lectionary reflections

Reflection on the Catholic lectionary readings

Monday, Seventh Week of Easter

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Acts 19: 1-8, Psalm 68: 2-7, John 16: 29-33

He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”

They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

It is easy for us to have the same problem.

Historically the Catholic Church has emphasized the truths of our faith, the doctrines, the practices and the reasons to believe. It is, of course a story of Jesus, the one who lived among us. But that was an historical moment long ago. How are we to survive as believers or even come to be believers if the content of faith is so removed from our own history.

The answer is what Paul discovered the Corinthians needed, the Holy Spirit. We have the same problem because the Church didn’t always emphasize the things of the Spirit as much as it did the things we can see, smell, touch and reason to. Too often faith has been an intellectual challenge. It remains that for many people today. But faith is more a challenge of experience and being in touch with our own emotions.

Faith never could be explained logically or encountered as a rationally intelligent strategy. Even Jesus couldn’t do that. The disciples always misunderstood. We think they couldn’t see the big picture. But the problem is that faith is such a matter of the Spirit that even personally knowing Jesus, one on one, in the first century didn’t change people the way they were changed once he had died. Only then, after his death, could the experience of living with him be understood in terms that gave new life to people. A meal was just a meal until the Holy Spirit gave the transforming insight that it could mean union with God. Helping others was an obligation until the Holy Spirit made it a life giving act of love.

That new life is ours once the Holy Spirit enters the mix. That is what Jesus was promising those disciples. The peace he offered wasn’t possible without God’s own Spirit changing how we see the world, how we see each other, most importantly how we see ourselves. We are not just individuals living separate lives trying to “make it” day to day. We are individuals who participate in a life that is the abundance of God. The story of Jesus is the gateway to opening our lives to the winds of the Spirit that will fill us, each in our own specific way and take us to a life of joy and happiness.

The disciples couldn’t come to a full experience of God’s presence when Jesus was living with them. Jesus, while he was alive, was another person, a separate distinct individual. Once he died God’s Spirit could infuse each disciple with a reality that was far more intimate than a person standing right in the front of them. That presence of the Spirit gives peace, that Spirit gives hope and understanding of what Jesus did and how we are part of that work.

We are here today because the Spirit of God has so inhabited the lives of believers that each generation is a new creation. Each of us is born into a new life modeled by Jesus. A new life we each have come to know because his very Spirit lives in us and takes us to places we never would have known.

Tuesday, Sixth Week of Easter

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Acts 16:22-34, Psalm 138: 1-2, 7-8, John 16:5-11

What struck me when I first read today’s readings was the part of the Psalm, “The Lord will complete what he has done for me.” I retired over ten years ago. The idea of completing the work a person has to do is a topic I have thought about a lot. Since retiring I’ve come realize I’m not done doing things even though my last job, as a Pastoral Minister in the Church is over. It feels good to know that God may well have more for me to do and even now after years in retirement I continue to discover what’s next as life moves on.

This, I believe, is the kind of real world peace and confidence that should be the result of the Spirit being present in our lives. The more dramatic example is the story in Acts today when Paul and Silas are freed from prison by an earthquake but don’t leave the jail. They probably didn’t know what was coming next but they believed that they were safe and that whatever was best to do next would emerge in the situation just like the earthquake. Contrast their calm demeanor with the jailor who apparently was completely unnerved and afraid he was at risk if the prisoners escaped.

This is also an example of what Jesus was trying to tell the disciples in today’s Gospel. They would be better off when the Spirit came to be part of their lives. Jesus, the historical human being could only function in his time and place, with his friends at the time. But the Spirit of Jesus is free to be a part of all of our lives and has led to our understanding the significance of Jesus who lived, died and is truly risen. He is still living with us, giving us courage and peace to take each day as a gift of God and to look forward to what is next.

Thursday, Fifth Week of Easter

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Acts 15: 7-21, Psalm 96:1-3, 10, John 15:9-11

Let’s take a minute to look at the history behind our first reading.

