Belief in God
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
John 4:43-54
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031626.cfm
Jesus didn’t put any stipulations to healing the royal official’s son. While Jesus heavily supported people on the fringe of society, a royal official was definitely not that. We don’t know if the official was a Jew or a Gentile as the gospel doesn’t call it out. And does it matter? The gospel writer does not in this situation. Jesus was here for the conversion of all.
Jesus says, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” It’s a challenge for him that a change in belief requires a sign. And what is the change in belief? Jesus never recites a creed and the gospels all show a different point when Jesus’s divinity was recognized. Jesus didn’t even preach a strict theology or provide apologetics to explain God away. He didn’t condemn others, he asked questions and told stories.
For Jesus, it was the message that was important, not all the noise around that message. We are the ones who have over explained and theologized his death and resurrection and given it more meaning. He showed God to the world by the message he shared and how he lived. We make it more about his birth, death, and resurrection, but often lose sight of all the information in between. We stay focused on what’s in it for us. That’s why the miracles were so important for the people in Jesus’s time, and that’s why we focus mostly on the fact that Jesus was a sacrifice for our sins. We take it back to “What have you done for me lately?”
Jesus wasn’t calling passive followers. The transformation that Jesus was seeking was one of love. Jesus was calling people to expand how they loved one another. This love isn’t limited by belief systems. If it were, Jesus would have been fighting the Romans for their beliefs. Jesus didn’t even fight the government and the laws he may have been against. Jesus could have fought the cross through protest and fighting, but he died by it and his death has been a lasting example of how wrong it was. Yet today, we still have capital punishment and condemn in public spaces often in the name of a God who showed us another way. We keep killing Christ. Jesus wants that core transformed. That core is only transformed through love, not enforcement. If you believe God wants to end abortion, create a world where men seek for consent and where young parents are supported with their material, physical, and psychological needs. It all goes back to love.
Jesus’s transformation starts with love and mercy. It is through love and mercy that one is transformed. Love and mercy is the starting point. The law and the prophets come out of love, not the other way around. Proselytizing doesn’t lead to conversion, love and compassion does. If we transform our hearts, the law will follow. Enforcing the law, leads to resentment and pushes people away. God doesn’t give us the authority to enforce that law. Jesus even states that the Father is the authority for that.
I’m sure the royal official kept his own traditions, a lot of his belief system, and role within the government after he and his family became followers. Being a follower of Christ goes beyond these earthly surface things. It takes signs of love and compassion to drive others to believe. But we often overlook the power of love, and focus on dominance and authority. Even today, I see things being said like, “What good is mercy without a seat of judgment? The seat of judgment comes first.” In the story of the Garden of Eden, we are the ones who brought judgment into the world. Jesus wants us to return to the garden. That’s not done by fighting fire with fire, judgment for judgment, war with war. Jesus clearly says to turn the other cheek, to find the divine in ourselves through helping others, to give others the opportunity to see the divine in themselves through helping us. More is done to convert in the 12th Step program than condemning in public spaces.
Look at who religious people are judging, and that is where you would find Jesus today. While Jesus came for all, that’s where he focused his attention. We need to help those suffering and personally recognize the suffering we cause in others and eliminate it. Jesus came for the redemption of all and his judgment was to show that we were excluding others from that redemption. In today’s gospel, Jesus shows even the government official with whom we may disagree still deserves our love, compassion, and an opportunity for redemption. Let us pray for them within our own country and abroad. No one is excluded from the love and transformation of God.
Jesus and the Blind Man
Fourth Sunday of Lent
John 9:1-41
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031526.cfm
In today’s gospel, like in other readings from John, Jesus mixes real world experiences with parallels within the spiritual life as if they are one and the same. Today’s gospel begins with the discussion about disability coming from one’s sin or the sin of one’s family. This appears to be a common belief of people in Jesus’s time, and Jesus challenges this way of thinking.
Jesus says, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.” This passage had me thinking more about suffering in general. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says that whatever you do for people suffering, you do for him, after referencing feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty drink, welcoming the stranger, providing clothing to the naked, and taking care of the ill and in prison. I don’t believe that God wants us to suffer, but suffering and can be used to reveal God amongst us. When others have need, it’s a call for us to serve, revealing the divine nature within us.
The gospel then goes through a long journey of the Pharisees trying to get to the bottom of who cured the man. At the end of the gospel, there’s an encounter between the Pharisees and Jesus where Jesus says,“I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind. If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.”
This passage makes me think about my social media feed and how much judgmental religious conviction this is out there disguised as certainty about God. These messages come mostly in the form of accusations about the sins and wrong doings of others. This gospel goes directly against that. The Pharisees were demonstrating that same type of judgment we see from a lot of overtly religious people today. In today’s story, the Pharisees were obsessed with the blind man and Jesus. Their focus is more on disproving the righteousness of others versus looking for continually improving themselves.
When we accuse, we act as if we are the only ones who can see. This is the sight that Jesus says will be made blind at the end of this gospel. It’s Jesus’s poetic way of saying, those who think they have certainty about God and faith will find out that they truly don’t, and those who feel as if they are blind to it will find out that they have sight. But we still feel the need to judge others and approach God with a sense of certainty. The more certain we are about God, the more likely we are worshipping an idol and not God.
We limit God to various images we’ve constructed. In a way, Jesus is saying in today’s gospel, “Those who think they know God, actually don’t.” God wants us to continually expand our thinking. It’s the desire and need for certainty that keeps us exploring and reaching for God more, but it can also be what makes us put God into our own certainty box. God challenges us to love more, not love less. This process is never done and finished, but is ever-expanding. Certainty, especially with condemnation, should always leave us questioning its validity. We should question anyone that speaks about the sins of others, whereas, someone speaking of their own redemption and transformation is an entirely different story. Sharing one’s story is far different than accusing others. God is pushing us to help and serve the suffering regardless of who they are. Regardless of what they did or didn’t do.
