Take Nothing for the Journey

When we hear Jesus instruct His disciples not to take anything with them when they go on a journey they may have been slightly concerned.  Can you imagine if this were asked of us?  Don’t take a thing with you on vacation, business trip, or when you move to a new town!

There is strength in detachment from material items and that same strength in the poverty of spirit.  We are less concerned with the toys of the world and can focus on the people in our life and be present to the working of the Holy Spirit.

What Jesus is getting at here is that there is no room for distractions from what is important. If people hear the message and don’t listen; don’t waste your time trying to fill a cup that is full.  They won’t  hear it. It won’t sink in.

In the same way, if our cup is full of unnecessary things we won’t be able to allow the moment to take over.  We won’t hear the message.

There are messages for us at every moment.  Trust in the Divine Presence. Empty our vessels from unnecessary clutter so that we may hear the moment.

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

Luke 8:19-21

Today, Jesus, asks us to open our mind to the relationship that already exists in the world.  When he says that "being his brothers and mother are those that hear the will of God and act on it". He says we are connected, we act with synchronization no matter our understanding of blood relative. 

Being at one with the people around us, nature, and indeed the entire universe is a relationship we are in.  So, that in this regard, we are already home.  

Don't wait to die to enjoy the kingdom of heaven! 

We are Hypocrites

When we hear the word "Woe" we stop and give full attention to the one that used the word to see why we should woe.  Perhaps it's a danger of physical injury, or perhaps there is a need for focus and concentration on a specific matter.

Today we are hearing Jesus say this "woe" to bring us to a deep understanding of our behaviors that spring from the interior.  So many times we hear Jesus tell us that this is not a show, or that we need to be focused on the true intentions of our words and actions.  Culture tells us this is all a show and we can fall for it.

We all have the keys to the kingdom, we are all united to the body of Christ by the very nature of our core, the soul.  When we look at our thoughts and see the nasty muck of our intentions it's not hard to understand why Jesus calls us hypocrites.  

We are not pro-life if we are not in favor of a healthcare system that provides equal treatment and we fail to support life by closing our homes to those threatened by tyranny and abuse and even murder.  

We fail to see that our own words will convict us and Jesus points that out so that we may correct our behaviors and provide a healthy and life giving community.  "That we all may be One" John 17:21

Becoming is not easy, but we have reminders like this one to help us drive home the point.

Thursday Third Week of Lent

Luke 11: 14-23 

We can take the advice from the gospel today and recognize the importance of following Jesus.  We can stay in our old brain paths of wrong doing and sin, or we can open our hearts to the Love that God offers us in the work of the Spirit. 

Here Jesus works a miracle and the righteous are ready to critique Him. But, Jesus isn't pressured, He lets them know right from the start that His work is a product of Love and Love flows from the Spirit of God.  

Now, to take that "with me or against me" and relate that to our response, so as not to be divided, we take the road of the gospel and the message of the beatitudes and the words of Jesus and put them to practice.  When you meet resistance, find a common ground and meet there, let our life example be the medium to proclaim the gospel. 

All fall short of the glory of God, but we walk in faith with Christ who bore the burden of humanity's sins and died that we may be shown the way to eternal life.  We will be transformed into the image of the father. 

Pick an opposing view today, sit with it, be still, and look from there. Empathy goes a long way in life! 

 

Monday Third Week of Lent (St. Joseph)

Feast of St. Joseph

With simplicity comes holiness.  When we focus on the necessities of life we find our life becomes less stressful and much more rewarding.  We see the Divine in all things and all people.  We hold the entire universe in our hands and yet hold nothing.  

Joseph saw the simple plan God commissioned him for.  He knew that the road was going to be difficult because of the righteous and the critiques of the time.

Still, Joseph, kept his word and served Mary and Jesus faithfully.  We don't have to hear from Joseph to know that he was a holy and trusting man.  His actions speak for themselves.  

We are asked to help Jesus with His plan for salvation.  We are asked to live a simple and prayerful life, not with bended knee and folded hands, but, with a heart that bows to the Divine in all things and hands that work for Christ.

Today we remember the work and life of St. Joseph. 

