Women in the Lead

Gospel: Luke 1: 39-54

In this painting of the Visitation we find in pictorial form the entire Gospel.  In the forefront of the painting are women - the ones who believe and accept the message of God and bring it to others in word and deed.  In the background are men - those who doubt, question, and struggle with the message of God.  This Gospel scene represents a profound reflection on our journey through the Gospels.

We can be like the men who constantly question and doubt Jesus throughout the Gospels.  We can continually be about our own self-interests, concerned with power and status and repeatedly being rebuked by the Lord for such.  We can even go so far as to betray, deny, and abandon the Lord because we failed to listen to all the Lord had to say about his ultimate destiny on earth.

Or, we could be like the women throughout the Gospels who accept and carry out God's message through Jesus.  We can be like Mary and Elizabeth here who share this Good News and rejoice together.  We can be like Peter's mother-in-law who serves others after being healed.  We can be the Samaritan woman at the well who shares about Jesus with her town.  We can be like Mary Magdalene and the other women who stood by the cross, went to the tomb at great risk to themselves, and who proclaim the Easter joy to others.  Today's feast invites us to reflect on these paths through the Gospel.

A Barrier to Seeing

Gospel: Mark 10: 46-52

Once again we find the disciples and others attempting to prevent someone from having an encounter with the Lord.  This time it is the blind man Bartimaeus who wishes to see.  The disciples, who themselves do not see what they need to see, seek to prevent another from seeing.  The disciples, who will not want to see what lies in store for Jesus in Jerusalem, would prevent another from seeing the saving acts of God to come in Jesus' death and resurrection.  

The spiritual life is akin to being a blind person in a pitch black darkened room.  The arrogance of religion would claim to be a guide for others in such a room.  The wisdom of spirituality would recognize that the light and guide is within each person.  God is that light and guide, God who dwells within each person and who alone can lead us to the light that is God alone.  

All of us possess a limited vision.  It is folly for us to seek to prevent another from desiring to see.  It is scandalous to prevent others from an encounter with the Lord.  The Gospels show Jesus having encounters with all sorts of people.  He does not regard one as more worthy than another.  All have access, all have a right to an encounter with him.  If this is the example and practice of Jesus, who are we to seek to prevent others from access to the Lord?   

On Different Channels

Gospel: Mark 10: 32-45

How often are we in situations where someone is speaking to us about something, but our mind and interests are elsewhere.  We don't hear what they are saying; we are so absorbed our our own world.  How often does this happen in our relationship with the Lord! He is saying one thing to us, but we are not listening.  We are about our own self-interests and pursuits that we have no idea what God has said to us in the midst of our day.

That is the dynamic in today's Gospel portion.  Jesus is telling the disciples something important - his arrest, trial, passion, execution, and ultimate resurrection.  But they are not listening.  They are consumed with arguments about power and control over a kingdom they do not understand.  Is this not the history of the Christian church in miniature? God has had much to say to us as a community of faith, but our sole interest has been our own power and control - to the detriment of many a soul.  

To be a follower of the Lord Jesus is to be first and foremost a listener, one who pays attention not only to what the Lord says but also to what he does.  Jesus was all about the works of compassion and mercy extended out to all people.  He was not about titles or positions of power or status of any kind.  The Lord was about the work of doing good for others in life and in death.  That is our sole focus as his followers.   

Giving Our All

 

Gospel: Mark 10: 28-31

Peter proclaims: "We have given up everything to follow you! What is our reward?" We might well ask if seeking a reward is in fact leaving everything to follow the Lord, but more to the point is the question to ourselves as to whether we in fact have left all to follow, and what does this even mean. Those who enter religious life often claim this act is giving everything up, though houses of religion are quite comfortable, all is provided, vacations, pensions, insurance.  Not a lot of risk here.  But for some it may in fact represent leaving something important and valuable behind to follow God.

What does it mean in our own lives? Very often we hedge our bets with God just in case things don't work out as we planned or would like.  We have an insurance policy in our back pocket, an escape hatch to bail when things get rough.  There is always something we do not quite want to leave behind, something we would not like God to take from us.  It is that for which we must pray that we have the grace to let it go if God ask it of us.  

