Self-preservation
Gospel: Jn 11:45-56
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032324.cfm
We consider it a great leadership quality to provide security and safety to the group you lead. When a person has a sense of security and safety they thrive. Leaders, at times, need to make hard decisions to protect their team. At times, they can harm others, intentionally and unintentionally, to protect their own.
We also have a drive towards this individually. We have an innate desire to protect ourselves, our families, our loved ones, our groups, our community, and our country. This desire is a good thing and is instinctual, but when not kept in check, it can drive us to poor actions. When we see the world as filled with threats, we are prone to be brash and treat others defensively. There are situations where this could be the correct response, but it is also easy for us to let it get out of hand. In the corporate world, you can see people worried about losing their jobs so they focus more on their appearance than doing the right thing. When in this type of defensive mode, people can default to the guidance and direction of their leader without questioning it, even though they may have a moral objection to it. It is easy to excuse one’s behavior when it is addressing a perceived threat.
It is hard to speak truth to power because it has the potential to threaten your way of life. The need for safety and security can impede us from doing the right thing. These behavioral changes don’t happen overnight, but start in little ways and can grow into us doing things that we would otherwise not do. Over time we can start seeing friends, neighbors, and co-workers as threats. In the name of self-preservation, we can shift from an inclusive mindset to an “us versus them” mindset. The longer we are in a toxic environment, an environment where we don’t have a strong sense of security and safety, the more we are prone to seeing others as enemies.
Today’s gospel shows that religious leaders during Jesus’s time had this type of mindset. They saw the world as threatening. There was the threat of the Roman Empire and the internal threat of new ideologies usurping their power. They also had the belief that their power, safety, and security would increase if their people kept the law better and improved on their covenant with God. For these leaders, Jesus was a threat in all of these ways. He showed signs of his connection to God through his miracles while he preached a new ideology that decreased the authority of their religious institution. They perceived his ideology as going against God’s covenant. His preaching also concerned them that it could lead to the Romans exuding additional authority over them and their people. These leaders were stressed and in a very defensive mode. They saw Jesus as expendable for the protection of themselves and their people.
How do we keep our need for self-preservation in check? We need to ask ourselves what the consequences of our actions are. Who is expendable in our decisions? Who are we overlooking or disregarding? Who do we see as our enemies? Jesus calls us to love our enemy and to listen to and be present to those overlooked by society. This is not something that comes easily but requires work. Let’s put in the work.
Actions should speak louder than words
Gospel: Jn 10:31-42
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032224.cfm
Jesus was condemned in today’s gospel by how he spoke, not by how he acted. It amazes me how our words and ideas can be such a point of contention. The world looks different if you strip it of ideas and words and focus on actions. Think of all the lives lost over differences in ideologies and beliefs. We justify all kinds of evil in the name of ideology.
But we always have a choice. We can have a difference in opinion and still break bread together. We can worship differently and still take care of each other. Compassion, love, and mercy are all reflections of God regardless of who they are coming from. None of us are good all the time as none of us are evil all the time either. How much better would the world be if we endorsed the goodness we find in others regardless of our differences in opinion?
Try to look at actions and less on the words and ideologies when relating to others. What are some beliefs you have that stop you from treating others with compassion and love? Challenge yourself to go beyond those beliefs and choose love.
The Mystery
Gospel: Jn 8:51-59
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032124.cfm
As we approach Holy Week next week, the readings include passages where Jesus reveals and speaks about his divinity. As he speaks about his identity, his audience tends to be offended, rebuke him, and try to kill him.
In today’s gospel, Jesus reveals himself as the tetragrammaton. The tetragrammaton is the term given to YHWH, or the name that God gives Godself in the Old Testament. It is simply translated as “I am,” “I am that I am,” or “I am what I do.” So when Jesus uses the phrase in today’s gospel, “Before Abraham came to be, I AM,” he is directly revealing himself as God.
The gospels show Jesus’s divinity in different ways and at different moments of his mission. For people of faith, it is very difficult to break from thinking of Jesus without considering his dualistic nature, both divine and human, but for Jesus, it was not a duality, it was just who and what he was. For us to make sense of it, we have to break the two apart and create a metaphysics to explain it. How can Jesus be both the creator and the created? How can he be both infinite and finite? The mystery reveals the transcendent nature of God. We can fight to understand it. We can create a metaphysics, a Christology, a theology, but no explanation will fully hold the mystery.
