My friends, Jesus’ message throughout his lifetime was that the “heart” is more important than the law!   To follow him means that we are called to be a step outside the culture in which we live. “Everyone is doing it,” or, “We have always done it that way,” is not good enough for the followers of Jesus, the Christ. We are always asked to give more than this world asks of us. The world seems to be saying, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy—but Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” We should always take our lead from him, as his followers, not from the world.

Being a follower of Jesus calls us to servanthood—being there for the other. And even in as much as I believe this; I want to extend the caution to those of you out there whom I know to be real “helper types.”  We must always remember to keep ourselves in the equation of those we extend our care to.

A lovely story is told, Mama’s Red Dress—one I have shared before, but it bears repeating in this regard.  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 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 is all about considering the other, including ourselves.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians spells out even more clearly why we should consider not only others, but ourselves. He gives the reminder that we are “temples of God.”  He had his work cut out for him, as it was his task “to open up” the message of Jesus—all are temples of God, including the Gentiles.  Today, the “Gentiles” in our midst have many names—immigrants, refugees, the LGBT community, women, the poor and so on.

Paul continues talking about “the wisdom of this world” and names it “foolishness” in the light of God’s wisdom.  We have heard, the ways of this world are not God’s ways.  To consider anyone not “worthy” is to be about the letter of the law, not the heart of the law.

All the readings for today’s liturgy speak to us simple messages and the theme is the same.  Be holy as God is holy.  The writer of Leviticus reminds us that our likeness to God is determined by the way we relate to others.  And we are told in no uncertain terms just how to do that:  Do not bear hatred, do not exact vengeance, and do not bear a grudge, but love all as yourself.  The part that is to be understood here but isn’t usually put into words is that first we must love ourselves, because if we don’t, then we can hardly love others.

   The Summons, our recessional hymn today speaks well to this issue of loving ourselves first before we can really love others. “Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same? Will you use the faith you’ve found, to reshape the world around, through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?”  The Leviticus reading ends by saying, “I am your God” which simply means, this is the way God wants it to be!

The beautiful psalm, 103 speaks to us of a God who is tender and compassionate.  Our God’s mercy toward us is limitless—as far as the east is from the west—limitless!

Jesus’ message is clear—we can’t miss it—we must love as our God loves and that means those that we don’t get along with—those who don’t like us. When we only love those who love us, we are responding in the fashion of “an eye for an eye,” of a few weeks ago.  It is important when we reflect on Jesus’ words about “turning the other cheek” to be clear that he is not asking any of us to stay in abusive situations—his point is that we shouldn’t return violence with violence.

Jesus’ final admonition to us today is that we be perfect as God is perfect. In this context we are told, “Perfect” means complete, undivided, grown to full statue—the essence of righteousness and splendor.  Simply put, God in Jesus knows what we are capable of and will always call us to be that best self, for ourselves and for our world.  That is the only way we will ever know peace on a personal, national or international level, we cannot exact vengeance for vengeance.  May God bless us as we strive to be perfect.

 

Friends, even a cursory look at the Scriptures for this week lets us know that each of us is called to goodness—a real rallying cry I think 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.

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.”   Jesus of course, had this wisdom—he 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.

In today’s gospel he fine tunes what this law to love is really all about.  Jesus 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—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.

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—a revolutionary idea! 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 looked at!

So friends, we are called to follow the law of love, ultimately, but there is the caution—living out this 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 saw the same thing in our Congress on Wednesday, in the person of Senator Elizabeth Warren.  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.”

