Proper
26, Year C
Habakkuk
1:1-4; 2:1-4 or Isaiah
1:10-18
Psalm
119:137-144 or Psalm 32:1-7
2
Thess. 1:1-4, 11-12
Luke
19:1-10
Zacchaeus,
a rich tax collector, felt some deep dissonance within himself, something that
persistently disturbed his peace, letting him know that things were not right
in his heart. His money didn't satisfy
him, and his power didn't satisfy him.
He was living a false life, he was living a lie, and he knew it.
Zacchaeus
had heard about Jesus, and felt the nudge to find out if this man could provide
the answer. Now Jesus was coming to
Jericho, so Zacchaeus was determined to at least see him. Climbing a tree to get above the crowds,
Zacchaeus was stunned when Jesus stopped and invited himself to Zacchaeus'
house. Once the encounter with the
loving Christ happened, there was no turning back – Zacchaeus was now a changed
man, and Jesus proclaimed that "Today, salvation has come to this house."
Salvation
has a beginning, but perhaps has no end.
It becomes a way of life that starts now and continues on through
eternity. Salvation means that one's
past is surrendered to the mercy of God, the future is left to the Providence
of God, and the present moment becomes filled with the love of God. There is no room left for anything but the
love of God. Each moment becomes a new
past, and shapes a new future.
The
tugging that Zacchaeus felt in his heart is something put there by God. It won't go away, because His love for us
won't go away. It's steadfast and
enduring. It's an invitation to be open
to God's love, to His guidance, and to His presence. If we accept this invitation, as Zacchaeus
did, we meet God through the living Jesus, and we see in him what we are meant
to be.
Salvation
is taking the next step to become that person.
What
happened to Zacchaeus? He ended up
sharing his wealth with the poor. He
made restitution for his past wrongs.
And he viewed his life very differently from that moment on. He become the person that he was made to be. As Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5, "A
person in Christ is a new creation; everything old has passed away, everything
has become new." That is salvation.
Our
task is to discover who we were made to be, to become what we really are – not
what other people want us to be. We need
to find our place in the body of Christ, wherever that may be, and realize that
whatever it is we're doing, it's equally important to the body as every other
part. Read Paul's description of the
body of Christ in I Corinthians 12. He
does an excellent job of keeping things in perspective.
The
crowds of people (things and pressures of this world) can keep us from seeing
this truth, much like the crowds that kept Zacchaeus from seeing Jesus. Zacchaeus separated himself from the crowd so
that he had a chance to see the one who would bring him salvation. Find your own sycamore tree and climb it. As the psalmist writes in Psalm 119,
"Give me understanding that I may live."
Proper
25, Year C
Joel
2:23-32 or Sirach 35:12-17 and Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
Psalm
65 or
Psalm 84:1-7
2
Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke
18:9-14
The
most important thing that each of us has to do in life is to find our true
identity. We need to know our roots, who
we belong to, and what unique gifts, interests, and talents we have been given
to become who we were made to be in this life. This is a job of the heart, not
of the head. If we let the head do it,
we could very well end up with a false identity.
"The secret of our identity lies in how we can
reveal our inner quality of aliveness.
When we fail to be who we really are, we sicken." - Cynthia Bourgeault
Our
true identity rests deep within our soul, waiting to be discovered, anxious to
be released. Often, as we travel through
life, our true identity gets covered up, like a dirty light bulb, with
illusions, desires, prejudices, fears, arrogance, shame, or worry. We develop a false self, someone truly
foreign to us, but who nevertheless finds a place in mankind's system of
things. What's shining on the inside never makes it to the surface.
This
was true of Saul, until he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9) Saul was a persecutor of the Church, sending
some followers to prison. On his way to
Damascus to continue this persecution, he was intercepted by Jesus: "Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?" The encounter with Jesus caused temporary
blindness in Saul, but eventually was relieved by Ananias, a disciple of the church.
Ananias
laid hands on Saul, and "Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's
eyes, and his sight was restored." The
false self of Saul dissolved, and Saul's true self was able to shine through. From then on Saul (soon to be known as Paul)
understood what the love of God was really about, and worked for the Church
until his earthly passing.
"To become God-like is to identify ourselves with the divine
element which in fact constitutes our essential nature, but of which, in our
mainly voluntary ignorance, we choose to remain unaware." - Aldous Huxley
Jesus
further described this huge difference between the false self and the true self
in the parable recorded in Luke 18. Two
men went to pray in the temple. The
Pharisee (and certainly not all Pharisees were like this) was living through
his false self, much like Saul was. He
thought he was in God's good favor because he went above and beyond what the
rules required. He thought the way to
God was through his status and behavior.
He was depending entirely on himself, a mistaken identity.
The
other man, a tax collector, was at a different place inside. He had discovered his true self, and because of
this he understood his connection with God and with other people, and how his
thoughts, words, and deeds either hurt or helped God's creation. He grasped the idea that we're all
interconnected, and connected with God. This
discovery led him to changing his life, much as Saul did. In the words of Jesus, he will become
"justified" – to be made complete as an individual that is part of
the whole, part of the family of God.