The first believers in Jesus were Jews. They saw belief in Jesus as an extension of Judaism. They came to believe in Jesus from within their own context, which was the Jewish faith. Jesus was a Jew. He was the Messiah God had promised to the Jews. The assumption was if non-Jews were to believe in Jesus they would have to become Jews. There was a tradition of people converting to Judaism, so this wasn’t something totally new.

The issues involved were circumcision and the common table they shared at Eucharist. To become a Jew the gentiles would have to be circumcised. How could Jews eat with Gentiles when Jews didn’t accept some foods Gentiles ate routinely? The Church, through the experience of Paul and Peter came to understand that Gentiles could have faith without first being Jewish. That is what is reflected in this reading. Peter is saying, Gentiles don’t need to be Jews. They just need to follow some basic rules of respect.

I think today it’s easy for us to say, “Of course, anyone can be Catholic or Christian. Why wouldn’t we accept others who accept what we believe. We have centuries of history in which missionaries have literally traveled the globe to convert people to Catholicism.

The Gospel is trying to instill in our hearts that God loves all of us. The issue is who do we accept as us? Who is Jesus talking to when he wants our joy to be complete? Is he’s talking to everyone? Can we accept that?

It should be comforting to know this is not a new issue, as evidenced by the reading from Acts. Those first followers of Jesus expected you had to be a Jew to follow Jesus. But the issue is very real today for us too. It just takes shape around different people.

Can we share table, can we accept as brothers and sisters, people we really don’t understand or may even be afraid of? Perhaps we still have some misgivings about people of a different skin color. Today that may or may not be the most pointed problem. What about gays, immigrants from anyplace south of the border? What about people who aren’t very clean or don’t have a place to live? What about people whose politics is different from ours? What about people who voted for raising property taxes to build the new library or a new school or any public improvement.

Can we be a people who has a sense of our human community? These days, people in politics, Democrats and Republicans, don’t look like they could agree on anything. Groups seem less willing to compromise. The need to say who I am outweighs the need to understand who we might be together. Ultimately, we must recognize our need to get along and work together. We need to do that because we care about each other. If we are Christian, we are called to get along not out of expediency but out of love, because God loves all of us. That’s what Jesus says. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” Jesus is trying to explain that there is a kind of unity that exists between God and us, between us all. If our joy is to be complete we will need to embrace that unity, to help make it actual in our lives. To see past differences and believe as Acts says, “God made no distinction between us and them.” The challenge to us is to consider who we still treat like “them” or “those people.” Otherwise we will be acting just like the first century Jews who expected Gentiles to be circumcised before they could become followers of Jesus.

Tuesday, after Epiphany

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

1 John 4:7-10, Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, Mark 6:34-44

Our first reading from John’s letter is so strong we can hardly ignore its call for love. I suspect most people accept the idea that love is synonymous with God. It’s also important to remember that we know this because of Jesus, who we believe was the actual expression of God in human life. I also like that John wants to draw a real connection between being a loving person and knowing God. The idea is that we should act as God acts and when we do there is a connection between us and God. John puts it this way: “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” This is an example of how physical life and spiritual life are one thing and not separated. Today, however, I am thinking more about what it means to love.

Often when we think about God’s loving we can cast it in big dramatic terms like today’s Psalm: “Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more.” These are descriptions of what Messianic times will bring. This is a description of heaven, if you will, wherever you want to situate “heaven.” If you have read even a few of my blogs you know I think heaven is something that is more available to us now than we might normally suspect. So for me the key to what it means to love is not so much the ultimate peace of all humankind, the big dramatic events, but what is part of our lives right now. We can find that in today’s Gospel from Mark.

It may seem ironic that having just written off “big dramatic” events I’m turning to the feeding of 5,000 as a means for examining the idea of love. Let me explain. Too often the feeding of 5,000 gets bogged down in “did this really happen” questions? I think we need to remember it’s a story meant to carry a message of meaning for human life. What we have is a group of people that Jesus describes as “like sheep without a shepherd.” These people are lost, not geographically, but emotionally, maybe socially. These are people who are searching. They are looking to be “fed.” So this is about everyone who is trying to sort things out.