Last week we talked 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 have been very discouraged by what we see coming out of Washington these days—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 filling of cabinet positions that will work against the free education of all of our children, against all the deliberate work of the past years to make our country and primarily 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.  Call your senators and representatives—don’t tire in making your voices heard—attend every march, every demonstration—this is way beyond political—it is becoming about the integrity of our country, but more importantly, our integrity as individuals, as Christians—as followers of our brother, Jesus.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, in confirmation hearings for Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama for Attorney General, was silenced on Wednesday when she tried to share Coretta Scott King’s letter from 1986 speaking against then Senator Jeff Sessions’ bid for a federal judgeship in Alabama. King’s objection was due to his record of racism in his dealings with the black population, trying to keep them from voting.  There is no reason to believe that he has changed in his thinking so Senator Warren felt the testimony of Coretta Scott King was still valid.

The Republicans, in the person of Mitch McConnell silenced her temporarily.  She then took her message outside the Senate chambers and went live on Facebook reaching nearly two million people and that continues daily as her prophetic witness goes on.  Elizabeth Warren is a powerful example for each of us.  The prophet Sirach reminds us; we must choose between life and death.

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.

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.  But our lives will always be meaningful if we react to what life presents us, from the heart.  The question that we must always ask—is this action that I am doing bettering the life of anyone?   If we can answer, “yes,” routinely responding from the heart, we will be choosing life in all its abundance.  May God bless each of us in our choices!

 

 

 

I’d like to begin today with a story that Sr. Joan Chittister shared recently in her monthly reflection, The Monastic Way.  She tells us at the beginning of each month that her reflections are intended, “to stretch the soul and help [us] to construct [our] world differently—to discover how God dwells among us [today] in surprising ways.”

Sr. Joan began by saying that she found this story on the back page of the newspaper, below the crease in the page.  So from the beginning, she is letting us know that this is not a world-changing event, but an ordinary story about ordinary people—a good reflection I think for Ordinary Time. After you have heard the story, you can decide for yourself how “world-changing” it just might be.

This ordinary story lets us into the life of Billy Ray Harris, who after years of bad luck, moved away from family and friends, and without a job, became part of street life in one of our country’s larger cities.  All the benefits he could get had run out, so homeless, he turned to panhandling.

One day, a woman came by and dropped a few coins into his basket and went on her way. That night when he was counting his change, he found a large diamond ring in the corner of his basket. He wasn’t sure if it was a real diamond, so he took it to a jeweler who confirmed that it was real and offered him $4,000 on the spot.

Billy Ray didn’t sell it, but put it back in his pocket and returned to his spot on the street thinking he would keep it safe in case someone returned for it.  And sure enough, a woman returned the next day and asked about the ring. Billy Ray told her that he had it and the woman was in shock when he returned it to her!

She and her family were so impressed by Billy Ray’s honesty and lack of concern for himself  in returning the engagement ring that they started an on-line fund to raise $4,000 to give him for his generosity.  And when all was said and done, they raised $190,000 and gave it to Billy Ray Harris who was then able to buy a small house, get a job and reconnect with his family. His life was literally saved because others took a risk—everyone in this story, took a risk and moved beyond their needs to help another.  And not just to help, but seemingly, “to recklessly” help.

That is what our brother, Jesus, calls us to as well—to move out of ourselves, and to simply, love, and share of the good in our lives, with those who have less. We need to hear and heed this message even more now when the rhetoric coming out of Washington seems to be to turn in, protect, and take care of ourselves regardless of the immigrants, the refugees, knocking on our doors.

The prophet Isaiah tells us today that because of our commitment to God, much is expected of us and not just as religious practices per se, but as ethical mandates—things we should do regardless of religion—as being part of the human race. We are reminded that, to be one with God is dependent upon our social responsibility, to those with less—our livelihood seems dependent upon seeing to the livelihood of others.  In fact, all of us in the First World are really challenged and convicted by the unequalness of goods around our world.

The Scriptures use “light” to depict goodness in one’s life, and as scripture scholar, Diane Bergant says, the “good” is a symbol of our own deliverance, just as Billy Ray was delivered—that prosperity will be ours—truth, God’s favor, life and all good things.

