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Praise in Paradox

31/5/2023

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, June 4th, 2023:
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Daniel
3

R. Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our fathers and blessed is your glorious and holy name.

R. Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory, and to be extolled and highly glorified forever.

R. Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom, and to be extolled and highly exalted forever.

R. Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you who look into the depths from your throne on the cherubim.

R. Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven, to be sung and glorified forever.

R. Glory and praise for ever!

I have to regularly remind myself that there is always something to praise God for. You see, I am prone to an all-or-nothing perspective. All-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion that sees things as this or that, either/or, or completely dichotomous. If things aren't going how I’d like or how I anticipated, I can easily be knocked off track. This can lead to avoidance or a negative mood when things are less than ideal.

For me, then, praising God can sometimes be difficult. I often find my capacity for gratitude and praise limited by the emotions I experience in relation to what’s going on around me.

Today’s psalm from Daniel is clear that praise is due to God at all times. This call to praise God for His goodness shows how deficient all-or-nothing thinking actually is. God is still good and all worthy of my praise regardless of what is going on in my life. Is my ability to praise Him dependent on my circumstances aligning as I wish? Or can I receive the grace to praise Him despite, or even because of, what is happening today? In reality, I can both experience things that are not great, and still praise God at the same time. Such is a small, lived experience of the infamous Catholic “both/and” perspective, rightfully challenging my often dichotomous one.

Catholicism is widely known for this illuminating and puzzling “both/and” perspective. It can be awkwardly freeing and strangely stretch us beyond our comfort zone. Bishop Robert Barron explores this in his book Vibrant Paradoxes. He shares that Catholicism often holds tensive opposites together. Two truths can seem contrary, but remain true nonetheless. In fact, we often find that truth in its entirety is actually a conjunction or combination of truths, each of which would not exist fully in its completeness without the other.

For example, during times of grief, God’s grace can provide experiences of great joy to people while they are still sorrowful. And many have wrestled with things that require strong faith and the ability to exercise reason. I’m sure even the disciples pondered how Jesus could be fully human and fully divine. And, as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity this weekend, we consider the impossible reality that God is three in one.

All these are places of holy tension. Bishop Barron gently reminds us that these spaces can be uncomfortable, so he advises us to have patience with this “both/and” approach.

Amidst this, I find that praise is like a porthole that transports us deep into these places, allowing God to temper our hearts for the work He wants to do there. He knows these moments of tension are sacred spaces where we are ripe with immense potential for intense, almost super-charged growth. I do not always understand these “in between'' moments when they come, but I do know that some of the most tender, intimate, and life-giving praise I have been able to offer God has been when I have invited Him into the paradoxes of my life. When my heart releases His praises, I am led to surrender my limited perspectives and remember His goodness. There, I see everything I have to be grateful for.

Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our fathers, and blessed is Your glorious and holy name. In all circumstances, in every moment, I will praise You forever!

Michelynne Gomez

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Second Chances

30/5/2023

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A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, June 4th, 2023:
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Exodus
34-6, 8-9

Moses rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, “The Lord.”

The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. He said, “If now I have found favour in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

Imagine that you have a friend, and that for months you have laboured over creating a special gift for this friend. Perhaps it is for an upcoming anniversary of your friendship, and because of how very much she means to you, you have worked at putting together a token of your friendship: something that would encapsulate all that you mean to each other. From a creative hand and steady perseverance, this gift has turned out to be beautiful, and you hope with a tender heart that she will cherish it. But while she is waiting for you to finish the gift, she becomes impatient, wanting to receive the gift now, becoming jealous of the time you are spending on the gift rather than with her. In her ignorance of the nature of your work, she allows herself to be convinced that you do not love her and she turns instead to other friends – false friends – to fill the void that patience has asked of her.

This is the story of God’s gift of tender love and covenant friendship that He bestowed on the Israelites through Moses. In the verses leading up to today’s first reading, Moses is on the mountain receiving the gift of the two tablets containing God’s commandments for His people to follow to remain close to Him. While they wait, however, impatience, jealousy, and mistrust consume them, and they turn instead to idols. Moses’ own wrath over the situation even causes him to hurl this precious gift from God at the bottom of the mountain, shattering the tablets in pieces.

What would your reaction be to your friend’s actions? This question remains a personal examination of conscience for all of us, as it reveals the purity of the love in our hearts.
What was God the Father’s response to His people who turned away from Him and broke the tablets He had given them? Mercy, graciousness, slowness to anger, abundance of steadfast love, and renewed fidelity to His friend.

As we open today’s readings, Moses embarks on a second journey up the mountain to talk with God. The Lord does not turn His back on Moses or punish Him for destroying the tablets, or for his leadership of such a stiff-necked people. Rather, He offers Himself again in all of His glory to Moses; He proclaims His own name: the Lord. Inside of that name is everything that a sinner like Moses, or like the Israelites, or like you or I could ever hope for. His response is justice, yes. But it is wrapped in mercy and kindness and all the other attributes He chooses to reveal about Himself in this passage.