Peter had not yet given up everything.  He still had the family fishing business, his fall back position to which he returns after Jesus' death and resurrection.  Peter will eventually leave it behind, and leave even his own life behind in facing execution in Rome.  For Peter, and us, this giving up of everything is a process, one we have to make each day in the journey to the kingdom of God.

What Must I Do?

Gospel: Matthew 10: 17-27

In answer to the question of what must be done to enter the kingdom of God, we human beings have fashioned any number of answers to this question, all of which are designed to be vicarious replacements for the answer of Jesus that is just not palatable to us.  We speak of obligatory church attendance, reception of this or that ritual, offering this or that set of prayers, holding to certain creeds and beliefs.  All of it is very nice, but it exists to avoid Jesus' answer to the question.

In the first part, Jesus says to keep the parts of the Ten Commandments regarding our relations with our neighbor, i.e. do no harm to other people.  That's easy enough, but the second part is much harder: now we must give of ourselves to care for the poor, i.e. to do positive good to our neighbor, to both friend and foe.  Now things get difficult; we can't abide that.  So, we invent the vicarious practices to pretend we are about the kingdom of God when in fact we are not.  

The only way to love God in the world is the same way Jesus loved God in the world - by showing mercy and caring for others, by doing positive good for others in a self-giving, self-sacrificing way.  Everything else is avoidance and an attempt to enter by some other way.  Today is a day to recommit to the way of Jesus and care for our neighbor through compassion and mercy. 

Doubt and Worship

Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20 

The disciples of Jesus come to the mountaintop at Jesus’ instruction.  They come to worship, and yet they doubt.  These people who have followed him for three years, who have seen his words and deeds, and who now stand before the Risen One come to the Lord for worship, and yet they also have their doubts.  What is more, the Lord does not turn them away, knowing of their doubts and struggles. 

There is something consoling for us in this scene.  We come each week to the Lord’s table for worship, and yet we have our doubts.  We have our fears and anxieties, our struggles and pains.  And the Lord does not turn us away either.  We need not be perfect to come before the Lord.  We need not have perfect clarity or understanding to come before the Lord.  We just need to come as we are in full openness.

Worship is not about accepting an intellectual proposition or understanding some esoteric truth.  Worship is an awareness of our need for God in our life, to come before God in full honesty of our condition and awareness of who God is for us.  And God accepts us in his presence, accepts our worship, imperfect as it is and imperfect as we are.  This is the entire dynamic of our Christian life. 

The Welcome of Jesus

Gospel: Mark 10: 13-16

Once again we find the disciples preventing others from access to Jesus.  Whereas in past episodes where they sought to deter women, foreigners, and outcasts from seeing Jesus, today it is children they seek to bar from Jesus' presence.  Children had no status in ancient societies.  They were regarded as akin to property of their families and had no legal rights in society.  

What is more, children really made no decisions at all for themselves until adulthood.  They were told what profession they would be placed, and they were told whom they would marry.  Everything was arranged and decide for them.  So here we find children making a free decision of their own to seek Jesus, a decision not made by anyone else as in all other things in their life.  So it is that Jesus yet again rebukes his disciples for preventing others from seeking him.  In fact, it is to those like children - without status or freedom but those seeking him in freedom - that the kingdom belongs.  

Throughout the Gospels we have this stark contrast between the disciples who continually seek to prevent others from access to Jesus, and Jesus himself who time and again rebukes them and welcomes all into his company.  Today we might well reflect on which example we follow in our own lives and ministry.  Are we bar bouncers like the disciples, or welcoming hosts at a banquet for all? 

Divorce in Context

Gospel: Mark 10: 1-12

Jesus is asked about divorce.  He replies that anyone - man or woman - who divorces and remarries commits adultery.  The problem here is that in ancient times it was only men who could legally petition for divorce; women were not able to do so.  Divorce was always the prerogative of the man, and it left women in vulnerable situations.  For they only had legal protections if attached to a male citizen.  When they were not so, they were utterly dependent on the kindness of others for survival and necessities of life.  

So, if a woman did remarry it was often out of necessity for her own survival.  When a man divorced and remarried, it was often for more selfish ends.  Jesus presents us with an ideal of marriage: loving relationships where the thought of divorce and remarriage is unthinkable.  That is the ideal to which we all aspire.  But what happens when that is not the case, when a person finds themselves in this situation?

