My friends, we are to the mid-point of our Lenten journey to Easter, a good time to assess how we are doing with using these days to grow closer to our brother, Jesus, in how we live our lives.  In my surface look-over of today’s Scriptures, which I always do each week to get a sense of their key points; the following thoughts rose to the forefront.

• Is our God in our midst or not?
• Our hope will not leave us disappointed.
• If you only recognized God’s gift and who it is who is asking you for a drink….
• If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.

So, let’s look deeper.  Moses’ flock, now in the desert, is clearly having a crisis of faith! Do they actually believe that the God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt would abandon them to die of thirst in the desert?  Even Moses’ faith seems shaken by his unbelieving flock.

We can look from our sanitized, removed view of the Israelites’ lack of faith and become indignant, asking, “How can you be so faithless?”  Now, this is only fair if we shine that same light of introspection upon our own faith.  How are we ultimately in times of suffering and frustration—sickness, as with the Covid 19 pandemic, job loss, times when we are misunderstood, perhaps ridiculed?—this is always a good counter-balance to any judgment of others—how, in fact, we do ourselves!

Paul challenges us to always hold onto hope and if we do; we will not be disappointed.  This hope, he says, is dependent upon Jesus’ Spirit who is always with us.   Lent is a good time to ask if we believe that—do we, in fact, believe that Jesus’ Spirit lives and breathes and moves through us?—an important question if we say we are a follower of Jesus!

He makes an astounding comment to the woman at the well and I read it almost as if Jesus is imploring…”If you only understood—recognized God’s gift and who it is who is asking you for a drink…!”  Now for this Samaritan woman, the gift, as Jesus goes on to prove to her, is himself, the Messiah—the long-awaited One!  But for us, what is the gift that we are supposed to find?

We know from so many other places in the New Testament that Jesus expects us to go deeper, to see him in those we encounter each and every day.  Our lives as his followers, are truly not about reading stories each week about, “a good and holy man,” with no carry-over into our own lives—“If you only recognized who it is who is asking you for a drink, for some food, for a bed, for respect, and so on…”  Friends, it only matters that Jesus gave himself as gift so many, many years ago, if we can then see him today in the imploring of the needy in our midst.  “Open your eyes and see, [he says], the fields are ready for the harvest!”

This reminds me of several different folks we met in the early morning of Friday last as Robert and I did the 2-7 A.M. shift at the Warming Center here in Winona.  Because I was in the midst of work on this homily, two thoughts came to me as I engaged different people that I met there.  First, I thought, “There but for the grace of God, I am that person,” and second, “This is Jesus!”

Earlier I suggested that the fact that the Israelites lost faith in the desert was understandable if we look to our own lives and our, at times, lack of faith.  A friend recently shared of a time in her life—a period of years really, when she lost one significant person after another in close proximity.  Sometimes we don’t always know what these times mean until we have moved through them.  My friend shared that she found herself only able to basically exist during this period of loss—that she didn’t reach out to God during that time.  As I listened to my friend; I found myself thinking, and later shared with her, “But God was always with you during that time!—perhaps giving you the strength, to exist!”   Sister Joan Chittister once said, “God is always present to what God has created!”

This of course speaks to the graciousness of our God toward us rather than the old theology of, “God needing vindication for the sinfulness of humanity,”—a thought, I feel, is still too much on the hearts and souls of people as they journey through Lent.

This kind of theology sets us up in a very uneven relationship with our brother, Jesus—one devoid of any, “give and take,” as all good relationships should have.  For if, Jesus did it all—“saving us in one act, his death,” that leaves us, effectively, “off the hook!”

But if Jesus came, “not to die for us,” but, “to live for us”—to show us the best ways to do that, think of what a richer relationship we can then have with him!  If God loved creation so much as to want to become part of our existence, wouldn’t that knowledge entice you to love God more than if,  a mean, old God needed vindication so much that this same God thought it necessary to send Jesus to make up for our sinfulness with his death? For me, the decision is quite simple and I hope the same is true for you!

Much more intelligible, and worthy of such a gracious God as we have, is to imagine that Jesus lived under the assumption that everyone in God’s earthly kin-dom should be treated equally and that he in fact demanded that those who could do something about it, in his time, do it!  For this, they killed him! As someone once said, “that is how we do things down here!” Just so that we are clear here—Jesus died not because God willed it, but as a direct result of how Jesus lived his life—demanding justice for all!

As Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant says, and I paraphrase; if we focus on God’s graciousness, rather than on God’s vindictiveness, that puts us where we want to be on a continuum where we strive toward being our best selves.  This God of ours, she continues, is always, “calling us back,” wanting us to stay in a close relationship.

Finally, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well gives a map for right living, not only in Jesus’ time, but now.  We see Jesus addressing several taboos in his culture through his actions of reaching out—he talks to someone from a group of people, traditionally shunned by his own people.  Secondly, he talks to a woman in public, a taboo in his culture, and thirdly, to a woman considered of low character—and of course, her “low character” came about on her own—right?  In speaking to her, Jesus says in no uncertain terms—no one is ever unwelcome or unworthy.  Again, I think of the folks who frequent the Warming Center and of how, one of them, preparing to leave on Friday morning last, said to me, “Thanks for the hospitality!”

So thinking of the taboos in Jesus’ time, let’s fast-forward to our own time.  No matter your political background, or choice of candidate for office, it would behoove us all to look at a larger issue beyond who wins or loses in this election year and address the ever-present-yet issue of “sexism” plaguing our political process and other processes in State and Church.

This issue was spoken of rather eloquently by Elizabeth Warren as she commented to reporters after ending her presidential bid.  She was asked if “sexism” played a role in this contest and she basically said that a woman would be put down regardless of her take on this issue.

If she stated that women were and are held to a higher standard than are men as they strive for these positions, (sexism), she would be called a, “whiner.” If she went the other way and denied that, “sexism” was afoot, then all her female supporters would say, “What planet are you living on?!”

Friends, sexism is alive and well when candidates are considered, less on their abilities to lead and more on their presumed, “fragileness” of character. Sexism is alive and well in churches when women’s gifts for ministerial roles are discounted and they are denied access because of how they happen to have been born.

Interesting isn’t it that the same types of “taboos” that Jesus dealt with in his time, still run amok today? This is the kind of thing that Jesus calls us, in our lives, as his followers, to address.  When something in your heart and soul says, “This is wrong, we must speak out!

The psalmist challenges us to harden not our hearts—and so, it would seem that we should allow our hearts to become, “hearts of flesh,” that our “denying,” this Lent, reaches beyond ourselves to a wider world, so needful of this renewal! Amen? Amen!

 

 

My friends, due to my hectic week of travel and illness—I have opted for some previously written comments with some update. Being that they were from nine years ago, some of you may be hearing them for the first time, and hopefully for the rest, a nice review.

We have completed a little more than a week of our Lenten discipline. Discipline is a good word I feel to describe what this time should evoke in each of us.  Whether we are concentrating on “giving up” something or “giving for” something, discipline is needed.  A reflection by Sister Joan Chittister entitled, “Why Give up Stuff for Lent?” speaks to this idea. And as is natural for Sister Joan, she lets us know the history of the practice within her comments.  Penance and sacrifice go way back, she says—in fact they are part of all religions.  Even though we may at times think negatively of doing penance and sacrifice, the purpose for such endeavors is really very positive.

Ascetics, those who practice austere disciplines of fasting and prayer, speak, she says, about conquering themselves and developing their souls—an admirable thing for any of us.  Joan continues, “Life, we come to understand, is not only about joy.  It is about the power to endure what is not joyful as well”—caring for a dying loved one and eventually laying them to rest as our family learned again this past week.  “How is it, that the notion of bridling the self can be as important as satisfying the self?” Joan asks. It seems that it is about balance in our lives.  Too much of anything is never good.

Even ascetics attest to the fact, Joan says, that the good things in life don’t have to be forgone, but simply held in balance.  The Talmud, that is, the oral tradition commentary on the Torah instructs, “If a person has the opportunity to taste a new fruit and refuses to do so, he [she] will have to account for that in the next world.”

It would seem that we are all on a journey to be our best selves. Lent, as I have said, is a gift of time to help us do that well. Asceticism, Joan goes on to say, is not about giving things up for the sake of it, but really it is about achieving more, like—making space in our lives for the better as opposed to the simply, good.  For me, spending actual, physical time with family and friends is better than a phone call, text or email.

