The Treasure Within

Gospel: Matthew 13: 44-46

Both analogies Jesus uses for the reign of God are items that are not readily visible and require effort on our part to discover.  God's kingdom, while immensely valuable, is not ostentatious, pretentious, or bombastic.  It is also not something overt and visible.  It is instead something buried deep within, and it within the inner depths of ourselves that it is to be found.   

Once we discover that the reign of God dwells within each one of us - that God dwells in each human being - then our lives and entire outlook change.  That we and each person are made in God's image, an image of Christ himself, and a temple wherein the Holy Spirit dwells is the realization of God's kingdom dwelling within calling us human beings to a life of mutual love and respect.

When we see God's kingdom dwelling within each human person, we come to see the intrinsic value, dignity, and limitless potential of every human being.  People are not collateral, cannon fodder, or disposable items.  They are not trash, scum, or waste.  Each person is a treasure, each a pearl of great price requiring our reverence and awe.  That is the great discovery of God's kingdom here and now.

The Great Apostacy

Gospel: Matthew 13: 35-43

A reading of the New Testament and the writings of early Christians provides us with a fundamental posture for Christians in the world: joy.  In the midst of persecutions the Christian is urged to be joyful, to bear the sufferings with patience, and to love those who persecute us.  The great apostacy of the modern church is the utter rejection of this fundamental posture and its replacement by something utterly foreign to our ancestors.

For today we have the Christian of perpetual grievance.  Anything and everything is an affront to their faith and sensibilities.  Instead of encouraging rejoicing in the face of persecution, the modern Christian sues for his rights and carries on incessantly about religious liberty - provided we understand him as meaning something that exists for him but no one else.  These are the weeds of the modern church that lead so many away from faith life.  

The Christian of perpetual grievance is the Christian of the upper room - locked away in fear, navel gazing and self-interested.  The authentic Christian of joy encounters the risen Lord at the tomb, at Emmaus, at Galilee.  She goes forth to announce this good news to others, to heal, liberate, and nourish others without any concern for self and the persecutions that may come.  Today is our day to choose what type of Christian we will be.

Martha and Mary

Gospel: John 11: 19-27

Consider the faith of two women whose feast days are just one week apart.  Today we celebrate Martha from the Gospels.  We find her today at the tomb of her brother Lazarus.  While others despair of any hope, Martha alone professes faith in the resurrection, and faith in Jesus with the same exact words Peter used earlier in the Gospel.  Martha, alone with the Lord at the tomb, experiences the resurrection of her brother, a sign that points to an even greater resurrection to come.

One week ago we celebrated Mary Magdalene.  We encountered her alone at the tomb of the Lord Jesus.  She alone had hope in the Lord, she alone would experience the Risen Lord and carry that Good News to a group of skeptical men.  Mary alone was at the cross and at the tomb, the only one to keep vigil with the Lord, the only one to await the hoped for resurrection.  

Is it not curious that we have multiple feasts for Peter, but only memorials for these women? Without the faith of these women and the testimony they provide to us we would not know the empty tomb and the Risen Lord who lives among us.  We would not have this hope of resurrection for ourselves and others.  Today we rejoice in the faith of two women, grateful for their hope and witness that nourishes our faith to this day.

You Are a King?

Gospel: John 6: 1-15

Jesus spends his entire public ministry engaged in four actions: healing people, delivering them from what possesses them, nourishing them, and avoiding the crowd.  Jesus performs these first three actions with no other motive than to heal, deliver, and nourish.  He does not seek nor does he want the adulation of the crowd or any titles, offices, or riches.  Here, as in other places, he deliberately runs from the crowd who would make him a king.

From the time of his temptation in the desert to his trial before Pilate, Jesus rejected the title of king applied to himself.  This, of course, did not stop us from making Jesus a king, for that is what we desire for ourselves.  While Jesus rejected crowds and their adulation and titles, we actively seek them.  Sure, we provided healing, deliverance, and nourishment to others, but these are a means to an end for ourselves, for we want the crowds, their power, and their money.  

