Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” Explaining this beatitude a little more in detail, St. Gregory of Nyssa says: “The man who sees God possesses in this act of seeing all there is of the things that are good. By this, we understand life without end, eternal incorruption, and undying beatitude. With these we shall enjoy the everlasting kingdom of unceasing happiness; we shall see the true light and hear the sweet voice of the Spirit; we shall exult perpetually in all that is good in the inaccessible glory.”

 

Seeing God face to face is the fulfillment our our existence. We will be perfected when we see God face to face in eternity. We were created in his own image and likeness and have been adopted as his son or daughter, sharing in his own divine life. To see God is to arrive at our true destination. St. Augustine’s words stated it well. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O God.” Nothing and no one but God can satisfy that which is lacking in us. That is why outside of God eternity will be a desolate, unbearable existence, truly a hellish state, a life of unforgivable failure. Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see the face of God eternally. 

Homily Twenty-seventh Sunday Year B

 

Reading 1: What we heard in the first reading were some important truths of revelation. 1. God created man and woman. God created us in his own image. 2 The difference between man and animals was that non were suitable or equal to him. Man was superior since he gave them names. 3. There is a complimentary relationship between man and women, symbolized by taking a rib from his side and forming Eve. 4. Man and women united in marriage are not to be living beings separated from one another. They are one according to the plan of God. 5. The goal of marriage is not cohabitation, not even love, but union, the two becoming one, symbolized by the gift of love. From the beginning they were to love one another and to be open to the gift of life. 6. Their existence, their union with one another is to be complete with their union with God individually and together, not just here on earth but eternally with God. 7. As God formed man from the clay of the earth and breathed life into him, so he formed various animals from the clay of earth., but each was different. The life he breathed into them was not the same as he did for man. 8 Man could see his own reflection and commonality with the woman, who was like him in all things.

 

By the way we live, are we reflecting the plan of God? Though individually unique, do we treat the other with the respect and dignity they deserve as beloved by God? In marriage, is our love other focused or self-centered?  Is our love open to life?

 

Gospel: We can see a connection with the first reading. In the first reading we heard the plan of God from the beginning. God created man and woman to be one. In the Gospel we see the plan of human beings allowing an accommodation due to the hardness of their hearts

 

Jesus reiterates God’s plan publicly and privately. The key is what God has joined together, no human law can override that. Privately, Jesus the consequences of the human law that permits divorce regardless of what God has sealed. A divorce that ignores the seal of God is adultery.

 

Jesus refocuses the question not on negativity—is it lawful to divorce—but on God, who is the origin of their relationship. How did God intend this union of man and woman? He intended that the two should become one, not for a short period but until death separates them. The key phrase is “what God has joined together, human beings have no right to separate.

 

Then Jesus teaches how important it is to embrace the plan of God, not what is pleasing to man. To embrace the plan of God in marriage is to have the humble, trusting attitude of the child. There is an innocence of a child who can go up to a stranger without fear or concern. Whereas as adults we are fearful and untrusting. To embrace the reality of the hardships in a marriage takes a trust in God as a child trust its parents.

 

What was missing in the thinking of the Pharisees was the focus Jesus came to restore, namely the centrality of God in our lives, not just personally but also in the relationship between husband and wife. Marriage is a fundamental unit of society.

 

From the beginning God brought forth man and woman to be one in and with him. From the beginning man and woman because of sin separated themselves from God first and then from one another as a result. Jesus came to restore the right order between human beings and God as well as between human beings themselves.  

 

Reading 2 The second reading reminds us that the Son of God became man. In doing so, for a little while he was like us in all things, except sin. The reason for his Incarnation, taking on our human existence, is so that he could give his life on the cross for our salvation.

 

Though he was the Creator of all things, he chose to embrace the suffering and cruel death on the cross to show us how we are to embrace our sufferings. After the fall of Adam and Eve, suffering has been part of the human existence. But Jesus shows us how to embrace our sufferings so that united to his it becomes redemptive. In such a way our suffering will have a purpose beyond itself. Through our sufferings united to Jesus we become perfected for the eternal life with God. 

“I have been meditating on the story of the prodigal son. It is a story about returning. I realize the importance of returning over and over again. My life drifts away from God. I have to return. My heart moves away from my first love. I have to return. My mind wanders to strange images. I have to return. Returning is a lifelong struggle. . .  I am moved by the fact that the father did not require any higher motivation. His love was so total and unconditional that he simply welcomed his son home.” (Henri Nouwen)

 

The Father is always ready to welcome us. This is a given. The variable is our decision to return to him, regardless of our perceived consequences. Even though our past experiences tell us that the Father is waiting with open arms, our block is the fear this time will be different. The issue is not from the Father’s point of view, but ours. We are always his adopted son or daughter in his eyes. But how do we see the Father? That’s the crux of the question. When we see him as a harsh judge, we will stay away. When we see him as he is, a loving and merciful Father, then we can return. The prophet speaks the word of God. “Return to me and I will return to you.” “For I am slow to anger and rich in mercy.” 

