Jan 31: The Word is Always Present to Heal and Save

Alexander Master: Jesus Heals a Possessed Man at Gerasa
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, c. 1430

Memorial of Saint John Bosco, priest

Gospel: Mk 5:1-20

“Come out of the man, you unclean spirit (NRSV, Mk 5:8b)!”

Father, for so very long now, the human family has been on pilgrimage from nothingness to fuller union with you. Much progress has been made. Never before in history has there been such great concern for the dignity of the human person. Women especially have achieved a fuller participation in society which is a step towards what is rightfully their due. There is a more respect than ever previously acknowledged for diverse minorities within the human family. Still as we move ever forward towards you, Lord, we are nevertheless responsible for terrible crimes committed against one another. The sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau reminds us of the horrors of the holocaust. Daily news reporting brings home the terrifying excesses of modern warfare. There are times, Father, when despite our growing sensitivity to evil in our midst, it seems as if sin has taken an even greater hold upon us than ever before.

We are grateful, Father, for the gift of your Word, who is always present to us, even as one of us in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ. Your Word spoken once and for all is given permanently to us. He challenges us at every moment to accept the gift of your life and, having accepted that gift, always to grow in it. Even when we turn away from you in sin, Lord, to seek out our own will apart from you, your Word remains present to us, inviting us to accept your forgiveness and to live in your grace once again.

The constant presence of your Word to all of us, Father, means that we are never lost. We can never really wander away from you as much as we might try to find our future without you. Evil can never swallow us up. As much as we may surrender to the enticements of the sin of the world and our own self-gratification, the possibility of turning back to you is always there. Your Word not only invites us to return to you but he cajoles with a persistence that is never failing.

There are moments, Lord, when it would seem that we have totally surrendered to evil, that we have become possessed by it, but that is delusion encouraged by the forces that tempt us and encourage us in our sin.

Lord, we are grateful to your Word ever present to us. May we always respond to his invitation to accept you into our lives, to turn back to you from our sins and to say “yes” to your forgiveness. May we also always share that forgiveness freely with others.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 30: Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Cosimo Rosselli, with Piero di Cosimo:
The Sermon on the Mount (detail)
Cappella Sistina, The Vatican, 1480’s

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 5:1-12a

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (NRSV, Mt 5:3).”

Father, your evangelist Luke expresses more profoundly than the other gospel writers Jesus’ concern for those economically deprived. In his infancy narrative, it is poor shepherds who are there to greet their newborn messiah. In his great sermon, Jesus blesses those who are poor: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.”

In Matthew, this same sermon, echoing the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai, is preached on the holy mountain. Is it the same mountain in Galilee on which the risen Jesus, in Matthew, commissions his apostles to go forth and to preach the good news and to baptize? In his sermon on the mount, as Matthew has it, Jesus blesses not the economically poor but the poor in spirit: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

To be economically poor, Lord, is something over which we often have little control. To be poor in spirit, on the other hand, is a response that all of us can make in the presence of your Word always challenging us to accept a share in your divine life. To be poor in spirit is to acknowledge that, of all that we have and of all that we are, nothing comes from us. Everything that we have, indeed our very being itself, is received. All is gift. Of ourselves we can do nothing. We are nothing.

Once, Lord, that we recognize our nothingness, once we empty ourselves of all claim on anything, then we are ready to receive the gift of life from you, not only physical life but a participation, as well, in your divine life. Once we become poor in spirit, we are open to becoming divine beings, filled with great power. Even physical death, often so terrifying, to many the ultimate evil, can become for us an hour of glory.

In Luke’s gospel, Father, Jesus blesses the economically poor. There should be no greater concern for those who have become poor in spirit than to come to the assistance of those who are economically disadvantaged and in need. May true and effective compassion for the poor be a sign for us, Lord, of your life and power given to us.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 29: Abraham, Our Father in Faith

Pieter Lastman: The Sacrifice of Abraham
Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1616

Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 11:1-2, 8-19

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (NRSV, Heb 11:1).

Lord God, Abraham, our father in faith, heard your call at the depth of his being, and answered it as best he could. He left everything for you. As fully as Abraham could understand it, leaving all meant leaving his home and everything with which he was familiar and traveling to a distant land. As the Israelites later remembered his story, Lord, you promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great and populous nation and that you would give to them the land.

Abraham, it was remembered in later times, lived to a venerable age, and yet had no child. Still he never doubted that your Word to him, Lord, was true. Finally, when in Abraham’s hundredth year a son, Isaac, was born to his wife, Sarah, it seemed that the promise had been fulfilled at least in its beginning. But then, the story tells us, Lord, that you required the life of Isaac to be offered in sacrifice. Still, Abraham did not waver but remained obedient and trustful even if it meant the death of his son. Only at the very last moment did an angel intervene to spare the life of the boy and to supply a ram to be sacrificed in his stead.

Father, Abraham trusted in you to fulfill your promise to him but the manner in which it was accomplished was beyond anything he could have imagined. The promise of the land, so important to the many generations that followed Abraham, was finally to be fulfilled, not in this world at all, but in the world to come: everlasting life shared with you, O Lord our God. And the great and populous nation? Abraham is indeed the forefather of a multitude, in the physical sense, of course, but more significantly he is for so many, Jew, Christian and Moslem, our father in faith. Abraham remains for us the model of total acceptance of everything that you promise. Abraham’s true descendants are to be found in all those, Lord, who place their trust and confidence in you.

Even in the resurrection of Jesus, as we come to a fuller understanding of the one Word that you speak to everyone, there is much that remains beyond our comprehension. Help us, Lord, with your grace to continue to place all of our trust in you as, through your Word, you summon us forth to ever greater understanding and to an ever increasing growth in your divine life.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 28: Bene Scripsisti de Me, Thomma / You Have Written Well of Me, Thomas

Benozzo Gozzoli: The Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas,
Accompanied by Aristotle and Plato (detail)
Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1471

Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church

Gospel: Mk 4:26-34

Jesus did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples (NRSV, Mk 4:34).

Father, from our very beginning, as individuals and as a human family, we have struggled to make sense of the one Word that you speak to all of us at the depth of our being. Our faith is never more secure than when it is brought into the clarity of consciousness and subjected to the scrutiny of the intellect. None of your children, more than your son, Thomas Aquinas, has more effectively placed reason at the service of faith.

When the Israelites fled slavery, they brought with them out of the land of their captivity everything they could that was of value, the spoils of the Egyptians. It is Thomas who brought out of the treasures of Greek and Arab thought new ways of expressing the Christian faith. From Thomas we should learn, Father, that you speak to all peoples through your Word and that all inquiry into the reality of your creation cannot help but to shed light on you and the destiny to which we are called.

Augustine did well to look within to find you, Lord, closer to us than we are to ourselves. Thomas expanded that search out into the world around us, Lord, to find vestiges everywhere that point to you.

Father, guided by Thomas, may we understand well that your truth is one with your being and that we are called constantly to grow in that truth as we grow in the life that you offer to us. It is a journey that is without end and we should never confuse any of the stages along the way with the final destiny to which you call us. May we always be ready to let go of what we are and of what we know that we may grow more fully in your life and your truth, through your Word, Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 27: To Those Who Have, More Will Be Given

Luca Signorelli: Allegory of Fecundity and Abundance
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1500

Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 4:21-25

And Jesus said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you (NRSV, Mk 4:24).”

Father in heaven, from all eternity you beget your Son, the Word, giving life to him as he receives it from you. Father and Son, you share that life in love who is the Holy Spirit. From the begetting and receiving of life proceeds love.