Those who claim to rigidly adhere to Jesus' teachings here say there is no remedy, though they often find themselves supporting and defending those rich and powerful who have married and divorced multiple times. When Jesus was presented with a woman caught in the very act of adultery, he did not condemn her but found a pathway for her.  The Samaritan Woman who was married five times is not spurned but becomes the first evangelist. We must follow Jesus' example and find pathways for the broken and vulnerable. 

Who Belongs?

Gospel: Mark 9: 41-50

The beginning of this Gospel portion might give one the impression that the works of mercy are only to be done to those who belong to Christ, interpreted by many as meaning only those who are Christians or who belong to the Church.  By this interpretation only those who belong to Christ are those who believe, begging the question as to what constitutes a believer, at which point the category becomes ever more narrow.  

But is that what Jesus actually meant? His entire ministry and example suggests otherwise.  In no case did Jesus ever refuse someone who needed to be healed or fed.  He ministered to all without qualification.  What is more, the parable of the Good Samaritan shows in no uncertain terms that the term neighbor - those to whom we ought to show mercy - extends to everyone without qualification.  Everyone belongs to Jesus - everyone is made in God's image, everyone is another Christ, everyone is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  

Those who would be miserly with God's mercy and sacraments forget the generosity of the seed sower, the width of the net cast into the sea, and the fact that God provides rain and good things for the just and the unjust alike, not to mention the fact that Jesus died for all, not just some.  Throughout the Gospels there were many who bristled at Jesus' generosity to all, a phenomenon that continues to this day. Let us cast the wide net and sow the seed far and wide. God is for all, not just a few.   

Mercy by Any Means

Gospel: Mark 9: 38-40

One day you walk along a street and happen upon a group of people feeding the hungry and providing clothing to some people in need.  You discover that those providing such care are not from your church or any church at all.  What is your reaction?  If the reaction is to be indignant as the disciples were in today's Gospel portion, that fits a large part of the history of Christianity.  

But let us note that Jesus rebukes such indignance, for it stems from a desire for power and control and not one of care for those in need.  Jesus was not interested in institutions and who was in charge.  He was interested in whether people were extending mercy and compassion to others in need.  So, instead of being put out by such scenes we should be rejoicing that mercy is being shown and people are being provided with what they need in life.  

For too long we human beings have created their own rival institutions of religion, politics, and a myriad of other categories.  We have spurned rival groups for the good work they perform rather than rejoice in it.  Perhaps if we come together to do these good works in common we might see as Jesus sees and not as we do.  We might break the cycle of divisions we have created over time.  And most importantly we might provide more effectively the mercy God demands we show to the world.   

A Brief History

Gospel: Mark 9: 30-39

Today's Gospel portion provides for us the entire history of Christianity in nine verses.  Jesus is speaking to us - telling us about himself, providing for us an example, and encouraging us to follow him in that path of peace, mercy, and love extended out to others.  But we are not listening.  We are too preoccupied with more important matters: who is most important, who holds the power.  

Jesus rebukes us for this preoccupation of ours, but we are not listening to that either.  We have created an institution that must be protected at all costs.  We continually find a way to monetize this message of Jesus for our own gain.  We look for ways to take the message and example of love and mercy and turn it into an instrument of empire that employs violence and deceit to maintain power and influence in the world.  

There are those, however, who do seek to follow the message and example of Jesus.  They provide food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, housing for the homeless, accompaniment for the sick and imprisoned, hospitality to the stranger and outcast.  They too are marginalized by the powers of this world and institutional religion.  But this is the real work of Jesus.  This is what we are to be about.    

Help My Unbelief

Gospel: Mark 9: 14-29

The disciples are unable to heal a boy possessed by an evil spirit.  The boy's father struggles to believe because they were unable to heal him.  Along comes Jesus who shores up the weak faith of the father who desperately wants to believe.  I do believe, Lord; help my unbelief.  How often do we find ourselves in this man's situation?  We find ourselves not helped by the institutional church, or worse yet harmed by its leaders and ministers! 

