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Beyond the Obstacle
Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
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Growth Unlocked
Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
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Collaboration Magic
Welcome to WordPress! This is a sample post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey. To add more content here, click the small plus icon at the top left corner. There, you will find an existing selection of WordPress blocks and patterns, something to suit your every need for content creation. And don’t forget to check out the List View: click the icon a few spots to the right of the plus icon and you’ll get a tidy, easy-to-view list of the blocks and patterns in your post.
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Sirach 27:30-28:7: Limitless
Sirach 27:30-28:7: Limitless
Monday, September 3, 2024
Jan Van Hemessen: The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Once we begin to enact our own shepherd parable, we will want to keep in constant touch with the healer, guide and protector who calls us. We will need to put aside our negative thoughts and emotions. And we will need to be open to the positive flow of goodness the Shepherd bestows on us.
From last Sunday’s readings (24th Sunday in Ordinary time) we find words of wisdom. Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The sins we commit are our many or few big and little separations from God more than a list of specific immoralities. Could anyone refuse mercy to another and expect healing from the LORD? Fortunately for us, the Shepherd forgives endlessly and so we too must practice giving the gift of forgiveness to those who harm us. Sirach describes how we must step away from our dual, black-and-white perspective to open ourselves to the broad, generous arms and heart of the Shepherd.
Claude Vignon: Parable of the Unforgiving Servant In Matthew 18:21-35 Jesus tells his disciples – and he tells us today – that we must forgive endlessly, just as we are forgiven. “I say to you, not seven times seven but seventy-seven times”. Scholars tell us the number 7 is special in scriptural context. It’s special meaning implies a sense of completion or even perfection. Knowing this, we might ask, how much is seventy-seven times, and who among us counts each word of forgiveness as we dole it out to others? Far better, Jesus tells us, when we listen to the lesson of the unforgiving servant, that we forgive others endlessly from our hearts.
Today we reflect on these verses and gather strength to live out our shepherding parable with forgiveness that is more than seven times seven. With forgiveness that is an infinite seventy-seven times.
Images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Unforgiving_Servant and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Vignon_-_Parable_of_the_Unforgiving_Servant.jpg
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John 8:1-11: Contemplating God’s Mercy
John 8:1-11: Contemplating God’s Mercy
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
“God is a riverbed of mercy that underlies all the flotsam and jetsam that flows over it and soon passes away. It is vast, silent, restful, and resourceful, and it receives and also releases all the comings and goings. It is awareness itself (as opposed to judgement), and awareness is not the same as ‘thinking’. It refuses to be pulled into the emotional and mental tugs-of-war that form most of human life. To look out from this untouchable silence is what we mean by contemplation”. (Rohr 187)
Richard Rohr, OFM, tells us that if there is one characteristic to assign to God, it is mercy. This life-giving quality of forgiveness, fidelity, and love is God’s signature characteristic. Rohr quotes St. Teresa of Ávila from her book THE INTERIOR CASTLE. “The soul is spacious, plentiful, and its amplitude is impossible to exaggerate . . . the sun her radiates to every part . . . and nothing can diminish its beauty”. Rohr continues, “This is your soul. It is God-in-you. This is your True Self”. (Rohr 187)
Pope Francis tells us that THE NAME OF GOD IS MERCY in his signature work published in 2016. He, like Rohr and St. Teresa, reminds us that in order to understand and experience mercy, we must first acknowledge that we are in need of mercy ourselves. Just as Jesus forgives the condemned woman in John 8, God wants to forgive each of us. Just as Jesus does not reproach the woman in John 8, God refuses to reproach each of us. Just as Jesus contemplates the possibility that God’s kingdom is now, God gives us the gift of mercy and insists that the kingdom is here.
“We live in a society that encourages us to discard the habit of recognizing and assuming our responsibilities: It is always others who make mistakes. It is always others who are immoral. It’s always someone else’s fault, never our own”. (Pope Francis, 2)
We live in a place and time when blame and fault are assigned, credit is taken, and deep divisions grow. We live in a place and time when mercy and love are needed, stories are believed, and bridges are built over deep chasms. St. Teresa, Rohr and Pope Francis tell us that God is a riverbed of mercy. They remind us that God’s generosity and love have no bounds. Once we begin to contemplate God as seen through the actions of Jesus, we know all of this to be true. Once we allow God’s Spirit to enter our lives, we allow ourselves to slide into the mighty flow of mercy that washes away all that separates us.
