Sunday October 29, 2017

Love Is a Decision

I was "sixteen going on seventeen" when I first "fell in love." Maura was my seatmate on the three-hour bus ride to Lough Derg in the northern part of Ireland. It is one of the few ancient places of penance remaining in the world today. People go there to spend three days fasting, without sleep and walking barefoot on the penitential paths of sharp stones.
The very moment Maura sat beside me I felt, as I had never felt before, a tingling excitement in my body and person. The bus trip seemed to take only a few short minutes. During the next few days we did everything we possibly could together. While others complained later about the sharpness of the stones, the lack of sleep and food, we giggled and did not seem to know what they were talking about because we were having such a good time. Falling in love is a wonderful thing. It is wonderful to be drawn out of self-consciousness to desire and to feel desired and valued and wanted by another human being. But "falling in love" is not "being in love." "Falling in love" is a feeling that has a biological basis; it is part of the normal attraction of the sexes. The feeling of love is a temporary thing and it will die there if there is not a decision to love, a will to love.
One of the great insights that have come to us from the Marriage Encounter is that love is a decision not a feeling. Husbands and wives vow to love one another in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, until death parts them. This is a decision, not a feeling. True love means to love even during a time when there are no more feelings, or even negative feelings.
Dr. Scott Peck defines love as, "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth" (A Road Less Traveled, p. 85). I like this definition because it shows that love is a decision in the will to extend oneself. It is therefore going to cost something; it is going to make one have to go beyond one's natural lazy self. Then this definition includes self-love with love for another. Since I am human and you are human, to love means to love myself as well as you. We are incapable of loving another unless we love ourselves. If my stretching to love you is destructive, not just painful to me, then it is not true love.
When Jesus was asked in today's Gospel which was the greatest - of the more than 600 laws that the Pharisees had - he answered, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself." In this he was not talking about feelings but about a decision to be totally for God and then totally for the good of one's neighbor as one should be for one's own good.
When we pray our mantra or prayer word in Christian meditation or in centering prayer, we are observing this first commandment and also the first commandment of the Mosaic Law, "I am the Lord your God, you shall not have strange gods before me." Often when we come to prayer we are asking God to give us our false gods of Success, Power, Prestige and Possessions. We often desire warm feeling and feelings of spiritual success or power or prestige. In wordless silence we ask nothing. We will to be with God who is truth. As we do this, God's light will show up the selfishness and falseness that is in us and in our relationships to ourselves and to others. It will call on us to see reality as it really is and to decide to be for ourselves and for others in the most up building possible way.
Often people, who make a seminar or retreat, fall in love with God. This is a wonderful feeling as was my feeling for Maura, my first love. This thrill and intoxication can lead people to promise to do extraordinary things for the Lord. But it is not true love, tested love. Tested love is a love that does not dry up when the well runs dry. It is a decision to be for the Lord in good times and in bad. It needs to be supported by a prayer form that is a decision to be for and with the one we love now and forever.

Monday October 30, 2017

Introduction
We are sons and daughters of God because the Spirit of Christ, the perfect Son, is alive in us. With Christ and through his Spirit, we can call God our Father. He is a father with a love warm and tender as that of a mother. God is not a paternalistic Father. He respects our freedom. He wants us to be responsible and mature and to give him a free answer of love. He wants us to serve him as spiritual people, that is, people moved by the Spirit, without any slavish attitude.
The stooped woman whom Jesus cured is just one sample of his love. Again, the legalists protest because Jesus cured a sick person on the Sabbath. Jesus appeals to their common sense. The Sabbath is a day of God, a day on which we remember the goodness of God and thank him for his love. Isn’t the day of the Lord the best day on which we can pass on the love of the Lord to one another and create one another anew?

Opening Prayer
God our Father,
we come to you in all humility
as we acknowledge to you that we have failed
and now seek your forgiveness.
Straighten us Lord, lift us up,
recreate us anew,
and fill us with your love.
Make us lift up one another
and give thanks to you,
our merciful and living God,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reading: ROM 8:12-17
Brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, "Abba, Father!"
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.

Responsorial Psalm 68:2 AND 4, 6-7AB, 20-21
R. (21a) Our God is the God of salvation.
God arises; his enemies are scattered,
and those who hate him flee before him.
But the just rejoice and exult before God;
they are glad and rejoice.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
The father of orphans and the defender of widows
is God in his holy dwelling.
God gives a home to the forsaken;
he leads forth prisoners to prosperity.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Our God is the God of salvation.