The disciples want to send them off to solve their own problems. Surely there are bigger, better resources in the towns and villages around than we have right here. Jesus, however, will not send them away. He says, “Give them some food yourselves.” And when the disciples object because doing something themselves will obviously cost them too much. Jesus asks, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see?” His disciples are forced to take an inventory of what they actually have to give. What they have doesn’t look like much. The story says, “Five loaves and two fish.” Anyone would know that isn’t enough to feed this huge crowd. Still, Jesus opens himself and the situation to the promise of the heavenly banquet and the disciples simply give what they have to the people. The result, “They all ate and were satisfied.” These 5,000 men not only found the nourishment they needed but had 12 baskets of leftovers as well.

I think a group of disciples gave of themselves to more people than they could have imagined and those people not only found what they needed but then had more to give as well. That’s what God does in this world. God loves and enables us by saying we have something to give. When we can open ourselves and pass it on by loving one another, there is abundance. So maybe even small efforts of love are big dramatic events after all.

Advent, December 24

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

2 Sm 7:1-5,8b-12,14a,16, Psalm 89: 2-5,27,29, Luke 1: 67-79

On the day before Christmas, the day before Jesus is born and God enters the world as one of us, we hear once again how God has intended this all along. My impression is one of steadfast, reassuring presence. Whatever is going to happen tomorrow, no matter how great and special, today, in this moment, we need to hear the reassurance that we are supported, we are not alone. We are so close and the evidence past and present points to a new tomorrow.

In 2 Samuel the author is recalling what happened to David, 1,000 years before Jesus was born. This in itself sends the signal that God’s pattern of behavior has been in place a long time. When David presumes that God needs a better place to live, God points out who has been in charge during David’s life. The key for us is that David was the youngest son of the family, the boy who took care of the sheep because all his older brothers were the ones in line for the family fortune. God took him from this lowest position and made him the leader of Israel who defeated every enemy that came up against them. God has always looked for people who would otherwise be considered the least likely to be chosen. This pattern of behavior on God’s part is send the message that anything is possible when God is involved.

The text in 2 Samuel however doesn’t stop with past actions, it goes on with God promising to guard Israel from “further disturbance.” Even after David has died, God will establish a Kingdom that will last forever lead by one of David’s own descendants. For a person of David’s time, it’s like saying he and his influence would live forever. To me this screams support, support, support. This God has got David’s back, forever! That translates for us to say God will always be involved, we like David will never be left alone.

If we had any doubt about this, the Psalms repeat the same kind of promises.

“Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations.”

Finally, Zachariah’s statement brings the prophecy up to date for his time and for us this day before Christmas. “The dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

Perhaps the only question is, can we get through today in order to celebrate tomorrow’s promise? Can we hold on to enough of what is good, what God provides, to see the birth of new life? The scripture stories suggest God will always be there, always provide some path, some way that leads to freedom, peace and joy. Today Zachariah saw the future in the birth of his own son. What do we see that says life is good? What one thing, situation or person can be a sign of a new reality for tomorrow? It’s only a day away.

Advent, December 17

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Gen 49:2, 8-10, Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8, 17, Matthew 1:1-17

Matthew begins, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” And then we get this difficult and rather tedious list of ancestry which in the end doesn’t actually biologically connect to Jesus.

These opening lines tell us what is important to Matthew and I think what should therefore be important to us. Jesus, the King, the ultimate savior, the anointed of God, the one we have been waiting for, is one of us. This is not John’s Gospel where the Son of Man exists before the earth. For Matthew, this Jesus has a human ancestry. It says, if you want to know Jesus, you have to look at where he came from. This Jesus has a history. Its place is Hebrew Scripture, what we call the Old Testament.