Billy Ray Harris extended the good that he could and those who had more of this world’s goods responded with abundance.  The mandates given by Isaiah today are about the basics of human living—food, shelter, and clothing. But the mandates ask for more from us—we are to get personally involved; face to face kind of involvement—sitting down with the recipients of our charity at the Catholic Work House, hearing their stories, sharing an hour with them.   “Share,” paras in the Greek, means to “break in two,”–I would say, “to open ourselves up.”

Isaiah continues to challenge us to stand up for those oppressed, for those who live with economic burdens, those who are falsely accused. We will need to speak up when we hear speech that undermines the fabric of our social life, even if the source of that speech is the White House. Those who are part of the family of believers are expected to be concerned about all these issues—we are to be about community and about what builds that up, not tears it down.

Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians is most concerned that he would not get in the way of the message of Jesus.  To clearly “shine our lights” our actions need to be pure, not about feeding our egos, but in “breaking open” ourselves for others.

Billy Ray Harris had every reason to see himself as most needy in the story that I shared—without home, job or family—but he dug deep to find the best in himself.  Even though there was much that was needed in his own life,  Billy Ray had the sense to know that there were things even more important to him than the material goods that he was without—like being an honest person and realizing that there was probably a meaning more important than his immediate need. If he were to lose his integrity, what did it matter if he had home, food or a job?

The Sermon on the Mount is instructive in this vein—with the symbols or signs of light and salt; we see how we are to find and share God in the ordinariness of our days—in the ordinariness of our lives—with other ordinary people like ourselves.  But in the midst of all this ordinariness; there is the “extraordinariness of God’s grace,” says Diane Bergant—ordinary people doing ordinary things, through the extraordinary grace of God. We all come from God—we are spiritual people—we are of God—called to do extraordinary things with our ordinary lives.

We, as followers of Jesus have hopefully been transformed by his words, his life, his actions, and that they have made a difference in our lives, so that we can be “light” in our world, to each and every person that we meet.

It may seem strange to us in the world in which we live—one that seems to uplift the strong and powerful, the glamorous, and the well-off, that Jesus would be giving a message that, the weak will confound the strong.”  Jesus was a simple laborer by trade as were his apostles and he called them where they were at and each did a great job of extending his life and light in the world.

Now, most of us can get our heads around the fact that Jesus was a simple man, that his apostles and disciples were simple men and women—what seems the harder thing for us to understand as Diane Bergant continues, is that we,  as simple people too would be Jesus’ choice to continue his work on earth—that each of us can make a difference right where we are in Winona, MN—that our own particular light is waiting to break forth, here, now, if we but allow it to.

Each of us learned the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as children and much of the goodness that each of us is about in life probably comes from those early messages from parents or teachers. Sometimes we forget that these simple ways to reach out to others and care for them is what Jesus asks of us as his followers—just the everyday; taking food to a sick neighbor or to a family who has lost a loved one, caring for an elderly family member or friend in our home, sending a card or flowers to someone who may be down on their luck.  It isn’t the grand that we are called to do, but the everyday, the ordinary, and in the ordinary, the deeds become extraordinary. Again, Ordinary Time is a great time to remind us of that.

Many of us are lamenting the cold these days that continues to hang on relentlessly. Joan Chittister, in one of her daily meditations tied the weather to the message laid out for us this week.  The cold and the vulnerable way that it makes us feel when we are out in it is a good time to reflect on those in our world who don’t have homes or heat, perhaps enough food, clothes—the basics of life.

She seems to be saying, as Jesus did so long ago—a message that echoes in our hearts still, that each of us needs to struggle with the inequality in our world in whatever ways we find it, materially, emotionally or spiritually. There sometimes seems little that we can do, but we should never be totally comfortable with the inequality—what many of us take for granted so often. But, we can do what we can do—support initiatives that share the world’s goods, simply coming to the realization that we live quite well because others have so much less.

