I Desire Mercy

June 8, 2008 Year A

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reflections on the Readings

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Theme:  I Desire Mercy

"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

It was contact with the world Pharisees avoided.  Every effort of every day was spent in avoiding contamination from sinners.  

Israel had conformed to the idolatry of her neighbors.  The harlotry of Ephraim invoked God's judgment.  

But the Pharisees of Jesus' time had embraced a 'holier than thou' approach to their neighbors, invoking Jesus' rebuke.  Israel abandoned God through capitulation while the Pharisees rejected Jesus through hypocrisy.  They loved to be seen.  They thanked God they were not like other men like tax collectors and sinners.  

We often feel the current culture offends everything we hold as good and decent. And our response is often outrage; forgetting God is love and mercy.  In this climate of righteous anger the love of many grows cold.  Some stray from the faith.  Others wander away discouraged and disgusted.  Then there are those who become cynical and harbor thoughts of ill will.  Hardness of heart absent of any love or mercy, abandons the God of all hope. We must never be conformed to the 'spirit of this age.'  The kingdom that is from above is neither Pharisaic nor apathetic.  This kingdom is simply not of this world. 

It is true we are not to be conformed to this world.  It is equally true we are to be 'transformed by the renewal of our mind.'  It is we who are to have a sure knowledge of what is the perfect will of God. 

Yet we can become closed in on ourselves. Hectic schedules can inhibit even the Church having quality experiences of basic human interaction.  Let us in mercy not be oblivious to others.  Especially let us not be oblivious to those of the same household of faith.  If there is any mercy in this world surely it is in the Church.

Recently my family and I ate at Steak and Shake.  I had been craving a good shake for a while.  As soon as we walked through the door we were greeted by our Hostess and given a table.  Not accustomed to such quick service I said, "Oh, you were expecting us."  She replied, "Actually I was."  We can learn something from this Hostess.  And that is mercy and acceptance start at the door. Perhaps we can fulfill our obligations to be at the TABLE by also showing a little interest in those we are eating with.  

Lyrics from 'Getting To Know You' from the Musical The King and I by Oscar Hammerstein say:

Getting to know you,

Getting to know all about you.

Getting to like you,

Getting to hope you like me.

Getting to know you, putting it my way,

But nicely,

You are precisely,

My cup of tea.

We live in very isolated times.  But going to Mass should not be just a holier version of the times we live in.  

In today's Gospel I see a man of self-control and possessed with a higher mind eating with sinners.  Jesus, the very incarnation of mercy is on a mission.  No man ever spoke like this man.   And he ate; of all things he actually sat down at a table and ate with sinners.  Mercy always has an open door.

Jesus says to us as he said to the Pharisees "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."  

Let us pray:  Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.  Amen.     

``O Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the the Name of Jesus...Renew Thy Wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost!!''  Pope John XXIII

      

                

The Spirit of Holiness--Sunday, June 1, 2008 Year A

June 1, 2008 Year A

Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reflections on the Readings

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Theme:  The Spirit of Holiness

And then will I declare to them, 'I never new you; depart from me, you evildoers.'

Everyone has a reality check from time to time.  Today is one of those moments.  We reflect upon the truth that it is not enough to proclaim what we believe.  We are called to practice what we preach.  In his book Sober Intoxication of the Spirit:  Filled with the Fullness of God, Father Cantalamessa, the Pope's preacher describes what are true epiphanies of the Spirit.  That is, manifestations of the Spirit which bring light and life in us and to others.  

If one is seeking his own glory then the true light and holiness of the Spirit is absent.  Although 'many mighty works' are accomplished in his name, our Lord who cannot deny himself nor let his word return to him void will nevertheless say 'I never knew you.'  

Is this not where the rubber meets the road?  On the one hand there are those who deny that anything miraculous is to occur today but seek holiness of life.  Then on the other hand, I suppose there will always be those who can bring us near to the Lord but somehow fail to be close to him themselves.  And that is a tragedy that must be avoided.  At all costs we must be sure that our lives are built upon the 'rock and foundation of his words.' 

Following Jesus is to enter into the very holiness of the Lamb of God.  He being without spot or blemish has provided forever the way into the holy of holies.  It is this narrow way in which we must always examine ourselves. Such self-examination of conscience will keep our lives free from sin and our witness free from self-aggrandizement.  

Our Lord today is not denying the blessing of prophesying, exorcisms, or mighty works done in his name.  He is saying that there is more to knowing him, a closer relationship with him, a place where we pray 'not my will, but thy will be done.'  Then will even small things done with great love have great effect.

