• 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12. Solomon prays: Give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.
• Romans 8:28-30. God makes all things work together for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his decree.
• Matthew 13: 44-52. The reign of God is like a buried treasure for which people sell all their possessions. Every scribe learned in the reign of God brings forth both the new and the old.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The Gospel passage for this week ends a series of parables offering teachings and instruction concerning the Kingdom of God. I personally find it interesting that after Jesus gives these series of parables he ask the question “Have you understood all this?” and the people respond back a resounding “Yes.” This surprises me. Have they really understood this instruction regarding the Kingdom of God that is based on the use of metaphors and symbols depicting so many different aspects of this fundamental teaching? Did the people have such clarity of thought? Even Jesus’ disciples at one point request an explanation about one of his parable but then Jesus goes on to offer these more enigmatic parables and now they declare their full and complete understanding. Have you ever been in a class or in training and realize that the topic being discussed is confusing but rather than ask for clarity you look to your peers and shrug your shoulder while hoping that as the lesson continues someone will ask a clarifying question or perhaps the instructor will offer a helpful example. I  assume that Jesus had many such listeners with him that day.

Do these parables offer a clear understanding of what the Kingdom of God is? Hardly, but then again how are we supposed to learn about a mystical concept such as this? Jesus gives us these metaphors and images to offer us some ideas regarding our relationship with God but a full and complete comprehension is simply out of our reach. Knowing this Jesus wraps up his teaching with one final instruction. A scribe that is trained for the Kingdom of God must use all the resources of his or her faith tradition, new as well as old. The person who wishes to comprehend and understand the treasures of our faith must take the richness of our tradition and allow it to communicate and adapt to the new ideological and social developments. We tend to see tradition in competition with progress but Jesus offers this final lesson suggesting that wisdom happens when tradition is allowed to grow with the progress of human development. The pearl and the hidden treasure tell us that the new is not something we hide away from for the sake of that which we possess but instead we are to invest our traditional resources in the new from which we will find greater meaning.

But this process requires wisdom and the right use of wisdom will temper our judgment. The second reading from St. Paul uses a word that has caused much theological problems throughout the historical development of Christianity. Predestination is a concept that caused a severe rift between the ideals of freedom and grace. This rift was born between the theological arguments of Augustine and Pelagius and eventually was the theological point of contention that resulted in the split between Protestants and Catholics. The principle of predestination makes it sounds like God’s grace is in control of everything and that freedom in actuality does not exist. What is needed is wisdom to help offer the clarity that freedom does not compete with grace but is actually in relationship with it. Many of us our learning that freedom also belongs to God and that God has freely offered his love to His creation with the intent of respecting our freedom to engage in this universal divine love (agape). Freedom flows from grace and St. Paul can say that we have been predestined without limiting either our freedom or God’s freedom to grow into this mystical relationship since “we know that all things work together for good.”

But again what is needed is the gift of wisdom which Solomon recognizes as an essential quality for being a good king. Wisdom is an essential quality for us all. Going back to the idea of the new and old we must temper our desire to align ourselves as traditionalist or progressive without seeing the merit and necessity of engaging both elements for moving ahead with a faith tradition that speaks to a developing post-modern world. It never hurts to keep in mind a simple prayer that I like to use as a mantra for wisdom.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

• Zechariah 9:9-10. Your king comes, a just savior, to proclaim peace to all nations.
• Romans 8:9, 11-13. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us to bring our mortal bodies to new life.
• Matthew 11:25-30. Jesus offers thanksgiving, praising the Father for what has been revealed to merest children but hidden
  from the learned and the clever. If we take Jesus’ burden upon us, we will find rest.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

In the Gospel passage for this week Jesus is offering an unusual prayer of thanksgiving to God his Father. It is an ecstatic prayer that professes a mystical union with God but it takes place after he encounters some unrepentant towns that are not quite receptive to his message or great works. Jesus is taking some criticism from the established religious and social leaders and in an earlier verse (16-19) he offers an interesting comment about the criticism that he and John the Baptist received from the leaders of his day even though their styles were very different. John shunned the world and all its social trappings preaching from the wilderness and thus having people come to him. Jesus immersed himself in the world and accepted the hospitality that he received as he went about preaching and ministering throughout all of Judea. Ironically they both received their criticisms amidst the fact that they had completely different styles, John was deemed possessed while Jesus was labeled a sinner.

