how God could say such a thing in so miserable a world.
Julian wrote finally, "Know it well, love was his meaning.  Who reveals it to you?  Love.  What did he reveal to you?  Love.  Why does he reveal it to you?  For love.  Remain in this, and you will know more of the same.  But you will never know different, without end.  So I was taught that love is our Lord's meaning."
It is hard for our limited mind to grasp this Mystery.  Love is everything, everywhere, in us and around us like the air we breathe.  As I begin centering prayer I am keenly aware that my love for God is woefully inadequate.  So I pray, "You are Love with Whom I love You."  It's only with God in me, loving God through Godself that I can dare approach the Divine Mystery.  It can never be completely clear.  So we surrender.   Then Love can use us to permeate out suffering world.

Divine Abundanza

The shore of the Sea of Galilee.

An excellent pizzeria near my home has a very large pizza they call "Abundanza."   The miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21,) is full of rich symbolism. One that stands out for me today is the abundance of divine hospitality.  Hospitality strikes me as a good way to think about grace.  You don't earn it, you just happen to show up and you are welcome.  The disciples in the story suggest letting the people take care of themselves, but Jesus feeds them hospitably.  And not just scrimping.  With abundance!  Twelve wicker baskets full left over.
With abundance God's love washes over us.

Let It Be

After the angel Gabriel made his announcement to Mary, the young girl responded, "Let it happen to me as you have said."  I like to think that as a young mother teaching her son to pray, she taught him to say to God, "Let it be as you will."  As a man Jesus taught us to say "Thy will be done."  In the garden the night before he died   Jesus himself prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.  Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine." (Luke:22:42)
While I am lying in bed in the morning, reluctant to get up, I pray a version of the Angelus.  I have a statue of Mary on the wall beside my bed.  As I pray Mary's response to the angel, I stop and ask her  to teach me, as she taught her son, to mean it when I pray to God, ."Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me.  Nevertheless, let your will, not mine, be done."
It occurs to me as I pray that the French "si vous plait," (if it pleases you,)  comes closer to what I mean than our English "please."

St. Mary Magdalene

My favorite depiction of Mary Magdalene is in Franco Zeffirielli's  1977 TV series Jesus of Nazareth.  Perfectly played by Anne Bancroft, she is about the age of the mother of Jesus, maybe a little older.  Not a former prostitute, she is a follower of Jesus, as devoted as the other apostles, perhaps more devoted because we find her at the Crucifixion of Jesus. The gospels describe her as the first person to meet the Risen Christ who sends her to tell the other apostles.
In the film she goes to the room where they are hiding out of fear of the authorities.  She tells them that she has seen Jesus and that he sent her to tell the that he is risen.  They don't believe her and mutter about women's fantasies.  Sort of scolding them in a very old aunt kind of way, she says"Well, I've told you!"  And she walks out.
(The series may be available for screening.  A fortieth anniversary edition is available from Amazon.)
In an age when most people would look askance at anyone talking about rising from the dead, St. Mary Magdalene is a model for us of loving faith and courage.
I am not expecting to celebrate Mass in church or outside in the near future.

One Precious Pearl

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus helps us to understand what he means by The Reign of God.  In Hebrew poetry a second line often repeats the meaning of the first line in different words.  Jesus teaches us to pray "Thy Kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  God's will being done by each of us and all of us results in the coming of God's Reign.
That Reign of God is one precious pearl that we would give everything for.  With God we can bring it about.
The biopsy last Tuesday showed that the type of cancer in my right lung and pleura is a melanoma, common on people's skin, but rare inside a person.  We want the lab to answer some questions that will assure us the cancer is melanoma.  If so the treatment to reduce the tumor could be a daily pill or an injection every two or four weeks, both of which target the melanoma directly.

Kingdom of "Heaven"?

I'm still here.  I haven't had the energy to do a blog.  I am having trouble with my breathing.  Had a pet-scan and biopsy last week and am waiting for the results.  Please pray for me.
Last weekend, this weekend, and next we've been reading parables about "the Kingdom of Heaven" from Matthew's Gospel.  I think it''s worth repeating that Matthew,as a reverent Jew, uses "Heaven" as a substitute for the name "God."  Every year the Gospel reading was from Matthew's until the 1970's when we got a three year cycle of readings.  When I was young I thought Jesus was talking about  the place where we go when we die.
Another help is that the Greek word that is translated "kingdom" is better translated "reign."  So we get the reign of God is like seed growing enormously, like yeast hidden in dough, like a treasure hidden in a field.  Reign of God helps me to think of letting God's love rule over my heart and quietly and abundantly change me.  Not just individuals,  the Reign of God that Jesus announces is taking over the whole world.  It doesn't always seem that way, but each of us letting God rule our hearts spreads the Reign of God.