Maybe in this coming week, we can all do that examination of our own consciences with the question “What would my response be?” If we find that our own mercy is lacking, we can turn our repentant hearts to the Lord, knowing that in order to show mercy to others, we must first receive it ourselves.

Sr. Angela Burnham

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Breath of Life

26/5/2023

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A Reflection on the Gospel for May 28th, 2023:
Pentecost Sunday

John 20.
19-23

It was evening on the day Jesus rose from the dead, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Breath – the original gift of life from Genesis. Just as Adam received life through God’s breath (Genesis 2:7), the Apostles receive new life, peace, and power through the breath of Jesus. When I think about this moment, it reminds me of many summers playing in the neighbourhood pool. We used to play all sorts of games and have competitions that involved holding our breath underwater as long as possible. The incredible feeling of bursting out of the water for breath — lungs burning and heart pounding. I imagine that this breath of Jesus felt like that.

There are moments of life like that — when we feel like we’re holding our breath and then we feel that rush of air. Like waiting for a test result or waiting for a child to be born. In many ways, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the months of social distancing felt like that sort of waiting. Our entire planet was holding its breath when so many were fighting for their lives. Everything felt on hold.

But is that our reality as Christians? Are our lives put on hold, even in pandemic times? Is the Great Commission just another program that can be suspended until further notice? I think essential workers — everyone from healthcare professionals to grocery store staff to delivery drivers — had a different experience. Their work went on. As Christians, we are essential workers too. Our mission field may have changed, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re called to grow as disciples and invite people into relationship with Jesus.

During the pandemic, people Googled prayer with greater intensity. According to a Crux article, “search intensity for ‘prayer’ double[d] for every 80,000 new registered cases of COVID-19.” We were in a thin place where all the distractions of the world fell away and we were left with the stark realization that we were not in control. Without our day to day routine, how many people out there wondered what more there is to life?

The breath that Jesus breathed on the Apostles — the Holy Spirit — is present and available to all of us. Now is a time to seek God out more and more so that we can serve where He calls us. We know that many people are seeking comfort and faith in trying times. Let us never jealously guard this treasure entrusted to us (2 Corinthians 4:7-11). Instead, let us share it. Because Jesus is never on hold. Eternal life is never on hold.

Stephanie Potter
Originally posted on May 31, 2020.

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Teamwork

25/5/2023

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A Reflection on the Second Reading for May 28th, 2023:
Pentecost Sunday

1 Corinthians
12.3B-7, 12-13

Brothers and sisters: No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Sprit; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we ere all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free- and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Picture this if you will: You’re in high school. You’re sitting in your classroom. The teacher is standing at the front of the room and says, “Okay class, time for a group project!”

Did I just hear you groan? I know I often did. It was mostly because my strong introverted tendencies balked at the idea that I had to talk to other people. The other challenge of group work is, well, the challenge of the group itself! Each person had their own unique personality and trying to navigate the differences always seemed to be more work than the actual project. The group often included a variety of characters: the bossy kid, the smart kid, the socially awkward kid, the kid who was friends with everyone, and then inevitably there would be that classmate, the kid who would ride the coattails of everyone else’s work. Yet this was a way to teach us the valuable life skill of working with others because as they say: teamwork makes the dream work.

Everyone, everywhere has had an experience of teamwork -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Books on teamwork dos and don’ts fill the shelves in bookstores and libraries. People study teamwork -- in teams no less. We know what it means to be on a team, be it sports teams, volunteer teams, or work teams. So what happens when teamwork doesn’t…work?

I draw wisdom from this letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. He reminds us how teams should work. Recognize the unique giftedness of each individual creation of our God and acknowledge that we are to use these abilities as one “team” for the betterment of all. That is, the gifts we are all given, as manifested by the Spirit, are not meant simply to serve our own needs but rather the good of the whole world.

Much like our “forced” teamwork in high school was not so much about the actual project, but rather about learning to work together, similarly, the gifts that God gives us aren’t the point. Yes, what the gifts are is important, but that they are used in collaboration with the gifts of others, is of key importance. It is through using our gifts, witnessing what God has given, that we are able to gift the world with God’s presence through us.

Comparing the Church to a team isn’t the typical image we use, but guess what? God has assigned us a “group project.” And it’s a pretty big one: spread the Good News and make disciples. And who is the group you’re working with? All the baptized. Talk about a challenge! This is where using the team metaphor for the Church falls short. Our connection to one another is deeper than being assigned a team. We have been adopted into a family by our baptism. We are united in a way no assigned team could ever be. And the one who unites us is the Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit, come!

Aurea Sadi

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Praise in Paradox

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, June 4th, 2023:The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Second Chances

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, June 4th, 2023:The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Breath of Life

A Reflection on the Gospel for May 28th, 2023:​Pentecost Sunday

Teamwork

A Reflection on the Second Reading for May 28th, 2023:Pentecost Sunday

Archives

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, June 4th, 2023:
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, June 4th, 2023:
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

A Reflection on the Gospel for May 28th, 2023:
Pentecost Sunday

A Reflection on the Second Reading for May 28th, 2023:
Pentecost Sunday