This is the context from which Jesus offers this prayer where me makes a strong statement about the social impact of God’s wisdom. The point of Jesus’ prayer is to place God’s wisdom apart from human wisdom. In this prayer Jesus suggest that it is the ignorant and simple who will have a greater chance of understanding the idea that God does indeed love them and cares for them in a way that those who are caught theologizing within a particular social context (in support of the Temple authority and their
collaboration with the Roman Empire) cannot fully appreciate. Gustavo Gutierrez tells us in his discussion of this passage that the “little children” or “babes” are the poor, the suffering and the sick, the people who have been marginalized by their society. In this passage Gutierrez comments over the odd sense of gratitude that Jesus expresses at having the revealed truth hidden from the learned and the clever.

The fact that God hides “these things” from the wise and reveals them to the simple is the concrete occasion for grasping what is behind this behavior and gives it meaning – namely, the free and unmerited love of God for every human being and especially  for the poor and forgotten. … This predilection, which does not imply exclusivity, is underscored by the hiding of revelation from the wise and important. An entire social and religious order is hereby turned upside down. [1]

The poor and marginalized are the ones who stand on the periphery and because of that they are not corrupted by social commitments. This liberated perspective will help them comprehend a meek and humble messiah who preaches an altruistic message of peace that will not be compromised by social conventions.  This is the messianic image that Zechariah attests to in the first reading and in the second half of the Gospel passage Jesus invites the poor and marginalized to again find their hope within this countercultural image of the messiah.

Paul guides us along this same lesson but we must be careful not to interpret his dichotomy between the Spirit and the flesh as an attack or condemnation of the natural world which we theologically accept as good. Instead Paul dichotomy refers to motivation. Will our disposition and actions be determined by our social conventions and values whose self interest will be contrary to the Will of God? Or will we be motivated by the Spirit of God that chooses to serve all life within a pledge of peace (verse 6)? If our preaching and actions serves a specific political or economic interest then it should be held suspect. But if our ministry and analysis considers and addresses the actual plight of those who are poor and marginalized than “the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

Our Catholic Church struggles to offer the prophetic and pastoral positions of our faith on a number of social issues that by moral
right must be addressed. This is a responsibility that our Church has and we (the faithful) are obliged to engage in this responsibility as we are all part of the “Body of Christ”. It is fair to critique the angle and positions offered however especially if the social and economic burden continues to fall on those who are poor and marginalized. The Gospel message we hear this weekend  gives us a clear orientation to serve those who are most burdened by our social and economic policies. May we continue to serve God by relieving the burden from those who our society has weight down.

• Sirach 15: 15-20. We are responsible for our actions. At the same time God is all-seeing and remains in control of the universe.
• 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10. God’s wisdom is mysterious, planned before all ages, for those who love him.
• Matthew 5: 17-37. Fulfillment of the law and the prophets reaches beyond the letter of Scripture to new expectations of the Spirit.

Thoughts for your consideration:

In the year 622 bce, during the reign of King Josiah of Judah, a document called “The Book of Laws” was discovered in the Jerusalem Temple. This document was a portion of the Biblical book that would eventually be called Deuteronomy (for the Torah did not exist at this point in history) and the impact that it had on King Josiah and the people of Judah was to spark the Deuteronomic reform movement. On the one hand the Deuteronomic reform was a religious movement that promoted a strong fidelity to the One God Yahweh, but that is only half of its intended accomplishment. The Deuteronomic reform was also a socio-economic reform movement. This movement includes programs of economic equity like the protection of the marginalized widows and orphans and the redistribution of wealth program known as the Jubilee. It protected the rights of the people in the community including the migrant and slaves. It created sanctuary zones to protect people who were being persecuted. The famous prophets of the eight and seventh centuries like Micah, Hosea and Jeremiah have been defenders of the Deuteronomic reform movement during times when the Kings of Judah have been lax both with their religious and socio-economic responsibilities. Again and again they remind the people that the spirit of the law is being broken when the poor are being neglected, the people are being oppressed or when needless wars are being waged.