Father, through your Word always present to us, you invite us, in the Holy Spirit, to partake of your life. As we accept this gift of a share in your divinity we are caught up in your inner being. Through your Son, now one with us in the body in Jesus, we partake, in the Holy Spirit, of your life and love.

Lord, you are one: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As you share your one life with us, who are truly your daughters and sons; as we become partakers of your unity in trinity; you challenge us to share that one life among each other.

Beginning here in this world and continuing into the world to come forever and ever, Lord, you call us all, each one individually and all together, to grow in your triune life and love. Every moment brings the possibility of growth beyond previous conception or imagining.

Continual growth in your life is never reward. Nothing that we can do can ever merit an increase in grace. But, as we say “yes” to you in the moment and allow your life to fill us, empowering us to go out to our sisters and brothers in love, your Word is always there challenging us to accept further growth in your life, ever freely given. “To those who have, more will be given.”

Father, you share your one life and love with all of your created daughters and sons who will accept it and allow it to change us. May we ever be responsive to your gift, offered over and over again, always in increased measure, by the fullest commitment to serve one another in love, especially those most in need.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 26: The Seed that is Sown

Vincent Van Gogh: Sower with the Setting Sun
Rijksmuseum Krueller-Mueller, Otterlo, 1888

Memorial of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, bishops

Gospel: Mk 4:1-20

“Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold (NRSV, Mk 4:8).”

Father, we lift up our minds and hearts to pray to you for so many things. We praise your name and give you glory and thanks but we also beg you to come to help us in our need. We pray especially for those who cannot help themselves, the children of the world, many of whom are desperate for food in order to survive. We pray also for those who care for them in their need, and for all who hunger. We pray as well for those who are terminally ill and in great pain or who suffer mental anguish. We look to you to send good weather and sufficient rain for plentiful harvests the world over. We ask you to care for victims of natural disasters like the recent tsunami. Most of all we pray for peace among nations and peoples.

How strange it is when we finally realize that you do not answer our prayers, Lord, not that you ignore them, but that you anticipate them. In every situation, even before we pray, you send your Word to us, even Jesus in the flesh, that your Word may be the instrument not only of our creation but of opening us to the reception of your Holy Spirit. Your Spirit bestows upon us life, divine life, that brings with it great power, power to confront all of lives difficulties and to overcome them. Fortified by the power of your divine life, given in the Spirit through your Word, even the passage through physical death becomes for us, as for Jesus, an hour of glory.

Finally only each of us can say “yes” to the gift of your life that you bestow upon us, but your life that you share with us is one, as your are one, and by our concern for each other we can mediate your one life to sister and brother. Your life always brings healing and wholeness and we can awaken your healing power in others through our prayers and active concern.

How strange it is when we realize that our prayers cannot change you, Father, but that they can change us so that the seed, which your Word sows, can take hold in us and bear fruit in healing and good works. There is nothing for which we pray, Lord, but that through your Word you challenge us to carry it out. May we always be open, Lord, to the seed that is sown in us that it may ripen and come to full maturity as we give our lives in service of our sisters and brothers.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 25: Resurrection in the Body

Master of Jean Rollin II: The Conversion of St. Paul
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, c. 1455

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, apostle

Reading I: Acts 22:3-16

“The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear his own voice; for you will be his witness to all the world of what you have seen and heard (Acts 22:14-15).”

Father, how grateful we are for the gift of St. Paul. Of all of the writers of Holy Scripture, he is the one who has intensely experienced Jesus in his resurrection and helps everyone to understand the same one Word revealed to us all regardless of when or where we have lived.

Paul makes clear to us, Father, that the destiny to which you called Jesus, and indeed everyone, is a destiny far beyond the land, a destiny of life shared with you in eternity. Nor is it merely a spiritual destiny. Jesus rose from the dead in the body and that, Lord, is the future to which you also call us. Paul assures us that, in the resurrection, the body will be transformed into an immortal body of great power, one no longer subject to the vagaries of this world. Jesus’ resurrection was not a mere physical resurrection nor will be ours. We shall be resurrected from this world into the world to come.

Paul also teaches us, Lord, that the future to which we look begins now, that we are living in the time of “already but not yet,” days which are filled with your grace, which strengthens us and fills us with hope for the future.

And Paul, more than anyone in the early Church, was convinced of the universality of your call. With Paul we recognize, Father, that we are all your chosen people.

Father, we rejoice in recognizing that the truth which is revealed to Paul, truth to which he responded so sensitively, is also truth spoken to everyone even if at times we find it difficult to express in a conscious way. As Paul responded to the truth revealed to him and dedicated his life to bearing witness to the good news of salvation, so also may we, who have heard the same Word spoken at the depth of our being at every moment, also give of ourselves in bearing witness to our belief in you, our Lord and God.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 24: The Word of God Comes to Save

Joos van Cleve: The Last Judgment (detail)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, c. 1520-25

Memorial of Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church

Reading I: Heb 9:15, 24-28

So Christ . . . will appear a second time . . . to save those who are eagerly waiting for him (NRSV, Heb 9:28).

Father, in the years immediately following the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, those who gathered to form the Church looked forward anxiously to their own resurrection in the body. Those among them who had died were considered merely sleeping in their graves waiting to be awakened by the archangel’s trumpet on the last day when Jesus would return and all who believed, those sleeping in the graves and those still physically alive, would share fully in his resurrection.

Father, your Word, come in the flesh in Jesus the anointed One, does not only come again in a given moment in the future however close or distant it may be. Your Word, Father, just comes. It is through your Word that you create everything that is. It is through your Word, Father, coming into the mother’s womb, that you call every human being into existence, empowering each one, yet without language or logic, in the Spirit to say “yes,” to receive that same Spirit and to become a human being, endowed with physical life and already a share in your divine life.

Having come at that first moment, your Word, Father, does not then return at another moment. Your Word just comes. He is always there, at each moment, challenging the human being to grow beyond what he has become up until then by letting go of his past and saying “yes” to a still greater share in your divine life.

When, blinded by the sin of the world, the web of all evil ever committed, and blinded by one’s own desires, a person turns away from you, Lord, and chooses another path, your Word, rejected, does not depart. Always coming into the life of every human being, your Word remains present, even when cast off, ever inviting to repentance, ever offering a renewal of divine life. The coming of the Word, the presence of the Word offering divine life, is a defining factor of human existence. What makes us to be human, and therefore divine beings, Father, is your presence to us through your Word.

Through your great love for all humanity, Father, your Word has taken upon himself a human body in Jesus the Lord, and has become one of us. As the Word continues to come into our lives at every instant, we look forward to that moment of promise, when having passed through the hour of glory that is physical death, and continuing always to grow in your life, we may eventually be united with you, Father, through the Word, your Son, in the Holy Spirit, in everything that we are, in the body glorified, as you glorify Jesus, your Word made flesh, in the body.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 23: The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Anonymous Anglo-Saxon: Christ Teaching
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, c. 1000

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 4:12-17

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt 4:17, fn. b).”

Father, our first conscious experience of you as God for us, your people, was as you called us out of slavery in Egypt and we met you in a mountain storm in the desert. We were only a small, ragtag band, hardly worthy of notice, it would have seemed, but our encounter with you as we came out of Egypt has changed the history of humanity. We were the first to recognize you as a God who cared for us as his people, who challenged us to love you and one another, and who called us to a future.

We did our best, Lord, to make sense out of everything that you revealed to us. We hammered out a code of laws which expressed as well as we could how you were calling us to live. Coming out of a land of slavery, we could only conceive of the future to which you called us as freedom in a land of our own, a land of promise. But somehow that future never materialized. We were never really free from our own sinfulness and, once in the land, we were constantly overrun and oppressed by others.