Alleluia JN 17:17B, 17A
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your word, O Lord, is truth;
consecrate us in the truth.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: LK 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath.
And a woman was there who for eighteen years
had been crippled by a spirit;
she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.
When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
"Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.
But the leader of the synagogue,
indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply,
"There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day."
The Lord said to him in reply, "Hypocrites!
Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?
This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?"
When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.

Intercessions
– That Christians everywhere may not be men and women of legalisms and outward observances, but people with a heart who do what they can for one another because they are God’s children, we pray:
– That we may be reliable friends to those marked by suffering in any form; that we may lighten their burdens and help them trust in God and in people, we pray:
– That the Eucharistic celebration on Sundays may be to all our Christian communities a source of great joy as we deeply encounter the Lord as a spring of strength to follow, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
in these signs of bread and wine,
we offer you our grateful and admiring love
as a gift of pleasing fragrance.
Free us from our infirmities,
help us to stand up in your presence
as your sons and daughters,
who know that you love us
and who communicate that love
to all whom we meet.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord.

Prayer after Communion
God our Father,
through the presence of your Son,
you have doubled our happiness
and lessened our miseries.
Let him give us in this Eucharist
the joy of sharing with one another
your own joy and goodness.
May we be present to one another,
as you are present to us
in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Blessing
On the day of the Lord, we intercede as mediators for the great needs of the Church, of the world, and of people in need. It is nice to pray for these intentions, but may the Lord inspire and empower us to do something effective to relieve these needs, whether on the Lord’s day or any day, with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Monday October 30, 2017

The Pharisees are being trounced again in today’s reading; they are the whipping-boys of the New Testament! Why does the Church keep putting them before us, day after day? Because, I presume, they (or we) are still here!
A crippled woman attended the synagogue. Let’s watch people’s eyes. Jesus “saw her.” He had eyes for the poor, for people who were suffering—unlike the rich man to whom Lazarus was invisible (see March 11). The Pharisees had eyes too: but only for breaches of their rules. The ruler of the synagogue was furious that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath (technically it was “work”, and work was forbidden on the Sabbath). He couldn’t look at Jesus, he couldn’t meet his eyes; he addressed the people with words meant for Jesus, for he lacked courage to speak to him face to face. But Jesus certainly looked at him when he said, or perhaps shouted, “You hypocrites!” And then his reasoning was so compelling that I can’t imagine that synagogue ruler looking anywhere but at the ground in shame. The absence of compassion in their religion was never so clear. It’s no wonder they came to fear and hate him. And it’s no wonder they encompassed his death. Violence is the reaction of people who can’t look you in the eye.

Tuesday October 31, 2017

Introduction
Creation itself, says St. Paul, is to be liberated and redeemed together with the people living in it. As they become freer, people will use God’s creation and technical progress not to destroy but to build up and to serve, to liberate more and more everyone and everything.
The kingdom of God must grow among us, like a seed growing into a tree, like flour transformed into bread by the yeast. But growth means change and going ahead, marching forward, and this cannot happen without change and saying goodbye to the past and even to the present, to walk forward in hope toward the future. This brings the pain of separation, of giving up something familiar, but also the joy of knowing that we are on the way with the Lord.

Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
you call us away from the certainties
of the familiar present
on a pilgrimage with your Son
toward a future of hope and joy,
even though we do not see it now.
Do not allow us to remain installed
in our own mediocrity.
Let our farewell to the present
not be marked with sadness.
Fill us with trust in him who guides us to you,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reading: ROM 8:18-25
Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

Responsorial Psalm 126:1B-2AB, 2CD-3, 4-5, 6
R. (3a) The Lord has done marvels for us.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done marvels for us.
Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done marvels for us.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done marvels for us.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done marvels for us.

Alleluia MT 11:25
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: LK 13:18-21
Jesus said, "What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches."

Again he said, "To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened."

Intercessions
– That the tiny spark of faith still alive in the hearts of many who abandon the Church may not be extinguished but grow again into a bright light to guide them to God and people, we pray:
– That parents and our schools may implant into the hearts of our youth the seeds of faith and of generous serving love, we pray:
– That missionaries may lavishly keep sowing the seed of the joyful Good News of the Lord in our often indifferent and hostile world, we pray: Prayer over the Gifts

Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God, you offer us your own future
in your Son, Jesus Christ.
Let him give us the courage
to march toward that future in hope,
without looking back, without regrets or hesitation.
Give us the bread of life
that sustains us on our journey,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion
Lord God, to you who are all our hope,
we pray with the fullest trust.
Let your Son here in our midst
wake us up from our self-contentment,
and open us to change and growth,
however painful the process.
Kindle in us the fire of his Spirit,
that what you have sowed and planted in us
may yield a rich harvest
of goodness and light and lasting love.
Grant this in the name of Jesus, the Lord.