Today's Gospel portion begins the Bread of Life discourse of Jesus, one that is about the total self-giving of Jesus that we ourselves are to do in remembrance of him.  We are to be self-emptying and self-giving as Jesus was, not seeking any honors, advantage, or power.  Will we today seek to imitate the Lord - to heal, deliver, and nourish others - and avoid the crowd, its power, and titles? 

Divine Ingenuity

Gospel: Matthew 13: 24-30

Those who revel in filling the coffers of hell with people find a rebuke from Jesus in today's Gospel portion.  How many good people are turned off by the incessant condemnations, how much good wheat gets pulled up by the overzealous judging of the rigid.  How quickly too they forget that in the human realm weeds can become wheat through metanoia and conversion, something that does not occur with appeals to fear and ruin.

What is more, those involved in agriculture are ever creative and recycle nearly everything.  Farmers know that the burning of the weeds is not the end of the story bur rather a continuation.  For the ashes of the burned weeds are returned to the soil as fertilizer.  They increase pH levels and improve crop success and yields.  Farmers are always finding new ways to increase yields, not reduce them as our condemnation crowd would do.  

Today's Gospel is about the ingenuity of God: the patience, creativity, and resourcefulness to find ever new ways of increasing the population of the vineyard, not in reducing it.  Today is a day for us to reflect on how we might be called to find ever new ways to attract people to mission and ministry of the Lord, on ways to increase our patience and other virtues needed to work with others in an ever diverse world. 

Experiencing Christ

Gospel: Matthew 13: 16-17

We have a tendency to see those who experienced Jesus while on earth as having a privileged position: they got to see and hear all the tremendous words and deeds of the Lord, and for those who were able to see Jesus for who he really is this was indeed a great privilege.  However, for those who did not see Jesus for who he is, those who persecuted and put him to death or who were just indifferent, this privilege became a colossal missed opportunity.

But consider: we who acknowledge Jesus for who he is also profess to believe that Christ is present in every human being, that every human being has intrinsic dignity and worth.  Do we recognize Christ present in every human being? Do we really believe in the inherent dignity of every human person, or is it merely a phrase we trot out for our pet political issue, but has no real meaning beyond that?

That we continue unjust death penalty systems, denigrate refugees and immigrants, and use the most vile language in reference to political opponents suggests we have a long way to go in really seeing Jesus for who he is, in seeing him in the person of others, and in really believing in the dignity and worth of all people.  We may like to imagine ourselves following the Lord lovingly while he was on earth, but our actions and attitudes toward others might suggest otherwise.   

Seeking Privilege

Gospel: Matthew 20: 20-28

The disciples are remarkably slow at reading the room - and Jesus for that matter.  Jesus just finishes talking about the cross, and the disciples decide this is a good moment to argue about power and privilege and prestige among themselves.  Jesus will use this time as an opportunity to impress upon them the necessity of humility and service as the essence of being a follower of the Lord.  

Sadly, ever since this scene, Christians have continually re-enacted it in every time and place.  The incessant debates over primacy and power, the endless striving for privilege and prestige among people - this is the history of Christianity up to the present day.  When people read the Gospels and then look at the behavior of the churches, they love Jesus and leave behind the churches. There is a hunger within us all to be like Jesus, to live as he encouraged us to live.  

There are examples of people who have strived to do so, people who even today make this attempt.  They won't be found in media or in the bombastic speeches of the powerful.  They can be found in people serving on the margins, in the halls of sick bays and prison wards, in hostels for refugees and immigrants. The Gospels present us with the continual contrast between the example of Jesus and that of the disciples.  We can either wash feet or argue about privilege. 

The Generosity of God

Gospel: Matthew 13: 1-9

On the surface of it, the farmer in this parable seems incompetent and wasteful.  Why would anyone scatter seed in places where it has no chance of growing? But to anyone familiar with agriculture, this process is known as saturation planting: so much seed is scattered far and wide in order to ensure that enough will successfully grow, knowing that some will inevitably die.  The seed that dies and does not succeed existed for the sake of the seed that would grow.  In the end, nothing was wasted, and all of it sown for a purpose.