Thus today’s gospel Jesus says that suffering is to reveal God’s work in the world and that the blind shall see and those that see shall be blind. Part of our journey with God is a cyclical process of thinking we see to reveal that we are blind as we gain further sight. This should make us compassionate and empathetic to one another.
May our journey to God continue to lead us into sight by helping us see where we lack in love and moving us to it.
Gratitude & Petition
Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Luke 18:9-14
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031426.cfm
Today’s gospel is about introspection and examination of conscience. In a lot of Jesus’s teachings, the gospel writers call out who Jesus’s audience is. Jesus’s audience helps the reader understand the context and the intent of Jesus’s teaching. In today’s gospel, Luke calls out that the parable Jesus is sharing is for people who are convinced of their own righteousness and despise others. We all think we know of people who are like this, but Jesus’s parable isn’t focused on judging others though.
Jesus picks the examples of two people that within Jesus’s culture were polar opposites. Pharisees were seen as holy and as a religious authority and tax collectors were seen as sinners and people who financially ripped off their neighbor and supported the occupying empire. Both groups can be seen as benefiting from worldly power dynamics in their own way, but in the Jewish tradition, it was good to be a Pharisee and not a tax collector. The culture presumes the goodness of the Pharisee and the evil of the tax collector. In the parable, Jesus does call out some external observations. The Pharisee takes his position in the temple and the tax collector stood off at a distance, wouldn’t even look to heaven, and beat his breast.
The story also shows some internal observations of both characters as well by showing insights into their prayers. The prayer of the Pharisee is graciously boastful. His prayer expresses gratitude for not being like the rest of humanity and praises how he follows religious practice and discipline. The tax collector, on the other hand, beats his breast and prays for mercy for being a sinner.
In this parable, Luke actually uses some people who were regularly in Jesus’s audience as characters, the Pharisee and the tax collector. In not calling out more specifics regarding Jesus’s audience, the author is showing how this parable can be universally applied. We all have the potential of being the Pharisee and being the tax collector. Life circumstances may drive us to be either one. When we’re down on our luck, we may be more prone to pray like the tax collector, and when things are going really well, our prayer may be more like the Pharisee. Depending on what’s happening in our life, we may look externally or internally. The Pharisee, in his societal success, looked outside of himself in his prayer by comparing himself to others, whereas the tax collector looked humbly inward.
God desires for the playing field to be leveled. If we exalt ourselves, we will be humbled, and if we humble ourselves, we will be exalted. As the tax collector went home justified in Jesus’s parable, Jesus is calling us to follow that example; we are to be humble and let God be the one to exalt us. The gospel of Jesus is not a prosperity gospel. In fact, Jesus shows how it’s harder to be a follower when one prospers. That’s the challenge. We desire for earthly success and prosperity, but that desire and the prosperity itself has a high chance of being our demise. God wants more than material for us, God wants the depth and substance underneath it.
May our hearts grow to be more humble regardless of circumstances.
A Scribe’s Awakening
Friday of the Third Week of Lent
Mark 12:28-34
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031326.cfm
In a lot of the gospels, the scribes are associated with Pharisees, elders, and Sadducees. There normally is a critique on how their perspectives are screwed, but in today’s gospel, we see more to the scribes, well at least this one. With these stories having passed down via oral tradition before they were documented, we know it has a significance on mentioning it was a scribe. The person being a scribe has a two-fold value because of what it shows about Jesus and about the scribe. In one way, it’s a proof of Jesus’s teaching as the scribe agrees and validates Jesus. In another way, it shows that some of the scribes kept an open-mind and thought critically about what Jesus said in such a way to shift the way they saw things.
The scribe ultimately comes up with the conclusion that not only does Jesus’s commandments fully summarize the law, but it also has more value than rituals for forgiveness and alignment with God. He says that Jesus’s commandments are worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Those rituals/sacraments were a means of restoring one’s relationship with God, but if one lives by Jesus’s commands, there’s no need for such rituals. If we live by Jesus’s commandments, we will be in the right relationship with God and our fellow man. Jesus responds to the scribe's confirmation and insight by saying that the scribe is not far from the kingdom of God. Seeing that the scholarly among them were in agreement with Jesus, the rest of the crowd remained silent without any more questions.
In this gospel, there was no real “Gotcha!” but there was definitely an “Aha!”. God is seeking for us to have awakenings like with the scribe in today’s story. To think critically about the world around us and validate when we find and see truth. God is always giving us the opportunity for further transformation and growth, but we must be open to it. We can’t be dismissive like we normally hear about the scribes in the other gospel stories. While there might be the standard narrative about the scribes, that doesn’t mean that they are limited to that narrative. I’m sure some of the Pharisees and Sadducees experienced transformation through listening to the teachings of Jesus. As Jesus spoke of the redemption of tax collectors and prostitutes, he was just as open to the transformation of the scribes and religious leaders. It is much harder though for a person who is benefited by the power structures of the world to be open to the transformation that Christ offers. That, for me, is what makes this gospel so powerful.
Regardless of where we sit in society, Jesus is there for all of us. May we keep ourselves open to Jesus’s transformative power in our times of success as much as we are in our times of trouble.
