Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Prayer

  • Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees in the Gospel reading, and it’s important to understand that he was not giving them marriage counseling, because that’s not what they asked for. They seemed to be asking a question about divorce and whether or not it should be allowed, but what they were really trying to do was to get him to say something against Moses and thus prove himself to be a charlatan. But he doesn’t play their game, and instead reminded them of Moses’ own words regarding the permanence of the marriage bond. They wanted to use a loophole in Moses’ teaching to get him tripped up, but instead he trips them up by reminding them of what Moses really taught. The Christian disciple doesn’t need loopholes: she or he lives the Gospel with integrity.

    The wisdom writer of the Book of Sirach says something similar today about the faithful friend. The faithful friend is indeed a rich treasure who can be trusted in good times and bad. I remember my experience as a chaplain in the emergency room of a big hospital when I was in seminary. The staff were justifiably aloof from me at first. But when I helped them console a family in a very difficult situation, they realized I could be counted on and then we became friends. Sometimes friends prove themselves in adversity, and by living the Gospel with integrity.

    All of this leads us into Lent next week quite nicely, I think. We are called to turn up the fire on our discipleship, to live with integrity, and to be there for others in good times and in bad.

  • Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Arguing does nothing for our faith. Whether we are arguing about domestic or even trivial things with the people we should be loving, or arguing about something with a person on the internet we’ve never met, arguing is useless. Arguing closes us off to the truth and to the call to charity, so we should do everything we can to end it.

    There’s been a lot of arguing in the Gospels these last couple of days. Yesterday, the disciples were arguing with the scribes when both groups found they were incapable of casting a demon out of a person who was ill. Today, we have the disciples arguing among themselves because they find they don’t understand Jesus’ message.

    All of this arguing betrays a real lack of growth in faith among those disciples. They probably felt like, since they were in Jesus’ inner-circle, they should have the answers. And perhaps they should, but to their defense, they hadn’t received the Holy Spirit yet. In a real sense, they were still in formation, and they shouldn’t have been so afraid to ask Jesus for clarification.

    Jesus’ lesson to them then comes from him putting a little child in their midst. Receive a child like this in my name, he tells them, and you receive me. What’s the point of that? Well, receiving a child in Jesus’ name is an act of service, because a child can do nothing but receive at that point in their life. So serving others in Jesus’ name is what brings us to the Father.

    I think the take-away for us is that trying to be the smartest person in the room isn’t what shows that we are faithful people. Instead of arguing our point, we need to ask God to help us get the point. And we have to be ready to act on our faith, instead of arguing about it, laying down our lives in service to others.

  • The Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

    The Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    The hard part about reading from our Lectionary is that, while it is very good, sometimes the little bits we get of the story aren’t really enough for us to understand, or at least to fully appreciate, what is going on. That’s the case, I think, with today’s first reading. So bear with me a bit to summarize the story so far.

    Saul has been king of Israel for some time, but, like a lot of the kings of Israel, God wasn’t pleased with him. In fact, God rejected Saul and sent Samuel out in search of Saul’s successor. Samuel comes to Jesse in Bethlehem, because God has told Samuel that the Lord’s anointed will be found among Jesse’s sons. Now you may know this part of the story. Jesse presents to Samuel his oldest son, who is handsome and rugged in appearance, a guy who really looks like he could lead a people. Saul is all set to anoint him king when God tells him to forget it; that isn’t the one he has chosen. God says that even though this son – Eliab – looks like a king to Samuel, it’s not Samuel’s judgment that really matters here. So Jesse presents his other sons, one by one, and Samuel finds that God hasn’t chosen any of them. Then Jesse remembers his youngest son, David, out tending the flocks. When he is brought in, the Lord instantly confirms the choice and Samuel anoints him as king.

    So that’s how David was chosen. But the problem is, Saul is still alive. And apparently he wasn’t copied in on the memo about David being the Lord’s anointed one – clearly he wasn’t too happy about it. So Saul, who is by now not just disfavored by God, but also a little insane, makes it his life’s work to hunt David down and kill him. In the chapters that follow there are a couple of nice interludes of hope, including some efforts to work together (mostly on David’s part), and a strong friendship between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. But that’s about it. For the most part, the remainder of that first book of Samuel is taken up by Saul trying to kill David.

    Which brings us to the story we have in today’s first reading. Saul gathers up three thousand men and goes on a David hunt. David is accompanied only by his friend and faithful companion Abishai. When they get to the desert of Ziph, Saul decides to make camp there, and thrusts his sword into the ground. Thrusting his sword into the ground is the king’s way of signifying where his tent would be pitched. After this is done, they all take a little siesta. This, then, is how David and Abishai find Saul and his men, and they walk right into the camp.