When Jesus came preaching the message of the coming kingdom, we could only imagine that the promise was finally to be realized. But, before it could happen, he was taken from us, by a terrible passion and death.

But then something marvelous happened, Father, more wonderful than our deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Jesus, seemingly dead, appeared to those among us, from the world to come. Opening our minds to you, the risen Lord spoke that one Word which you speak from the beginning to everyone, but which now we grasped with greater clarity.

The destiny to which we are called, not only those of who came out of Egypt, but all peoples, is not a kingdom here below at all. It is an eternal, otherworldly kingdom: sharing your divine life, Father, with Jesus forever and ever. It is a kingdom of the future but one which is now bursting into the world here and now, a kingdom in which all of us can share merely by accepting the gift of divine life which you offer to all, a gift offered over and over at every moment to everyone who says “yes.”

Father, help us to be ever open to a greater understanding of who you are and your promise to us. Help us, through Jesus, your Word made flesh, to grow constantly in the life of your Spirit, now and into eternity.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 22: Christ the One, True Sacrifice

Michelangelo Buonarroti: The Entombment
National Gallery, London, c. 1500

Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 9:2-3, 11-14

Christ entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption (NRSV, Heb 9:12).

Father, you send your Word to our mother’s womb offering us a share in your divine life. As we accept, yet without benefit of language or logic, in the power of your Holy Spirit, we are immediately caught up in your own inner life, a life of giving and receiving, of sharing in love. Over the centuries we have tried on our own to give you gifts, sacrifices of animals and first fruits, out of gratitude and to somehow repay you for our sinfulness. It is only in the coming of the Word made flesh among us in Jesus Christ and in his resurrection from the dead that we have realized that we have, from the very beginning, had a true share in what we never could have successfully accomplished on our own. Everything we are and everything we have comes from you, Father. How could we therefore give you anything of ourselves. But as your daughters and sons, as sharers in your life, through the Word in your Spirit, we can join in the life-giving and life-receiving in love that is your very being. How marvelous that through the Word we not only receive your gift of divine life but that through the same Word, caught up in your life, we can give and receive in the mutual sharing in love that is your Holy Spirit.

What is still more marvelous, Father, is that you love us so much that you not only raise us up to be one with you but you also deign, without surrendering your divinity, to take upon yourself, in the Word, a body, to become a human being with us.

One of the great mysteries of our humanity, Lord, is that we are born to pass through death which so often seems like the end, our total undoing. In your great love for us, your Word made flesh, the Lord Jesus, also passed through death so that we would not be alone in this trial but that you would be with us, even in the body, to show us that death is not undoing but an hour of glory. It is your living among us and dying with us that is the visible and tangible sign for us here below of the mutual giving of life in love that is your being, Father, a life which you share with us and in which you call us always to grow.

Father, it is Jesus’ giving of himself that is the true sacrifice that saves. May we, for whom he lived and died and rose, also share in that same sacrifice by serving our sisters and brothers who are all called to be united with you in life and love.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 21: We Are All Called To Be Apostles

Anonymous: Christ and the Twelve Apostles
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, c. 1100

Memorial of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr

Gospel: Mk 3:13-19

And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, and to have authority to cast out demons (NRSV, Mk 3:14-15).

Lord God, the Twelve appointed by Jesus, their numbers renewed by the addition of Matthias to replace Judas, underwent a radical transformation following the resurrection of Jesus. Their understanding of you, Lord, began to be seriously rethought and reorganized. First of all, they realized that the promise that had been made to the people was finally not about the land at all. It was about an otherworldly kingdom, your absolute reign, Father, over all creation, a kingdom which they now recognized as having been established through your only begotten Son, your Word. It is through the Word that everything has been created and through whom we are all made holy. And the Word has become flesh in the Lord Jesus who now, in the body, sits at your right hand.

The Twelve also came to understand that, as the Lord Jesus had dedicated himself to proclaiming the coming of the kingdom, that mission was clearly now passed on to them. The same mission and authority that had been given to Jesus was entrusted to them and indeed to all who had experienced the risen Lord.

An apostle, Lord, we learn from Paul, is anyone who has encountered Jesus in his resurrection and is by that very experience sent as an ambassador to proclaim the good news of salvation. The Twelve were thus joined in their mission by Mary Magdalene and the holy women who were reported to have been the first to encounter the risen Lord. There were others: the five hundred who had seen the Lord Jesus at one time, the Lord’s brother James, and many more, including Paul, who considered himself the last and the least of the apostles.

As the encounter with the risen Jesus awakened in the consciousness of the apostles what you speak, Father, through the Word to everyone at the depth of one’s being, so the lives of all of the apostles, transformed by your grace, Father, have in turn prompted a conscious awareness in the rest of us who believe much of what you reveal to everyone, spoken in your one Word, in a manner that is often pre-conscious. We who have not had an immediate experience of the resurrected Jesus now also recognize him in the Word who is always present to all in every time and place.

As the Son was sent by you, his Father, and the apostles sent by Jesus, now we, who have come to an understanding of the same truth, are sent as well to announce the truth of the kingdom and the lordship of Jesus Christ. Father, may we commit ourselves with all that we are to this mission as you challenge us at every moment to continue to grow in your divine life.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 20: Christ our High Priest

Theophanis the Cretan (?):
Christ the King and High Priest
The Church of Protaton, Mount Athos, c. 1542

Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I:
Heb 7:25-8:6

Consequently Jesus is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (NRSV, Heb 7:25).

How long it took us, Father, to realize that your only begotten, uncreated Son, the Word, is always present to us. It is through him that we, and everything that is, has been created and it is through him that you send your Holy Spirit upon us to share with us your divine life. This gift of your Spirit is offered to us at every moment in every place as long as we accept it and allow your divine life to transform us. Your Word remains ever present to us even when we reject that presence, even when we turn away from you in sin. Your Word always challenges us to turn back from our sin and to accept the forgiveness which restores divine life, forgiveness which is freely given.

There is no need for us, therefore, Father, to beg forgiveness. We need only accept it. There is never payment due, never obligation incurred. We express gratitude for this great gift not because we owe it to you, Lord, but because we owe it to ourselves that we recognize that we are not source of anything that we are or have but that it all comes from your goodness.

In the history of humanity there have been many efforts on our part to make reparation for our sins and to keep you close to us. We have designated priests to go apart to represent us to you. But all of this was never necessary. Your Word, Father, is with you from eternity and with us from the beginning. Jesus Christ is the visible manifestation within the world, Father, of your one act that creates and saves in every time and place. He is your eternal Word made flesh. In his resurrection we recognize that Jesus the Word is our one true priest in whom you, Father, are always present to us and us to you. Even in our sinfulness you are ever there in your Word offering us your Holy Spirit of forgiveness. Christ is our High Priest.

All of us, Father, who accept your life and who believe in you, share in that one priesthood. We have designated some among us, whom we have ordained to your service, to preside over the community of believers and to lead us in worship and prayer. Father, may we ever rejoice, that we are privileged to live in your presence, sharing your life, and to share that life in turn and to be present to everyone of your daughters and sons here and in the world to come.

Through our High Priest, Christ the Lord. Amen

Jan 19: Melchizedek, Priest-King of Salem

Dieric Bouts the Elder:
The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek
Sint-Pieterskerk, Leuven, 1664-67

Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 7:1-3, 15-1

King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever (NRSV, Heb 7:1a,3).