In this week’s Gospel reading Jesus takes his place within the prophetic tradition to again defend the Deuteronomic reform movement. He reminds us that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. In some ways it seems that in fulfilling the law he is offering a stricter interpretation, but that is not the case. Instead Jesus is offering to us the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. The spirit of the law is meant to promote an attitude of justice and peace. My daughter recently remarked how at the very least she can be satisfied with the fact that she is keeping the fifth commandment since she will never kill anyone. I suspect that others may have at one time or another considered a similar minimalistic interpretation of that commandment. But in the readings today Jesus reminds us that the spirit of that precept calls us to not be angry or insult one another, instead we are also called to be a forgiving people. In short we are being asked to be people of peace and nonviolence.   

Our own human wisdom tends to prefer a literal version of codes and contracts, we then pride ourselves in being able to maneuvering around these codes for our own personal gain. Both Sirach and Paul remind us in the first two readings that the wisdom which needs to guide us is the divine wisdom which gave us these codes to begin with. It is a creative wisdom that is grounded in the spirit of faith and a vision for the common good rather than in the limited patterns of individual reason and logic. It is accessible to us in our hearts when we allow ourselves to reflect on events or moments that trouble our social conscience. In the epistle of James we can find a very good distinction between the human wisdom that can corrupt our moral thinking and the divine wisdom that can truly guide us in following the spirit of the laws. I will leave you with this excerpt from the third chapter of his letter which talks about wisdom and I suggest that we further reflect on the lesson that Jesus offers in this week’s gospel reading through the lens of being cultivators of peace.

If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. Wisdom of this kind does not come down from above but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

• Wisdom 11:23-12:2. God loves all things that are and loathes nothing that he has made. God’s imperishable spirit abides in all things.
• 2 Thessalonians 1:11-2:2. May God make you worthy of all his call and fulfill every honest intention and work of faith.
• Luke 19:1-10. Jesus dines at the home of Zacchaeus, chief tax collector at Jericho, to the discontent of others. Zacchaeus promises fourtold restitution.

 Thoughts for your Consideration: by Fr. Phil Paxton, CP

Seven weeks ago, our Gospel reading was from Luke, Chapter 15, in which Jesus told three parables: “The Lost Sheep,” “The Lost Coin,” and “The Lost Son.” In telling those parables, Jesus told the people: “I tell you, in just the same way there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10). In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, Jesus shows His joy over the repentance of one sinner, Zacchaeus, and says, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

If we were to look at what is going on in our world, or in our own individual lives, would we see that there are some things that are indeed, “lost?” It seems to me that one thing that is lost in our world in many places is a sense of connection. In the United States, for example, we have a hunger for more and more energy, as technology becomes more and more complex. And in our hunger, we are tempted to forget our connection to all of God’s creation, and we get lost in a desire to consume all we can, and use up the resources that are available to us. In so many parts of the world, we have lost a sense of connection to each other. As we struggle to live in pluralistic societies, we have turned to conflict and division, often to the point of violence. One can visit almost any continent on earth, and see how groups of people look on other groups of people with disdain, and even hatred. “Ethnic cleansing” and genocide, not to mention prejudice and discrimination, are still very much with us in the 21^st century.

But if we look at our first reading from Wisdom, we see God’s sense of connection with all of His creation. The author of Wisdom writes, “For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” Are we able to “love all things that are?” Are we able to forego loathing what or who is different from us, simply because they are different from us? Are we willing to re-establish our connection with all that is? Are we willing, like Zacchaeus, to repent?