For some of us, looking to the saints of old and perhaps even more present day saints—those who aren’t canonized, but we know to be saints just the same can be a help in being our best selves, by watching and listening to them and then, doing the same.  The month of March, on the 19^th, to be exact, looks at St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus.  The Italian community sets what they call, St. Joseph’s Table in honor of the saint.  This is a feast consisting of a heaped table of food that is then given to the poor.

Sister Joan related this story as a Benedictine commenting that St. Benedict instructed his community to partake in what he called, “reckless, magnanimous hospitality”—not just good, but better! A fine point that she puts on this idea is to say that we don’t empty ourselves just to trim our own lives…but to make the lives of others better.  In other words, to sincerely follow Jesus, there must be the responsibility to move beyond ourselves.

In our gospel today, we see the same kind of thing happening. Peter wants to remain in the glorious vision of the Transfiguration while the reality of ministry awaits him and the others.  The gift he and the others received is intended to help them more effectively share Jesus’ message with the people—it is never just about the person receiving the gift.  What they experienced was a theophany—Jesus’ self-revelation as God.  James, John and Peter shared something very special and with all such things for which we are not worthy and have done nothing to deserve, there comes a responsibility to use the gift for others.  The Three were entrusted with a special gift—Jesus’ expectation was that they would take the “good,” and use it for something even better–to draw many to follow in his path.

In the early days of my priesthood, there were those in positions of power within the Church and also other acquaintances of mine that accused me and other women priests of being after power and I could always answer truthfully that it was never about power for me personally, but about service for those who felt unserved within our Church.  My prayer then and now has been that I could always serve in this role with humility, knowing that the gift and privilege is not at all about me.  My hope in these disagreements with others, especially male priests is that they would likewise shine their light of introspection upon themselves with regard to power.

This brings us to our first reading today from Genesis.  Here again we see the theme of this entire Lenten Season—God’s gracious goodness lifted up for us in the exchange between God and Abram.  When we see what is being asked of Abram, who will later become, Abraham, we realize that there has to already be a strong relationship between him and God—why else would Abram be so willing without any question or argument to pick up family and basically leave all that he knows for a strange land and situation?  Even so, given the already existing relationship, it couldn’t have been easy for Abram to do.

It is good for us to remember that what God asked of Abram was momentous in the culture within which he lived. A person in this culture was closely connected to family—one’s people.  The place from which a person originated was seen as paramount—one didn’t leave that place lightly.  God was basically asking Abram to leave his past, present, and future behind!

It is especially poignant for me to reflect on Abram’s plight in light of our family’s laying to rest our daughter-in-law’s Dad this past week. Patrick O’Flynn left his homeland of Ireland to come to the U.S. to make a home and raise a family. Each year he returned to his beloved homeland and as his children began to arrive, eventually—three; he couldn’t afford to take all of them each year so, each year he took one with him so that they could know their roots.

In the above story we see the generosity of a human father toward his children and in the story from Genesis; we see the five-fold generosity of God toward Abram:

1) God will make him and Sarai, later to be called, Sarah, a great nation, 2) God will bless his family, 3) God will make his family a great name, 4) God will bless those who bless his family and 5) God will curse those who don’t. We see this continued in Psalm 33—the theme of the graciousness of God—“The Creator loves justice and right.” Not only is God gracious but we hear hesed, that is, lovingkindness, used in this psalm to speak of the God who we are dealing with.

This theme of God continually bestowing blessings on the Chosen People, which we really should see as all of us, is one that continues through all the readings today. Paul in his letter to Timothy speaks of this “lovingkindness” as pure gift—not because we have deserved it or earned it.  Paul uses a Greek word, to further explain this pure goodness—charis, which translates as grace.   Paul then moves us into the 2^nd theme for this weekend, which is, a new beginning.  Through God’s magnanimous gift of Jesus we have the hope of new life.   Our humanity is raised up and made perfect by Jesus becoming one of us and it is Jesus who calls us to holiness, to being our best selves Paul tells us.  Our choosing to walk in Jesus’ footsteps is the final theme for this weekend—in fact; choosing to follow Jesus is what we should always be about in our lives as Christians.