Father, how much, over the centuries, we have misunderstood you, often making you over in our own image, as if you were a creature like us. We have such difficulty in comprehending that you are the unchanging, boundless One. In all of our needs we turn to you begging you to come to our help as if you had to be convinced to aid us. We act as if our supplications can somehow change you so that you will, as a result of our pleading, do something that you were not doing before. It is as if you were not already, in your one act that is your being, coming to our assistance with your life and power at every moment, even before we ask, always pouring out your Holy Spirit upon us if only we would say “yes” and accept.

In our sinfulness, we sense that you turn away from us, sometimes in angry, and that we must through sacrifices and penance curry your favor once again. How little do we realize that you are always there pressing in upon us through your Word, always offering renewed life and forgiveness, if it were only accepted and allowed to change our lives.

So great is the spiritual distance between you and us, that we have thought it necessary to designate certain among us to represent us to you. Taking from us our gifts and petitions, they would go apart, into the inner recesses of a sacred building or atop a holy mountain, to plead with you in our name hoping to return with some favor that you grant. How we ignore that we always have direct access to you in your Spirit through your Word always present to us, your Word who does not abandon us even in our sinfulness but remains ever with us inviting us to turn back to you.

We are thankful, Lord, for the mysterious appearance of Melchizedek, priest-king of Salem, who greets Abraham with gifts of bread and wine on Abraham’s return from defeating the marauders who had carried off his nephew. Melchizedek without father or mother, or ancestors, or beginning or end, just appears as if out of nowhere. He has no past or future. He does not become. He is just there. Melchizedek brings home to us, Lord, your unchanging self, present to us in your Word begotten but uncreated and also unchanging through whom we have immediate access to you, Father. It is through the Word that you offer us the one unchanging gift that enables us to do all things, the gift of your divine life.

How grateful we are also that, unlike the mysterious Melchizedek, who is never heard of again, your Word, who is our true high priest, comes into this world in a human body to be truly one of us, the Lord Jesus Christ, to teach us and sanctify us as he shows us the way to you.

Alleluia. Amen.

Jan 18: The Sabbath was Made for Humankind

Gustave Doré (1832-83):
The Disciples Plucking Corn on the Sabbath
The Doré Bible Illustrations, 1974

Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 2:23-28

“The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath (NRSV, Mk 2: 27).”

Father, for so very long humankind understood much of its relationship with you in terms of obligation. To give you thanks and to repay for sin, sacrifice after sacrifice was offered up to you. When Temple worship was no longer possible at least observing a day of rest on the sabbath was feasible. After all, it was argued, if you, Lord, did your work of creation in six days and then rested on the seventh; do not we, who are made in your image and likeness, therefore have an obligation likewise to observe a day of rest?

As if, Lord, your “work” could have had a beginning, then a sequence and a conclusion. You, Lord, are your “work.” Your being is your act, without beginning or end, act that just is.

Father, how grateful we are for the clarity brought into our lives by the Lord Jesus, who is God with you, yet through whom your act as creating and saving is made visible for us in a human body. From Jesus we learn that everything that comes from you is gift. Jesus the only begotten, uncreated Son himself is gift from you, Father. The Spirit who proceeds from both you, Father, and the Son is your mutual gift one to the other. The life, human and divine, that is offered to all, in the Spirit poured out on us, is gift. The created world is gift. Forgiveness, that inevitably accompanies the bestowing of divine life, is likewise gift.

The gift is always freely given. The gift can never be bought, can never be paid for. Gift never incurs obligation. Otherwise, not being free, it is not really gift.

The one day of the week set aside as sacred to you, Father, is also gift. As your Word made flesh focuses us on the invisible reality of who you are, Lord, and what you do; the sabbath, also given by you to us, when spent in rest and worship, similarly centers our attention in a tangible way on the divine life which you share freely with us and which challenges us at every moment.

Father, Jesus has taught us that we who are brothers and sisters are to love one another not as obligation but through the overflowing of your life, Lord, bestowed on us. Gift generates gift.

Likewise, Lord, may we celebrate the sabbath in all of its fullness, not because we must, but because in its observance we come better to understand the divine life which you, Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, have freely given to us and we have freely accepted.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 17: Jesus Teaches Us in the House of Levi

Paolo Veronese: Feast in the House of Levi (detail)
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, 1573

Memorial of Saint Anthony, abbot

Gospel: Mk 2:18-22

“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins (NRSV, Mk 2:21-22).”

Father, in Mark’s gospel, still only in the 2nd chapter, Jesus, after having amazed everyone after his return to Capernaum with the healing of the paralytic, does what anyone would have least expected. He fraternizes with Levi, the tax collector, actually pushing himself on him in the counting house and then ending up a guest at his home for dinner. So there is the Anointed One, having dinner with a tax collector and public sinners. Not what one would have expected at all.

How long does it takes us, Lord, to realize that it is impossible for us to predict what will happen in our relationship with you. We expect Jesus to show us the way by fasting and prayer. Instead we find him proclaiming the kingdom at a banquet. The future to which you call us is always much more than we can possibly conceive or imagine. Only after it unfolds does it make any sense. Of course, we say now, your Son Jesus has a mission to everyone, not only the holy or the already saved (if such were even possible) but especially for those most in need. Easy to say now after the fact. Of course, we say, we should have realized it. But the fact is, Father, that we do not realize it in advance . . . ever. How important it is for us, therefore, always to be open to that which is truly new in everything which you offer to us.

We listen to Jesus words, spoken at Levi’s banquet. “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak.” Of course, Jesus has to be speaking about the new dispensation which he is heralding as opposed to the old. Help us to realize, Lord, that there is not just one divide in our understanding of the story of our salvation, the new which replaces the old. Indeed, every moment has to be something radically new if we will only say “yes” and allow it to happen. You, who are unchanging, call us, Father, through your Word ever present to us, in each moment to grow more and more in your life. The abundance to which you call can always overwhelm what preceded if we are open to it.

Help us, Father, that we might apply Jesus’ words to our lives: to be ready in every moment to let go of our past, especially our understanding of what should be and what we think that you require of us, in order that we may truly grow, constantly and ever again, into something new.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 16: Baptism with the Holy Spirit

Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ
National Gallery, London, 1450s

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Jn 1:29-34

And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (NRSV, Jn 1:32-33).’ ”

Father, as we reflect on the words of John the Baptist recorded in the fourth gospel, words looking forward to baptism with the Holy Spirit, we can only wonder if these are the explicit words of John himself or whether they are a conclusion of the believing community arrived at in the wake of the resurrection of Jesus.

Lord, how long it takes for us to come to understand your one Word revealed to all of us in every time and place, yes, even at every moment, an unchanging Word spoken once and for all.

Even with your Word having become flesh among us in Jesus Christ, the fullness of your one revelation made visible and tangible in our midst, how difficult it is for us to make sense out of it all. We can only wonder that so many who do not explicitly know the Lord Jesus can live such holy, even exemplary, redeemed lives without the benefit of openly acknowledging him.

Over the centuries we managed bit by bit to come to a better understanding of what you speak to everyone of us once and for all in your Word. In the event which first cemented our consciousness as a people holy to you, the Exodus through the sea out of slavery in Egypt, we learned that your were calling us forth out of an enslaved past into freedom, but we were unable at that moment to get by the notion of freedom as merely social and political freedom.

After our rebellion against you in the desert and our purgation of forty years, we learned that there was more to freedom than simply social and political freedom. Sin could also enslave. In the passage through the Jordan into the land which we then understood to be our destiny, we learned that you were calling us forth as well from the slavery of sin.

But, in spite of your call, we remained in our sins and John summoned us back down to the Jordan to pass through it once again into the freedom of life without sin.

