Following the Lord

Gospel: Matthew 8: 18-22

How many of us make great boasts to God as the disciples often do in the Gospels: "I'll follow you wherever you go!"  "I will die for you!"  We may mean it in the moment, but when something else comes along that we think important we find ourselves burying the dead, or worse still denying we even know the Lord.  Such it is with us frail humans, which is why grace and forgiveness exist for us to keep trying and do better.

We have our own modern versions of these oaths:  all are welcome.  We make this statement, but is it really true?  We may believe so, until someone we do not like enters our church to join us for worship.  We find ourselves not so very welcome.  We think it great that Jesus healed all and excluded no one from his care and love, but when asked to do likewise and to follow the Lord in that behavior we find excuses not to do so.

Jesus ate at table with and washed the feet of the one who betrayed him, the one who denied him, and everyone else who abandoned him.  Even after his death, in resurrection Jesus could have embarked on a revenge tour, but instead he ate with these same people, extending peace and love to them.  Yes, to follow the Lord means to do these same deeds, to work each day at being better in our imitation of the one we call teacher and Lord.

Do You Love Me?

Gospel: John 21: 15-19

Consider all the many failings of Peter up to this point: he has denied the Lord three times; he has not believed the women or Emmaus disciples about the resurrection of Jesus; he had sank in the sea for his lack of faith and called a Satan by the Lord himself for rejecting the idea of Jesus' death and resurrection.  So now he is alone with the Lord, fully expecting rebuke and condemnation, and yet Jesus merely asks him three times - do you love me - and three times the encouragement to care for the flock.  

In a similar way Paul, our other saint of the day, had made a career and name for himself in persecuting the early church. He presided over the execution of Stephen and was going from town to town arresting Christians.  His encounter with the Lord on his way to Damascus is equally dramatic.  Jesus, too asks him a question - why are you persecuting me - and this impels him to a complete change of life in becoming a great bearer of the Gospel message.  

The Lord confronts each one of us with similar questions and challenges.  Do we love the Lord? Then we must show it in caring for others, in healing, liberating, and feeding them.  Have we persecuted the Lord in maligning immigrants, migrants, refugees, the poor and marginalized? Then we must cease this behavior and embrace the call to follow Jesus in caring for all people all the time.  Today's feast is a reminder that these questions and calls are for us as well.

Power of the Powerless

Gospel: Matthew 8: 5-17

Today's Gospel portion shows us the power of being powerless.  In the first encounter, a man who has power - a Roman centurion - finds himself in a powerless situation.  His beloved servant is dying and the centurion is helpless in the face of this reality.  He entrusts himself entirely to Jesus, accepting of the outcome of healing or not.  Because of this great faith and admission of powerlessness, his servant is healed.  

In the second instance we encounter Peter's mother-in-law who is ill.  She does not even ask Jesus to be healed, nor does anyone else.  This woman who has no power at all in society, finds herself healed by Jesus at his own initiative.  Her response to the healing is simply to get up and serve others.  She does not engage in some self-promotion tour or "witnessing".  Her witness is the authentic response of faith: to get up and care for others.  

In these two people we find the authentic faith of the Christian.  Before God and the many situations of life we are powerless.  We entrust ourselves entirely to providence, accepting whatever is given to us.  If healing is given to us - even without our asking for it - our response is to simply serve other people in quiet humility and love.  And like Jesus we serve the needs of all - a foreigner like the centurion and those close to us like a friend's in-law. and all who we find in need.   

A Heart of Love

Gospel: Luke 15: 3-7

This parable is filled with ironies and hyperbole.  First, most shepherds would not risk leaving their flocks untended in order to seek out a lost sheep.  Most would likely leave the lost sheep to die among wild animals.  But that is the point of the entire parable!  The listeners would know this fact, and Jesus' point is that God is not like us at all.  God would - and God does - seek out the lost and errant sheep out of deep love.

The second irony is the idea of ninety nine righteous people compared to one errant sinner. Is there a person among us who is not a sinner, one who is not needing repentance?  There are no righteous; there are only sinners, all in need of God's mercy and love.  And again, that is exactly the point Jesus is making in this parable.  God would go to these great lengths for any one of us, for every one of us without hesitation.  