Our understanding of God has continued to evolve throughout human history and God continues to reach out. Where we are in our journey allows us to see different aspects and components of God. We can put labels on it. We can explain it. We can write poems and reflect on them, but in the end, no symbolic or scientific language can encapsulate or explain the divine. Once you think you’ve grasped it, you lose it. If you hold what you have with finitude, you are limiting the infinite.
As we approach Holy Week, consider embracing the mystery more. Welcome in uncertainty and keep yourself open to divine possibility. With our relationship with God, the journey is the destination.
Lenten Psalm
Gospel: Jn 8:31-42
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032024.cfm
I want to remain at the source of all that good,
The source of life, of truth, of all creation,
The word that spoke existence.
For I am with you and you are with me.
In being with you, I am creation’s intention:
I am free, seen, and loved.
Yet, I find safety and security
In chains of shame.
These chains I’ve shackled
To keep me alone.
You do not let me stay here,
You grasp and call out to me,
But I fear your judgment and compassion
I shy away from the reflection you provide.
I am not deserving of such things.
You grasp and call out
As I stay hidden
Until there is nothing left of me to seek.
Once I finally speak,
My only words are contrived
Echos of my fear,
Expressions of my desire,
Images of how I wish to be seen.
You are left as an orphan,
Asking where it went,
Grabbing for a remnant of what it was.
This is where I find you
At a place of honesty and truth.
May I return to the source transformed anew!
It is the place where I am known and I know;
The place where you are known and you know.
Let my actions express my depths
As your actions express yours.
Amen.
Joseph and the Temple
Gospel: Lk 2:41-51a
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031924.cfm
Today is the solemnity of St. Joseph in the Roman Catholic Church. A solemnity is a special feast day. This particular solemnity happens during Lent every year. Two separate readings can be used today to showcase a different story about Joseph.
For today’s reflection, I chose the reading about when Joseph and Mary lost Jesus and found him in the temple. The temple was a core location for Jesus’s Jewish upbringing and a central place for his mission. Several of the gospels this past week are located at the temple in Jerusalem. Last Friday, the reading was about Jesus visiting the temple with his brothers and being questioned. (John 7) On Saturday we learned of a guard who when questioned by a religious leader at the temple said, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” (John 7:46) In yesterday’s reading, Jesus was at the temple when a crowd approached him and he stopped them from stoning a woman. (John 8)
The temple was a central spot for Jesus’s ministry and life. In today’s gospel, Jesus is a12 years old child lost by his parents. Ad a family, they had visited the temple for festivities. Mary and Joseph leave the temple thing that Jesus is in their group. Once they realize he is missing, they go back to the temple and find Jesus interacting with elders. Jesus tells them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49)
While we don’t know a lot about Joseph from the gospels, he was a pivotal person in Jesus’s life. When Jesus was at the temple as an adult, he carried memories of Joseph with him. I imagine that every time Jesus went to the temple, he remembered the experience of his parents taking him there and them being reunited after being separated. They were his loved ones, his family, the ones who taught him about the faith, and the ones who gave him traditions and memories like spending together at the temple.
The temple was a cherished space to him. It was a place he returned to that held memories from earlier times with people he loved and experiences they shared. It is like when we return to the same place year after year for holidays and family traditions.
What are some of these places for you? What types of memories do these places call back for you? Who are the people that made those places special for you? There may not be much said about Joseph in scripture, but does there need to be? No religious solemnity can amount to the slight bittersweet smile that Jesus had when thinking about his dad as he walked around the temple and recalled memories of him. That’s what Joseph is to me; a loved one you carry with you that transcends the need for others to recognize. No story can ever fully capture the love that is shared and the memories that remain from that love.
Reciprocity and Repentance
Gospel: Jn 8:1-11
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031824.cfm
Today’s gospel starts with a foreshadowing of Jesus’s passion as it mentions that Jesus started his day at the Mount of Olives. The Garden of Gethsemane, which is at the base of Mount Olives, is where Jesus will soon be praying with his disciples and get arrested. The temple is also right by all of these locations.
Jesus then spends some time teaching at the temple when a crowd approaches him with a woman that they are planning to stone. Stoning was a form of capital punishment during Jesus’s time, and stoning was the punishment established in the law for a person who has committed adultery. Jesus doesn’t make a scene. Instead, he draws on the ground and says that he who is without sin can cast the first stone. He then returns to drawing and the crowd eventually disperses.