More to the point, however, is that this story is about God's grace.  God provides grace everywhere in the hopes that it will grow everywhere.  What is more, the grace of God has the ability to transform bad soil into good so that growth will take place in the most unlikely of places.  God, too, utilizes saturation planting for the good of every heart and soul.  Being conscious of this grace is the key to the spiritual life and realizing this growth in us.

Today's Gospel portion invites us to reflect on the grace of God in our lives.  What aspects of our life need transforming from rocky and thorny soil into good soil? Where has God's grace been fruitful so far in my life? St. Therese of Lisieux stated that everything is a grace, every moment an opportunity. Today is a day to become more aware of each moment and the opportunity each moment holds for us. 

The Family of God

Matthew 12: 46-50

Ancient religions were built on the premise of lineage and household membership.  If one was a descendant of the patriarch or deity, if one belonged to a household of such lineage - then one was pledge to the religion, the deity, and benefits subsequently flowed to you.  But as the history of tribal religions shows, such fidelity was not forthcoming.  Such membership did not at all guarantee faith in the member who belonged, for time and again infidelities marked the history of the tribal religions.  

So along comes Jesus in today's Gospel portion.  He is informed that his family wants to see him, and he uses this opportunity to upend this entire notion of religion.  To belong to the family of God is to do God's will, and to do God's will is to be the love and mercy of God in the world as Jesus was.  We need not be of a particular race or ethnicity; no special membership card in any club is necessary.  We must only do God's will in our lives, do the work of love and mercy each day.  

Each Sunday we invite those who desire to do God's will - to be love and mercy in the world - to gather as a family in order to support, encourage, and nourish one another in this work of love and mercy.  It is an invitation not to belong to some special club or to belong to some elite clique, but rather an invitation to come for nourishment, healing, and support as we work together to be God's love and mercy to all we meet.   

The Woman Apostle

Gospel: John 20: 1-2, 11-18

Mary Magdalene has the title of "Apostle to the Apostles" and stands in a long line of Gospel women who are the first to proclaim the Lord Jesus to others in ideal ways.  Mary and Elizabeth receive angelic messages and share this good news with others.  Anna the prophetess announces the identity of Jesus in the Temple itself, the first to ever do so.  

In the public ministry of Jesus, Simon's mother-in-law was the only one to perfectly receive and respond to the healing of Jesus in performing diaconal service to others.  The Samaritan woman at the well is the first to bring her entire village to an intimate relationship with the Lord.  Martha and Mary display the two ideals of hospitality, and are the first to express belief in the resurrection of Jesus in an anticipatory way.  

Mary Magdalene was the only one to remain at the cross and at the tomb.  The Gospels all state clearly that she is the first to see the risen Jesus and to announce it to others.  Today's feast and the women throughout the Gospels that it echoes provides us with plenty of material to ponder and reflect upon on the topic of women's roles and ministry in the Church.   

The Needs of the People

Gospel: Mark 6: 30-34

People come swarming to be with Jesus from far and wide.  He sees their need for a shepherd, someone to provide the real needs they have in their lives.  Ancient religion failed miserably in this regard.  The Greek and Roman gods treated humanity with disdain and sacrifice to them was to appease them.  The God of Israel showed care for people, but its religious leaders often neglected the needs of the people for their own power and financial ease.  

So along comes Jesus who represents the mercy of God on earth.  He goes about from place to place providing healing, deliverance, and nourishment at table to all he meets.  Jesus does not turn anyone away: he heals all who come to him for healing; he delivers all in bondage of possession without distinction; he welcomes all at table - sinners, Pharisees, women and men, those who see themselves as worthy and those who are not.  

Jesus invites us all to this ministry of mercy and love.  He invites us to provide healing, deliverance, and nourishment to people each day in so many different ways.  So many people are in need of love and mercy, fellowship and companionship.  How is God calling us today to represent the mercy and love of God in our world? 

The Work of God

Gospel: Matthew 12: 14-21

What does the work of God look like? Is it a media empire that always seeks attention to itself, always pushing content regardless of its veracity? Is it a political movement that is ever seeking power and advantage for itself without regard for truth or respect for persons? Today's Gospel portion suggests a much different portrait of what God's work looks like than the one we present to the world.