Twenty-seventh Sunday Ordinary Gospel Reflections B

The Pharisees approached and asked Jesus, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing him.  

· They were testing him to show that he was not a true Rabbi in the understanding of the Pharisees about what is lawful and what was not.

He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?" 

· Knowing that they were trying to find fault with his teachings, Jesus poses a question to their question. Why? To get them to state their position first, then he would give his position, so that the people could judge the truth.

They replied, "Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her." But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (and be joined to his wife), and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." 

· What did Jesus do? He showed that they claim to based their teachings on the Word of God, in fact, they had based their teachings on the interpretation of the Word rather than the Word itself.

· Where do we do the same in our lives?

· What is the central statement of Jesus’ teaching upon which our understanding of the sacredness of marriage hinges?  The fact that if a marriage is sealed before God in reality, then it is forever. But if in fact a marriage was not sealed before God then there is no bond before God.

In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. 

· Remember the disciples are not learned like the Pharisees and therefore they too accepted the interpretation of the Pharisees and others.

He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." 

· Divorce is not the issue but a marriage with another person after a divorce in which the marriage is sealed sacramentally before God.

· Again, what is the underlying assumption? There is a marriage in fact before God. If there is, then Jesus says that no other marriage can be recognize before God unless death of the former partner has occurred.

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them. 

· How does this reflection of Jesus on the role of children connect with Jesus’ teaching on the sacredness of marriage? 

None of us like to be rejected or experience verbal abuse. How do we react to rejection and verbal abuse? Most of us try to retaliate either in kind or in a way that brings us false satisfaction. We seek an eye for eye approach. But usually we want more. How did Jesus respond to rejection and verbal abuse? Recall when Jesus was going from Galilee to Jerusalem for the fulfillment of his ministry as Messiah. As he and his disciples were passing through Samaria on the way to Jerusalem, a certain Samarian town refused him entry, because he was a Jew. Two of his disciples wanted revenge. They wanted to call down fire on the people and destroy them. What did Jesus do? He rejected retaliation by rebuking his disciples. He went on to the next village. This is the way of a true disciple of Jesus, not retaliation or revenge, but move on in life because there is something greater ahead, something more important. This Samaritan village was a bump on the journey to Jerusalem. Jesus refused to stumble and fall. What would happened if we approach rejection and verbal abuse this way? We would keep our eyes fixed on the eternal prize rather than find our face on the ground.

Cardinal Ratzinger said in an interview, referring to the dark night of faith St. Therese endured in the last months of her life: "When you sense God is absent, it is not that He has withdrawn His presence from you. It is, rather, that He is present to you now in a new form: under the form of  yearning. And yearning stretches your capacity for love."

Many of us have experienced this sense of absence from God, of being far away from God. Our immediate thought is that we have done something wrong, that we have to do something to bring this presence back. Such a focus is on us. We fail to see that God  may have a bigger plan for us through this sense of absence. He may be calling us into a deeper union with him. But for this to be achieved, he must strip away our dependence on our sense of comfort with him. A parent knows there is a time to take away the bottle of milk from the infant in order to get the child to want something more nourishing, like vegetables. The child cries for the bottle and may reject the new food. But the parent persists for the sake of the child. That is what God does for us. Our yearning is not to be for the "bottle" but for him and for what he wants for us, even though we don't understand.  

"The identity card of a Christian should be the same in all respects as that of Jesus. And the Cross is what we have in common and what saves us. Because if each one o f us is not willing to die with Jesus to be raised with him, we do  not yet have a true Christian identity." Pope Francis

You have perhaps seen the TV commercial that asks: "What's in your wallet?" We have credit cards, a driver license, maybe our vaccination card, but do we have in our hearts the authentic identity card of a Christian? We can carry a cross around our necks, but it is the interior commitment to embrace the will of God in the present moment of our lives that indicates our true identity. This conforms us to Jesus as a Christian. We may never be martyred for our faith in Jesus, but daily we are called to die to self and live in Christ. Often this is hard. But it is the only way to share eternally with Jesus in his resurrected life. 

Homily Twenty-six Sunday Year B

 

Reading 1: The invitation and the source of the action is the Lord. It is God who pours forth his Spirit upon others. God’s Spirit as with Moses and signs and wonders followed. Those signs and wonders did not point to Moses but to God. The background of the reading was at this point of leading the people from Egypt to the Promised Land Moses was feeling the burden of the task. People were demanding more and more from Moses.