    We are told here that God has put Saul and his men into a “deep sleep.” The Hebrew here refers to the same kind of deep sleep that Adam was put in when God took out one of his ribs to create the woman. Saul and his men are positively anesthetized such that David and Abishai can walk among them and have a conversation. So here we are: David and Abishai are standing right over Saul, with Saul’s spear stuck in the ground next to him. Clearly the best military decision would be to allow Abishai to thrust the spear into Saul and put an end to all this foolishness. But – and this is the whole point of this story that I have prolonged for you – instead, David in his wisdom prevents Abishai from doing that, and they take away the king’s spear and water jug. Now, understand that taking the spear was an act that would greatly humiliate Saul, but at least he got to live. And not only that, David gave the spear back.

    David, who had been stalked and tormented and relentlessly pursued by Saul for a long time, could have put an end to it right then and there. But instead he chose to become an icon of God’s mercy. This is such a remarkable story that it fully turns the universe upside-down. The word “anointed” has the same root as “Christ.” Saul was the Lord’s anointed, but he blew it. Now David is the Lord’s anointed, and his actions are so beautiful that the point the way to the Anointed One, Jesus Christ.

    And today, Jesus speaks to all of us, we who also are anointed with the Holy Spirit in the image of Jesus Christ. We too are expected, just like David and Jesus, to be icons of the Lord’s mercy. We are expected to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us. If someone strikes us on one cheek, we are told to turn and offer the other. If someone takes our coat, we are to offer the underwear also. If someone borrows from us, we are not to expect a return. This is not “woke Jesus,” friends, this is the Gospel.

    Indeed, all of today’s Liturgy of the Word has to make us bristle a bit. After all, we have a right to be well-treated. We have a right to respect. We have a right to do business the way we want to do it. We have the right to punish those who treat us poorly. We have the right to strike back when violence is done to us. We are entitled people, for heaven’s sake, so what right does Jesus have to tell us to be merciful?

    Perhaps we entitled ones can take a little solace in today’s Gospel. After all, there it is – the Golden Rule: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And hey, that only seems fair. We can certainly all get on board with that. That seems to level the playing field and let us all still be entitled people. And yeah, Jesus says, that’s a good start. But disciples are expected to do more. For disciples, the playing field isn’t supposed to be level, it’s supposed to be turned completely upside-down.

    But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
    and lend expecting nothing back;
    then your reward will be great
    and you will be children of the Most High…

    Why on earth should we do something this counter-intuitive? This completely unentitled? Well, Jesus tells us, because God himself is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Who on earth is he talking about? Well, I would have to say that I am blessed, and often I take those blessings for granted or don’t even appreciate them. I guess that makes me ungrateful. And sometimes I turn away from the path that God has marked out for me. And that would make me wicked. But I certainly can’t deny that God has been kind to me. After all, he has called me to be a priest – the best thing I have ever done in my life. And then he sent me to this wonderful place, with people who have been welcoming and loving and challenging. And that’s just one area of my life where I’m blessed – there are lots more. So I got to thinking, maybe I’m not so entitled after all. Maybe – even in my ungratefulness and wickedness – just maybe I’m graced by the God who is mercy itself.

    Here’s a good way to pray with this during the coming week. In your reflection time, ask, “How have I been blessed?” Have I ignored my blessings and been ungrateful and wicked? Has God been kind to me anyway? Am I ready to let the universe be turned upside down and give up my entitlement in favor of being an icon of God’s mercy?

    What would it look like for all of us to love our enemies and do good to them, to lend and expect nothing back? … Well, I guess it would look something like that (indicate the Cross).

  • Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    In today’s first reading, the people decide that they want to be able to get to heaven, so they decide to build a great big tower, I guess so they could go up the stairs in the tower and get to heaven. But see, that’s not how heaven works. We can’t get there on our own.

    Earlier this week in the first reading, Adam and Eve wanted to have the knowledge of God so that they could be like God. So they took the fruit of the forbidden tree that was given them by the serpent and they ate it. But see, that’s not how being like God works. We can’t do it on our own.

    So maybe you’re seeing a theme here. We have been reading in the first readings this week from the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. In that first book, there are stories that show how our early ancestors are trying to figure out how God works, how faith works, how the world works. And they are making mistakes – plenty of them! But the biggest mistake is always when they tried to do something important all by themselves. That’s always a mistake, because God never intended us to do everything all by ourselves; he always intended that we would work together and work with him to build better lives, and a better world.

