community – The Noontimes

1 Timothy 1: The Duality of Love

1 Timothy 1: The Duality of Love

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Over the last week or so we have explored the dualities we find in creation and in God’s person of creator, redeemer and spirit. Today we explore our openness to infinite duality with this favorite from September 17, 2008.

Fidelity to the Message

Restrain false and useless teaching. This is the message of the first chapter of 1 Timothy. Do not nurture the thinking that does not contribute to love within the community. By maintaining faith, we open the conduit through which God’s plan comes to us – we receive revelation through fidelity to God.

Among the list of false teachings we see the lifestyle of homosexuals criticized. This thinking ought to sadden modern Christians who have the benefit of science to know that our sexual identity and our sexual behaviors are formed before birth. In other words, we have before us the scientifically proven facts that we cannot change our sexual orientation any more than we can our eye color. Of course, in this ancient culture of Timothy, which prized reproduction as an assurance of the survival of the human race, homosexual behavior would be looked upon as a waste of creation, an aberrant perspective, a troubling and even insidious lifestyle. Today we know better.

Despite what seems to be a difference in opinion, the key to understanding God’s plan lies in this opening chapter of 1 Timothy: we must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully his message. Anything that gets in the way of a full and open understanding must be jettisoned, i.e.; the belief that our sexual determination is an emotion or a choice. Life is a process, and we occupy a tiny speck on this spectrum of coming to the fullness of God’s message. The evolution of our species is a scientific tenet, proven and documented. We know with certainty that twenty first century humankind has changed in form and chemistry from our earliest ancestors. When we think of God’s plan, we understand that we are finite in our present form; we do not have the capacity to know all that has gone before and all that will follow. When we pause to reflect, we might begin to understand our capacity, or incapacity, to enter into the intricacies of the infinite. The more we open our minds to Christ, the more we will understand the complexity of God’s message, or in other words, we must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully God’s message.

The key to growth in the Spirit is this, as we have been told in this chapter: fidelity brings about understanding. The more we cleave to the Law of Love, the more we will understand that our comprehension of that law must grow and develop. We return to the original thought: we must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully God’s message. Does the message change? No, but our human capacity to understand the divine morphs and grows as we ourselves grow, both as individuals and as a community.

The letters to Timothy and Titus present a manual on the formation and maintenance of a Christian community; but we must place these teachings within the body of science we have available to us today. And we must move forward and away from the false teachings to which we may want to cling for comfort. We must remain faithful to God in order to understand fully God’s message. . . . and we must remain in God so that God’s message comes to us through, and of and in God.

Image from: https://fromalovingplace.com/2021/03/12/daily-aligning-with-love-abundance-and-peace-224/

May 17, 2025

community, false leaders, fidelity, The Law of Love

2 Corinthians 6:14-18: Call to Holiness

2 Corinthians 6:14-18: Call to Holiness

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Yesterday we reflected on Christ’s call to us as Living Stones in the New Temple we find in the unity of Christ’s corporate body. Today we remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians – and to us – about the importance of our answering that call. Today’s Noontime is a Favorite from April 18, 2008 in which we considered how we might replace the old Temple of stone in Jerusalem, with the New Temple of Christ’s heart that we see and we become . . . when we come together in Christ with all of creation.

Paul wrote this message to the people in Corinth where this fledgling church was dealing with a series of crises. This letter is a call to reflect on how we interact in community. At first glance, today’s selection may appear to call us to a life of separation and apartness; but when we look further, we see that Paul was calling the readers of this letter away from paganism, idol worship, and self-serving behaviors that lead to temporary satisfaction and eventual destruction. Footnotes point out that Paul speaks to the fact that God alone can lay claim to us. We are created by God, we live in God through Christ, we come together in peace – even with our enemies – in the Spirit. And in so living, we return to God to find union with all of God’s creation. These verses assure us that God will always be among us, and that together we maintain a covenant with God as God’s faithful.

As we have reflected often in our Noontimes, Jesus wades among the unwashed, those afflicted with leprosy, the outcast and the marginalized. As Christ’s apostles, we are called to continue this mission; we are called to become one in Christ so that we might follow Christ as we take this New Temple of our collective selves into the world. We are called to bring Christ’s Hope to the World. We are called to bring the Spirit’s Love to the World.

From today’s MAGNIFICAT morning intercessions.

God dwells among us in the Church. Let us turn to him and pray: Remember your people, Lord.

You are in our midst; your name we bear: make us a fit dwelling-place for your love. Remember your people, Lord.

You have made us temples of your Spirit: cleanse our hearts and make of them a house of prayer. Remember your people, Lord.

You have chosen us as your resting-place forever: grant us peace in your presence. Remember your people, Lord.

