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Let Your Life Tell God's Story

31/10/2023

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, November 5th, 2023:
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Malachi
1.14 – 2.2, 8-10

“I am a great King,” says the Lord of hosts, “and my name is reverenced among the nations.

“And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name,” says the Lord of hosts, “then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.

“You have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of hosts, “and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.”

Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

A recent homily at our parish challenged us to consider whether we were in love with Christ or in love with the idea of Christ. The first reading for this Sunday reiterates this challenge. The Israelites have become comfortable, and this is showing up in how they are honouring God. Instead of following through on a promise to offer the very best sacrifice, a less favourable one is offered, and the Lord challengedsthis complacency.

Between the homily and this reading, the Lord is also challenging me. Does my life tell God’s story through full and total sacrifice that honours and praises Him, or am I living a good public display? Have I become comfortable with the idea of Christ, spending time with Him in public but ignoring Him privately? Am I keeping back the best He has gifted me with in case I need it, or am I actually in love with Christ and sharing Him abundantly?

That small, still voice inside is telling me that there is so much more for me to offer. Publicly, I have a full Christian life. Privately, God knows my heart of stone and that I am not actually fully alive. Like the Israelites, I have gladly accepted His blessings and gifts, and publicly I share enough to introduce people to Him. Privately, that sharing can be mostly to placate my knowledge of the need to give and keep up appearances. My prayer life can be mediocre, except in times when I am in trouble. Like a friend of old, I have become complacent in keeping in touch with Him and showing my gratitude for knowing that everything in life is because of Him. I am confident that there are many days when it would be preferable that I denied knowing Him rather than be the introduction someone has to Him.

It is ironic to think I can actually get away with living a façade when He knows every hair on my head and every aspect of my heart.

The good news is that God is a God of many chances. He uses every means possible to remind me of my responsibility to recognize my own sinfulness and reignite my desire to be changed from the inside out. He is with me on the journey from my head to my heart and asks only that I truthfully offer the best of what I have been given.

Let us pray: Father God, I praise You for Your infinite patience with this sinful child. Thank You for calling me to fall fully in love with Jesus Christ and for constantly teaching me. Take my heart of stone and breathe new life into it, creating that heart of flesh that, while imperfect, longs to serve You fully. Let my life always tell Your story. Amen.

Sandy Graves

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Neighbour God

27/10/2023

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A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew
22.34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.

“And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

As I was sitting with today’s Gospel reading, I thought of a line I recently heard in a podcast by Fr Boniface Hicks, who was speaking about prayer with Scripture. He encouraged the listeners, when sitting with a Bible reading, to read it through slowly and ask themselves, “How do I experience God’s love for me in this Scripture passage?” When I was coming up dry in today’s passage, I decided to check out the context in the surrounding passages in the Gospel of Matthew, and this helped me see a little more of what Jesus was doing with this Great Commandment.

Here, Jesus has been preaching in the temple for a while and the Sadducees and Pharisees keep trying to trick him and expose some falsehood or inconsistency in His words. In today’s reading, when the Pharisees ask “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?” it is clear that they are not asking with a pure intention, seeking to know the commandment so that they can live it. Instead, their words drip of deceit, and Jesus recognizes this, seeing their hearts and responding accordingly. He gives them the standard answer from the Old Testament law and prophets, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. But then He also adds the second commandment to it, Love your neighbour as yourself.

Jesus is certainly teaching them, in the simple truth of these words, that the most important thing we can do in our lives is to love God and neighbour. But I wonder if He is also speaking more subtly to the hard hearts of the Pharisees who are asking the question. In their deception and tricks, with the plotting and traps of their questions, the Pharisees are showing Jesus anything but love for Him, their neighbour. What is so striking is that, even though the Pharisees are too hard-hearted to see this, to love Jesus fulfills the commandments both to love their neighbour and to love their God. In becoming a man among us, the Incarnate Word of God fulfills and perfects the more distant Old Testament commandment, to love a God they could not see. Because God became man, we may love Him not only distantly or without a face; but we love Him in the very person of our neighbour!

Returning to Fr Hicks’ prompt for Lectio Divina, “How do I experience God’s love for me in this Scripture passage?” God’s love became tangible and took on a face that I can behold in Jesus Christ. And—wonder of wonders!—I can encounter this face of God in every person I meet, loving God and loving my neighbour.

Sr. Angela Burnham

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A Living and True God

26/10/2023

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A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Thessalonians
1:5c–10

Brothers and sisters: You know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Have you visited someone’s home and noticed a plant in the corner that has some pretty flowers on it? You go closer and touch them, only to realize that they do not feel real nor do they emanate a fragrance. The beautiful plant is a fake! On the other hand, what does it mean when a plant blooms fragrant, supple flowers? The plant is alive; living and true. Our God is a living and true God. He is tangible and fragrant and real.

It is this living and true God who responded to the cries of His children by bringing them out of Egypt. But what did His children do? Like teenagers, they grumbled about their Father and did what He told them not to do by worshipping a golden calf. Nevertheless this living and true God forgave their stubborn behaviour and blessed them anyway. However, humanity moved further and further away from God. They used the Law of Moses to hurt and judge one another.