Luke tells us that Zacchaeus is a tax collector and a wealthy man. He also wants to see who Jesus is. He is also short of stature, which prevents him from seeing Jesus because of the crowd. At this point, his physical stature is an obstacle to his encounter with Jesus. One wonders whether there had been spiritual obstacles as well. Perhaps his “stature” in the community, as a wealthy man and as a despised tax collector, prevented him from seeking God before this.

Whatever the case may be, Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree, so that he can see Jesus. It turns out that Jesus sees Zacchaeus, and invites Himself to Zacchaeus’ house. In this encounter, Zacchaeus’ life changes. He is unconcerned with the people who look down upon him as a “sinner.” He proclaims in public: “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” Zacchaeus is connected once more to God and to his best self. Just as the sycamore tree physically lifted Zacchaeus up, so Jesus’ love has spiritually lifted him up!

What kind of world would we have if we all were lifted up by the love of God in Jesus Christ? Could we find ourselves rededicated to eradicating poverty in the world? Could we see ourselves intimately connected with all of creation, and act accordingly? How would it be if we, as individuals and as nations, acted as Zacchaeus did, and made at least some kind of restitution to each other for the injustices of the past?

May we be open to the transforming love of Jesus Christ! May what has been “lost” be restored to us and to the world! And, in the words of St. Paul, from our second reading, may God make us “worthy of his calling and powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [us] in him, in accord with the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.”

• Wisdom 9:13-18. If we can scarcely guess about earthly things, how can we ever know heavenly secrets? God sends the Holy Spirit to make known our paths on earth.
• Philemon 9-10, 12-17. In returning the runaway slave Onesimus to his owner Philemon, Paul asks the latter to receive the slave as a beloved brother.
• Luke 14: 25-33. We are to renounce all our possessions to be a disciple of Christ, even our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes our very self.

Thoughts for Your Reflection: by John Gonzalez

This week Scripture challenges us to rethink our relationships. The Gospel passage is one of the most challenging verses we hear from Jesus. If we take them literally then we are forced to turn against the very fabric of our social nature. What culture has not accepted the primacy of the family unit? And yet here we have Jesus debasing that very unit as he offers his steep terms for discipleship.

This passage is not meant to be taken literally. In other passages Jesus defends the commandment to honor father and mother [Mark 7:10-13] and if we are expected to apply his great commandment to love one another then the act of hating father, mother, wife and children would severely compromise this principal mandate. What Jesus does here though is to give us a powerful impression of the great cost and sacrifice that is discipleship and the effects this will have on all our relationships. The object of our hate is not our family or any other member of the human community. Instead it is our own pride, our own passions and desires; our own self-interest becomes the object of our contempt. We are called to carry the Cross and to sacrifice our own will towards a Divine Will that will redefine us completely. This was the path of “mystical death” that was prescribed by St. Paul of the Cross, The Passionist founder. Our journey is to embrace the death of our will and passions and to accept a “divine rebirth” into a holy life whereby all that we do and all that we are to one another is redefined for a great and common good that is not our own. 

For St. Paul of the Cross this mystical process was a journey of a lifetime. We slowly shed a layer of our own will and passions one at a time and become reborn through phases. Jesus is also suggesting that this radical call to discipleship is one that should not happen in an instant. In the Gospel Jesus offers to examples of how the call to discipleship ought to be done with deliberative assessment, using the image of deliberate planning that goes into constructing a tower or conducting a military operation. Thus the first reading reminds us of the place of Wisdom within this spiritual process. We are reminded again about the virtue of humility as we accept a greater Wisdom that again is not our own.

The author of the book of Wisdom reminds us that we are limited and corrupted through our humanity so if we are to seek the things that are in heaven we must give ourselves over the Creator through whom authentic wisdom is granted. We are called to be contemplative. We have access to this Wisdom but we do not always discern it well since our self-interest and desires can get in the way. So we must constantly discern the true wisdom that is different from the “wisdom of the world.”