    You know, that problem, like most problems we see in the Bible, didn’t go away all those many millennia ago. That’s why those problems are in the Bible – so that we can learn from them. Because we still try to do things all by ourselves today, and we still try to do things without working with God today. We want to think that we are smart enough to do things on our own; that we don’t need anybody’s help. But just like in the garden with Adam and Eve, and just like the people building the tower in today’s first reading, that never works. Sooner or later, whatever we are trying to do fails, and then we wonder what’s wrong with us. The answer is probably nothing, it’s just that we haven’t worked the way we are supposed to work. It’s just that we have decided we can do things without God. And we can’t.

    Jesus talks about the same kind of thing in today’s Gospel reading. He says to the crowd and his disciples: “What could one give in exchange for his life?” What he is saying is, yes, we have sinned, but no, we can’t change that all by ourselves. We need a Savior. And he is that Savior. And so if we really want to change things, change our lives, change our world, we have to let Jesus in and let him be our Savior. And, as our Savior, he gives us the instruction that we need to follow to change things. He says:

    Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
    take up his cross, and follow me.
    For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
    but whoever loses his life for my sake
    and that of the Gospel will save it.

    So we can’t eat the fruit of the forbidden tree and expect to become like God. We can’t build a tower and expect to get to heaven. We have to take up our Cross, just like Jesus did. We have to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters by giving them our time, our love, our kindness, even when it’s inconvenient for us, because that’s what will change our lives and help other people learn how much Jesus loves them. We have to stop trying to do things our way, all by ourselves, and do them God’s way, with him as our guide.

  • Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    In the aftermath of the great flood, what’s left is what God wants us to know is important: life. Life is the way we participate in the essence of our Creator God. And that life is so important that absolutely nothing could completely blot it out – not even the waters of the flood. What humankind had done to bring on the flood was not enough for God to allow that deed to completely blot out all life from the face of the earth. Indeed, God preserved life in the Ark so that, even in its impure and imperfect state, it could be brought to perfection in these last days.

    These last days came about through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. What the flood could not wash away was cleansed completely by the blood of the Lamb. Unfortunately, Peter and the Apostles did not yet understand that. Jesus rebuked Peter not just because he was slow to get the message, but more because his kind of thinking was an obstacle to the mission. The mission is about life – eternal life – and nothing, absolutely nothing, must interfere with it.

    We are the recipients of the command to be fertile and multiply. This command is not just about procreation of life, but also about life in the Kingdom of God. It was always God’s plan that we would not only populate the earth, but populate heaven as well. That’s what we were created for, and that’s why God would sooner allow his Son to die on the cross than live without us. That’s what that rainbow sign of the covenant was about – whenever we see a rainbow, we should remember the love and mercy of God.

  • Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    What strikes me about these readings is that they speak of the fact that we, with our limited human minds and imaginations, often don’t get God. Even those of us who are people of strong faith often miss what God is trying to do in us and among us. Which puts us in company with the Apostles. They lived with Jesus every day, and still, very often, they didn’t understand what he was trying to say to them or teach them. Jesus was trying to warn them not to get caught up in all the things the Pharisees get caught up in, and they thought he was disappointed they didn’t have enough food. Talk about getting your wires crossed.

    Then look at the first reading. We’re only in the sixth chapter of the first book of the Bible, just a few pages from the creation of the heavens, the earth, everything in them, and all of humanity. And it seems like God is already thinking this was a failed experiment. Or are we getting our wires crossed again? Maybe the purification of the earth was always part of God’s plan for our salvation. Maybe the new life that came forth after the flood was a foretaste and promise of the new life that would come from the Resurrection of the Lord. Maybe the flood itself is a foretaste of Holy Baptism, which washes away everything in us that is impure.

    What we might take away from the Scriptures today is that often things of faith aren’t as easy to figure out as they may seem at first. We might often be missing what God is doing in us and among us. But a second, long look at things with the grace of the Holy Spirit can help us to see the salvation in the midst of everything that’s messed up. In the midst of all our calamities, God is absolutely working to bring us back to himself. But we have to pray for the grace to see that.

    And that’s a good spiritual practice, I think. To pray for the grace to see things and people, and even ourselves, as God sees them. In order to grow in our faith, which must be the goal of all our lives, we need to be open to that: seeing as God sees. That’s a clear vision that can help us really make progress in our spiritual lives and make a difference in our corner of the world. We need to uncross our wires, and let Jesus teach us the Way to the Father.

  • Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    How willing are we to wait on the Lord to give us what we need? I think that’s the pivotal question that we have in today’s Liturgy of the Word.

    In the case of Adam and Eve, that willingness was short-circuited by the cunning temptation of the serpent. We heard about that yesterday in the first reading. The couple, seduced by the serpent, ate from the tree of good and evil, having been promised that it would make them like God. There are two ironies in this little encounter. First, becoming like God was what Satan always wanted. That was what caused him to fall from heaven and lose the promise of grace. So Satan wants to take as many of us with him as he can, and that was why he tempted our first parents, and continues to assail us. Second, our real destiny is to be wrapped up in the life of God. That is the grace that he sent Jesus to bring us: Jesus became like us so that we could become like him. All they had to do was wait on God and God would give them everything they needed. But instead, tempted by the serpent, they grasped at what they didn’t need and what wasn’t of God, all to become like God, which was what God wants to give us anyway. What a mess.

    In the Gospel reading today, Jesus tests the disciples to see if they can trust God to give them what they need. The crowd had been with him now for three days, and of course they were hungry: Jesus had pity on them and wanted to feed them. But the disciples argue: “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Jesus always intended to feed the crowd, but he was wanting to see if the disciples trusted in him that way. They were still learning. So he takes what they have – a minuscule offering in the face of so much hunger – and does what he was always going to do: provide a feast that was enough, and more than enough to feed that hungry crowd.

    The thing is, God wants to do so much in us and for us and with us. But I think we mess it up by trying to do everything ourselves. God is faithful, and he keeps his promises. We may have to wait for his time, but God is always wanting to act for our Good, as long as we are ready to accept that and accept his time table. Let’s pray for the grace to trust God and his timing to give us what we need.

  • Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    “Blessed are those who fear the Lord,” the Psalmist tells us today. And today as our example of those who fear the Lord, we have two women. And we begin with the creation of the first woman. God has created all the creatures of the earth: land, water and air, yet none of these are found to be a suitable partner for him. And so it takes a new creative act of God, putting the man to sleep – putting things on pause for a moment. The only suitable partner for the man had to be someone who was made of his same flesh, and so one of his ribs is taken to form the basis of the woman. How significant it is that his partner is made from a bone right next to his heart! And only with this astounding new creation is all of creation complete. In the present, the work of creation goes on all the time, of course, largely because man and woman were created to participate in that creation together with their Creator.

    The second woman we meet today is the Syrophoenician woman. She is a woman of great faith – persistent faith, even! Not only does she want Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter, but she is convinced that he is the only one that can make it happen. Her faith and her persistence give us a model for our spiritual lives. For us disciples, a strong faith in Christ means never questioning his ability to act for our good, and never letting anything – not even the technicalities of a perceived mission – get in the way of acting on that faith. We too are called to steadfast faith, and persistent prayer.

    The Nuptial Blessing from the Rite of Marriage prays for the bride: “May she always follow the example of the holy women whose praises are sung in the scriptures.” There are many such wonderful examples, of course, and today’s are just two of them. They give all of us a shining example of what our faith should be like. May all of us – women and men! – follow their example.

  • The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    A command to do something, and a promise – that is what happens in this early interaction Simon Peter has with Jesus. And it had to be exasperating for Simon, because, as he says, they’ve been hard at it all night long and their efforts were fruitless. They’re tired, they’re frustrated, and possibly even a little embarrassed and scared because this was their life’s work and by the accounts we have in the Gospels, they weren’t doing very well. But something in the command, and in the person of Jesus, convinced him to lower the nets. And Jesus makes good on the promise that came with the command: they netted a catch, and not just any catch, but a big enough catch to fill two boats beyond capacity. A command, and a promise fulfilled.

    “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    If you get the idea that we’re not just talking about fish here, you’re catching on, so to speak. Putting out into deep water is a command we could all use to take a bit more seriously. Because I think we all settle for looking around on the shallow end, and honestly, we don’t find much of anything in shallow water. Here’s the shallow water that I think we spend our time in way too often: binge watching television shows; doom-scrolling on the internet; getting our news off of questionable sources on the internet and television and believing them like they were the holy Gospels; accepting our eighth grade catechesis and faith formation and never engaging it at an adult level; insisting on our own way in personal relationships, loving our sins, and tuning out the world in such a way that we never have to grow in our humanity. And that’s a short list. It’s shallow water, and if we are honest, we all look for our food there way too often in our lives.