So, we find ourselves tempted to give ourselves over to something else. Nay, often we find the ministers of the church giving themselves over to other things: the promise of political and economic security; the adulation of celebrities in media empires, athletics, and the like.  When each false idol passes we move to another one like an addict looking for their next fix, their next false security.  It is here we turn to our only source of healing and comfort: I believe; help my unbelief.

It is only at death do we see the folly of our false paths in all clarity.  At death we see the vanity of vanities and come to realize that God alone is our consolation and strength.  We realize the harm we did to ourselves and others with all these false idols and false securities that were all mirages in this desert of life, missing the oasis of life giving water that is found in the Lord Jesus alone.  I believe; help my unbelief.

The Mission: To Forgive

Gospel: John 20: 19-23

The mission entrusted to us today by Jesus is to forgive sins.  In giving the Spirit to us all we are instructed to go out and forgive the sins of others, to reconcile people to God and one another.  Someone may object at this point and note that Jesus also talks about retaining sins, too.  What can this mean? Let us look to the example of Jesus to see.

In the previous week to this event, Jesus was betrayed, denied, abandoned, beaten, mocked, and crucified.  On the cross Jesus forgives those who mocked and executed him.  After the resurrection Jesus enters the upper room and offers peace to those who abandoned him.  On the seashore, Jesus invites the one who denied him to a relationship of love.  There is not a single sin retained; there is no one Jesus did not forgive.  

It is instructive that we focus more on retaining sins than forgiving them, showing to all the gap that exists between the Lord Jesus and ourselves.  May the mighty wind of the Spirit of creation re-create in us his image and likeness we bear this Pentecost, so that we may go forth to carry out the ministry of reconciliation and mercy that we have received and which we are called to share with others. 

Follow Me

Gospel: John 21: 20-25

No sooner has Peter been restored to friendship with the Lord that he finds himself rebuked yet again.  Peter was perseverating over the activities of another disciple - what about him, he asks Jesus.  In response, Jesus says not to worry about what others are doing.  You are instructed to follow the Lord, and to follow the Lord alone.  Nothing else in our lives matters but to continually reflect on the Gospels and see how to follow the Lord in our lives each day.

How much time do we waste following athletes, politicians, media mavens, clerics, and other loud voices in public square! None of this is following the Lord who set about doing deeds of mercy and loving kindness to others.  If we are about feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger and outcast, then we have no time for these false Christianities of the culture wars and quests for power.  

Many voices exist who yell at us to follow them.  All of those voices lead us astray and will fail us.  Yet we gravitate to them from one to another.  When one false idol fails us we go to another and another in an endless chain of vain pursuits.  But one alone ought we to follow - the Lord Jesus - who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.   

The First Confession

Gospel: John 21: 15-19

The encounter between Jesus and Peter on the seashore after the resurrection can be seen as the first confession or reconciliation experience.  As such, it can be a model for what the sacrament ought to be in our celebration of reconciliation.  The first element worth noting is that it is Jesus who seeks out Peter for this encounter.  It is always the Lord who inspires the impulse to reconciliation within all of us.

Peter is well aware of his sin.  He has been ashamed for some time about it.  He need not name it. Instead, the Lord asks him, "Peter, do you love me?" Three times Peter expresses his love for Jesus.  The Lord then gives Peter the concrete path to wholeness: "Feed my sheep." Show mercy to other people in the same way that God has shown mercy to you in your life.  Finally, there is the exhortation: Follow me.  Don't worry about what other people are doing.  Just follow me.  

If we approach the sacrament of penance with this encounter in mind, then our lives will become different over time.  We will find ourselves continually renewing our love for God and others.  We will recommit ourselves and carry out acts of mercy extended outward to other people.  And we will find ourselves returning again and again to the Gospels in order to follow the Lord where he leads us.  

Why People Don't Believe

Gospel: John 17: 20-26

If one listens to Christian apologists, the source of disbelief is always some outside malevolent force in the world: the devil, secularism, liberals, communists, modernists, freemasons.  It is never the actions or example of Christians or the Church itself that are the cause of disbelief.  Scandals in the Church are always explained away and the victims always blamed for leaving the Church.  

