Casa Maria Marianists

Mass: Monday, February 15, 2010
First Reading: Jas 1:1-11
Responsorial: Psalm 119:67, 68, 71, 72, 75, 76
Gospel: Mk 8:11-13

Do you ever wish that life was like an interstate highway? Gliding along at a decent speed taking in the beauty around you, and God giving you clearly marked, well lighted signs along the way that tell you exactly what to expect, when to expect it, and which way to turn when you get there.

We pray, we meditate, we may even fast. We seek God’s guidance and all we ask in return is a giant flashing neon arrow from heaven saying “DO THIS” “GO HERE” “THIS IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO”

This is what the Pharisees want in today’s Gospel: Proof. They don’t want to have to trust God. They want God to accept their doubt and give heed to their human desires. And Jesus says “NO”

James warns us against this in the first reading too. He says that when times get rough, and they will, we should not have doubt. That is not the time to ask God for an obvious sign. It is instead, the time to ask God for the wisdom and perseverance to see the small subtle signs that are all around us. God comes softly, and he ALWAYS answers our prayers. But if we’re gliding along, letting the scenery pass us by and only looking for the big, directional signs, we’ll miss all the little ways that God reveals himself to us along the way.

Like St. James says, we must persevere in our faith, if we ask God simply to give us what we need in order to show us the way, he will.

We don’t need neon signs; we need faith, perseverance, and trust in God’s love for us.

Mass: Friday, February 12, 2010
First Reading: Sir 47:2-11
Responsorial: Psalm 18:31, 47 and 50, 51
Gospel: Mk 6:14-29

Sometimes I got bogged down in the stories of the Old Testament.  It often seems to be same story told over and over and over again:

“God speaks through the prophet, the people repent, God promises to reign prosperity upon the people  forever if they remain faithful to him, the people do good for a while, then they turn their backs on God, God get’s angry and promises them only tragedy until they repent, they don’t, Israel get’s plundered, God speaks through the prophet, the people repent. And the cycle starts over.

The easy assumption to make is that God is vengeful and punishes us when we do wrong.

But I think the message is much more profound than that. We need to remmeber that as many times as the Israelites got it wrong, God forgave them and let them try to make it right again. In the dark times, I wonder, was God really saying “You’ve done wrong and now you have to suffer!” so much as he was saying “Come back! Come back! You’ve wandered away from me and I can’t help you unless you come back to me!

In our lives we experience Spiritual Highs and Spiritual Lows. At times we feel very close to God, but at others we seem to have fallen away and God appears to be very distant. Perhaps, at those times, we’ve lost track of what it really important, we’ve taken our trust from God and placed in the hands of something, or someone else. Then things  start to go wrong. We feel like God is punishing us.

He isn’t.

We have simply wandered away and he can’t help us unless we come back. We learn of our total dependence upon God. At these times, through all the muck, we hopefully hear God saying “Trust Me, look HERE, come back, and we’ll get through this together.

As many times as we screw it up, God will call us back and forgive us. And through his Grace, we may just get it right for once.

Mass: Tuesday, February 9, 2010
First Reading: 1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30
Responsorial: Psalm 84:3, 4, 5 and 10, 11
Gospel: Mk 7:1-13

One way that I was taught to pray with scripture was to imagine myself in the story and find a character or group with whom I could identify.

In today’s two readings, there are two central characters cast in the roles of good and bad: Solomon, who behaves as the protagonist in the first reading; and the Pharisees and scribes, cast as the antagonists in Mark’s Gospel.

Of course, we easily can see that if the Pharisees and scribes were only open to Jesus’ teachings, all would be well!

While we would like to align ourselves with Solomon, it should not be too much of a stretch to imagine that, at some point in their lives, the Pharisees and scribes were also like Solomon—one of the “good guys.” After all, as leaders of a worship community, they must have earned that honor somehow.

So what happened to them? How did they lose focus in living the true nature of their faith in favor of practicing rote traditions? When did following established customs become more important than an openness to discerning new insights? When did a single interpretation of expressing faith become “baptized” as the one, correct and absolute standard by which others are judged?

How ironic is it that these questions are posed by the one person in community who has been described as “someone whose schedule you can set your clocks by.” I have to admit that I prefer to have my schedule set a specific way to provide structure and perceived sense of efficiency in my life.

After all, having a set way of doing things helps me to settle, feel efficient and become comfortable. It’s efficient and works—why try a different way?

Although this attitude isn’t necessarily a bad thing, this mindset offers little room for flexibility, openness to variety and new ideas. My years in formation and spiritual direction have taught me to try and temper my strict adherence to established ways with a disposition of openness; in other words, while diligence and efficiency are great, don’t be closed to discerning the variety of other ways that God can be active in life…and I’ll honestly admit, that is the one area that I’ve struggled with and will have to continue working on over the years.

So, when Jesus points out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes, I easily can imagine that Jesus reminds me that, sometimes, my own personal actions do not match with the words that I speak.

Fortunately, the “basics” our lives as Marianist religious offer us many ways to grow in that area: centeredness in prayer; listening to God’s response as spoken through the voices of others, particularly our brothers in community; understanding how God is working through our strengths and weaknesses; and how our shared life calls us to be accountable to one another in being faithful to our vocation.

Brothers, we are given the gift of another new day and opportunity to live those values and put them into action as concrete expressions of our faith. Let us strive to make the words we speak in chapel match up with our lived actions so that we continue to grow personally and spiritually, and as community.

May the eucharist that we receive this morning renew our commitment to the vocation that we are called to live as Marianists.