Some
people discover their true identity early in life. Some people never do. It all depends on how thick the false self is
that covers the true self. It may be a soft
word or gentle touch that cracks the tough exterior coating. It may take a life-threatening situation or
financial disaster. It Saul's case, it
took an intervention by Christ himself.
Once
we discover this inner true self, it gradually manifests itself in our outer purpose
in life. We begin to make changes in our
life that represent who and what we really are.
Our outer life is in harmony with our inner identity. Some of these changes are risky, and may be costly
in terms of material position and security; but they nevertheless lead us to a
fullness in life that can't be achieved anyway else. Our mind, body, and soul
grow together in harmony.
One
thing we must remember is that regardless of who we meet and deal with during
the day, how irritable or annoying they may be, underneath what we see and hear
rests a true self waiting to be discovered.
Their false self is not all their fault – we don't know what they've
been through in life, or what they're facing at the moment. So be gentle.
Proper
24, Year C
Jeremiah
31:27-34 or Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm
121 or Psalm 119:97-104
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5
Luke
18:1-8
Luke
18 provides a difficult passage that offers richness in possibilities. Commonly considered a lesson that "persistent
prayer brings results," we find that the reason for this is perhaps
different from what we think. Let's
remember that the widow wasn't praying to the judge persistently, she was
assertively confronting him until she won her case. But she probably couldn't have
kept this up unless she had the spiritual power to do so.
Jesus
opens his lesson with two important points: the need to pray always, and not to lose heart. There was a widow, Jesus said, who sought
justice from an unjust judge. This widow
probably had no power or money, two things that are advantageous in a worldly
system of politics, greed and power. But
the widow did have persistence! She
finally got what she wanted by pestering the judge persistently, never giving
up.
She
didn't give up in pursuing her cause, which was one of Jesus' points to this
story: don't lose heart, particularly when battling a secular system that is
indifferent to justice for all. One must
keep fighting for what is right and just, even when the odds seem
insurmountable.
But
how does one maintain the energy, the passion and the motivation to keep
fighting the good fight? That is the
second point Jesus was making: the need to pray always. The basic function of prayer is to get us in
touch with God. When we do this, we
connect with His power source, His love for us and the world, and we are
re-energized, refreshed, and renewed once again.
This
is the balance we need in the dance of life – sometimes we need silent time,
prayer time, contemplative time; and sometimes we are out engaging the world,
serving as God's hands, feet, and voice in our day-to-day activities. This, I believe, was the contrast that Jesus
was trying to make in this story.
Jesus
affirms that the unjust judge is not like God by comparing what the judge did
with how God responds to His
children: "Will He delay long in helping them [like the unjust judge]? I tell you, He will quickly grant justice to
them." No need to beg, grovel or
pester.
Justice
in Biblical times had a broader meaning than what we think it is today. Back then it meant to restore equity to a
person – not just in monetary terms, but in a sense of wholeness as a human
being. A person became just when they were connected with God through
prayer and were given the wisdom and understanding of His love. They achieved a harmony between mind, body
and soul. Armed with this, he or she
could engage the world in a powerful way, to overcome even the worst of the
unjust judges.
It's
true that we need to be persistent in prayer, but in doing so it's meant to
give us the fuel to venture out and confront the wrongs in this world. The widow had the power to maintain her
persistence because she prayed often.
Jesus
concludes this lesson with an admonition: "When the Son of Man comes, will
he find faith on earth?" That is,
he who has ears to hear, let them listen to this advice! The person who stays secluded from the world
will have little impact on it. But the
person who never prays, who never takes time to renew, refresh, or recharge
one's spiritual batteries will burn out too quickly, and also have little or no
impact on the world. Once again, balance is the key.
Jesus
has sent us the Advocate to teach us; but we have to take time to listen to the
Teacher.
Proper
23, Year C
Jeremiah
29:1, 4-7 or 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15
Psalm
66:1-12 or Psalm 111
2
Timothy 2:8-15
Luke
17:11-19
About
1,000 years ago, St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, wrote about what he called
the four degrees of love. These degrees
of love, when placed in order, suggest a gradual development of love within a
person, much like the physical or intellectual development of a person from
birth through old age.
St.
Bernard's degrees of love not only help us to explain the behavior of the
lepers in Luke 17, but they can also give us an idea of where we're at, and
what other possibilities there are for spiritual growth.
Most
people begin life just trying to survive.
Some people struggle for the basics of food, clothing, shelter, and
security most of their lives, through no fault of their own. They develop a survival mentality that
carries over into their relationships which never has the chance to grow into
something more beautiful. People in this
first degree of love, according to St. Bernard, usually love themselves for their own sake.
Perhaps
the nine lepers who didn't return to give thanks to God were at this basic
level of love. They were healed, and
possibly attributed this healing to their good fortune, without the slightest
thought of gratitude to God or anyone else.
Perhaps
a slightly more spiritually mature approach was the one taken by the lone leper
who returned to Jesus to praise God "with a loud voice." This reflects what St. Bernard would call the
second degree of love, where a person
loves God, but still for his or her own sake. The person realizes where his or her help
originated, and as the psalmist declares, "I lift up my eyes to the hills;
from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and
earth." (Psalm 121:1-2) God is
loved as a provider of help and comfort.