The Transfiguration is an event that is good for us to reflect upon on several fronts.  First off, if we needed something to confirm for us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, there is much here to confirm it.  Jesus, knowing the culture and beliefs of his time, would have been aware that he needed to choose a high place for such a revelation.  Location is everything as the realtors, like my sister, tell us—high mountains were thought to be places where gods dwelt.

Jesus’ purpose was indeed to reveal himself as God while he was yet on earth.  The thinking at one time was that the Transfiguration occurred post-resurrection and was a foreshadowing of his future glory, but now most scholars believe his purpose to be the former—to help these first believers to know truly who he was.  Appearing glorified in the presence of Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah,  who represented the prophets, and himself who completed the equation, of all that the people had waited for, had to have been a tremendous strengthening of faith for James, John and Peter!  Jesus shows himself to them as God incarnate.

These followers of his clearly can’t take it all in—they, at first glance don’t know the full significance of what they are seeing. Peter speaks out of his compulsive nature—it is what we all love about him!  “Master, it is good that we are here!” Yes, Peter, it is,  but you can’t stay yet—this is a respite, a time away to become solidified in what you are being called to and for.  God instructs them further—“Listen to his, meaning, Jesus’ words.”

That is our call too friends, we must listen, watch and keep our eyes on Jesus—keep our eyes too on those who have followed him well in life—the past and present saints.  If we keep our eyes open, strive to be mindful, present to each day and moment, if we can; there will be those times when we too are very aware that what we are seeing and witnessing is of God and we will again have the hope to keep on following him—giving of ourselves for not only what is good, but what is better. And we have opportunities, my friends, each and every day in our Church and country to do just that!  May we each be blessed today as we journey through these Lenten days of grace.  Amen? Amen!

 

 

 

 

My friends, as we begin the holy season of Lent, I am sure that within some of you, there is a sigh, an “ugh” feeling, or maybe for others, a sense of, ah, a new start for me to get right with myself.  For those of you who have the “ugh” sensation, that is understandable as the readings for this 1^st Sunday of Lent direct us to our sinfulness.  They also direct us to God’s graciousness, but those who have put together these readings seem more intent on lifting up our “sinfulness” than they do God’s graciousness and mercy.

Take the first reading from Genesis today—did anyone other than me think it strange that we start out with the “earth creature” whom we assume from other translations to be Adam, enjoying the beauties of the garden that God has created and then the jump of a chapter to introduce the woman just in time to bring “sin” into the world?

Granted that, “our sinfulness” is what is trying to be lifted up throughout the readings, but I also suspect that the ages-old tendency, “to blame the woman “ is afoot here as well.  And it is a subtle thing in a patriarchal culture, but it is one to note in any case.

In the reading from Romans, Paul seems to protest too much.  His intent in preaching to the Romans who know little or nothing of Jesus is no doubt to have them get a clear picture of Jesus, but I for one, object to the picture he is portraying here.  Why does the act of making a human choice have to be carried on through all of humanity? This is faulty reasoning if we are to believe in the graciousness and mercy of God.

It is probably this reading where the notion of original sin comes from and the need for God—and not a loving God, at that, to be appeased through the death of Jesus.  This so-called “theology” is so flawed, as it makes God so small-minded, so small-hearted, as Sister Joan Chittister would say of such theology, so vindictive—more like us than God, who in other places—we are told, “is all-loving and all-merciful.”  We can’t believe both narratives—that of a vindictive God and that of an all-loving, all-understanding God—the God of the “Prodigal,” a story of over-the-top love which we will read later on in Lent.

The Good News that we should celebrate this Lent and every year at this time is not that Jesus died for our sins—“mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa”—or as a friend recalls feeling, “I am scum, I am scum, I am really scum,” but the fact that Jesus came and lived for us to show us the best way to live.  Granted, his advocacy for the poor and down-trodden, kept in place by the powers-that-were in his time, and his demand that these same powerful ones do the right thing, caused his death, but certainly, not because our humanity needed reparation.

Why would a God who made humanity imperfect then demand reparation for their flawed natures? No, it makes no sense that a loving God, wanting only the best for these creatures, enough so to be humbled in Jesus, living among us, showing us the way, the best way through life, death and resurrection would then demand the life of Jesus to appease God’s vindication.