Sowing Division
Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
Luke 11:14-23
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031226.cfm
In today’s gospel, Jesus is accused of being the opposite of what he is. When people want to see fault or blame they will find fault or blame. We are really good at seeing the world through the lens we want to see it through. We have narratives we tell ourselves that we cannot see beyond, and when the world and experience shows us otherwise, we are quick to explain away.
When I lived in the Philly area, I worked for Starbucks. I found football season to be very entertaining. One of the top local sports casters would frequent my store. While he didn’t care for it too much, people always wanted to talk to him about the Eagles. One of my fellow employees would rehash games with other customers especially when the Eagles lost. He always liked identifying the time in the game when the Eagles started to lose. There was always one play for him that was the catalyst for their downfall, and he would explain his theories to fellow fans and then walkthrough how the rest of the game would have played out. For him, the Eagles should always win, so there had to be a reason why they didn’t. One bad ref call. One poor decision by a linebacker.
We’re like this with our justifications of our belief systems. We may be able to admit when we’re wrong in little ways, but it’s very difficult when it brings our worldview into question. We have Christians who are Republican and Christians who are Democrats. A lot of us integrate these political ideologies into our belief systems where we can shift the teaching of our faith to align with these worldviews.
As I am going through this Lent, I can’t but keep going back to the two commandments of Jesus to love your neighbor as yourself and to love your God with the entirety of your being. In today’s gospel, Jesus points out that you are with him if you follow these commands and are against him if not. So one who truly expresses love is doing the will of God regardless of their belief system, regardless of if they see the world differently than you.
I’ve always had an issue with Bono. He’s the lead singer of U2 and is a very philanthropic musician. Even his philanthropy used to annoy me. I interpreted his behavior as him thinking he was better than everyone else or that he thought he had the answers. I judged him for having some kind of a messiah complex. I ranted about this to a friend of mine, and he responded with a couple of questions, “Does Bono have to try to make the world a better place with his money and success? Couldn’t he just be content with keeping his wealth and success to himself?” I then recognized that I fell trap to the same struggles as some of the people in today’s gospel. I’m not saying Bono is perfect or is fully Christ-like, but he does have behaviors that reflect the divine like all of us, even if my prejudgements make it hard to see.
Now, I haven’t felt the same bitterness about Elton John. LIke Bono, Elton John has done a lot of advocacy to help people with or impacted by AIDS. He is helping heal those suffering. I don’t agree with a lot of Christians who believe that homosexuality is against God. But even if you do, you can’t deny the fact that Elton John is doing God’s will by helping those who suffer. Then again, you may think that AIDS is a disease caused by an abomination, but I can just as easily argue that about any virus. Maybe some of my support of Elton over Bono is just strictly about musical preference. Oddly enough, I did get to see Elton John in concert in Dublin while staying at Bono's hotel.
We oftentimes use our faith to justify our worldviews versus having our faith challenge our worldviews. I am sure some people reading this could argue that I am doing the same. For me personally, I try my best to go back to Jesus’s two commandments as a means of evaluating God’s activity. It’s not always easy for me to do, and I know my biases and moods still have an impact on my judgment. But to assess situations with the gauge and being aware of your biases, can challenge you to see situations differently than your initial presumptions.
God’s kingdom is about love. Any kingdom divided against itself will be laid to waste as today’s gospel shows. But if God’s kingdom is love, it cannot be divided against itself. When one truly acts in love, one is building the kingdom regardless of who they are or what they may stand for. We all carry a piece of the divine, so we can all reflect that. We also all have the ability to go against God so we can reflect that as well. God is always challenging us to keep growing in love; to move beyond our fallen state to return to being created in love.
To be against God is to choose not to love. To gather is to propagate love, and to not propagate love is to fuel division. Division scatters, love unifies. God wants us to grow in love because in growing love, we grow in our relationship with God. God is love so whoever acts out of love is doing God’s will. God is all around us, we just have to remove our prejudgements to more fully see it. May we learn to open ourselves to the love all around us and stop sowing division.
Fulfillment of the Law
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Matthew 5:17-19
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031126.cfm
In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks of the law and the prophets and his role with them. He has come to fulfill or complete them. His role is to bring them to fruition. He’s not here to abolish it but to bring the fullness of their intent into being. The law for Jesus is part of the fabric of the universe, thus, he says that the law will remain until heaven and earth have passed away and all of time has taken place.
For violating the law, Jesus doesn’t offer torment or punishment. He states that if you break even the simplest commandment or teach others to do so, you will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven. I don’t think he’s considering this in a sense of there being a ranking. It’s more of an expression of what the Kingdom is and less about the individual and their lack of abiding by the commandments. The Kingdom will happen when we all live in unity. When we all chose to love each other as ourselves and love God with our entire beings. If we are living in such a way, what law is there left for us to break? To not abide fully by the law is to be a full bringer of the Kingdom. Yes, we are forgiven, but we are also called to make God’s vision for the world a reality. We are to participate in God to bring our original existence back into being.
For Jesus too, abiding by the law is not intended to be stringent, but a choice for the spirit and heart behind. As Jesus was often judged by religious leaders for not strictly following the rules on the Sabbath, Jesus showed the deeper meaning behind that commandment. The interpretation of the law and the prophets must always go back to the spirit behind them which is love of God and others. When our power dynamics get mixed into it, we can lose sight of love for our neighbor in the name of love for God. This is not Jesus’s way. The laws don’t compete with one another, but are one and the same.
Jesus came to fulfill the law. He came so that we could understand it more clearly and live in such a way to follow him and fulfill the mission of the Kingdom.