This parable is the first of three parables of the same theme in this chapter: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.  It highlights for us how valuable each one of us is, how loved each one of us is in the eyes of God.  These readings and this feast highlight the only relevant fact about God that is necessary: that God is love.  The entire life of authentic religion is about love and its wider expansion of its presence in our lives.   

In Vain

Gospel: Matthew 7: 21-29

"Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven."

We have come to believe that taking the name of the Lord in vain is in using it in a cussing action or as a swear word.  To be sure that is not a good way to use God's name, but it is hardly what Jesus meant and not at all what the ancient prohibition entails.  We take God's name in vain when we attribute our will to be God's will, when we claim an action is God's will when it is in fact just the opposite, when we perform actions for our own glory but attempt to pretty them up with vain appeals to God's name.

Consider: to drive out demons, to prophesy, and to perform mighty deeds are good things, but not if they are done with our own glory, fame, and wealth in mind.  How often do we find the charlatans of religion do these things for profit and fame, using God's name as a prop in a circus show.  How often do we find the false prophets of religion use God's name to justify unspeakable acts of war, genocide, maltreatment of the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized.  This is taking God's name in vain!

If we wish to honor God's name and do God's will, let us love others and extend mercy to those in need.  Let us protect the poor and vulnerable, house and feed the homeless and hungry, shelter and care for the stranger, clothe the naked, heal the sick - all because we see Christ in others, because we see in others the image of God, all because this was the work of the Lord Jesus on earth, the work we are called to do as his disciples. 

Prophets vs. Profits

Gospel: Matthew 7: 15-20

The modern prophet in Christianity seems to have a vast media empire or fairly profitable cottage industry.  He seems to be aligned with political and financial powers, often espousing messages designed to malign the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized.  The alleged prophetic message is often curiously aligned with the platform of the aforementioned political allegiances to which the alleged prophet has wed himself.  

Before Jesus began his public ministry he went into the desert to fast and to confront the devil who promised him fame, worldly power and riches, and the comforts of the world.  Jesus rejected all these things.  In keeping with the prophetic tradition of Israel, Jesus defended the poor and marginalized and preached a message unpopular with the political and religious institutions of his day.  The mission and reward of a prophet is one of difficulty, exile, persecution, and often execution.  

It is not difficult to discern the true prophet from a false one.  False prophets only seek profit for themselves.  The authentic prophet stands in the tradition of Jesus, challenging the powers of the world and defending the needy and vulnerable.  The false prophet measures fruits in terms of followers and financial statements.  The true prophet sees fruits in how many have received mercy and care.   

The Prophetic Call

Gospel: Luke 1: 57-66, 80

In the coming of John the Baptist we have an ironic twist to an ancient biblical story.  In the announcement of Isaac's birth, Sarah laughs at the idea while Abraham accepts the message of the angel.  Here in John we have a reversal: Elizabeth is the one to believe and to insist in spite of all opposition from family and friends while her husband the high priest doubts and is punished for it.  John is to be a special person indeed.  

John is entrusted with the task of announcing the coming of the Lord Jesus, in recognizing the Lord present in our very times and in pointing out that presence to us.  John would preach repentance of sins and encourage people to wash clean in the waters of baptism in the Jordan.  Then, when Jesus did come in their midst, John would point to him and encourage others to follow the Lord in all things.  

In all of this, John prefigures our own calling as followers of the Lord Jesus.  We are to encourage others to turn away from sin, to wash clean in the waters of baptism, and to point to the Lord's presence in our world today.  We find the Lord present in the poor and marginalized.  We find our sins have created the poor and marginalized.  We repent of these sins, and we seek to serve the needs of the poor - of the Lord himself - in our time and place.  

The Vision Test

Gospel: Matthew 7: 1-5

The physical eyesight of humans is a limited and fallible sense.  Few of us possess perfect 20-20 vision in the first place, and even if we do our range of vision is limited in scope.  Even with perfect eyesight we are deceived all the time in what we see.  Our vision is often clouded or obstructed by other objects, and while convinced we saw one thing we come to discover upon closer inspection that it is quite another thing altogether.  