For here Jesus goes about from place to place doing good to others - healing, liberating, extending mercy.  He orders others to tell no one about these deeds, only to offer thanks in the prescribed way.  When faced with opposition, Jesus does not look for arguments with them.  He simply goes to another place and does good to those he finds there.  There is no seeking for attention, power, or advantage.  

The work of God is not flashy or brash.  It does not need marketing, public relations, or glitzy fundraising professionals.  It is simply going about doing good to others - healing, liberating, extending mercy, giving thanks in the prescribed way.  Today, how can we be about the work of God in the life God has given us to live? 

Something Greater Here

Gospel: Matthew 12: 1-8

God provided the Jewish people two great gifts which they revered greatly - the Law and the Temple.  The zeal and devotion to these gifts represents a real faith and devotion that is important to respect and honor.  Jesus, too, shows respect for these things, but he also knows that they are not God and that mercy has priority over these gifts, for God is mercy itself.  It was the mission of Jesus to be the mercy of God on earth.

Jesus reminds them that even when the people of Israel were unfaithful to the covenant and the Law that God remained faithful to them, even though God had no obligation to do so.  What is more, God's presence never left the people of Israel, even when the Temple was destroyed, even when they were sent into exile. In both instances God's mercy supersedes the gifts and symbols.  

If God is mercy itself, and if the mission of Jesus is to be God's mercy on earth, then so too must that be our mission and identity as disciples of Jesus and as people of God.  To be merciful is, in fact, the only mission we have - to bring forgiveness, healing, liberation; to provide food, drink, clothing, presence, and welcome.  Mercy is that something greater here. 

Checked Baggage

Gospel: Matthew 11: 28-30

Life was hard and difficult in Israel during Roman occupation.  Taxation was high; one's toil and the resources of the land went largely to the maintenance of the Roman system.  Religion itself was little help to people as it was either co-opted in support of the Roman authorities or it served the ideology of various opposition groups.  Many indeed found life burdensome and laborious.

Jesus, however, comes to offer a different way in this life - the way of God who is love.  God has extended this love to us in the person of Jesus, and we in our turn are now transformed by this love.  We now offer love and mercy to others, helping to guide others through the impermanence of earthly existence to the permanence of God in love.  Through the attending to loving relationships with our fellow human beings we find a life on earth that is not burdensome or oppressive, but easy and light.  

The burden of Jesus does in fact mean carrying the cross, but through love we bear patiently the sufferings of this life, knowing them to be transitory - knowing also that in the end the burden of the cross is fear lighter and less burdensome than the weight of the sword and machine gun.  The way of love alone is the way of authentic peace, liberation, and spirituality.   

Hiding in Plain Sight

Gospel: Matthew 11: 25-27

Religion had its beginnings when people began to share the stories of events and insights that revealed great wisdom.  These stories conveyed deep meaning and values that everyone in the community could benefit from.  The stories would be told around the fire to all the people, and they would reflect and share about those stories and what they mean.  Over time those stories became collected into books of sacred writing.  Then, elaborate rituals, sacrifices, vestments, music, and buildings would be added.  But the core of religion is the story that contains the wisdom.

Everyone loves to sit and listen to a story, but different reactions are had to the stories.  For the learned and clever, they reduce the story to child's tales and myths that have no meaning for us.  But to children and the childlike, they understand that the story is thickly overlaid with deep meaning for us throughout our lives.  The story is an inexhaustible source of wisdom that never stops teaching us, always having something to offer us.

The learned and the clever will dismiss the story.  They will argue over the fineries of rubrics, vestments, and the like.  But the childlike will know in every generation where the real treasure of religion lies.  They will follow the cycle of the stories year in and year out to derive wisdom ever ancient and ever new.   

We Condemn Ourselves

Gospel: Matthew 11: 20-24

What are the consequences of not seeing Christ in every person, in not welcoming all people as another Christ?  We might well long for eternal hell fire and destruction as we apply such to others but not to ourselves.  But we need not look that far into the future in order to see the consequence of not welcoming all and in failing to see Christ present in others.  