 

So when Moses complained to God, God said for him to choose seventy-two elders to receive the same empowering Spirit. The Spirit came upon them and they prophesied. They spoke the word of God to the people. The fact that two were not in the physical company of the others did not prevent God from fulfilling his plan.

 

The issue was not God’s plan, but human beings wanting to be in control of God’s plan; others trying to determine and direct things according to their desires and expectations. But God shows that he is not limited by human expectations. Moses could realize that it was God who empowered the two to prophesy. Joshua, at the time, could not see this.

 

Moses says something very prophetic and correct. “Would that the Lord might bestow his Spirit on all and that all would prophesy.” This message appears in other parts of the Scripture. Joel prophesied that in the end time God would p or out his Spirit upon all mankind. On Pentecost Sunday, this happened. Baptism and Confirmation are the moments in each of our lives that we have received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism we were anointed with the Oil of Chrism and told we share in the life of Christ as priest, prophet and king. In Confirmation we were told that we are to witness about Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the gifts we received was the gift of prophesy.

 

Gospel: The first part of the Gospel connects us to the first reading. The two disciples were judging from human standards not from God. They were acting out of jealousy, out of a sense of control like Joshua.  Jesus identifies the truth. God is not limited to any exclusive club, but chooses to work in and through people we would not imagine. What is the message. Signs and wonders done in the name of Jesus that bear good fruit are of God.

 

Jesus then moves into the focus of his own preaching and ministry. He has been sent to call people to repentance and conversion. To do this, Jesus says that we must recognize the seriousness of sin and the consequences of sin. Then, we are called to realize the radical attitude we must take toward sin. It is not that Jesus wants us to literally cut off our hands. Rather, he wants us to recognize the eternal consequences of sin, alienation from God eternally.

 

Many times we do not think of eternal consequences of our sinful actions. We remain in the state of sin. Jesus is not advocating the decapitation of our limbs, but separation from sin through real repentance. As much as we revolt against the thought of severing a limb because of sin, we should be more horrified at the reality of eternity without God because of unrepentant sin.

 

There is a sense of immediacy. Do it now, Jesus is saying. Our eternal salvation is never to taken lightly. It is a gift from God, not something I deserve. To be indifferent to this gift is to say to God he is not that important in our life; to say that the death of Jesus is not that important to me.

 

Reading 2: What is the sin that James is referring to in his Letter? It is injustice and wrongdoing towards others for self-profit. Like any other sin it is the betterment of self at the detriment of others. To be rich is not the sin. To have means is not a sin. How did we obtain it? How do we use it? That is the issue. To obtain it unjustly or in a manner that deprives another what is due to them is sinful. To hoard it for self, when others are in dire need is sinful. 

Because of the recent hurricane Ida which devastated our area of the country, I have been without internet for the past three weeks. Thus, I was unable to send Thoughts of the Day to you. But praise God, internet came back on last night, so I am able to resume.

One day Brother Elias found St. Francis crying over how terrible a sinner he was. Surprised, Br. Elias asked how he could think such a thing. Francis therein recalled all the graces he had received and reflected that if any other man had received them, they would have been a far greater man that he.

How true this is! Each of us has received many graces over the years of our lives and, like Francis, failed to respond accordingly. And yet, God continued to grace us in spite of our sinfulness and ingratitude. Why? God loves us so much that he doesn't let our lack of response hinder or deter him from continuing to give us more than we deserve, but truly need.  Instead of lamenting that we have not done enough in the past, it would be better to respond to the grace of the moment and begin to become the person that God sees us to be. We will still fall short, but hopefully move forward, even it if is two steps forward and one backwards. It is the end result that counts. Will we be sharing his life at the end of our earthly existence? The prize is worth it.

As God is unconditionally compassionate to us, we are called to be compassionate to others. In his compassion God shows us mercy not judgement, understanding, not rejection. Many times what blocks us from being truly compassionate is our tendency to judge others from our perspective, without knowing the full picture. We tend to compare the other to ourselves. But our roads are different. The truth is "There go I but for the grace of God." God calls us to die to this process, He calls us to see the other with the heart of God. Someone has said: "Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, that prevents us from really being with the other." Ask for the grace to have a compassionate heart.

 

We have witnessed and maybe experience one natural tragedy and human-caused tragedy after the other. It is easy for us to question "Why"? But that begs the real question. We expect God to protect us from these things, while as a people we act contrary to God's Commandments. Could these tragedies be a wake-up call from God? Like the people of the Old Testament, we have a double standard. God is to keep his promises, but as a people we can do whatever we please. In our morals and our laws, we have rejected God. But why should the believers suffer along with the non-believers? That has been the mystery. Is it to draw the faithful closer to God? Is it to be a witness to the non-believers? We don't know. But what we do know is that the faithful remnant will enjoy eternal glory with God. Those who persist in rejecting God will not. Like Joshua, let us choose to serve the Lord, in spite of tragedy.