Our inner vision is often facing the same dilemmas.  How often do we misjudge situations and people?  Our entire experience of many people is through media caricatures of them, and yet we have convinced ourselves that we know these people and can judge them.  We meet an actual human being for one hour and come to definitive and irreversible conclusions about them in that brief encounter of someone who has lived many more hours than that one in our presence.  

We all desire and demand a fair hearing and judgment from others, and yet how reluctant we are to provide it for them! How would we fare if we were judged in the way we have judged other people?  Jesus tells us the measure with which we measure will be measured to us.  We might take heed of this warning before our daily read of the news and the attendant judgments we might level against others in its perusal.  We might seek to know someone a little more than one hour of idle chatter before rendering a verdict on another's life.  We might treat others as we would want to be treated.

In Remembrance of Me

Gospel: Luke 9: 11-17

The words of Jesus - do this in remembrance of me - has two meanings.  We have come to make the dominant meaning about the creation of a ritual action where we re-enact the memorial offering and partake of the meal for our benefit.  Yet, this interpretation has no meaning without the greater understanding that Jesus meant for us to actually live out this action - to go out and offer our lives as a living sacrifice of love and mercy for others.  

Today's Gospel for the day highlights that fact.  A vast crowd is hungry and the disciples inform Jesus of this fact.  He says, "Give them some food yourselves." It is for us to give of ourselves so that the crowd may be nourished.  Similarly, in the same supper where Jesus said to do this in remembrance of me, he washed the disciples' feet and said to them, "As I have done, so also you must do...you must wash the feet of others."  

And so we do gather to celebrate the ritual action of the Last Supper and the offering of the cross.  But we do so not as an end in itself.  Rather, we do so as a means to living out in our daily lives this example of Jesus to love and serve, to feed and nourish, to extend mercy to a vast crowd of people each day.  To whomever we meet and encounter we must be healing, liberation, and nourishment for them in our love and mercy in imitation of the one we call teacher and Lord. 

The Source of Our Anxiety

Gospel: Matthew 6: 24-34

How much of our worry and anxiety is self-generated?  In the mind of Jesus, all of it, and it is centered on our attachments to material things.  We human beings have invented all sorts of false necessities that are in reality non-essential.  We toil and work to acquire and keep these things; the mere threat of their loss causes us endless consternation.  When we acquire more money, we spend it on ourselves, creating ever new sources of worry over the new things we have that we do not need.  We amass storage units of things we neither need nor use.  

The same is true in faith communities.  How many buildings are owned or rented by churches for large sums of money that are only used for one hour a week - and yet we spend all our time raising money for that sole purpose and none on actual care for others! The care of buildings and bank accounts replaces the care for souls and the works of mercy.  We now serve mammon and not God as our desire to occupy space and seem important supersedes the mission of love and mercy in the world.

To commit to a life of simplicity frees us from these worldly desires and places us in a spirit of humility before God and others.  To live simplicity is to commit to the common good of humanity that when we get more we should share more, not acquire more for ourselves.  To adopt a simple lifestyle is to care for the soul - one's own soul and that of others.  The simple life is the way of Jesus himself, the one utterly dependent on God for all he had.   

The Eye of Discernment

Gospel: Matthew 6: 19-23

There are two different paths of religion.  The first is the dominant one with which we are all too familiar.  It speaks of obedience, but the obedience they speak of is to the leaders of the religion.  The teaching involved in this model is solely to listen to whatever interpretation or position of the anointed leader of the community.  The voice of God is reduced to the voice of humans who claim that divine voice for themselves.

In the model Jesus proposes today, we are given a more authentic model of religion.  Here, we are taught to discern, to cultivate the eye of the soul to see rightly - to distinguish authentic light from false lights and to see darkness for what it is.  This discernment is like Samuel learning to hear the voice of God in his light and to follow that voice wherever it leads.  This path leads to an authentic relationship with God, one that cannot be manipulated by the false path noted above.

Jesus gave us an example of how to model this discernment in our lives.  He gave us a pathway of love and mercy which he lived in his life.  This path becomes our model for discernment - how are we to live out this path of love and mercy in the life settings given to me? How can I help others in their path of love and service to others as well?  This is the path of authentic religion and authentic relationship with God.