But could John the Baptist really have grasped that there was more, that we are all called to be baptized in your Holy Spirit, to pass through the waters, to go down into them to die to ourselves and come out of the water, not only with sins forgiven, but born, Father, into your very divine life?

In the resurrection of Jesus so much became manifest. In the baptism which the risen Jesus gave to his Church, the whole of human mystery is made bare. In your one act, Father, through your Word, you create, save and baptize us. To be a human is to be called to die at every moment to be reborn into a fuller share of divine life. Baptism is your one act, Lord, made visible for us under the sign of water, as Jesus is your eternal Word made visible for us in the body.

Father, may we live out the gift of our baptism in every moment of our lives by dying and being reborn to you, the same challenge of death and rebirth that is made to every human who has ever lived, in every time and place.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 15: The Call to Discipleship

Caravaggio: The Calling of Matthew (detail)
The Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, 1599-1600

Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 2:13-17

As he was walking along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him (NRSV, Mk 2:14).

Father, all four gospels tell of Jesus summoning his twelve close disciples. The choice often seems casual: the passing encounter and then the words, “Follow me.” Peter and Andrew, James and John, leave fishing boats and tackle without hesitation. Matthew, also known as Levi, the tax collector, gets up from his busy counting house table without question and invites Jesus to his home for dinner. All of these choices of Jesus seem almost arbitrary, Lord, but they might also suggest that certain individuals are being singled out to the exclusion of others. In Caravaggio’s painting of The Calling of Matthew, a reflection on the gospel account, Matthew looks up at Jesus, whom he clearly does not know, and points to himself as if to say, “Are you speaking to me?” Of the others at the table with Mathew, two, totally ignoring what is going on, continue their counting. A couple of other young men look bemusedly puzzled. Is Matthew the only one involved?

Father, Jesus invites twelve individuals to be his close collaborators. Surely the number is suggestive of the twelve tribes and hence of all Israel. As our understanding of Jesus’ message continues to grow in the Church’s encounter with him in his resurrection, we realize, Lord, that Jesus’ summons is universal: all are called.

Isn’t true, Father, in every moment of our lives, all of us feel uneasy with who we are and look to tomorrow hoping for something better? Usually we look merely for something more of what we are. We project our present into the future, our present that is always impoverished compared to what might be.

Peter and Andrew, James and John, Matthew, all of them let their past drop away, forgotten, with no suspicion of what could be. Ultimately, as tradition has passed it down (except for John who undergoes a martyrdom of his own), that future is passion, death and eternal life with Jesus. Even Judas could not have expected the future that he would choose.

To be human, finally, for all of us, is always to be called by you, Father, through your Word present to us, not just once but at every moment, even from the first moment in the womb. We are called to let the past drop away, to leave what we have been up to the moment, to embrace a new and unexpected future growing constantly in your life, Lord, that you invite us to accept.

With the apostles, may we too say “yes,” not just in this moment but in every moment to come through all eternity.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 14: God's Life Brings Healing

Anonymous Netherlander: The Healing of the Paralytic
Chester Dale Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1560-90

Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 2:1-12

“But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home (NRSV, Mk 2:10-11).”

Father, There are times when, like the repentant prodigal son, we turn to you to beg for forgiveness, but, you, who seemed absent as we turned away from you in our selfishness, were already there offering yourself to us. Your Word, apparently withdrawn but only because of our sinful blindness, is always there offering life and forgiveness if only we would accept it and live it out.

Your life offered over and over again, in every moment, never rescues us from the chaos of our sins. Rather it calls us forth out of the sinful situation by empowering us to turn away from the sin that we had chosen and, newly transformed, to move forward once again towards you who are our true future.

And your life, Father, brings such strength to all who will accept it gratefully and make it their own. By the power that becomes theirs the blind have been know to see. The lame have walked again. The paralyzed have picked up their mats and carried them. Diseased vital organs have been restored. Others have moved forward still bearing their illness but now, maybe for the first time, they have understood, with gratitude, their radical dependence upon you, Lord, and gone out in thankful love to those who care for them. All of us appropriate your gift of life in ways suitable to who we are, each one of us.

And there is much more, Lord. All of us who continue to accept the gift of your life in the Spirit ready ourselves more and more to face inevitable physical death, not as undoing and defeat, but as passage to a still fuller life with you. Just as you never rescue us from our own sinfulness or from any of life’s difficulties but always offer us the life and power to transform those situations into victory, so your life does not rescue us from death. Rather it empowers us that we can face death as an hour of glory as Jesus did.

Father, in this moment, may I accept the further gift of your life that I may be healed of my sins and of everything that separates me from you. May I share this healing with all of my sisters and brothers.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 13: Every Moment is a Call to Growth in the Spirit

Jean Tassel (1608-67): Moses Strikes the Rock for Water
Bredius Museum, The Hague

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 3:7-14

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors put me to the test, though they had seen my works for forty years (NRSV, Heb 3:7b-10a).”

Father, there is one gift that you give to us in every situation that always empowers us to be victor. It is the very gift that you gave us at the first moment in our mother’s womb when, through your Word spoken to us, you called us into existence. That first gift was your Holy Spirit that enabled us to become human beings and sharers in your own divine life. In every moment you challenge us to grow in that Spirit.

In the midst of all of life’s difficulties, in every situation however oppressive, Father, you invite us to grow in the Holy Spirit through your Word who is always present to us. Growth in the Spirit, moving forward towards new life, is the challenge that you lay down for us whatever our plight.

When your people were in slavery in Egypt, you did not rescue them from their subjugation. Rather, you called them forth out of their oppression in the power of your Spirit. You called them through the sea to freedom and you lead them across the desert in columns of cloud and of fire.

But the people finally lost their nerve and could say “yes” to your call no longer. “Why have you led us into this desert, where there is no water and no food and we are far worse off than when we were slaves in Egypt?”

The story tells us that you did give your people to drink and you did feed them in the desert but the people had rebelled and said “no” to your call and to their future. Everyone who came out of Egypt, Moses and Aaron with them, died there in the wasteland without ever reaching the land which they understood as their future, all because of their unbelief and rebelliousness.

Father, you did not rescue your people from Egypt, nor from the desert where they died in their rebellion against you. You did not even rescue your Son Jesus from the Cross. Nor do you ever rescue us however heavy our burden and oppressive our plight. But, as you led your people out of slavery in Egypt to freedom and as Jesus triumphed over suffering and physical death on the Cross, so in every moment, no matter what it is that we ask for, what you offer us always is growth in your Holy Spirit that with Jesus we too may be victors in all of life’s situations.

Alleluia. Amen.

Jan 12: Life Shared in Love

Jerome Nadal: Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law
Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia, 1595

Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 1:29-39

Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them (NRSV, Mk 1:30-31).

Father, because you share your life with us, we are all your children. One of us, among your children, however, is uncreated. He is your begotten but uncreated Son, with you from all eternity, the Word made flesh in Jesus the Anointed One. It is the Word who always presses in upon us, even in our sinfulness, challenging us to accept your life through him. Your divine life, that he offers, is given to us in the Holy Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet one God.

You, Father, give life from all eternity to your Son, the Word. The Word receives that life. Together, Father and Son, giving and receiving, you share that life in love who is the Holy Spirit.

Father, when we say “yes” to you through your Son in the Spirit, when we receive your gift of divine life, we become caught up in your inner life of giving and receiving life and of sharing in love.

