Faith

Dealing with Lust – Monday, 5th Week of Lent – Daniel 13:1-9, 15, 17-30, 33- 62/ John 8:1-11

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/the-overt-and-covert-sinners-john-81-11-fifth-sunday-in-lent/ which is a reflection on the Gospel of today.

The last two chapters of the Book of Daniel are not part of the Jewish canon of Scripture. The short stories in these two chapters may have originally been about some other Daniel or Daniels, different from the hero of the main part of the book. The texts exist now only in Greek, but probably were first composed in Hebrew or Aramaic. They do not appear in non-Catholic bibles, but the Catholic Church has always included them among the inspired writings.

They contain two famous stories, one of Susanna, who was falsely accused of adultery, and the other of the events which led to Daniel being thrown into the lions’ den.

Susanna’s situation needs a little explanation. It is about two lecherous men and an innocent married woman (Susanna) who is led into a clever trap from which there seems no escape. However, the woman defends her integrity at the risk of being falsely accused of being unfaithful to her husband, and in a society that was even less forgiving in these matters than our own. In fact, the whole community, after hearing the evidence from the two men, was ready to stone her for her adultery and indicated this by laying their hands on the woman’s head.

She would certainly have been executed by stoning if the “young boy Daniel” had not come on the scene. The rest of the story is a description of his integrity, his sense of justice and insight. Through his clever and separate examination of the woman’s accusers, he proves them liars and the sharp contrast between the two trees mentioned; one being quite small and the other very tall and majestic, only made clearer the inconsistency of the two men’s evidence. According to the law, they end up receiving the punishment originally intended for the woman.

The focus of this long and dramatic story is really on Daniel, on his perception and wisdom, and on him as a champion of justice. But, in today’s liturgy, it leads by way of contrast to another and very different case of adultery. A situation where the woman is clearly guilty, and yet wins Jesus’ total forgiveness.

Adultery is a very common theme that runs through many stories in the Bible, as well as the fatal punishment meted out. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. The sixth commandment and the New Testament forbids adultery absolutely. The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines grave matter: Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honour your father and your mother.”

The number one reason why people cheat is a lack of connection in the relationship. Most people do not realize how important creating, maintaining, and nurturing a connection in a relationship is. The unfaithful spouse must be willing to stop the affair, provide all details honestly and completely, and take the steps necessary to prove his or her trustworthiness. A Catholic spouse who engages in adultery must throw themselves at the mercy of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and seek spiritual advice.

The good news is that restoring a marriage after an affair is possible, with God’s help. In fact, not only can your marriage survive an affair, but your marriage can become even stronger than it was before the crisis. “Nothing is impossible with God,” (Luke 1:37).

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Faith

Not a mantra to be mumbled but a reassurance to be treasured –The Annunciation of the Lord – Isaiah 7:10-14 and 8:10/ Luke 1: 26-38

At the annunciation, the message of the angel to Mary was that ‘the Lord is with her.’ There is nothing more assuring than to know that the ‘Lord is with us.’ But that should be an automatic faith response for all people of faith. Words that Jesus himself reassured us of at his ascension when he said, “and know that I am with you always, unto the end of time.“ (Matthew 28:20).

The message of the annunciation that the angel Gabriel communicated to Mary consisted of a greeting and a word of assurance. The greeting, “Hail, favoured one” is interesting and enlightening. ‘Ave’ or Hail is a Latin word, used by the Romans as a salutation and greeting. It is the singular imperative form of the verb avēre, which meant ‘to be well’; thus, one could translate it literally as ‘be well.’ But this was not all, for the angel also called Mary the ‘favoured one’. Yet, Mary is the favoured one not the favourite one!

The Bible declares that “God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11). God loves everyone equally. There is nothing we can ever do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can ever do that will make God love us less. Mary is not God’s favourite but she is the favoured one; she has found favour with the Lord for who she is and how she lived her life; in fidelity to God. It is no small thing to be regarded, to be favored, especially when you are exceedingly aware that you should not be.

To this favoured child is the message of assurance, “the lord is with you” “do not be afraid.” God knows how much we all need to be assured because so many of us worry about the challenges at hand. Seneca said, “we suffer more in imagination than in reality.” The words of the angel were clear to Mary and by extension to us, “do not be afraid, the Lord is with you.” For those who pray the rosary daily, these words are not a mantra to be mumbled but a reassurance to be treasured.

This story of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary is surrounded by the impossible. Reading the Biblical narrative one can list the impossibilities and yet the angel is firm when he says, “nothing is impossible for God.” While ‘the’ annunciation may be the message of an angel proclaiming the plan of salvation for human kind, we too celebrate our annunciation each time God asks something that seems impossible of us yet asked for with the same assurance, “do not be afraid.”