In discerning the Wisdom of God Paul sees his own human relationships in a different light. Since we are all children of God then we must begin to see each other with the sacred dignity that we all share. Paul urges Philemon to reevaluate his relationship with the slave Onesimus and to see him “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.” In social matters such as with the institution of slavery Paul is telling Philemon that some social relationships are unacceptable because they contradict the essence of relationship that comes from true Wisdom. But Paul also knows that he cannot impose this on Philemon since he also respects the dignity and freedom that Philemon enjoys. So he requests that Philemon reevaluate his relationship with Onesimus not by giving him a command but by urging him to freely alter this relationship. “I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.” Following the Wisdom of the most high will alter all our social relationships and institutions but if we, like St. Paul, are encouraged to bring people towards this new form of relationship freely then we must be patient with this process. Forcing people to change will not bring an authentic conversion.   

Wisdom, humility and patience are three virtues that are impressed on us this weekend. As we review the political rhetoric regarding the social issues we face we need to see how they reflect a Wisdom that captures the vision for the common good, a humility of not promoting a self-interested agenda, and a patience for gently bringing the community towards this vision. Here are the steps for an authentic process for just and lasting change.

• Sirach 24: 1-4, 8-12. Wisdom proclaims her life with God before the creation of the world. Afterwards she wandered the world restlessly until she fixed her abode at the Jerusalem temple.
• Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-18. Before creation God predestined us in Christ as the object of his love and as his very own adopted children Paul prays that we can be enlightened in the great hope to which God has called us.
• John 1:1-18. In the beginning before creation the Word was with God and the Word was God. This Word came to dwell in our midst and offered us a share in his fullness.

Thoughts for your consideration: by John Gonzalez

This week’s readings we celebrate the mystery of Christ as the “Logos” or as John put it in his Gospel, “The Word.”  Last week we reflected on Jesus as the child of Mary and Joseph and his role within the dynamics of the Holy Family. This week we contemplate Christ as “The Word” that became flesh and the “Logos” that is the second member of the Holy Trinity. Within these reading the contemplative philosopher among us will be drawn to the words of Sirach who himself was a famous Jewish Philosopher in the second century BC. Sirach, who like Socrates was drawn to wisdom, comprehends the vast mystery that is the Divine Wisdom.

The first man never finished comprehending wisdom, nor will the last succeed in fathoming her. For deeper than the sea are her thoughts; her counsels, than the great abyss.

In reflecting over these readings we are forced to consider the concept of predestination. Paul’s letters to the Ephesians talk to us about how we have already been “destined” by the Will of God to be His adopted children. Sirach and John reinforce this notion by remind us that the “Logos,” The Wisdom of God, has been active at the foundation of the world in carrying out God’s destined plan for creation. And yet, in Jesus’ public ministry, we hear Jesus inviting us all to share in God’s perfection. Throughout the Gospel, in the Beatitudes, in the Last Judgment reading of Matthew, in the Good Samaritan parable in Luke, in the exhortations made by Paul, James and Peter in their respective epistles, time and time again we are freely invited to partake in the Kingdom of God by living a life of charity and social justice. This is the theological tension that our faith has wrestled with regarding “Predestined Grace” and “Free Will,” the same tension that brought about the great split between the Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations. How should we understand our motivation and incentive towards an expression of Love through acts of charity and social justice if our salvation is indeed predestined?

This past week I had the pleasure of speaking to a neighbor who is also an architect and who in the last few years designed architectural plans for his new house. It surprised me to learn that as he began the construction of his new house unforeseen conditions popped up everywhere forcing him to redesign his plan again and again. Ultimately his goal was accomplished and a new house was built for his family but the final plan had evolved greatly from his initial design. As he was telling me his I thought of the passage in Jeremiah where God instruct Jeremiah to visit a potter’s house. As the potter shaped his clay Jeremiah witnessed the potter reshaping it because the original design did not come out as plan. God reminded Jeremiah that as the Potter did to this clay so too can God act with regards to His own creation.