We have only to look at the world around us: the world of unspeakable violence and crimes, the world of theft, exploitation, and lies, the world of self-interest and greed.  We attempt to avoid seeing all these things by creating gated communities, home owners associations, stockade privacy fences, and endless entertainment designed to distract us from these realities.  We create daily routines and routes designed to avoid these neighborhoods and nations we have created but refuse to accept the consequences.  

When we fail - nay, refuse - to see Christ present in others, when we fail to welcome him in the person of others, we create the world in which we live.  The atheist may blame God, the theist may blame the devil or some abstraction like secularism. But we have only ourselves to blame. We created this world, and only we can make it better. 

Welcoming All

Gospel: Matthew 10: 34- 11: 1

People who use religion for political purposes love to use today's Gospel portion as a cudgel in order to cajole people into their political camps.  Both the culture warrior and social justice warrior reduce Jesus to a political figure for their own agendas, just as the Pharisees and Herodians sought to do to Jesus in their day.  It is from these camps that the authentic disciple will find opposition and derision.  

Both political camps have as their foundation the notion of self-interest, an idea utterly foreign to the Gospel. "He who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin, whereas he who brings himself to nought for me discovers who he is."  It is clear in context that we bring ourselves to nought for Jesus when we welcome others because we see him in them. When we see Christ present in every person without distinction and welcome them, we will find ourselves at odds with those in religion who use it for political intent.  

Jesus calls us to welcome every person because all are created in God's image, all are another Christ, all are temples of the Holy Spirit.  The political warriors only see Christ in themselves and seek only the ruin of the other.  The follower of Jesus seeks to care for all without discrimination or distinction, leading to being hated by those who would limit Christ only to themselves and their own tribe.   

Our Own Repentance

Gospel: Mark 6: 7-13

Repentance is a need we all have; no one is exempt from it.  One of the dangers in preaching about repentance is that the focus becomes the sins of others and not our own.  Our constant obsession with the news cycle has us focused on the sins of other people while we neglect the only conscience we were given to examine - our own.  

If we are to be about the ministry of anointing and healing others, of helping others be free from what possesses them and holds them in bondage, then we need to be healed of our infirmities and freed from that which holds us bound.  The message of repentance should first be preached to ourselves and then secondarily to others.  

Today is the feast of St. Camillus, appropriately enough.  He left the military to serve the sick and poor.  When visiting the sick and poor he would beg them to forgive him of his sins. He repeated over and over the line from scripture: I was sick and you visited me. Camillus embodied the spirt of today's Gospel portion.  May we today embrace repentance for ourselves and go out to anoint, heal, and liberate others by sharing the love and mercy of God that has been shown to us. 

Have No Fear

Gospel: Matthew 10: 24-33

Throughout the scriptures God continually exhorts us to not be afraid, that we ought to fear nothing at all.  At this point someone will object: should we not fear God?  Does Jesus not say in this very passage that we ought to fear God? Does Jesus not say that he will disown those who have disowned him?  Yes, Jesus does say all those things.  

But consider: Peter denied Jesus three times.  All the other apostles abandoned him and disowned him in the Garden.  Jesus was left alone to die a horrid death.  And yet, did Jesus disown Peter and the others?  No.  Instead, he went and sought them out in the upper room and offered them peace.  He went out to Peter and asked him if he loved him.  No condemnation.  No disowning.  Instead, we find the image of the father seeking out his prodigal son.

This image of God, this example of Jesus fills us with immense awe and wonder.  It inspires us to treat others in the same way, hard as that may be for us human beings.  As we have received this mercy, though, so must we show to other people, and in so doing we help to dispel the fear that grips our world.  But this is who God really is - the God of mercy, not the God of destruction. 

No Homeland

Gospel: Matthew 10: 16-23

Today's Gospel portion reminds us of the context of the writing of this Gospel.  Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed; Judaism had to reorganize around the rabbis and synagogues; and Christians were expelled from membership.  This now meant that Christians were no longer exempt from the imperial requirement of tribute to Caesar as a God.  So now Christians find themselves persecuted both from their religious homeland and from the secular one in which they live.

