When the Good Lord comes a'callin' - Sunday's reading reflection

What do you suppose Abraham was doing while Sarah was preparing the bread and cheese and the servant was preparing the steer.  The meal didn't just happen like it does at the drive thru window.  Sarah had to prep and bake into rolls three measures of fine wheat flour.  Do you know how those three measures are? Not three handfuls.  It's equal to a half bushel.  That's nearly 30lbs.!  And the steer was chosen by Abraham, but prepared by his servant.  Even though the Scripture says he did it quickly, that means that he had to slaughter it, cut the meat and cook it.  We're talking hours and hours.

So at one point Abraham was busy welcoming them.  The next we hear he is serving them as they ate.  But what do you suppose he was doing the rest of the time?  He was sitting with them, asking them questions, listening to them and conversing about his life and theirs.

Do you see what happens in the Gospel?  Martha, like Sarah and the servant, was prepping the food.  Mary, like Abraham in the in-between, was sitting at the Lord's feet listening to him.  And we know that Abraham's visitors were no mere men.  One was the Lord and the other two were angels, as Scripture tells us.  

So we see that it is important to go out of our way to welcome the Lord.  It is important to serve him with the finest we have.  And it's important to sit and listen, asking him questions, telling him about our lives and listening as he tells us about his own.  

Prayer and service, like Blessed Mother Teresa showed us, are a both/and and not an either/or.

Who needs the law... - Tomorrow's reading reflection

“This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.”

The readings are pregnant with Eucharistic overtures.  1) The memorial feast of Passover that the Church uses to help understand the significance of the Last Supper and the First Mass.  2) The perpetual institution is a root for our understanding of the bloodless, re-presentation of the bloody sacrifice of Calvary. 3) The cup of salvation taken up by the Lord's minister to call on his saving Name is a foreshadowing of the priest elevating the chalice during Mass. 4) The house of God being the Church, the bread of offering being the Body of Christ.

All that being said, however, is just as important, if not more important point.  David's men were serving him in his army as he was their king.  The Son of David, Son of Man, Jesus, is being served by his men as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  If David's men were able to transcend the ordinary sabbath laws for matters of necessity, so all-the-more should Jesus' disciples be able to transcend the law in matters of necessity for the One they serve.  What do I mean?  What St. Paul meant when he said we don't need the law if we have the Spirit.  Who needs a law that says, "you shall not kill" when we have only a desire for life? If we were in the Spirit and the Spirit was active in us, we would need no laws for or against abortion, rape, perjury, adultery and so forth. That day seems far away.  In fact, it is not possible in this earthly kingdom. But it is possible in you.

So with the help of the Eucharist, let us pray for the grace to passover from darkness to light, from laws to Spirit.  And in the Eucharist, let us offer ourselves with Christ in reparation for ourselves and those who have lived or still live in darkness.  Let today be a participation in the Paschal Mystery for you, a pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.

1 pilgrim dead, 3 more critically injured in crash heading to WYD '13

(FFHL.blogspot.com)(News.va) With over 2 million pilgrims expected to participate in World Youth Day, it's one of those days when you wish the statistical likelihood of it happening would have been wrong, but it wasn't.  This morning, Pope Francis and the world learned of a tragic accident of pilgrims making their way through France to start the next leg of their trip to Brazil for WYD '13 in Rio.

The Vatican reports that Pope Francis was notified of the accident that happened today, Thursday, July 18th and that the Pope "assured all those involved in the accident of his prayers, and expressed his deepest sympathy for the victims, as well as for the rescue workers and all those around them." The Vatican also said that "Pope Francis sent a special Apostolic Blessing to all those affected by the tragedy."

This was sad news amidst the joyful cries of so many young pilgrims arriving in Rio amidst great celebration.  Apparently the "bus carrying young people to World Youth Day was hit head-on by a truck, leaving one young Parisian girl dead, and three other young people in critical condition."  The cause of the accident is still unknown. According to one French source (Expatica.com), out of the 23 pilgrims on the bus, there were initially five listed in critical condition.  (Click to read more...)

According to Expatica, the bishop of French Guiana announced that a special Mass would be held in the Saint-Sauveur Cathedral in the capital Cayenne next Wednesday evening.