Richard Rohr, OFM. A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations. Albuquerque, NM: CAC Publishing, 2016.
Pope Francis, THE NAME OF GOD IS MERCY: A Conversation with Andrea Tornielli
Image from: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017G7IVTG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
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Proverbs 4: Admonition
Proverbs 4: Admonition
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
We can never be too cautious or prudent. Learn the ways of wisdom by heart.
We can never be too vulnerable and open to God. Keep vigilance over our hearts.
We can never forget the practical advice of Lady Wisdom.
Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth;
avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.
Keep your eyes straight ahead;
ignore all sideshow distractions.
Watch your step,
and the road will stretch out smooth before you.
Look neither right nor left;
leave evil in the dust.Wisdom admonishes us to take care, but she also reminds us that small, practical guidelines bring us serenity and joy.
Comparing various translations of these verses, we realize again the importance of small practices.
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Sirach 1:1-10: Length of Days
Sirach 1:1-10: Length of Days
Saturday, June 1, 2024
The Law, the Prophets, and the later writers have left us a wealth of valuable teachings, and we should praise Israel for the instruction and wisdom they provide. (GNT)
When we look for advice during times or worry, there is always a place to turn.
Now, those who read the scriptures must not only themselves understand them, but must also as lovers of learning be able through the spoken and written word to help the outsiders. (NRSV)
When we search for a firm foundation on which to stand, there is always wisdom at our fingertips.
You are invited, therefore, to read with goodwill and attention and to be forgiving in cases where we seem less than perfect in translating some expressions, despite working hard on the translation. (CEB)
When we find that our burden is too heavy to carry, the Creator calls us in the enormity and passion of creation.
All wisdom is from the Lord
and remains with him forever.The sands of the sea, the drops of rain,
the days of eternity—who can count them? (NABRE)When we want to rejoice in the presence of the Lord, the universe shows us God’s power.
Heaven’s height, earth’s extent,
the abyss and wisdom—who can explore them?Before all other things wisdom was created;
and prudent understanding, from eternity. (NABRE)When we are ready to celebrate the endless compassion of God’s patience and wisdom, we assure ourselves of infinite happiness, delight and length of our days.
Love of the Lord warms the heart, giving gladness and joy and length of days.
When we compare different translations of these verses and reflect on wisdom we find, we open our hearts to happiness, peace and length of days.
Image from: https://hiddenlighthouse.wordpress.com/tag/the-wisdom-of-jesus-son-of-sirach/
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John 12:44-50: Re-Creation – Christ
John 12:44-50: Re-Creation – Christ
ZaGHaMi: The Good Shepherd Monday, April 22, 2024
When we see the Bible as an entire story of God’s people, we know that Jesus is not God’s Plan B. Jesus is Plan A. God does not see that humanity has gone awry and then decide to send in the saving force of Jesus. God’s direct interaction with creation has no beginning or end. It is eternal, just as God is eternal.
Jesus says: Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me. Whoever looks at me is looking, in fact, at the One who sent me. I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark.
God always has faith that God will find every lost sheep.
If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn’t take it seriously, I don’t reject him. I didn’t come to reject the world; I came to save the world.
God has outrageous hope that every lost sheep will return to the fold.
But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I’m saying, is willfully choosing rejection. The Word, the Word-made-flesh that I have spoken and that I am, that Word and no other is the last word. I’m not making any of this up on my own.
God’s love knows no bounds. God has always loved us. God will always love us. God continues to love us each day.
The Father who sent me gave me orders, told me what to say and how to say it. And I know exactly what his command produces: real and eternal life. That’s all I have to say. What the Father told me, I tell you.
As Richard Rohr, OFM, has said with a chuckle, “God is victorious. God doesn’t lose. That’s what it means to be God”.
Today as we settle into this second Sunday of Eastertide, let us hold these truths closely. Let us open our ears and open our eyes. And let us determine to be re-created in Christ so that we might live as Jesus lives . . . so that all may be one in this universal message of universal love.
Listen to a four-and-a-half minute chat with Fr. Richard Rohr on this topic at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owZRS5WVJuM
The photograph above was taken “along the dusty roads of rural Punjab, Pakistan”. The icon is a traditional early image of Jesus.
Icon image from: http://www.gnosticmuse.com/the-three-types-of-christ/
The Noontimes 