We get a little review of the whole story of Israel in that list of names. Beginning with Abraham and going through King David and all the rest, with some notable women as well. For me concretizing Jesus’ history emphasizes the central reality of the Incarnation, God is with us. To know Jesus is to get close to the human history that formed him. To know God is to pay attention to the reality in which God operates. This world is the access point for developing a relationship with God. Therefore, being close to God is not an ethereal or distant exercise. It is comprised of living attentively to the reality of everyday life. We need to take the time to pay attention to our own experience, our own history. The perspective from which to view our world is the one Jesus gave us. A loving, gentle but principled approach is how we are to live in this world.

All this means that the world is a graced existence. That is the view emphasized at this time of year when we celebrate the gift God has given us in Jesus, God’s very self. In so doing God has reminded us of how giving to others is the key creative work we can do to make the world a place of peace and joy.

The peace and joy of Jesus Christ, son of God, be with you all.

Monday, Third Week of Advent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17 Psalm 25:4-9, Matthew 21:23-27

There is a strong Advent reference in the last verse from Numbers. Balaam sees that “A star shall advance from Jacob.” That’s the verse that jumps out at me. Balaam makes an amazing claim,

“The utterance of a man whose eye is true,
The utterance of one who hears what God says,
and knows what the Most High knows,
Of one who sees what the Almighty sees,
enraptured, and with eyes unveiled.”

Maybe because we know he’s a prophet we accept this without much question. However, we should pause to realize this says something terribly significant for our understanding of God and God’s relationship with us. He is saying God is intimately knowable. I don’t mean we can gain some access to how the world works or see the future. I mean knowable like two people who love each other and have been married for a long time. Two friends who have spent years together and can enjoy each other’s company without having to do much of anything. Each of these people knows the strengths, weaknesses, cares and desires of the other. That kind of knowing goes beyond information to a felt sense of connection, a loving connection.

That’s the kind of knowing that John of Cross talks about in “The Ascent of Mount Carmel.” He gives an outline of spiritual growth including famously, the dark night of the soul, which leads to spiritual union with God. I’m not suggesting we all are going to try to be mystics in the classic sense. However, I think we all are capable of having our “eyes unveiled” to see and hear what God is doing in our lives. That is what the eminent Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner was talking about when he said that all Christians in the future would be mystics or not exist at all. He was discussing people having a personal experience of God, an intimate knowing. Even the Psalm for today repeats over and over how God teaches us. We may think of this as a reference to right behavior but I think it also points to learning about how God operates with goodness and kindness. It says we can learn God’s ways if we are willing to be humble.

Which brings us to Matthew’s Gospel and the chief priests and elders who have an opportunity to learn something about what God is doing right there in front of them. Instead, they feel threatened and are unwilling to be seen as making a mistake. That’s something I’m sensitive to. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, well maybe more than a bit. So I can see how the learned in the crowd don’t want to be caught making a mistake and losing some respect from the people who know them. Basically that’s what at stake in the Gospel. Jesus has been teaching and doing wonderful things for people. The elders don’t like or understand what’s going on. However, instead of a genuine inquiry, instead of seeking the truth in the situation they adopt a defensive stance. Their very question of Jesus’ authority is really a challenge not a question. As a result they learn nothing about Jesus or what his work is about.

How often do we not understand what is going on in our lives? These are situations that can look like challenges, places where we feel vulnerable, uncertain what others will think, and where we question what we ourselves think is best. This is not the time to be defensive, obstinate or fearful. Rather these are times that require the true eye of the prophet Balaam. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves, that willingness to be humble. That way we won’t shove away what honesty might reveal. We might learn something. We won’t shove away what might be a path to a deeper self-understanding which is the only way to come closer to God’s real presence with us.

Advent, December 8

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Immaculate Conception: Blessed Virgin Mary

Genesis 3:9-15, 20, Psalm 98:1-4, Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12, Luke 1: 26-38

Today the readings from Genesis and Luke are foundational stories of faith: the sin of Adam and the announcement of Jesus’ virginal conception. The stories are here as a way to celebrate an article of faith about Mary, her Immaculate Conception. It is an example of how the body of belief develops over time. One thing we hold as central, Jesus is the son of God born because of God’s action not human initiative, leads to the realization that something else makes sense as well, Mary was conceived without original sin because she would be the mother of Jesus.