Forgiveness
Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
Matthew 18:21-35
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031026.cfm
What does not forgiving someone accomplish? Does God tally up the sins of people against a person that are left unforgiven? What do you expect to gain by not forgiving someone? We often think it has some type of recompense on the person we don’t forgive, but does it really? Yes, we may cut them off or treat them differently, but ultimately, the lack of forgiveness has a deeper impact on us. Jesus doesn’t ever talk about what can or cannot be forgiven. He doesn’t say forgive this but don’t forgive that. He also doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about the person we need to forgive either. He keeps it in very general statements.
Jesus is more focused on the person needing to forgive than the person needing forgiveness. His message is clear: forgive others as God forgives you. It is an expectation that we are to forgive. Not forgiving does more damage to us than the person we’re not forgiving. We have much more to lose by not forgiving than any punishment it causes the person we’re not forgiving. The punishment is merely our own. God wants us to be freed from the burden of sin. If we hold onto it, we increase that burden.
May we learn to forgive as Jesus taught us to forgive.
“If you’re not for us…”
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Luke 4:24-30
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030926.cfm
During this last Olympics, I remember seeing articles about Olympians with dual citizenship deciding to perform for America and others who decided to compete for their other country. Some of the articles had judgments for those who chose their other nation. I live in the Saint Louis area, and I remember the overly negative reaction when Albert Pujols left the Saint Louis Cardinals to join the Angels baseball team. We like to have our heroes, as long as they are our heroes. When someone we’ve identified with is no longer affiliated with our group by what appears to be their own choosing, we take it as a deep-seated rejection.
In the case of people during Jesus’s time, they were looking for redemption for their captivity by the Romans. A prophet was to bring them hope and a means to that end. What good is prophet if they don’t give you what you want? If you are a prophet, you’ve been graced by God, you should serve those from where you originated or why else would God have chosen that birthplace for you? What good is a prophet if they don’t take care of their own, their people?
But, as Jesus points out, the prophets were not strictly limited to one group of people. Jonah, Elijah, and Elisha were three examples of prophets who were called beyond their group. The Jewish people saw themselves as the chosen people of God, but, as history progressed, their God showed them universality. It wasn’t about one god versus other gods, but one God for all. It was a shift in the evolution of their understanding of God. Their God was no longer picking favorites, or God maybe their God never had favorites at all.
We are all the chosen people of God. But, if we’re all chosen, what makes me and my group truly special? If there’s no winners and losers, everyone’s merely getting a participation trophy. If my beliefs, my actions, or my heritage don’t make me more significant than others, then what is the point? The evolution to a more inclusive way of thinking wasn’t easy for most people to support because when outsiders are elevated, it degrades what they’ve put their value in. We have a tendency of putting value in what separates us, not what unifies us.
Throughout history, we keep doing this. We do it by nation, religion, race, gender, income, etc. We humans have a plethora of ways of identifying who is the in-group and the out-group. We may move past one, just to create another. We may think we moved past one to have it come back again. When you are in the in-group, it is hard to see that others are experiencing it differently. When you’re on the top, you think everyone else is in the same situation or those not in your group are deserving of their situation. With God, including more is just that, more. It brings greater value to the whole, it does not lower one for the benefit of others. The arch of history is to make equality in God a reality for all. It’s not assimilation, but unification in our diversity. May we find a way to make God’s kingdom a reality.
Perennial Theology of Jesus
Third Sunday of Lent
John 4:5-42
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030826.cfm
The gospel of John takes a much different vantage point than the other gospels. It’s referred to as high Christology, or one that focuses more on the divinity of Jesus. John writes from the vantage point of Jesus being the living word of God, or the catalyst that brought everything into being. From this perspective, Jesus speaks and operates at a higher level than everyone else. In a lot of this gospel, Jesus and his audience are often talking past each other with fleeting moments where they connect. Jesusl speaks in very theological and metaphoric language, whereas those he’s in a dialog with speak very practically.
Jesus in this gospel offers another way of seeing the world and faith than his audience. He doesn’t dismiss different traditions and ways of thinking, but finds a way of bringing them together. He points out that the Samaritans found God in the mountains and the Jews found God in Jerusalem. He says that a time will soon come when God will be worshiped in neither. He indirectly states that Samaritans worshiped God in Spirit and that the Jews worshiped God in truth. The point here is that the Samaritans didn’t have all of the intelligentsia, documentation, and study of God as the Jewish people did, but they were able to find God more in nature and in the world. What Jesus offers goes beyond these ways of thinking while also bringing them together.
Jesus’s understanding and relationship with God is a perennial theology or one that brings together different vantage points into a single universal and eternal truth. He shows this by stating that true worshipers will worship God in Spirit and truth. God desires completeness, not one or the other. The Jew may have the temple, and the Samaritan may have the mountain; Jesus is calling them to the source of both. An intermediary can be good, but ultimately an intermediary only gets its power from the source, so why focus on the difference between intermediaries when the source is what’s important? While different structures like the temple or the mountain can be sources that lead to God, God is beyond such things. God is the source that leads to eternal life, the water that leaves no one thirsty. To do the will of God is like eating food, it sustains us.
We all serve our roles in the process. Some of us may be sowers and others may be reapers, but both are necessary for the harvest. Instead of focusing on the difference between us, we must celebrate the harvest that is only possible with the successful actions of both of us. The potential of the grain in the field is just as worthy of celebration as the harvest itself. The parts and steps in the process are just as valued as the final state. We must delight and celebrate in the divine dance together. We are called to share in the fruits, not by division, but in unity. We are all uniquely necessary and called together to be in unity with the divine source.
“Home Again”
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030726.cfm
With comforts and stable security,
A place was kept for me to lay my head,
But such gives want to curiosity
For multitudes beyond my daily bread.