After all this, what did God do? He sent His Only Son to show them a true and living embodiment of His love. Love Himself came down from heaven: Jesus, truly God and truly a human being with skin and bones. Though a few of these obstinate children followed Him for three years, they were largely unwilling or unable to stand up for Him when the majority revolted and demanded that Jesus be crucified.

After His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead and manifested that He was God indeed, and sent the Holy Spirit to give these obstinate children the power to themselves become children of God. St. Paul miraculously came to believe in Him when he encountered this living and true God on the road to Damascus. Paul went to various places to proclaim the truth of Jesus. In the excerpt from 1 Thessalonians that we read today, St. Paul is commending the Thessalonians for becoming “imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.” Like the Thessalonians, there are millions of Christians who have been persecuted for their belief in Jesus Christ. St. Paul salutes these believers for their service to “a living and true God” and exhorts everyone who reads his letter to be an “imitator” of Christ.

Over 2000 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, there have been millions of human beings who have been imitators of Him, and also millions who walked away from the Truth. At times, we, like those stubborn early followers of God, can deny reality, can push away or “cancel” anything that doesn’t sit right with us, can drown out the Truth with lies, can deny the theology built into our bodies and seek to change and modify intrinsic details of our existence. And the only thing that can save us now, is “Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.”

Just like the “fake” plant in the corner, our lives will be devoid of life and fragrance if we cut ourselves off from the source of life, Jesus Christ. Maybe it’s time for each one of us to examine ourselves and to figure out: how much of the stubborn Israelites and how much of the transformed St. Paul dwells in me?

Heavenly Father, I thank You for helping me to strive to be an imitator of You. Help me to never distance myself from You who are the true and living God. Help me reach out to my fellow humans in mercy and compassion. Help me treat them like You would. Help me not to seek to cancel or judge them, but instead help me to bring You to them through my words, actions, and reactions. I ask all of this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Rebecca Dmello

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"Hi Jesus, It's Me, Jim."

25/10/2023

5 Comments

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Psalm 18

R. I love you, O Lord, my strength.

I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the source of my salvation, my stronghold.

R. I love you, O Lord, my strength.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

R. I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation, Great triumphs he gives to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed.

R. I love you, O Lord, my strength.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

The longer I walk the Christian path of discipleship, the more I am drawn to simplicity.

I remember a story that a beloved priest and spiritual director of mine told in a homily several years ago. He recalled visiting Jim, a parishioner who was in palliative care. Jim had been a faithful Catholic for many decades, but now that he was nearing the end of his life, he began to worry that his simple faith was not enough.

“Father,” Jim said earnestly, “Don’t get me wrong, I am a praying man. But in my youth, when I had a young family and a busy career, I didn’t have time for long visits to the Church during the week. So when I drove by the parish on my way home, I found myself popping into the side door just long enough to look at the tabernacle and say, ‘Hi Jesus, it’s me, Jim.’ And sometimes that’s all I had time for.”

Then this priest paused his homily, with a gentle smile on his face, and said, “The peace on Jim’s face as I suggested that he was soon going to hear the words, ‘Hi Jim, it’s Me, Jesus,’ and then meet his lifelong friend face-to-face… that peace was not of this world.”

Since hearing that homily, I’ve taken up the practice of “pop-ins.” I’m blessed to work a few days a week in a parish. While I don’t always have time for a holy hour, I can find a few moments to step inside the sanctuary, look to the tabernacle, and say, “Hi Jesus, it’s me. I love you.”

Prayer does not always have to be complex in order to be profound. We don’t all work next door to a Eucharistic chapel, but we can all take simple moments in our day to practice the presence of God, emmanuel, who is with us at each moment. There are a thousand ways to do so.

We can memorize a line or two of Scripture, so that the Holy Spirit can use it to remind us to say hi to One who loves us. The words of the psalmist today are profound in their simple trust and would be easy to memorize: “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” “I call upon the Lord… so I shall be saved.” “The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.

We can pray the Jesus Prayer during a commute or while doing dishes.

We can keep a small font of holy water by the front door and bless ourselves as we enter and exit our homes.

When we see a person panhandling on a street corner, we can treat them with love, recalling the words of Mother Teresa: “In the poorest of the poor, we see Jesus.”

We can make the sign of the Cross as we pass by a Catholic Church, remembering Jesus’ Real Presence there. We can practice the pop-in, just to say hi to the One who loves us so faithfully.

And none of this has to be complicated. In fact, it’s more likely to be sustainable in our lives when it’s simple.

Today, choose one simple, heartfelt way to invite Jesus into your day and attempt to practice it for one week. See how different life feels when you practice the presence of God.

Let us pray: Hi, Jesus, it's me. I love you, O Lord, my strength.

Becca O'Hara

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Let Your Life Tell God's Story

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, November 5th, 2023:Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Neighbour God

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

A Living and True God

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

"Hi Jesus, It's Me, Jim."

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

Archives

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, November 5th, 2023:
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Reflection on the Gospel for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Reflection on the Second Reading for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, October 29th, 2023:
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time