Even the terminology that we use in the ritual of distributing ashes, “Remember, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return” has the wrong tone.  I asked Robert the other day when he hears those words, what does he think of—how in fact does it make him feel? His response: “Like dirt!”  So, you may have seen my Church Facebook title for Ash Wednesday where I said, “Remember, you came from the good earth and will return to it one day!”

As our family lost a good man this past week, our daughter-in-law’s father, Patrick O’Flynn, I think of this adage—he came from the good earth and we will return him to it this next week. Over the years that I knew him, Patrick and his good wife, Elizabeth, were always so gracious to those that they welcomed to their home. So friends, when I distribute ashes today, I will remind each of you that you came from the good earth and will return there one day. The true intention in marking us each year with ashes should be to simply help us know our place in relationship to our loving God—that we have been gifted with life from our good earth and all that this entails—no more, no less.

The Gospel from Matthew today is all about Jesus’ preparation for ministry—anyone called to leadership will always be tempted by the power that can come with the role.  Jesus is aware of this and thus tries to make himself strong through fasting and prayer, in order to avoid this very strong temptation and keep focused on his mission.  Fasting from food has its place in our lives if it prepares us to better focus on moving out of ourselves to see the needs of others, to in fact be better people.

I personally tend to shy away from fasting as prescribed by the Church during Lent as I can’t seem to separate it from the notion of “dieting” and this conundrum was validated for me this week in a piece that I was reading in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) on fasting and the different take that many women have on the topic.  Of course this article was written by a woman! Because many women have grown up with the false impression, created by our male-centered culture, that women are only acceptable if they have a certain body type and shape, fasting takes on a whole different notion for women than it does for men, the writer said.  There is a reason friends, why more women than men, in our culture, suffer from anorexia and bulimia.

The men in charge say that you can’t unite the two, that is, using a time of fasting to lose a few extra pounds, the writer continued.  And that is why I have stopped trying.  If I happen to be dieting during Lent, (when am I not trying to lose those extra pounds?!), I call it “dieting” and forget about fasting, for what that is worth.

So, my dear friends; I see Lent as a gift our Church gives us to grow closer to Jesus and we will—if we keep our eyes on him.  If fasting from food helps you to do that, I am not discouraging it, but if it simply leaves you with an “ugh” feeling, then you may want to “fast” in a different way:  you can fast perhaps from nagging a loved one, or from using your sharp tongue to denigrate another, or from selfishness with your time, or from judgmentalism, or snobbishness, or the need to have things done your way, and the list can go on.  This discussion always makes me think of someone in my extended family that did a perfect job of fasting and abstaining from food during Lent but might have been better served, herself and her immediate world, if she had instead, fasted from her negative ways.

I think if we don’t come out on the other side of Lent knowing that we are mightily loved by our God, then, I would think we had missed something important.  When you really look at Jesus’ earthly life, you have to conclude that he was a really astounding fellow—to follow in his ways—actions and words—we certainly could do worse!  So, let us pray for each other during these days that each of us can more fully follow our brother Jesus’ ways in gratitude to our God who has given us this awesome opportunity to become more of whom we are called to be! Amen? Amen!

 

 

Friends, I would like to begin with a story—one perhaps that some of you may have heard before, but one that within the given readings today, bears a repeat as it says well, I believe, that in our striving “to be holy” as the Scriptures ask of us;  we must remember to care for ourselves too.  Now “caring for ourselves” and this is probably directed more at the women, is not something that the Church fathers have necessarily directed over the years. And if truth be told, most women, in this day and age, are hardwired to give and give and give. The men though are not let off the hook in this—it is their job to see that the women they love are cared for too.

Thus, the story:   A daughter comes to visit her mother on her death bed and during the course of the visit, discovers a beautiful red dress hanging in her mom’s closet along with a line of drab dresses that she lived her life out in.  Asking her mother about the red dress, that she had never seen her mother wear; her mom called her to her bedside, to, in her words, “set a few things straight before her life was over.”

She told her daughter that she had always believed that a woman was supposed to give to everyone else first and to herself, last. She lived this out in her own life and taught her children to do the same.  For her personally, she always got everything her kids needed or wanted first, and if there was anything left, which there never was, she would get something for herself. She always ate the burnt toast and took the smallest piece of pie.