We, who can give you nothing on our own, now, Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, one with them and you, we can give you everything. Divine life, which is given, received and shared in love in the Blessed Trinity, is now ours. Yes, Father, through the Son, it becomes possible for us also to give to you in love and to meditate your life to others. When you, Father, offer your divine life through the Word to every human being, we, caught up in that divine life, offer that life with you. The Word mediates your life to all; and all who live in the Spirit mediate your life with him. The Word is the only high priest in its true meaning, as the author of Hebrews tells us, but all who live in the Spirit mediate that life one to another as priests with him. Christ is king and priest but we are all indeed a royal priesthood.

Father, as the evangelist Mark records, early in his public ministry, Jesus, accompanied by his disciples, healed Peter’s mother-in-law. She immediately got up and began to serve them.

Healing must be shared with others. May we who receive the one, true healing brought by the gift of divine life, like Peter’s mother-in-law, immediately share that gift with you, Father, and all others, through the Word in the Holy Spirit. May our sharing of divine life and love with our created sisters and brothers be made manifest in a visible way by tangible acts of love, by serving one another.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 11: A New Teaching -- With Authority!

Limbourg Brothers (Herman, Jean, Pol): The Exorcism in the Synagogue, Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, 1412-16

Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mk 1:21-28

“What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him (NRSV, Mk 1:27b).”


Father, how wonderful that you speak your one eternal Word to all of us in every time and place, inviting us to share and grow in your life, and empowering us to lead lives worthy of the gift. But how difficult it is for us to understand what you speak in your Word and to live the love that you bestow on us in your Spirit. How our minds are clouded and our wills weakened by the evil all around us, the sin of the world. We are grateful for the prophets, those sensitive ones among us, who enlighten and challenge us. And for the holy ones who inspire us. But most of all we are grateful to the Word as he is made flesh, your only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is, in himself and for us, the way and the truth and the life.

Jesus is the long expected One but he comes in a way that is least expected. He comes, Lord, to rule over us but his rule is not one of dominion but of service. He comes not to be served but to serve and to give his life for the many. He comes exercising great authority and power. His authority, however, is not to bear down upon his subjects but rather his authority is to teach, to announce the good news of your kingdom, Father, a kingdom of eternal life open to everyone. And the power which Jesus exercises is over evil, to drive it out wherever it seeks to ensnare us. Jesus’ power, Lord, is to heal and make whole, a power which he awakens in all who believe in him.

Father, may the Lord Jesus, your Son, continue to arouse in us a greater understanding of who you are and the life that you share with us. May he never cease to challenge us to lead lives that are more loving, lives of service dedicated to all of our sisters and brothers. Lord, may we accept a greater share in Jesus’ authority, that we too may effectively announce the coming of your kingdom with our lives, and in his power, that we may not only be healed but also mediate healing and wholeness to others.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 10: The Eternal Word Spoken Once and for All

Raffaello Sanzio: La Disputa
Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican, 1510-11 (detail)

Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Reading I: Heb 1:1-6

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word (NRSV, Heb 1:1-3a).

Heavenly Father, how wonderful it is at every moment to be able to grow in your divine life that you offer to every human being. And not only to grow in your life but also to have the possibility of understanding you better, who you are, and how we are to live out the life that you share with us.

Father, over the centuries, in reflecting on what you have given us to understand, we have realized that you are unchanging; that you have no before or after, just an every present now; that you have no bounds; that you are not here or there; that you do not do this and then that; that you just are; in fact, that what you do is what you are; that your act is your being and your being is your act.

We change constantly in our relationship with you, Lord. To be created is to change. Hopefully we change constantly for the better, Lord, always growing in your life. But you have made us to be free, Lord, and so we can choose to say “yes” or “no.” We can even turn away from you, if we choose, and try to live for ourselves apart from you.

But we have also learned, Father, that you never abandon us. Your uncreated Word, your only begotten Son, who is God from God, is always present to us, from the first moment in the womb, speaking your unchanging Word to us, offering us your life in the Spirit, if only we would accept it. Even in our sinfulness, Father, you remain present to us in your Word who continues always to offer us your live-giving Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who proceeds from you and the Son, God with you and the Son, who is the love that you and the Son have for one another.

Father, you have not taught us all of this gradually, over the centuries, as we often think. That is because you speak only one unchanging Word. We are the ones who have come to learn your truth gradually, and continue to learn it, as we turn inward to listen to your Word who always presses upon us. We have been helped by those among us, the prophets, who are more sensitive than the rest of us but who still learn gradually as everyone does. Finally, we have come to understand more fully through your Word made flesh, your Word, who is all truth, become one of us in the body, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Father, may we continue always to grow in your life and our understanding of you spoken once and for all through your Word, made flesh in our Lord Jesus your Christ, now gloriously enthroned with you in his human body in heaven. Amen.

Jan 9: Baptism into New Life

Pietro Perugino: The Baptism of Christ
Cappella Sistina, Vatican, c.1482 (detail)

The Baptism of the Lord

Gospel: Mt 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him (NRSV, Mt 3:13).

Father, like all peoples of the Middle East, the Hebrews were almost obsessed by water. It filled their consciousness. In their stories about their origins water abounds. Creation for the Hebrews occurred out of the primeval watery chaos upon which your Spirit descended like a wind or storm in order that the waters might be divided and heaven and earth might be brought forth. When the order and beauty of creation was disrupted by the sinfulness of humanity, creation eventually became undone and dissolved back into the watery abyss. But you, Lord, remained faithful to the one good man, Noah, and his family and brought them through the waters of the deluge to recreate the earth for them.

In the telling of the foundation event which constituted the people, Lord, it began with Moses being saved from the massacre of Hebrew children by being drawn out of the water by Pharaoh’s daughter. The story climaxed with the people being called forth out of slavery into freedom by passing through the sea.

Once in the desert, Lord, the people, now physically free, became victims of their own sinfulness as they murmured and rebelled against you. For forty years they wandered in the desert in purgation of their sins. Then, as the story continued, you led them through the Jordan, dry-shod as they had previously passed through the sea, to live in peace in the land which they understood as your promise to them. Still sin continued to erupt, over and over again, once more to rule their lives.

It was then, Father, that John appeared at the Jordan, calling the people back down to the river that they might pass through it a second time leaving their sinful selves in the desert, this time hopefully for good. John preached a baptism of repentance for sin.

Your son, Jesus, began his public ministry by being baptized in the Jordan by John. But Jesus’ preaching was about more than repentance for sin and it had nothing to do at all with the land. Jesus did preach about a kingdom but it was your kingdom, Lord, a kingdom of the world to come, even if it was actually breaking into this world. It was the kingdom of your absolute rule in which all evil would be overcome.

In the resurrection of Jesus this all became much clearer. For the first time we realized that you, Lord, were offering freely to all of humanity a share in your own divine life, a share that could grow and grow forever if only it were accepted into lives that were then transformed.

John’s baptism was one of repentance for sin. Commissioned by the risen Jesus, the apostles began rather to baptize into the life that you, Lord, offer to all. Down into the water to die to sin and selfishness, up out of the water, not only to forgiveness, but to a new and divine life. In this baptism, Lord, your one, eternal act that is your being, becomes visibly manifest under the saving sign of water.

Lord, may we who have said “yes” to your Word and received your Holy Spirit in the womb, always live out that same act, visibly present under the sign of water in our baptism, at every moment of our lives, growing constantly in your life and power, now and forever.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 8: The One Mediator Between God and Humanity

Anonymous: Christ Pantocrator
Belarus, 1744

Saturday after Epiphany

Gospel: Jn 3:22-30

“He must increase, but I must decrease (NRSV, Jn 3:30).”

