Mix It Up

What is the Kingdom of God like?

We could spend a lot of time meditating on that.

We should spend a lot of time meditating on that.

We know a lot about the Kingdom of God.

But not everything.

And we don’t always have a clear picture of it in the front of our minds.

We know that the Kingdom of God is here today—here on earth.

Jesus established it when he came here two thousand yeas ago.

A Kingdom without borders, but a true state, a true community.

A state where we can choose to take up residence.

A state of being, a state of mind, a spiritual state.

A state populated by many others—passed and present—known and unknown,

Who welcome us into community with them.

In our Gospel today, Jesus stresses two aspects of the Kingdom.

Its dramatic growth and the sustenance it provides.

It’s like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a bush that’s billions of times its original size.

A bush that is home and shelter to those who come to dwell within it.

The Kingdom is also like the yeast that mixes in with the surrounding wheat flour to transform it.

It makes the dough expand and rise up and as one bread, one body.

Indeed, the Kingdom has grown immensely since its establishment.

From an initial handful, to a few thousand at the time of Jesus’ resurrection,

To many billions throughout the years leading up to today.

That growth has come through the grace and action of God.

First by Jesus himself coming to gather the nations into the peace of God’s Kingdom.

And then by citizens of the Kingdom mixing with and raising up the surrounding populations.

We Christians, especially we Catholics, are blessed with the faith God has given us.

The truth He has revealed to us.

The Good News that Jesus came to save the world.

The Good News that God is the loving Father of all mankind.

That he loves all His children, and wants all of them to enter into His Kingdom.

We are today’s earthly contingent of the Kingdom of God.

We’re blessed with our citizenship and with the shelter of the Kingdom.

And we’re charged with the task of finishing the work Jesus began.

The work of gathering the nations into God’s one Kingdom.

Using the talents we’ve been given to spread the Good News.

By word and act and example.

We’re today’s yeast.

To paraphrase Pope Francis,

Let’s get out there and mix it up.

Tuesday, 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 13:18-21           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Master/Servant

Today, Jesus gives us a lesson on how to be good, faithful servants.

Anticipating the Master’s needs.

Vigilant, and always ready and eager to attend to the Master’s needs.

The lesson immediately calls to mind our servant-master relationship with God.

Jesus came to us as a brother, but we know that he came also as our Master.

That he’s with us still today in word and sacrament and spirit.

And that he’ll come again at the end.

To all of us at the end of time.

And to each of us at the end of our individual time on earth.

He tells us to be ready for his return.

Always ready, because he may come when we least expect him.

The way to be always ready is to be always his good and loyal servants.

Following the commands and guidance he’s given us.

And he promises to give us a great reward for our service.

He’ll sit us at table and proceed to wait on us.

So, this isn’t only a lesson on being a good servant.

It’s also a lesson on being a good master.

The good master appreciates and rewards the good servant.

Even to the point of switching positions with the servant.

And isn’t that how it is in this life?

There’s mutuality in the master-servant relationship.

Both give something and both receive something.

But the master has the power and authority.

And the servant obeys and attends to the master’s needs.

In our relationship with God, He has the power and authority, we’re always the servant.

Even though he treats us as a child, or a brother or sister.

But in our relationships with others, we’re sometimes the master and sometimes the servant.

Parents are the masters and their children are the servants.

But those children grow up to be masters of their own children.

In the workplace, we’re masters of some and servants of others.

And sometimes those roles shift between the same individuals.

We can have a situational rather than fixed status.

I knew a court manager who was also a Lieutenant in the Army reserves.

And his court deputy would become his commanding officer when they had reserve duty.

We can be both master and servant to someone who is both master and servant to us.

The master-servant relationships can begin to sound pretty complicated.

But Jesus told us how to keep it simple.

Be a servant to all—even when we find ourselves in a master’s role.

And that’s really just a corollary of his two simple, great commandments.

Love God with all your heart soul and mind.

And love your neighbor as yourself.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 12:35-38           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Unity

The other day I was surfing the web for an update on the debt limit standoff.

And I came across some results from an Internet survey.

It had been conducted by NBC and Esquire Magazine.

To determine just how divided the American people are.

It probably wasn’t the most expertly crafted or analyzed survey.

But the answers enabled them to plug each respondent into one of eight categories.

Starting from far left-wing and moving to far right-wing—

The somewhat colorfully-named categories were:

   The Bleeding Hearts

   The Gospel Left

   The Minivan Moderates

   The MBA Middle

   The Pick-up Populists

   The #WhateverMan

   The Righteous Right

   The Talk Radio Heads

They found that 51% fell into the middle four of those eight categories.

And they dubbed those groups the New American Center.

Even though they’d already done their analysis, you could still take the survey.

I did and, as expected, I fell within those center regions.

What I didn’t expect from that type of survey was so many questions about my prayer life.

How important is faith to you?