Blessing
Let us also think of our faith as a small seed that must grow. We have received it as a gift to be developed. As we grow in age and hopefully, also in wisdom, our faith and love of God and people should become wider and deeper. Ask God for this grace and may he bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Tuesday October 31

Spe salvi: we are saved in hope. Hope strengthens us to face our present struggles and embrace what the future brings. Let us listen to Pope Benedict XVI who wrote an encyclical on the theme of hope:
“[W]e see as a distinguishing mark of Christians the fact that they have a future: it is not that they know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness. Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language, we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel: is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.” (Spe Salvi, #2)

Wednesday November 1

There are saints whom the whole world knows and loves. There are saints who are known only locally, within a particular region and among a specific population. But there are saints, totally unknown to the world, but fully known to God. If no sparrow falls to the ground without God knowing it and every hair on our head is counted, God knows every holy whisper of the hearts of those who love him, how insignificant they seem to be in the eyes of the world. It is this great crowd of witnesses, from every nation, race, people, and tongue that John sees in his vision. It may include my grandfather, neighbor, colleague, housekeeper, and even my enemy—people who looked so ordinary that I never considered them to be holy. It is their memory the Church honors today.
Bishop Fulton J. Sheen spoke of three surprises that awaited him in heaven: First, he would find in heaven many people whom he had never imagined to find there; second, he would not find in heaven many whom he had expected to see there; and finally, the surprise of all surprises, he would find himself in heaven! The Solemnity of All Saints is a feast of hope for us. For, we are all called to be saints.

Thursday November 2

If the Solemnity of All Saints fills us with much excitement, the Commemoration of the Dead sobers us up. This memorial invites us to meditate on three realities: (1) Death is a rite of passage for every human being born into this world. (2) Whereas everyone is called to be a saint, not everyone responds to it adequately, and therefore, there are souls who undergo further purification posthumously and who need our prayers so that their purification process is hastened and they can be admitted to the beatific vision. (3) We, the Church Militant, are integrally linked to the Church Triumphant (the saints whose memory we honored yesterday), and the Church Expectant (souls in Purgatory, whom we remember today), and that the members of these communities can receive and offer help mutually.
Today we are called upon to pray for all the dead—the dead who are known to us and the dead who may not have anyone to pray for them. They, in turn, can return the favor by praying for us. One day, we all shall be together in heaven as one people of God, beholding the face of God and delighting in Him.

Friday November 3, 2017

Introduction
We are the new Israel, the people of God’s promise, the new chosen people. God has given us many privileges. Is the anguish that Paul expresses with regard to Israel not to be felt by the Church too, with regard to many Christians, and by many Christians with regard to a Church sluggish to seek renewal? Are we ready with St. Paul to dedicate ourselves, whatever the cost, to the salvation of our brothers and sisters, including those outside the Church?
Something of what this goodness means is shown in practice. When eating at the house of a prominent man on a Sabbath, Jesus cures someone there who suffers, even on a Sabbath. Love is the reason and inspiration of the Christian Law. Is it in our lives, in our Christian community?

Opening Prayer
God of all grace and peace,
you have chosen us to be
your kingdom of peace and love.
But we have to acknowledge with shame
that there is still much room for growth.
Make our love richer, more sensitive,
complete the work you have begun in us,
that we may have a permanent place in your heart
and reflect the perfect goodness
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reading: ROM 9:1-5
Brothers and sisters:
I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie;
my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness
that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh.
They are children of Israel;
theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
theirs the patriarchs, and from them,
according to the flesh, is the Christ,
who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Responsorial Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.

Alleluia JN 10:27
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: LK 14:1-6
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.
Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,
"Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?"
But they kept silent; so he took the man and,
after he had healed him, dismissed him.
Then he said to them
"Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,
would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?"
But they were unable to answer his question.

