Welcoming the Holy
Here we invite you to take time for yourself in personal prayer. The following spiritual reflection offers words and images which we hope will evoke for you an experience of God.
By: Sister Kathy Weider
Opening Prayer
Loving God, open our minds and hearts to receive your word and to try our best to live by it each day of our life. Amen.
First Reading
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Psalm 1
Blessed are they that hope in the Lord.
Second Reading
1 Cor. 15:12, 16-20
Gospel
6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground with a great crowd of his disciples and a large number of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.”
Reflection
All the readings today offer great food for thought and are filled with reasons to be hopeful. The Gospel is the capstone containing the Beatitudes that Jesus taught. These attitudes, or attributes for living seem to turn our normal expectations upside down.
People want money to live well, but Jesus says, “Blessed are you who are poor.” Let’s be clear – Jesus is not in favor of poverty. What he says is that those who are poor now, will be blessed and receive the kingdom of God.
Coming back to the present day, most people desire to be rich (or richer), to be powerful, to be beautiful/handsome, to be praised and popular – even famous. Yet when we see some rich person who seems to have it all, we frequently call them “spoiled.” If everything is easy, we don’t grow very much. On the other hand, those who struggle to pay their bills and feed their families develop “character.” If you work to pay your own way through college or job-training, you work all the harder to succeed. You develop a sense of responsibility, and a value system for living.
Humans have free choice though, and some can only see the inequity and complain about life. In the Gospel today, Jesus makes it clear: no matter our circumstances or suffering, God will help us to reach the gift that can come out of it! We need to trust God’s desire to give us the grace, the help we need not only to survive, but to actually be blessed by it eventually.
Let me share a story from my own life that happened a few weeks ago. The incident struck me and got me thinking. It could be titled, “Two Tales of One Snowfall.” It was a case of very brief fear and pain, but it illustrates how a difficulty can become a blessing.
“Heavy rains all day loaded streets with water,
road spray and salt remnants smeared across the windshield.
As if preparing in advance for rush hour, a heavy snow began to fall
as roads iced over and sunset further challenged visibility.
The last thing I wanted to do was attend an art show
to see one lone painting, even if it was done by a friend.
As we started out, before salt trucks showed up,
driving was rough going.
Anne would be so grateful we came, I kept reminding myself.
Good thing the college wasn’t far.
Once there I delighted in the artwork. All the art of every medium
was, if not beautiful, interesting, intriguing, soulful.
Yes, Anne was grateful, so we left in two cars to meet for dinner.
Our ride was a nightmare. The defroster was suddenly not working.
Snow fell heavily, the front window was all steamed up,
but worse yet there seemed to be a film that refused all efforts
by the windshield wipers. I was suddenly embarrassed that
my many good intentions to take my car to be cleaned – inside and out – had fallen with so many other good intentions.
We only had to drive about a mile but with only a sliver of visibility
we were all over the road – from the accumulated snow in the center
to the ice and slush on the side, we wandered.
An occasional horn by a fellow traveler let us know we weren’t always
where we should be!
Finally, pulling into a parking lot we grabbed hands full of napkins
from the glove compartment, madly trying to at least clear the steam.
Another car horn! Our friends had witnessed our poor performance,
so alarmed they followed us off the road. Since the windshield
was somewhat better, we all proceeded to the restaurant –
only to find them mopping the floors to close early,
sure no lunatics would come to eat in this storm.
So on we headed for another place down the road.
By now I was no longer amused and even my hungry stomach wanted to
go home for cereal. We arrived. Thirty minutes later, and well fed,
my mood lifted. As if to reward us for our perseverance,
God gave us all green lights going home.
In the morning light
what glory shone!
Every branch on every tree
was brightly adorned
with fresh-fallen snow
and absolutely glistening in the light!
The sky had cleared
and a bright blue hue
not often seen in the winter,
greeted my eyes.
It’s that truly stunning beauty
that makes you happy to be alive –
so beautiful you forget the terror of the storm that brought it!”
The beatitudes speak of people who are in very real, serious pain and challenges – the poor, the hungry, those who mourn, and those who are hated (bullied) and insulted. Yet no matter what we face we need to remember this, Our God loves us outrageously:
God loves us constantly and unconditionally.
God will always be with us, especially in painful or challenging times.
God will give us all the grace we need and reveal gifts and blessings beyond our imagining!
Pretty great, right?
Closing Prayer
Gracious God, when the challenges of life confront us, remind us that we can put our trust in you, confident that you are always with us, and Your grace is always enough for us – one day at a time. Amen.