Growing down...

"At that time Jesus exclaimed: 'I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike."
Matthew 11:25

So, which are we? Are we the wise and learned or are we the childlike? Good question, today, posed by the folks at Pray-As-You-Go.  If anything, I tend to think we grow backwards into being more childlike as we age.  For one thing, the older I get the more I realize I don't know.  Where I was more confident and self assured in my youth, I feel much less sure of myself now.  Oh, there are some things I feel "smart" about, but overall, I feel less and less sure.  When it comes to God stuff, I feel more childlike because the longer I'm around the more vividly I see God working.  God is around every corner, working amazing miracles everyday.  I didn't see that in my youth.  There may have been a miracle here and there, but I wasn't able to see God in all things then.  I had to grow down a bit to recognize that I can't draw a breath without God's help. God works up a sweat helping me in my life, day after day.  I had to grow older and grow down to really appreciate God in my life.  That's something to think and pray about this Wednesday! Love, heidi

The Hard Stuff

"Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented..."

Matthew 11:20

 

On Pray-As-You-Go this morning they ask a pondering question...why do you think the people who heard and watched Jesus did not do what he said? Oh, that's easy, I thought to myself. Because Jesus said really hard stuff.  Love your enemies. Love your neighbor; oh, and by the way, your neighbor is the person you dislike the most. As we learned in the Gospel of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made a hero of the Samaritan and the Jews hated the Samaritans. No wonder the people didn't listen to him...he turned their prejudices upside down by telling them they couldn't have prejudices! And we, even after two thousand years of Jesus' teachings, have the same difficulty as the people of Chorazin and Bethsaida.  We feel better about our own failures by pointing out the failures of others. When, instead, we could humbly recognize our failures and try to learn what they teach us. As Fr. Richard Rohr points out, we don't eradicate our failures by defending them or projecting them onto others. We humbly accept that we fail and learn what we can from it. Probably the most important thing we can learn is that we can't fix ourselves. We need to put our own egos to bed and stop putting others down to soothe ourselves.  That just doesn't work in Jesus' Kingdom.  Love, heidi

There is no "other"

"The one you think you hate is about to help you. The one you think is wrong has something to teach you. There is no 'other.'"
Fr. James Martin, SJ, web reflection on the Good Samaritan

In these days of powerful and vehement disagreement, this little reflection was so illuminating to me. In the Gospel of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus is asked "Who is my neighbor?" He answers with the story we are all familiar with about the Samaritan guy helping the injured fellow by the side of the road.  While people would have been shocked that Jesus made a hero of the Samaritan, we can learn and be shocked too.  What Jesus was teaching all of us is that the one we think we hate has something to teach us. The one we disagree with will help us. What am I to learn from the person who is my political opposite? What can I teach the person on the other side? We all have our strong opinions and views and that is OK, but our greatest teachers are the people with whom we disagree the most. They can teach us about acceptance, tolerance and the REAL neighbor-ness that Jesus is talking about.  So, the next time we are screaming at the TV talking heads (why are we watching them in the first place?) let's stop and think, what can I learn from this "other" point of view? Maybe that there really is no "other" in Jesus' neighborhood. We are all one under God.  Wow, that, right? Love, heidi

Lord, have mercy!

"...do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say...For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."
Matthew 10: 19, 20

This has been a heartbreaking week in our country and world.  So much violence, hatred, sadness, and pain. What can possibly be said?  What I sincerely believe is that God cries real tears with us. God shares in the pain and sadness that we humans inflict on each other. God's heart is broken too.  What are we to say? How can we help the suffering?  God will surely give us words of comfort, if we just ask. Today's Psalm is so appropriate: "Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense." (Psalm 51).  For we are all guilty of complacency and buying into the anger and "otherness" of others.  When, in reality, in God's eyes we are all one, not one of us more righteous or better than the other.  And if one of us is hurting, we are all hurting.  If one of us is suffering, we are all suffering.  There is no "them" and "us." We are all brothers and sisters.  Have mercy on us, O God!  Give us eyes to see that what we do to others, we do to you. Love, heidi

A rose by any name...

"The names of the twelve apostles are these..."
Matthew 10:2

What's in a name? Well, our names are important enough that St. Matthew thought it necessary to give the names of the twelve apostles in his Gospel.  Our names make us special. Our names identify us to people we know and even people we don't. Whether we like our names or not, our names identify us.  Pray-As-You-Go invites us this morning to ponder what Jesus calls us.  Does Jesus use our given names or something different? When Mary Magdalene encountered Jesus after the resurrection she didn't recognize him until he said her name. Do we miss recognizing Jesus until we hear our names? Do we hear our names? In addition to calling me "Heidi-dear" (with an Irish accent) I have heard Jesus call me "Little One" or even "Little Lamb." Whatever Jesus calls us, he calls us with tenderness and compassion. Jesus says our name like we've never heard it said by anyone else.  Jesus says our name with love we cannot imagine.  Let's spend some time today or this evening praying and pondering how we hear Jesus beckon us.  Love, heidi

The harvest...the laborers

"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few."

Matthew 9:37

 

When I was a kid and heard this reading, I thought Jesus was talking about religious vocations here.  The laborers were the priests and sisters who would dedicate their lives to doing the work of God.  Yes, those were the laborers.  I felt somewhat guilty that I might not be one of them, although the Sister Mary Ringo dream surfaced periodically.  (I was the weirdest kid!) Anyway, "Not so fast," says Jesus. We are all called to be laborers for the harvest, as I realized later.  The real "harvest" being doing the work of God...feeding those who are hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, the lesson of Matthew 25.  That "harvest" is the harvest we all need to roll up our sleeves and pitch in to help.  And as for a spiritual vocation: Any job we do with love and for the glory of God is a spiritual vocation.  So we are not off the hook here, Friends!  Anything we do for the good of others and the glory of God makes us laborers for God's harvest. So let's get out there and do it today!  Love, heidi