The wisdom of God is beyond human comprehension. God’s wisdom has us destined towards a perfect social union. Yet this union is based on our ability to freely develop this union. God’s revelation, and more specifically the revealed example of Jesus Christ, offers us the plan for constructing this union which of course God designed and which he may have to redesign based on the unforeseen conditions of our own free actions. Actions of charity and social justice are not methods for us to achieve our own salvation but rather they are the expressions of God’s ultimate social plan (the Kingdom of God) which we are invited to live out. The Biblical passages mentioned in the second paragraph remind us what actions are expected from this union. We may not be able to fully comprehend the final plan, but fortunately for us God supplements our ability to reason with the revelation of “The Word” that became flesh and whose “life was the light of the human race.”

• Wisdom 7:7-11. I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me and in her company all good things.
• Hebrew 4:12-13. God’s word is sharper than any two-edged sword. It judges the heart. Nothing is concealed. For everything we must render an account.
• Mark 10:17-30. One thing more you must do. Go and sell what you have and give to the poor. Whatever we have given up to follow Jesus, will return to us a hundred more in this life, plus persecution, and in the age to come, everlasting life.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

God’s gift of Wisdom is at the heart of this week’s lectionary readings. We understand that Grace happens when God freely bestows his gifts upon us. Catholic tradition tells us that there are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that aid us in our struggle to follow Christ and redeem our humanity: broken by sin and the great temptations of self-indulgence. We require these gifts of God in order to achieve our ultimate purpose and calling which is to be one with God and all of creation. This week’s readings will help us comprehend the prominent role of the gift of Wisdom in the midst of this struggle.

This first reading reminds us of the great value placed on Wisdom by Solomon. If you had one wish in the world what would you wish for? According to this reading the answer would have to be Wisdom. The goodness that comes from Wisdom is not measurable by common social standards. The only appropriate way to consider the value of this gift is if you accept that under the guidance of Wisdom the ultimate sense of goodness flows from it. But having said this we must ask ourselves, “What is goodness”?

In our Christian spirituality and ethics, goodness is not defined as something that is self-gratifying or that simply produces our own personal happiness. Goodness is better understood under what Catholic social teaching calls, “the common good.” Mystics like St. Paul of the Cross would use the term, “the Divine Good” to describe the same concept. Good is a subjective term. What is good for me may not be good for another. So the concept of Divine or Common Good denotes another form of goodness that is not subjective. We would consider this to be a Goodness that is universal or an ultimate form of goodness from which everything that happens to ourselves and all humanity and indeed all creation can have the deepest meaning. So that even in our suffering people like St. Paul of the Cross can say that even in our suffering we may be serving the “Divine Will that can will only the greatest good.”

The Gospel account has a rich young man approach Jesus in pursuit of this greater good. Jesus offers him the Ten Commandments, but the young man has made it that far and now he wants to take the plunge into ultimate goodness no doubt believing that he is ready for the challenge. What Jesus does when he tells him to give all his belongings to the poor is to humble him into realizing the mystical challenge that is the common good. To serve God and the great good that comes from God is to be at the service of all creation, thus “many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” For our part we must intentionally make that choice, to constantly see ourselves in relationship to God and to be at the service of all. As we can tell from the Gospel passage this radical call to goodness unnerves even the Apostles who begin to wonder if there is any hope in achieving this relationship with God. At that point Jesus will remind them that “for mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” So on our own we cannot hope to achieve this greater good. That is why we must have the grace of God’s wisdom to help guide us in this journey.

This may be unnerving and quite daunting but the second reading reminds us of how powerful and ever present the wisdom of God is. By faith we are told to accept that ultimately all things will be held accountable to the Divine Will. So we must not be afraid to ask for this great gift and to humble ourselves by allowing ourselves to be forged by this gift from God.