Faced with these long accepted items of faith, it is important for me to remember that these stories are how we convey meaning. We tell stories to hold ideas that are the most elemental and far reaching for our existence. These are often ideas we can’t fully grasp, we’re trying to capture what may be elemental instincts about who we are and what we’re about and a narrative illustrates rather than analyzes. A narrative can hold contradictory elements better than logical arguments and so the normative measure of our faith is a book of stories and poetry.

So to honor Mary’s Immaculate Conception is, for me, to talk about how God reaches out to all human beings from the very beginning of our lives to offer us the grace, support or presence that enables us to live happy, productive, holy lives. In simpler terms, Mary represents the perfect example of what is possible for all of us.

So that said, what do I see in today’s readings? It occurs to me that perhaps we don’t take the story of Mary seriously enough. What I mean is that it’s too easy to make Mary perfect. We assume her relationship with God was so special that it’s an unattainable single instance of graced existence. I suspect the story is meant to inspire the opposite. We should take the life of Mary as an example of what is named in both Genesis and Luke, “nothing will be impossible for God.” We all have a blessed existence.

There is strong support for this line of thinking in the Hebrews reading for today. It says God, “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens … to be holy and without blemish before him.” That’s pretty strong, to be holy and without blemish. It sounds like a description of Mary or, for that matter, Jesus. The point being that we too are beloved of God, each of us. Too often we don’t accept our own goodness. Life experiences and other people run us down, raising questions about our abilities or intentions. Too often our confidence and positive self-image are fragile. We need the support of others, we need to recognize that from the beginning we have been good and at our deepest core it is goodness that supports who we want to become. That’s what we should take away from the stories about Mary and Jesus in the Bible. God made us, from the beginning, to be holy and good and happy. Believe it.

Friday, First Week of Advent

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Isaiah 29:17-24, Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14, Matthew 9:27-31

In the history of Christian faith we too often project the promises of the Messiah into the life after death. In this view, God’s reign is about what we call heaven and we must suffer through this life to get there. Although life after death certainly is the ultimate realm of God’s presence I don’t believe it excludes the hope that faith, real trust in God, might well result in God’s reign and our crazy, amazing happiness in the here and now.

I say this today because today’s readings seem to scream this viewpoint. The Isaiah verses begin with the imagery we’ve come to expect for God’s Reign, the deaf hear, the blind see, the poor rejoice. But then I would contend it gets personal, and it’s this getting personal and individual that pushes me toward feeling this is about our life and our time. Isaiah talks about the God who redeemed Abraham and how Jacob’s kids will see God’s work and praise God as a result. Finally it ends with how those who “err in spirit” and “find fault” will receive instruction and acquire understanding. We’re talking about kids coming to respect their parents and other people who change their minds and accept something new. That sounds like a life process not some sacred after death revelation. To me it hints that we should rethink what Isaiah may be saying when he talks of “a very little while.”

Matthew’s gospel is a wonderfully personal story of two blind men who manage to follow Jesus to where he is staying and simply don’t give up. Jesus who has been working cures all over the place simply asks them if they believe he can cure them and they say they do. So he touches their eyes and prays that the cure happen “according to your faith.” In Matthew’s gospel Jesus regularly refers to or engages the faith of the person being cured. Here he not only has asked them if they believe in him but then stipulates the cure is based on their faith. It places additional emphasis on the need for personal trust. This is not about abstract theory. It’s not about big picture Salvation. It’s about these two men trusting another person, who he is and what that means for them. I think the personal element is emphasized when Jesus tells them not to tell anyone. He is doing this for them not as a means to larger ends.