Intercessions
– That the Church, for which Christ died, may grow into a large community of love, which makes God’s unconditional love visible to all people far and near, we pray:
– That in our Christian families, Christ may be the bond between husbands and wives, between parents and children, and that the young may grow up in an atmosphere of security, love and generosity, we pray:
– That those who are happy and healthy and surrounded by friends may, like Christ, lift up those who are tired and lonely, those humiliated and wounded in life, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
you set the table of your Son
not merely for a select few
but for all, for the sick and the suffering,
for the weak and the lonely.
Let Jesus’ love, his acceptance of people,
his spirit of sharing be ours
in all our Christian communities.
Teach us to set the table of ourselves,
as Jesus did, your Son,
who lives with you and stays with us,
now and for ever.

Prayer after Communion
Our God and Father,
we thank you for uniting us
in this Eucharistic celebration
at the table of your Son.
By the strength of Jesus,
let the Christian community be
to us, who belong to the Church
and to all people,
what you are to us:
love, peace and joy and a gift –
a gift freely given and never regretted.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.

Blessing
Heal the sick. We, too, can do this. How often do you visit a sick relative, another sick person? Sunday would be a good day for it. We bring healing to the sick also by our visit, by encouraging words. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Friday November 3

Here we are once again in the Valley of the Squinting Windows. The Pharisees are watching him closely. The incident is practically the same as the one we saw on October 25.
In the way he describes things Luke sometimes shows he’s an outsider, a Gentile. For example, in the reading we had on the 26th, he speaks of a “mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden.” The mustard tree was not a garden plant; it grew wild around the shores of the lake of Galilee. It grew to a height of three or four meters and would not be an ornament to any garden! In today’s reading he mentions “a leading Pharisee,” or “a leader of the Pharisees,” as the RSV translates it. In fact, the scholars tell us, the Pharisees were not a sect with rulers or leaders and disciples. Still, he knew as much as he needed to know about them. Probably one malicious stare from a Pharisee was a full education on the whole brood!
A girl was giving me a blow by blow account of a row she had with another girl. It had escalated from a disagreement to an outright shouting match. Had they been boys the next stage would have been fisticuffs. But in this case the climax was, “I gave her a look!” Ever since then I’ve been more aware of looks! In a history of malicious looking the Pharisees would represent the golden age.

Saturday November 4, 2017

Introduction
If a trusted friend proves disloyal, we feel badly hurt and find it almost impossible to remain faithful. Not so with God. He remains faithful to Israel, of which all but a small rest abandoned him. Yet the Jews keep a role in God’s plans by facilitating, beyond the possible exclusivisness of one people, the entrance of pagan nations.

Our Lord invites us to his table. He knows that we are people with faults, people who have hurt him and others, by the wrong we done and the good we have failed to do. Knowing who we are, he still loves us and invites us as his friends to join him at his table. Let us humbly take part in his meal and ask the Lord to make us more open to the humble, to people who have erred, and to the poor.

Opening Prayer
Our Father, who lift up the lowly,
your Son Jesus came into our world
as the servant of all and he cherished the helpless.
With him, make us respect and appreciate
the weak, the defenseless and the humble,
and accept to be numbered among them.
Dispose us to help them and to seek their help,
for you have poured out your mercy on us too,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reading: ROM 11:1-2A, 11-12, 25-29
And so I ask: Has God rejected his people? Of course not! I, myself, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected the people he knew beforehand. Don’t you know what the Scripture says of Elijah, when he was accusing Israel before God?

Again, I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not. Their stumbling allowed salvation to come to the pagan nations, and, this, in turn, will stir up the jealousy of Israel. If Israel’s shortcoming made the world rich, if the pagan nations grew rich with what they lost, what will happen when Israel is restored?

I want you to understand the mysterious decree of God, lest you be too confident: a part of Israel will remain hardened, until the majority of pagans have entered. Then, the whole of Israel will be saved, as Scripture says: From Zion will come the Liberator, who will purify the descendants of Jacob from all sin.  And this is the Covenant I will make with them: I will take away from them their sins.

Regarding the gospel, the Jews are opponents, but it is for your benefit. Regarding election, they are beloved, because of their ancestors; because the call of God, and his gifts, cannot be nullified.