My vice became my greatest companion:
An empty squinting eye in early dawn,
The taste remaining in the unleavened
Unabandoned until the rest is gone.
A prison for the illusory free,
There I was abandoned by my choosing.
Turning my back on the care given me,
To find my winnings were decadent losing.
Welcoming me back home with more to share,
The loving embrace always waiting there.
“Holier Than Thou”
Friday of the Second Week of Lent
Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030626.cfm
In today’s gospel, Jesus is speaking to the chief priests and elders. The chief priests were in Jerusalem serving in the Temple. They were the priestly class amongst the Jewish people. Most of which would have been Sadducees, or part of the wealthy aristocrats that had found partnership with the Roman government and shared in “keeping the peace” with the Jewish people. Some of them would have been part of the Sanhedrin, or a governing group who interpreted Jewish laws, tended to the temple duties, and held trials. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were lay people who interpreted the law more locally in synagogues, or community houses. Sadducees strictly followed church law and the Torah whereas the Pharisees were more open to oral traditions such as the resurrection of the dead and cultural rules and traditions. The Sadducees were in seats of much higher power and authority. While both groups enforced the law, the Sadducees, on the norm, were far more strict and legalistic. The Sadducees were an elite class.
So Jesus’s parable most likely would not have been received well. To start, it implies that the Sadducees were merely tenants and not actually given full authority. The Temple can be seen as the property with the vineyard. Like with the vineyard in the parable, the temple and its grounds were constructed with clear instructions. It was considered to be the house of God, or the place where humanity connects to God. The temple too, like the vineyard, had its routines and seasons.
In the parable, the landowner sends servants in times of harvest. These servants can be seen as the prophets; people like John the Baptist. But, instead of listening to them and recognizing that they represented God, the chief priests and their class belittled, punished, and even killed them. These “servants” were a threat to their position of power. Their mere existence proved that chief priests were merely tenants, placeholders, or stewards. They were not truly in the real position of power. They were not even a delegate or representative. They may have been responsible for the “form” of religious practice, but they were not the actual “function.” They were only representative of the faithful in appearance, not in reality. They missed the deeper intent behind the law. The tenant may appear to be the owner, but the harvest does not belong to them; it belongs only to the owner. While Jesus doesn’t dismiss the form, he’s always more concerned with the function. Jesus questions the form if the function is not present. Appearance only matters if it reflects what is truly there. Function must precede form.
As the parable continues, the landowner sends his son, or the one with real authority, and assumes that he will be respected.The tenants decide to kill him in an attempt to gain his inheritance. Jesus asks them how they think the landowner would react, and they respond that the owner would kill those men and find good tenants. Positions of earthly authority are like these tenants, they are always temporary and replaceable. Within God’s creation and the systems we create, the most we can ever be is a good steward. If we push ourselves beyond that, we become a bad tenant. Stewardship will never be ownership unless the owner gives it. You cannot give that which is not yours to give.
Jesus then turns to scripture to point out that the divine is revealed through unlikely sources. You may not even recognize the son for the son is “the stone the builders rejected.” And that stone, while being rejected, will soon amaze others as the cornerstone.
Jesus concludes the parable, by saying that the Kingdom of God works the same way. It’s not the form of systems of belief, but the function that’s behind it that’s important. All the rituals and all the laws in all religions are only as good as they accomplish two things: increase love of God and increase love of others. You can check all the boxes of your religious practices, but if you don’t love, what good is it? You can look the part of a faith person, but not actually know God. Jesus is calling us to be genuine in our faith and get to the heart of the matter. There is no need to put on airs or dress it up. Jesus is not asking us to look the part, but to be the part. It’s what’s inside that matters most. Be the tenant that God has called you to be.
“God Has Helped”
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
Luke 16:19-31
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030526.cfm
In his story to the Pharisees, Jesus uses the name of Lazarus and Abraham, but the other character in the story goes without a name. His name is inconsequential. Ultimately, he is just a rich man. In life, people knew his name, and they probably knew it well. He had power and prestige. He had wealth to afford expensive garments and linens and dine with luxury everyday.
And then there’s Lazarus, he has a name. And it looks like he encountered the rich man pretty regularly as he was lying in his doorway. Instead of having riches and perceived blessings, he was poor and covered in sores. He would have loved the scraps from the rich man’s table, but the rich man didn’t even give him that. While the rich man never helped him, the dogs tried to comfort him by licking his sores. The dogs even saw that Lazarus was in need and tried to do something about it. While the rich man’s comforts were just separated by a door and a wall, it might as well have been a great chasm.
In Jesus’s story, there is no mention of Lazarus’s burial when he died. A burial would have cost money. But in his death, he was taken to be comforted in the righteousness of their tradition in the bosom of Abraham. When the rich man died, he was buried and did not experience righteousness in death; he experienced torment. From his position, he could see Abraham and Lazarus in the distance, and he calls out for Lazarus to provide him with the scraps that he could not give in life.
Abraham speaks and says that in life the rich man received what was good whereas Lazarus did not. In death, Lazarus is comforted and the rich man is tormented. A real chasm exists between so that no one can cross. In life there was no such chasm, but the rich man and society as whole created one.
The rich man called out to have Abraham to have Lazarus sent to his five brothers so that they would listen and spare themselves from torment. He believed that they would listen to a man who returned from the dead. But, Abraham knew that reactions to miracles are only temporary. God had already sent messengers through the law and the prophets. Lazarus too was a messenger in life and they didn’t grasp the opportunity then. Lazarus had given the rich man the opportunity to encounter God by providing for Lazarus’s needs with the excessive resources he had.