Friday First Week of Lent

Matthew 5: 20-26

Jesus is teaching us something about negotiating and meeting people at a point of compromise.  Pope Francis calls this "holy negotiation".

How different the world would be, how different our life would be if we learned how to release the "either or", "this or that" thinking and began to apply and use the little word "and".  Francis reminds us that we are not a church of this nature but we are a church of "and". 

 "My brother has offended me so I will get back at him" is unhealthy and damaging to the human family and takes us out of the "Divine dance", where we become unified with the Trinity.

Wars, divorce, murder, and violence of all sorts can result from not paying close attention to resolving issues before they become so tangled that the truth may be lost in emotion. 

Conflict resolution costs millions and perhaps even billions when we look at a military budget, and that budget takes money out of the mouths of starving people world wide.

Resolve our differences quickly lest we be put in the crucible.

Reflection 2/12/17

Show me a sign.  Show me a sign that you are this person that you say that you are.  Prove that you are a king.  Prove to us that you are the Christ.  All of His earthly life Jesus was continually poked and prodded to reassure the righteous that He is who He says He is.

Jesus just fed a multitude of countrymen that heard he was healing people and they came to test Him further.  The Pharisees ask Jesus to reveal a sign that will undoubtedly prove that He is the Son of God.

Jesus healed many people and walked on water and that wasn't enough.  The people missed the mark, terribly, in thinking that Jesus came to heal the body or feed it, the reason was; that they may believe in the God that is father of the Son, born of a virgin woman.   Can we see the arrogance of thinking we know it all.  The same arrogance that we take from the tree of knowledge.  The devil played with words, twisted and manipulated the true meaning of the reason Eve wasn't to eat from the tree of knowledge.  Knowledge isn't bad, but, the danger is in the thinking we know it all.

The pharisees think they have all the answers and try to trap Jesus or get an "ah Ha" moment to prove to themselves they are right.  During the life of the Christ people were so focused on the physical healing that they miss the spiritual healing.

Jesus isn't impressed with their agenda and pays them little mind.  He lets them know that their generation will find no sign.  No sign will be found because no sign will be searched for, they know it all.  Arrogance is not capable of seeing beyond the mirror, the focus is closed, internal and exclusive.  Love is open, external, and inclusive

"He sighed from the depth of His Spirit"  as Jesus would in His last act of Love- open, external, and inclusive.

It is in His Service that we find Him

The path to Jesus, to peace, is living for others in simple service.  You can have power, but use it to help and be fair. 

Christians have left a muddy footprint in history that continues to be dragged on the floor... We point fingers, exclude, and treat people less than human, we have murdered the soul and body and all done in the name of (love) God; if you don't act and do as we say you are lacking, or the enemy.  

Listen to the words Jesus focused on... He talked about service, humility, and love!  

Be inclusive, be humble, be kind and be the answer to a prayer and then let the Holy Spirit guide you! 

Doing Good all the Time

Reflection for Labor Day 2016

There is a message that may not sit well with today's culture; "Do what is right, even when it's the "wrong" thing to do.

Stand up for those that have no voice, be they unborn children, aged persons, those that may be incarcerated, the poor and marginalized, all these, and whomever else may not be spoken for need a voice to heal and mend wounds, 

Today's culture is so inwardly focused and selfishly motivated, that it fails to see that the voices that we silence are the very voices that breathe life into a system, that is so blinded and singularly devoted to keeping these voices unheard; because they become an inconvenience or fashionably out-dated, that it fails to see the fruits of diversity.

The Pharisees are so focused on what the letter of the law is they miss the point of the law; to protect, help, and heal.  

What Jesus did by giving them a piece of high hanging fruit was to broaden their understanding of the God they worship.  

The "wrong" thing to do in society is to question the law, yet, if we never question we never grow and the spirit becomes stifled, and if we never grow, how will we become more intimate with God?

Doing the right thing has its reward in eternity, no matter if all of our humanity never sees or understands what that may be, the reward rests in the heart of God

Where else would you rather be resting?

May our hearts be open to the spirit of God, that blows where it wills.

