THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR

 

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 18:9-14

Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.  “Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector.  The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’  

But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’  I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

The first line of today’s Gospel hit me over the head.   Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.  Well, doesn’t that sound like the world we are living in.  Sadly, people in our nation and church have become polarized.  The vast majority are good people doing the best they can.  I think it’s time we give each other some slack. 

I remember a long time ago thinking to myself, “Why can’t so-and-so be more like me; they’re driving me crazy.”  I got an immediate response, “In MY image and likeness, not yours.”  I had to laugh. It’s funny how our loving God knows just when we need a little shove to get us back on course.   

I wonder sometimes if we drive God crazy with our antics.  I believe our Creator has a sense of humor.  Hopefully, being created in God’s image, we can share God’s humor and look kindly and with deep understanding toward our sisters and brothers who differ from us.   St Alphonsus, knowing his own faults and failures said, “You, my God, are crazy in love with me, how can I not become crazy with love for You?”

Our crazy God took pity on us when our humankind did not listen to Moses and the prophets by sending Jesus to redeem us. Christ lived and died for us that we might follow his example. God also gave us the saints as role models to carry on Christ’s message of love and mercy.  They came in all sorts and sizes: some were villains before they had their ‘come to Jesus moment’ while others were mystics from their youngest years. 

In our day, reading and praying over the bible; understanding the world we live in and praying with an open heart and mind can change us and make our world the Kingdom of God on earth.   

Carl Sagan famously said, “We are made of star stuff.”  In the grand scale of things, compared to our Creator, we are like those dust motes you see floating through a shaft of light.   We reflect the light, not by anything we have done, but by the light of God’s over-abundant love pouring over each and every one of us. 

The Pharisee was probably a good man. Yet, he had a strange way of thanking God.  Instead of thanking, the self-righteous Pharisee stood in the blinding light of his own pride, looked down his nose at the tax collector and despised everyone else.    He asked God for nothing and received nothing.   

Perhaps, the Tax Collector was also a good man, who just had a hard job to do.  He stood in the shadow of his humility and asked God for mercy.  In return, God understood and forgave him.  I imagine, the Tax Collector left the shadowy synagogue and came into the light of day with a peaceful heart knowing he was loved and forgiven. 

The word humility shares its root in Latin, humus, with the word human.  Humus means ‘of the earth, dust.’   What we need is a little more humus, humility, humanity.  Maybe, because of our humanness, we are not meant to shine garishly like the sun, but to reflect the light of the Beloved Son. Like the moon in its waning and waxing, our lives are a series falling and rising, sin and virtue.   May our humus, our star stuff, reflect Christ’s light for all to see, as we thank God for - everything. 

The more we humbly thank God, the more God will guide us, lifting us up to where we will reflect the Beloved Son.  In that shaft of light, we will see others, as our Crazy God does, with compassion, understanding, mercy.  Then we will live in the Kingdom of God here on earth and eternally with our loving Creator and Redeemer

in heaven. 

BL. CELESTE ~ CARING FOR GOD'S CREATION

 

All of us are concerned about climate change.  You just have to look out your window, or watch the news, to see and feel the effect of how weather has changed on earth.   It is as if the earth itself is on the Cross.

To look for some hope, I wondered what Celeste says about nature and what it could mean for us today. 

Bl. M. Celeste said to Jesus, ‘My Love, every breath that I take is breathed in and out with you on the Loving Cross.’  Colloquies  IX    Here, she is speaking of uniting her sufferings to that of Jesus. But we can think of it as being united to the sufferings of the planet today.

Our Jewish sisters and brothers believe the name of God is so holy that they dare not speak it.  But the name God told Moses, YH-WH, if you say, it is like the sound of our breathing: inhaling/YAH - exhaling/WEH.   So, in early morning, when we first open our eyes and take a deep breath, we begin our day of prayer and continue to do so throughout the day. Our breathing fills us with God. 

Christ told Celeste, ‘At the beginning of Lauds (Morning Prayer), all songs of praise are for all the benefits I bestowed on the world.  Begin the day as a memorial of the hour of my Incarnation, because at that hour of sunrise the divine Son rose upon the world and warmed earth with the Dew of the Grace of the Holy Spirit on all my creatures.’    Daily Exercises 3 

In this warmth, Celeste invites us to ‘gaze fixedly, as an eagle gazes on the sun without batting its eyelids, on the Eternal Sun of Justice, the First Cause of your love, from whom you derive strength.’   Rules, 42   Our very life and breath, therefore, is dedicated to the One who loved us into being.  One way to respond to such great of gift is by caring for the earth which God created to sustain us. 