With this story, Jesus was challenging the Pharisees to see the world beyond a superficial understanding of their religious tradition. There’s a deeper spirit behind the law and the prophets. It’s not about protecting one’s individual cleanliness or purity but about elevating all. It’s not about the deserving and the undeserving, the righteous and the damned. It’s not about the rich and poor or any other divisions we create. Faith should not be something that’s exclusive, but something that should challenge us to being more inclusive. If we live by divisions, we may just find ourselves on the opposite end of those divisions. With God, a rising tide should elevate all boats, not raise some and sink others. There is plenty for all if we don’t hoard it. God is calling us to take care of one another, to elevate even those we overlook or believe to be undeserving.
Ransom for Our Imprisonment
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Matthew 20:17-28
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030426.cfm
At the beginning of this gospel, Jesus explains the passion where he will be tortured, die, and resurrected. Then a mother of two of his disciples approached him and demanded that her sons be at his right and left side in the kingdom. Jesus explains that she doesn’t know what she is asking. To follow Jesus is not all about the glory, but it involves accepting a fate of struggle like Jesus just described. The brothers accept this fate, and Jesus lets them know that they will indeed struggle; but the place in heaven is not for him to give but the Father’s.
On hearing this, the other disciples became annoyed by the two brothers. They and their mother were making it about merit and ranking. Their following of Jesus in this sense was some form of a competition where some are more deserving of a higher position. They were seeking power structures like humanity has created in the world; the structures that make one person greater than another. Structures where some people achieve wealth, accolades, and awards while others go hungry, are ostracized, and are looked down upon. We create systems of rankings where there are winners and losers and a pecking order of the best to the worst. These systems give us a sense of grounding even if we are on the lower end of it. It gives a sense of justification and reasons for what happens to us. We are able to logically judge and score others within our systems of power and prestige that give us a sense of fairness and unfairness. Jesus played with these themes in his parables like the prodigal son.
These systems are what Jesus was constantly standing up against as they imprison us. They’re a distorted way of looking at God’s creation. They will always leave us wanting more. They put us in a position of competition with one another. They give us a sense of earning where we are ultimately responsible for our success or our demise. One day we are in, and the next day we are out. This method of thinking is anti-grace.
Jesus is calling us to another way. One where the servant is great, and those that strive for greatness will be the least amongst us. For Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. And, we are called to do the same. This is what Jesus died for and how Jesus was a ransom for many. It wasn’t about counting out each of our sins and dying for them. God’s grace and mercy needs no sacrifice, we do. Jesus was a ransom not to God, but a ransom to release from our imprisonment. Our need and desire for these power dynamics that give us a sense of security in the midst of the anxiety they drive. Jesus’ ransom was showing us that those dynamics kill the God amongst us.
God’s grace and mercy go against our fabricated reality. God created us in God’s image with the grace for us to share with one another, and we decided to imprison ourselves in a system where we fight for grace and keep it to ourselves. Jesus was the fullness of God’s grace amongst us, and we couldn’t accept it and killed him. Jesus was a ransom freeing us from an imprisonment we created and continue to propagate and support.
May we move past the comforts of judgment, certainty, and veneration into recognizing that we are all created in the image of God making us all loved equally just as we are; no one is better and no one is worse.
A New Approach to Religious Authority
Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
Matthew 23:1-12
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030326.cfm
In today’s gospel, Matthew calls out that Jesus is speaking to his disciples. While I believe that Jesus’s message is universally applied, calling out that Jesus was speaking to the disciples shows that the message being shared was providing guidance on how Jesus wanted the disciples to lead and carry on the mission once he is no longer physically with them.
Jesus says that the disciples should observe and do what the scribes and Pharisees say out of respect for their position in the seat of Moses, but they should not act as they act. Jesus’s observations of the Pharisees and scribes is to show how the disciples must operate differently than them. To carry on Jesus’s mission, the disciples must:
Not put heavy burdens on others, but help others with their burdens.
Not act to be seen, but do what is right without the need for recognition.
Not exaggerate religious accessories or show off religious practices, but live the faith.
Not seek out places of honor, but act as a servant to others.
Not seek out titles (Father or Rabbi) or positions of authority, but recognize equality with your fellow people.
The community of followers that Jesus is seeking is one of equality amongst all people. Jesus wanted the disciples, the ones founding and leading these communities, to take a far different approach than the example that was provided to them by the Pharisees and scribes. Those called to lead were to serve. Those called to lead were to live by example without seeking out recognition or focusing on appearance.
Left to our devices though, we have a need for power. We want all those things. We want systems that are hierarchical. We must have something to be earned. We must have rewards and punishments. We build churches in his name with branding and merchandise, relics, staged performances, titles, and seats of reverence. What Jesus said about the Pharisees and scribes can still be seen in the institutions we have today.
While Jesus did explain a lot in parables, he also spoke very directly and plainly as well. Today’s gospel is very plainly spoken and shown with examples. But we still find ways to tweak Jesus’s teaching to justify our need for power structures.
Pope Francis saw the need to move the Catholic Church more in the direction of these teachings when he created the Synod on Synodality. He included a lot of different groups in this synod that have not been recognized as Church authority in the past. Pope Francis was working to move the Church to one of greater equality amongst its members. There were different groups that saw this as a concern; ones who revere the existing hierarchy. While our traditions may have a preferred way, Jesus is calling us to be different.
There is but one authority, and it is not one of us. For in Christ, the greatest will be the servant, the exalted will be humble, and the humble will be exalted. We may want it differently and create a world that operates that way, but it is not what God is asking of us. If we truly pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are going to need to change our approach.