Tekton Ministries expresses its deepest sympathies to the families of injured and killed and assures them of our prayers and sacrifices.

God cares about you; and he knows what he is doing - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"I am concerned about you"

God always knows what he is doing.  We rarely know what God is doing.  It's not too hard for our limited minds to get confused.  Take for example the readings for today.  To Moses, God says, "Go and assemble the elders of Israel..."  To make things even more difficult, he then says, "Then you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt," Pharaoh.  That's a tall order.  

Jesus, on the other hand, says to his disciples, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."  Jesus is God.  In the first reading he says "Go" and in the Gospel he says, "Come". What does God want, for us to come or to go?  We simple people don't know whether we're coming or going.

But God knows what he is doing.  Whether we come or go depends on the circumstances we're in and the will of God.  What does not change, however, is the reason why he tells us to come or go.  What is the reason?  As we hear him tell Moses, "I am concerned about you and about the way you are being treated..."

God cares about you; and he knows what he is doing.

Who do we reveal? - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"...no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Clearly, then, the Son reveals the Father.

I remember being being in an airport once.  I overhead a 5 year-old girl start angrily scolding one of the dolls she had been playing with.  As she yelled at it and then spanked it multiple times, I noticed that her parents didn't notice. I looked at the little girl, then at them again.  I didn't have to ask where she learned the behavior.  The daughter revealed her parents.

The way we treat others is noticed, especially by those who look up to us.  It could be in time that our little ones reveal who we really are to others by mimicking our behavior.  Let's make sure what they reveal is positive rather than negative.

WYD '13 by the numbers -so far

Here are some official numbers for World Youth Day '13 in Rio reported by CNS.

• 2.5 million people expected
• 320,000 people have officially registered
• Countries with the greatest numbers of pilgrims registered are Brazil, Argentina and the United States
• 8,400 priests from all over the globe requested credentials
• 5,500 journalists have been given credentials
• 55 percent of registered pilgrims are women
• 60 percent of those coming are ages 19-34. 
• 300,000 beds were made available

WYD '13 Rio healthcare will NOT be an issue, says the courts in Brazil

Some pilgrims or parents of pilgrims may be worried about certain tensions in Brazil. Linked is an article that clearly explains why some were worried about healthcare in Brazil during World Youth Day and why those worries should no longer continue. Read the full article about how the courts have said that the city of Rio must provide healthcare to any pilgrims in need, regardless of needing to use public funding to do so.

Here is a teaser for those who want to know the bottom line.  

The Judge stated that “the division between State and Church does not absolve the city of Rio from providing certain services to the event’s participants, despite the religious nature of the event.” “To deny health care assistance to pilgrims could cause uncertainty and discredit the country, not to mention the fact that it would put the health of thousands of people who will attend the event in Rio de Janeiro thinking they are guaranteed basic health care services, at risk," he said.

Click here to read the full story from Vatican Insider, written by ANDRES BELTRAMO ALVAREZ on July 12, 2013.

Ah, to hell with them.

Only once did Moses forget his own story and where he came from.  And for that he was punished by God and no longer able to lead his people, after 40 years, into the promised land.  Moses, taken up out of the water, lucky to be alive, grows up well but then commits murder.  God later calls him and empowers him to work miracles.  Claiming as his own the power of God, because of his lack of patience, he exalts himself and condemns others while working God's miracle in his own name.

Self-righteousness is no little thing.

What happens to the self-righteous in the Gospel? Jesus says of Capernaum, the town know as "home" during his Galilean ministry, "And as for you, Capernaum: ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.’"  (That might be where my Irish grandmother, brogue-and-all, got the staying, "Ah, to hell with them.")  Pretty strong words.

We never really know where people are or what they're going through, especially when they make decisions that confound us.  It might just be that when they're feeling like the Psalmist, "I am sunk in the abysmal swamp where there is no foothold; I have reached the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me," they need more compassion and understanding, not less.  

Better to default to mercy then to self-righteousness and condemnation.  The last thing you'd want to hear at the moment of death is Jesus saying what he said to Capernaum, brogue-and-all, "Ah, to hell with ya."