Lk 14:1.7-11
One Sabbath Jesus had gone to eat a meal in the house of a leading Pharisee, and he was carefully watched. Jesus then told a parable to the guests, for he had noticed how they tried to take the places of honor. And he said, “When you are invited to a wedding party, do not choose the best seat. It may happen that someone more important than you has been invited; and your host, who invited both of you, will come and say to you, ‘Please give this person your place.’ What shame is yours when you take the lowest seat!
Whenever you are invited, go rather to the lowest seat, so that your host may come and say to you, ‘Friend, you must come up higher.’ And this will be a great honor for you in the presence of all the other guests. For whoever makes himself out to be great will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Intentions
– Lord, in our world the powerful are honored and the humble are looked down upon. Remember the humble, we pray:
– Lord, in our homes many sick people, the old and the weak and the lonely are often neglected and abandoned. Remember all those who suffer, we pray:
– Lord, many children and old people have only the street to live and to sleep in. Remember all of them, Lord, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
you overlook the poverty of our hearts
and you have given us a place of honor
at the table of your Son.
May we learn from him
to be at the service of all,
that you may give us a place,
however lowly,
at the eternal festive meal
of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
we stand here before you
as guests invited to his table
by your Son Jesus Christ.
We thank you that he has accepted us
without judging or condemning us,
though our faith is not clear-eyed
and we often limp while trying to follow him.
Dispose us too to accept as friends and guests
the poor and the weak,
just as you have accepted us
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Blessing
If we want the Lord Jesus to live among us, there is only one place that fits us, the last place, the place of people who know how to serve. There is no room for pretending what we are not. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Saturday November 4

Still “looking”! But then Jesus didn’t have his eyes closed either: he noticed how the Pharisees competed for the places of honor. But unlike them he was not motivated by malice. From this small incident at table he drew a parable of the Kingdom. (The “Kingdom” is the Presence of God.) God is visible everywhere and in everything to eyes that see.
The “take-away saying” is, “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” This saying occurs no fewer than three other times in the gospels (Lk 18:14; Mt 18:4 and 23:12). It’s rather like the piece of wisdom I heard on the street, “Don’t be making yourself so big—you’re not that small!” (October 26). And of course, it’s like that other saying, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last” (Mk 10:31). In a way, those who exalt themselves are already humbled, and those who humble themselves are already exalted. Self-exaltation isn’t worthy of a human being; it’s a betrayal of our true dignity, “a good person never considers that he or she has advanced beyond anything,” said Tauler (October 4). It’s a bit like economic inflation, when money has less and less value because of repetitive price increases. The “price increases” in this case are when I think and talk above myself. The more common word for it is “vanity.” In Latin, these two words—inflatus and vanus—mean the same thing: empty.

Sunday November 5, 2017

The Bogus

Sometimes we are socked to hear of apparently good people - public figures or church personalities - who are discovered to be leading double lives. These are the present-day Pharisees that Jesus condemns in today's Gospel. "Do what they tell you and listen to what they say," he says, "but do not be guided by what they do." As the Pharisee stories are passed down to us by St. Matthew they are probably caricatures of men who were generally decent. But as Matthew and his friends were having difficulties with them they used the words of Jesus to give them a bad press. So, was the Church of the time of St. Matthew a bit pharisaical itself? Was it twisting the truth for its own purpose?
We are always shocked when we discover good people that are bogus, phony, and plastic - Pharisees. But then one day we tumble to the bogus in ourselves! We discover how pharisaical we, ourselves, are!
Perhaps one of the greatest burdens that we have to carry in life is the image people have of us. It creates expectations and if we are not careful, we can become slaves of these expectations. One of the most dangerous "images" is that of "being holy." We can be forced to live out of that image, that holiness, and become a slave to it. That is why religion that is too much on the surface is seldom deep. People who have a reputation for holiness and who appeal too easily to discernment and the "will of God" as a reason for their actions can be escaping the relationship with God found in everyday life and in human situations. They can be bogus.
The world may be divided into two classes of people - the bad bad people and the good bad people. The bad, bad people would be those like the younger son in the story of the forgiving father (Luke 15). He knew he was bad and had no problem admitting it. The good bad people would be similar to the older son, obedient and respectful, but resentful and lacking in compassion; a bogus person. Here are two big surprises: First, the Lord had much more time and compassion for the bad bads than for the good bads. Second, the people who come to prayer or meditation groups are much more likely to be good bad people rather than bad bad people!
I know from personal experience that a lot of the depression experienced by religious people springs from jealousy. Jealousy is an insidious vice that is very hard to admit, especially by one who is known to be holy or in a state of holiness. I remember a teacher telling me once that he taught many people how to play the guitar, but none of them excelled. This was because he always kept something back because he feared to have a rival to his prowess as the best player in the establishment.
The Enneagram shows that each of us has some quality that we seek compulsively - being right, helpful, successful, special, wise, loyal, fun loving, strong or calm. If my self- esteem depends on my being wise or right or successful - or holy-I have a vested interest in your being dumb or wrong or a failure - or being sinful. As we grow up we learn that it is not socially acceptable to show ourselves for what we are in the raw, so we do it subtly. We often do or say one thing when our meaning or purpose may be quite contrary. We become Pharisees.
The mantra is the great diagnostician and the great cure for the Pharisee within us. As we say the mantra we are learning to sit at our own center where Christ is. He is the Spirit of truth, the truth that sets us free. In his light the dishonest and insincere very quickly stand out. At first it makes us very uncomfortable. We want to stop meditation and to run away from truth and the light. But if we stick with the mantra, the ego is gradually unhooked and we can ace the truth about ourselves and the truth will set us free.
As we meditate we will more and more discover the bogus in ourselves: The venality, the dishonesty and the lustfulness that we are still capable of in spite of the holy image that we project before others. As we say the mantra we will become freer to accept the darker side of ourselves and once we have accepted it, it loses control over us. We become more integrated and less bogus.