Force Multiplier
Monday of the Second Week of Lent
Luke 6:36-38
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030226.cfm
We all have a way in which we see the world. For a judgmental person, the world is judgmental. For a generous person, they will most likely see the world as being more generous than one who is not. The more we act in a certain way, the more we’ll observe that way around us. Before I was a runner, I didn’t notice all the runners. Once I became a runner, I was more likely to see runners around me. I became more cognizant of races happening in the area and even things like shoes, other running gear, and running resources. By acting in a certain way, we pick up on those things more in the world. In a similar way, I’m involved in a community theater so I’m more likely to pick up on plays and musicals within my area than sporting events. Even the algorithms on social media have picked up on and been designed around this concept of human experience. We’ll see the world more through the lens of what we put into the world.
If a person takes an action expecting something in return, they’re focused more on getting that something in return. If I am only generous because I want someone to be generous with something to me, I’m not truly being generous, I’m being transactional. I don’t see Jesus’s gospel as being transactional even if it may appear that way on the surface. We shouldn’t forgive in order to be forgiven, we should forgive because it’s the right thing to do. It’s what Jesus said in the first part of today’s gospel. Jesus calls us to be merciful as God is merciful. This concept precedes Jesus’ use of cause and effect within the passage. Our motivation should be to act a certain way because it is the right way to act. Even within the prayer Jesus taught us, we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. We don’t demand it of God.
As we individually put less judgment and condemnation into the world, there will be less judgement and condemnation in the world. Our actions have a tendency of multiplying themselves. Hate begets hate as love begets love. As we are more forgiving and more giving, the world becomes more forgiving and more giving. Which, in turn, makes it more likely that we’ll be a recipient of forgiveness and gifts from others.
Our actions are force multipliers. Our actions make us become more observant of those actions, increase those actions in the world, and make it more likely that others will treat us in a similar way. While Jesus doesn’t mention it in this passage, I believe this passage is about the kingdom, or reign, of God and our role in it. We are called to act as God acts. The reign of God is through God’s activities being fully alive in the world through us. Through our activity, the world will eventually hit a tipping point where God’s reign becomes actualized and truly relevant. Making God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven is achieved by us opening ourselves to God’s work through us. May we take on the call and increase God’s presence in the world.
Evolution of a Tradition
Second Sunday of Lent
Matthew 17:1-9
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030126.cfm
The transfiguration was the history of an evolving faith on one mountain top encounter coming together at once in a line of mountainous encounters with God.
The presence of Moses with Jesus connects the encounter back to the origin of law. Scripture refers to Moses as the greatest of the prophets, but I believe in the context of this gospel, Moses is representative of the law. Moses encountered God in numerous ways. Some of the most remarkable were his encounters with God on Mount Sinai. There, Moses learned God’s name as “I AM WHO I AM” though God coming to him as a burning bush. Then later, he receives the Ten Commandments from God on that same mountain where he sees the backside of God revealed in a cloud. When Moses descended the mountain with the law, the people in the valley had begun to worship Baal while he was away. They did not follow the guidance Moses gave them when he ascended the mountain. At the end of Moses' life, God showed him the promised land, welcomed him into death, and buried him.
The presence of Elijah with Jesus connects the encounter to the prophets. Elijah too had an encounter with God on Mount Sinai. For Elijah, the encounter is through a quiet whisper that asks him, “Why are you here?” After Elijah expresses his woes of being outcast from the people who had again begun to worship Baal, God tells Elijah to go back and gives him direction. At the end of his time on earth, God takes him up to heaven in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire.
Now, we have Jesus and the disciples encounter God on the mountain in the presence of these two historical figures of their faith. Figures who were given guidance from God and were not always listened to by the people they were called to serve. Now, in the presence of them and Jesus, God speaks to them as well by saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” God speaks to the disciples as he spoke to Moses and Elijah. God gives them confirmation on Jesus’s divinity and the simple instructions to listen. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Something new, something transformational was happening as it had with Moses and Elijah. The disciples were connected to a deeper tradition, and they would come to serve their role in our ever-evolving faith journey to and with God.
We may not have a literal encounter on a mountain, but may we carry on that tradition of bringing humanity more and more to God.
Radical Love
Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Matthew 5:43-48
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022826.cfm
To be a child of someone is to carry on their genes. You carry on the image of your parents; it’s coded into you. Your nature is connected to your parents and the ones who raised you are responsible for how you were nurtured. To look like parents, people are able to see you are related. People can also see how you relate to the ones who raised you because you may act like them, talk like them, or you may have their mannerisms. When Jesus speaks of us being children of God, I see it in all of these senses. To be a child of God is to emulate God and to carry forth the image of God in how you live your life.
In today’s gospel, Jesus is calling us to love like God loves. It’s easy to love those who love you, but it can be a challenge to love our enemies and those who mean to cause us harm. God’s love is radical. God’s love is like the sun and the rain, it does not discriminate who it is given to. The good, the bad, the just, and the unjust are all included. Our love, like God’s, must go beyond what is normal.
While this is a challenge for us, Jesus is calling us to strive for it. He desires us to participate in love. This love doesn’t mean giving in or not holding on to your principles. This love does not mean we keel over to those who cause or mean us harm. What it does mean is wanting what is best for others, even those who are hard for us to love. We should desire and want their change of heart and their salvation. Jesus’s God is focused on redemption, not on retribution. Jesus’s God is perfect love. And Jesus calls us to follow that God, but doing the same. Jesus wants us to be children of Love.