The Essence of Prayer

Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

Volumes have been written that parse every word of the Lord's Prayer.  Treatises on the Christian life and the life of prayer fill warehouses.  But the essence of the Lord's Prayer, the essence of the Christian life was summed up by the Lord Jesus himself in this passage: if you forgive others, God will forgive you.  If you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you.  It is a fairly simple message that somehow we have once again sought to make more complex.

The entire ministry of Jesus was the extension of God's mercy to the world.  In forgiving people of their sins, in healing them of their infirmities, in liberating them from their demons, in nourishing them at table Jesus brings the mercy of God to people in the situations of their everyday lives.  We do not have to search the vast areas of the Temple or some remote cave.  Jesus comes out to people in their villages - where they live and where they work.

In being disciples of the Lord Jesus we must extend mercy to others.  We must go out in the midst of the world and be in the midst of people's lives caring for them in their need.  We cannot claim to be Christian if we are not willing to forgive others, if we are not willing to be people of mercy.  Mercy is the single foundation of the entire Christian life and our entire life of prayer.   

Less is More

Gospel: Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

Modern Christianity is all about marketing.  Every "ministry" has a website, aggressive social media platforms, and access to vast multimedia empires of print and digital formats.  Content creation and marketing are the name of the game.  And for what purpose?  Are we singing "How Great Thou Art" or are we instead singing "How Great We Art?"  Are we about the care of souls, or are we instead about the care of the message in order to pay our large salaries, care for our vast real estate holdings, and keep the bottom line healthy?

Jesus gives us a very simple marketing strategy in today's Gospel portion.  We are to go about doing good to others, not seeking any fame or limelight.  We are to pray and fast without anyone noticing we are doing so.  We are not to seek any notoriety of any kind as we go about doing what Jesus did: healing people of their infirmities, liberating people from their demons, nourishing people at table - all while finding quiet places alone to pray and be with God.

Today, as always, our task is to focus entirely on the work of caring for others.  That alone is our marketing.  The care of others led great crowds to Jesus without any fanfare or promotion.  If we truly love and care for others, then that is enough, for that is the Gospel, and that alone is authentic attraction to the work.  If we require anything else, then we are not about the Gospel but ourselves.  

The Hardest Commandment

Gospel: Matthew 5: 43-48

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Come we now to the most difficult of all commandments Jesus gives us.  We found it easy to heed the command of Joshua to commit genocide on enemies, but now the new Joshua issues an entirely contradictory command: do not harm your enemy but instead love them.  Suffer persecution from them and do not retaliate in any way.  Instead, pray for those who persecute you, pray for those you regard as your enemy.  

Jesus lived this throughout his entire life.  He provides healing for everyone who comes to him, foreigner as well as citizen, and he never refused to help anyone ever.  He delivers people from all their demons, touching even the most unclean person.  He provides food to huge crowds, never asking if they were "deserving poor" or some other modern category of exclusion.  He ate meals with sinners, with Pharisees, with his betrayer, his denier, his doubter, and all those who would abandon him.  

And what of us? We who claim the mantle of Christian are so ready to malign another, to expel others from our midst while claiming all are welcome.  We are too busy bombing and executing and deporting others that we have no time to pray for anyone but ourselves.  Today is a day for making an attempt to live as Jesus did, to strive to heed this command, to pray and to love our enemies. 

Non-Resistance

Gospel: Matthew 5: 38-42

In an age of perpetual grievance and endless litigation, the words of Jesus is today's Gospel portion are utterly foreign and unintelligible.  The culture in which we live encourages us to be outraged and continually in protest mode; conflict sells.  Such a culture does not seek solutions or resolutions to these conflicts.  That would be bad for business.  So we are perpetually at war with one another and with ourselves.

But what if there were a third way - one that is not an endorsement of the  unjust system, nor is it one so keyed up in grievance that never abates?  What if we were to actually carry and bear our cross, what if patient long suffering were our form of protest?  To suffer and not be broken or acquiesce to the culture - and to love and forgive those who mistreat us - well, what about that?  That is the path Jesus offers to us today.