Sunday November 5, 2017

Let Your Life Tell God's Story

Greeting (See Second Reading)

Thanks to God, you have heard his message
through his Son Jesus Christ.
It is God’s own message which the Church proclaims,
not some human thinking.
It gives you strength when you believe it.
May Jesus, God’s living Word, be always with you.
R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

How ridiculous when someone shows you the way and then gets lost himself! How credible is the politician who makes promises and then does not keep them, the catechist who teaches religion and does not go to church, a priest preaching about justice and not paying his personnel? If we want to be trustworthy and believable, we ourselves must live as we believe, especially those in tasks of leadership and ministries. Let us learn from Jesus, here in this Eucharist.

Penitential Act
Let us ask forgiveness from the Lord and each other
for scandalizing others
by not living up to the faith we profess.
(PAUSE)
Lord Jesus, you came to serve,
not to be served:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you yourself took up the cross
before you asked people to carry theirs after you:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, your yoke is light
because you have shown us the way:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
and forgive us all our sins.
Help us to serve the Father and people with you
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer
Let us pray that our life
may not turn our faith into a lie
(PAUSE)
Lord God, our Father,
you keep speaking your Word to us
through your Son Jesus Christ.
Make us listen to that word and welcome it
with all that is in us.
Let that word change our mentality and our ways,
that it may direct our life
to make it a lived message of Good News
for all to see, to be inspired by, and to follow.
Let it be the living power that leads all
to give you praise and glory,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: God’s Messengers Who Do Not Speak God’s Word
The prophet speaks hard words against priests who do not speak God’s Word. They mislead the people and violate the covenant. Should they not be the first to be converted to the Word of God?

Reading 1: Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
A great King am I, says the LORD of hosts,
and my name will be feared among the nations.
And now, O priests, this commandment is for you:
If you do not listen,
if you do not lay it to heart,
to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts,
I will send a curse upon you
and of your blessing I will make a curse.
You have turned aside from the way,
and have caused many to falter by your instruction;
you have made void the covenant of Levi,
says the LORD of hosts.
I, therefore, have made you contemptible
and base before all the people,
since you do not keep my ways,
but show partiality in your decisions.
Have we not all the one father?
Has not the one God created us?
Why then do we break faith with one another,
violating the covenant of our fathers?

Responsorial Psalm Ps 131:1, 2, 3
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother's lap,
so is my soul within me.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
O Israel, hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.

Second Reading: Paul, A Good Messenger of  the Lord
Paul displays all the qualities of a true messenger of the Gospel. He preaches the Gospel as God’s Word, not his own, is ready to back it up with his life, is affectionate to his people (as a mother, he says).

Reading 2: 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13
Brothers and sisters:
We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you
not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well,
so dearly beloved had you become to us.
You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery.
Working night and day in order not to burden any of you,
we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.

Alleluia Mt 23:9b, 10b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You have but one Father in heaven
and one master, the Christ.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: They Do Not Practice What They Preach
Jesus warns against teachers who do not practice what they preach: Do what they tell you, but do not follow their example. The great danger is that we won’t ever listen to them, for they are not credible.