We often can be like the crowd and focus on the sins of others, but if we take a moment and reflect on our behavior, we will find that we too are with sin and have no room to condemn and judge another. This gospel shows us that when we want to condemn others for their sin, we must take some time to examine our conscience.
Once the crowd dispersed, Jesus looks up at the woman and lets her know that he does not condemn her and tells her to “Go and sin no more.” God is always wanting to reconcile with us. God greets us with compassionate love. In return, God asks for repentance. If sin is us separating ourselves from God, repentance is us returning our love to God. God wants us to reciprocate love.
In our own lives, we can both be the crowd and the woman in today’s gospel. Through mercy, forgiveness, and repentance we can learn to be more like Christ.
Frustration and Transformation
Gospel: Jn 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031724-YearA.cfm
During the time of Lent, The Roman Catholic Church uses different gospels on these Sundays, if you have adults that are being baptized and joining the Church at Easter. These readings are referred to as scrutinies. These three ‘special’ gospels are the Woman at the Well, the Healing of the Blind Man, and the Raising of Lazarus. The first one tells of Jesus being the living water, the second of him being the light of the world, and in last one refers to him as the resurrection and the life. The beauty of these three gospels is the transformation that occurs through the encounter with Jesus.
In this last story, Jesus shows that he has power over death. A lot of people focus on the passage: “Jesus wept.” It is often recognized as Jesus showing mourning for his friend that has passed. What I have always found fascinating is another component of Jesus’s humanity in this text. Four times in the passage, Jesus is described as feeling perturbed. People kept commenting about him coming too late to heal Lazarus as Lazarus was already dead, and Jesus got annoyed. When I read the passage, it’s hard for me to read it as Jesus’s tears being a sign of him mourning Lazarus and more an expression of his frustration. He knew that he was going to resurrect Lazarus. The passage never talks about Jesus’s sadness, but it surely talks about his frustration over and over again.
And why would Jesus be so frustrated? The people in the story put limits on God. They saw an impossibility of the healing power of God. They put limits on what could be done. They didn’t realize that the resurrection wasn’t just a moment in time, but something that could always happen. With God, everything is possible, yet we constantly put limits on God. With God, we can be transformed into a new life. This isn’t a one-time occurrence but is something that happens time and time again. We are never too distant or too far away from the transformational power of God. This applies to us and everyone else. God encounters us where we are at. Looking at these three gospels, God encounters us in our day-to-day lives (the woman at the well), in our suffering and our healing (the healing of the blind man), and in our life and our death (the raising of Lazarus).
God’s love is transformative regardless of where we are and regardless of what is occurring in our lives. God is always here to bring us to healing and a transforming life. God guides us through order, disorder, and reorder (life, death, and resurrection). Different phases and moments of our lives may be focused on one of these three different themes, but each one is occurring at the same time. Regardless of where your current focus may be, God is with you, loving you, desiring the best for you, and ready to heal you and lead you to growth. There may be more work and effort needed from us, but God is always there ready and willing, while sharing in the experience with us.
God’s love
Gospel: Jn 7:40-53
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm
When it comes to Jesus’s passion, it is easy for us to detach ourselves from the experience as if they are just stories. For those of us who grew up in Christian households, these are stories that we’ve heard since we were very young. Every year, we experience Easter with our traditions and practices.
But take some time with this; God decided to come down and be with us. God wanted to experience directly what it was like to be human. God wanted to become finite and get to know us. God experienced pain and suffering. God experienced being condemned and judged by others.
In return, we condemned and rebuked him. We looked for ways to deny his divinity and minimize his message. God then suffered and died. God didn’t have to do this. God chose to do this for us because God loves us.
This is what love does. Love gives. Love is there for the other.
As we get closer to Easter, reflect on all that Jesus went through for us.
Times of conflict
Gospel: Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031524.cfm
In the gospel of John, there is more of a focus on Jesus’s struggles with tradition and religious leadership than the other gospels. Jesus is also more outspoken about his relationship with God. In today’s scripture reading, Jesus visits Jerusalem with his brothers. Once people recognized him, they argued that Jesus was not the Messiah because they knew where he was from. Jesus then retorts that they do not know where he is from because they are unfamiliar with the one who sent him.