Yes, we must stand in protest and raise our voices to protect the most marginalized and vulnerable people in society.  But as we are all too aware, if we expect lawless men to respect rights and heed the rule of law we will be sorely disappointed.  Jesus shows us the way to live - and to die - in such a culture, for that was his experience of the world as well.  The way of Jesus will always lead to new life, to resurrection and glory.  

Blessed Trinity

Gospel: John 16: 12-15

What does the Trinity mean and what relevance does it have for our lives?  The fundamental reality of God is that God is love, and love by definition is expressed toward another in relationship.  The fact that God is a community of persons expresses the idea of God being love: these persons of the Trinity are so united in love with one another that they form one single entity, one single bond of unity that is the ideal expression of love.

What is more, this love is expressed to the world in the person of Jesus who comes to reveal this love of God and to show human beings how we might live these bonds of love among us.  He did so by extending forgiveness, in performing deeds of love and mercy in healing, liberating, and feeding others wherever he went, without distinction or discrimination to all he encountered.  This love cannot be killed or ended by death.  It continually rises and lives in our midst.

In the ministry of Jesus we are called to live this love, to attempt however imperfectly to form bonds of love in community and throughout the human race by loving others as Jesus did.  We do this through forgiveness, through deeds of healing, deliverance, and feeding of others.  The life of the Trinity is a life to which we aspire in our life.  This is what the Trinity means.  This is the relevance the Trinity has in our lives. 

Simple Speech

Gospel: Matthew 5: 33-37

Jesus' injunction against taking oaths is just simple common sense.  Consider: in making oaths we are telling people that this class of speech is sacrosanct and always truthful.  Fine.  But what does that say about the rest of our speech?  In creating a special class of speech that is, allegedly, unimpeachable, we are in effect saying that other speech we make is not so, or that our ordinary speech need not be so.  We do similar things with people, land, and other places - some is holy, implying others are not.

But Jesus wants us to have a complete life of integrity and authenticity.  All of our speech should be truthful and trustworthy.  All people are holy because all are made in God's image.  All places are holy because God made the entire universe.  Every moment of our existence is an encounter with God in the person of others and in all places for there is no place where God does not dwell.  Our relationships and our speech should have simple integrity marked by truth at all times.

Jesus lived this simple truth in his own life.  His speech was simple and plain as we have seen so far in his teaching on the law.  It is we human beings who make things complex and confuse our speech because we want to live self-interested lives while appearing that we are not.  Jesus calls us to a life dedicated to the care of others, not ourselves.  Let our speech reflect this simple life of humble service at all times. 

The Root of Evil

Gospel: Matthew 5: 27-32

Consider the cycle of clergy sexual escapades:  clerics abuse other human beings.  Then, they deny, lie, conceal, hide, and bribe in an attempt to keep these crimes hidden.  But then they are laid bare, at which point the tactic is to blame a sexualized culture and the way in which people dress.  Finally, legal settlements and court payouts are imposed, and statements of apology written by lawyers issue forth from chancery offices.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

In today's Gospel, however, Jesus lays the blame solely at the feet of those who commit lust.  He does not blame people for what they do or do not wear.  He does not blame the culture or sugar coat it in any way.  The fault lies solely with the one who lusts.  It is within each one of us to overcome temptations just as Jesus did.  We cannot blame any outside influences.  It is entirely our responsibility to live and act chastely or not.  

Today is a day to reflect on our own integrity in this area.  In what ways are we living in right relationship with other people or not?  What habits can we cultivate that promote authentic human relationships that are built upon mutual respect and dignity?  This is the call to which Jesus gives us today and each day.  May we attend to our relationships with full respect for others, seeing in each person the image of God, another Christ, a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Complicating the Simple

Gospel: Matthew 5: 20-26

Theology is the art of taking the utterly simple and making it more complex and more difficult to understand.  Today's Gospel reading is a perfect example.  We have two simple commands: do not kill, and do not even speak ill of another in anger.  Now, put these simple concepts into the theology machine and you will find all sorts of contortions that seek to find exception after exception in order to avoid heeding the simple command.

Has anyone ever found a war or even an act of war to be deemed unjust? We always seem to find justification for war and its horrors, appealing of course to the Book of Joshua and not the Lord Jesus.  We find ever more creative ways to interpret self-defense to kill another, or apologetic to defend our maligning of marginalized and vulnerable peoples we look to exploit.  The unjust system of capital punishment marches on with the blessing of many a Christian church.