In today's Gospel portion, Jesus states clearly that it is solely the example of his followers that lead to belief or disbelief.  May they be one so people can believe that Jesus came from God.  That was Jesus' plea.  It's opposite is equally true: the disunity of Christians leads people to disbelief in Jesus and God.  There is no blame placed on the devil or any other outsiders.  The cause of belief and disbelief lies solely at the feet of Christian example.  

There had been a time when this unity was earnestly labored for and prayed for, but those days are now gone.  The religious wars have once again returned.  The emphasis on creedal statements, codes of law, dogmatics, liturgical minutia, and political loyalties occupy the field to take part in a blood sport people stopped watching long ago.  Only the path of living love and mercy in imitation of the Lord Jesus will lead to authentic unity and attraction of others to religion and spirituality.   

What is Truth?

Gospel: John 17: 11-19

In the West we have come to see the term 'truth' as a set of intellectual propositions or a series of beliefs of certain statements.  It is entirely a realm of the head and mind.  As a result of such a notion of truth, we have attempted in various ways to enshrine truth in creedal statements, codes of law, and a series of dogmatic pronouncements and statements that demand adherence and acceptance.  

But for Jesus truth has very little to do with these things.  It is instead about living and acting in love.  It is about living the beatitudes: showing mercy, poverty of spirit, meekness, thirst for justice, peacemaking, purity of heart, suffering persecution.  It is about the works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, housing the homeless, clothing the naked, caring for the sick and imprisoned, welcoming the strangers and outcasts.  

When Jesus meets a person in the Gospels, he never asks them to recite a creed or series of dogmas.  He invites them - he invites us - to follow him, to live and do as he lived and acted.  He invites us to heal others as he healed, to feed others as he did, to set free those held bound as he did.  This is truth in all its fullness. 

Do We Love?

Gospel: John 15: 9-17

Love is the entirety of Christianity.  It is its sole command; it is the every essence and being of God.  It is the entire life of Jesus.  If we are experiencing a decline in Christianity, it is due not to any change or decline in God but in us.  God's love remains ever constant like the rays of the sun and the tide of the oceans.  It is our love that grows dim, our love that ebbs and flows.  

When Christianity is more about self-promotion on bombastic media empires, when it is more about the overtly political organizations it creates for its own self-interest, then it has failed to love.  Then it drives people away.  When, however, it is about people serving the hungry in soup kitchens and refugee shelters, when it is about providing clothing and hospitality to those who are cold and strangers and the sick - when it is concrete care of those in need as Jesus did, then that love attracts others and leads them to love as well.

Christians need not leave because they feel driven out by the media empires and political machines falsely branded as Christian.  Christians need only to reorganize and go out to extend love to the world in caring for those who are marginalized and poor, those who are sick and in prison, those who are without shelter and homeland.  Don't let the false voices and sham examples silence your voice and obscure your love.   

Do We Believe?

John 16: 29-33

"Do you really believe?" Jesus asks this penetrating question to his first followers who have all said they know it all and are willing to die for him.  Yet, these same men of bravado will soon run in fear, hiding from the fate that Jesus himself freely accepts.  It is easy for us to judge them as we read these accounts from the comfort of our air conditioned churches.  It is much harder to realize that we are no different than they are.

Consider how often we give ourselves over to ideologies, to political parties and candidates who promise to promote the interests of religion by using campaigns of fear to compel such adherence.  Consider how often we give ourselves over to law firms, PR firms, and fundraising consultants to craft our message and to obtain the monies we think will secure us in our possessions and power in the world.  Consider how much of our faith life is based on fear and so little on love.

Jesus tells us that we can only find peace in him, for he himself found peace in the Father, even in his agony and death.  Jesus never gave in to fear, and he never approached us with a message of fear.  To the contrary, Jesus always exhorted us to not be afraid, and he always commanded us to love.  To truly believe is to love, not fear.   

A Final Prayer

Gospel: John 17: 11-18

Before Jesus leaves this earth, he prays that his followers be protected from evil, and that they be one with each other just as he and the Father are one.  This unity has proven elusive from the very beginning and remains ever so to this day.  Many attempts are made to achieve this unity: doctrinal statements and creeds, uniform liturgy, standardized codes of canon law.  But all of these are really about power and who wields it.  They are not authentic attempts at Christian unity.