It is worth mentioning that just preceding this second reading, if we read the rest of Chapter 4 from this letter, we are told about the context from which God’s Divine Will is offered to us. The context is within the solitude of God’s rest. Sometimes, especially in our culture, we feel that we are beyond this ultimate wisdom. God does not seem to be speaking to us anymore. According to this chapter God is ever present and ever alive in our world, but we need to make time to first hear God’s wisdom in order to actually comprehend it. Solitude has been a prominent Christian value. For that reason the Passionists and other Catholic religious communities have upheld the importance for Christians to have an opportunity to engage in retreats periodically and to have spiritual direction in order to spend some intentional time in developing one’s relationship towards God. Many Catholic Religious communities have retreat centers that offer a variety of spiritual themes including silent retreats specifically designed to give each person the opportunity to hear God’s voice. Consider this spiritual option from our tradition as you reflect on the lectionary readings and contemplate how God’s wisdom is speaking to you.

Questions for your Reflection:

• Place yourself in the position of the rich young man. Consider your own hopes and expectations of your faith and imagine that Jesus is asking you to stretch those expectations further. How would you respond to call by God that makes you uncomfortable?
• How do you understand the “Common Good?” Take a moment to reflect on the concept of goodness from the perspective of the other. Consider something good for someone you know and love that may make demands on you. Now consider the good for people on the other side of the world that may make demands on your own society. How does this make you feel?
• What is your experience of spiritual exercises like Retreats or Spiritual Direction? Have you ever taken advantage of these services that our Church and the Religious community have to offer? If you would like to visit resources on these services visit either www.passionist.org if you live in the western part of the United States or www.thepassionists.org if you live in the eastern part to find these resources close to you.

• Wis. 2:12, 17-20. The just person, characterized by gentleness and patience, is tested, persecuted and even killed by the self-confident wicked.
• James 3:16-4:3. Jealousy and strife beget inconstancy, conflicts and vile behavior. Wisdom is innocent, peaceable, impartial and sincere.
• Mark 9:30-37. Jesus’ announcement of his passion and death leaves the disciples speechless. In the meanwhile they argue who was the most important among themselves. Jesus’ reply: whoever welcomes a child for my sake, welcomes me.

Thoughts for your consideration: By Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP

There is a saying to the effect that, should a butterfly flap its wings in one part of the world, there will be repercussions of that infinitesimally small action elsewhere in the world.  This assertion is based on the principle that everything is connected, so that nothing happens in isolation.

There are concerns of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC) associated with this assertion.  And today’s biblical readings lend themselves to an illustration of this principle, and this example.

For instance, the gospel depicts Jesus in a teaching mode regarding His disciples.  Having just warned them about what lay ahead for Him (sufferings, death and Resurrection) He discovers, surely to His chagrin, that there was absolutely no linkage whatsoever between His remark and the disciples’ receptive capacity, as they focused on their advancement in His company.  So He decided to do some linkage of His own, advocating a sense of  lowliness on their part, by esteeming the value of an insignificant child whom He embraces, for  achieving status with Him and His Father by their doing likewise.  He suggests an interconnection here between their external behavior and an interior mindset.

St. James, likewise, focuses on relationships in the behavior patterns of his correspondents.  He notes the foul practices and disorders erupting in their midst, escalating into wars and conflicts.  In his opinion, they derive from within: their passions, their ambitions, and their jealousy.  Like Jesus before him, he appeals to a matter of the heart (the wisdom of prayer) as a solution for these external troubles.

The author of the book of Wisdom gives his own witness to the interconnections prevailing between the inner and the outer phases of our lives, by posing the case of a just person who criticizes others for their transgressions and violations of their training, thereby rousing their anger.  So they decide to try his/her gentleness and patience by violations and torture, to see whether such a one’s interior trust in God will suffice to sustain abuse from without.

Each of these scenarios is an instance of a butterfly flapping its wings, impacting another phase of life.  Such was the case when Jesus embraced a child so as to change the disciples’ conduct; and when James proposed to his correspondents that they secure a bit of wisdom so as to improve the way they acted; and when the Wise Man praised the example of the just person’s patient, trusting relationship with God before the persecution undergone for upholding righteousness.