Today is a day for a return to the simple, for discernment on how we can live out this simple message of the Gospel in our own lives.  Today is a day for setting aside the complex and for imitating the Lord Jesus who lived this simple rule of today's reading in his own life.  Today let us put away all killing, all speaking ill of others, all malice and ill will.  Only then can we love God and love neighbor as we ought. 

Which Law?

Gospel: Matthew 5: 17-19

Jesus could not be more clear: not a single bit of the Jewish law is to be done away with until the end of time.  And yet, not very long after Jesus passes from this earth we find most of the Jewish law abolished by his followers - no more dietary laws, no more circumcision, no more laws on attire.   They will declare that only the moral law of the ancient Jewish code is to be followed; the rest is now done away with.  That too will find changes and creative interpretations over time as well...

These are pressing problems for those who claim an eternal and unfixed moral law in the universe that cannot ever be changed by humans.  But one can still hold to an eternal law and just admit the fact that we human beings are ever discovering its true meaning, that the finite human mind cannot grasp the eternal and infinite in its fullness, that like the physical laws of the universe we come also to discover the true content and meaning of the moral law over time as well.  

Such a posture of humility is not in keeping with our human penchant for hubris or our ecclesiastical posture of triumphalism.  Yet that is the reality of the human condition both individual and collective.  We are pilgrims on a journey, ever learning and ever coming to understand more in our quest for sanctity and imitation of the Lord Jesus in deeds of love and mercy in the world.

Let it Shine

Gospel: Matthew 5: 13-16

"Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father."

A lamp is an object wherein is placed a light or light source.  The lamp then is so constructed in such a way that the light placed within it radiates light and warmth in all directions.  It is an instrument of illumination that itself does not create its own light but exists in order to shine the light of another outward for others.  People illuminated by it marvel and give thanks for the light itself, not the lamp in which the light resides.

This is the task of the Christian.  We have been made to illuminate the divine light that has been placed within us, to bring light and warmth to others by our deeds of love and mercy.  We are not to call attention to ourselves with our social media influencing and endless self-promotion.  We are to radiate the light and warmth of Christ  in such a way that people see only the light and feel the warmth and not to have any attention placed on ourselves.  

We are also called to see that light of Christ in other people, to celebrate it and encourage it to shine brightly in the world so that our world might be a little less dark, a little less cold.  That light exists within each human being.  It is the task of the Church to cultivate that light, to celebrate its existence, and to give confidence to those who bear it to let it shine.

Mother of the Living

Gospel: John 19: 25-34

Only the Gospel of John has present at Jesus' resurrection Mary and the Beloved Disciple, and the author has deep theological reasons for this construction.  John's Gospel takes us back to the beginning as noted in the first line of the Gospel.  In this case, the author takes us to the beginning of human origins on earth before our first fall in our original innocence.  For here in the crucifixion scene we have all that was in Eden: the tree of life, two streams, a man and a woman.

The point is obvious: the death of Jesus returns us once again to our original innocence before the fall.  No longer present is our ancient enemy the serpent, the evil one.  He has been defeated by the death of Jesus and no longer poses a threat to us.  As long as we remain at the tree of life and partake of its fruit we have nothing to fear from our adversary.  

And, as Eve had been the mother of all the living, so now Mary becomes the mother of all living in Christ, attached to the tree of life and nourished by its living streams.  Mary and the beloved disciple are our models of discipleship in this scene as they had been throughout the Gospel.  By remaining at the side of Jesus, by clinging to the tree of life we are enlivened and divinized once again as in those precious first moments in Eden.  

The Language of Love

Reading: Acts 2: 1-11

A lot has been written and said about the gift of tongues recorded here.  Whatever they were is anybody's guess, but what they mean is important in two respects.  In the first, the understanding of the disciples in each one's own language represents the undoing of all the divisions and differences in the story of Babel.  The confusion of understanding in that archetypal story represented the source of divisions among humans.  This story of Pentecost represents the reunification of the human race in one common understanding.