The first generation of Christians did something different.  They gathered together in an upper room and waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Led by the promptings of the Spirit, they then went out to perform the healing works and deeds of Jesus.  They healed the blind and the lame.  They fed those who were hungry.  They provided for the needs of the community through a common collection for that purpose alone.  They did not own lavish buildings; they met people where they were at: in homes and marketplaces.  

Perhaps if we followed this example we might achieve the unity we claim to seek.  If unity was primarily about the healing work of Jesus and not about power and control we might actually come to be united with one another as Jesus hoped and prayed we might be.   

Cosmic Vending Machine

Gospel: John 16: 23-28

When any passage is taken out of context it can cause great harm and confusion.  Such is the case with Jesus' statement in today's Gospel portion wherein he states that you will receive whatever you ask from God in Jesus' name.  Countless people have taken this phrase literally and have asked for all sorts of things: a cure for cancer, winning the lottery, peace in the Middle East, the Lions winning the Super Bowl.  And like the child who does not get the pony she asked for from Santa Claus, we lose faith in God when what we ask does not come to fruition.  

But throughout this farewell discourse the main idea has been love.  Love is both the command we have received and the gift God has bestowed on us in Jesus.  If we possess this love, then we have everything, and nothing else matters.  Does this mean we will not face calamities and dark times? No, it means that they cannot take away God's love from our life.  It means that no matter what happens God is present to us in our lives and continues to love us.   

We may not get our pony, or cure, or the cessation of war, or a Super Bowl for our team.  But we will have God's love and presence in our lives whether we have these things or not.  Having these things is not a sign God's love is present, and not having them is not a sign of God's absence.  God is present and God is love always and everywhere.  

A Life of Joy

Gospel: John 16: 20-23

Joy is the goal and mark of an authentic spiritual life.  Joy signifies the fulfillment of all our hopes, the calming of every fear, and the realization of our every desire culminating in union with God.  Through a life of joy we express in our life the fact that nothing can separate us from God's love - no trial, no calamity, no crisis du jour that feeds the false religiosity of the culture wars.  Joy is our fundamental posture before the world.

Even in the midst of the two penitential seasons of Advent and Lent we are given glimpses of hope in celebrating Gaudete and Laetare Sundays, two days of anticipatory joy that sustains us to the great feasts of the joy of fulfillment in Christmas - the coming of the long-awaited Messiah - and Easter - the ultimate Passover from death to life.  The remainder of the Christian calendar is a life lived in sustained joy that is life with God who is love.

We often criticize Christians who only attend church on Christmas and Easter, but if their attendance at these two feasts is marked by joy, that is a far greater thing than being a regular pew jockey who is dour and without joy. For a life of joy is not an authentic Christian life.  It is a life without the Holy Spirit, a life that is not in union with the living God.  Let joy be our very life, and may we celebrate joy in others wherever we find it. 

Good News to Share

Gospel: Mark 16: 15-20

Jesus encourages and exhorts his disciples to proclaim the Good News.  In what does this good news consist? Jesus came to announce the coming of God's kingdom, a kingdom that would replace the drudgery and oppression of this world's kingdom.  Where the kingdom's of the world rule through coercion, violence, and division through a myriad of rules, the kingdom of God proclaims one law of love and provides the example of Jesus by which to live.  

All the healings of Jesus represent liberation from sin in the various ways people of Jesus' time understood it.  People recognized this fact as they encountered Jesus in their lives.  They saw the good news present in the person and actions of Jesus.  This good news should permeate and animate our lives to such an extent that its joy will propel us to share good news as we would in any other situation of good news in our lives.

That people no longer see the Gospel as good news represents the fact that we have not proclaimed it as good news.  It has been proclaimed as a threat, a coercive action, a myriad of laws and rules that lead to the same oppression the kingdoms of the world bring to us.  Today, we commit ourselves to the joy of the good news, inviting others to share it in full freedom and love. 

The Source of Truth

Gospel: John 16: 12-15

The law of stone tablets and written decrees were replaced with the law of love written on the hearts of every human being.  It is therefore fitting that we are led to truth not by books, manuals, and institutions but rather by the Spirit of God dwelling within our hearts, leading us to the truth of love.  In love the Spirit was given to lead all people to the way of love, for God is love and the sole commandment of Jesus is to love.  