Five Distortions
Friday of the First Week of Lent
Matthew 5:20-26
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022726.cfm
Jesus is calling us to complete and full transformation. His message is not strictly about belief in the literal sense. It’s the transformation that’s important. The belief can be a means to that transformation, but belief, in and of itself, is not enough. The heart of this transformation is something that is ultimately practical, but it’s our fallen nature that sees it as impractical. We are living in a distorted reality. Jesus calls out five such distortions:
You think that the religious leaders and those knowledgeable about scripture are righteous, but Jesus says your righteousness must surpass your righteousness you’ve associated with them.
You think that you should not kill for you’ll be liable for judgement, but Jesus says anyone who feels anger for another is liable for judgement.
You think you're a realist by recognizing the shortcomings of others, but Jesus says such actions are deserving of punishment and judgement.
You think that turning to the church and sacraments will give you forgiveness, but Jesus says that you should first go to one you’ve wronged to seek forgiveness before you come to the altar.
You think that you must sue and confront to prove that you’re right, but Jesus says that you should make amends with others and settle outside of court.
Jesus is calling us to see the world differently. Salvation is not something to be earned, but it is something for us to reveal. It’s already here. We find salvation by living into it. We find a piece of salvation when we stop comparing. We find a piece of salvation when we go beyond the sin and address the root cause of it. We find a piece of salvation when we stop judging and belittling others. We find a piece of salvation when we go beyond our religious traditions of sanctification and actually seek forgiveness directly from one another. We find a piece of salvation when we stop fighting to be right and make amends with others. We propagate damnation for ourselves and for others when we do not do these things. We shouldn’t use our religion to justify our wrongdoing, but our faith should continually transform us to loving more. Salvation is through the grace that comes from the ever-expansion of self-acceptance, repentance, forgiveness, mercy, and love.
Dispelling the Darkness
Thursday of the First Week in Lent
Matthew 7:7-12
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022626.cfm
In writing these reflections, I often struggle with the concept of evil. Most of Jesus’s message can be argued against by recognizing that there’s evil in in the world. Because there is evil, we don’t always answer when someone knocks. We don’t always give when someone asks. We do reveal when others seek. Evil give us a “but” that stops us from truly picking up our cross and following the call.
Jesus lived in oneness with God and didn’t let evil have power over him. He did not live in fear and recognized and testified to there being a better way of existing. We eventually could live in a world free of fear if we truly lived like God, where all of us live in service to one another. Jesus speaks of such a world in today’s gospel by portraying what God is. God is the one who gives when we ask, who reveals to us when we seek, who opens the door when we knock. Jesus calls out that we do the same for the ones we love and for those we’re put in the care of. We have the capacity to live in love with one another. It’s part of God’s imprint on us, but with our limits, it is limited. Fear, shame, and their causes active and alive in the world impede us from fully living it out. The kingdom of God requires all of us for it to truly work.
Jesus did not give into evil in the world. He did not fight evil with evil or retaliate against it. In Matthew 5:39, Jesus says, “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well." It’s a challenge for most of us to read this gospel because we all have a need for safety and security. Jesus chose not to live with such safety and security, often confronted it, and was imprisoned and crucified without personal resistance.
In the last phrase of today’s gospel, Jesus says, “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets.” When we ask, we want an answer or we want what we asked for. When we knock, we anticipate and want the door to be opened. When we seek, we want to find. God is calling us to act one and the same.
In the gospel of John, there is a lot of comparison of Jesus and God to light. When you shine a spotlight on an object, some darkness is removed, but it also strongly reveals the darkness behind it. For light to fully envelop darkness, it takes light coming from all directions; from one source it can be revealing, but from all sources it becomes overpowering. Light reveals the darkness, but it’s quite another task to fully dispel. It takes a lot of light and a lot of angles.
Jesus saw that the kingdom of God was already alive in the world as it was part of the initial design where he was the spoken word that brought it into being. Instead of reveling in this creation, we chose to hate and to hurt. We grew fear and shame in ourselves and in others. We turned our back on that perfection and produced generations upon generations pushing away that kingdom. But, God has remained alive and active in this world. God has worked through those who strive for the same; those who participate in the divine call to live in love with God, their fellow human beings, and all of creation. Jesus was not looking to be worshipped or idolized, he was looking to be followed. He was calling us to emulate the creator: To live fully to the uniqueness of our creation, in the image of God, complete with one another in love. May we have the courage to live as Jesus did, to reflect more light into the world, doing our part to reveal the kingdom through dispelling of darkness.
Including All of Us
Wednesday of the First Week in Lent
Luke 11:29-32
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022526.cfm
In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about those who will be able to hear his message. He refers back to scripture to point out that his audience is the same as shared by other prophets in the past. Their calling goes beyond the likely sources to those outside of the norm, those on the fringe of society. Jonah was called to the Ninevites who were known by the Jewish people as being blood thirsty and wicked people. The Ninevites did not share in the same beliefs as the Jewish people. For Jonah, the Ninevites were undeserving, but God called Jonah to witness to them anyway and they listened and repented for their actions and God had mercy on them. Jesus also mentions the story of how Solomon helped a queen from a foreign land. In this story too, the unlikely person is converted and becomes a believer.
Those least expected are the ones who will hear and receive the message: the outsider, the outcast, the sinner, the foreigner. This is how it was for the message of Jesus as well. It was the tax collectors, the lepers, the ostracized women, ones recognized as deserving sinners, the poor, the sick, the blind, the foreigner, an occupying military leader, all were receivers of the message and the call. Prophets challenge the accepted norms and those that benefit from it, thus, those that are excluded from it are more likely to hear it. God is challenging us to become more inclusive and recognize that all are deserving of our love and care, especially those who are excluded by others. God wants all of us. Who are the ones that you exclude today? How is God calling you to them?