But this understanding is not due to a lingua franca.  The use of one common language does not ensure unity by any means.  The Church's insistence on Latin for centuries did not stop the endless divisions among Christians.  This language of the Spirit is the language of love, a language that is expressed more eloquently in deeds rather than words.  The offer of food, drink, clothing, or shelter is one that can given without words and conveys meaning far beyond any utterance in the human heart.  

If we wish to have the gift of tongues, let us practice our use of the language of love.  Let us go out and give food and drink to others, clothing and safe shelter.  Let us welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and imprisoned.  In those actions we will speak more eloquently than any words ever uttered, and it wil be understood by all as the language of the Spirit, the language of love. 

The Eleventh Commandment

Gospel: John 21: 20-25

In the final lines of the final Gospel we find Jesus rebuking Peter for prying into the spiritual life of another disciple.  Peter wants to know the business of the beloved disciple, and Jesus will have none of it.  It is Peter's task - and ours - to follow the Lord, to do the works of healing, liberating, and feeding of others without perseverating on the business of others who are about that same work in the world.  As long as we are about the works of love and mercy we ought to let others be.

Just prior to this scene Jesus asked Peter to love him, then to feed his sheep, to build up the faith of others.  It is not the task of the Petrine ministry or any other to micromanage the faith of another.  It is to encourage and support those who have declared their intention to be followers of Jesus in the works of love and mercy, to give them the sacramental support and resources they need to carry out this mission in the world.

Micromanaging the faith of another leads to the death of faith.  It is the death of individual and communal faith.  If religion were less about this and more about encouragement and support in the work of love and mercy in the world there might be a greater faith presence among people.  When we are more about the cura pecuniarum and the cura aedificorum rather than the cura animarum then we have strayed from the way of Jesus.  Today is our day to recommit to the eleventh commandment and mind our business and build up others in the way of love and mercy. 

Confronted by Love

Gospel: John 21: 15-19

Let us imagine ourselves in Peter's stead here for a moment.  You witnessed your Lord and friend arrested and executed in the most horrible manner.  You denied that you knew him and abandoned him to this cruel fate.  On the night of your denials you weep bitterly.  You are conscious of your sins and failures, your weaknesses and fears.  You fear an encounter with the Lord, and yet you want to do something to make things right.  We have all had this experience and these failings.

So the day comes and the Lord encounters you.  Your fear is that you will be condemned and castigated for your many failures - how often does religion present this image of God! And yet what do you encounter?  The Lord merely repeats a question over and over to us - do you love me?  You continually answer in the affirmative, and the Lord repeats the question again and again along with the charge of feeding his lambs.  You finally get it.

We can't do anything about the sins of the past except to love the Lord, and we love the Lord by caring for others.  We make up for the sins of the past by getting up and caring for other people as Jesus did.  We pick ourselves up and respond with love to the needs of others.  If we are conscious of sin today, then let our encounter with the Lord be that of Peter's - to hear the question, to answer it, and to go and care for others.  

The Depths of Love

Gospel: John 17: 20-26

"...that the love with which you loved me may be in them..."

The first letter of John reminds us that the origin of human love is God - we were first loved by God which then enables us to love one another.  This love of God has its first expression in the very act of creation which is the sharing of God's divine communion with other beings across a vast and complex universe, a love that we human beings are privileged to share as well.

But in order for us to understand how to love, Jesus becomes our model of human love in selfless giving solely for the good of others in deeds of mercy - in healing, liberating, and nourishing others.  This love even extends to our enemies and those who hate us.  It enables us to forgive them of the wrongs they did to us, and to even serve them in their needs.  Jesus expressed such love in embracing Judas his betrayer, and in forgiving those who mocked and executed him on the cross.

It is this love that provides us with the radical unity for which Jesus prays here in this chapter.  Such unity cannot occur through coercion or force of law.  It can only come from a love freely received and freely given to others.  It is only this love that can transform the world and lead to radical change in our individual lives and in our lives in community.   

Remaining One

Gospel: John 17: 11-19

"...so that they may be one just as we are one."

God is one because of the bonds of love between the persons of the Trinity.  In them there is no desire for power or domination, no quest for self-interested influence or wealth.  God exists solely as a being of complete self-giving. In praying for unity among his followers, Jesus desires this same unity of love among all people that exists within the being of God in the three persons of the Trinity.