Our world has become a rather small place and we all as nations on this planet have become quite connected, even though there are those in Washington who seem to know nothing of diplomacy.  The Sermon on the Mount and the words of the prophet Isaiah, each call us to awareness, to action. Let us pray together for the wisdom to see the ways that we can help and the strength to then, act.  And, let the people say, “Amen!”

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Correction from this week’s bulletin: 

I had said in error that the Feast Day of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr was celebrated on February 2–his actual feast day was on February 3.  St. Blaise is the patron of illnesses of the throat and in the past, throats have traditionally been blessed in churches on this day. Those present at Mass today received that blessing against illnesses of the throat. For those not present today, I send you that blessing!

My friends, the theme of the past few Sundays continues again today—if we wondered about being called to be “lights” to our world—whether in fact that is true; we can wonder no longer—because once again it is all over the Scriptures today—as Jesus’ followers, we must walk in his footsteps and shine light into the darkness of people’s lives.

The prophet Isaiah and the psalmist today sharpen our ideas on just what “light and darkness, salvation and refuge,” meant and how all of this instilled great trust in them for a God who watched over and protected them.  The 23^rd psalm in the Scripture translation, The Message speaks well to this notion—of their God “chasing after them all the days of their lives,”

Each of us can attest to times of “light and darkness” in our lives, so we have a sense of what Isaiah meant when he spoke to the people about these concepts.   The Israelites often experienced the attacks of enemies—the Assyrians from the north, for example.  When Isaiah wrote this passage, there had been dark times for the people.  They had watched as their lands were divided up by their conquerors.  And, as with ups and downs in our own lives, the tables turn at one point and the Israelite people come out for the better.  Isaiah reminds them that in all of this, their God was with them.  We sang of this in our opening hymn, “God of Day and God of Darkness.”  The joy the people feel is akin to what they know—the joy of a good harvest—of a job well done. We might add, the birth of a baby, a family member finally landing a job.

For this people there was the sense that one never saved one’s self—salvation or deliverance came out of the goodness of another.  Our faith tells us the same.  Our psalm response today which we sang beautifully, “You are my light and my salvation; of whom should I be afraid?” speaks well to the fact that our God is always with us. For the Israelites, “dark and light” were key ideas.  The dark not only represented an unsafe place, but the forces of evil.  In our day, the dark might still convey such thoughts, especially of “unsafe places” when we are in strange, dark areas, alone.

But “light” was seen as the force that dispelled any danger.  Psalm 27 is all about the overriding theme of trust in God who dispelled all darkness and evil.  All the prophets for years had prophesied that the Messiah would come and that this One would be a “Light” to the Nations.

There is also the aspect of “refuge” in Psalm 27—trust in this good God not only for salvation from evil, but a sense of protection, “May I dwell in your house all the days of my life?”  This statement-question really, not only meant the actual house of prayer, the synagogue, but in the broader sense, the psalmist was asking for an intimate relationship with God. I think we can understand this desire as one that we all share—to know our God ever more completely.  I think each of us has that innate longing to know and understand who God is and in the words of St. Augustine, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

In our own, everyday lives, to know that we are loved and cared for by others is so important and because of this purely, human gift of love, the idea that God could and does love us in the same way is a concept much easier to grasp than for some people who haven’t been loved and cared for in the same way.

This past week, I worked a few days at the hospital and nursing home covering for a colleague who is on maternity leave.  It has been a great joy to step back into this ministry again after being retired for almost two years. Whether in hospital walking with people who are chronically or temporarily ill, or in the nursing home with people facing the sunset of their years; I have always felt that I have the responsibility of bringing them the face of God and if I can do that, then it may be easier for them to believe that God loves them in the same way.

The theme of “light” and “shining that light” continues in the second reading too.    Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is all about helping this people to keep focused on their mission—to live in unity and in love—they can’t do that through petty squabbles he says.  Interesting that Paul gets his information about the strife in Corinth from a woman, Chloe, by name who is apparently head of a household and perhaps an elder in the Church there.  Paul seems to have no trouble taking the word and counsel of a woman—he is also willing to work with women for the good of the Church.  Clerical men of today—take heed!

