Monthly Archives: March 2019

Tuesday of week 8 in Ordinary Time
Ecclesiasticus 35:2-15 | Psalm 49(50):5-8,14,23 | Mark 10:28-31

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Add a smiling face to all your gifts,
and be cheerful as you dedicate your tithes.

Ecclesiasticus 35:8

It’s so nice that as we begin the Lenten season tomorrow, we have a timely reminder today of the proper disposition in all our sacrifices.

Giving up our favorite activities, or foods, or anything else that gives us worldly pleasure, isn’t the point.

Dedicating to the LORD all the time, money, attention, and everything else left over from our sacrifices, and all with a cheerful heart, IS the point.

Opening our hearts to whatever and whomever passes before us, especially during the next 40 days, should trigger an interesting adventure into our innermost thoughts…and a path to a better you.

Bring on the hunger!

Monday of week 8 in Ordinary Time
Ecclesiasticus 17:20-28 | Psalm 31(32):1-2,5-7 | Mark 10:17-27

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Who will praise the Most High in Sheol, if the living do not do so by giving glory to him?
To the dead, as to those who do not exist, praise is unknown, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.

Ecclesiasticus 17:26-27

Have you ever felt dead inside, exhausted from dealing with the troubles and troubled of this world?

When we turn inward, ignoring others in our quest for inner solace and solitude, it’s hard to sing God’s praises. “Leave me alone!” is incompatible with the Holy Spirit’s quiet urging to look anew at that really annoying person we’ve had to suffer for the last couple of hours, the one who just needs a little help and a kind word.

And when we return home in a deflated state, just wanting to collapse poleaxed into bed, it’s really hard to pause before our eyelids slam shut, spending a few minutes contemplating the next day’s scripture, taking precious insight from the Word of God, then briefly thanking Him for our life and health.

And then, one day, we wake up in Hades, waiting in the darkness for final judgement, longing for others to cast some “praise-rays” of light in prayer and thanksgiving, guiltily remembering that we were not among them during our lives.

Will we continue to fill our lives with secular busy-work and fleeting pleasures, wearing ourselves out with frivolity, ambling around like the living dead?

Or will we pause, take stock, rid ourselves of the unnecessary, and make room for God in our lives? Will we spend more time contemplating His plan for us, and executing on it? Will we grant ourselves the freedom that His Word brings, with its illumination of the human condition and how to right it?

The choice, as has so often been said, is ours.

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Ecclesiasticus 27:5-8 | Psalm 91(92):2-3,13-16 | 1 Corinthians 15:54-58 | Luke 6:39-45

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In a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind,
  so too the defects of a man appear in his talk.
The kiln tests the work of the potter,
  the test of a man is in his conversation.
The orchard where a tree grows is judged on the quality of its fruit,
  similarly a man’s words betray what he feels.
Do not praise a man before he has spoken,
  since this is the test of men.

Ecclesiasticus 27:5-8

All through this past week, I was metaphorically biting my tongue till it bled, pondering for hours on my response to various messages, from a minor misunderstanding to tricky arguments on spirituality and faith.

One of those disagreements was face-to-face, which ended with both parties unmoved…and me mentally exhausted from a dance of polite discourse that wasn’t returned.

It’s easy to see why many folks take on strident tones when conversing online, angrily pounding virtual tables with passionate and sometimes vulgar assertions. When we can’t see faces or hear voices, “cold objectivity” takes over with an attendant “YOU SHALL HEED MY WORDS, FOR I AM RIGHTEOUSLY CORRECT!“

And after quiet reflection, it’s become clear just how preachy I can get with my own choir members, insistently driving home the message of love and faith that I received from God…without taking into consideration that most everyone else, pained by their post-practice hunger pangs, were probably not in a receptive mood.

I really should ask myself the same question I imagine a thousand folks I face over my life ask me in their silence…

Why should I listen to you?

When I’m hungry and tired, and you’re standing there with yet more words, why would I be interested in what you have to say?

When I’m worried about my next meeting, or my buggy computer code, why would I care about God’s message from anyone, least of all you?

When my beloved mother/lover/pet is dying by painful inches, why would I believe your arrogant nonsense about how God loves us all?

I’d been wondering of late why I should continue my daily blogging. Today’s first reading just gave me new motivation to test myself, to keep sharing my faith and God’s love with others…but with an eye and ear inclined towards those with whom I communicate, carefully considering the message I’m sending…

…and not standing between a hungry horde and their lunch.