We have been provided an image of the Church as some repository of all truth, an industrial factory that manufactures truth that should be heeded in all things.  We have come to see this image as misguided, but we have replaced it with an equally erroneous and more dangerous substitute in political ideology that has become the source of all truth for so many people.  When both religion and the political are simultaneously given this mantle, destruction is sure to result.

The role of the Church and religion is like that of the prophet Eli: to help others hear the Spirit of God in their lives, to discern the path of love for them in their lives, to encourage others on the path of love and mercy.  It is the task of the faith community to help others cultivate a relationship with God that is their own, that animates and nourishes the inner life of every human being.   

The Silent Defense

Gospel: John 16: 5-11

In today's Gospel portion Jesus promises the Paraclete to advocate for us.  A paraclete is an advocate or defender in a legal sense.  Our sole defense against the law is love.  Whenever Jesus was accused of violating the law, his appeal was to the love of others.  The love of others is a greater obligation than any other prescription of the law, more important than even keeping oneself pure for temple ritual.  

When Jesus stood trial before religious and political leaders, he offered no words of defense.  He let his actions speak for themselves.  And his actions in his final days fulfill all his teachings and the law of love: he shares a meal with those who would betray, deny, and abandon him.  He extends peace to his betrayer; he forgives those who put him to death and the mocking crowd; he admits into paradise a nameless thief.  

This love and mercy would continue to be extended after the resurrection: he offers peace to men who abandoned him and disbelieved the first eyewitnesses to the resurrection; he invites Peter to love rather than punish him for his denials; he sends out in mission this doubting band.  The actions of Jesus are to be our actions, our sole defense against the world.  Not words, not arguments, not apologetics. It is the silent work of love and mercy inspired by the Paraclete that is our defense and advocacy.  

Putting an End to Death

Gospel: John 15: 26 - 16: 4

Throughout the Gospels and in today's portion Jesus tells his disciples that persecution is to be their lot in life.  What is more, the Christian should rejoice in this persecution and embrace it as a sign of authentic witness to the Gospel.  All of this is counterintuitive, as it is our instinct to defend ourselves by any means necessary.  Such was the response of Israel time and again in the Old Testament.

But in rebuking the disciples who wanted to bring down fire on a Samaritan town, in telling the disciples to put away their swords, and in accepting the injustice of his trial and execution, Jesus lives what he preaches.  In telling his disciples that as he has done, so also we must do, his example is our commandment and way of life.  We are to set aside all recourse to violence, to claims of self-defense, to embracing the instruments of death for our own security in this life.

It is an odd phenomenon to watch modern Christians complain about persecution when the Master bid us to rejoice in it.  It is disturbing to watch modern Christians embrace the death penalty for others while objecting to its use against Christians.  It is even more disturbing to see the defense of horrid instruments of warfare used indiscriminately against peoples - all of which Jesus rebuked and rejected by his words and deeds.  Is it any wonder people find the Christian message unappealing in these days? 

Friends of God

Gospel: John 15: 9-17

All ancient religions were based on a relationship of servitude with the divinity.  God or the gods were seen as the master or patron, and human beings were seen as the slave or client.  God as all powerful creator bestows gifts upon the servants or clients who are utterly dependent upon God for all things.  None of this is incorrect, but it is not the relationship with God that Jesus has provided for us.

Instead, God takes on the position of a servant in the person of Jesus.  God does not allocate arbitrary gifts and laws as a whim to servant, but instead lavishes love upon his children.  Instead of cowering and approaching God out of fear and performing tasks to satisfy the arbitrary deity, we are now cooperators in the work of God on earth.  We now have ownership over this work.

And this work is not about establishing a kingdom of dominance over others. It is, instead, the same work of love and mercy that Jesus performed in the world: work of healing, feeding, liberating all those who are sick, hungry, and held in bondage by all sorts of forces.  Jesus invites us to be friends of God, not slaves - and so too must we approach all people in the spirit of friendship and not of dominance as we carry out the tasks of love and mercy in the world.  

Being Hated

Gospel: John 15: 18-21

Jesus said his followers would be hated just as he was hated.  But why was Jesus hated? It is instructive to look at the various places in the Gospels where Jesus faces opposition and hatred from religious leaders and the world.  Then, we can more surely discern who is a follower of Jesus by the kind of hatred they receive if it is in similar situations as Jesus' experiences.