Flowing

On a hot summer night with no wind, cool air flows down the mountain behind my house and into my back windows.  I can feel it flowing up the hallway into my room in the front of the house.  It is so gentle and so refreshing that I've begun to think of Love, whom we sometimes call God, flowing over me and around me and within me and out of me to others.  Love Who loves us flows over our entire sick earth, over our suffering country and over all of our people threatened by the virus.  Love Who loves us flows over and around and through everyone of us, flowing out to everyone we meet.  The love we receive from others is Love flowing out of them into us.  The flowing is so effortless that all we have to do is keep the windows open.

Madly in Love

Like a teenager, God has been madly in love with us since the very beginning.  Love never considers the consequences.  Tender.  Wasteful. This lavish love touches me especially in two passages in the prophet Hosea.  Through the prophet God compares us to a spouse: "I will betroth you to myself forever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with faithful love and tenderness. I will betroth you to myself with loyalty, and you will come to know your God." (2:21-22)  Chapter 11 begins:  "When Israel was a child I loved him."  God is a parent leaning down and taking a child's arms to teach them to walk, "leading them with human ties, with leading-strings of love.  I was like someone who lifts an infant close against his cheek; stooping down to him I gave him his food." (3-4)
This is the first instance in the Old Testament of the theme of God's love as cause of his choosing Iraael.  Jesus will show us over and over that God's love is not earned.  It is simply that God is Love that flows over all that God has made, transforming us into lovers.

100, 60,30?

What is called the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9) is really about the seed and the soil.  The main message of Jesus is that God's rule, God's reign has come.  Very likely most of us have received this message of Jesus, so this parable pushes us to ask ourselves how generous is our response to God's power in our lives.  100 fold would be an extraordinary, but not impossible, harvest.  There may be a few of us who respond wholeheartedly to the power of God's love.  Most of us, however, will find ourselves a little or a lot less than that.  We must not underestimate ourselves or God's grace.  Honestly, how much of our heart are we giving over to the power of God's love?  60? 30?  God's love can improve the soil of our hearts.  All we have to do is let God do it.
I am starting to have problems with my breathing again, like I had two years ago.  Please pray for me.  It doesn't look like I will be celebrating Mass this summer in church or outside.

Hope

Hope is only hope when things seem hopeless.  Our nation is the oldest enduring republic in the history of the world, with a set of political institutions and traditions that have stood the test of time.  We have lost a lot of the world's respect recently.  Through the prophet Ezekiel God offers us hope (36:24-28): "I will give you my own spirit to lead you in my ways faithful to what I command.  Then you will live in the land the land I gave your ancestors.  You will be my people and I will be your God."
We have talked so much about the separation of church and state that we may not remember that, while our country was not founded on a particular denomination, it was founded on a kind of natural religion that almost all the great faiths of the world have in common: belief in God, an after-life, divine reward and punishment, responsibility to others.  Roger Williams, the strong proponent of the separation of church and state insisted that natural religion was a necessary condition for any free republic to maintain order and to be effective.  Our Declaration of Independence says that "all men are created."  We needn't be bashful about it.

United States

We seem determined to be the un-united States, even turning a pandemic into a matter of partisan politics.  To wear of not to wear a mask!!  George Washington warned our infant nation that disagreement and argument between political parties was the biggest danger to unity that we faced.  We have got ourselves to the point where we need to rededicate ourselves to working for unity.  As we surrender to our God who is Love, we beg that every last one of us may be filled with Love so strong that we will once again be the United States.

Peace to the Nations

The Old Testament passage chosen for most Sundays throws light on  the Gospel.  Matthew 11:25-30 asks us to imitate a gentle Jesus. The first reading from the Prophet Zechariah 9:9-10 stresses peace. A king riding on a donkey comes for peace.  Perhaps worth mentioning is that there is only one animal in the picture.  In Hebrew poetry a second line often repeats a first line in different words.  It was common for rulers to ride around their kingdom on donkeys.  This peace-bringing king does not ride a warhorse.  In fact he banishes them along with bows and chariots used in war. 
Peace is a dream of the human race.  I'm reading a book in which one character is a boy who graduates from high school just at the time when the United States is considering entering the Second World War.  He considers himself a pacifist.  Dorothy Day is one of his heroes.  His family and friends think he is an unrealistic dreamer.  His is a very hard stance to maintain in the face of Hitler's evil.  And so it goes.
We need a gentle leader who can bring us to take seriously the possibility of "No More War."

An Easy Yoke

"Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  

Yes , my yoke is easy and my burden light."

Matthew 11:29-30

The Pharisees referred to the Law as a yoke, literally a wooden frame placed over the necks of two oxen to draw a plow.  The quality of ease and lightness that Jesus offers does not consist of a lower level of ethical demand.  Obeying the Law is made easy by our relationship with Jesus and the sense of being grasped by the love of one who is gentle and humble of heart.  Jesus' interpretation of the Law also gives priority to engagement of the heart and promotion of relationships over purely ritual and external prescriptions. 

