Spirituality Matters 2017: June 15th - June 21st
(June 15, 2017: Thursday, Tenth Week in Ordinary Time)
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2 Cor 3:15—4:1, 3-6 Ps 85:9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14 Mt 5:20-26
“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Our free will is in no wise forced or necessitated by grace. In spite of the all-powerful strength of God’s merciful hand, which touches, enfolds and bends the souls with so many inspirations, calls and attractions, the human will remains perfectly free, unfettered, and exempt from every form of constraint and necessity. Grace is so gracious, and so graciously does it seize our hearts in order to draw them on, that it in no wise impairs the liberty of our will…grace has a holy violence, not to violate our liberty but to make it full of love…it presses us but does not oppress our freedom…” (Treatise 2: 12, p 133)
For a follower of Jesus, true freedom is not a matter of being able to do whatever you want – true freedom is wanting to be the best version of yourself and being willing to transform your liberty into love for God, self and others.
How might God ask you to be authentically free today?
(June 16, 2017: Friday, Tenth Week in Ordinary Time)
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Mt 5:20-26 Ps 116:10-11, 15-16, 17-18 Mt 5:27-32
“We hold this treasure in earthen vessels…”
In Letters of Spiritual Direction, we read:
“In Salesian thinking the human person is believed to be made in the divine likeness and image. Drawn to union with divinity by the affinity of natures and propelled by the power of mutual love, the human person, no matter what his or her visible vocation, and a more compelling and far-reaching vocation – to realize his or her fullest capacity for love of God…With the whole of his or inner and outer capacities, a man or woman responds to the essential truth of human nature, a nature created and, though wounded by original sin, still capable, through an ever-increasingly identification with the living Jesus, of realizing the divine marriage to which it is drawn.” (LSD, p.36)
The life that God has bestowed on us is indeed a treasure. But then, the earthen vessels into which God has poured that gift of life – people like you and me – are treasures, also, to say nothing of being treasured by God.
Just today, how might we treasure the God-given earthen vessel in ourselves. How might we treasure the God-given earthen vessels in others?
(June 17, 2017: Saturday, Tenth Week in Ordinary Time)
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2 Cor 5:14-21 Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12 Mt 5:33-37
“We are ambassadors for Christ…”
“Ambassador” is defined (among other things) as “a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity”.
As Christians, the ambassador par excellence of God’s love is no one other than Jesus himself. Son of God that he is, who else but Jesus shows us definitively how to be ambassadors of God’s life, God’s love, God’s healing, God’s mercy, God’s justice and God’s peace.
In an entry on Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador ), the article cites three functions that lie at the heart of what an ambassador does:
- Protecting citizens
- Supporting prosperity
- Working for peace
Jesus clearly attended to all three of these priorities during his earthly ministry. He met the needs of all of his Father’s children, especially the poor, the abandoned, the marginalized and forgotten (“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”). Jesus pursued prosperity for all people (“I have come that you might have life, and have life to the full”). Jesus worked for peace and promised the gift of peace to all those who believe in him (“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”).
By virtue of our creation and confirmed by our Baptism, we continue Christ’s work of being ambassadors of life, love healing, mercy, justice and peace – we are, indeed, ambassadors for and with Christ!
Today, what are some of the ways that we might be able to fulfill such a high calling for the people with whom we interact just today?
(June 18, 2017: Body and Blood of Christ)
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Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20 1 Cor 10:16-17 Jn 6:51-58
“Do this in memory of me.”
Eucharist - a word that literally means thanksgiving - is the central celebration of the Christian community. It speaks volumes of whom God is in our lives. It speaks volumes of whom we are called to be in the lives of one another.
Eucharist is the heart of our faith.
Eucharist celebrates the truth that God so loves us that God sent Jesus to be our redeemer. Eucharist celebrates the truth that God so loves us that God allowed Jesus’ body to be broken and Jesus’ blood to be poured out for us. Eucharist celebrates the truth that God loves us so much that the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead that we might share in the power and promise of eternal life.
The former Eucharistic Prayer III for Children said it this way: Jesus “brought us the good news of life to be lived with you for ever in heaven. He showed us the way to that life here on earth; the way of love……He now brings us together to one table and asks us to do what he did.” The former Eucharistic Prayer II for Reconciliation told us that Jesus “has entrusted to us this pledge of his love”.