Do you pray and reflect on your faith regularly?

Did you go to church last weekend?

Do you pray often, daily, seldom or never?

In our Gospel passage today, Jesus tells us that it’s necessary to pray always.

Without becoming weary.

Elsewhere in the Gospels, he says we must pray without ceasing.

The survey folks didn’t think to provide a selection for that level of prayer.

What does it mean to pray always; to pray without ceasing?

It could be taken most literally—

At every instant have a prayer on our lips or in the front of our mind.

But that would be impossible, even for the cloistered monks and nuns.

We all have to sleep and eat and work.

And at least at some times give full attention to the world we’re in.

Praying always could mean—always have a prayer in our heart.

Cultivate a relationship so close and constant with God that we’re always conscious of Him.

That everything we do is with an attention and dedication to God.

In a sense then, our every act and every thought becomes a prayer.

A communication with God.

Some people do achieve that near perfect level of being a contemplative in action.

But that level of perfection may seem out of reach to many of us.

Still, that unity with God is a worthy goal for all of us.

The necessity of praying always and without ceasing could simply require—

Praying regularly, repeatedly and consistently.

In fact today’s parable supports that interpretation.

The widow doesn’t plead with the judge every waking moment.

But she does keep coming to him, persistently and consistently over a long period of time.

There are many types of prayer and ways of praying.

One acronym for the major categories of prayer is PACT—our PACT with God.

Prayers of: Petition, Adoration, Contrition and Thanksgiving.

All of these can be rote recitations of prayers we’ve learned over the years.

Or ad hoc conversational prayers that simply flow from within as we talk with God.

As we compose our own thoughts and words, and listen for God’s words.

They can be private or public, solo or group.

We can pray directly to Jesus, or to God, or to Father, Son, or Spirit. 

We can even petition the saints and the angels to intercede for us.

We pray all of those types of prayers often—they’re all in the Mass.

We can make analysis of our prayer life as simple or complex as we want.

It can be as structured or unstructured as we choose.

We’re all familiar with the rote prayers—and they have great value.

But the ad hoc conversational prayers are often the ones that take us deeper.

Deeper into our own very personal relationship with God.

We all make ad hoc prayers of petition when we desperately want something.

There’s nothing like a true crisis to spur us into fervent prayer.

And surely we make an ad hoc prayer of thanksgiving if we get what we asked for.

If we cultivate our relationship with God through conversation,

We may well touch on all those types of prayer in any single conversation.

One commentary I read regarding today’s Gospel passage said:

Luke sees prayer as the manifestation of our relationship with God.

Those who pray have one.

Those who don’t, don’t.

This Mission Sunday would be a good time to commit to becoming fully evangelized.

Maybe then, others might be evangelized through us.

And the best way to become fully evangelized is to 1et God Himself complete the job.

We cooperate with Him when we build-up our relationship, through prayer.

Our personal cooperation can ensure a positive answer to that question of today’s Gospel.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

That NBC-Esquire survey popped up as an unlikely reminder of the necessity of prayer.

And it did a pretty good job of phrasing the important questions.

Tweaking them just a bit, they become something we might ponder from time-to-time:

Do I pray and reflect on my faith regularly?

Do I pray enough?

How important to me is my faith?

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 18:1-8           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

National Alms

But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, almsgiving is:

Any material favor done to assist the needy, and prompted by charity,

According to Wikipedia, it involves giving materially to another as an act of virtue.

The key element of almsgiving is the attitude and motive of the giver.

It has to be prompted by charity, an act of virtue.

Those definitions are in keeping with what we’ve been told by Jesus.

And by the Jewish prophets before him, and the Church scholars after him.

They’ve all said that almsgiving is necessary—for the sake of the giver.

The Twelfth Century Jewish Scholar, Maimonides (my-MON-i-deez),

defined eight ascending levels of virtue in almsgiving:

  1- Giving begrudgingly

  2- Giving less than you should, but giving it cheerfully

  3- Giving after being asked

  4- Giving before being asked

  5- Giving when you don’t know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient knows yours

  6- Giving when you know the recipient’s identity, but the recipient doesn’t know yours

  7- Giving when neither party knows the other

  8- Giving so that the recipient may become self reliant

Today, we and the world watch as Congress battles over our national budget.

A battle where many of the arguments concern government programs to assist the needy.

In that role, our modern welfare state might be seen as interfering with our almsgiving.

It requires us to contribute taxes and other payments for programs that help the needy.

Depriving us of some of our opportunities for more direct, free will, acts of charity.

Depriving us of some of our resources for more direct, free will, acts of charity.

So our government does interfere with the free will aspect of those contributions.

But at the same time, it could help us move up the ascending levels of virtue.

We reach at least the level of unidentified giver and receiver.

And sometimes even that top level of enabling the recipient’s self reliance.

As imperfect as our welfare state may be.