Having taught her sons and daughters to do the same, she was now upset to see the way her sons treated their wives and felt she had done them a disservice.  Even her husband, she had taught well—with her now dying, he didn’t know what he was going to do without her—he didn’t even know where the frying pan was!

The red dress had been a whim of hers—about a year ago when she found some extra money that she had intended to pay off extra on the washer and decided to treat herself instead. When she brought it home, her husband berated her with, “Where do you think you will ever wear that?” In fact, the only time she had ever worn it was when she tried it on in the store.  So, she made her daughter promise to do her the honor of not following in her footsteps. Her daughter promised and with that her mom died.  Servanthood, my friends, is all about considering the other, including ourselves.

Now granted, this is a delicate dance—how much do I give to myself and how much to others? I have two things to say about that: First, is that most women that I know are doing quite a good job of giving to others in their lives and need to consider themselves a bit more in the equation.  I heard a discussion on Minnesota Public Radio just the other day about what most of us know as the “sandwich generation,” a phenomenon with people living longer, that has repeated itself over time. I can remember when I was a young woman hearing about it, and living it too! The phenomenon, as you know has to do with women caring for their own families on one end of the continuum and their own parents on the other and they are “sandwiched” in between. And second, as we think about how much to give to ourselves and how much to others, our well-formed consciences will and do kick in if we would ever become too selfish.

So, the Scriptures today, beginning in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, instruct us, “to be holy as God is holy” and we might just ask, “What does it mean, “to be holy?” Moses, presumably the writer of Leviticus, says that we have to live—AWARE—we have to take responsibility in our lives “to tell our brothers and sisters of their offenses.” In other words, we can’t enable bad behavior in others.

Now, at first glance; we might balk at that—tell someone else to stop their bad behavior! Really?!  But think about it; we do it already in our personal lives—as parents, we instruct our children in the ways that they should go—we don’t allow their bad behavior. And we do have opportunities in our larger field of scope—if we take them.  Those of you who attend Mass here, have said to the hierarchical Catholic church in effect, “I want more than you are offering—I don’t agree with your exclusion of women in ministerial roles, your exclusion of the LGBTQ community through lack of meaningful programming, your exclusion of the varied races and cultures through lack of programming that sees all as equal, respect for life—not only at birth, but along the entire life spectrum.  And finally, we have opportunity to comment throughout our adult lives on the behavior and vision of those who wish to be our leaders in the State House and in Washington through the gift and privilege to vote. The Old Testament prophet Micah said all of this well: “This is what Yahweh asks of you: only this, to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.”

At this point, friends, I feel a bit of clarification is in order.  Over our nearly 12 years as a parish, we have always stood on the premise that the weekly Scriptures will be tied to events happening in our world.  As your pastor; I feel it is my duty to make those connections, not for purposes of telling you what to do, or how to act, but simply to challenge us, as Jesus did the people in his time, to be our best selves.

In the regular Catholic church, meaning simply—not us, pastors are often stymied in making these connections because it is, “not the practice to upset people lest they cut their contributions to the parish. But I say, “The Scriptures are only worth looking at if we can make them meaningful and relevant in our everyday lives—otherwise we are simply wasting our time.”

There is always the danger though that some may see my comments as, “political,” but my intent is always to lift up, “morality,” or lack of it, shining the light of the weekly Scriptures upon those actions.  Over our 12 years as a parish, people have come to check us out as they look for a parish to be part of and some have decided not to stay because they don’t want to deal with those connections at Sunday mass.  I can remember one person who came in our first years as a parish who told me that they didn’t want to hear about all the negativity on a regular basis. I did try after that to interject as much hope as possible into our services. (Smile)  A concluding comment though to making the connections between our world and the Scriptures would be to say that our mission and vision statements, plus the memory of Jesus of Nazareth don’t allow me to proceed in any other way.  And if we are following Jesus’ lead, that is hopeful! Right?