I think it is with this transparency I wrestle the most.  How might we be filled with overflowing love?  How will those we love most be persuaded of the perfect will of love?  How can we be truly delivered from ourselves, as we desire the demons to be cast out of others?  No doubt, the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, even the Spirit of holiness, will increase Christ in us.  It is this very Spirit of holiness that will form and shape us into a veritable witness of Jesus Christ.  This is our calling.  This is the foundation that the storms cannot destroy.  This the winds cannot blow away.  

Jesus invites us to be filled with the wisdom that is from above.  It is this wisdom that the Spirit of holiness imparts to us.  We can overcome the deception of this world.  We can overcome the world, our flesh and the devil by living in the Spirit of holiness.  And then will we hear by the grace of God, 'Enter into the joy of your Lord.'

Let us pray:  Dear Jesus fill me with knowledge of the will of the Father.  Animate my understanding of others and myself by the Spirit of holiness.  That I may be holy even as you are holy is my prayer. Amen.

``O Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the the Name of Jesus...Renew Thy Wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost!!''  Pope John XXIII

      

                

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

May 25, 2008 Year A

Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Reflections on the Readings

By Dennis Hankins

dennishankins@gmail.com

Theme:  Signs and Associations

"I am the bread of life." (John 6:48)

I remember how one Bishop in the Charismatic Episcopal Church explained the Eucharist.  He was aware that some in his flock did not believe that Jesus was really present in the bread and wine given them.  

It was around Halloween and the good Bishop went to a local store looking for a Chalice.  He was looking for a Chalice that was engraved with the signs associated with the devil and his power.  And he found it.  You can imagine this Chalice bearing skull and bones and other references to death and the devil.

As the Bishop was teaching on the body and blood of Christ he pulled out this Chalice bearing the signs of Satan.  And then he asked, "If I filled this Chalice with wine and prayed to Satan to bless and fill it with his life, would you drink it?"  All the people were aghast!  In one collective shudder they were repelled by the notion.  The Bishop pushed on.  "Why?" he said.  "It's only wine.  It doesn't matter that it was offered to Satan.  It's just symbolism."  You are right.  The people got it.  And they got it that Jesus is present in the Holy Eucharist.  He is present body, blood, soul and divinity.  If things consecrated to Satan can convey Satan's power, how much more are we participants in the body and blood of Jesus?  It was not the Bishop's intention to show how present Satan can be.  The mystery of our faith is about how closely, directly and personally we are to Jesus in the cup of blessing and the bread which we break.  

In our religion we believe the sign becomes the thing it signifies.  Even food associated with idols through sacrifice was to be avoided in the early Church.  And so today we come to the celebration of our faith in the presence of Jesus in the bread which we break and the cup which we bless.  We have encountered the richness of our faith for several weeks.  First there was the Passion of our Lord.  Then, we rejoiced at his Resurrection from the dead.  For forty days he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs.  This was followed by his Ascension into heaven.  Ten days later the Holy Spirit was poured out without measure upon the praying Church.  Last Sunday we meditated upon the Most Holy Trinity.  And today we renew ourselves in our understanding of the Last Supper.  

Christianity is not a weak and anemic faith.  Always and forever the Lord calls us to himself.  His will is that we will live in him and he in us.  Jesus said, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him."  This is not a symbolic gesture of goodwill.  Holy Communion according to Jesus is a sign that becomes the very thing it signifies.  The Priest invokes the Holy Spirit to come upon our offering of the Bread and Wine that they may become for us the Body and Blood of Jesus.  As temples of the Holy Spirit it is more than the ingestion of mere symbols.  It is an immediate encounter with the Lord whom we love.  We keep this feast because Jesus said to always do this in remembrance of him.  And the remembrance of which he speaks is a promise that he will commune with us if we will commune with him.

St. John Chrysostom reflecting on the Eucharist said, "Let us return from that table like lions breathing fire, having become terrible to the devil; thinking on our Head, and on the love which he has shown us."  No, there was no anemic symbolism associated with the Eucharist by this Golden Tongued preacher.  Filled with the Holy Spirit he moved his parish to embrace the real meaning of Jesus' words.  

The manna served the needs of the natural life but conveyed no immediate encounter with divinity.  This is the demarcation point between the manna of the wilderness and the bread of life.  The bread of life is a person who seeks to impart his life to us.  It is to us he says today, "He who eats this bread will life forever."

Let us pray:  Dear Jesus, you teach me to listen with spiritual ears.  Help me not to reason with my flesh but to receive you into my heart.  Open the eyes of my heart and strengthen me in the life only you can impart.  And when I come to your Table fill me with yourself.  May my body and blood become a living witness of the body and blood of Christ.  Amen.

``O Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the the Name of Jesus...Renew Thy Wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost!!''  Pope John XXIII