Sometimes we want to mind our own business but we can’t. We have a calling or a drive that doesn’t let us stay quiet. We can also be challenged by unexpected adversity from others. Or like in the case of today’s gospel, we can experience both at the same time. It is challenging when we are faced with these moments. They can become crucible moments where we play through different outcomes that may happen depending on our actions. We debate if our actions are selfishly motivated or if they serve a higher purpose. Do we stand-up and make a scene or do we maintain the status quo?
In today’s gospel, Jesus had individuals that wanted to kill him. John outlines that Jesus was only in Jerusalem because that’s where his bothers wanted to be for the Tabernacle feast. Jesus knew that Jerusalem was a place for him to avoid given the potential actions of those who were against him, but Jesus went anyway. Given the circumstances, I’m sure he was a little on edge.
We too have moments when we are on edge. Sometimes we choose safety and other times we do not. I’m not sure if there is a right or a wrong answer in these circumstances, but what makes your choice easier to discern is building a strong relationship with God and knowing your deeper purpose. A lot of things are out of our control, but if we know our purpose, it makes it easier for us to see what is. We may not have control over other people’s actions or how they think, but we must be true to who we are. Do not let the unknowns, uncertainties, and lack of control limit you from doing what is right.
You are enough
Gospel: Jn 5:31-47
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031424.cfm
With social media, we can get obsessed with looking for praise and recognition from others. We can have negative feelings driven by a lack of likes, views, and followers. We feel hurt when we experience strangers disagreeing with us online. We get disappointed by things people share online that are intended to drive reactions.
When we think about God, we can feel judged. We carry the baggage of shame and we associate it with God. It is as if God exists to condemn us. The shame you feel though is not God; it is something that makes you feel that you are not deserving of God’s love. It separates you from God. In the story of Adam and Eve, we see how their sense of shame made them afraid of God. Their sense of shame separated them from God.
The gospels are loaded with stories of the reconciling love of God. We hear about the shepherd’s joy in finding the lost sheep and the father’s celebration when reconciling with his son. God loves us and accepts us unconditionally. It is our own choice to separate from God. Regardless of the situation or what we’ve done, we always have the opportunity to turn to God. When we do, we are good enough. God doesn’t keep count of all the times we have turned our back; God is always wanting reconciliation and persistently desires a relationship with us.
In today’s gospel (John 5:44), we read: “How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?”
You are loved and you are more than enough.
Giving it back to God
Gospel: Jn 5:17-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031324.cfm
We cannot do anything without God. We think our existence is our own, but our existence is a gift. We did not have a choice in it. Our existence is a possession of God. To think that it is anything else separates us for that which we came.
In today’s gospel, Jesus explains how his and Father’s will are one. This “will” goes beyond the limits of this reality. It has control over death. It is not otherworldly; it is active here and now. It is something that we too can participate in as Jesus did. It is a challenge for us given our ego and our need for control. Jesus found a way to keep that connection open so we too can do the same.
What parts of your life do you hold onto? What makes your life uniquely yours? Imagine everything you are and everything you have. Think about all of your relationships, your gifts, your talents, your possessions, the things you enjoy, the things you are proud of, your health, and your life. Imagine all of it in front of you. None of that would be possible without God. Imagine all your struggles and challenges and put them all in front of you too. Put everything that makes you you and put it in front of you. Now take all of that. Stay with it for a while and reflect on it. Now imagine putting all of it in front of God. Thank God for all of it. Now give it to God and pray:
All of this is yours. I give it all back to you. Help me be a good steward of these gifts. May I use these gifts according to your will. Help me use these gifts to grow in love for you and others. Amen.
Following the Law
Gospel: Jn 5:1-16
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031224.cfm
The Sabbath was a sacred day of rest. With the strict interpretation of how the law should be followed, any form of work was unacceptable even carrying a mat. Following religious tradition, including the strict following of the law, was of utmost importance to the people. Seeing the man carrying the mat was a violation and so was Jesus performing a miracle on the Sabbath.