Jesus told Celeste, ‘Everything that exists, exists for my Delight and my good pleasure. Thus, you shall delight in every created thing: the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth with its plants, flowers and fruits; in all my creatures, and even current events.’   Colloquies V

There is so much beauty that surrounds us.  Forget about going to the Moon or Mars.   We should put our money and energies into ensuring earth’s continuance; not only for our sake, but, as our Native Peoples say, for the Seventh Generation? 

Celeste instructs us saying, ‘God placed the Sun of His Divinity within the human person so that the person might always walk along the right ways in the light of His Divine Presence.’ Autobiography   There is a Navajo prayer that invites all to Walk in (such) Beauty.

‘Only those unwilling to receive the light shut their windows and remain deprived of that light through their own fault, simply because they don't want to look upon Christ’s splendor.’   Autobio     Here Celeste is speaking of the Light of Christ. Today, there are some politicians and big business people who shut their eyes to the light of science regarding the climate and look only for profit instead of working together to come up with climate solutions.

Let us open the windows of our eyes and not ignore the situation around us: the polluted air we breathe, contaminated water, climate disasters across the globe, extinction of plants and animals, the threat of nuclear war.  Let our prayers rise with the Sun of Justice and do what is possible in our own homes and neighborhoods to cherish and sustain nature that all may delight in every created thing for generations to come.     

I think Celeste is encouraging us to join in the dance of the Trinity to protect and help in the recovery of our ailing planet when she says, ‘From the charity of the Trinity comes forth all the works of creation, of conservation and of redemption.’      Exercise of Love 26   It is a call to mercy and the humility needed to stop using all the natural resources for our own benefit only. Celeste urges us to be humble because, ‘Humility unites you to the life Jesus humanly lived on earth and that directs our every intention to seek God’s glory.’  Colloquies 3

This humility combined with mercy expresses itself in loving-goodness.  At one-point Celeste states, ‘I am like a drop of water which falls unto you, a vast sea, and is changed.   There, I lose my own being, and see myself become an ocean of every kind of good.  I am like a force, a power of unlimited goodness.’   Colloquies IX

Let us immerse ourselves in that ocean of God’s goodness and be a force for unlimited good.  If each of us become like waves rolling in and out; a power and source of energy to set the balance of nature aright, then we will have done our part for our home, the earth, for generations to come.  Most of all, let us join Bl. Celeste and breathe in deeply the love of God and delight in all that our Creator has given us.

 

What can we do to help carry the cross which ails our beautiful home, the earth?

How can we be a force of unlimited goodness as we work together for climate solutions?

Living Simply, Listening Intently, Loving Freely

 

What do we know of Jesus in the flesh?

Jesus lived simply by the work of his hands: working with wood, carrying nothing for the journey as he walked throughout the land spreading the Good News while relying on the generosity of others, reaching out to those in need of healing, breaking bread to feed the hungry…

 Jesus listened intently to the guiding voice of his parents, Mary and Joseph, the Voice from heaven saying, “You are my Beloved,” heeding the poor in the marketplace, conversing with the Father in prayer under the star-filled sky, responding to the distress of women, being astounded by the faith of outsiders…

Jesus loved freely gathering the children into his arms, cleansing the Temple, yearning to gather together the people under his wings like a mother protecting her brood, sharing the cup and bread of his Life with his disciples, on the ground praying in the garden, stretching his arms out on the cross, lifting his hands in blessing while being carried up into heaven…

How are we, the people of God, enflesh Jesus?    

We are to live simply doing the work given us which provides a balance to our life of prayer; distinguishing our needs from our wants as we prepare for our move, humbly accepting the help of others, sharing with those in need…

We are to listen intently to the insight of each other with an open and patience heart not being quick to judge or find flaw as we glean the collective wisdom of the community during this time of transition.

We are to love freely looking to one another’s needs, speaking the truth respectfully, praying and opening our hearts to the transforming power of the Spirit enabling us to put aside the self in order to clothe ourselves in Christ as we live out in ourselves the Paschal Mystery and coming together rejoicing in harmony with one another. 

All these grace-filled qualities are all around us, rekindling the fire in our hearts to a deeper living of our call to be transformed into the Living Memory of Christ.  By using our gifts and strengths, and offering our losses and weaknesses, we give over our complete selves to the mystery of the work of salvation for the life of the world – just as Jesus did while he was in the flesh.   