Gospel: Mt 23:1-12
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
"The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'
As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called 'Master';
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Intercessions
Let us pray today to the God of truth and love for truthfulness and authenticity in the Church and in the world, and let us say: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
– For the Church, especially its leaders, that with courage and honesty they may take to heart the task of renewal and reconciliation, so as to become more the true face of Christ the Lord to the world of today, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
– For priests and religious, that the poverty and love of Christ and people may become visible in them and make their teaching credible, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
– For politicians and civic leaders, that their concern may not be honor and power but justice, dignity, and the unity of those whom they honestly serve, let us pray: R/ Lord, her our prayer.
– For all who seek God with a sincere heart, for all who search for truth and justice, that their hunger may be satisfied; for reporters of newspapers, television and radio, that the truth may mean more to them than sensationalism and popularity, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
– For all Christian communities, including ours, that we may be truthful and reliable with one another, that our unity and friendship may be genuine, that we may not look down on those who err or doubt, let us pray: R/ Lord, hear our prayer.
God our Father, help us to love and serve you and people in spirit and in truth, through him who is our way to you, Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
in these signs we celebrate the memorial
of the death and resurrection of your Son.
He showed us how deep and reliable
was his love for you and for us.
Make our love as genuine as his,
open to your presence in each of us,
capable of forgiving injuries,
and always willing to share the best of ourselves.
Make this come true in our lives,
that our offering may express what is in us
in spirit and in truth.
We ask you this in the name of Jesus the Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
With Jesus, who came among us as the servant of all, we give thanks to the Father. R/ Our Father...

Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
We have only one Father,
the One in heaven.
To him we pray with Jesus. R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil,
from false appearances and pretences
that we are better than we really are.
Rip off our masks and place on our lips
words full and rich with the warmth of friendship,
that among us love may not be just a word
but a gesture of hope in the coming
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus the Lord, who says:
anyone who eats my flesh
and drinks my blood
will live because of me. R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion
God, who are we to boast or pretend?
It is you who have chosen us
and filled us with your gifts.
Even our capacity to do good
comes from your kindness.
By the strength of this Eucharist
make us unaffected and humble
before you and the good there is in people.
May we serve you with joy
in the simplicity of our hearts
and proclaim our faith with living deeds.
Grant this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing
You have only one Father,
the One in heaven.
You have only one Master,
Jesus our Lord.
Serve one another
in the Spirit of truth and love.
May the living and faithful God bless you:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Go in peace, live as you believe,
and serve one another. R/ Thanks be to God.

Monday November 6, 2017

Introduction
In the first reading, Paul says that God has never revoked his choice of Israel. Everyone and all are called to be saved by God’s mercy. That Israel did not accept Christ led to salvation being offered to the Gentiles.
We are inclined to love and invite those who love and invite us. Is this genuine love according to God’s standards? True love is gratuitous and opens itself to the poor and to outcasts. This is beautiful to say but hard to do. What is our practice?

Opening Prayer
Lord our God and Father,
we come together here as a people
to share in the feast of Jesus, our Savior.
Let this celebration be the sign of the feast without end
which you have prepared for us.
Make us rejoice with you
and welcome all with open arms,
people from everywhere, all nations,
the poor and the rich, the weak and the strong.
May all accept your invitation,
that we may rejoice with all
in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Reading: ROM 11:29-36
Brothers and sisters:
The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy

because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.

For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?

For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To God be glory forever. Amen.

Responsorial Psalm 69:30-31, 33-34, 36
R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
But I am afflicted and in pain;
let your saving help, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
They shall dwell in the land and own it,
and the descendants of his servants shall inherit it,
and those who love his name shall inhabit it.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

Alleluia JN 8:31B-32
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: LK 14:12-14
On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees.
He said to the host who invited him,
"When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Intercessions
– That those we encounter at the crossroads of life may hear and accept too, the invitation to the table of the Lord, we pray:
– That the Lord who destroys death may give consolation and strength to all who mourn the death of a loved one, we pray:
– That also the communities without priests, isolated as they often are, may receive the Lord as their food, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts
Lord God,
we are preparing your table.
Like your Son,
may we open life’s happiness and share it
first of all with the most deprived.
Make us set your and our table
for those who have no access
to most of life’s goods and resources.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion
Lord, our hospitable God,
we have shared the table of Jesus, your Son.
Let this mean for us that we have also to share our table
with the humble and the dispossessed,
even people who are difficult and not very lovable.
Inspire us to help them back on their feet
and to restore to them that which no one can dispense with:
self-esteem, self-confidence
and the indestructible courage
to be human persons.
Grant us this through Christ, our Lord.