How often, Father, have I asked you to increase my understanding of who Jesus is? Inevitably when I do this, I speak about Jesus as if he were an object, someone over there, apart from the two of us, about whom we can talk. Why can I not truly grasp than whenever I speak to you at all, Lord, about Jesus or anything, I always speak to you through him. Jesus is the one mediator, between you, Father, and us, but he is never the inter-mediary. He does not carry your message to me and my message to you. He is your message, to me, to all of us, spoken once and for all, but always spoken. Nor does he carry my, our, words to you. Through Jesus we have immediate access to you, Lord. That is why Jesus is mediator without being intermediary. And so Jesus is never object, never someone apart about whom we can simply talk.

Lord, instead of pleading with you to increase my understanding of Jesus, maybe I should just listen to the Word that you speak. In the physical world, when I hear my friend speak, he is across the room, or at the other end of the telephone line, and his voice comes to me from “over there.” Your Word who is Jesus, on the contrary, is spoken to me at the depth of my being. In fact, it is through your Word, that I, we, the world, am created. The watchmaker makes his watch and when, he is finished, ceases his work; he lays the watch on the table. Lord, your creation of me, us, the world, is on-going. If the act were to cease (but your act, Lord, cannot cease because it is your being), I, we, the world would cease to exist. Your creative act (which is just your act, which is just you), Lord, through your Word who is Jesus is constant. Your Word is present to me from my first moment in the womb and then at every successive moment. The Word is your presence to me. Again, how foolish of me to ask you, Lord, to increase my understanding of Jesus, when your Word spoken to me at every moment is everything that I know of you. You, Lord, do not shed light on your Word. It is your Word who sheds light on You.

Lord, I said that maybe I should just listen to the Word that you speak. But the Word who is Jesus and through whom I, we, the world, am created, does not allow me just to listen. He demands a response from me. This response can only be made in the power of the Holy Spirit (the one Spirit who is yours, Father, and the Word’s) as indeed even the listening and hearing can only be made in the same Spirit. The response requested is to accept the gift of your life offered to me, us, at that first moment. Growth in this gift which is life in your Spirit, Father, is then offered to me, us, again and again, through your Word, at every moment.

And, if all of this were not marvelous enough, the very Word that you speak, Lord, from all eternity, the very Word through whom I, we, the world, am created and I, we, share your own divine life, has also become one of us in the flesh, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, to be with us in the body and to pass through death with us.

It is all too wonderful for the human mind to grasp. May your Word, Lord, ever increase in me, as I, living of and for myself, decrease.


Alleluia. Amen.

Jan 7: Whoever has the Son has Life

John Bondol: Jesus Healing a Leper
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 1372

Friday after Epiphany

Reading I: 1 Jn 5:5-13
Gospel: Lk 5:12-16

God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life (NRSV, 1 Jn 5:11b-12a).

“Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.” Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do choose. Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him (NRSV, Lk 5:12b-13).

Father, notwithstanding the clarity of understanding brought about by the resurrection of your Son, the Lord Jesus, the apostles and the community of believers continued over the years to develop their understanding of the one revelation made in Jesus and in him made to all of us at every moment even from the beginning. That understanding still continues to grow today for us as individuals and for the whole Church.

For Luke and Matthew, your kingdom, Father, your absolute reign over all creation in which all that stands against you is overcome, is preached by Jesus as a future event but one near at hand. It can be seen all around bursting into the present in this event or that, particularly in the forgiveness of sins, the healing of the sick and the driving out of demons.

The Johannine writers speak only incidentally of the kingdom of God. For them what is central is your eternal life, Father, that begins here in this world to be brought to fulfillment in the world to come. Eternal life for John is not a reality that is present in a passing way in a healing or exorcism, or even the pardoning of sin. Nor is it a solely future reality as indicated by the manner in which eternal life is spoken of occasionally in the first three gospels. No, eternal life, for John, is an ongoing reality, a participation in your very life, Lord, which you share with all those who believe, all who say “yes” to your Word.

Throughout the synoptic gospels, Jesus frequently indicates to the person healed that their faith has saved them. In the universe of John, it would be the power that comes from your life, Father, freely given to us and then made our own, that brings healing into our lives and overcomes evil. It is this power taken up and made our own that will enable us to pass victoriously through death as Jesus did.

Father, all of us need healing in our lives, for some it is physical healing, for others of us a much deeper, spiritual healing. May you continue to pour out your Spirit upon us all that your eternal life shared with us may bring true healing and draw us, sisters and brothers throughout the world, into closer union with you, our heavenly Father, and with one another.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 6: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me

James Tissot: Jesus Teaching in the Synagogue
The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 1900.

Thursday after Epiphany

Gospel: Lk 4:14-22

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor (NRSV, Lk 4:18a).”

So often, Father, we misunderstand the nature of the prophet. We erroneously think that the prophet has some secret knowledge of future events exactly as they will unfold. But we should realize, Father, that the future for us is free and undetermined. The prophet, rather, is actually a person who is much more sensitive than the rest of us to what is taking place in the present. When the prophet speaks of the future, it is always the implications for the future, contained in the conditions of the present, of which sometimes he alone is aware.

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.”

These are the words of an anonymous Hebrew prophet, words collected with those of others among your prophets, Lord, in the latter portions of the Book of Isaiah. These particular words look forward to the days following the Babylonian captivity, when Zion will be restored. They are a dream for the future, a dream that somehow must be fulfilled because you, Lord, do not abandon your people.

Shortly after your Son Jesus began his public ministry as recorded in Luke, he entered his own synagogue in Nazareth and, taking his turn, unrolled the scripture and read these very words so familiar to everyone in the congregation . . . except at the end, Jesus added, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

At first, Lord, we read that the people were amazed but their amazement soon turned to outrage.

Father, in the resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we realize that the words of Isaiah, Chapter 61, the dream of an unknown Hebrew prophet, were in fact fulfilled in Jesus but that they also apply as challenge to every human being who has ever lived. We have all of us said “yes” to you at the first moment of our existence and your Holy Spirit has in fact anointed every one of us from the womb. Lord, you have sent us all to bring good news to the oppressed.

How we are caught up in our own personal lives and concerns, Father, when to be human is to share one life, your divine life, as your daughters and sons, sisters and brothers all. The plight of one is truly the plight of all. Strengthen us, Lord, to lift up our eyes to see the needs of others, particularly those most weary with pain and suffering, and then, enpowered by your life, to hasten to help them.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 5: Out of Death, Life

Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave of Kanagawa
The Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, Matsumoto City, 1827

Memorial of Saint John Neumann, bishop

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 72:1-2, 10, 12-13

For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy (NRSV, Ps 72:12-13).

Father, of all of the gifts of the natural order which you share with us, water is among the more precious. Water gives life. It cleanses. It provides means of transportation and recreation. Water is fun. But it is also threatening. Water rots and decays. It encourages disease. It can bring death. Water then signifies both death and life. That is why water is the sacrament of our initiation into your divine life: down into the water to die to sin and selfishness; up out of the water to new life in you, our God.

Father, in the memory of your people, it is out of water that you have so many times brought them forth from death to life. In the beginning we read that your Spirit rested on the waters of chaos and created from them the heavens and the earth. The Book of Genesis also tells us that you brought Noah and his family through the horrors of the deluge to create for them and us a new earth. Your children remember how, when they were enslaved in Egypt, you brought them through the waters of the sea to freedom and then finally you called them through the river Jordan into the land to which they looked.

Once again, Father, your children suffer from an earth that seems to have grown angry and has unleashed tremendous surges of ocean water against them. The numbers of the dead are too high to count as are those who suffer physical injury and the loss of loved ones.