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

 ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…’ so the song goes, but is it?  It’s hot out!  While surfing the TV channels, I came across a Christmas movie on Hallmark.  In July?  There is another Christmas song, ‘Why can’t we have Christmas the whole year around, why can’t we have Christmas the whole year around.’ 

When we think of Christmas we tend to think of the baby Jesus and gifts.  Not Blessed Celeste, the foundress of the Redemptoristines.  She speaks of Jesus’ incarnation as how Jesus crossed “…an abyss in which the angels still get lost, and that humiliation he underwent as God when, in the first instant of his incarnation, lowered himself to take on human flesh, and, though God, became man.”  Blessed Celeste often speaks of the God-Man/Man-God, and his “…admirable excess of Divine Love,” that led him to the cross. 

This excess of Divine Love is what the Incarnation, Jesus’ living, dying and rising was all about.  Celeste speaks of Christ in the present tense: living, rising, dying because we are called today to live out in our lives God’s Plan of Love through our joyful participation in and union with the Life of Jesus for the redemption of the world. 

How can we have Christmas and live the incarnation the whole year around when we are so - human?    Invariably, when people live together we grate on each other with our failings and foibles.  As Redemptoristines, we open the gift of excessive Divine Love given to us by God to lift us beyond our imperfections and eccentricities and humanly, humbly give the gift of love and understanding to one another.

To help us keep Christmas in our hearts all year around we would all do well to receive the gift excessive Divine Love by recalling Jesus words to Celeste, “At the hour of sunrise, the memorial hour of my Incarnation, I, the divine Sun, rose upon the world and warmed the earth with the Dew of the Grace of the Holy Spirit upon all my creatures.”   

So, let us soak up the July sun and wish one another a Merry Christmas this July. 

HERE I AM

 A Excerpt from Sr Moira Quinn's novel about John the Baptist

   Elizabeth’s labor began late in the night, yet she waited for the dawn before she whispered to her husband, “Arise.  Tell Mary to bid the midwife come.  Today you will have a son.

Such a flurry of activity erupted after Zechariah clapped his hands, signaling the time had arrived.  From then on the women took over.  Their servant, Abigail, was in and out of the room fetching and carrying out orders given by the mid-wife.  Mary sat by her aunt’s side, holding her hand and heartening her with encouraging words.
     At midday, Zechariah tapped on the bedroom door and beckoned Mary to come out.  With a twinkle in his eye, he pointed to the crowd below in the courtyard.  There, before her eyes, were her parents, Anna and Joachim, and her betrothed, Joseph.  There, too, were his parents, Jacob and Deborah, and his brothers and their families.  Her heart was filled with wonder and happiness.  She had not seen her parents for three months.  And as for her betrothed - she had left on uncertain terms and awaited word from him there in Ain Karim.
     When their eyes met Joseph spoke in a loud and clear voice, “I have come for my wife.”
     Mary blushed with excitement.   They had not faced each other since the day Mary had told him she was with child.  He had come!  She felt so honored that Joseph would make the long trip to claim her as his own.  At this point Mary’s parents rushed to embrace their child, and the others gathered around and exchanged eager greetings.  Finally, Joseph pulled her away from the crowd. 
    He was almost twenty; tall with square shoulders and the strong arms of a carpenter, and honest brown eyes.  Despite his outward calm, he too was excited to meet her.  She was fourteen with rosy cheeks, sparkling hazel eyes, and warm almond colored hair.  She had changed, though; there was a certain softness about her figure, and she had a glow about her that came from the bearing of life within.
     “You look beautiful, Mary.  You’ve gained weight,” Joseph blurted out when they were alone.  He blushed beneath his youthful beard.  Men do not comment on women’s appearance.  “I mean, how are you?”  Mary blushed also.
     They had been engaged a short while when Mary came into the carpenter shop to tell Joseph all that the angel of the Lord had said.  Though he knew her to be a guileless girl, he could not comprehend what she was telling him.  Confused and afraid to break their engagement outright for fear of exposing her to scandal, Joseph agreed that Mary should visit her kinfolk in Ain Karim so he could have time to think and decide what would be the best way to handle their troubling dilemma.