Blessing
An impossible task? Something which only the naïve would try? Jesus has asked us today to care about the unlovable – or so we think – for no one is unlovable to God. Jesus cared and loved outcasts and sinners. Dare we follow him? May Almighty God give you wisdom and courage and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Monday November 6, 2017

When we throw a party, we deliberately invite our friends, family members, and people of high status precisely because we want the invitation to be reciprocated. Human society works on mutuality. We give so that we can get. When we stop getting, we stop giving as well. However, God relates to us on a different plane. He gives, even when we do not return the favor. Paul tells us that God’s call and His gifts are irrevocable. Even when everyone is disobedient to God and turns his/her back on Him, God continues to be merciful and generous with us.
Jesus invites us today to share in God’s nature. Be generous with people who cannot return the favor. Give without expecting to get. By doing so, we become perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt 5:48). We may not be able to grasp the depths of God, but by doing so, we will get a little taste of God’s manner of loving, which itself is the greatest reward we can hope for.

Tuesday November 7, 2017

Introduction
We belong together as members of the same body of Christ, each with one’s gifts and talents, with one’s own contribution to make for the well-being of the whole and for the service of others, in the solidarity of one common destiny in Christ. We are like guests at the same table, where there is room for everyone, also for those who are the last and the least in our merely human system of values. We belong together at the same table.
Today’s Gospel: has partly the same theme as that of yesterday: that in the kingdom of God, we have to open our homes and hearts to the poor, the neglected, the people without name or fame. This is why we take the messages of the first reading of years I and II.

Opening Prayer
Lord our God,
you have made us like parts of a body
dependent on one another.
Teach us to love one another,
for only when we are united
can we live in hope and joy
and persevere in trials.
Only when we are one can we relieve the suffering
that oppresses many of our neighbors far and near.
Give us this unity in love
that unites us beyond the boundaries of death
with you and one another,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Reading: ROM 12:5-16AB
Brothers and sisters:
We, though many, are one Body in Christ
and individually parts of one another.
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us exercise them:
if prophecy, in proportion to the faith;
if ministry, in ministering;
if one is a teacher, in teaching;
if one exhorts, in exhortation;
if one contributes, in generosity;
if one is over others, with diligence;
if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

Let love be sincere;
hate what is evil,
hold on to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection;
anticipate one another in showing honor.
Do not grow slack in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope,
endure in affliction,
persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the holy ones,
exercise hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you,
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.
Have the same regard for one another;
do not be haughty but associate with the lowly.

Responsorial Psalm 131:1BCDE, 2, 3
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother's lap,
so is my soul within me.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.
O Israel, hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.
R. In you, O Lord, I have found my peace.

Alleluia MT 11:28
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest, says the Lord.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: LK 14:15-24
One of those at table with Jesus said to him,
"Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God."
He replied to him,
"A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many.
When the time for the dinner came,
he dispatched his servant to say to those invited,
'Come, everything is now ready.'
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.
The first said to him,
'I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.'
And another said, 'I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;
I ask you, consider me excused.'
And another said, 'I have just married a woman,
and therefore I cannot come.'
The servant went and reported this to his master.
Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant,
'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in here the poor and the crippled,
the blind and the lame.'
The servant reported, 'Sir, your orders have been carried out
and still there is room.'
The master then ordered the servant,
'Go out to the highways and hedgerows
and make people come in that my home may be filled.
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'"

Intercessions
– That the Church may not only love the poor and care for them but speak out with courage when they are trampled upon, we pray:
– That in the poor, the sick and the handicapped, we may recognize and welcome the suffering Lord Jesus himself, we pray:
– That the poor and the suffering may not become embittered when freedom and dignity are slow to come, but that they keep believing in people’s capacity for love and God’s justice and care, we pray:

Prayer over the Gifts
God, our Father,
we thank you for your invitation
to break bread with your Son
and to celebrate his memory
around this table.
Dispose us to share the bread
of our food and of ourselves
with all those you love,
that we may be your one community
of service and mutual love.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.

Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, in your kindness,
you have again given us the food of life
of your Son, Jesus Christ.
As we have shared this meal,
keep us united with you and one another.
Let the Spirit of Jesus live in us,
that we may support one another
on the way to lasting happiness
which begins here on earth
and goes on for ever and ever.

Blessing
Extend hospitality to strangers, bless those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Quite a task! May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.