What is more, Jesus gave us a model to follow in preserving this unity.  He renounced Satan and all his empty promises in rejecting any claims to power, wealth, or self-interest.  He then set about on a ministry devoted entirely to helping others through healing, liberating and nourishing others at table.  The community of people who followed Jesus exist solely to support one another in this work of loving service to others.

All Christians pledged at baptism to reject Satan and all his empty promises, and yet our communities are full of self-interested seeking of power and influence and wealth.  We have created "ministries" that are little more than self-promotion and wealth generators.  If we are unable to simply go about doing good and gathering to support each other and encourage another in caring for others, then Jesus' prayer will not be fulfilled.   

To Know God

Gospel: John 17: 1-11

"Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God..."

What does it mean to know God? The finite cannot possibly fully grasp the infinite in this life or in any other.  The Scriptures themselves in other places make this same point about the infinite gap between the human and the divine. This statement of Jesus makes no sense from an epistemological point of view, so we must look for another way in which to understand Jesus' assertion.   

Another way of knowing something is through love, but this way of knowing is entirely different from intellectual knowledge.  The knowledge of love is one of intimacy and familiarity with another.  If God is love, then the only way to know God is through love.  And we only love God by loving others here on earth, as each person is an image and likeness of God.  As we love others through works of mercy and reconciliation we grow more deeply in the love of God.

Jesus showed us this way of knowing God in his own life.  He went about doing good to others wherever he went, showing mercy through healing, liberating, and nourishing people at table.  When he called disciples, Jesus instructed them to follow him - to see and imitate the work he does.  He does not call us to create elaborate formation programs.  He calls us to serve others and to support each other in the work of serving.  That is the way of love, the way to know God.

Unsettled Waters

Gospel: John 16: 29-33

"In the world you will have trouble..."

Jesus makes this statement in various ways time and again throughout the Gospels.  And yet the modern Christian is scandalized and offended by this fact.  They somehow think that some special privilege is accorded Christianity, that the world should respect their religious liberty, that they should be allowed to prosper in a life of comfort.  What this often means is that the modern Christian wants to be the persecutor instead of being the persecuted.

But the authentic following of Jesus necessarily entails a life of suffering from the world.  In serving the powerless, those is power are convicted of using their power to exploit rather than to raise up others.  In serving the poor and the outcast, the wealthy are exposed for their greed and selfishness.  Instead of using their power and wealth to help others, they have instead used it for their own selfish ends.  And so the Christian must suffer for their love and mercy to all as it convicts the world of its cruelty and meanness.

Yet, we are not to fear the trouble that awaits us.  In this same passage Jesus tells us that he has overcome the world, and he has provided us the Holy Spirit to provide us with the same strength to overcome the world in our time of trouble - not conquering through violence, lies, and coercion but rather in not allowing the world to make us like unto itself.   

Where to Look

Reading: Acts1: 1-11

"Why are you standing there looking at the sky?'

Life on earth can be pretty difficult and hard to bear sometimes.   The cruelty of humanity continues unabated.  The dishonesty and abuse of institutions of the state, business, and religion are ever present.  It is indeed tempting to look to the heavens - for help and deliverance from these things, to escape all these evils, to look for a better place to live in some other world free from these corruptions.  It is an understandable impulse.

And yet the disciples are rebuked for it.  The presence of Jesus is ever in our midst.  He has given us the Spirit to guide us in all truth with all of the Spirit's attendant gifts and fruits.  We have all that we need to live in a loving and merciful way just as Jesus did in the world.  The remembrance of Jesus' words and deeds - going from place to place continually doing good to others - is our constant source of inspiration and guide to living.  

If we are to look upward to the heavens, let it not be as an escapist or defeatist attitude.  Let it be with the posture of seeking that inspiration and guidance of living on this earth as Jesus did, of seeking that guidance and wisdom of the Spirit to direct our thoughts and actions for the good of others.  Ascension Day presents us with this choice: we can look in despair on the world and seek an escape, or we can look to the heavens to draw inspiration to serve others in love and mercy as Jesus did.  The former leads to despair; the latter enables us to ascend with Jesus through love.