Discern Spirits

Reflection for the Passion of St. John the Baptist

The result of grudges and envy are at the root of the gospel message today.  We will see what can happen when we allow these sins to creep into our life and overtake our judgment.

Herod is manipulated into acting on a devious plan fostered by his wife and daughter.  The result is murder, the beheading of an innocent man.

Herodius is steeped in evil intentions marked by the grudge and hate for the John the Baptist and she lies silent until she finds the right moment to strike.

When she finally gets the opportunity to act she takes full advantage of it and manipulates the situation trapping Herod and his daughter in the plot to kill.

We do the same thing when we participate in gossip, hate, and envy.  We may not kill the physical body, but worse, we slowly extinguish the fire of the Holy Spirit that dwells within each of us.

Every time we sin we darken the soul and make it harder to see Truth.

We can even manipulate others to act with us and that causes others to lose the way.

Herod and his daughter are just as culpable as Herodias in her evil plan and their loyalty to her is not commendable at all, in fact had Herod stood up and rejected the murder, John the Baptist, would have survived the scheme.

May we never be loyal to the evil plans of others and not take part in the manipulation that can kill the body and soul, but may we be always truly wise in the Spirit of God and  rejoice in His consolation so as to bring peace to and foster holiness in our life and the life of others.

Say "Yes"

 

 

What is it that Jesus wants from you?  Your Love!  

Mary was faithful her entire life.  We don't know for sure but we can safely assume that during her life she was insulted, humiliated, and stared at with malice. 

This young woman bore the Christ Child, Mary,  became the Mother of God because God lifted her up!

God will lift us up, too.  Lifting our brothers and sisters up that are suffering is a sign of God at work in the world.

Show compassion and love to everyone that you meet, we never know what battle Jesus has them fighting. 

Stay faithful and persevere, the reward is well worth the fight! 

In Him, Rob Lopez, BSD. 

"Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you"

Reflection for July 18, 2018

“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

After the religious leaders of the time push Jesus to give a sign as to whom He is, the response He gives seems to be obvious to us because we know the end of His earthly life and His resurrection, yet, if we reflect on our own petitions and pleading it may not be as clear.

Let's take a current event and a rather common question to look at this a bit closer.

Recently there was a man in France that drove a truck through a crowd and killed many people, among those killed were children.  The incident comes after the Universal church prays daily, at every moment, for peace and end to conflict and war, yet this horrific event took place.

There are doctors that perform abortions on children and we pray at every moment for an end to the slaughtering of lives.

There are children who live in homes that are verbally, psychologically, and sexually abusive and we pray at every moment for an end to this situation.

There are people that die on their way to work or in some other unexpected way and we pray and beg for answers.

When we lose someone or hear of a senseless deaths we can become bitter and maybe even fall away from God.

Hear the words of our Lord in response to, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”

If we think in terms of God as father and each and every soul belongs to Him and nothing will happen to us where God isn't present then we can begin to glimpse that promise and the pain will ease.

No matter what the situation is, Jesus came that we may have eternal life with him and that may not be easy to see and feel now, in this moment of pain, but, His resurrection is the promise we will return to Him.

In this year of mercy, may we show our-self a little mercy and believe that no matter how horrible of a death a person has on earth, be it terrorist, abortion, drug addiction, abuses of every kind, don't lose heart because Jesus is with us until the end of time, and His time never ends so we will be with Him in eternity forever.

"Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth
three days and three nights. . .  there is something greater than Solomon here.”

May the Peace of Christ be with you!

Reflection for July 4, 2016

The official in today's gospel displays a tremendous amount of bold faith.
Bold faith is a necessary component to our relationship with Jesus.  There was urgency in the official's request and Jesus gets right up to accompany the official to go to see his daughter.

Jesus was focused, and undoubtedly preparing to meet the girl, when another woman that has been sick for twelve years stops him only to be healed completely.

The number twelve is a significant number in sacred scripture.  Twelve is the number of the church, the Old Testament was set on the twelve tribes of Israel and the New Testament is founded on the Twelve apostles.

Notice this woman has been bleeding for twelve years, not just bleeding, but suffering.  The church suffers, but, Christ heals us.

There is a new structure allusion here and the official and woman are an example of this New life we are given.