In essence, the Corinthians seem to have trouble keeping their eyes on Jesus, a problem we all struggle with at times.  Paul sets them straight by basically saying—no one can take Christ’s place—he is the light we need to follow.  Again, we need to think about what Jesus would do in any situation and then do likewise.

This thought moves us right into the gospel message.  Matthew proclaims the establishment of Jesus’ ministry on earth.  With John’s arrest, Jesus knows that John’s time is over and his has come.  We might think that Jesus’ leaving for Capernaum when he hears that John has been arrested is a sign of fear in him, which would be natural, but actually, it’s not fear, only the realization that he needs to begin his own ministry apart from John’s even though his message will be the same as John proclaimed—“Repent, for the kin-dom of God is here, now!”   And in that time there was no better place than Capernaum to begin—a place which was at the crossroads of all trade with Damascus, Syria and Phoenicia.  Capernaum was a seaport town in the region of Galilee.  If Jesus really was afraid, he would have gone to his hometown of Nazareth instead of setting up his residence in a strange place where no one knew him.

It is important for us to understand as much as that is possible, the mind of Jesus so as to get the full import of his actions.  Part of Jesus’ going to Capernaum was to establish his ministry, but also because the people in the region of Galilee were the first to experience the darkness of being overrun by the Assyrians, and it seemed appropriate that this people should be the first to have the “light” shine upon them.  And as usual, Jesus gets right to work—he teaches in the synagogues, he proclaims the Good News, and cures those suffering from disease and illness. In addition, this gospel is a wonderful one for us to look at as we reflect on the whole aspect of “call.”

Diane Bergant, scripture scholar tells us that we should not miss the radical nature of the response of Jesus’ first followers. She reminds us that they were not beggars, but gainfully employed in one of the most stable businesses of the time—fishing. They gave up a great deal to follow him.  The gospel tells us that brothers, James and John left their father to follow Jesus and in their culture where family ties were everything and loyalty to one’s father, so important; this was quite a gift!

We have to believe as we consider this scenario, because Scripture doesn’t do a psycho-emotional review for us, that Jesus must have been such a compelling presence to make these first followers realize that this was all they could do—all, in fact, that they wanted to do—to leave everything and follow him.

When I think of my call to seek ordination to priesthood in a Church that does not see women as legitimate nor acceptable in this role, I find myself and other women like me in the same place as those first disciples. Knowing that there would be opposition and those who wouldn’t understand, I/we knew we must do it just the same—we couldn’t say, “No” to the Spirit of Jesus, calling. And it is also good for us to remember that Jesus’ first followers didn’t go to him—he went into their lives, their space, and called them there, as he calls us!

Jesus calls each of us, friends, not all as radically as these first ones or others since, but yet each of us has been called; that is why each of us claims to be a Christian today.  We are called from something to something else.  For some the call is very clear– others perhaps have experienced an un-ease in their life and ask—“What do you want of me God?” They may have a sense of God tracking them down.

Each call is individual—our God calls us as we need to be called—we are called from something, to something. Most of us are called to live within our life situations, with the call being more about leaving pettiness, meanness, backbiting, absolutizing the Gospel, behind, and taking on mercy, love, justice—a sense of care for all.

Diane Bergant says, in the long run, it is much easier to leave one’s nets behind than one’s prejudices.  She goes on and I paraphrase; if we can do that, we will live lives of servanthood, we will proclaim the gospel through our lives in public and in private, we will move to heal dis-ease in body, mind and spirit of those that we meet, we will work for peace and justice unrelentingly—as I think we will need to do these next 4 years, we will respect the struggles and commitments of others, we will in fact be a light in the darkness—we will be continuing in our time, the ministry of our brother, Jesus, the Christ.  May we each have the strength and perseverance for this awesome task!