Month: September 2020

“Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening,
and he was greatly perplexed…

…And he kept trying to see him.”

This line always makes me chuckle. I understand there was no possibility of connecting with Jesus on Zoom in first century Palestine. Herod couldn’t jump in the car and drive over to an evening seminar. Or follow Jesus on Facebook or Twitter. But, really, it couldn’t have been that hard for Herod to catch up with Jesus to see him.

If, that is, the king really wanted to be seen by Jesus.

Hearing others talk about Jesus. Thinking about him. Reading about the spiritual life. Attending a Bible study or book club. All these things are wonderful and can be important aspects of one’s spiritual journey. They are ways in which Jesus draws us closer to him, and begins to unify our flighty and fidgety senses and distracted thoughts around his gaze where we bask in a love we could never imagine.

Perhaps Herod was hoping to meet Jesus in order to prop up his own power and protect his own authority. He wasn’t really hoping to encounter Jesus in the way Zacchaeus did, or the Magdalene, or Peter, or the lepers. So maybe he didn’t try that hard. These others were men and women who had the desire and the capacity to enter into a sustained relationship with Jesus that was prolonged and deepened through time, that changed their lives, that taught them that indeed life comes and goes in the blink of an eye, as the Teacher and Ecclesiastes writes. The First Reading helps us reflect on life’s repetitiveness, its elusiveness, the shortness of our days on earth, the way in which things slip through our fingers and in the light of eternity are but a whisper in the wind. And thus to treasure the gift of knowing the Lord and being known by him.

These readings rouse my sleepy and distracted heart. I don’t want to be chasing vanities so that like Herod I miss out on the most important relationship that will be mine now and for all eternity. I want to see and be seen by the Lord.

In a world of enticing and exciting options for diversion and pleasure and power, our hearts have to be capable of true attention and concentration if we are not to get caught up in just trying to see Jesus. Simone Weil, the Jewish French philosopher saw this oneness of vision, the ability to keep our attention on one single task in the moment, as a spiritual practice. This practice gradually opens our deeper consciousness so that we learn to meet the gaze of Christ and live from his presence within. Here are four ways to unify the sometimes somewhat scattered way in which we pursue trying to see the Lord:

1. Find 20 minutes each day for meditation. Read the Bible or a favorite spiritual book to lead you closer to the Lord.
2. Practice doing one thing at a time. Put all your focus on what you are doing, staying in the present moment at least a couple times a day.
3. Find some time each week to unplug from social media and turn off your phone.
4. Ask Jesus what he’d like from you at this time in your life. Tell him that you want to see him.

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When I taught preschool, we put this phrase to the tune of “Old MacDonald’s Farm.” When I run into the parents of my former students, I often hear about how they are still singing, “Pray, Hope, Don’t Worry.” 

What a great way to live! 

This famous phrase of Padre Pio can ground us in such uncertain times. 

There is so much happening around us which is beyond our control, we need to get real with ourselves about what we can control, and the answer to ”What can I really control?” is very often, “Not much.” We don’t control the world around us, we don’t control much of what happens to us. What we do control is how we respond. 

In today’s readings, Jesus sends out the Twelve to proclaim the Kingdom of God. He tells them to take nothing for the journey. Stay where you are welcomed and if you aren’t welcomed, shake the dust from your feet. In other words, go out and pray, hope, and don’t worry. You are doing my work and that is enough, I will take care of everything else. 

How different my life might be if I could be like the Twelve and focus so firmly on proclaiming the Kingdom of God with my life that even if rebuffed, I could rest in God, shake the dust from my feet and move on? What would happen if I stopped worrying about all the things I can’t change and focused on what I could? What would happen if I let God be God and I just worried about being Sheryl? He created me, and just like the Twelve, he knows how I fit into His plan for His kingdom.

What can I do today to help in building the Kingdom of God? 

Padre Pio had the answer and for that. He is a great modern Saint. Pray, hope, Don’t worry. God’s got this. 

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“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

Today’s Gospel is one of the ones that critics use to argue against Mary’s perpetual virginity (I’m talking about the “brothers” part but that’s a topic for another blog post). I believe that today’s Gospel offers us something else – a reminder about the universality of the Church, that all are welcomed into God’s family.

Jesus was surrounded by a large crowd, so much so that the ones whom Jesus loved – his mother and his “brothers” (also used for nephews, nieces, cousins, half-brothers and half-sisters) could not get to Him. Someone passed along the news that Jesus’ loved ones were waiting for Him and Jesus responded with the above.

With His response, Jesus said that all who were in the crowd were his mother and his brothers as they were the ones hearing His word and being moved to action. The crowd wasn’t taking the place of the Blessed Mother and His loved ones but, in essence, the crowd was becoming part of Jesus’ family.

God created each and every one of us to be a part of His heavenly family, and the entirety of salvation history, from Adam and Eve culminating all the way up to the New Covenant and the person of Jesus Christ, is the story of God working to bring us into His family fold.

Here, Jesus is saying that being a part of His family, God’s family, is more than just the physical bond of flesh and blood. Rather, it’s about obedience to God’s word.

This is a constant theme in the Gospels. Just a few chapters later in Luke, a woman calls out to Jesus, proclaiming blessedness on His mother Mary (11:28). Jesus responds here similarly, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to fully be a member of God’s family, we must take a hard look at ourselves. Have we heard the word of God and heeded it, obeyed it? Or are we hearing the word of the world and following that instead?

Dive deep into the Word of God in Scripture. Listen to the Word of God in prayer. Take it, internalize it and then proceed to action.

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