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Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Sep 3, 2023

You Duped Me, O Lord

“You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped!” With these words, the prophet Jeremiah expresses a feeling and frustration felt by many at some point in their journey of faith. The word we translate as duped also conveys a sense of seduction, of being betrayed by the one who has coaxed us to love him. A call has been heard. A fire lit within the heart. Words spoken foretelling danger or destruction. And rejection by those who refuse to hear or believe the truth of the call and the warning that burst forth.

In the long-ago times when I was a high school student, there was a war going on in Vietnam. It was one of those proxy wars that pitted great powers against each other, but on the surface had nothing to do with their rivalry and was carried out in a small country far from both. Our country was divided between those who supported the war and those who opposed it. The flag and the Pledge of Allegiance had taken on a meaning far beyond that of commitment to the ideals of freedom and democracy. They had come to symbolize for many a complete acceptance of and commitment to the battle against Communism, regardless of the reasons a conflict had originally begun.

In the midst of this discord, my senior class was preparing for graduation. We were taking our last classes, preparing for further education, or for getting a job, or getting married, or for military service. The young men who were not going on to college were quite likely to find themselves drafted into the army and sent to the war. Those who refused to enter the military might find their options limited to leaving the country or going to jail if they couldn’t claim conscientious objector status or arrange alternative service options. It was not an easy, carefree time.

One of my homeroom classmates took a stand against the war. He refused to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag at the beginning of a Student Council meeting. This might not have been a big deal, except he was our representative to the Student Council. Our homeroom teacher explained to all of us what had happened. Our classmate was given a chance to explain why he had refused. Then we were to decide whether to keep him as our representative.

The vote was taken with heads down on the desk, so no one would know who had voted for him to remain and who had voted against him. Only the teacher and the classroom president, yours truly, were to see and count the votes. I don’t remember whether anyone actually voted against his remaining as our representative. I don’t think so. I just remember how proud I was of our class as we voted to support his right to express his beliefs. Not all agreed with him, but we were not willing to deny him that right.

I don’t know what ever happened to him after graduation. I know that the day we graduated, up on the stage, in front of the entire school community, including parents, grandparents, families, and friends, he did not stand up to pledge allegiance to the flag. He was a person of great integrity and I was proud to be his classmate.

The journey of faith is filled with surprise moments. When we first experience the unbounded love of our Father, we swim in the sea of love that envelopes and enfolds us. A love which we breathe in and out as freely as we breathe the air around us. We may notice that some people look askance at us as we speak of God’s love and the wonder of it. But that doesn’t deter us, at least not at first. It’s all so new and amazing and fantastically wonderful.

When the time comes that we find we must make choices that are not popular, we begin to experience the cost of faithfulness to the one who has claimed us and invited us to be his own. Sometimes we can’t have things both ways. We have to make a choice.

Jeremiah had to speak the words of warning to the leaders of his nation and his faith. They were angry with him and repeatedly threatened and punished him. Yet, in his own words, “it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.” And then he speaks the word of the Lord again. (Jer 20:7-9)

St. Paul advised the Christians of Rome to consider themselves to be “a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” (Rom 12:1-2) They were not to change themselves to match what was popular in the city at the time. They were to be focused on God’s will and seek to find “what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Life is never perfect. Growth in faith takes place over time. The life of a Christian is to be one of patient, persistent seeking of the good and the will of God.

Jesus also recognized that teaching about God’s mercy and love for all, along with the coming of the kingdom, would not always be accepted or welcomed by the authorities. He explained to his disciples that he needed to go to Jerusalem, not stay out in the countryside preaching and healing folks there. He also warned them that in Jerusalem he would suffer, die, and be raised “on the third day.”

Peter, who just a bit earlier had proclaimed his belief that Jesus was the Christ, took Jesus aside to urge him not to go, not to let such a terrible fate befall him. But Jesus strongly rejected Peter’s advice. “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Jesus went on to explain that those who follow the way he would lead must not think first of their own safety. The most important thing is to accept suffering (the cross) and follow faithfully. “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” The life in question here is not physical life. It is the deeper life that continues, the life that matters when the Son of Man comes “with his angels in his Father’s glory” to repay all according to the way they lived. (Mt 16:21-17)

“You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped!”

My friend stood up for his beliefs by remaining seated and risked losing his leadership position and the respect of his classmates. Other brave people have taken unpopular stands and paid a high price for it. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Dorothy Day went to jail. Archbishop Romero was shot as he celebrated Eucharist.

Most of us will never be asked to pay such a price for faithfulness to the Gospel. But each of us will experience times when it’s not comfortable to witness to the truth that we have experienced: the love and mercy of God for all and at all times. We pray that in those moments, we too will speak the word we hear burning in our hearts, boldly and with a courage that admits our fear but speaks and acts in faith.

May we always have the courage to let ourselves be duped and seduced by the love of our God.

Readings for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jul 2, 2023

What Goes Around Comes Around?

A very human urge is to try to understand why something happens. If that something was something negative, we want even more to know why and then we ask what the consequences of that something might be. Think of children in the school yard. Some are very good at sports. Others are not. If those who are good at sports begin to pick on those who are not, there is every expectation that the teachers or other adults in charge will step in and stop the bullying. There is an expectation, or at the very least, a hope, that justice will prevail. In the eyes of those on the receiving end of the bullying, the hope may well be that the guilty ones will be punished. That doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, the guilty ones overstep and pick on someone who is stronger. In such instances, the originally bullied ones may take glee in the notion that “what goes around comes around” and the former bullies have gotten their comeuppance!

Now this is not necessarily the way we want to approach the world. If we all keep cheering for bad things to happen to the “bad guys,” things aren’t going to get a lot better. In fact, they will just keep getting worse. We might even discover to our dismay that we are starting to be seen as “bad guys.”

So, what to do?

The Scriptures point to another option. What if we assume that love is a stream of energy that flows continuously through all of creation and through each of us? That love doesn’t try to get even with those who behave badly and hurt others. Instead, that love aims to bring out the best in all it touches.

Elisha experienced that gift of love through the generous hospitality of a woman in Shunem who first invited him to dinner one day. As time went on, she and her husband hosted him often. Eventually, she arranged for a room to be prepared for him to use whenever he was in the area. Elisha was grateful for her hospitality and asked what gift might be given her in thanksgiving. His servant suggested that a son would be the best gift for her, because she had never had a son and so the gift was promised. The story continues beyond the short bit in today’s reading to tell of the birth of a son to her. It’s worth reading, especially remembering that women typically had no say in such matters as to who would be invited to dinner or to stay in a family home. Men made all such decisions. But this woman’s generosity was rewarded abundantly. The gift of loving welcome and hospitality was returned and amplified with the gift of a son. (2 Kings 4:8-11, 14 – 16a)

St. Paul speaks of baptism as an entry into the death and resurrection of Jesus. In entering into the water, a person enters into death. Upon rising out of the water, new life springs forth. The love of God flows like a stream of life, deeper than our physical world would lead us to imagine. With Jesus’ death, the power of sin was broken and the cycle of tit-for-tat was broken. Followers of Jesus live for God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:3-4, 8-11)

Jesus spoke strongly about what living in accordance with his teaching would require. The words are as jarring today as they were when he first uttered them. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me…” Aren’t we supposed to love our families? Yes, but there’s more to what Jesus said than just the literal meaning of the sentence.

Jesus lived in a culture very different from our Western industrial culture of nuclear families with the expectation each will make their own way in life. In Jesus’ culture, the extended, corporate family was the basic unit of society. One was known in terms of the larger family. The head of the family was the oldest man, from whom the rest were descended. Women left their own family upon marriage and became part of their husband’s family. If they did not produce male heirs, they were considered worthless and might even be returned to their original extended family.

In this type of culture, the honor of the family is everything. One’s responsibility is to behave in a way that will not embarrass or otherwise harm the reputation of the family. If one’s family has a dispute with another family, there is no expectation that individuals will step outside their own family and do anything good for a person of the other family. Think of family feuds like that of the Hatfields and McCoys. Or the families of Romeo and Juliet, for that matter. When Jesus speaks of loving father or mother more than loving him, this is what he means. Loyalty to one’s family over loyalty to Jesus and the way he taught is not acceptable for his followers.

Do families take that kind of independent thinking and acting happily? Not usually. Even in our own nuclear families, it’s hard to take a stand that is contrary to the beliefs of parents or even siblings. Yet this is what Jesus expects of his followers – a willingness to take the risk of being misunderstood and even condemned for the refusal to conform to the expectations or the decisions of family or social group. This is taking up the cross, accepting the disapproval, the scolding, the mocking, even the rejection by those one has held dear, rather than conform to expectations that are contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

So what is expected of Jesus’ followers? What will come to them along the way? How will the stream of love show up? “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” The rewards for passing love along will correspond to those received by others. If one is receiving a righteous person because that person is righteous, then the reward will be the same as the one received by the righteous person. (Mt 10:37-42)

The actions that flow along in this stream of love may be grand and noteworthy. They may also be small and commonplace. A cup of cold water given to one of God’s little ones will be rewarded abundantly.

We are called to be channels of love and peace in our world. What goes around in a channel of peace may also come around, but it comes around in an ongoing, ever-increasing stream of loving action that will remake our world in God’s image. We don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to do it all by ourselves. We just need to be open and generous in sharing the gift of love we have received. As we share in love, both the love and the basic requirements of life, we are carried along in the stream ourselves.

May we notice this week the times and ways in which the stream of divine love touches us. May we then open our hearts and hands to let it pour forward to others as well.

Readings for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jun 25, 2023

We are Never Forgotten

Isolation is one of the most damaging factors that impacts our mental and physical health and well-being. It doesn’t need to be as extreme as solitary confinement in a prison or torture center. Isolation socially creates lasting scars. A child who is rejected and teased by peers grows up feeling unworthy of love and respect. An adult whose ideas are regularly mocked begins to think they are just foolish whims, not accurate perceptions of reality. An older person with no family or friends is more likely to die early than one surrounded by both. A people whose customs are different from those of the other people among whom they live can easily become hesitant to continue those customary activities. This is especially true for younger members of the community. Isolation sets in and fears of being forgotten.

As humans, we are social beings. We share this quality with other primates and many, many other types of creatures. We need each other for support, for development of necessary skills, for the basics of survival, and for physical and mental health. Those who are isolated do not survive as long.

In the recent past, we have all had a taste of isolation from family and friends when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down our freedom to venture out without worry into the world outside our homes. The difficulties of being with the same people all the time or of being alone all the time was somewhat mitigated by our access to social media and the internet. Zoom parties, meetings, school classes, and even wedding receptions filled some of the holes in our social lives. Our parish stepped up with Zoom gatherings in which we played actively as household teams in trivia contests and scavenger hunts. We’re still laughing here about the time my daughter-in-law grabbed me and put me in front of the camera as “something in the house older than you are!” We won that point!

Prophets often find themselves in situations of isolation. Speaking truth to power does not typically go over well. Jeremiah, for example, didn’t want to be a prophet. He often complained to God about what a raw deal he had gotten in being called to prophesy. He tried hard not to speak, but the words burned within him until he simply had no choice but to let them out. And then, “I hear whisperings of many … all those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.” (Jer 20:10-13) He was nearly killed for his telling of the truth he heard from the Lord about the coming conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Yet he remained faithful. “The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion.” He trusted that he was not forgotten and that he would experience vindication. The Lord “has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!” The Lord is to be praised for supporting those who depend only on him. They will not be on their own to get by. They are not forgotten.

St. Paul reminded the people of Rome that human imperfection (aka sin) has been part of our experience from the very beginning. The story of the sin of Adam is a way of explaining both this imperfection and the death in all its forms that accompanies imperfection. Paul spoke as a teacher of the Law, from within the Jewish tradition, as he proclaimed the wonder of “the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ” whose willingness to die rather than deny the truth overcame death for all. When one human being chose not to obey God’s command, all who followed were also separated from God. But when one human being chose to obey and give himself for the truth, all who followed were freed of that separation from God, that death. It was the grace of God, given as a gift from Jesus, that overflows to all. (Rom 5:12-15) No one is forgotten or excluded. No isolation anymore!

Does this mean no one will be in danger anymore? Or that no one will feel alone? Or that everyone will welcome the prophet who comes speaking truth to power? Unfortunately, the answer must be “No.” However, when Jesus was sending out his disciples to witness to what they had seen in their time with him, he reassured them. “Fear no one.” Speak boldly of what you have heard whispered or in the dark. All is to be proclaimed to the world now. It may not be well-received, but don’t worry. Those who can kill the body can’t kill the soul. (Mt 10:26-33)

Jesus used a beautiful image to express the loving care of the Father. “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin! Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.” For the poor, a sacrifice of small birds rather than of a larger animal allowed for compliance with the requirement to offer sacrifice at such times as the birth of a first son. The sparrows are of little monetary value, but even they are treasured by the Father.

In another homely image, Jesus reminded his hearers that the Father even knows how many hairs are on each person’s head. I’ll guess that most of us have no idea how many that might be, even as our hair gets sparser with age.

“So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows,” he says. Speak the truth you hear from me. Admit that you are my friend and follower of my teachings. I will support you and acknowledge you when you meet my Father.

Jesus ends these instructions with a rather disturbing image. “Whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” That would be pretty awful. However, it might be seen as a reminder that we all have a choice to be in union with God and others or to turn away. The Father never forces anyone to come for a hug of divine love. Neither does Jesus. It is always our choice to join with him or remain in isolation. When and if we turn back and acknowledge the Lord’s love, we will be welcomed. We won’t have been forgotten!

Today and this week, let’s pray that we will be open to see the Lord’s presence in our daily lives – through those we meet and the activities in which we are engaged. We are not alone. Even when we are by ourselves, the Lord is with us. May we always know the love of our family and friends. And may those who have been hurt or abused or otherwise traumatized and those who are suffering isolation and abuse right now, find a bit of healing and relief each day through the love and care of their friends.

Peace be with you. You are never alone or forgotten.

Readings for the 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jun 18, 2023

Without Cost You Have Received

“Money can’t buy love.” God’s interaction with humanity might be summed up in this simple phrase. It seems self-evident and we assume our interactions with family, friends, and strangers will start with this premise. However, all too often we forget. We start worrying if the person we are will be attractive enough, if the clothes we wear are of the “right” style, if the things we like to do are “cool” enough, if our economic or social situation will work against us. So many things to burden our hearts and minds.

For better or for worse, God doesn’t work that way. God met Moses on the mountain and reminded him of the way He had treated the Egyptians when He led the Israelites out of slavery. The Lord promises to love and care for this specific people above all others. In return, the Lord asks only that they live in covenant with Him. (Ex 19:2-6a)

Jesus too, in looking around at the people among whom he was living, teaching, and ministering, took pity on them because “they were troubled and abandoned,” like sheep without a shepherd. He envisioned an abundant harvest of hearts waiting for love, but not enough people willing to reach out and work in the harvest. He sent his followers to proclaim the coming of the kingdom by healing the sick, driving out demons, raising the dead. All this was and is to be done without charge, because all has been freely given to them. (Mt 9:36-10:8)

Jesus himself gave everything, including his life, as a free gift of reconciliation between humanity and the Father. The shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. It cost the sheep nothing. (Rom 5:6-11)

Today we too are called to love freely and share love with all we meet. We don’t typically cure illnesses or raise the dead to life again literally. However, a smile, a kind word, a patient willingness to wait our turn in line even when someone else is moving slowly ahead of us, all are gifts of healing we can bring.

The other day, an older man at the grocery store was trying to complete a purchase. At first, he couldn’t find his wallet, so he walked away from the checkout stand. The checker knew him and simply put the goods aside, ready to start on my purchases. Then the man called out the checker’s name and returned in great joy. He had found the wallet, in a different pocket than where he usually kept it. I told the checker I would wait for the man to complete his purchase. It should have been very simple, but it wasn’t. When the final total was reached, the man tried to use his debit card to make the payment. He tried two different PINs, neither of which worked. He didn’t want to try too many times and lock the card, but decided to try one more time. Very carefully, he entered the number, and it worked! He was amazed and delighted. I smiled at him and said simply. “See, third time was a charm,” echoing what he had said just before trying the third PIN. He had been feeling upset and ashamed that it had taken so long to do a simple task, but now his spirits were lifted and his embarrassment ended. As he picked up his purchase to leave, he tipped his hat and bowed to me, with a happy smile. I responded in kind and he went on his way, with a spring in his step. For a short while anyway, something within him was healed.

We are all called to serve our world, our sisters and brothers, in simple, everyday, ordinary ways. When we do, the Kingdom of God is here. We have received without cost. Now we give freely of what we have received.

Readings for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Apr 30, 2023

The Good Shepherd – Here and Now

Shepherd with dog and sheep

It’s Good Shepherd Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter.

I didn’t have a lot of experience with sheep or the role of shepherds when I was growing up. We lived in town and more cattle were raised in our area than sheep. Farmers in the area surrounding us raised wheat and other grains. Some raised grass for seed. There were orchards too. When I was in high school, some folks began planting grape vines as well, realizing that the climate was much like that in areas of Germany famous for fine wines. But we didn’t see a lot of sheep.

My first real introduction to the realities of raising sheep came on a trip to southern Idaho to visit friends there. We drove through a great treeless area with high mountains that looked somewhat like piles of sand that God might have stacked up in a sandbox while playing during the time of creation. As we came down from the pass into the valley, there was a large flock of sheep grazing in the scrub lands there. The shepherd had his wagon and lived in it as he traveled with the sheep and protected them. His dogs were busy monitoring the movements of the flock, so none of the sheep wandered off and all were safe from predators. It was a very solitary life and he seemed very happy in his work.

More recently, a couple members of my family have raised sheep and other ruminants. It takes a lot of time and care to keep them healthy and to harvest and process the wool. It’s fun to visit and feed them, but I’m not planning to get any myself!

Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd. A good shepherd knows the sheep and is recognized by his or her sheep. Though they don’t realize it, they depend on the shepherd for protection and for knowing where they should go and when. They travel together as a group. The sheep don’t always go in the same direction at the same time. Sometimes they try to wander away, to taste the grass just over there… The shepherd brings them back to the group, so they aren’t lost (or eaten by somebody else).

We are much like the sheep. We don’t always know what we should do or where we should go. We don’t always go in the same direction as the rest of our community, our flock. But we are stronger when we work together and help each other. Our Good Shepherd is there to guide us along the way, with a nudge here and an opportunity there. People come into our lives whom we might never have expected to meet and we learn from their journey through life as we share a time together.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, we traditionally pray for vocations. That used to mean vocations to priesthood or religious life. Today the concept has broadened. Deacons serve our community once again, as they did in the early church. Lay men and women fill various roles within the community. Beyond the bounds of our religious communities, we also recognize that each person has a calling in life. Some will be parents. Some will not. Some will be teachers, healers, students, explorers, engineers, scientists, anthropologists, software developers, and so forth. Each role we are called to live out in our lives is our individual vocation. All are called to serve. And so we pray not only for vocations to service in clerical and religious life, but also for vocations to the many roles we all play in our families and communities. In all of these, we follow our Lord, the Good Shepherd who knows and calls us each by name.

As we move through this week, let’s keep our eyes open to see our shepherd in the day-to-day events of our lives. He’s not always very obviously marching in front of the group of us, but we can be sure he’s there among us, keeping an eye out for danger and guiding us into good pastures with plenty to nourish us.

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter – Good Shepherd Sunday

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Feb 5, 2023

Light and Salt – Justice for the Poor

Salt of the earth, light for the world – the essential calling of the disciple is to live a life that shines with the goodness of the Lord, a light that shines in the darkness, so those who see it understand the glory of the Father in heaven. (Mt 5:13-16) Jesus is very clear on this point. It’s useless to live in a way that hides the light of love from others or that does not season interactions with love and care for others, because then God’s glory can’t shine forth into the world of human social life.

This insight of Jesus was not unique to him. We often think that Jesus thought up most of what he taught, but actually, there is a long tradition in Judeo-Christian thinking that focuses on the interaction between those who have the necessities of life and the power that goes with it and those who do not.

The prophet Isaiah spoke very clearly of this (58:7-10), in words that many of us first heard spoken by Jesus about the final judgement in which the “sheep” would be separated from the “goats.” “Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them…” These words of Isaiah were spoken to a people returning from exile in Babylon. To the extent that they created a new society in which justice and care for the poor and oppressed were foundational, the light of that society and its people would break forth like the dawn into the world. The Lord would be present among them and be a source of protection and healing for them. “Light shall rise for you in the darkness…”

This kind of life is not to be a source of pride for Jesus’ followers. It’s certainly not a message that is easily accepted in a world in which those with power don’t easily share resources with those who have nothing to give them in return. But as St. Paul points out (1 Cor 2L1-5), the persuasiveness of the message of the Gospel is the result of the demonstration of Spirit and power that flow from the positive change that the foolishness of the message and lifestyle produces. Doing hurtful things leads to anger and revenge – an intensification of the evil that provokes them. Doing good things for others leads to more goodness being shared.

How does this play out for us today? We have a lot of social safety nets that are intended to help protect and support those who for one reason or another are unable to earn the money needed for food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and education for themselves and their families. These programs provide essential support to a lot of people that we might not ordinarily realize are struggling.

As an insurance professional specializing in health insurance, I hear a lot of stories from people struggling to keep food on the table and a roof overhead for themselves and their children. I often work with middle-class people who suddenly find their income crashing and discover that what they always took for granted is not guaranteed for all in this country. I explain how the social safety net works, based on my own experience with it, and encourage them that it’s not the end of the world if they need to move to Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California) for a period of time. I encourage them to look at the supplemental nutrition programs for their families (aka, food stamps) and to take advantage of the help, so that they have a chance of getting back on their feet. Sometimes I work with people who will never be able to support themselves, due to illness or injury, including mental illness or addiction. It is a great joy to me to be able to offer help to those who are despairing of ever living a “normal life” again. On more than one occasion, I have had people react with tears of joy to know that their prayers have been answered and help is available. Not a common experience in the insurance field.

And yet, there are still folks who have even less and don’t qualify for this governmental help. We think of refugees and asylum seekers in this category. It’s not easy for them to get along and figure out how the very different legal and socio-economic systems here work. Lots of people are involved in helping and offering a welcoming hand to these new arrivals.

Once they have been here for a while, there are still obstacles. I worked with a young person the other day who is a DACA recipient. They can’t get a policy through the Affordable Care Act marketplace because we as a nation have not yet come to terms with the fact that these young people are ours just as surely as if they had been born here. We have raised them and educated them and shared our dreams, visions, and expectations with them. They have jobs and businesses and are giving back to the country which raised them. And yet some of us still want to throw them out because their parents brought them here so they could be safe from the violence or oppression in their native communities. Fortunately, my young client was able to afford insurance outside of the subsidized plans. Not all are so fortunate.

How do we react to the discrepancies in income and opportunity in our country. Do we work to make sure the hungry have enough healthful food to live a decent life? Do we complain that a homeless person has been given a cell phone so they can get medical care and other essential services? Have you tried to find a pay-phone in a telephone booth lately? Without a cell phone, it’s next to impossible to access basic services if one does not have a home.

As you may have guessed by now, these are questions and issues about which I am rather passionate! I see too many folks on a daily basis who are struggling and I know the great blessing that having folks who are willing to share their bread with the hungry, to clothe the naked, and find homes for the homeless can be.

If you ever wonder about the wisdom of the Gospels and of efforts to help those who struggle, I encourage you to volunteer with others from your Church community or other social service programs. Get to know some of the folks who serve and some who are served. There’s a tremendous richness in the encounter and a deep, deep faith among those who have nothing but faith to hold onto.

“Light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday,” says Isaiah. “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father,” says Jesus.

Here we go on the journey together.

Readings for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A

Sunday Mass at Resurrection Catholic Community, Aptos, CA

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Dec 30, 2022

Family In Its Many Facets

Families come in many shapes and sizes. It’s something of a cliché to say that, but it’s true. We are each part of a family. Some are born into the family in which they grow up. Others are chosen and adopted into a family. Some are sheltered and loved by a family into which they were not originally born. But families are an essential part of the healthy development of any human being.

And about that many shapes and sizes part – there’s a lot of variation there too.

In some cultures, only one’s father’s side of the family are considered to be relatives. In others, it’s mother’s side. In a few (our own included), both sides of the family are relatives.

Then there are the “fictive kin” – the folks with whom relationships are established by choice of adults in the life of a child, or later by the individuals themselves. Godparents are fictive kin, for example, considered to be sharers in the responsibility of raising the child.

There are folks to whom we give kinship titles simply because they are older adults in our community or the network of friends of our relatives. We had several older women whom we called Grandma when I was growing up. One was the mother of an uncle by marriage. Another was the mother of friends who generously shared her love with us too. In some cultures, adult men and women are addressed as Uncle or Aunt.

And then there are the families that grow together in close friendship through many years spent together. We shared our lives with another family as children. Our parents became very close friends over the years. We traveled to see each other often and spent Thanksgiving together nearly every year. (The roads were too dangerous for regular travel again until February or March after that weekend.) When they moved to our community, we shared meals and time together at least a couple of times a week. We are still fond of each other and enjoy our time together.

These thoughts come to mind as we celebrate the Holy Family. Jesus was born into a family. When Joseph accepted Mary as his wife, he became the legal and social father of Jesus. How the conception of Jesus occurred didn’t matter. Joseph became Jesus’ father, responsible for loving him, teaching him, raising him to be a good man. Joseph did a fantastic job of being a father, just as Mary did a marvelous job of being a mother.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were not an isolated family. They lived, loved, and grew together within a community of other people in their village. This foundation prepared Jesus to go out when the time came and share the news that each of us is loved as a child by the Creator of all. We are so loved that we are to call that creator Dad/Daddy/Papa/Father. The term he used is Abba and is used by children to this day to speak to their fathers.

On this Feast of the Holy Family, let us rejoice in the gift of family and pray that in our lives we too will grow in wisdom, age, and grace through our days spent in ordinary activities and the special times that we share. May we each become part of a Holy Family too, dancing our way into eternity.

Readings for the Feast of the Holy Family

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Nov 6, 2022

Playing the Long-Game on God’s Team

Several things have been on my mind this week. We have just celebrated All Hallows Eve, All Saints, and All Souls. The weather is changing. In the Northern Hemisphere we are settling into our school and colder weather routines. It’s getting darker. We’re beginning to get rain on the Central Coast of California. Other areas are seeing snow already.

While much of the hemisphere settles in for a long winter sleep of the vegetation, here the grass is sprouting after a long, dry summer and early fall. By Christmas, all will be green and beautiful. Wildflowers will be in bloom and it will feel to someone from farther north to be spring already. I must admit, it took me a while to get used to this.

But despite the appearance of spring outside, it is dark earlier and colder. Rain gear is needed and with the humidity, warm coats are a must.

We play the long-game in our lives in the natural world. Nothing happens overnight. Things just begin, grow, and reach their term over an extended period. Sometimes what develops is objectively good. Sometimes not so much.

On the grand stage of international relations and the history of peoples, the long-game of God becomes even more important. We are all called to play our part in it.

In the second century before Jesus was born, Greek warriors, led by Alexander the Great, conquered much of the known world. Palestine was one of the conquered lands. The Greeks were not a people who encouraged the peoples of conquered lands to continue their own religious beliefs and traditions. Conquered people were expected to worship the Greek gods instead of their own. This applied to the people of Israel as well. Some of the Jewish leaders encouraged the people to go along with their new rulers. But not all agreed to that and resistance arose, led initially by Mattathias, son of John, and later by his own son, Judas Maccabeus. It was a time of great turmoil and struggle. Eventually, the Greeks were conquered by the Romans, who allowed Jews to worship as they pleased, as long as they did not contest Roman rule. But that’s a story for another time.

As we near the end of our liturgical year, we listen to the witness of a group of Jewish martyrs during the years of Greek rule of their land. Their story is told in the second book of Maccabees. (2 Mac 7:1-2, 9-14) Seven brothers and their mother had been ordered to eat pork, in direct opposition to Jewish law. All refused. One by one, they were tortured and killed, with their mother being the last to die. Each brother got a turn to speak and each testified of his willingness to die rather than to break God’s law. They spoke of their trust in “the King of the world (who) will raise us up to live again forever.” The Sunday reading only includes the stories of the first, third, and fourth brother, but the story of all is found in the complete text.

The brothers and their mother recognized their place in God’s long-game. They knew that whatever happened to them, God was still in charge and would not abandon them. They might not/would not survive this time of witness/martyrdom, but God would raise them back to life – a life that would not end.

St. Paul recognized by the last months and years of his life that the return of the Lord was going to be part of God’s long-game too. Originally, Christians thought and taught that Jesus would return during their lifetimes. The end of the world was coming soon. But as time went on, it became clear that it was going to take longer.

Paul writes to the people of Thessalonica (2 Thess 2:16-3:5) to encourage them to keep up their hopes and good work, encouraged by the grace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. He asks God to bless them and strengthen them to live in faith through good deeds and words. They are to carry on Christ’s work in their families and communities. He also asks them to pray for him, for protection from those who have lost faith or never believed. Finally, he prays that the Lord will continue to guard them and guide them in their lives of faith, helping them to carry on their lives of faith with the strength of Christ.

Jesus too speaks today of the reality of life after death. (Lk 20:27-38) A group of students of the Law, the Sadducees, did not believe in life after death. The concept was one that had developed slowly in Jewish thinking and was not accepted by all. Trying to trap Jesus into falling into either the camp that believed or the camp that didn’t, and thereby enter into the religious politics of the day on one side or the other, they presented a case study.

A man was married, but his wife had no children before he died. According to the Law, the man’s brother was to marry his brother’s widow. (It was allowed to have more than one wife at that time.) He too died without her bearing a son. The son would have been considered the child and heir of the first brother. This continued through a total of seven sons and marriages. The woman never had a child. Eventually, all had died. They asked Jesus, “Now at the resurrection, whose wife will that woman be?”

Jesus answered, but from a totally different perspective than consideration of inheritance of family position or heritage. Those who die no longer are bound by traditions such as marriage. They are free like angels. They are children of God and cannot die again.

Jesus knows that God’s approach is to act over time, touching the hearts and minds of people, so that gradually humans come to live as members of the Kingdom of Heaven in their daily lives. It’s a long-game strategy, but it is consistent with the reality that God created us to be free to make up our own minds about what to do and how to act. God doesn’t force anyone to act justly or lovingly. No one is forced to forgive or to accept suffering or criticism rather than act evilly or curse the opponent. Each person must decide personally how to react in good and hard times.

It’s a bit like the struggle sometimes waged in households over what kind of language is acceptable for children and adults to use. If everyone is using foul language at school or at work, is it OK to use it oneself? What alternatives are there? How can one be part of the group and not behave exactly like everyone else? Does it really make any difference in the long run?

Pope Francis, speaking to the Catholic community of Bahrain recently, encouraged them and all of us to do what is good “even when evil is done to us.” He continued, “There will be cases of friction, moments of tension, conflicts and opposing viewpoints, but those who follow the Prince of Peace must always strive for peace. And peace cannot be restored if a harsh word is answered with an even harsher one. No, we need to ‘disarm,’ to shatter the chains of evil, to break the spiral of violence, and to put an end to resentment, complaints, and self-pity.”

This is long-game language and strategy. We are all called to play the long-game on God’s team.

I pray that you and I will have the courage and strength to make decisions that lead to reconciliation and peace in our families, our communities, and our world in the days and weeks to come. We are going into the holidays soon. A new year will begin for our Church community in just a couple of weeks. 2023 will be upon us before we know it. Now is the time to commit ourselves to the long-game of God’s kingdom, to build a world of peace, forgiveness, and mutual care and support.

Go team!

Readings for the Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle C

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Oct 16, 2022

For the Glory of God, or the Good of my Soul

God answers all prayers:
Sometimes He says Yes,
Sometimes He says No,
And sometimes He says …
You’ve got to be kidding!

These words graced a placard in my mother’s kitchen for many years. I’ve always liked it, though it arrived in the kitchen long after I had grown up, so was by no means a constant presence during my childhood and adolescence.

We hear often that we are to pray in good times and in bad. We are to ask God confidently for what we need. We are to believe with mustard-seed hope and move mountains through our faith.

Many examples of prayer and faith are before us in Scripture. One memorable case occurred not too long after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and begun their travels through the Arabian Peninsula. (Ex 17:8-13) Amalek, king of one of the peoples living there, led his soldiers in battle against the Israelites. Moses sent a younger man, Joshua, to lead a group of men out to battle against the Amalekites. He himself went up to the top of the hill, taking the staff of God with him. This was the staff which had been used before the Exodus to show God’s might to Pharaoh and convince him to let the people leave Egypt. It was the staff used to part the Red Sea as well. It was a sign of the presence of God with the people long before the tablets of the Law and the Ark of the Covenant came on the scene.

Moses took two men with him up to the hilltop, Aaron and Hur. He raised his hands in prayer to the Lord on behalf of the Israelite defenders. As long as his hands were raised in prayer, the Israelites were winning. When he tired and lowered his arms, the battle went against them.

As the hours dragged on, Moses got very tired and finally sat on a rock, with Aaron and Hur helping him hold up his arms in prayer. This made it possible for the physical manifestation of the prayer to continue. With this backing of faith and God’s help, Joshua and his men defeated Amalek and his people by sundown.

In this example of Moses in the desert, the physical action of raising hands in prayer is presented as essential to its efficacy. Does this mean that unless prayer is accompanied by physical action it will not work? Not at all. Prayer is any communication with God. It can be silent, still, and very personal. It can also be expressed physically and in groups through lifting up one’s hands, kneeling, dancing, singing, or other forms of movement.

Jesus was well aware that not all prayers are answered immediately or necessarily in the way the petitioner hopes or expects. Yet he encouraged his followers to continue praying and not give up or get tired of doing so. He told the story of a widow who had to deal with an unjust judge. (Lk 18:1-8) Widows had no real social standing and no one to support or advocate for them. Women had to have a man to protect and speak for them. This woman had no one.

The judge to whom she appealed for help in a case was not interested in anything but his own benefit. He had no interest in helping the powerless widow. After all, it could put him at a disadvantage in dealing with the powerful adversary she was facing. This would not be the first time something like this had happened, nor would it be the last.

But Jesus put a new twist to the story. The woman did not give up. She kept going before the judge and demanding justice. Finally, the judge got tired of her constant demands and appearances before him. He gave her what she wanted.

Jesus noted that God is not like that unjust judge. God cares about people and will pay attention to those who seek help. God will answer their prayers.

Then Jesus wonders, will the Son of Man actually find faith on earth when he returns? Son of Man is a title referring to the Chosen One of God. He used it in reference to himself and wonders if there will still be people who are following his teaching and work for justice when he returns again. Will people like you and me still be filled with faith and trying to live as he taught?

St. Paul touches on the same theme in the letter he sent from prison to Timothy. (2 Tim 3:14-4:2) He reminds Timothy and all of us of the examples and stories of faith and prayer passed down to us through the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as through the teachings of the apostles. We turn to Scripture for understanding of God’s presence in our lives and world and what that means for each of us. We learn from the stories of our ancestors in faith so we are ready to carry on the good work begun by those who came before us. Their example also helps us to persist in our beliefs and behavior, so that the kingdom will continue to grow and spread in our world. The work does not/did not end with the death of the apostles or even of the rest of the first believers. It continued through centuries and millennia, reaching even to our times.

So how do we deal with the reality that it doesn’t always seem that God hears or answers our prayers? A child might say, “I asked God to help me on the test, but I still couldn’t remember the answer!” An adult might pray for a child to return to church again. A person might pray for a better job or for the healing of the illness of a loved one. Many prayers are not answered the way we who offer them are hoping and/or expecting.

Yet there are times when after a great disappointment, and the seeming refusal of God to answer a prayer, something much better happens – something that is totally unexpected. A window opens when a door has slammed shut in our faces.

I go back to a key experience of my growing up years. We always attended a novena to St. Francis Xavier in March. My grandparents had shared this tradition with my parents when they were children and my own parents’ first date was to attend the Novena of Grace. Nearly every year we spent nine days celebrating the Novena. There were two prayers that were offered each day. The first is a prayer that includes mention (silently) of whatever the individual’s petition/request is. In the prayer, petitioners ask St. Francis to go to God and request a particular favor on their behalf. This is not a request for the saint to grant the request. It’s more like asking a big brother or sister to go talk to Mom or Dad on my behalf!

The prayer ends with a statement that I try to remember and encourage you to remember too. “But if what I ask is not for the glory of God, or the good of my soul, obtain for me what is most conducive for both.”

God answers all prayers. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is “You’ve got to be kidding!” And to this I would add, sometimes it’s, “Try this instead, I think it will work out better for all.”

I think this is the mustard-seed faith we must have. We don’t always know what is best. God does. And even when we mess things up, God is still there, loving us and bringing something good to birth. And eventually, mountains move. We can count on it.

Readings for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Sep 18, 2022

God’s Got Friends in Low Places

Country music has never been one of my go-to forms of entertainment. It’s not that I don’t like it. No, it can be quite entertaining. It’s just that there are a lot of other genres I find more enjoyable. I like to sing along and the sadness of so many of the country music stories just doesn’t often fit my mood.

So, it struck me as funny at the wedding reception of one of my children to hear the song, “Friends in Low Places,” by Garth Brooks. I’m not sure I had ever heard it before that day, but I really enjoyed dancing to it as I thought of some of my friends in low places – places where most of the guests at the wedding might never have had the chance to find friendships.

Two of these friends lived in the cemetery behind one of our local churches. It was a cemetery that had fallen out of use and was not being tended well. Graves dated back to the mid-1800s and the records of who all were buried there had been lost in a fire in the 1930s. John and Mary, not their real names, camped at the bottom of a small hill beside the cemetery. They took care of it.

Both were alcoholics. Both were chain smokers. I think John may have used other drugs as well. I don’t think Mary did, but she had/has a bipolar condition that doesn’t respond to medication. So, she self-medicates with alcohol and tobacco – not a totally socially acceptable way to handle life, especially for someone who really can’t work a steady job.

John had a family in another state, but he had long since left. His alcoholism and other problems got in the way of maintaining healthy family relationships. He died of a heart attack on the levee beside the river in his late 40s or early 50s. His father had died early of a heart attack too, I learned from Mary.

Where to bury his ashes became the big question. Mary was able to arrange for the parish priest to conduct a prayer service for him in the cemetery where they had been living. I was there with my young daughter. One of the men kindly shared his coat with her because she was cold. Their friends were surprised to learn that I was familiar with the Okanogan Valley in Washington, having grown up with close family friends there and having thinned apples at an orchard there one summer. They had worked in the same area as migrant workers, thinning and picking apples. There wasn’t a place to bury John, but at least we had a service for him and I made memorial cards to share with all.

A while later, it was arranged for John to have a burial spot on the edge of the cemetery, where he and Mary had lived for so long. I hope when the day comes to bury Mary, that she will receive a spot next to him. She still very much loves him.

One day, about a year after he died, Mary saw me as I walked across the cemetery after Mass. She has a very insistent manner of planting herself in front of the person to whom she wants to speak and there’s no doubt but what the conversation will occur! She had had a dream and it was worrying her. John had appeared in the dream. He was in a mobile home, on the bed, and was smiling at her. Was he OK? What did it mean? They had always dreamed of maybe one day having enough money to buy a mobile home and have a roof over their heads. Why this dream now?

I assured her that it was wonderful news. He had come in the dream to let her know that he is OK. He’s with God. He has a home now. I wish you could have seen the smile of joy dawning on Mary’s face. The one she loved is OK. He’s with God. God has friends in low places. At least one of them has a mobile home now!

Mary is still alive. I saw her again just this week. Her alcoholism has once again resulted in her having to leave the housing that had been arranged for her. She managed to remain sober for over 10 years, but the alcoholism and bipolar syndrome got the best of her again. She’s probably in her mid-60s now and plans to move to a larger city where she lived while she was in college. I don’t think it’s a wise idea. She has friends here who watch out for her and no one in the big city. But I can’t snap my fingers and make things right for her. She told me good night and settled in to sleep on the bench outside the church hall.

I have friends in low places too. Please keep her in your prayers.

The story of friends in low places and of John and Mary came to my mind as I read the selections from Amos, St. Paul, and St. Luke this week.

The prophet Amos warns those who complain about religious limitations on commerce and routinely cheat their clients, especially the poor. The Lord has noticed their actions their bragging about taking advantage of the poor. “Never will I forget a thing they have done!” (Amos 8:4-7)

In Psalm 113, we hear it said of the Lord: “He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with the princes of his own people.” Like my friend John, the Lord gives them the mobile home they had always wished they could afford… “Praise the Lord who lifts up the poor.”

St. Paul approaches the question of the Lord’s care for all from a different perspective. (1Tim 2:1-8) The Christian community is very small and has little influence on public policy or the rulers of the land. Paul calls on the community to pray for everyone, “for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.” Paul is not hoping just for a lack of persecution of the Christians, he is speaking of the importance of quiet and tranquility in the lives of the entire community of people living in the area the leaders govern. The common good, with justice for all, is the responsibility of leaders. We are saved as we come to know the truth of God’s care and concern for all of us. Jesus, coming as mediator between God and us, is a prime example of one who has “friends in low places.” We must pray for our leaders and for each other – that we all work together for the common good, with tranquil lives for all as its fruit.

Jesus himself told a story that illustrates the point in a rather surprising way. (Lk 16:1-13) It seems there was a rich man who had a steward. The steward was a business manager, responsible for handling the man’s affairs. The steward had not done a good job of it. Things were a mess and the rich man was not happy. He called the steward to his office and demanded a report of all the accounts and their status. He told the steward that he intended to fire him. Now today, the steward would probably just have been fired on the spot and someone else would have to take on the job of sorting out the accounts. But the rich man gave the steward notice. A mercy towards the steward – one we may hope the Lord will extend to each of us too.

The steward, knowing that he was not going to be able to do manual labor and being too proud to become a beggar, had to figure out what he would do with his life from that point onwards. He was certainly not going to be getting a favorable letter of recommendation from his employer that would allow him to find another administrative job! There was no social safety net either!

He was a pragmatic man. So he found a solution. He called in the folks who owed his employer money. In each case, he arranged a credit for the debtor. For one person he cut the total owed in half. For another it was cut by 20%. He did this for all of the debtors. When the employer discovered what his steward had done, he was not angry. Instead, he praised the steward for having acted prudently. I suspect he might even have chuckled a bit when he received the report of what had happened, given his praise of the steward’s solution to his personal challenge. The steward now had friends who would help him in the transition time.

Jesus himself does not condemn the steward’s actions either. He tells those who are listening to learn from the example of the steward. Make friends for yourselves in your lives now. Jesus speaks of “dishonest wealth.” The word that is translated as dishonest wealth is one that refers to wealth or property in general. Jesus is telling us to be careful with the riches we have in our lives today, whatever their form. Be trustworthy with the gifts God has given you. These gifts you have today are very much less important than the great wealth of the kingdom of God and all the gifts of that eternal kingdom. Use them carefully. Share them generously. Treasure God’s “friends in low places” with whom you come into contact.

Remember these instructions from Jesus with me this week. In many ways, you and I are also God’s friends in low places sometimes. We walk together through our journey.

Friends together.

Find the readings for the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Sep 4, 2022

As Easy as Falling Off a Log?

When we were children, my siblings and I used to enjoy walking along the top edge of logs in the forests and parks we visited. Some logs were small and near the ground. Others were very thick and we might find our heads were as high as our parents’ heads as we walked along, holding tightly to their hands. There was always the very real fact that we might at any moment miss a step and fall off the log. Mom or Dad would help us when we tottered and nearly fell.

As we got older, we got more certain of our footing and walked by ourselves across the logs, arms outstretched to maintain balance. Sometimes we made it across safely. Other times we found ourselves jumping as we fell off. Once in a while, an ankle got twisted or we landed ungracefully on the ground. Most of the time, we simply got up and tried it again.

Even as an adult, it’s fun to walk on a log sometimes. I’ve now been in the position of holding the hands of younger siblings, cousins, my own children, and even my grandchildren as they learned to walk on a log. There’s always the unspoken question, can you do it? Can I still do it? Will we fall off this time?

Falling off the log is much easier than balancing and walking along the top of the log. If the log is a bridge across running water or across a ravine, the stakes are even higher. Falling off can still be easier than getting across.

When the Lord asked Solomon what gift he would like as he began his reign as King of Israel, Solomon asked for the gift of wisdom. He explained, “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?” (Wis 9:13-18b) It’s hard enough for humans to figure out their own plans. What to do when troubles come? What career to pursue? Where to find food and shelter? Whose respect is worth courting? Solomon rightly notes that the things of heaven are even more important than the concerns of daily life, but they can be even harder to figure out. What is it that God would want us to do in this particular situation? Is it always the same? What might be different this time around?

Yet Solomon trusts that the Lord will send his ”holy spirit from on high” to help those who ask for help in finding the straight path through life. With the help of the spirit of the Holy One, humans can walk across the log of life securely. Finding the ways of heaven is not as easy as falling off a log. But the spirit’s gift of wisdom helps us walk securely across the top of the log – finding the ways of heaven in our lives each day.

Even before Solomon became king, the Hebrew people recognized the hand of the Lord in their daily lives. The psalmist notes, “In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.” (Ps 90) Our lives are short, yet through them we grow in wisdom of heart. We wish for the kindness of the Lord and receive it, as the work of our hands is aided by the Lord. That steadying hand of the Lord helps keep us balanced atop the log we walk!

As Jesus walked along on his way to Jerusalem, great crowds followed him. He was a celebrity and folks wanted to be associated with him. Would there be a miracle worked? Would he notice me and perhaps praise me? Isn’t this exciting?

St. Luke tells us that Jesus wanted folks to understand clearly that simply walking along with him in the midst of a great crowd of excited people was not what it meant to be one of his followers. (Lk 14:25-33) So Jesus turned to the crowd and spoke to them. The words he used sound quite harsh to us today. “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

Hating? Just a minute now, you say. Isn’t this supposed to be about loving each other?

When we today speak of hating someone or something, it’s a very negative notion of extreme revulsion, distaste, antipathy, or hostility that may stem from anger or fear, or a sense of having been injured by another person. But in the context of Jesus’ time, it meant something different. Hate is part of a pair of words that describes behavior. It is the opposite of love, which also refers to a specific type of behavior. It’s not a question of emotions. To “hate” a ruler, for example, means to rebel against that ruler. To “love” the ruler means to obey that person. Jesus wanted those following him to know that there would be times in their lives as his disciples in which the choices they would be called to make, the actions they would need to take, would be contrary to those expected of them by their families and friends.

In Jesus’ culture and time, one’s only security came from being part of a large extended family. No one could get along without the support and help of the family. Yet the call to follow as a disciple of Jesus was and is something that is individual. Typically, families did not all pack up everything and follow him. Families were not the individual, nuclear family of a married couple and their children that we experience in the Western world. Families included parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, in-laws, nieces and nephews, and the servants of the family. The preferences of the individual did not matter. The well-being of the family was what mattered. If one person wished to follow Jesus, there could be no certainty that all in the family would do so. Much more commonly, those who followed Jesus’ teaching would be acting on their own, against the wishes of the family. In doing this, they would be perceived as “hating” the family members who did not agree with their decision to live differently. They would be rebelling.

Jesus described the reality of social isolation from the family as carrying one’s own cross. It is very difficult to go against one’s family, friends, and community. It is painful to follow a different path and to experience the hard words and rejection that can entail.

He warned those who were traveling with him in the crowd to weigh carefully what they were doing, just as a builder of a tower or a king going out against an enemy with superior forces must do. Everything is on the line. Can you leave behind the security of family, friends, and property to follow? That’s what is demanded of Jesus’ disciple.

Not at all as easy as falling off a log. It’s much harder to stay on the log …

St. Paul gives us an excellent example of the kind of situation a follower of Jesus might encounter that would be totally contrary to normal social expectations. (Phil 9-10, 12-17) An escaped slave named Onesimus has become a friend and convert to Christianity in Rome when Paul is imprisoned there, awaiting trial before Caesar. Slavery is an accepted reality in society at the time. Complicating matters, Onesimus stole from his former master, so not only is he guilty of running away, he’s also guilty of theft. Both carry heavy penalties.

As if that were not enough, the man from whose household Onesimus has escaped is a friend of Paul who lives in Colossae and is one of the leaders of the Christian community there. Philemon is one of Paul’s converts too.

In a very short private letter to Philemon, Paul asks him as a friend to accept Onesimus as a returning brother in Christ, welcoming and treating him as if he were Paul himself coming to visit. Paul notes that he would like to have Onesimus remain with him, but that would not be right, since legally he belongs to Philemon and the latter has not given permission to his slave to serve Paul instead. Paul suggests that perhaps the underlying reason for Onesimus’ having escaped from slavery to Philemon was so that he could learn of the Lord and become a follower and partner in spreading the Good News. He asks Philemon to welcome his slave as a man who is a brother in the Lord.

In our time, with our understanding of the evils of slavery, it’s easy to say that of course, Philemon should receive Onesimus and give him freedom. In fact, we’d say all the slaves should be freed. But that wasn’t the way things were at the time. Paul’s letter is suggesting a very new approach to human relations, in a specific and very limited situation. The community had not yet realized that Jesus’ second coming would not be in their lifetimes. And there weren’t enough of them to have any significant influence on the laws of the Roman Empire! But they could decide to go against the prevailing custom and forgive a thief and runaway slave.

For Philemon, accepting Onesimus would not have been as easy as falling off a log. It would have taken a major decision to grant the request of his friend and mentor, Paul. The fact that this short letter, of only 25 verses, has come down to us today indicates that it was a beginning of something remarkable within the Christian movement. Slaves could be equals of their masters when they were part of this new family, the Body of Christ, the Church.

Two thousand years later, we too sometimes find ourselves having to make tough decisions. We are still called as individuals to make life-changing choices. The people we serve, the occupations we enter, the friends with whom we interact, the communities with whom we pray – all reflect the relationship we have with our Lord. When our beliefs and experiences differ from those of our family and friends, it can be hard to remain on good terms with them. Families can be split apart so easily. It takes a conscious decision and lots of patience to get past differences of opinion and keep the love alive.

We each have our own calling and our own part in the Lord’s mission here on earth. How can we help each other to stay up on the log? It’s so easy to fall off.

Jesus knows that it’s much easier to fall off the log than to follow him. That’s why we have each other as a family larger than our own biological family and even our own community. He has given us himself and all the members of his family of followers. We help each other along the way.

So then, here we go. Off to the park. Who’ll get across the log this time without falling off? I’ll help you and I hope you’ll help me too.

Readings for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jul 10, 2022

Something Very Near to You

Reading these words, “something very near to you,” I find myself wondering, what is very near to me? What do I treasure most? What is a fundamental part of me that might not even be consciously mine? Do I even know what is very near to me?

As Moses and the Israelites approach the promised land after forty years of travels through the Sinai Peninsula and lands to the east of the Jordan River, he realizes that the time has come to pass the leadership of the community into younger hands. He is now old and the end of his days is at hand.

In this first reading for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Moses gives some final instructions and his final plea/dream to the people. “If only you would heed the voice of the Lord … and keep his commandments…” (Dt 30:10-14) He calls on them to return once again to the Lord, “with all your heart and all your soul.”

Early in their travels, Moses had gone up to the mountaintop and received the tablets containing the Law from the Lord God. He brought the Law down to the people and it became the foundation of their way of life and traditions. Sometimes they followed it well. Other times not. Always it was the basis of their agreement, their Covenant, with God.

As it becomes obvious that Moses will not be leading them when they enter the new land, they must have wondered, who will now bring the Law to us? Who will be the intermediary with God? Where will our leader need to go to find God and bring instructions to us?

Moses corrects the notion that the Law by which they live is something mysterious and remote that needs to be found in the sky or across the sea, or in some other far-off land. No one needs to travel far to retrieve and bring it back to the people so they will know how to live. He tells them, “No, it is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”

What is written in the Law?

St. Luke brings us a picture of what it means to live according to the Law. (Lk 10:25-37) A student of the Law, a person who had spent many years studying Jewish laws and tradition, asked Jesus a question. “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus went right back to basics. “What is written in the law?” The man responded with a condensed statement of Mosaic law. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

This answer was absolutely correct. No need to add anything more. No need to travel to the sky or across the sea. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus assured the man that nothing more would be needed.

Then came the follow-up question, “Who is my neighbor?” This is one we all need to contemplate. Is my neighbor the person living next door, on my block, on the other side of the block, my village, my region of the country, my country? How far out do I need to go before those I meet cease to be my neighbor and I no longer need to love them?

Today we often hear, “There’s an app for that!” We might equally well say, “With Jesus, there’s a parable for that!”

Jesus told a story. There was a man who was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho. This was a mountainous area, with lots of bandits along the way. He was attacked, beaten, robbed, and left half-dead beside the road.

Two men passed by the wounded traveler, but moved to the opposite side of the road as they walked by him. Neither stopped. One was a priest, the other a Levite.

(Time out of the story for a bit of explanation. Priests were descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses, who offered sacrifice in the temple. They were subject to strict rules of purity and behavior because they entered the most holy places. Levites were members of the tribe of Levi, descendants of the third son of Jacob and Leah. Levites assisted with services and worship at the temple, but were not priests. They filled roles that we would call musicians, song-leaders, acolytes, lectors, greeters, administrators, guards/guides, artists, designers, and so forth. They were held to higher standards of purity in obedience to the Law, but not as high as those for priests.)

So a priest and a Levite passed the man. The story doesn’t say whether they were on the way to Jerusalem or on the way back, but it really didn’t matter to Jesus. The point was that they were people who had higher than average position and responsibility in society and in worship, and they did not stop to help.

Another traveler came along the road. This person was from Samaria. Samaritans were hated by Jews. They were descended from some of the people who had been left behind during the Babylonian exile. Their land had been conquered earlier and the survivors had adapted their religious beliefs and practices to include some of what came from the conquerors. They worshiped on mountaintops rather than in Jerusalem. Folks traveling between Judea in the south and Galilee in the north tried to go around Samaria or spend as little time as possible there. These were not folks one would expect to find as heroes in a story told by a good Jew.

Yet this is exactly the person Jesus presents as the hero of the story. The Samaritan sees the injured man and takes pity on him. He gives first aid, loads him on his own donkey, and takes him to an inn. He cares for him there overnight, then leaves money for the innkeeper to continue caring for him, with a promise to reimburse any additional costs as he (the Samaritan) returns along the way.

Jesus asks a simple question, “Which one of these three … was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” The answer is clear – the Samaritan who was merciful. Jesus agrees and adds, “Go and do likewise.”

The command of the Law was closer to the heart of the Samaritan in this case than to the other two travelers. Care for the one in need of help, whoever that is, trumps ritual purity and practice or other societal norms.

Would it be closer for you or me? Hmmm.

How can all of this be possible?

A hymn from the early church, shared by St. Paul in his letter to the Colossians, gives a hint of how this can be possible. (Col 1:15-20) “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” All things were created through him and for him, even the great principalities and powers of the spirit world. Everything is held together because of him. He’s the head of the church, his body. The fullness (God) dwelt in him, the human man, and reconciled all things through him. Peace between God and creation was achieved through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

We are the body of Christ. We, the human members of the community. Jesus lives in us and we in and through him. Because of this, we have a real chance of living the law of love that he taught. The law that Moses says is “something very near to you” and Jesus presents as the foundation of loving a neighbor as ourselves.

Is living the law of love always easy? No. Is it always the popular thing to do? No. Is it always totally clear how to live? Not always, but there are hints if we keep our eyes and hearts open. Do our cultures and societies make this very easy? Not really. It’s much easier to love those who are like ourselves and with whom we share experiences, language, and culture. Do we have to love other folks anyway, even if we don’t like what we see? Yes. Can it just be an intellectual, “My heart goes out to you?” No. It must be practical.

“Go and do likewise.” “It is something very near to you … you have only to carry it out.”

Lord, help me to listen to your voice speaking through my heart. Help us to come together in loving service.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on Jun 26, 2022

“All er Nothin”

When I was a little girl, getting ready for first grade, my mother was quite worried. I loved to sing. This would not typically be an issue, but two of my favorite songs were from the musical Oklahoma. The songs in question were not something lovely like “Oh what a beautiful morning,” or something rousing like “Oklahoma.” No, my favorites were the ones sung by Ado Annie, the young woman with a less than stellar reputation for faithfulness or prudence in relationships. These songs, especially in the Broadway play version we had on our record, were quite risqué. Mom was afraid I would sing them to “Sister” and scandalize her (whoever she turned out to be). As soon as the movie version, with more family-friendly lyrics, was available, she bought it for us and that was the record I was allowed to enjoy.

Of Ado Annie’s two songs, “I Cain’t Say No” and “All Er Nothin,” the one that comes to mind and is running through my head after looking at the readings for the Thirteen Sunday in Ordinary Time, is “All Er Nothin.” Annie’s boyfriend, Will, has just returned from the big city, Kansas City, with tales of what “modren livin” is going to be – indoor plumbing, gas buggies goin by theirselves, buildings twenty stories high, etc. Will has heard rumors that Annie hasn’t exactly been the most faithful girlfriend while he was away. He confronts her in the song “All Er Nothin,” declaring “With me it’s all er nothin. Is it all er nothin with you?” She asks for clarification, and the song continues with examples and conditions. If you haven’t heard it, it’s worth checking out. (The same goes for “I Cain’t Say No”!)

In the first reading, Elijah the prophet receives instruction from God to anoint Elisha to be his successor as prophet. (1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21) Elijah has been in trouble with the rulers of the land off and on for a long time. He has just met God on the mountaintop, recognizing his presence in a gentle breeze. Now he has been sent to find the man who will succeed him as prophet in Israel.

When Elijah found Elisha, the latter was plowing the land. He had twelve yoke of oxen, the large team of a prosperous family. Elijah didn’t spend any time explaining why he had come or what his plans were. He simply approached Elisha and threw his cloak over him. In this way, he signaled that the cloak of prophet of the Lord was now his too.

Elijah didn’t stick around to explain what his action meant. Elisha understood immediately what had just happened. He ran after Elijah and requested permission to return to his family and tell them goodbye. Elijah didn’t refuse the request. He simply told Elisha to go back, adding, “Have I done anything to you?” At this Elisha makes his decision. He kills the oxen, burns his plowing equipment to cook the oxen, and gives the meat to the people to eat. Then he follows Elijah as an apprentice, learning to be the Lord’s prophet. All or nothing …

The psalmist sings in praise of the Lord, who is a refuge, gives counsel, is faithful, leads on the path of life and is his inheritance. With the Lord, nothing is lacking. (Ps 16)

St Paul writes to the Galatians (5:1, 13-18) with a similar theme. A huge controversy was raging over whether non-Jews (aka Gentiles) had to become Jews and be subject to the Law of Moses in order to become Followers of the Way (aka Christians). Paul said no and so did the leadership in Jerusalem when they were consulted. The reasoning backing up this decision included the understanding that the Law had been fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. The new Law of freedom to love took the place of the old laws that dictated what, where and when people were allowed to engage in particular activities. There were food prohibitions, rules about when and how work could be done, with whom one might speak, and many more. The new freedom to act in love superseded these old rules. If someone needed to be helped on the Sabbath, for example, then the new law required Jesus’ follower to help. No foods except blood, meat from strangled animals, and foods sacrificed to idols were prohibited. Women and men were equally children of God.

This new freedom did not mean license to do whatever one wished – that would be a question of acting according to the flesh. No, to act according to the Spirit required doing what would be best for the other person, what one would wish for oneself. Service in this new freedom is based on love. Only in love can one live in the Spirit. It’s again a question of “All er nothin!”

Finally, we see Jesus as he sets out for Jerusalem for the final time. Luke (9:51-62) describes Jesus’ single-minded focus on this journey. If those in the Samaritan village didn’t welcome them, OK, move on to another village. No time to stop and try to change their minds or punish them either! If someone offers to follow Jesus, OK, but know that we’re not going to be settling down anywhere along the way. “The Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” (Son of Man was a term used in reference to the coming Messiah in Jewish tradition. Jesus used it to refer to himself.) Someone else wanted to go home and bury his father, but Jesus had no time to wait. “Let the dead bury their dead.” In other words, Let those who are not with me take care of each other. “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” It’s all or nothing!

These are strong words and images. How do we understand them today? Are we to take them literally? How do we act in loving freedom to address the pressing issues of our day? Wars are raging, between nations, between gangs, between religious groups… Refugees are camped at the borders. Some are allowed to enter. Others with equally horrendous stories of probable personal danger are turned away. Issues of protection of the vulnerable among us divide our communities. Who is to be protected and how far will we go to help? It’s all well and good to speak in generalities. Who will pay the ultimate price of decisions that are being made far away by folks who don’t know us or our situations?

It’s not an easy time. We are called to the Law of Love, to the Freedom of the Spirit. Let us pray today and in the days to come for the courage to respond wholeheartedly, in prayer and in compassion, to the needs of our sisters and brothers. Not relying on logic and rules, but on the requirements of loving support and accompaniment.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on May 15, 2022

Glory – One Step at a Time

I have long been fascinated by the term “glory.” It’s a word often heard in the Bible, but just what does it mean? What is the Glory of the Lord? What does it mean if something or someone is glorified? Are there different types of glory? Does a phrase like “Give glory to God” mean to offer praise in words like “Praise God” or “Thank Heavens?” Or does it mean something else?

It’s a word that has many dimensions. Dictionary definitions include abundance, wealth, honor, treasure, majesty, brightness, and the presence of the divine. Other meanings include pride, arrogance, boastfulness, or taking great pleasure in something. It can be a personal quality that makes an individual worthy of praise. It can be described as a light shining from a being or person of great holiness. In art, we often see halos around the heads of saints and angels, visually indicating their holiness.

The word can also be used as a verb – the boxer gloried in his triumphs in the ring! Or, in a different sense, the teacher gloried in the success of her students. The mystic gloried in the presence of God in nature.

Phrases such as “Give glory to God,” when used in Scripture, can have another meaning that is culturally specific. For example, in the story of the man born blind and healed by Jesus, the authorities were demanding, “Tell us the truth – confess that you have sinned, that what you are claiming is not true!” The notion of praising God was intimately tied to being truthful. The man’s refusal to recant his account of the healing was actually totally consistent with what they were asking of him. They just didn’t recognize it as such!

The Gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Easter brought these reflections on the word glory to mind once again. In his account of the Last Supper, John tells us what happened after Judas left the table (Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35). In this Gospel, Jesus is very much in control of the narrative of what is happening and aware of his unique relationship with the Father. John quotes Jesus: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” The relationship becomes mutual – “If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once.”

There’s a lot of “glory” going on in these few brief words. Knowing what was coming up next for Jesus, it’s rather remarkable to think that his passion and death were the route to glory. And it will happen at once? A rather daunting image…

Jesus continues, making clear the crucial factor for his followers here. The fundamental characteristic of the followers of Jesus is to be their love for each other. In fact, it is so fundamental that it becomes the “new commandment.” To love each other as Jesus has loved us. That is the root of glory – a community of love.

But how can that happen? When will it happen?

The readings from the Acts of the Apostles (14:21-27) and Revelation (21:1-5a) give us a hint.

Last week we heard about the missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas to the city of Antioch in Psidia. Their preaching had mixed results. Gentiles were more open to their preaching than the Jewish community was and eventually they were expelled from the city. The moved on to Iconium, then to Lystra, and Derbe. In each city, they spent some time, teaching and sharing the good news. But it was not all sweetness and light. In one city, Paul was stoned and left for dead. In another they fled before the crowd could stone them. Nevertheless, by the time they retraced their steps to return to Antioch in Syria, there were communities of new believers in each area they had visited. They returned to each community of believers as they passed on their way, teaching and encouraging them. They selected and appointed leaders from among the members of the community and asked the Lord’s blessing on their behalf.

When they returned to Antioch in Syria, they reported on their journey and all that God had accomplished. They didn’t brag about their success. They reported on what God had done in opening “the door of faith to the Gentiles.”

One step at a time, for many years, Paul, Barnabas, and other Christians traveled through the known world, spreading the word of God’s love, building communities of followers of the way, and sharing the wonder of the Lord’s glory, reaching beyond Israel to all humans.

This mission was urgent for the early church. Jesus was expected to return very soon. They needed to be ready and to share the news of God’s love and reconciliation with all people as quickly and as widely as possible. There were many bumps along the way. Plenty of challenges and conflicts to work out. Much reflection on what had happened and what it meant. But under it all, there was a sense of urgency. The Lord is coming soon!

When the second coming didn’t come as quickly as anticipated, more reflection was needed. The reading from Revelation presents a deeper and newer understanding of what it means to say that Jesus is with us always. If he’s not visibly present, where is he and when will we see him? This reading presents a new reality.

A new heaven and a new earth – a new holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. In this great vision, John explains that God will now live with humans forever. They will be his people. He will be their God. Eternity begins here and now. Tears will be dried away. The old order is gone.

In the old Jerusalem, God was present in the Temple. In the new, there is no temple. The city, the community of believers, is the dwelling place of God.

The end does not have to come immediately. The One on the throne declares: “Behold, I make all things new.” It is already begun here and now.

Glory shines forth from the ordinary, the everyday, the one-step-at-a-time of our lives. When we care for each other, when we care for the earth and its creatures, when we notice and smile at another person, the glory of God shines forth.

We don’t consciously see the light shining forth in these encounters. Our eyes aren’t tuned to see it. But if we are attentive, we notice the love and affection and “a certain something” that is present. Similarly, at times when that love is blocked or denied expression, we notice that too. Again, we don’t physically perceive the loss of that “light,” but we feel it if we pay attention.

This week, let’s reflect together on the ways and times in our lives when the glory of the Lord shines through. Let’s rejoice in health, endure suffering patiently, and trust that with God among us, all will be well. One step at a time, we’re on our way and are taking our communities and our world along with us.

Posted by Kathleen Brewer de Pozos, PhD on May 8, 2022

A Light to the Gentiles

“Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga and reached Antioch in Pisidia.” (Acts 13:14) These words describe an event early in the first missionary journey of St. Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus. They caught my attention as I realized I really didn’t know where Perga or Antioch in Pisidia were located. So, I did a little research.

As it turns out, Antioch is the name of at least two cities in the ancient world. One is in what we know today as Syria. This is the Antioch in which followers of the way were first called Christians (Oil Heads). The other Antioch is a city in what is now Turkey, near the southwestern edge of the great central plains in the center of Turkey. This Antioch was known as Antioch in Pisidia (a region of Asia Minor and part of the Roman Empire).

Tarsus, the home city of St. Paul, is also in southern Turkey, but much farther east, closer to Syria. It was to Tarsus that Paul retreated for safety after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus led to his conversion. Following a time of retreat in the desert, he went to Jerusalem and gained acceptance from the community he once had persecuted there. But the authorities were angered by his conversion and he was not safe there, so the community in Jerusalem advised to go back to Tarsus, for everyone’s safety.

About eleven years after his conversion, the community in Antioch (in Syria) sent him on a missionary journey with Barnabas, one of the early followers of Jesus. They traveled to Cyprus and then to Turkey, landing at Perga on the southern coast in a region known as Pamphylia. From there they traveled over the mountains to Antioch in Pisidia.

The readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter begin with the story of what happened in Antioch in Pisidia. (Acts 13:14, 43-52) As was their custom, when they first visited a new community, they went to the synagogue on the sabbath to worship. After the initial prayers, they were welcomed as visitors and asked if they would like to share anything with the community gathered there. A major section of the narrative is left out of today’s reading, but it’s good to know what it was. Paul stood up and went through the history of God’s dealings with the Jewish people, from the time of the exodus from Egypt to the present. He reminded them of the prophecies of the coming of a Messiah and of God’s care for them through the centuries. Then he presented the good news that the Messiah had come, had been put to death, and had been raised from the dead. As they left the synagogue that day, they were invited to return again the next week to tell more about these events.

The reading picks up again at this point, noting that many of the Jews and others who were converts to Judaism followed them and were excited to hear this news. Paul and Barnabas continued to speak with them during the week. The next sabbath, when they went to the synagogue, a large crowd, including non-Jews, gathered to hear them speak. Leaders of the synagogue became jealous and argued “with violent abuse” against what they were saying.

Paul and Barnabas did not back down in the face of this opposition. Instead, they boldly stated that although it was essential first to present this news to the Jewish community, they were now going to obey an ancient command of God – to become “a light to the Gentiles” and an “instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.” This command is from the Book of Isaiah (49:6). It would have been well known to this community in Antioch.

Non-Jewish residents of Antioch were delighted with the news of salvation extended to them. But opposition from the Jews of the city, including some prominent women, stirred up enough opposition that Paul and Barnabas were tossed out of the territory. So they continued their journey to Iconium, another city to the southeast of Antioch. We are told that they “were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.”

In this account, we see the beginnings of Paul’s mission to the Gentile world, to all of us who are not genetically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul and Barnabas continued this practice of going first to the synagogue in communities they visited, and then to the Gentiles. They traveled extensively throughout Asia Minor (Turkey) and Greece. Eventually, they even went to Rome. Paul was martyred there in 68 A.D.

The second reading, from Revelation (7:9,14b-17) speaks of a great multitude of people “from every nation, race, people, and tongue” who stood in front of the throne of the Lamb. These people represent the entire world, gathered to praise the Lamb. They have survived a time of great suffering, washing their clothing in the blood of the Lamb, and thus being purified. The Lamb will provide all they need and lead them “to springs of life-giving water) as a shepherd. God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Not long after Jesus described himself as the good shepherd who knows his sheep and whose sheep follow him, St. John tells us of an encounter between the authorities and Jesus at the Feast of the Dedication (the re-dedication of the altar at the temple in 164 B.C.). The authorities were pressing him to state clearly whether he was the Messiah or not. Jesus refused to say so directly. Instead, he pointed to his works and his teachings. “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” (Jn10:25) Then he told them the reason they didn’t believe in his teachings was that they were not among his sheep.

John quotes Jesus in the reading today (10:27-30). “My sheep hear my voice …” He describes his followers as his sheep, given to him by the Father. Then he sates, “The Father and I are one.”

The Shepherd, who is also the Lamb, calls people from all the world, Jews and Gentiles alike. He cares for them and provides for all their needs.

This is the great good news which we receive each day as we join in prayer and reflection on the scriptures. Ours is not a faith that excludes anyone. All are welcome. All share in the gift of salvation. All are called to share this good news with everyone we meet by the way we live our lives. We are all the sheep of the Good Shepherd – cared for, protected, and guided by the One who loves us.

Do I really believe this? Do you? Does my life reflect this reality? How does the love of the shepherd/lamb shine through in my life? Do I care for others whom I meet? Am I gentle and loving in my dealings with others? Will others see His love because my life is a window rather than an obscuring wall? Much to consider, both as individuals and as a community of faith.

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Next Entries »

You Duped Me, O Lord

What Goes Around Comes Around?

We are Never Forgotten

Without Cost You Have Received

The Good Shepherd – Here and Now

Family In Its Many Facets

Playing the Long-Game on God’s Team

For the Glory of God, or the Good of my Soul

God’s Got Friends in Low Places

As Easy as Falling Off a Log?

Glory – One Step at a Time

A Light to the Gentiles

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