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Daily Scripture

+ 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Every day is a gift and a blessing.

Readings: I Corinthians 1:1-9 Psalm 145:2-7 Matthew 24:42-51

I give thanks to my god always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gifts as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [I Cor 1:4-5, 7]

My mother used to say that every day is a gift and a blessing—an opportunity for grace indeed, many graces.

I suppose it’s all according to one’s perspective. The greatest challenge in life is to find something to be thankful for every day. This is particularly difficult during stressful times and certainly during illness of one kind or another.

I think I may have shared difference between a hermit and a nightclub performer. The hermit wakes up at dawn and says, “Thank you, God!” The nightclub entertainer wakes up at noon and says, “Good God, morning?”

There is so much going on in the world at large and in our own particular worlds to bring anxiety and stress. It’s hard work to maintain balance. An active spiritual life based on the confidence that nothing can happen today that can defeat us if we are grounded in the belief that God’s presence is abiding but it’s difficult and sometimes terrifying to let go.

I still remember the first time I road my two-wheeler bike without my dad holding on to the seat. We started off—I, confident that he hand was firmly attached to the seat. I had ridden almost a full block before I realized that he had let go and there I was, gliding down the street. It’s that way with God. We just need to remain conscious that God’s ‘hand’ is not a crutch but that God’s grace within us is real.

Some days it seems as if we are starting all over again.

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday June 22, 2008

Not to Worry!

It’s an interesting word—“fear.” It is used to convey very different moods, emotions and cautions. On one hand, it communicates anxiety — high anxiety at times. At other times, excitement, which is a mix of the fear of danger and the anticipation of something good on the other side of danger. Fear is often associated with risk. It can also describe a state of mind, an extended emotion lasting even for a lifetime such as the fear of heights or subways or lightening or getting old or not getting old—whatever. These are called phobias — an excessive or exaggerated fear that under certain conditions and circumstances can immobilize people.

Anxiety is the plague of our age. There is enough to be anxious about in today’s world — the rising price of oil that has escalated prices at the pump to say nothing of higher food prices that have in turn triggered a new round of inflation. The lagging effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the floods in the plains and the ongoing cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are all conspiring to put our nerves on edge and the end is not in sight. It’s no wonder we wake up each morning with the jitters.

No matter what the candidates promise, we know that there is no one person or party that has a magic wand or a fail safe solution to the world’s financial woes all of which impinge on our security. Globalization is not a passing phenomenon but only recently have we begun to experience its downside.

On the other hand, the crisis is forcing increasing numbers of people to find creative ways to live more simply. Of a sudden, we are beginning to realize that we do not use or consume half of what we say we ‘need.’

Yesterday afternoon, I visited with a dear friend and colleague, Sr. Marie, who at the age of 83 is confined to a nursing home. Sr. Marie’s bones are very fragile due to the ravages of osteoporosis over many years. It takes her almost two hours to put on her braces that stretch from shoulder to ankle so that she can make her way around the nursing home and then outside to her skyline cathedral where she sits and meditates on the beauty of nature. Marie has learned to live each minute of each day with the serenity that follows a long period of letting go of everything except her inner dignity. Marie’s story is much longer that time and space provide. Suffice it to say that she has borne more than her share of crosses beginning with the death of her mother when she was eight.

As we spoke of days gone by, she reminded me once again that life is a gift and that ultimately it is not what we accomplish in life that brings us security but how often we say ‘yes’ to every moment knowing that we are never alone. She spoke about her sharing in the suffering of Christ not as punishment but as passage. And when we embrace whatever life brings without looking for an escape hatch or an easy fix, we arrive at the level of peace that evokes creativity and the determination to give life all we are and all we have.

Biblical authors used the word “fear” in many different contexts. Unfortunately through the years readers have limited it to mean the state of being afraid in the face of danger or in the face of punishment. It has also been used to describe one’s disposition before God as if to suggest that God is more to be feared than revered or loved.

We are all familiar with the biblical axiom: “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Even the Catholic Catechism lists “fear of the Lord” as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I dare say that many, if not most, Roman Catholics ascribe some “anxiety” to that word and this may account for the lopsided spirituality that was fostered in our early years of Christian formation. It is evidenced in such statements as, “Remember, God sees all things and knows what you are thinking even in secret, so be careful or God will punish you!” This little warning guaranteed to spoil an evening out has been issued by more than one mother to a son or daughter. Oh, I know, this is an exaggeration but only to make valid the point that fear of the Lord has been foundational in the life of many faithful believers, Catholic and non-Catholic alike.

In recent years with the help of biblical scholars and translators, we have come to appreciate another meaning and application of the word as it appears in the Bible. The word fear is also translated as “reverence” or “awe.”

This discovery or re-discovery of reverence and awe has been liberating for many believers and has dramatic implications for all believers.

Still prominent in the vocabulary of young people and not-so-young people today is the word “awesome.” Perhaps by now it is overused. “It’s awesome!” meaning, I am overwhelmed with the beauty or the goodness of a particular person or event beyond description, so much so, that it yields a dramatic change in my behavior. Far from being afraid, I am energized and ready to accede to any request.

It is this underlying emotion that Jeremiah experienced when called by the Lord to prophecy, to speak for the Lord. His response was not out of fear but out of awe. We might paraphrase his response in this way: “I was overwhelmed by God and despite the response of the Israelites and even terrible persecution from my own people and the genuine fear that accompanied it, my reverence and awe of the Lord sustained me in grace and empowered me to faithfulness.” In other words, he was so absorbed in God that even death itself could not separate him from that intimate relationship with God. An awesome thought!

“You duped me, O Lord, and I succumbed… and though I have become a laughingstock to those around me… and though terror is all around, to you I have committed my cause… to you I have committed my life.” He then bursts into a psalm: “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.” An awesome response!

In the gospel, Matthew presents Jesus as the living word of God as he assures the disciples that they need not fear. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear those who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” And then he goes on to tell them, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven…” In other words, those who reverence the presence of the Spirit in me, stand in awe of God and God in turn will hold them in awe. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear God say, “Mary, you’re awesome!” Why not? There is no place for fear in those whose love of God is sincere.

When a man and woman are truly in love, they are awed by each other and they know the difference between fear and awe. They are driven apart by fear; they are held together by reverence but they can express their fears to each other without worry.

It is the same in our relationship with God and Jesus is our model.
There are many things in today’s world that can make us fearful: the threat of terrorism; the fear of job loss, the anxiety connected with sons and daughters gong off to college, the fear of heights, bridges, subways; the fear of getting old, the fear of not getting old. These are only a few.

Now more than ever are we called to intimacy with God. Now more than ever, we are called to this assembly to be exposed to the awesome presence of God in Word and in the Sacrament of Eucharist.

“Buddha was once asked, ‘What makes a person holy?’ He replied, ‘Every hour is divided into a certain number of seconds and every second into a certain number of fractions. Anyone who is able to be totally present in each frantion of a second is holy.’

The Japanese warrior was captured
by his enemies and thrown into
prison. At night he could not
sleep for he was convinced that he
would be tortured the next
morning.

Then the words of his master came to his mind. ‘Tomorrow is not
real. Theonly reality is now.’

So he came to the present—and
fell asleep.

“The person over whom the future has lost its greip. How like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. No anxieties for tomorrow. Total presence in the now. Holiness!”

[Holiness in the Presetn Moment, Anthony de Mello, Song of the Bird, Image Book, NY, 1982.