As inefficient, poorly administered, or abused as some program might be.

All can still benefit today, while we try to improve those programs for tomorrow.

As we’re told, the key element in our almsgiving is our motive and attitude.

So, we can internally decide to treat our government payment as a cheerful free will contribution.

A contribution toward the ideal ends that the supported programs might achieve.

With that spirit, that awareness, that intent—our payments can take on a dual nature.

Even though required by law,

They can become part of our interior-cleansing, spirit-building almsgiving.

Alms to help unidentified, needy individuals become more self reliant.

Alms for the general benefit of ourselves and our society as a whole.

Tuesday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 11:37-41           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Hospitality

Tomorrow, my wife and I have a guest coming to visit.

A friend from France who we haven’t seen in a number of years.

He has only a few free hours to visit.

We could have him over to our house for dinner.

But we just got back last night from a trip ourselves.

And we’re a little behind in our work and housework and other commitments.

For the dinner, we’d need to get some grocery shopping done.

Plan a meal and prepare it.

Nothing unusual or especially difficult to accomplish.

But, as we all know, even small added tasks can add pressure on our schedules.

Fortunately, we have an easy solution.

We can just go to dinner at a restaurant.

The cooks and waiters will take care of all the planning, preparing and serving.

And we can spend all of our visit time talking with our friend.

Catching each other up on what’s happened over the past years.

Listening to each other’s plans for the future.

Good food can add to the enjoyment.

But the meal isn’t the reason we’re getting together.

We’re getting together to talk to each other.

In today’s Gospel, Martha has a friend coming to her home.

Jesus is visiting her and her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus.

Hospitality is of utmost importance in their culture.

And Martha wants everything to be perfect.

There’s a lot of preparation, a lot of serving, a lot to do and a lot to worry about.

Unfortunately for Martha, there’s no convenient restaurant in Bethany.

And she doesn’t have servants or anyone else to help her—except Mary and Lazarus.

Lazarus wouldn’t be expected to clean and cook and serve—so that leaves just Mary.

But when the time comes, Mary’s not helping.

She’s just sitting at his feet, listening to Jesus.

Poor Martha gets so frustrated she complains to Jesus, thinking he’ll scold Mary.

But instead he reminds Martha of that most crucial element of true hospitality.

And that is, attention to the guest.

Not just attention to the décor, the ambience and the guest’s food and physical comfort.

Those are indeed worthy elements of hospitality.

But even more important is direct attention to the guest.

And more still, in the case of a guest with a message to deliver, attention to that message.

Jesus, with his Spirit dwelling within us, is on-hand to visit with us anytime, 24/7/366.

As often or seldom as we like, at any instant of our choosing, 

We can show him our hospitality.

Tuesday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 10:38-42           Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Today we kick off Fiscal Year 2014.

Most federal employees have extra free time to celebrate.

But they aren’t in a festive mood.

None of us are.

Every week of government shutdown could cost our struggling economy $10 Billion.

That’s not good for any of us.

And it will translate into real suffering for many.

So how did this mess happen?

It’s one of the endless examples of our human brokenness.

Our stubbornness, blindness, ignorance, jealousy, greed and pride—to name a few breaks.

Our willingness to inflict harm on others, even at the cost of hurting ourselves.

A brokenness that goes all the way back to a jealous Cain killing his brother Abel.

A brokenness that we see in the brothers James and John in today’s Gospel.

They’re ready to jump straight to the nuclear option.

The Samaritans are holding to their old animosity toward the Jews.

They’re disrespectful, they’re unwelcoming.

So John and James want to call down fire from heaven to consume them!

Jesus had to rebuke them for their extremism.

In our penitential rite this morning we prayed:

You came to reconcile us to one another and to the Father. 

You heal the wounds of sin and division. 

You intercede for us with our Father. 

Jesus came not only to reconcile us to God, but also to each other.

He’s given us the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.

He’s given us his example of forgiveness and mercy.

And yet, we find it too difficult to cooperate, to compromise, to get along.

Our budget spats are truly damaging to our opponents and ourselves.

Coming conflicts over the debt ceiling threaten to severely damage the world economy.

The evil of political/ideological budget disputes pales in comparison to other evils today.

The hatred, violence, torture and killing in Nairobi and Syria and so many other places.

But all those evils stem from the same root—our failure to get along.

No society, no generation before us, has succeeded at following Jesus’ example.

Now it’s our turn to try.

And we need to be the ones to set the example for our wider society.

It’s a daunting task.

But we can start with small steps and hope that we’ll grow into the role.

And that others will join us.

When we’re ready to unleash a response to or about those who disagree with us,

Let’s bite our critical tongue.

Let’s join our typing, texting fingers and thumbs into folded hands.

Until we can express ourselves in a kindler, gentler manner.

One that might help our society move toward reconciliation. 

Tuesday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time

Lk 9:51-56           Read this Scripture @usccb.org