Within this setting the Gospel text provides us with a roadmap through this world.  Do not worry about it.  Our homeland is in heaven.  There alone is our consolation and hope.  The love we are to bear to others will sustain us through this world where we find no welcome, no solace.  We cannot expect - and we ought not to seek - the consolation of religious and secular powers.

What does this mean for us today? We are tempted by political ideologies that promise power and protection for Christians.  It is a siren song that leads to destruction.  We are tempted to religious ideologies where security is promised in a false notion of tradition and legalism - another siren song that is a path to ruin.  The only way is the way of the Lord Jesus - the way of love, the way of the Beatitudes. 

A Simple Life

Gospel: Matthew 10: 7-15

In addition to being called to the ministry of healing, liberation, and proclamation of good news, the disciple is also called to a life of simplicity and poverty in imitation of the Lord Jesus.  He sends out the disciples, instructing them to carry no possessions with them, to rely on the help of others as they go about healing others, liberating them from their demons, and announcing the jubilee of the Lord.  

The life of simplicity and poverty is itself a more powerful sermon than any words can convey.  To imitate the Lord Jesus in this respect is not just for an elite group of religious but for all who claim the mantle of disciple.  It is to identify with the poor of this world, to live with and among the poor of this world, to be responsible stewards of the earth and God's gifts.  

To live radical simplicity is also to announce that the Church is not for sale, not to be co-opted by money of the world that buys a message and ideology contrary to that of the Gospel.  That neither we nor clergy and religious have lived this simplicity has proven true in every age and place.  The few who do - like St. Benedict - stand as beacons of Christ's light, bearers of healing, liberation, and the good news of jubilee. 

Three Simple Tasks

Gospel: Matthew 10: 1-7

How often do churches hire consultants to help create mission and vision statements, holding endless planning and crafting sessions, and spending untold resources!  The process is laborious and it engages the time of countless people, time and resources that could have been spent engaged in the mission and vision Jesus already provided two millennia ago!

Jesus sends out his disciples, instructing them to proclaim the good news that God's kingdom is coming soon, a kingdom that will proclaim a jubilee where those in bondage are set free, debts are forgiven, and the land is restored.  They are further instructed to go about healing people of all their infirmities and liberating them from all that possesses them in bondage.  

If we are not about these things yet, if we are more about media and political empires, we still have the opportunity to get in on the original mission and vision statement of the Lord Jesus.  Caring for the sick and imprisoned, those with addictions and depression, the lonely and lost...so many need the good news and the healing and liberation of the work of God's kingdom.   

What We Are About

Gospel: Matthew 9: 32-38

It is always instructive for us to re-examine the mission of Jesus and what he called the disciples to do and to compare that to what we are doing in what we call ministry today.  We first find Jesus proclaiming good news to every town he enters - the good news of the arrival of God's kingdom and the liberation from all that enslaves us and holds us in bondage.  

That message of liberation finds concrete expression in Jesus tending to those who are sick and lame, those who are possessed by demons, and those hungry and outcasts.  He goes about healing all with infirmities, freeing people from their demons, providing food to the hungry and table fellowship with those regarded as sinners and outcasts.  

So, what are we about in what we consider ministry today? We raise a lot of money for a lot of things, but is it these things Jesus was about? He sent the disciples out to do this work without any money, for it costs little to be with the poor and imprisoned.  It costs little to provide fellowship for outcasts and sinners.  It costs little to help those in bondage of their demons. Today as in Jesus' day there is a crying need for people to serve the sick, imprisoned, and poor.  Let us be about this, for it is the work of Jesus, and set aside that which is not. 

Managing our Grief

Gospel: Matthew 9: 18-26

The grief of the crowd outside the official's house is worthy of reflection, for life contains a great deal of grief and managing our grief is essential to health and holiness.  Part of this crowd can be discounted; they are present only to curry favor with the official and their grief is not genuine.  However, there are people present who genuinely grieve for this girl and her family.  How ought we properly grieve over loss in our lives?

