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Daily Scripture

+ 23rd Week in Ordinary Time – Labor Day

“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.”

Lord, give success to the work of our hands. [Ps 90:17]

I believe I first heard that quote about all work and no play in the 3rd grade at Bayley Grammar School. Sr. Paulita, SC was the teacher. She had a stock of quotes from ancient sages and current commentators. Of course anything we memorize in elementary school will remain with us for life!

As with every axiom, there is both an element of truth as well as an exaggeration of truth. This is the reason we often refer to axioms as ‘truisms.’

On this Labor Day, 2010, many folks will not be taking a weekend at the shore because the kids are already back in school. Others can’t take a holiday because they need to work. Others will not be celebrating Labor Day this year because they have no work today or tomorrow.

The optimum for any able-bodied person is to be in a situation in which work is play. These are the blessed few among us for whom ‘work’ is only an extension of their play. This doesn’t mean they are playing at work. It means rather that they are able to use their most creative talents and abilities for a greater good, not just for their own personal enjoyment.

Whatever one’s employment, Catholic social doctrine has always stood strongly for the ‘right to work’ and for the ‘right to a just wage.’

The jobless rate in the private sector continues rise but alas, all too slowly while the politicking and debate over bailouts continues. The large crowds at malls do not tell the whole story. People are looking but not everyone is buying. Gainful employment for everyone has become the great equalizer. It means that those who have will need to give more and those who have not will have less to give until the economy stabilizes.

‘Lord, direct all our actions by your holy inspiration and carry them on by your gracious assistance so that every prayer and work of our may begin in you and through you be happily completed. Amen.’

Second Sunday in Lent 'C'

Sunday February 28, 2010

It was a transforming experience.

It was during a trip to Colorado many years ago on a clear quiet evening that I walked up to a high point outside of Aspen to look at the stars. It was unbelievable. I had never seen as many stars in my life. It wasn’t that there were more stars over Colorado than over New Jersey; it was just that I could see them more clearly above the smog and atmospheric grit that hovers the earth at lesser heights. It was a mesmerizing experience. Although I didn’t climb the mountain to pray, the experience led me to prayer — not recited prayers, but prayer without words — contemplation — the opening of the soul to the mystery of God. It was awesome. I felt very small before the façade of the universe, yet I was keenly aware of God’s presence. In fact, I think I saw God’s face in the heavens. I felt empowered to respond to the wonder of God, yet I was still in touch with my own humanity and mortality. I remained for quite a while to “listen to the silence” of God’s ‘voice’ on the mountaintop, as it were. My life looked so different from the mountaintop. It was a transforming experience, the memory of which has never left me and continues to sustain me when I have been tempted to lose hope or heart. When I can’t junket out to Colorado, I walk up to Fort Nonsense the highest point between Morristown and the Orange Mountains.

Mountain top experiences sometimes happen on mountains but not always. In fact a mountain is more often the metaphor for a spiritually transforming experience that enables us to see “our reality” more clearly and empowers us not just to talk the talk but walk the walk of life with greater commitment, integrity, and enthusiasm. The Bible refers to these experiences as visions or dreams. The theological term for such is “Theophany” or the manifestation of God, a window to the soul. There are many descriptions of such visions and dreams in both the Old and New Testaments. As with Peter, James and John, the temptation to “freeze frame” is strong, but we must come down and move on.

The Book of Genesis captures the oral tradition passed down about Abraham‘s call. It was believed to have been a personal encounter with God that inspired him to move on to a new land with in the conviction that God would be faithful to him and his descendents. It is interesting that Abraham is revered as “Father in faith” to Jews, Moslems and Christians — we are all part of his posterity, in some sense the covenant made with Abraham by God symbolized through an ancient ritual sacrifice of the animals has never been revoked even though we find its fulfillment in the covenant made with us in Christ.

In fact the description of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Luke’s gospel is the perfect sequel to Abraham’s vision. Luke intends this as a turning point in Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem and Calvary. As he was transfigured on the mountain, Moses and Elijah joined him. It was the belief of many Jews that Moses and Elijah would return at the end time. Luke interprets this story of Jesus’ transfiguration as an affirmation of his call as Messiah — the seal of a new covenant. He is the new Moses and the fulfillment of all the ancient prophecies. His faithfulness to the covenant initiated with Abraham took him on a journey that would lead to another mountaintop called Calvary — not that God demanded Jesus’ death but rather his faithfulness to divine love. He was the epitome of divine love in human form. That kind of faithfulness and love is costly. It can and often does lead to death. But Paul assures us in his letter to the Philippians that the covenant does not end in death but to ultimate glory. “Our citizenship is in heaven and is from there that we expect the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform us.”

Marty Luther King had a mountaintop experience that empowered him to journey to a place he had never been and ultimately to his death. His faithfulness to that journey changed the course of black history in this country.

I have a dream that one day our Church will be community in which there will be no divisions or exclusions—women and men equal at the table; young and old of whatever gender and orientation. All will be welcomed. Our God can make it happen but not without our consent and involvement.

I have a dream that one day our country will come together in a common cause and purpose for the common good of every man and woman in a true spirit of solidarity, a time in which the honest sharing of differences will open us up to a new truth and blend into solutions that work for everyone.

Lent can be a mountaintop experience for the disciple of Christ. It’s a time not of testing but an opportunity to accept the challenge of contemplating the mystery of life in a new way. It’s a new opportunity to catch the rhythm of God through our daily prayer in whatever form it takes. It is yet another opportunity to encounter Jesus in our own personal passage [Passover] through the Red Sea [baptism] through the desert [the dryness of life] alert to God’s presence in both the pain and the consolations that accompany the daily embrace of life [“Lord, it is good for us to be here!”] So let us break bread together and sip some wine that one day we may come to the glory that was promised to Abraham, Moses, and all the prophets, fulfilled in Jesus, and given to us as disciples.

Lent can make a difference. In essence, it can be a transforming experience that will enable us to discover a new truth that we are all children of God as well as people of the earth. The road to a new Jerusalem will inevitably take us to Calvary and make many demands that we die to self but Calvary is not the end of the story.