Is it easy to say yes when God asks the ‘impossible’ from us? Was it easy for Mary when God asked her for what seemed humanly impossible? We know that Mary was perplexed at first, even scared. Mary had questions too, “how can this be since I am a virgin?” Mary was not without her doubts. While the narrative records the annunciation in a couple of lines it would be well within our reasoning to safely assume that she debated, considered and reasoned this calling. Having flashes of doubt is not sinful, living in constant doubt turns our hearts of faith away from a loving God and his plan for us.

When God calls us, he singles us and chooses us. Our response often is “how can this be?” Me? Who am I? Why am I favored? How can the Lord be with me? While these words of doubt may resonate at times in our hearts let us be assured on this day of HIS presence in our lives. Mary’s story moves us all from who we think we are to what God has called us to be, from observant believer to confessing apostle.

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Faith

Truth stands alone and stands still – Friday, 4th Week of Lent – Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22/ John 7:1-2,10,25-30

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child/ based on the Gospel text of today.

I cannot for the life of me recall ever reading this text from scripture. Yet for those who love the Lord, you have leant by now that God speaks to us through his word in his own time and says what you need to hear and not what you want to hear.

God chose to speak this text to my heart today, on my 53rd birthday and I want to break this down for you as a gift. He shares his word with me. I share his message with you and I hope each day you do the same by sharing HIS word fearlessly. Remember, truth stands alone and stands still.

We find ourselves living in a world where ever thing must be reasoned out and have a ‘convincing answer’. When applied to the Christian faith, ‘convincing answers’ are nothing more than a stubborn heart and mind refusing to accept the truth of God. They would gladly settle for the compromised and convenient ‘truths’ that the world would rather offer. Oddly, this is not entirely a malaise of this generation for the Book of Wisdom, written in the 1st century BC, was battling with a similar situation.

The author of the book of wisdom addresses the “ungodly” (1:16). That’s a tough word to use in a modern world that strives to be politically correct. The author of the book of wisdom seemed to care a damn for political correctness and threw it in the dustbin where in belonged. He called out the ungodly for who they were and did not seek to find a ‘pastorally’ acceptable or politically correct term.

At the heart of the matter, is the matter of the heart. While we often speak of thought that emanates from the head, it is the chatter in the heart that leads us to the fires of hell. Chapter two of the book of wisdom needs to be read in its entirety to understand the chatter of the ungodly; and boy do they have much to say!

It is they ungodly that want to “enjoy the good things that exist.” “Make use of creation to the full as in youth.” It is they who “want to take their fill of costly wine and perfumes” and enjoy every moment of every season. It is they who desire to crown themselves with rosebuds before they wither, as if rosebuds are going out of style and it is they who never cease “enjoying themselves.”

But while all this may seem like a ‘bit’ of self-indulgence, the sin of the ungodly runs deeper for their shameless eyes also fall on the poor and marginalized of society. Scripture tells us that not only do the pick on the “poor man” they do it knowing that he is righteous. They target the widow and disregard the aged whom they circle around like vultures, knowing their prey is weak and dying. They believe that might is right and what is weak proves to be useless (think now of the abortonist and those pushing the euthanasia agenda)

But their sin multiply when the righteous person stands up as a voice of conscience, or the good person becomes an inconvenient truth; standing as a beacon against their sins, calling them out in public. Hell, hath no fury than the ungodly scorned for now everything is fair game for them.

Read verses 12 to 20 and you can identify with the sufferings of Christ. It seems like this text was a prophecy of what Our Lord would suffer. But this text is also a testimony to those in the Church who have the courage to stand up and call out the sins within the Church. While it is fashionable to point out the sins of civil society it is anathema to call out your own.

When corrupt religious institutions, both systems and individuals, turn against the righteous few because they stand up and call out the sins of the institution, then moral standing has failed completely. Our Lord stood alone; he called out the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin and even the Chief Priest himself. Our Lord stood alone, as a voice of conscience of his day and for that he was ridiculed and mocked. The entire might of the Roman government was used against him. False accusations were brought against him and he was sentenced to death, a death sanctioned by the might of the religious institution.

Perhaps today we are no far from the same situation….but for a few good men and women.

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Can I change God’s mind? – Thursday, 4th Week of Lent – Exodus 32:7-14/John 5:31-47

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/test-into-testimony/ based on the Gospel of today.

The golden calf will forever be the metaphor of betrayal. A people that was loved much, brought out of slavery, fed in the desert and now gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai have tired of waiting for Moses to return. We are told that Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up on the mountain; “and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights” (24:18). Having waited this long, the people come to Aaron asking that him to make “gods” to go before them. Aaron complies without argument by making a calf idol of gold.

Here is the irony of it all. Such was the fickleness of the people of Israel that they sought to break the very first commandment that God had just given them. In a religiously pluralistic country such as India, it is not uncommon to see similar sinful behaviour of Christian politicians and businessmen who wish to ‘please’ and ‘not offend’ their vote banks and business partners by participating in religious ceremonies before idols. Sometimes the most ‘devout’ Christian who in the name of keeping friendly relationships with their neighbour, will bow down before an idol. They have violated the first and most fundamental of the commandments, the one that binds them to God in a relationship of exclusive loyalty: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)

I have often advocated that to assume that sin comes without the wrath of God is a delusional belief that Christians hold. While we have a forgiving God, that God is also capable of inflicting his wrath. On seeing the sin of his people, God’s wrath blazed. He says to Moses, “let me alone.” This was God’s way of saying, ‘this time I will not chose to listen to you Moses, this time I have decided to act and act decisively in destroying the people I once loved.’ But there is another way of looking at these words of God. Sometimes when people say, “Don’t try to stop me!” they are really signaling their desire for the listener to give them a good reason to stop. That seems to be the case here. Yahweh is ordering Moses not to interfere, but instead seems to be inviting Moses to do just that.

Yet the anger of God is also evident. In addressing Moses, God says “for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (v. 7b). In the past, Yahweh spoke of these people as “my people” (3:7, 10; 5:1; 6:7; 7:4, 16, etc.) but now he refers to them as “your people,” as Moses’ people; the people whom Moses brought up. It is the kind of thing that a frustrated parent might say to his or her spouse, “YOUR son or daughter did this.”

Mercifully, Moses chose to implore the Lord. If one were to paraphrase it all, Moses simply tells the Lord, ‘Calm down.’ Then using a very clever emotive and intellectual argument He asks the Lord to think for it is the Lord’s reputation that is at stake. If Israel perishes in the wilderness, the Egyptians will say that God’s intentions were evil from the start. Instead of a faith-keeping and merciful deliverer, the LORD will appear to be a faithless, malevolent deity.

What the Bible records next is just shocking. We are told that God repents! The English translation of verse 14 tells us that the Lord ‘changed his mind.” The Hebrew verb for “changed his mind” is naham, a term elsewhere translated as “be sorry” or “repent” when its subject is a human. It is an emotion-laden term and appropriate to a context in which one is deeply moved. It is not so much that God has done some wrong, but his repentance is really a ‘feeling sorry’ for giving into his anger even though God was justified.

There is something here that may miss the eye. The tendency would be to focus on the mercy of God which the text does highlight but the text also highlights another reality and that is the fact that humans can ‘affect’ God. In the text of today, God changes his plans of destruction and acts otherwise. He did this in response to human persuasion, to Moses petitions for his people. If there is any takeaway here that consoles the faithful is that we have the ability to prevail on God’s mercy and petition him to change his mind. And guess what! He does it.

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Faith

Better times follow bitter days – Wednesday, 4th week of Lent – Isaiah 49:8-15/ John 5:17-30

Read also https://www.pottypadre.com/the-apprentice-who-never-gets-fired/ based on the Gospel of today

To be exiled is simply to be kicked out; that’s reality 101 for you. There are several sugar-coated ways of saying the same thing but when played out, it means you are unwanted, whatever the socio-political reason may be. Then, there are those that go into exile, either to make a point as a voice of conscience or because one’s life is threatened.

God sent HIS people, his covenant people into exile. He had promised a relationship that would last forever but while ratifying this covenant he clearly made his demands clear in return for his love and protection. They were to be his people who kept his laws diligently and in return he would be their God. This they failed to do. 

We tend to take those we love for granted. We most certainly take God for granted, clinging on to the fantasy that God’s anger will never kick in. When it did, God sent his people into exile for seventy long years.  In stead of waking up to God’s anger, the people of Israel were  lost  in their self-pity and misery. Even now, they would not take responsibility for their sinful past and chose rather to blame God for the situation they found themselves in.

The text of today, which is written in poetic form, must be seen in the totality of all twenty six verses that form this chapter. This text was almost certainly composed during the period of the Babylonian exile (586-539 BCE). This explains the words of the text when the people of Israel are described as a “desolate heritages,” as people in “prison or living in darkness”.

Living in Babylon, the people were surrounded by the symbols of their captors’ might. They are presented as “barren” (49:21; see 54:1), that is, unable to bring about their own future. Their lives were lived in hardship, leaving them dispirited; they had to live in a land surrounded by signs of their own defeat and helplessness. While we know that Israel never really had a change of heart, God on the other hand was nothing short of a bleeding heart.

In response to the alienation and vulnerability of exile, Isaiah offers them words of comfort in chapter 49. Now distance is overcome by intimacy, and helplessness is met by the comforting presence of God. To a  people who have suffered a lengthy exile in Babylon, Yahweh is preparing for their return to their homeland.

To reassure his people, Yahweh draws upon the image of a mother’s love.  Yahweh has not forgotten them, he has not abandoned them and will not refuse to act with compassion. Though bizarre accounts of unspeakable cruelty surface from time to time, everyone knows that a woman will never forget her nursing child. Even if such a bizarre incident may occur, Yahweh promises that  he will not forget his people. In our darkest moments, let us not forget the unchanging intensity of God’s love for us.

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