If
this happens enough, St. Bernard suggests, then the person may actually begin
to understand the nature of God's love, exclaiming as did the psalmist, "O
taste and see that the Lord is Good..." (Psalm 34:8) At this point the person actually begins to love God for God's sake. This is the third degree of love. As in loving other people for their sake, we
wish the best for them, we try to help them, we promote them because of who
they are, not because of who we are, and sometimes it may cost us something to
do so.
St.
Paul reaches (and often goes beyond) this point. We see an example of this when he writes to
Timothy, "I endure everything for the sake of the elect..." He is willing to endure hardships to promote
his belief in Christ, "even to the point of being chained like a
criminal." he loves because he is
loved.
At
some point, says St. Bernard, a person may reach the fourth degree of
love. It may not happen in this
lifetime, but eventually the person will be made complete in this love, either
in this life or the next. And what is
this state of love? It's when things
come full circle, and people learn to love
themselves for the sake of God! It's
at that point that a person understands that they are actually a temple of God,
that God abides within them, and they abide in God.
As
Jesus taught us, "the kingdom of God is within you." We pray daily through the words of the Lord's
Prayer: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven." This is accomplished by us
becoming like God, and living as though God were working through us. Saint
Teresa of Avila said it well when she wrote, “Christ has no body now on earth
but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through
which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world. Yours are the feet with
which Christ is to go about doing good.”
This
is the fourth degree of love. Realizing
that we are all one family, all brothers and sisters, under One God, our Parent.
We learn, because of this interconnectedness,
that what affects one of us, affects all of us to some degree. As St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 12, "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one
member is honored, all rejoice together with it."
Ten
lepers were healed, but only one of them was on the path to being made "well." Jesus recognized the difference between being
healed (physically), and being well (spiritually). The one leper was now on the path through the
degrees of love, on the path to being human, on the path to becoming whole, to
becoming an instrument of God here on earth.
We
approach this wholeness, this humanness, when we come to learn about who we
really are as individuals, what unique gifts we have been given – regardless of
how small or large we think they are –
and how to use them in the place where we have been planted. If each person does this, then the individual
people become the whole united family.
Proper
22, Year C
Lamentations
1:1-6; 3:19-26 or Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm
137 or Psalm 37:1-9
2
Timothy 1:1-14
Luke
17:5-10
At
one point when Jesus had been teaching his disciples, they requested, “Increase
our faith!” It appears that this request pleased Jesus, because he affirmed how
powerful faith could be: “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you
could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it
would obey you.”
But
what, exactly, is faith? Some people
would say that faith is essentially belief; others might say that faith is when
the soul has trust in the unseen future – when belief and confidence far
outweigh the fear and uncertainty of the mind.
At any rate, faith comes with a growth in spiritual maturity.
So
what follows in this Gospel text must then be viewed with eye toward spiritual
growth. And if God is indeed love, then
this spiritual growth would therefore be based in love, and nothing else. So,
understanding the passage in Luke 17, like all scriptural understanding, must
be based in love.
Jesus
continues with an example of what this love would look like between a master
and his servant, "Who among you would say to your servant who has just
come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take
your place at the table?' " Jesus
crosses the barriers of social and economic class, putting everyone at his table. We
should do this!
Then
he describes what we (generally speaking) would normally do based on social
norms: "Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on
your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and
drink'?" We may prefer to maintain
the divide in social and economic class – but Jesus would prefer that we treat
each person as an equal, as a brother or sister in the Lord.
Next,
in verse 9, comes an admonishment: "Do you thank the servant for doing what
was commanded? I think you don't." But, of course, you should, is the
implication.
But
this class abuse doesn't stop when dealing with other people. We also do this to ourselves, as well:
"So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We
are worthless servants; we have done only what we ought to have done!' "
To
grow spiritually, to increase our faith, we must put ourselves in the proper
frame of mind. Jesus was not wanting to
add burdens to us, making us think that no matter what we do with our lives, it
is never enough. This is a guilt trip
that burdens our soul, interferes with our love, and inhibits spiritual
understanding.
Remember
what Jesus said about burdens: "Come to me,
all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
(Matthew
11:28-30)
And
remember when the woman came to him at Bethany with an alabaster jar of very
costly ointment? She used it to anoint
Jesus, but was criticized because she did not meet the expectations of those
around her. Jesus rebuked them, saying,
"She has done what she could." (Mark
14: 3-9)
It
is not Jesus' intent to have us burn out in life and still feel like we fall
short of salvation. Our lives will be
full indeed, and we will serve others best when we fill our hearts with
love. We need balance in our lives to
function properly – rest, solitude, study, prayer, and nourishment must balance
out our mission and service, or we'll self-destruct. We must let Jesus decide that we've "done
what we could," and not base our lives on the standards of society, peers
or our own inner illusions.
We
invite the servant to our tables, and we let God judge our day.
Faith
is knowing that the present moment is the womb of the future. If we fill each and every moment with our
best effort at God's love, then the future will indeed be the best that it can
be. Once again we can leave the past to God's mercy, and the future to His
Providence.
