Repent, Pharisee Within: Jesus "Don't Play"!

Jesus Christ is clearly "the face of the Father's mercy," yet he doesn't fool around when it comes to hypocrites.

"Oh, you Pharisees! 
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
inside you are filled with plunder and evil.  You fools!
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?"
(Lk 11:39-40)

This Lent, it's time to ask how my often pharisaical ego exasperates the Lord.  Jesus clearly has no patience for hypocrites who hide behind appearances or worldly conventions.  , So what are my true motives when I give alms or perform pious acts publicly (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18)?  The "optics" may work as show for outsiders, but Jesus asks the more fundamental question of where I am really standing in relation to the Maker of my inmost self.

If my heart is conflicted, divided, even hardened by ego-centered motives, the Lord himself says that I have already received my reward--that is, I'm stuck with me, myself, and I.  Dare I pray the words of the penitential Psalmist this Lent, "A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me" (Ps 51:12)?

The Lord doesn't expect me to clean the inside on my own, let alone heal myself of my original wound.  But the question is whether I will encounter the merciful Savior as one who admits that I need mercy, as one who acknowledges my own brokenheartedness.

The simple reminder here is that Jesus wants me to be more honest about my motives.  He wants my intentions to be more pure.  This way, I can better conform my life to him--better align myself to his Person:

1. When I share the material goods which I have on loan from God, will I do so in response to Jesus’ mysterious presence in my neighbor?  As Pope Francis observes, “our brothers and sisters are the prolongation of the incarnation for each of us” (EG,n. 179).
    
2. In my daily prayer conversation with our heavenly Father, will I unmask my various false selves and allow myself to be vulnerable--sharing my joys and sorrows?
   
3. In my sluggish efforts to fast from various forms of self-indulgence, will my approach be one of embracing a spiritual exercise rather than another self-help initiative?  

As long as I "don't play" with deceptions of self-importance and worries about the opinions of others, I trust that my "Father who sees what is hidden" will repay me (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18)!

Why we must pursue Jesus in a deserted place

"Rising very early before dawn,
Jesus left and went off to a deserted place..."
(Mk 1:35)

Why does Jesus repeatedly head off to a deserted place?  Because that is "...where he prayed" (Mk 1:35), where the Son of God himself went:

• to bask in the eternal embrace of perfect Love
• to absorb the anointing presence of the Spirit
• to restore and rejuvenate his healing powers
• to prepare to preach with other-worldly authority
• to discern the will of the Father

Son though he was, Jesus "did not regard equality with God something to be grasped" (Phil 2:6).  Rather, he retreated from the tumult of his public mission to reclaim his deepest identity and to commune with the source of life itself.

Amid the disorienting days in which we live, let's look for a deserted place--or perhaps a desert of sorts:

• To bask in the eternal embrace of perfect Love who holds us in existence; to foster a grateful awareness of this moment-by-moment gift.
  
  
• To absorb the anointing presence of the Spirit who ignites the charisms of our callings; to allow the full array of our baptismal gifts to bear fruit by asking that they not remain dormant.
  
  
• To restore and rejuvenate Jesus' healing power within us, so we can then carry it to others; to drive out the demons of isolation and despair which haunt so many with our healing presence.
  
• To prepare us to proclaim the Gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15), with the authority and compassion of Christ; to become missionary disciples who can speak the Word born out of personal friendship with the Lord.
  
• To discern the will of the Father who is the source of "all good giving and of every perfect gift" (1 Jas 1:17); to make Jesus' work our life work, namely, willing the will of the One who sends us.

In a special way, let's pursue Jesus anew in a deserted place because--as Peter explained to the Lord--"Everyone is looking for you" (Mk 1:37)!

A Prayer for Times of Transition & Seasons of Uncertainty

The Presentation of the Lord

Patient Trust in Ourselves
and in the Slow Work of God

by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.

 We should like to skip the intermediate stages,
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown, to something new.

"And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability...
And that it may take a very long time.

"And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually,
let them grow,
let them shape themselves
without undue haste.

"Don't try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make you tomorrow.

"Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete." 

"Be Not Afraid" of Life

A national Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children (January 22, 2018) is serious business because forty-five years of legalized abortion in the U.S. has been deadly business.  Across the U.S., we have ended an estimated 60 million lives--and wounded hundreds of millions of mothers and fathers and grandparents along the way.

Not much new can be said regarding this tragedy which is tearing apart the fabric of our society.  But sometimes, we find new ways to say what needs to be said. 

1.  Check out the beautiful video advertisements put together by VirtueMedia.org (click on "Our Ads" to view).

2.  Preview a few of these outstanding themes from the USCCB, many of which have been featured in this year's 9 Days for Life campaign.

• Why do we think that every life is "A Perfect Gift"? Consider the perspective of Charlie's family...
  
  
• What to do when a friend is considering abortion? Try the L-O-V-E approach...
  
  
• What should we take into consideration in "Supporting Families Who Receive a Prenatal Diagnosis"?
  
  
• How can we help women and men suffering after abortion? Check these suggestions in "Bridges of Mercy for Post-Abortion Healing."

3.  Finally, listen to what Pope Francis really thinks about this controversial topic: 

"Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this.   

"Frequently, as a way of ridiculing the Church’s effort to defend their lives, attempts are made to present her position as ideological, obscurantist and conservative. Yet this defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development.  

"Human beings are ends in themselves and never a means of resolving other problems. Once this conviction disappears, so do solid and lasting foundations for the defense of human rights, which would always be subject to the passing whims of the powers that be. Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single human life, but if we also look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, 'every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offense against the creator of the individual'." (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 213)


May these insights transform our prayer throughout this week and this new year--
 
DDS

MLK Day and Service for the Greater Glory of God

"Use me, God.  Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do,
and use it for a purpose greater than myself."

+Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Serving others changes a person's heart.  Belonging to something bigger fulfills a profound human need.  Giving one's very self to others is the path to finding one's true self, as the Lord himself has revealed.

Rather than just another Monday holiday to stay home from work and school, our nation's annual recognition of Martin Luther King Day has morphed into a national day of service.  It has become an opportunity to put partisan politics on hold. It is also an opportunity to transcend, at least for a day, the real racism which continues to haunt our nation.

Not a day OFF, but a day ON :)

As a fitting tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this national day of service has the potential to transform our perspective on life.  When I serve:

• I remember that my life is not all about me and that I'm not the center of the universe.
• I grow to understand that authentic self-esteem comes from giving myself to others.
• I experience Jesus Christ, mysteriously present, and slowly realize that He alone can "break the chains of hate."

Of course, if does not spring from the right motivations, service can become just another self-soothing experience.  The temptation to feed the ego by doing good deeds can become part of an enslaving cycle of "self-affirmation."  The key Christian insight is that we serve others not because it makes us feel good (though sometimes it does), but because it is a concrete response to God's will in our daily lives: discerning a real need and acting accordingly, at the right time and in the right way.

Living with and for others foreshadows the eternal glory for which God has created the human person. After all, this is how Jesus described his own mission:
 

"The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mt 20:28).

Finally, in honor of Martin Luther King's solidarity with those who are most oppressed and most vulnerable, let's hold in prayer the hundreds of thousands who will journey to Washington, D.C. for the 45th annual March for Life.  This contemporary civil rights movement promotes justice for vulnerable unborn children and mothers who represent every race and ethnicity.  It is a fitting extension of Dr. King's non-violent vision of social change.

Check out 9 Days for Life