We can look at stories like this and see the shortsightedness of the people. Having spiritual discipline is a good thing, but when it is taken to an extreme, we can lose sight of the spirit behind the law. This reverence for the Sabbath is a benign example as compared to the atrocities that have been done throughout history in the name of human advancement and religion. People have done a lot of evil things. We as a society have accepted different evils as if they are just the way the world works. We have justified slavery and the persecution of others. We have killed for ideology and resources. We then use our belief systems to justify our actions
It’s easy to see these fallacies in hindsight, but it’s much more challenging to see our present faults. We too are complicit in the transgressions of our time. What beliefs do we hold today that history will condemn? The gospel Jesus shared gives us a way to see what we might be overlooking. Jesus challenges us to love our neighbors; not just our friends and families, but our enemies and those we ostracize as well.
Who are we keeping on the fringe of society? What beliefs do we hold that limit us from fully loving our neighbors? Take today’s gospel as a challenge to go beyond our societal norms and follow God’s call to grow in love for each other.
Presumption and Persistence
Gospel: Jn 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031124.cfm
Jesus was completely human and completely God. He was human as we are human. He experienced joy and sadness, frustration and peace. As a person, he did not know everything. He gave up on his omniscience to be human. With his lack of omniscience, he made presumptions. Like us, he struggled with being misunderstood. He was bothered by the fact that he wasn’t welcomed in his hometown.
Jesus got frustrated that his message wasn’t enough; it took miracles for people to believe in his message. For most people, Jesus’s gospel required the proof of miracles. People needed to experience the supernatural for the message to resonate. For Jesus, the message superseded the miracle. For the people, it was the other way around.
In today’s gospel, Jesus made presumptions about the royal official. He thought the man was looking for a miracle to believe, but the man was not. He was not concerned with the divinity of Jesus, he was concerned for the well-being of his son. His love for his son meant more to him than the need for divine proof. He persisted with Jesus. He saw past Jesus’s presumptive statement to show his care for his son. Seeing this love, Jesus healed the man’s son.
When we experience love, we do the same. We persist. We go beyond expectation and we fight. Love gives the drive to go the extra distance. It gives us faith and hope. When we look at the life of Jesus, we can see how God has that love for us. God became human to fight for us, to give us hope, and to lead us to salvation from our suffering.
Love transforms us. Love heals us. Love saves us.
Healing blindness
Gospel: Jn 9:1-41
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031024-YearA.cfm
Today’s gospel shows how people with disabilities were seen in Jesus’s time. A man’s blindness was seen by the disciples and religious leaders as being caused by the man’s sin or by the man’s parents’ sin. To their society, God caused suffering due to sin. God punished people directly due to their sins.
Jesus came to heal. While Jesus heals the man’s physical blindness, the man’s blindness is also used in the story metaphorically. The gospel writer of John is using the story to show us something about the nature of God. We are all blind. We are all blind to the true nature of reality. We are created to love each other even those on the fringe of society; those we exclude, those who suffer, and those who do not meet our expectations.
We are blind because we don’t give of ourselves to those we perceive as blind. That is why Jesus refers to himself as the light of the world. We similarly need to be the light of the world and overcome our blindness to see the equality between us and to love one another. Jesus brought those who were outcasts back into society. This was not easy for those who excluded them in the first place.
Jesus’s judgment was to change the paradigm. He empowered those who were powerless and showed the powerful the limit to their power. God’s healing is not limited to some, it is provided to all. Even those who are humbled through the encounter with God are elevated by a deeper understanding of equality in the eyes of God.
Come as you are
Gospel: Lk 18:8-14
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030924.cfm
If you have ever been interviewed for a job, you have most likely been asked behavioral questions. Behavioral questions ask you to recall experiences and tell stories about how you responded. Here are some examples:
Give me an example of when you had a conflict with someone. How did you handle it?
Tell me about a time you made a mistake and wish you’d handled a situation differently.
Tell me about a time when you failed. How did you handle the situation?
These questions are a challenge to answer. You feel like you have something to lose if you answer the questions wrong or you may expose something about yourself. You try to figure out what they want you to say or the types of examples they are looking for. After an interviewer recently asked me similar questions in succession, I interrupted my own answer midsentence to ask, “You keep asking very similar questions, am I not giving you the answer you want?”
Most candidates rehearse answers to these potential questions. We try to make sure we have the right balance of confidence and humbleness. I even worked for a company that had us count how many times the person used “We” versus “I” language to these questions. It was a way of assessing how individualist or self-centered they were.