So then, back to what it means “to be holy.”  The psalmist says today, “Our God is tender and compassionate.”  It would seem that if we are “to be holy,” as “God is holy,” tenderness and compassion must be part of how we behave in our world and with its people.  Joan Chittister, Benedictine Sister, takes a broader view of holiness and I would say, this is probably God’s view too!  “Everything that is, is holy, to the one who has the soul of a mystic.”  “Having the soul of a mystic,” it would seem to me, is about us seeing our world as basically good—seeing and hearing with our hearts.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians today calls us to this greater, “seeing and hearing”—seeing  and hearing in new ways as he asks us to, “remember that the Spirit of God dwells” within us, as “temples of God.”  With this knowledge, we have to strive for wisdom higher and deeper than this world has to offer, Paul continues.

And that leads us directly into the words of our brother, Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel today.  He too calls us to more than this world asks when he says, “We can’t just love those who love us.”  That’s easy!  Again, we must always go deeper—loving the one that may seemingly feel, unloved. Maybe, that is us—as in the story of the red dress.

So, what have we learned today?  We are temples!  Think about that! What do you think of when you hear the word, “temple”—grand, splendid, beautiful?  Perhaps.  Filled with the Spirit of God—we are wonderfully made, friends.  And with all these positive attributes; we have to consider that we are loved by the God responsible, ultimately, for our creation.  And with all good gifts; there is always the expectation that we will give back.  And that is why; this parish is and always has been, and always will be, about making the Scriptures given us each week truly a part of our lives and calling us to more than simply our own needs and desires.  Amen? Amen!

Friends, the exegesis of three years ago on today’s readings is still quite sound, so I thought I would run it by you once again.  Even a cursory look at the Scriptures for this week lets us know that each of us is called to goodness and that is a real rallying cry given all that is coming out of Washington these days.  We are given life—a wonderful gift and opportunity, to make choices that hopefully will reflect our best selves, not only for our own selves, but for others.  Our first reading from Sirach is a set of proverbs—“before [us] are life and death, whichever we choose will be given [us].”  The writer of Sirach makes it very clear, the choice is ours. The intent is that certainly we will choose the good, the right.  The writer says, “No one is commanded to sin, none are given strength for lies.” In other words, one has to work hard at being a liar, but as with all things, the more we do an action, the easier it becomes.  In this regard, it is instructive to keep in mind all the lies our president has told us in the past three years.

The psalm response affirms the choice for goodness—“Happy are they who walk in your law”—happy are they whose way is blameless.” Our prayer is one for strength that we may do what is right—“give me discernment, that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart,” the psalmist prays.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians makes it clear that we, as followers of Jesus, the Christ, are called to more than this world asks of us—he speaks of a wisdom that comes from the Spirit and is held by “the spiritually mature.”  I am presently reading a new book by David Brooks, entitled, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life,  actually an unlikely pick for me—anything from David Brooks, in years past, as I have historically not agreed with his conservative ideas. I was drawn to it due to a PBS interview wherein he spoke about why he wrote it.  Climbing to the “second mountain” seems to be for Brooks, moving toward becoming more, “spiritually mature.” In his words, “Whereas climbing to the “first mountain” was mostly about him, the “second mountain” has become about service to others.” I can’t fault him for that.

Jesus of course, had this wisdom of the Spirit that Paul talks about today, that Brooks is in search of—Jesus lived life from his heart and that is the step each of us much discern and put into practice—we start with the law, but that is only the start.  Often, laws are established to guide and instruct—to give order to life.  But laws can be short-sighted, self-serving—thus Jesus calls us to a higher law—the law to love. I wanted to lift up, as we spoke of last week, that our walk with our brother Jesus is very much about responding from our hearts and not just our heads. That is the message again this week—in fact, where Jesus is concerned—that is always the message!  I believe Brooks would agree that climbing the “second mountain” is about this “heart work.”

In today’s gospel Jesus fine tunes what this law to love is really all about.  He was constantly being challenged in his life of preaching and teaching by the Pharisees who said he was trying to subvert the law.  He responds that he does not mean to do away with even one letter of the law, only to open it up to include everyone.  The law speaks clearly on the black and white issues—do not kill—but Jesus challenges the Pharisees and us to realize that we can also “kill” with our words—with our actions that exclude, with actions that say, one is better than another—one is more worthy.

The laws concerning divorce and remarriage are a case in point. Those who have written about this dichotomy in Jesus’ time make the point that the marriage and divorce laws were very one-sided, favoring men, and that a man could divorce a woman for little or no reason.