To recognize other people in our lives as a gift God has given us is one important ingredient.  Gratitude for others allows us to truly cherish another without having an entitled mentality that sees their departure from this life as unfair to us.  To see others as a gift is to see them as not belonging to us, as something not owed to us, but as a gift to be treasured for as long as it lasts.  This perspective allows us to grieve genuinely and with proper perspective.

Those in this story may not have had the idea of hope for a future resurrection.  Jesus, however, has this perspective.  While this girl survives this illness, she will indeed die some day as we all will.  Hope for a future resurrection, hope that death is in fact birth to a new life, also enables us to grieve appropriately at the loss of one we love.  For there is the hope that the gift we have cherished here is one we may again cherish in the new life of God's kingdom. 

The Wonder Kid

Gospel: Mark 6: 1-6

Anyone who has attended a high school reunion has experienced something similar to people's reaction to Jesus in today's Gospel.  We encounter someone we knew on a daily basis while growing up, and we are surprised to find them as a world-renowned doctor or some other phenom.  When we knew them they were just the second baseman on our little league team, the unassuming classmate, the girl down the street.  

If we are gracious people, we rejoice in their success and take the surprise as a pleasant one, but more often than not jealousy overcomes people and they mock this person's success, as occurs here in the Gospel to Jesus.  They cannot possibly see how this ordinary person came to such renown and they did not.  They fail to accept the fact that God can do great things in anyone, that God is present in every person, and thus every person is full of potential to do great things.

And so people disbelieved in Jesus' miracles, and we fail to see them present in our own day in these ordinary marvels of human accomplishment.  If we find ourselves jealous in these situations, it is perhaps because we ourselves have not achieved our full potential, that we have squandered our talent and not allowed God to work in us all that we could have accomplished.  Let us not be the people of Nazareth but instead a people who see God present in every life. 

New Cloth, New Wine

Gospel: Matthew 9: 14-17

The early church faced a dilemma of the ancient world that relied upon tradition and antiquity for support of religion and institutions.  The fact is that Christianity was a new religion; it did not have a tradition to rely on as the Romans and Judaism.  Despite the attempts of some apologists to argue otherwise, the Christian movement was indeed something new.  

In today's Gospel portion, Jesus provides assurances that what is new should not be feared, nor should it be shunned just because it is new.  A cloth patch has to be something new attached to what is old, while new wine must be poured into a new wineskin.  In both cases the new is necessary for the continued survival of the item in question.  

We human beings continually fear the new to which God calls us.  We cling to our own ways and habits, deifying them with the word 'tradition'. But we would have remained in Ur and not gone to Canaan. We would flee to Tarshish and not go to Nineveh. And we would be still be on a fishing boat in Galilee instead of on the way with the Lord Jesus. 

Two Different Approaches

Gospel: Matthew 9: 9-13

In every time and place the Pharisee and Jesus have different approaches to different issues.  In today's Gospel portion we find Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, much to the horror of the the Pharisees.  The approach of the Pharisee would be to shun and excommunicate these unclean ones, to ostracize and marginalize them.  The result of such an approach is all to evident to us.  It is the history of the Middle East: endless war, bloodshed, violence, and death.  This approach seeks only conquest and elimination.

By contrast Jesus chooses a much different approach, one very radical.  It is to invite the sinner to table fellowship with the Lord, to encounter the Lord and find a path to transformation and healing.  The path of Jesus is one of dialogue, encounter, and accompaniment, not of exclusion and ostracism.  In the example of Jesus we have the application of the scripture Jesus quotes: It is mercy I desire and not sacrifice.

Jesus uses the table fellowship primarily as a place of healing and restoration, not as a place of reward and privilege.  The table of the Lord's supper is an operating table on which the physician of our hearts and souls heals us, nourishes us, and makes us stronger day by day through his mercy and loving care.  If we are to have a Eucharistic revival, let it be along these lines. 