    Today, Jesus invites not just Simon and the others, but also us: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    If Simon could fish in the deep water after a long night of the same old nothing happening, we too can accept our Lord’s invitation to go deep and expect a catch too. I think this is something worth looking at. As I mentioned, you can almost hear the exasperation in Peter’s voice: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing…” They have given up. All they wanted to do was go home, clean up, and call it a day. But I think it’s not just that they have given up on that day’s catch. They have given up completely. They have failed to make a catch more than once, and they may have given up hope that there were any fish to be caught.

    Are we in that place too? The world is crazy and upside-down, and the day’s news can be amazingly disheartening. Crime rages in our cities and nobody has a worthwhile solution. I keep waiting for someone to write a book called No Suspects Are In Custody, because no one even wants to risk helping anyone or being part of a solution. Meanwhile one politician points the finger at another for just about every problem we can imagine. There isn’t respectful dialogue anywhere anymore: not on talk shows, not in Congress, not on the internet, not in communities. Everything is so disheartening that we just want to give up, go home, and call it a day. What difference does it even make if we try to change things? No one wants to listen, no one wants to change, no one wants to grow. We’ve given up on ourselves and don’t even see ourselves as worthy of the deep water and the experience of growth.

    But Jesus does. “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

    Peter was in that place, but Jesus saw more in Peter than Peter did in himself. He saw the one who could be zealous and on fire and make mistakes and accept forgiveness and live to grow and walk on water and witness to the Resurrection, and nourish a fledgling Church. He saw someone who could put out into deep water and catch an amazing haul for the Kingdom of God. Peter was an extremely unlikely leader: he couldn’t even lead his crew to make a catch of fish when it was his life’s work. But Jesus sees the miracle in the unlikely. And so he commands him: “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” And you know what? Peter’s nets get filled beyond capacity; beyond his wildest dreams.

    Jesus sees so much more in us than we see in ourselves. But we have to be willing, as Peter was, to try again, to go deep, and to expect a catch. We have to be willing to learn new things that challenge our preconceived notions. We have to be willing to expose ourselves to good sources of information and faith formation. We have to be willing to listen to others, even if we don’t agree, and expect to learn something from the interaction. We have to be willing to look for what Jesus wants us to catch in every situation, and willing to stay with it, no matter how exasperated we are.

    Let’s pray with this. I invite you now to close your eyes, and make yourselves comfortable. Spend a minute or so quieting your heart and your mind, imagine being on that boat with Jesus… Bring whatever is exasperating in your life into the boat with you. What have you been working at long and hard, without seeing any real results? What is frustrating and affecting your relationships and your own wellness? What is it of which you have caught nothing? … Listen as Jesus commands you to put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch. Where is the deep water in your situation? Where is it that you have been afraid to go? Can you go there and lower the nets, expecting Jesus to make good on his promise? … What is Jesus giving you in this moment to encourage you to stay in the deep water? Can you commit to Jesus that you’ll stay in the deep and continue to lower your nets for a catch? Even if the prayer isn’t answered right away, can you set aside your fear and trust in your Jesus?

    “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”

  • Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    In our Gospel reading today, Jesus offers the Apostles an opportunity. They had been so busy, they had no opportunity to eat, let alone rest. They had just come from the mission he sent them out on back in Thursday’s Gospel reading. So he invites them on retreat: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” He gives them a chance to recharge, to rest and grow. Meanwhile, Jesus continued the ministry of preaching and teaching.

    I think that opportunity for rest is one that we often neglect in our daily lives. Like the apostles, we have so many things that demand our attention: the demands of family, work, and community. We need that sabbath rest in order to recharge, rest, and grow. If we neglect it long enough, we end up burnt out and bitter, not helpful to our salvation, or the good of those we are trying to serve and live with. So today, we come to be fed by the Eucharist and nourished in prayer; we come to receive the gifts that we need to live our lives and serve those we are meant to serve.

    None of us is meant to do what we are put on earth to do all by ourselves. Our Lord wants to give us what we need. That’s why he told the apostles on Thursday to “take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” If they packed everything they’d ever need, they would be burdened carrying it all, and, they wouldn’t need him. But the only way they really could do what he needed them to do was to rely on him and the gifts he wanted to give them. In today’s reading, they are bubbling with excitement, reporting all they had done and taught. Because they relied on Jesus.

    We too are called to rely on Jesus, and his gifts, and to come away by ourselves and rest in him.