There are JPIC issues at stake here: interpersonal rivalries threatening comradeship, disorders escalating into wars and conflicts, social disruptions deserving criticism.  None of these exist in isolated fashion, separated from the rest of life.  They emerge out of ambition, passion, and hatred.  They too resemble the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, but instead of initiating values of harmony, peace and order residing within they are initiating a negative set of values which will also have powerful repercussions. What we do here and how we behave in the moment is crucial. Immediate actions and attitudes may seem insignificant but whether we realize it or not, they are impacting our internal mindset and external surroundings.

Questions for your Reflection:

• What set of values dictate our behavior and attitude toward ourselves, each other and the world? Can we name these values? How do we maintain consistency in applying these values?
• None of us can claim to be impervious to negative attitudes. Prayer, solitude, meditation and retreats are organized ways to process these moments. How do we integrate these methods to specifically address our own negative attitudes? Should we consider promoting these methods within our own family and local community?

Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15
Mark 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43

Thoughts for your consideration:

This week’s lectionary readings remind us of the value of life. We have heard it summarized so many times before that our God is the God of life. In the book of Wisdom and in the Gospel reading we are told about this unconditional allegiance that God and Christ have for the promotion and preservation of life. Furthermore in the book of Wisdom we are told that “the generative forces of the world are wholesome.”

Of course one question that many of us will probably ask ourselves as we hear this passage is: “then what about the reality of death and destruction in our world?” How do we reconcile this divine ideal regarding life with the reality of death? Is the presence of death an affirmation of our irreconcilably corrupt nature? That does not leave us with a very hopeful theology; it would also negate the reconciliation of God and humanity through the death and resurrection of Christ. Do we then ascribe death to another divine influence? This would fly in the face of our monotheistic faith. While we believe that God exists in a mystical relationship that we call the Trinity we, like our Jewish and Muslim brethren, fully subscribe to One God.

The book of Wisdom offers us an insight into the presence of death in the midst of life when it qualifies that “righteousness is immortal.” If we can humble ourselves to accept that God’s ways are not our own then perhaps we need to redefine what life is. Life is not merely existence. For God life is existence with meaning, or better yet a divine purpose. To be truly alive is to exist for God. To exist for God is in turn to exist for all and with all of creation; to live in a form of ultimate harmony where Creation and the Trinity can live as one.

The second reading takes us further into this qualification of what it means to truly live. To enter into this mystical relationship with God and creation, a relationship that the gospel constantly invites us to, we must live for the service of all so that we can all live as one. We must all live simply, so that others may simply live. As Paul reminds the Corinthian community, their own abundance must serve the needs of their brethren in need, just as we would want their abundance to serve our own needs. True life is one that is lived in righteousness towards one another. Paul is discussing righteousness in terms of material generosity and charity. In Mark we hear of Jesus achieving righteousness through healing the sick and dying. These are just two areas of righteousness that call for our attentiveness. 

As we believe in one God so too must we acknowledge each other as members of one global community. It is our Christian responsibility to see to it that our abundance serves the needs of all. Currently in our nation we are struggling over the issue of universal healthcare. Certainly we can discuss the details of how we can construct a healthcare system that can work best with the political and economic structures that we have. But we must not compromise our Christian responsibility to promote the quality and meaning of life through a universal healthcare system. Christ did not reprimand the woman with a hemorrhage who touched his cloak; instead he affirmed her faith and maintained her desire to be healthy. Now we as a nation are given this opportunity to provide for the health of our brothers and sisters in need. If our abundance is meant to serve the needs of others then we must take this opportunity to see that all have access to a good and universal healthcare system.     

Questions for Reflection in your Faith Sharing Group:

• When have your encountered people who are in need of healing or health care and have not had access to it?  
• Where do you see unnecessary death in our world?