Whenever Jesus ate with sinners or the unclean, he faced opposition and hatred.  Whenever he chose to heal someone who was an outcast: foreigners, women, those possessed by demons - he was opposed and hated.  Whenever Jesus argued that the kingdom of God was for all and not for just a select few, he faced vehement opposition and threats of death.  Even on the cross, those who put him to death mocked him, saying: He saved others; let him save himself.

Facing persecution and opposition in these circumstances: caring for the poor and marginalized, inviting outcasts to the table, freeing the unclean one from what possesses them, insisting the kingdom is for all and not a few - these will draw the hatred of the world.  These will let all know who is a follower of the Lord Jesus.

Show Us the Father

Gospel: John 14: 6-14

Philip makes a familiar request, one popular in Jesus' time and in our own: show us the Father, show us God.  Jesus provides two answers to this request.  First, if you see Jesus, then you see God.  But how are we to see Jesus? We see Jesus in other people: whenever you did it to the least ones, you did it to me.  We see Jesus in another person, that person who is a temple of the Holy Spirit, one made in the image and likeness of God.  We see God in other people.

The second answer Jesus provides is to look at the works Jesus performs, for he performs the works of God.  These works are deeds of mercy: healing others, feeding others, being present to the needs of others, delivering them from what possesses them.  When we see these deeds performed we see the presence of God in our midst, the presence of mercy in the world.

We too can perform these works.  By following the example of Jesus in the world, we can do these works of God.  The works of God are not apologetics, not liturgics, not dogmatics.  The works of God are the works of mercy offered to others.  The works of mercy are the only authentic apologetic, the fulfillment of the liturgical, the antidote to the dogmatical.  God is love, and so must we be. 

The Secret to Joy

Gospel: John 15: 9-11

In what does joy consist? Jesus states in today's Gospel portion that it consists in love.  If we remain in the love of God and extend that love to others, then we will have joy.  The myriad of commandments placed upon us seem confusing and contradictory at times, but the way to navigate them is through love.  Whenever Jesus had to choose between competing duties and values, he always chose love extended outward to others.

Consider: when a man presented himself for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus chose to heal him instead of heeding the law on work on the Sabbath.  When the disciples were hungry on the Sabbath and plucked grain to satisfy that hunger, he defended them over the Sabbath law on work.  When it was a choice between welcoming and eating with sinners at table or keeping some notion of purity, he chose to be at table with others.  And when the man accosted by robbers is offered as a thought experiment on love, the lesson is that it is far better to care for the man than maintain some purity code in order to worship in the Temple.

When we extend love and mercy to others in these situations, we create joy in other people, for they have experienced God's love and mercy through us.  They have been healed, nourished, and restored to a state of dignity through our compassion that creates joy in them, the same joy we feel in experiencing God's love in our lives.  As Jesus did, so we must do. 

Extraordinarily Ordinary

Gospel: Matthew 13: 54-58

Our age of self-promotion and attention seeking always finds us seeking to do the extraordinary, to be in the spotlight in the midst of what is considered important.  Everyone wants to be part of a revolution and to be seen doing so, but no one wants to wash the dishes or perform the ordinary tasks of life upon which all other activities depend.  Today's feast reminds us of this fact.

Joseph was an ordinary man not seeking any limelight or extraordinary roles in society.  He was a carpenter who finds himself in an unusual circumstance.  He performs one extraordinary deed: he takes as his wife a woman with child not his own.  Thereafter he performs his ordinary tasks, providing for them in their daily needs.  He plies his trade as a carpenter, the only title in the Gospels by which he is known.  He utters not a single word in the Gospel narratives.  He performs the ordinary tasks of life, thereby teaching us a lesson.

Those who see the Christian life in terms of culture wars, media empires, flashy cottage industry "ministries" more often than night come to ruin in the world of self-promotion and attention seeking.  More often than not, their work erodes and undermines authentic religion and faith.  Those who nurture our faith are like Joseph: they provide us in the ordinary work of life with simple faith.  May Joseph's example inspire us to an ordinary life of work that nourishes others with simple faith and welcome of the Lord into our homes.