Playing the market - Sunday's reading reflection

What can economics and productivity teach us about the kingdom of heaven? Jesus' story about a businessman who leaves town and entrusts his money with his workers made perfect sense to his audience. Wealthy merchants and businessmen often had to travel abroad and leave the business to others to handle while they were gone. Why did Jesus tell this story and what can it teach us? 

Most importantly it tells us something about how God deals with us, his disciples and servants. The parable speaks first of the Master's trust in his servants. While he goes away he leaves them with his money to use as they think best. While there were no strings attached, this was obviously a test to see if the Master's workers would be industrious and reliable in their use of the money entrusted to them. The master rewards those who are industrious and faithful and he punishes those who sit by idly and who do nothing with his money. 

The essence of the parable seems to lie in the servants' conception of responsibility. Each servant entrusted with the master's money was faithful up to a certain point. The servant who buried the master's money was irresponsible. One can bury seeds in the ground and expect them to become productive because they obey natural laws. Coins, however, do not obey natural laws. They obey economic laws and become productive in circulation. The master expected his servants to be productive in the use of his money. 

What do coins and the law of economics have to do with the kingdom of God? The Lord entrusts the subjects of his kingdom with gifts and graces and he gives his subjects the freedom to use them as they think best. With each gift and talent, God gives sufficient the means (grace and wisdom) for using them in a fitting way. As the parable of the talents shows, God abhors indifference and an attitude that says it's not worth trying. God honors those who use their talents and gifts for doing good. Those who are faithful with even a little are entrusted with more! But those who neglect or squander what God has entrusted to them will lose what they have. 

There is an important lesson here for us. No one can stand still for long in the Christian life. We either get more or we lose what we have. But like any economic system, the constant flux reminds us that even if we made a poor investment or no investment at all and find ourselves in a recession or a bursted financial bubble, there are always opportunities to reinvest and to make good on losses. What "stocks" (opportunities for grace) will you invest in?

Faith that God will always be there when we fall - Tomorrow's reading reflection

"he guards the lives of his faithful ones"

It seems my faith (my oil) requires constant replenishing.  I worry, will I have enough?  Yet nowhere have I ever heard God say, I’m only going to give you this much faith, so you’d better hoard it.  It seems the supply of faith available to us is inexhaustible.  So why the fear?  Faith is definitely a choice.  It seems both incredibly powerful, but also fragile.  Worry seems to often squeeze the faith and hope out of my life.  Worry seems to rob us of our faith.  When we worry, we lose our joy and it affects our ability to serve God.  When we simply trust God and put God first in our lives, then we glorify him and our joy can return.

My granddaughter, Annie, is learning to walk.  We sit on the kitchen floor and I aim her at her mom or dad and let go of her hands.  She stumbles across the floor and launches herself into her mom or dad’s arms.  If they were not there to catch her she would definitely land face first on the floor.  And yet she does it again and again and every time she looks back at me, grinning with such pride and joy.  There isn't any thought in her head about, “what if they didn’t catch me?”  She simply trusts completely.

How I wish I had Annie’s faith and trust.  It is so easy to fall into the worry trap and lose our joy.

My prayer today is for those of us who stumble with our faith and trust.  Instead of expecting the worst, we should be preparing for the best.

(Adapted from Daniel O'Reilly)

ABC's 'Mistresses' accused of glamorizing adultery - Tomorrow's reading reflection

“The head of John the Baptist.”

In something that reads like the “Mistresses,” we are presented with a convoluted set of facts about two principal characters.  

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, who apparently had at least 4 wives.  Antipas was married to Phasaelis, whom he divorced to marry Herodias. Herodias was the granddaughter of Herod the Great, and the wife of Antipas’ half brother, Herod II (who was thus her brother-in-law and also her half-uncle). Herodias and Herod II had a daughter, Salome, making her Herod Antipas’ half niece (and his stepdaughter once he married Herodias).  

Herodias decided to divorce Herod II to marry Antipas, who was then tetrarch of Galilee.  John the Baptist chastised Antipas for his divorce and subsequent marriage to his former sister-in-law. Reading between the lines, John has apparently irritated everyone by his condemnation of the marriage, but most especially Herodias.  Antipas seems to be easily manipulated by Herodias, and Mark stated that he both feared John and was perplexed by his teachings.  Antipas also seems to have been aroused by Salome’s dance and thus had even more moral ambiguity going on in his head.

Sexuality, seems to be one of the most terribly powerful motivations of human behavior that ever was, is and will be.  As the Bible and real life show us over and over again, disordered sexuality has brought down kings, governors and ordinary disciples of God.  Yet it is with compassion that we treat ourselves and others who may be weak in faith and sexual morality.  Remember that John acted as prophet but so does Paul when he speaks to the Thessalonians in today's reading.  Seeing their weakness, he first affirms their strengths.  "What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you, for all the joy we feel on your account before our God? Night and day we pray beyond measure to see you in person and to remedy the deficiencies of your faith."  

Not a bad example.

(Adapted from Tom Purcell)

Oh proud Christians, the tombs or icons we can choose to be - Tomorrow's reading reflections

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth."

It's never good to hear that from the lips of God.  But as St. Augustine found out, every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.  A whitewashed tomb today might not be so a year from now.  In fact, he/she may not be a tomb at all but a living icon of St. Augustine and every sinner who has walked the road of redemption.