As we grow in our intimacy with Jesus he is able to share his goodness with us.

St. Paul and St. Peter

Today is the feast day of the two pillars of the Church.  Since Paul is my patron, let me concentrate on him.  One passage I like a lot and one of his most powerful, a terrific example of classic rhetoric, is in his Second Letter to the Corinthians. He has been criticized by some other Christian preachers for being too weak. Beginning in chapter 11, verse 21 he boasts of all that he has done, suffering, weakness, ecstatic visions,  "a thorn against his flesh." 
Of the last he says that he pleaded with Christ to take it away, but Christ told him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." (12:9)  Paul answers his critics, "That is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake.  For it is when I am weak that I am strong."
As we realize and accept our weaknesses God's grace can work better in us.
The picture is my favorite corner in the house.  I just got up from there to write here what I was thinking about St. Paul.

Centering Prayer

When you pray, go into your inner room and close your door to pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will pay you back.

Matthew 6:6

It looks like Covid-19 is with us for yet a while.  I mentioned centering prayer when we started isolating ourselves, but most of what I have done in this blog has been about meditating on the Bible (lectio divina.)  We begin that by using our head.  Centering prayer is a prayer of the heart.  Here are four recommended steps.

1. Choose a sacred word as a symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within you.

2. Sitting comfortably with eyes closed, settle yourself briefly, and silently start saying your chosen word as the symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within you.

3. When you become aware that you are thinking of something, return ever so gently to your sacred word.

4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a few minutes.

When I began centering prayer forty years ago I could do it for only 5 minutes, but within a month I could do it for 20 minutes.  I didn't want to go any longer than that, so I began setting an alarm.  Two books that were helpful were Thomas Keating's Open Mind, Open Heart and Basil Pennington's Centering Prayer.

Churches Opening

The Catholic Churches in Mountain Maryland (Allegany and Garrett Counties) are opening for Mass this weekend.  The pastors and staff had to do a lot of preparations.  Those taking part in Mass are asked to please follow whatever directions they are given to safeguard themselves and the others gathering for Mass.
We pray that everything goes well and that all will be safe.
We pray also for those who have died of Covid 19 and for their families.  We pray for those who are sick.  We pray for health care workers.  We pray for those who are having a hard, and even abusive,  time quarantining at home.
Because of my age and my health I will not be celebrating Mass for a good while yet. 

My Brother's Keeper

"Am I my brother's keeper?" a man quoted this Scripture passage to me recently to prove from the Bible that he didn't owe anybody anything.  Every once in a while when I would preach on social justice, someone would quote this to me. I awoke this morning with the quote going through my head, so I used Genesis 4:1-16 for meditation today.
Cain has just killed his brother Abel.  God comes looking for Abel and asks Cain where he is.  Cain's flippant reply is "Am I my brother's keeper?"  God doesn't honor the smart aleck remark with the  answer which is clearly "Yes." He kicks Cain out of Paradise.
This passage isn't aimed just at those rich people who think they deserve what they worked for.  So what is God saying to us.  In this time of the virus one message is that I must protect my brothers and sisters  by something as simple as wearing a mask and keeping my distance.  Being more generous by sharing what I have more than I might usually do.  Favoring programs that care for the poor and sick and exiled.

Who ya gonna love?

I haven't had internet service since Sunday morning.  My phone also was unreliable.  Turns out some towers were down in our area, but I don't know why that would affect both internet and phone.
Well, Monday I meditated on Matthew 10:37-42 which is this coming Sunday's Gospel. Of the warnings and advice that Matthew collects here, the verse I found most poignant was, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.  And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." When I was little I couldn't imagine loving God better than my mother and father.  As I grew older I was able to make some sense of the warning, but I also grew convinced that if someone didn't love their parents and relatives, they couldn't possibly love God.  Someone once told me that I love God only as much as the person I love the least.  I hope that's not true, but if we don't love people, we won't call attention to the Good News as Jesus wants us to.
This coming weekend the Catholic churches in Mountain Maryland are opening for Mass.  We are seeing an upswing in Covid 19 cases in some places where churches have opened.  Use you head.  Be cautious.  I will not be celebrating Mass for the foreseeable future.

Happy Fathers' Day

Parents, never drive your children to resentment 

but bring them up with correction and advice inspired by the Lord. 

Ephesians 6:4

Our image of God in heavily influenced by the way our fathers and mothers treated us.  When they have loved us and cherished us, we are comfortable with God who loves us and cherishes us.  We feel sure of God, we know that we can trust God with our life.  

If one or the other or both punished us severely we grow up afraid of God as someone who cannot be trusted.  We also may are very judgmental of others.  Some may even turn away from God entirely. 

A book I just finished reading named Good Goats: Healing Our Image of God, can help us to  understand how we come to our image of God and to find ways to heal it.