God of Glory, you dwell in our midst through Jesus Christ, the new and eternal temple of your Presence. Turn our hearts to worship you in the midst of our daily lives, that we may come one day to dwell with you in light, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 22.5(2008). Print.

Images from: http://blessedtimothy.blogspot.com/2012/10/living-stones-in-temple-of-god.html and http://www.swordofthespirit.net/bulwark/august2014p2.htm

May 21, 2024

1 and 2 Peter, Christ’s body, Christ’s hope, community, living stones, love, New Temple, separation versus union

1 Peter 4:1-11: A Prayer for Mutual Charity

1 Peter 4:1-11: A Prayer for Mutual Charity

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

St_Peter_Besenzi — *Paolo Emilio Besenzi: Saint Peter*

Peter exhorts the early Christians to regard their persecution as a blessing, and today’s Noontime reading describes how those in community bear with one another, how they celebrate their diverse gifts, and how they are to stand on God’s authority rather than their own. Peter calls his flock to mutual understanding, forbearance, purity and love. And he also calls us today.

God of Abraham, God of Peter, we say that we are willing to serve your purposes, the purposes for which you have designed us. Help us to keep faith with your hope in us. We know that we are wonderfully made, and that you have plans for us – plans for our joy and not our woe.

God of Abraham, God of Peter, we know that our fellow travelers are also wonderfully made. We also know that when we walk together, you call on us to bring forth the best in one another. Help us to be open to our fellow pilgrims as we journey toward you. Help us to remember that in the life of the Spirit there is always an opportunity for a new beginning.

God of Abraham, God of Peter, bless us, hear our petitions, heal us, bind us together in you. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Peter_Besenzi.jpg

Adapted from a Favorite written on July 31, 2007.

May 7, 2024

community, early Christians, forbearance, love, purity, understanding

Zechariah 7: Diamond Hardness

Zechariah 7: Diamond Hardness

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Scattered in a whirlwind and living in an unfamiliar, desolate land, they are not heard by the Lord of hosts when they call on his name. They refused to listen. They turned stubborn backs and stopped up their ears. They plotted evil and oppressed those who lived on the fringes and those who were unaccepted. They isolated, they divided, they did not show compassion or kindness toward each other. With all of this constant turning away, they have turned their hearts to such stoniness that they are now diamond hard. Only God can call them back. Only God can soften these people. Only God knows their true names.

Zechariah writes to those who have returned from exile and who should remember and understand how they came to be living in a hostile land. He encourages those who return to open their hearts, to soften their hearts, to give their hearts over to God.

The people who first heard this prophecy believed that they had suffered more, longer and harder than any of the other faithful before them. Zechariah offers hope to these people and to us. He encourages us to cease putting off tending to our relationship with God. He urges us to clean our temple selves, and to ready ourselves for the coming of one who will save. We do this best by forming and building community. We do this best by showing compassion and kindness to one another.

When we are in the throes of a struggle, the one thing that will lift us, open us, soften us is our choice to place ourselves in our opponents’ shoes. In doing this, we step out of ourselves and open our cold hearts to God and to others. We risk being hurt, we risk losing our safety spot. Yet we risk the total loss of self we stay encamped in our own interior tending to ourselves as our hearts turn harder each day. Eventually we turn into the hardest of materials – the cold glitter of diamonds.

When you fasted and mourned . . . was it really for me that you fasted?

We have a clear choice before us. We may either turn a pleasant land into a desert, or we may open our hearts to the possibility of divinity. What do we choose today? Diamond hardness, or the gentle, patient wisdom of God?

Images from: https://secretangelps911.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/hearts-of-stone/ and https://www.pinterest.com/dan330/hearts-in-nature/

A favorite from November 14, 2009.

December 13, 2022

community, exile, God’s wisdom, hard hearts

Acts 4:32-37: One Heart and Mind

Acts 4:32-37: One Heart and Mind

Third Sunday of Easter, May 1, 2022

In Easter gratitude we remember that Jesus has a vision and message for each of us. In Easter beatitude we offer back to the risen Christ our witness, our actions, our hearts and our minds.

The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.

This is the community that lives the vision Jesus brings to us when he appears to the Apostles after his resurrection: He opened their minds to understand Scriptures. (Luke 24:45) Jesus calls us today to bring this kingdom into fullness through him.

With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all.

This is the living message Jesus brings to us that Peter brings to the people who long for healing and peace. The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. (Acts 3:14-15) Jesus asks us today to pass on the good news that the Spirit lives in us eternally.

There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the Apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.

This is the community Jesus describes and asks us to build, one in which we find a way to be of one heart and one mind in Christ. My children, I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin . . . Those who say, “I know him”. But do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. (1 John 2:1-5) Jesus speaks to us today, calling us to testify to his presence in all space and all time. Let us witness to the Easter miracle by imitating the Apostles as best we can. Let us look for the paths that bring us together in one heart and one mind in Christ.