Eucharist celebrates the truth that we are called to do more than simply receive the body and blood of Christ. Eucharist celebrates the truth that we are – we must be – the body and blood of Christ for one another. Eucharist celebrates the truth that we are called to allow ourselves to be broken and poured out for others, to spend our lives in the pursuit of justice, peace, reconciliation, healing, freedom, life and love.
We are called to proclaim the death of the Lord in our willingness to be bread and wine for others. We are called to proclaim the death of the Lord - the power of the Lord - the promise of the Lord - in our willingness to lay down our lives, our talents and our efforts to continue the redeeming, saving work that Jesus began.
We demonstrate our Eucharistic dignity and Eucharistic destiny when we embrace Jesus’ command to “do this in memory” of him - not only by celebrating Eucharist on the first day of the week, but by being Eucharist for one another every day of the week by feeding, nourishing and forgiving one another.
Eucharist is not simply something that we receive. Eucharist is something that we must become. Eucharist is something to be shared with others. Eucharist, in short, is a way of life.
Especially today, let us be Eucharist for one another. Let us feed, nourish and forgive…in memory of him…in fellowship with one another.
(June 19, 2017: Monday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time)
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2 Cor 6:1-10 Ps 98:1, 2b, 3ab, 3cd-4 Mt 5:38-42
“Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.”
In a letter to the Duc de Bellegarde, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Keep your eyes steadfastly fixed on that blissful day of eternity towards which the course of years bears us on; and these as they pass, themselves pass by us stage by stage until we reach the end of the road. But in the meantime, in each passing moment there lies enclosed as in a tiny kernel the seed of all eternity; and in our humble little works of devotion there lies hidden the prize of everlasting glory, and the little pains we take to serve God lead to the repose of a bliss that can never end..” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 236)
Seen through the lens of Salesian spirituality, St. Paul’s exhortation makes absolute sense. The seed “of all eternity” isn’t found in the past; it isn’t found in the future. It is found only in each and every present moment as it comes!
Just this day.
(June 20, 2017: Tuesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time)
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2 Cor 8:1-9 Ps 146:2, 5-6ab, 6c- 7, 8-9a Mt 5:43-48
“The abundance of their joy and their profound poverty overflowed into a wealth of generosity...”
In Part III of his Introduction to the Devout Life Francis de Sales counseled:
“We must practice real poverty in the midst of all the goods and riches God has given us. Frequently give up some of your property by giving it with a generous heart to the poor. To give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become. It is true that God will repay us not only in the next world but even in this one.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 15, p. 165)
In his own words, Francis de Sales is describing what St. Paul witnessed in the early Christian community. People practiced the virtue of poverty by sharing their possessions with others and in the process enriched themselves as well.
In the Salesian tradition poverty isn’t about having nothing – poverty is about sharing what we have with others. Poverty isn’t about doing without – it’s about being generous with and to other people.
Today, how can we practice poverty, that is, how can we give to others with “a generous heart”?
(June 21, 2017: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Religious
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2 Cor 9:6-11 Ps 112:1bc-2, 3-4, 9 Mt 6:1-6, 16-18
“Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
“Karma” is a word that comes from Buddhist and Hindu traditions. It can be defined in many ways, for example:
- the law of cause and effect
- what goes around comes around
- you reap what you sow
- totally innocent victims are rare
- no good deed goes unpunished
- your actions create ripples that spread out, echo and constructively or destructively interfere with the ripples from the actions of others
As we heard yesterday in Part III of his Introduction to the Devout Life Francis de Sales counseled:
“We must practice real poverty in the midst of all the goods and riches God has given us. Frequently give up some of your property by giving it with a generous heart to the poor. To give away what we have is to impoverish ourselves in proportion as we give, and the more we give the poorer we become. It is true that God will repay us not only in the next world but even in this one.” (IDL, Part III, Chapter 15, p. 165)
What we do in this life does matter. In fact, everything we do has the potential for becoming a spiritual, moral and/or actual boomerang in our lives. God will repay us not only in the next life but even in this one.
So, what seeds for tomorrow will you sow bountifully - today?