During an interview, it is easy to come off like the Pharisee in today’s story. You’re trying to make your best case to get the job. An interviewer once asked me what one of my weaknesses was and I answered, “I feel that I need to be the first one in the office and one of the last ones to leave.” To sound more humble, I explained that I had a hard time going to bed when I was a teenager unless everyone else was asleep. The gospel today called up a lot of these examples. I’m glad people have taken a chance with me!
When it comes to God, we are not being scrutinized by our word choices like we are in an interview. Yes, words are powerful, but our words are also merely symbols. They only point to things. They are only a placeholder for things; they aren’t the thing themselves. When it comes to God, God knows our reality so God doesn’t need all the words. The words we use show more about ourselves than they let God know anything. God already knows! If we aren’t being honest and direct, God knows. God doesn’t need us to justify our actions or talk about how great we are, God already knows. God doesn’t just know, God loves us regardless of our lowest and greatest moments.
God wants to meet us as we are and help us grow. We must be open to it. To be open to it, we must be honest with ourselves and honest in how we approach God. There is no need to sugarcoat or sell yourself to God. God wants you as you are so God can lead you to the fullness of your being.
Two simple rules
Gospel: Mk 12:28-34
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030824.cfm
I have been teaching Sunday school for about 10 years and I use this gospel to set the guidelines of the classroom. It doesn’t matter what age of kids I teach, we go over Jesus’s two rules. I explain that I have no control over these rules for them; they’re decisions they make for themselves. I go on to explain that I definitely have no control over the first rule in my classroom. Their relationship with God is their relationship with God. In the classroom though, we will follow the second rule. Now I can’t make them love their neighbor as themself, but we can treat each other as we want to be treated. That is the only rule we have. If we need more rules, then I will make more rules depending on their behavior and actions. We then review normal classroom rules and I explain how they are not needed. For example, you don’t need to raise your hand before you speak, but if they start talking over one another, we will create the rule. I’ve had to threaten more rules from time to time, but I have never added another rule in my years of teaching.
This gospel is part of a section in Mark that tells stories about how people tested Jesus. What makes this particular story unique is that the scribe has a change of heart about Jesus. The scribe says that Jesus’s rules are “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Offerings were burnt for thanksgiving to God and atonement for sins. They were done to make a right relationship with God. They were a means of making up for a break in the covenant with God. The scribe thought about what Jesus was saying in the context of the law. The scribes were the ones who knew the law the best because they transcribed them over and over again. The scribe understood that Jesus’s rules, not only summarized the covenant but were the full spirit behind it.
We all make a lot of rules and guidelines on how we live our lives. We also impose these rules and guidelines onto other people. We’ve got our lists of how we judge who is good and who isn’t. We are constantly measuring ourselves and others by these rules. Jesus only gave us two to keep in mind. Examine the rules you put out yourself and on others. How are your rules based on the two that Jesus put out there? How are they not? How can you simplify your life to Jesus’s way of thinking about that law? Remind yourself that you have control over you and not everyone else. If it worked for Jesus and a bunch of elementary students, it might just work for you too.
To gather or scatter
Gospel: Lk 11:14-23
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030724.cfm
We put labels on almost everything. We invent dichotomies to define who we are. With religious practices, we can define ourselves as traditionalists or progressives. Politically, we are liberal or conservative. Every affirmative statement has a negative statement. We think about who we are by defining ourselves as opposed to something else. In addition to these dichotomies, our society is predominately merit-based. We constantly rank and compare. These merit-based systems elevate some and minimize others.
Jesus exposed and confronted these ways of thinking. He challenged the divisive structures of his time by sharing a vision of a world where people are equal. For Jesus, a king was no longer greater than a peasant. He didn’t separate people as clean and unclean. He didn’t divide people into Samaritans and Jews.
For those who saw themselves as higher than others in society, Jesus was seen as a threat. They saw their value by how they compared to others. If others were seen as better or as equals, it limited their sense of privilege. This is a scarcity mindset as it sees the world as only having a limited amount of value to go around. If someone is given more, it has to be taken from somewhere. As one person’s situation improves, it makes another person’s situation worse.
We all succumb to this mindset. We elevate ourselves by putting others down. We put people in “for us” and “against us” categories. This way of thinking is easy to observe in others, but difficult to see in ourselves. When we see the success of others, we can feel less about ourselves, rationalize their success, or tear them down. When others succeed, we can transition them from being “for us” to “against us”. Everything was fine when we saw them as less than us, but now that they have been elevated, they are a threat.