This kind of up close and personal action says to me that Jesus is the message. God comes into this world to make people’s lives better. Isaiah could talk about it as a possibility but Jesus is the living proof that life can be better right now. Changing our lives in this life certainly is the message that the Psalmist is singing about. First, the Lord is a refuge from fear. Fear is not an afterlife problem. Second, she wants to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of her life and finally and most explicitly, “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living.”

I think this emphasis on individual, personal trust and subsequent change is important because it suggests how God may actually work in the world: one person, one situation at a time. No big obvious sea change but each of us being willing to trust that God can do this in our lives: drive out fear, open hearts, enable generosity and love. Each of us having our eyes opened so we can see what we couldn’t before. By coming to a better understanding of what is possible in this world, we can rejoice in it and now, be sure to pass it on to someone else.

Tuesday of Holy Week

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Isaiah 49:1-6, Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17, John 13:21-33, 36-38

We are in the midst of Holy Week. This week contains the events that are the core of our faith. Jesus goes to Jerusalem to announce the coming of God’s reign and the authorities are so challenged by him that they successfully organize his death on the cross. What looked like the end of Jesus turned out to be the beginning of God’s reign, where life triumphs over death.

However, the story of Holy Week is more than a retelling of an historical event. It is God trying to tell us something about what God wants. So let’s begin with the first reading which is part of the scriptural groundwork for the events of Holy Week. Today’s reading from Isaiah is the second of four descriptions of the servant of God. We hear Isaiah tell of the servant being called from the womb, from the very beginning of life. The servant being formed as a weapon of God and calling Israel back to God. It is about toiling in vain and yet with God as his strength being a light for the world. As Christians we have come to apply all this to Jesus as the ideal servant of God. That certainly is a valid understanding.

However, I want you to notice that this section is written in the first person with only the end being the voice of God. What I want you to consider is that the wording makes it easy to apply what is said to the reader, to each of us. The reading says, “The Lord called me.” We need to take that seriously, each one of us. We are the ones who God has honed into a sharp edged sword and protected so we could bring distant peoples back to God. We have been made glorious in the sight of the Lord and God is our strength. The scriptures always tell us what God wants for each of us. Jesus is the perfect example of what Isaiah is describing but it didn’t end with Jesus. If it had we wouldn’t be believers today. We are the people of far distant lands. From Jerusalem, Massachusetts is pretty much the end of the earth. Jesus was only the first of the servants of God, we need to continue what has been passed on to us. We need to hear Isaiah and John as a personal message directed at us.

So if we accept that Isaiah is calling us to be a light to the nations and continue to spread God’s salvation, what can we take from today’s Gospel? I think it offers a view of the challenge of following Jesus. Judas and Peter have both been with Jesus as part of his inner circle of Twelve closest supporters. Individuals Jesus called personally, just like God has called each us to believe in Jesus. Yet now when Jesus is in Jerusalem to confront the seat of Jewish faith and to call them to reform, Judas can’t go along. He decides to abandon Jesus. He chooses another path. Peter on the other hand when confronted with the challenge of an unknown journey says he is ready for anything, even death to support Jesus.

I think we face these kinds of decisions all the time in our lives. We’re not sitting in a room with Jesus as he eats with us but we come to be fed by him and believe he shows us the way to a better life. The question is, can we be faithful, will we stay the course as events present themselves in our lives. We probably aren’t going to turn our backs on Jesus as Judas did. But it may be hard to remember that grand enthusiastic acts aren’t the answer either. Everyday decisions at home and at work may say more about the kind of person we are. We know Peter denied Jesus three times the same night he promised to fight to the death for him. So we may not always follow through as we would like. Peter is a great example of the ability to accept forgiveness and stay the course. We need not give up because at times we fail. Rather we should take to heart what Isaiah says, “Though I thought I have toiled in vain, and for nothing, spent my strength … I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord and God is now my strength.” We need to consider that we were made from the beginning to be servants of God, precious in God’s sight, formed and called by God. Can we accept God’s call? Can we see ourselves as precious and will we say, “Yes, I’ll try.”