The Other Shore

Gospel: Matthew 8:28 - 9:8

We have made the decision to enter the boat with the Lord, to cross over to the other shore, to achieve enlightenment and illumination.  What do we encounter on the other shore? First, we find Jesus delivering a man from possession and chains.  It is a remarkably shocking scene that causes Jesus to be rejected by the townspeople.  People prefer their demons and swine to enlightenment and illumination.

Next, however, Jesus returns to his hometown, a place where he had previously been rejected.  Here, however, they bring him a paralytic for healing, and we encounter a second shocking encounter: Jesus forgives the sins of this person and restores them to health.  The religious leaders reject this action.  Enlightenment and illumination do not come with the acquisition of religious office.  

We traveled through the stormy waters where our faith was tested.  We did not pass that test. We came to the other shore in order to experience that enlightenment and illumination brings freedom from what possesses us and keeps us in chains, freedom from our sins, and full restoration of our entire being.  This enlightenment and illumination only comes from following Jesus along the way 

Never Any Doubt

Gospel: John 20: 24-29

John is the only Gospel writer to record this story of doubting Thomas, the reading for today's feast.  There is good reason for John having this story: he stands as the last eyewitness to the words and deeds of Jesus.  At John's passing, the entire Christian community will now be composed of those who did not witness the words and deeds of the Lord directly.  It is a monumental transition.  

So this early Christian community needs reassurance.  Previously, they had simply gone to these eyewitnesses for assurance.  The story of Thomas provides them with a sense of assurance: blessed indeed are those who have not seen and yet believe.  To be an eyewitness is indeed a privilege, but that same faith can be had even by those who did not see and hear directly the Lord Jesus while on earth.

It is for this reason that the Gospels were written.  By daily reading and meditation on the Gospels we too can participate in these scenes.  We too can see and hear the words and deeds of Jesus by putting ourselves in these stories, experiencing the Lord at work then and in our own life today.  Then, we too can say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" 

Avoiding the Storm

Gospel: Matthew 8: 23-27

The two men who did not ultimately get into the boat to follow Jesus to the other shore find themselves on shore watching the storm, perhaps even seeing the boat cast about.  Imagine them saying to one another: "Good thing we didn't get into that boat! Look what we avoided!"  Such an attitude is representative of one who has not crossed to the other shore, one who has not sought enlightenment and illumination.

To enter the boat to cross over to the other shore is not to look for storms and deliberately head into them.  It is instead to be open to the possibility of their occurring, to take the risk of being vulnerable, and to sail onward in spite of the storm.  It is to discover our faith and what it is made of in the midst of the storm, to see if we are fearing disciples or calm, peaceful Jesus asleep in the midst of the storm.  To remain on shore and never discover this reality about ourselves is an unenlightened, dark path of self-interest.  

If we have accepted the invitation to enter the boat, we have opened ourselves up to this vulnerability of the storm.  We are now invited to discern what our spiritual state is in the midst of the storm.  We may indeed hear the rebuke of the Lord for having a weak faith, but we are in the boat still making the journey, still open to vulnerability - and still open to grow, to be enlightened and illuminated by the experience.   

Across the Lake

Gospel: Matthew 8: 18-22

Throughout the Gospels there is the continual travel across the Sea of Galilee to "the other shore." Movement across bodies of water represent enlightenment, insight, and illumination in the spiritual life.  The invitation to cross over to the other shore is an invitation to advance in the spiritual life, to grow deeper in one's relationship with God and others.

As in the Gospel so in life we find people who claim to want to make this trip but find reason to avoid it.  The scribe is so wedded to tradition that he thinks tradition is God and so cannot achieve any new insight or illumination.  The disciple thinks his own work is that of God and cannot see beyond his own self-interest.  Neither can accept the invitation to cross over to the other shore; neither can find enlightenment and a deeper relationship with God.

The journey across the sea will involve experiencing the storm at sea and the challenge of walking on water.  These are necessary challenges to our faith, essential to illumination and intimate relationship with the Lord.  What is on the other shore is less important than the lessons we learn along the way, for the journey itself provides enlightenment, illumination, a deeper relationship with God and one another - and that is the other shore itself.