Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/013011.shtml

“The Lord shall reign forever;
Your God, O Zion, through all generations.”

It’s almost obvious to us the saying “Nice guys finish last.” Even the readings today, written thousands of years ago, take for granted that those who lie, cheat, and steal are those who succeed. The world is run by people who have pressed for every advantage over those who have followed the rules and tried to be kind. Nothing has changed in all our long history from that time until now.

But they are not God’s people. “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the earth,/ who have observed his law;/ seek justice, seek humility.” Those who obey God are God’s people, and He is the God of justice. He keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, and sets the captives free. While the readings assume that we know the evil often succeed ahead of the good, they remind us of this fact: The Lord is powerful, and keeps faith with His people. There will be justice.

The Beatitudes affirm this. Those who are weak, but follow God, will find satisfaction. The Lord will not let us suffer forever. Whether in this life or the next, God will remedy our injustice with justice, and our sorrow with joy. It is our part now to have faith, and to believe in the victory He has already won for us.

We think it such an awful thing to be weak. But God has chosen the weak things to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise. We believers are not often the CEOs or presidents, the PhDs or millionaires. But God has chosen us, because we have room for Him. It is the weak who are blessed, because they lack and God provides.

In love, there is both giving and receiving. We often would rather give than receive, be strong rather than weak. But there is both in love, and without both there is not love. People who “have everything” do not want to receive; they want to give, of their opinion, of their will, of their influence. They don’t “need” anything, and thus are not open to God. But the weak are. The ones who mourn, who hunger and thirst for justice, who are poor in spirit, who are merciful, who suffer evil spoken falsely against them: all these need God. They are open to receiving from God, and so will be satisfied.

When we are weak, we receive God into our lives. When we are strong we feel we don’t need Him. We should encourage ourselves to be weak, to be vulnerable, to leave room for God in our lives It is hard to be weak. But He is the God of forever, faithful and loyal to the people who have chosen Him; He has promised us we will not suffer forever.

There is balm, in Gilead. There is ease for our suffering in God. Do not be afraid to lean on Him, because He remembers us in our pain. Do not be afraid to need Him. Because in our weakness He has chosen us to be proof of His power in the world, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Link to Mass Reading: http://www.usccb.org/nab/102410.shtml

The Lord will rescue those who are just and faithful to Him. In persecution do not despair; doubt not God nor the victory of salvation He has placed within you. Though we sin, sin cannot prevail against the strength of the Holy Spirit. In pain, we need to look to humility, to let ourselves be weak enough to need God.

6th Sunday of Easter

The readings today spoke of the true essential way to follow Christ. So often in our desire to give proper respect to God, we turn worship into ritual. We ritualize giving money, require women to cover their heads in church, fast on these days, come to Mass on those day. In the first reading we see this, with some teachers converted from the old covenant requiring circumcision to be saved, confusing ritual with salvation. The elders of the church saw this, and reconfirmed that it is devotion, and not sacrifice that God requires: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage.”

It is not ritual which brings you into communion with God, but true service. Ritual is like training wheels, it is there to train us in the proper way of doing things, but it is not the final step, or all there is. We should not put the trappings of our faith before the faith itself. The second reading brings this to light, because it describes the Church, the Body of Christ. The Church is the holy city of Jerusalem, with the apostles as its’ foundation. One the gates are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, symbolizing the whole Church. And the key is that there is no temple in the city, no place of worship where it is required to pray and offer sacrifice. Because the temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. We carry our place of worship with us because “when two or more are gathered He is present.” The glory of God shines in us because Christ shines in us, and wherever we are there we worship God.

So if it is not ritual which saves us, nor our place of worship which makes us followers of Christ, then what is? In the Gospel Jesus tells us “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” We are Christ’s because we do the things he tells us, to feed the hungry and heal the sick, visit those in prison and clothe the naked. Our churches and altars and stained glass and beautiful choirs are good, and help us to pray better and feel closer as a Church, but it is not what makes us a Church, nor just the Creed we pronounce each week. What makes us the Church of Christ is to follow Him. And we are united in the Body of Christ if we do so.

Note: this is not to undermine the Sacraments, but to clarify that the Sacraments are not sufficient. They are outward signs of God’s grace, and one can partake of them without being assured of salvation. To be Catholic, to follow Christ, is to choose the narrow way as he did.