Because women had no standing in that society; there was no recourse for them. Becoming divorced put a woman and her children in great jeopardy, especially if she had no family to return to. There were no social programs for needy women and their children.  So much of the seeming harshness in Jesus’ words today concerning divorce and re-marriage was aimed at the men, accusing and convicting them of greed, lust and taking care of only themselves.

“The woman caught in adultery” may have resulted from a woman having been ill-used in a marriage contract and needing to take care of herself, turned to the only possibility open to her—Scripture doesn’t tell us who it is who is committing the adultery—that is why Jesus brings some even-ness to that situation and doesn’t join the crowd in condemning her. He simply encourages her to choose more wisely.  Jesus is advocating here for the law, but he is calling the people of his time and us to so much more—to the law of love and understanding.

In our time, we see Pope Francis doing the same regarding marriage, divorce and remarriage.  As we spoke of last week—some bishops are prone to deny communion to the divorced and remarried as a punishment and Francis has said that communion should not be used that way—it is food for the hungry.  Unfortunately there are present day bishops fighting him on his merciful counsel.

Women over time have struggled with this very text from Matthew when it comes to needing to leave a marriage and then subsequently choosing to marry again.  It is important to remember that we cannot always take Jesus’ words literally; that it is so important for us to understand the context in which they were delivered.  We need to realize that Jesus’ messages have deeper meanings than what are at first apparent.

He was always about equality—what was good for the men, was also to be applied for the women—something we continue to struggle with today in Church and society.  Jesus of course, set the standard and was a man of the law; but the “more” that he advocated for, was the law to love, to understand, to extend compassion. Certainly our loving God intended compassion and understanding to be applied here, with marriage laws and everything else—laws are not for the sake of laws, but for the good of people and when laws don’t bring about the gifts of the Spirit; peace, joy, mercy and so on, in the religious sense or what is best for the majority of people in the civil sense; they need to be changed!

So friends, we are called to follow the law of love, ultimately, but there is this caution—living out the higher law will not necessarily make our lives easier and in fact, may make our lives uncomfortable at times. Jesus, our brother, was not understood in his time—he asked too much apparently of the holders of the law and they responded by attempting to silence him. We know though that the mystery of Jesus, which is our hope, is that his death was not the end, but led to life—life in abundance. Paul speaks of this life today: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, what God has ready for those who love God.”

We talk much here about how it isn’t the big things that we are necessarily called to in our daily lives in the attempt to live as Jesus’ followers; just the simple, everyday things—the reaching out in the ways that we can. Many of us have been very discouraged these past three years by what we see coming out of Washington—the untruths, the selfishness for the so-called, “needs of this country” over and above the needs of the world in which we live, under the guise of national security—targeting the innocent because of race and religion. The slashing of programs that support the arts, the free education of all of our children, the dropping of safe guards to protect the environment, our planet, making our schools safer from gun violence, against measures to uplift all our people of color, our women, and the list continues with each passing day.

We have our task set out for us friends.  We can’t tire in making our voices heard to our representatives in Washington—we need to attend marches, and demonstrations—this is way beyond political—it is truly about the integrity of our country, but more importantly, our integrity as individuals, as Christians—as followers of our brother, Jesus.

Mother Teresa, loved by many for her ministry among the poor and sick in Calcutta, often quoted from Damien of Molokai, “We may not do great things in our lives, but we live fully in doing small things with great love!” I know many of your stories and of how you do just that, day in and day out, giving where you can, giving as your faith calls you, reaching out in small, but most significant ways and you are making a difference!  We must never become disappointed, but keep struggling on, doing what we know to be right. A clear and present example of this is All Are One’s commitment to covering the month of February with Home Delivered Meals and Michael Maher’s leadership in making this happen.  Thank you to all who participated in this!

So, we are brought back to our Scriptures today. We, each of us, have the freedom to choose how our life will be—we can choose life or death and that choice will sometimes mean our life won’t always be comfortable.  We think of the heroes during the impeachment trials in Washington in this regard. But our lives will always be meaningful if we react to what life presents us, ultimately, from the heart.  The question that we must always ask—is this action that I am doing bettering the life of the many, rather than the few?  If we can answer, “yes,” responding from the heart, on a regular basis, we will be choosing life in all its abundance.  Amen? Amen!