Tomorrow, listening for the voice that calls . . .

Click on the image above for another reflection on acting of one heart and mind or visit: http://www.graceisforsinners.com/one-heart-one-mind/

May 1, 2022

1 John 2:1-5, Acts 3:14-15, Beatitude, community, Luke 24:45, Peter

Titus 3: Prepare

Wednesday, December 22, 2020

Titus 3

Prepare

This brief letter has something to say to us about forming community. Today we reflect on its third and last chapter. Titus was an assistant to Paul mentioned in some of his other letters and also in Acts. He began a Christian community on the island of Crete, and Paul counsels him about how he might advise these early Christians to live among deceivers and heretics. These are words we might use today.

Be under the control of magistrates and authorities . . . be obedient . . . open to every good enterprise . . . slander no one . . . be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone.

Paul reminds Titus and us that we have all been foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another. No one but a saint escapes the downside of humanity.

The upside, the good news is that the Christ has come to walk among us, to be one of us, to take on our burdens which overwhelm us because God is goodness and mercy in their most perfect form.

What are we to do to reach for such heights? Avoid foolish arguments, genealogies, rivalries and quarrels about the law . . . After a first and second warning, break off contact with a heretic. We are to devote ourselves to good works to supply urgent needs.

The message is clear. While we strive to follow Christ we cannot expect perfection in or of ourselves. This perfection can be obtained only in and through Christ because of God’s mercy and compassion and love for each of us.

In this Advent season, as we near the celebration of the day when the child comes to live among us, we might pause to consider our arguments and our foolish enterprises. We might consider how we are to cast off anything that does not lead us to Christ. We might consider how we best devote ourselves to good works that address urgent needs when all else fails us. We might consider how we will be best prepare. For now is that time.

Adapted from a reflection written on December 18, 2008 and posted today as a Favorite.

Image from: http://rclnotes.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html

December 22, 2020

burden, community, Crete, good works, heretics, obedience, Paul, preparation

2 Thessalonians 3: Steadfastness

Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 10, 2020

2 Thessalonians 3

Steadfastness

We continue to remain in the Risen Christ as we shelter in place to meet the threat of a pandemic virus. Some may feel that we live in”end times.” Others believe that the stress caused by a world-wide virus calls us to work with one another, persisting through strife rather than crumbling beneath it.

In waiting for “the end times”, some early Christians decide to abandon their work and devote themselves to keeping up with gossip; they do not make their own living but live from the toil of others. Paul speaks directly to those who place the burden of living on their community, and he is clear in his thinking. He urges personal responsibility, faith in God, and imitating the steadfastness of Christ. It is this unswerving following that prepares us for the life we are called to live . . . a life in Christ.

From today’s MAGNIFICAT Meditation by Fr. Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, the founder of the Order of Preachers in France after their revolution: All holy souls – all souls, that is to say, which are enlightened by truth and guided by charity, are in communion. Even here below, without knowing it, they are linked to one another, they are members of a society of which God is the center, the life, the light, the beauty, and the bliss. They help one another by their prayers and good works; they suffer for one another’s sake; they are like the stones of which a church is built, which are hidden from one another, yet support one another from the foundation to the roof . . . Our meetings on earth are by comparison mere vain and fruitless advances.

God creates us and wants us to know that we are God’s children, connected to one another and to God by the bond of Christ. We are to love one another, especially our enemies, as best we can . . . but we are to love.

Christ walks among us to show us that we are important to him and to one another, even though we may not hear, see or feel this importance. We are to do for one another as best we can . . . but we are to act.

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians – and us – that we ought not take advantage of others in this bond that we share with one other. We are to give as best we can, according to the blessings and gifts God bestows on us . . . but we are to give.

Fr. Lacordaire reminds us that there are invisible bonds that hold us together. We are to remember these bonds and work with them rather than against them. We are to persist in our journey toward truth and light and even though we do not see the end of the journey, even though we do not care to be with some of our fellow travelers, we are to persist and remain steadfast . . . otherwise, our meetings on earth may be mere vain and fruitless advances.

Paul calls us to steadfastness and persistence in Christ. Christ walks among us to reveal the Father’s promise and the Spirit’s abiding presence. Through our diligence in following Christ, our fidelity to God’s vision, and our love in the Spirit, we hone our skill at being steadfast. We increase our stamina and nurture our persistence. All of these are gifts honestly earned and freely bestowed. They are the blossoming fruit of discipleship.

Cameron, Peter John. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 2.11 (2010). Print.

Image from: http://s449.photobucket.com/user/conniecriqui/media/2Thess3Proof.jpg.html

Adapted from the November 2, 2010 Noontime.

May 10, 2020

community, connection, End Times, Fr. Lacordaire, journey, persistence

Tag: community

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