Jesus came to heal the sick and suffering and then gave His life that there may be no more death.

The official was bold in his request and his faith, the woman just touched His cloak and believed that she would be healed.

We need that same faith.  Be bold and believe!

May we always have the faith like the official and woman that we, too, may have new life.

Let the Dead Bury the Dead

Reflection for June 27, 2016 

"Let The Dead Bury The Dead" 

One synonym for the word bury is "conceal", another is "hide" and another is "cause to disappear or become inconspicuous" 

There is some depth in this text that may apply here and that goes along the lines of "what does it mean to conceal or hide?" 

If I conceal or hide something I am preventing the reality of the thing from being known. For example, if I don't tell you that the bridge is out, you may drive your car into a lake, or if I conceal a gun,  I hide the truth that I am armed; if I cause someone's release papers from prison to "disappear", it may cause some trouble in regard to the freedom of the person in prison.   

There is a scribe in today's gospel that is interested in living a life of service and truth.  He wants to follow Jesus.  Jesus tells the scribe that; "foxes have dens and birds have nests" and He "has no place to lay His head."  Those places Jesus mentioned are places that are inconspicuous, out of the way and protected. But, Jesus goes further with it. 

Death is stagnant, death is stale, death is concealing and hiding the truth.  When we say "I am a follower of Jesus", or "I want to be a follower of Jesus", we need to be transparent, open to the truth, vulnerable to dangers (dangers that come from living the life of Christ, such as rejection and persecution) and be clean from our selfish and past behaviors. 

The other follower asks if he can go bury his father that died, and that leaves us with this response from Jesus; "Let the dead bury their dead." 

Given that Jesus raises people from the dead and heals infirmities, it struck me that this was His response. 

If we want to be a part of Jesus and His good works then we must die, die to self, and those that reject Him are left to bury each other.  

Living this life is not easy, but, it does require sacrifice, discipline, and a tough skin; and we need to have an unbridled trust that Jesus will see us through it.  Jesus is totally open and transparent, we need to be the same way.   

Today, when we want to hide, step into the Light and trust He will see us through the doors of death and we will Live with Him in truth. 

We Are Never Alone

Today in the Gospel, John, recalls a moment when the disciples "got it" or so they thought.

One of the most effective ways to communicate is to keep the message simple and understandable.  One of the hardest tasks in doing that is to know your audience's ability to understand and interpret the message as it is intended.

Jesus has just finished a three year mission with his followers and today we hear they understand, finally, yet Jesus cautions them in their ability to grasp the depth of the message. 

The message of Jesus was extremely simple, Love God the Father above all things, and Love EVERYONE, as you love yourself, but the hard part was the laying aside of expectations that the followers had regarding Jesus and the mission He was sent to accomplish.

We can get caught up in the rhetoric (word game) that different human opinions and different human experiences can lead us to, unless we remember the big picture.  This "game" is the focal point of our modern life.  Just pay attention to the news, commercials, and other ads as they all, in some way or another, let us know we NEED their product or we NEED "this person" to be better.

There is the problem at the root that we encounter.

Jesus has an answer for us today and He tells us clearly and simply; 

"But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.
In the world you will have trouble,
but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

Whatever deficiencies we think we have are made perfect in the body of Christ, think about that.

As we gaze upon Jesus on the cross, in the Eucharist, in Sacred Scriptures, and in the people that we meet, remember these words;

"We remember how you loved us to Your death, 
And still we celebrate for You are with us here. 
And we believe that we will see You when you come in Your glory, Lord. 
We remember, we celebrate, we believe." 

A Heart to Heart

                                                           

What a bunch of non-sense to be heard.  The Jews think they might have to eat a finger or toe.

Jesus doesn’t let them on their own very long for this one; He drives the point home;

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood, you do not have life within you.

Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.

For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

The word communion in its proper sense means a joining of hearts.  The intimate joining of hearts requires both and all hearts to be open.

Someone might say, “Don't open your heart up to everyone/anyone, you’ll just get hurt or be disappointed”, that person may never experience the fullness of communion in their entire lifetime.

The heart of Jesus is always open for us to be in communion with Him, so be with Him.