     Joseph told her of the days since she went away; of how he thought day and night weighing all the possibilities regarding her unexplainable pregnancy: his right to shun her knowing the child she carried was not his, but fearful that would leave her open to being accused of adultery.  Under the Law, the penalty for such a crime was stoning.  He cared too much for Mary to allow any harm to come to her.   He could marry her quickly, and they could move to another place where no one knew them, but that would mean leaving behind everyone and everything they had ever known and loved.  Or he could marry her, and stay and bear the scandal, shame and gossip that would afflict them for the rest of their lives. 
     Finally, he came to the conclusion that Mary should live with her relatives in Ain Karim and he would quietly release her from their betrothal.  Being a righteous man, his conscience would not permit him to marry her even though he knew her to be innocent of any wrong doing. 
      Sleep had been difficult with all this weighing on his mind, but after the decision was made he fell into a deep, dream-filled sleep.  He dreamt an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not be afraid, Joseph.  Take Mary as your wife.  It is by the touch of the Creator Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a Son and you, of the lineage of David, shall name him Jesus, for he will save his people by winning them back to the Lord.”
      And as he awoke, a passage from scripture came to him, “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, whose name shall be God-with-us!” 

     His heart beat with exhilaration.  Joseph now understood all that Mary had told him.  The time of which the prophets had spoken had come to pass and his betrothed was the woman of whom they had foretold.  His heart was opened to the truth, and he believed.  Praising the Lord, he quickly went to his family, as well as to Joachim and Anna, and persuaded them all to come with him to claim his betrothed, marry her, and bring her back to their home. 
     “Mary,” Joseph began, taking her hands in his big, rough carpenter hands, “on the day we were betrothed, I declared before our families and friends that you are my wife and I am your husband.  Yet, now you are ‘the virgin with child’ our Holy Scriptures foretold.  You are to be the mother of our Messiah.  And the Messiah is to come from the House of David.”  He took a deep breath to compose himself and continued, “I, Joseph, son of Jacob, of the House of David, a humble carpenter, though a virgin myself, ask that I may be the father of your Son in this world.  I love you, Mary.   I want to be your protector, provider, the father of your child, your husband.”     
     Mary looked deep into his handsome face, his hopeful eyes and responded, “Joseph, I love you, too.  There is no man I know of who is more caring, gentle or wise.  And there is no better man that our Son could call father here on earth than you.  I will be proud and honored to be your wife and for you to be father to our Son.”       
     Suddenly, cries of a newborn were heard from above.  Mary jumped up clasping her hands in front of her.  Joseph watched from his seated position as the brightness of Mary’s face gradually became solemn.  Her hands slowly moved down to feel her own small yet growing belly.  He knew she wondered at the miracle of an elderly woman conceiving and giving birth, and herself, a virgin with child, and pondered what all their futures would hold.

You can purchase the novel HERE I AM by our Sr. Moira by clicking on the button to the right of this blog.  

IN MEMORY OF ME

 Have you ever heard the strains of a song and been immediately transported back to the first time it moved you?   Where a certain event comes to mind or feeling envelopes you?  I wasn’t even born when Glenn Miller’s ‘Moonlight Serenade’ was written but I practically swoon when I hear those opening chords.

In Bl. Maria Celeste’s life that ‘strain’ was being a “Viva Memoria,’ a Living Memory of Jesus.  She just didn’t remember Jesus, she experienced him in her inner most being.  And with that awareness of his intimate presence she was transformed into a living image of the Redeemer.  In all the moments of her life: the joys, the sorrows, the struggles, she strove to live by participation-union the life of the Redeemer doing all “In Memory of Me” who so loved her and the world God created. 

At the end of May we celebrate Memorial Day. Many people go to parades and wave flags and then have the first bar-b-que of the season.   Others, who lost loved ones in service to our country, go to cemeteries and plant flags or lay wreaths honoring those who gave their all.   Their memorial stones are a tangible reminder
of the sacrifice of those who laid down their life for love of country. 

Jesus, for love of all humanity, laid down his Godhead to become Incarnate and lived and breathed like any other person.   Out of God’s immense love  God gave us the Only Begotten Son, that through Christ’s life, death and resurrection we are made divine in life.  To show us the way to this union with Jesus in God, we must follow in the footsteps Jesus and live in memory of Him. 

The reception of the Eucharist nourishes us for the journey.  Being a Viva Memoria is akin to what happens in the Eucharist when we hear the words, ‘Do This in Memory of Me,’ where what is remembered becomes, in the very remembering, the actual Real Presence.   Likewise, when we live “In Memory of Me,” we carry on the loving, salvific plan of God by becoming, in our own time and place a living eucharist: a living image of Jesus for the world.

Remember God’s immense love for you.  What ‘strains of song’ echo in your heart when you think of God’s immense love?  How can you follow Jesus and live your life “In Memory of Me?”

ORTHODOX LITANY