Feelings of jealousy expose this way of thinking. When you feel jealous or think that someone is undeserving of what they’ve received, reflect on why it bothers you so much. In what areas of your life does this occur more prevalently? Why do you think that is? What can you do to challenge this way of thinking in yourself?
God is calling us to gather, not scatter. When we fall trap to this way of thinking, we scatter. Find a way to gather. Strive to be for others and not against them.
God’s reality
Gospel: Mt 5:17-19
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030624.cfm
Throughout human history, people have sought to understand why we are here. We have sought relationships with each other and relationships with God. We have strived for excellence. We have grown in community and freedom. We have worked through issues and become greater people. We have faced and conquered adversity. We have found ways to get along.
This journey hasn’t always been perfect. We can look to the news and see the ways our world is falling short of the Kingdom of God. We can look to history and find example after example of where and how individuals and civilizations have failed.
There have always been people striving for a better world; striving to be better people to themselves, others, God, and creation. Even those who have strived fell short of accomplishing it, but there have always been people who have tried. There are always more people trying than not trying. I’d argue that all of us are striving, but we get distorted views of how to accomplish it. Somewhere along the way, these distortions become our reality.
Today’s gospel reflects on this striving and humanity’s growth in relationship to God. The prophets and the law pointed people in a direction. That direction was then more fully revealed through Jesus. Jesus confronted skewed views during his time as he and others were actively engaged in building the Kingdom. For us, it can be difficult to distinguish what is Kingdom building and what is a distortion of it.
Let us pray. God, help us to distinguish the difference between your reality and how we skew that reality. Help us grow to see the world through your lens. Lead us to fulfill your mission and to carry on your living legacy in our time. Help us to grow in love of our neighbor and of you. Amen.
Forgiveness
Gospel: Mt 18:21-35
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030524.cfm
A good leader is someone whom people desire to follow or be around. A leader provides a good example. A good leader is one you want to emulate or strive to be like. A leader brings the best out of you and challenges you to grow.
In today’s gospel, Jesus shows that God is that type of good leader. God is not calling us to do something that God is not willing to do. God is merciful and therefore we are called to mercy. God is forgiving and so we are called to forgive. In the parable, the king forgave first. While the servant was grateful to the king, he didn’t have a change of heart when it came to others. He did not show that same type of mercy to others.
We need to have a change of heart when it comes to forgiving others. Forgiveness should not be conditional. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that you stay in relationships or communities that are harmful to you; what it does mean is that you should want what’s best for the other person. When we forgive, we don’t hold grudges or resentments. When we forgive, we are not consumed by how we have been wronged by others, we seek healing.
Let’s stop counting the wrongs and move toward the healing that comes from forgiving.
Prophetic voices
Gospel: Lk 4:24-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030424.cfm
There is a difference in how we share our traditions with someone who is from our culture and someone who is from a different culture. The things we do can look odd to a foreigner as it is easy for us to think the same of them. There is a difference in how we experience each other. Even when you speak the same language, you need to learn their customs and ways of doing things. You become more alert. Locals pay more attention to you when you are in a foreign land. Your seemingly normal actions do not seem so normal.
When you are in your community, you can easily get lost in the common practices of the people around you. On the norm, everyone operates as you expect. When you’re lost in a different culture, you don’t have that same level of security and control.
I think this is why prophets were not welcomed in their native land and were compelled to travel. When you are someone from the neighborhood, it is hard for someone to pay extra attention to you or see you as having a deeper message to share. You are simply the person they saw growing up. You are another person from around town. There is something special about being a foreigner or a stranger that has special significance. People need to try harder to understand what you're saying. They think more deeply to understand you.
When you’re a foreigner, you may need to have a local help you out. It is easier to receive help from someone who needs help from you. It’s extremely disarming. This is the case in some of the gospels too. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, she helped him to some water. It was not traditional practice for a Jewish man to speak to a Samaritan woman. It was very disarming. It’s these abnormal encounters that cause people to lean in and listen more intently. Someone from the outside may see something that you and your community have overlooked.
This can also happen in other ways. I often have times when a close loved one gives me advice, and I don’t always listen. I think that I already know their perspective and where they are coming from, but then if I read the same advice in a book or hear it from a stranger, I am more willing to consider it.
Who is someone close to you that you presuppose their perspective? Try to listen more intently to those you take for granted, you may be surprised by the prophets you already have around you.