Higher up and Further In

You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Mt.5:48

Jesus has just given the command that we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us so that we may be sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven.

The bar has been placed by Jesus so that it is always higher than us. No matter how holy and pious I think I'm doing, I'm not perfect. This means I can never be complacent, that there's always a stretch involved in living my Christian life. 

I'm called to live the best version of myself. Jesus' call to perfection means I'm always called to grow, that I always have that urge to go "higher up and further in" as Aslan calls to the children in the Narnia Chronicles. What an exciting way to live out my day today.

Lord Jesus, I hear your call to go higher up, further in. Help me push the envelope of my life today.

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.

 

Ask Seek Knock

Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.
Mt.7:7,8

Jesus reminds us that when we initiate seeking God, he always responds. We are never left ignored.

The first reading about Esther shows the source of  her great courage, her confidence in asking God. She asked, she searched, she knocked and as we know, God came through. 

We all have areas where we need God to come through. I certainly have a list of requests that I pray through each day. I just need to keep asking, seeking, knocking and God will show up in those situations.

Jesus, you are the God who shows up. Thank you for the times you have already done that in my life. I place before you the prayer intentions of my day and I praise you for the work you will do.

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.

Forgive Anyway

Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
Mt.6:15

Jesus has just given The Lord's Prayer as an example of how to pray. He underscores the verse on forgiveness by emphasising the result that follows when I forgive and when I don't.

The problem I have with forgiveness is that appears to let perpetrators of wrong get away with it. Forgiveness taken out of context can look this way. However, when I read verses in scripture on what God has to say about the wicked, I am reminded no one gets away with it. As we read in today's Psalm;

The Lord turns his face against the wicked to destroy their remembrance from the earth.

The Lord turns his eyes to the just and his ears to their appeal.

So what am I left with? Firstly, leave judgment up to God and work on being be the perpetrator of outrageous grace. Secondly, make sure I'm not in the camp that has its remembrance destroyed from the earth.

Jesus, you pleaded for forgiveness for those who were nailing you to the cross. Help me be a pleader for mercy rather than a plotter for revenge. 

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.

Option for the Poor

Jesus said to them in reply, ‘It is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.’

Lk.5:32

After responding to Jesus' call to follow him, Matthew hosts a party in Jesus' honor. This includes other tax collectors and people of "ill repute". The Pharisees are offended but Jesus defends his position saying it is for these very people that he has come.

Jesus' position is my position. It is the people outside the fold, the unchurched, that have my preferential option. This is the focus of our Alpha Course. All are welcome but our preferential option is for the poor (of spirit).

Lord Jesus, your heart is for the sick and the broken. Give a heart for those that break yours.

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for us.

 

Don't Give Up Chocolate

Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin? Then will your light shine like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over.

Is. 58:6-8

God speaks through Isaiah, admonishing the people who are performing outward signs of fasting but with unrepentant hearts. The fast that pleases God involves action... breaking fetters, untying thongs, breaking yokes, sharing bread, sheltering poor, clothing the naked, welcoming family. 

 This Lent is not a time for me to stop doing but to do more, not refrain but to embrace. It's a time not to give up chocolate but to share the chocolate.

Lord Jesus, you were fasting in action. Help me not to give up chocolate this Lent but share the chocolate with those I meet today that my light may shine like the dawn.
Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.

Choice

I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of the Lord your God, obeying his voice, clinging to him; for in this your life consists.
Dt.30:19,20

Moses addresses the Hebrews before they enter the promised land. He places before them a choice, life with God, death without him.

It has always been a choice. God forces nothing above our free will. Our love is only love when freely given. When I choose the love of God over the love of the world, when I cling to him, when it is in him I "live and move and have my being" as Saint Paul said in Acts, then happiness and fulness of life is mine.  It's a no-brainer. 

Jesus, I recommit my life to you this day. It is in you that I choose to live and move and have my being.

Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Keep your eyes open; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.

Mk.8:15

Jesus and the disciples are on the move, having just miraculously fed the four thousand. Using the analogy of bread, Jesus warns the disciples against the influence of Herod and the Pharisees.

The inference here is that there can be bad yeast just as there can be good. Jesus calls us to be good yeast, influencing the world for good. But in this verse he warns against the seductive influence of bad yeast, the yeast of religious power and political power. It only takes a small sprinkle of bad yeast and the whole loaf is corrupted. 

Power in any of its manifestations can corrupt and I am just a susceptible as anyone. 

Lord Jesus, you know that I can be seduced by the offer of power. Give me the opposite spirit, a spirit of humility that I may glorify you.

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.

 

Something Very Good

God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them And so it was.... God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good.

Gen.1:27,31

God's creative genius is crowned with the making of man and woman, so highly exulted as to be made in God's own image. 

 Recently I participated in a conversation on where and what the source of the COVID-19 virus may have been. A comment was made that the pandemic was the result of species being "too close to each other", the inference being that over population of human beings was the primary cause of the virus. This clashed with my Christian world view that says people are not a problem. What they do can be. 

Today's first reading from Genesis agrees with me. God sees people as the pinnacle of his creation, made in his image no less and given the command to be fruitful and multiply. I am part of that beautiful act of God's creation. So is everyone else I encounter today.

Jesus, you are co-creator of the universe. Thank you Lord for humanity. Help me see everyone I encounter today as something very good.
Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.

Set Off

So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

Mk.6:13

Jesus has just commissioned his twelve disciples for their first mission trip. The work of the Church has begun.

This first missionary outreach of the twelve is the first outreach of the New Testament Church. At this point the Church numbered twelve men, thirteen counting Jesus. The rest, as they say, is Church history. This is the work Jesus always intended the Church to do. Go out a preach the Good News, heal the sick, cast out demons. 

 Our parish is about to  prepare to host another Alpha Course. This is a blessed endeavor as it continues the work of the twelve. Exciting!

Jesus, bless and inspire our Alpha Course as we prepare to reach out to the un-churched. Prepare the hearts of those you want to touch through this ministry.
Saint Philip Neri, please pray for us.

 

Pure Religion

When the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, – observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord:

Lk.2:22,23

Mary and Joseph, following Jewish law and custom, present baby Jesus at the Temple where the prophesies of Simeon and Anna are spoken over him.

This is pure religion and Jesus' earthly life was steeped in it. He was raised first and foremost a Jew. This sets the pattern for all human life. Pure religion is a gift that doesn't shackle, it nurtures a life into growing into the fullness that God has planned for it.

My Catholic religion is part of who I am today. It is the lens by which I view the world, helping me see the way to fulness of life and Joy.

Thank you Jesus for your headship of the Church and headship over me. 

Saint Philip Neri, please pray for me.