Dear You, From St. Augustine - Tomorrow's reading reflection

If you ever feel like you can't seem to many any progress in the spiritual life; if you feel like doubt in your faith and in God are stronger than truth at times; if you feel like sin dominates your life and there's no hope, then listen to what St. Augustine wrote in his book The Confessions.

O Hope from my youth,
where wast thou to me
and where hadst thou gone away?
For hadst thou not created me
and differentiated me from the
beasts of the field and the birds of
the air, making me wiser than they?

And yet I was wandering about in a
dark and slippery way, seeking thee
outside myself and thus not finding
the God of my heart.  I had gone down
into the depths of the sea and had
lost faith,
and had despaired of ever
finding the truth.

One only knows what he means if they themselves have been in the same place.  It's an experiential knowledge that comes through suffering. Maybe you have been where he was.  Maybe you are.  Maybe you will.  But remember this.  That was only one point along the remarkable timeline that was his life. Listen to what he went on to become after being baptized and ordained a bishop.

The great St. Augustine's life is unfolded to us in documents of unrivaled richness, and of no great character of ancient times have we information comparable to that contained in the Confessions. (NewAdvent.com)  

St. Augustine was early recognized as the first of the Western Fathers.  There are only four.

St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is "a philosophical and theological genius of the first order, dominating, like a pyramid, antiquity and the succeeding ages. Compared with the great philosophers of past centuries and modern times, he is the equal of them all; among theologians he is undeniably the first, and such has been his influence that none of the Fathers, Scholastics, or Reformers has surpassed it." (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church)(NewAdvent.com)

He is the first and only to be named a Doctor of Grace; but he is also officially named the Doctor of the Church.

And there was a time when he said, "I had gone down into the depths of the sea and had lost faith, and had despaired of ever finding the truth."  

Take hope.  St. Augustine, whose feast we celebrate today, shows us there's plenty of it to go around.

The narrow gate opens wide his arms - Sunday's reading reflection

"For steadfast is his kindness toward us."

What does the image of a door say to us about the kingdom of God? Jesus' story about the door being shut to those who come too late suggests they had offended their host and deserved to be excluded. It was customary for teachers in Jesus' time to close the door on tardy students and not allow them back for a whole week in order to teach them a lesson in discipline and faithfulness. Jesus told this story in response to the question of who will make it to heaven. Many rabbis held that all Israel would be saved, except for a few blatant sinners who excluded themselves! After all, they were specially chosen by God when he established a covenant with them.

Jesus doesn't directly answer the question, however; but his response is nonetheless unsettling on two counts. First, Jesus surprised his listeners by saying that one's membership as a covenanted people does not automatically mean entry into the kingdom of God. Second, Jesus asserts that many from the gentile nations would enter God's kingdom. God's invitation is open to Jew and Gentile alike. But Jesus warns that we can be excluded if we do not strive to enter by the narrow door.  

What did Jesus mean by this expression? The door which Jesus had in mind was himself. I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved (John 10:9).  Jesus opens the way for us to enter into God's kingdom through the cross where he has laid down his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. If we want to enter and remain citizens of God's kingdom, then we must follow Jesus in the way of the cross. The word strive can also be translated agony. To enter the kingdom of God one must struggle against the forces of temptation to sin and whatever would hinder us from doing the will of God (even apathy, indifference, and compromise).

The good news is that we do not struggle alone. God is with us and his grace is sufficient! And why is his grace sufficient?  Because it needs to be.  Our efforts and striving will never be sufficient enough.  Thus, his grace and our cooperation will be sufficient unto salvation.  

As we strive side by side  for the faith of the gospel (Philippians 1:27) Jesus assures us of complete victory! 

(adapted from Don Schwager)

Christian Shemá - Tomorrow's reading reflection

 There are things that evoke an identity, such as the national anthem or the colors of the national flag. Israel’s national identity was, at its core, a religious identity clearly evoked in the Shemá Israel –hear, O Israel [Dt. 6:4-5] quoted by Jesus, himself a Jew, in today’s gospel reading. It remains today an identity quite engraved in the heart of a devout Jewish person.

The Shemá is truly a call to wholeheartedness –with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind– and as such it should also be engraved in our own hearts.

Yet, there is in God’s calling a diversity that corresponds to the diversity of persons, indeed to the uniqueness of each person. 

Unfortunately this diversity of callings/vocations is at times misread as a diversity in the expected degree of wholeheartedness in the response, as if priests/brothers/sisters were called to a wholehearted response, while the rest of the baptized were called to “muddle through” as best they can.

Baptism is the seed of a calling that will develop as the person grows up and to the extent that such a calling is owned and embraced –not automatically. As through prayerful reflection on our lives we recognize both our giftedness and how it fits in our life's context- which is invariably changing at all times, so also we try to see in that the path the Lord is inviting us to follow, and in many cases, the path back to the main path.  

All of this is precisely in order that you love our neighbor as yourself, the second commandment the Lord says is like it (like the Shemá). Then our response, which we already desire to be wholehearted, becomes concretized in marriage, priesthood, religious life, medicine, law, nursing, teaching... The difference among vocations lies not on the side of the expected response, but on the side of the diverse calling we are expected to respond to wholeheartedly.

(Adapted from Luis Rodriguez, S.J.)