Father, in every situation, whether it be calm or tempestuous, there is one gift that you always share with us, the gift of your life. May peoples around the world accept that gift now with grateful hearts. May it strengthen those who have suffered the loss of loved ones or who have incurred serious physical injury. May it enlighten the rest of us to come to the assistance of those so desperately in need with all of our resources, our time and talents, our money and material goods, but especially with our love and consolation that no one anywhere need ever feel alone and abandoned.

Father, empower us all that we may emerge from these waters of destruction, born again out of them to forge ahead together to create a world where justice and loving concern vanquish violence and oppression.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 4: The Multiplication of the Loaves and the Fish

Anonymous French Master: Jesus Feeding the Five Thousand
Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, c. 1200

Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious

Gospel: Mk 6:34-44

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all (NRSV, Mk 6:41).

Father, along with the air we breathe and the water we drink, the food that we take for nourishment seems to be the most necessary elements for the maintenance of human life. The crowd followed Jesus listening to his words, not understanding them and not even realizing what was drawing them on. We read in the gospels that Jesus miraculously fed the multitude that had come out into the wilderness to hear him. We are filled with wonder at the telling and they, for the moment at least, were satisfied.

Father, so often we confuse the totality of our life with our physical life here on earth. We are concerned about what we eat, what we drink, and what we wear. But, our true life, Lord, the life that makes us to human beings, is not the physical life of this world. We share that with the animals and plants. Our true life is your life that we receive from you, offered to us by your Word made flesh in Jesus the Christ and breathed into us by your Holy Spirit. This is the life that is really worth nourishing. The food that we seek, often without knowing it, to sustain this life is Jesus the Word. We nurture our true selves, Father, by accepting your Word into our lives in the Holy Spirit. It is by faith in Jesus and through Jesus, in the Spirit, to you, Father, that we are truly nourished.

Father, we may be deprived of air, water, and physical nourishment by all manner of circumstances beyond our control. Physical death may embrace us even against our will, but the true life, your divine life that you share with us, is always offered in every situation. Bodily deprivation and physical death cannot touch our divine selves. Your life, Father, is a free gift that we need only accept and allow to transform us.

The divine food that truly nourishes into life eternal is your Word, Father, and he is always present offering himself to us if only we say “yes.” It is food that never fails. May we always accept it in faith.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Jan 3: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Salvator Rosa: The Prodigal Son
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 1650

Monday after Epiphany

Gospel: Mt 4:12-17, 23-25

From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (NRSV, Mt 4:17 cf. note).”

Heavenly Father, Jesus began his public preaching with a call to repentance. Before Jesus and regrettably even since, your people have thought it necessary to plead with you to forgive their transgressions. They have often thought of you as delaying your forgiveness, even for generations. Natural disasters and illness were perceived as punishment for sin. Sacrifices of animals and of the first fruits of the land were offered in an effort to regain your favor. Even Jesus’ own death, rather than as a sign of your uniting with us out of love, has been understood as a sin offering.

For Jesus, Lord, repentance never means expressing sorrow for our sins and pleading for forgiveness. At no time during his public ministry did Jesus ever demand that the sinner look into his past and dredge up evil done. No, instead, Jesus always challenged the sinner to change his life. Not, “Are you truly sorry for what you have done,” but “Turn away from sin and sin no more.” That is what repentance means for Jesus, Lord, a turning round and living out one’s life differently than before.

Father, so great is your love for us that no sin, not even the worst evil imaginable, can drive you from us. We may turn away in sin but you, Father, are always there. Through your Son, the Word made flesh in Jesus, you press in upon us always, offering us forgiveness and new life, in the Spirit, if only we would accept it. There is no demand for contrition or pleading, or payment to be made. Forgiveness from you is gift, offered freely and which need only be accepted and lived out in the new life that you constantly offer to us.

Father, may I always accept the forgiveness and new life that you offer me through your Word, Jesus, in the Spirit. Transformed by new life, may I then go out in forgiveness to those who have sinned against me and share with them the life and love that you offer to all.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 2: God's Gift to the World

Hieronymous Bosch: The Adoration of the Magi
Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1510

The Epiphany of the Lord

Gospel: Mt 2:1-12

On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (NRSV, Mt 2:11).

Lord, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of your only begotten Son is ordinarily a very joyous celebration of your presence among us. Just as Jesus brought the wounds of his passion and crucifixion with him into the resurrection, today we are so terribly aware of the agony and suffering of so many tens of thousands of your daughters and sons, our sisters and brothers, killed in the tidal waves that surged through the Indian Ocean just a few days ago. So many dead. Untold others missing. Families torn apart. Grieving multitudes.

Today the magi from afar brought gifts for your Son but truly he is the Epiphany of the one gift that matters, the gift that you give us at every moment. He is indeed that very gift, become one of us. As all through the world, people of every belief and persuasion rush to bring gifts to the suffering multitudes to soothe their wounds, calm their anguished spirits, and take care of their bodily needs, we who believe realize that the Word, sent to live among us as a human being and to dwell within all those who will accept his Spirit, is the true gift who will empower all in pain to transfigure that suffering as he himself did on the Cross.

Father, you who brought the enslaved Hebrews out of Egypt, the captives home from Babylon, and your Son through his passion and death, now bring the suffering peoples of the Indian Ocean, so many who look to you through the words written by Mohammed, through their passion that, without forgetting their loved ones who have died and yet are always united with them, they may look to you who is their real future and rebuild their lives victoriously out of the rubble of apparent defeat.

May all peoples of the world stand shoulder to shoulder with them in their pain, their death and their resurrection here in this life and in the world to come.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan 1: God-Bearers All

Luca Signorelli: The Circumcision
National Gallery, London, 1490

The Octave Day of Christmas
Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
New Year’s Day

Gospel: Lk 2:16-21

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb (NRSV, Lk 2:21).

Father, today is the octave day of Christmas and the solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. It is also the first day of the New Year according to the Gregorian calendar. When Jesus was eight days old, his parents, according to the Law of Moses, brought him to be circumcised. It was Mary who bore him in her arms, Mary the God-bearer, in Greek “theotokos,” in Latin “deipara.” Thus, Father, did we in the Church, proclaim at Ephesus that Mary is the mother of Jesus, not merely according to his humanity, but in the totality of who he is, the Word incarnate. Mary’s great dignity comes from her son, Jesus. Should we ever even think of her, Lord, without reference to him? Or imagine her? Or portray her?

If everything that Mary is, Father, derives from your Son and hers, so Mary also points us to Christ. If today we honor Mary as theotokos, that means that all of us who believe, who accept and carry your Word living within us in the Holy Spirit, are all of us theotokoi, God-bearers to the world.

In presenting your Word to others, Lord, because we are rational creatures, we have the tendency to want to argue and convince through reason. But to argue with a sister or brother is to persuade them that they have been wrong, that they must cease to be who they have been. Argument in the end is at best a subtle form of violence. Your Spirit, Father, has been poured out upon all of humanity. Your Word, which we bear within us, is already present to all, even if not so consciously acknowledged. It is not by logic, however convincing and powerful, that witness is given but simply by lives transformed by your life and love. Life recognizes life and cannot help but bring about greater unity and conscious harmony. Help us, Lord, not to want to convince of your truth as to live out that truth in service.

Today, Lord, is also New Year’s Day, a day of new beginnings and a day to pray for peace. Enlighten us always that we may recognize that, not only every New Year, but every moment contains within it the challenge to begin anew, that you always offer us new life in the moment. Father, may the inner peace that acceptance of you in the moment inevitably brings radiate out from one to another, that true justice and peace among nations and peoples may take deeper root in the world and blossom, hopefully, in our time.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen