What Is Your Focus?

September 10: Wednesday of Week 23 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 7:25-31; Psalm 45:11-12, 14-15, 16-17; Luke 6:20-26

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus ... Step Five).

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“Let those who use the things of the world, do so as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:25-31).

All vision is filtered. We see everything through the lens of our existing attitudes, values, priorities and preferences. This is “cultural conditioning.” Its bad elements are inseparable from Original Sin.

Jesus threw Original Sin into reverse gear when he declared, “Blessed are you who are poor.” That, and the rest of the Beatitudes, flies in the face of everything we are brought up to believe, even in the most Christian families and schools. Our whole culture is organized around the unchallenged assumption that it is normal to try to become affluent, and that it is not good “when people hate you, exclude and insult you.”

The naïve think they are “nonconformists” when they stop going to Church. But churchgoers are just as deceived if they think they are hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a parish that takes affluence and social acceptability for granted. To them Jesus says, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.” To authentic Christians, “stewards of his kingship,” he says, “You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 7:7; 15:19).

PRAY: “Lord, let me be faithful.”

PRACTICE: Challenge attitudes, values, policies. Work for change. 

Pneumocracy

September 9: Tuesday of Week 23 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 6:1-11; Psalm 149:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 9; Luke 6:12-19

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

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“Do you not know we will judge angels? Then why not everyday matters?” (1 Corinthians 6:1).

When we read about Jesus choosing his twelve apostles, we may miss what this says about the rest of us. “Apostle” means “sent.” And we are all sent. True, the Twelve had special authority in the Church, exercised now through the bishops. But Christian authority is unique: it is neither monarchy nor democracy. We can call it “pneumocracy,” meaning “government by the Spirit.”

In the Church, all “obedience”—from “ob-oe(au)dire,” to “listen to”—is listening to the Spirit. The Church is governed through communal discernment. Authorities simply have the last word in the discernment process.

We call the pope the “first among equals” (google it) among his fellow bishops. The truth is, every Christian authority (e.g. bishops, pastors) is “first among equals” among all fellow Christians. What those with authority to command really have is authority to declare what the Spirit is saying. And, yes, we must listen; but for the Spirit, to the Spirit, in the Spirit. When Church officials govern in any other way, they abuse their authority.

The greatest fault lies with the laity who let themselves be governed like passive sheep. All—without exception—have the duty to participate in the government of parishes, dioceses, and the universal Church by listening to the Spirit’s voice and lifting up their own. Silence is a sin against stewardship.

PRAY: “Lord, open my lips.”

PRACTICE: Look, judge, speak.

Who Are We?

September 8: Monday of Week 23 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 5:1-8; Psalm 5:6-7, 7, 12; Luke 6:6-11

Also: The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Micah 5:1-4 or Romans 8:28-30; Psalm 13:6; Matthew 1:1-16,18-23.

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

“Make of yourselves fresh dough” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Every birthday is a new beginning. But our real birthday was our Baptism, when all of us (except Mary, who was born “full of grace”) were reborn with divine life as the body of Christ and children of the Father. “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29).

Everything in Christianity is rooted in our Baptism, when we were incorporated into the body of Jesus on the cross, died in him, and rose with him as a “new creation” to live from then on for one purpose only: to let Jesus continue his life and mission on earth in our body—acting with us, in us and through us in everything we do.

In us, in Christ’s living presence in our bodies, the Gospel promise is fulfilled: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

Baptism explicitly anointed us to share in Christ’s kingship as his stewards. We are responsible for bringing to completion what he announced: “The kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15). For this we have to go beyond a religion of mere law-observance and “stretch out our hearts” (see Luke 6:10).

PRAY ALL DAY: “Thy Kingdom come!”

PRACTICE: Form the habit of noticing what is needed. 

True Love of Neighbor: Criticism

September 7: Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Ezekiel 33:7-9; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; Romans 13:8-10; Matthew 18:15-20

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

“If you do not speak out...” (Ezekiel 33:8).

How often do we confess the sin of not saying something? Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Ezekiel warns us what will happen if we don’t say anything. The key word here is responsibility.

We have known since Genesis that we are “our brother’s keeper.” Baptism made us more. Now we are the “keepers” of society itself. As consecrated, anointed “stewards of the kingship of Christ,” we are “response-able” for everything on earth that is not submitted to God’s reign of love.

Actually, we are “response-accountable.” We may not be “able” to right what is wrong. But we are responsible for making a prudent judgment about what we can do. Our greatest sin may be the failure to say anything.

Jesus tells us how—in three steps, beginning with “go and discuss the fault between you and the other person alone.” Then go, taking mutual friends to facilitate. As a last resort, appeal to authority. This is one of the most ignored instructions in the Gospels. We usually brood in silence, gossip destructively, gather a lynch mob, or denounce people secretly to authorities. But just keeping silence is a sin. It is a refusal of our baptismal responsibility.

Ezekiel says we will be judged on the judgments we don’t express.

PRAY: “Lord, open my lips.”

PRACTICE: Speak, write to your pastor, bishop, political representatives.

Religion and Culture

September 6: Saturday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 4:6-15; Psalm 145:17-18, 19-20, 21; Luke 6:1-5

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

Religion and Culture

“The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5).

Paul is saying there is no point in jealousy, rivalry and bickering, because fundamentally we are all equally nothing. “What do you possess that you have not received?”

More important is the truth that we all have received. We are receiving right now existence itself from God. And life. We are even receiving divine life, because God is letting us share in the life the Father, Son and Spirit have been living together for all eternity.

What we have from ourselves is nothing. What we have from God is everything. We are at one and the same time nothing and everything.

Paul was glad to be stripped of anything he might boast of—human wisdom, strength, honor, even the necessities of life—because the experience of having nothing that he could give himself or hold onto as his own made him aware that everything he did have was from God. And this kept him aware that he could count on receiving from God everything God wanted him to have. No one needs more than that.

Jesus challenged and changed the Sabbath observance, a major root of Jewish culture. He declared himself “lord of the Sabbath.” We claim the right to challenge and change the very roots of our human culture. Because all truth and goodness comes from God, Jesus is lord of every culture.

PRAY: “Jesus is Lord”

PRACTICE: Let Jesus reign in everything you do. 

Maintenance or Mystery?

September 5: Friday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 4:1-5; Psalm 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40; Luke 5:33-39

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

Maintenance or Mystery?

“It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 4:2).

Paul says we should see ourselves “as stewards of the mysteries of God.” Were you taught that? Is that the awareness you wake up with every morning? What does it mean?

“Stewards” manage what is entrusted to them. We have been entrusted with “the mysteries of God.” To manage them—to understand Christianity ourselves and share it with others—we have to “put out into deep water.” Christianity is about plunging into mystery, not puttering around with maintenance.

Jesus came to give “new wine.” His teaching is news: the Good News of call and empowerment to live on the level of God. By Baptism we are “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have to be, if we are to act divinely. This means that we—and all human culture and society—have to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may discern what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). “New wine must be poured into fresh wine skins.” We are stewards of the one who said, ““See, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5). Our task is to transform the attitudes, values and priorities of our culture, beginning with ourselves.

When we shoulder this responsibility, we become “faithful stewards of the mysteries of God.”

PRAY: “Send forth your Spirit, Lord, and renew the face of the earth.”

PRACTICE: See everything in the light of Christian mystery.

Do Not Be Afraid

September 4: Thursday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 3:18-23; Psalm 24:1-2, 3-4, 5-6; Luke 5:1-11

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

Do Not Be Afraid

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1).

Who are we working for? We are stewards of the kingship of Jesus Christ, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth. Paul writes, “Everything belongs to you… the world, life, death, the present, the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.” Our job as stewards is to make that fact the visible, experienced reality of life on planet earth.

We do it by the power of God. How else could we even dream of doing it?

The truth is, it is natural for people, ourselves included, to dream of doing it by human power. Some individuals have subjected most of their known world to their domination: e.g. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Kahn. Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Victoria ruled over vast empires. The Church has outlasted them all. And Christ will reign forever. But not through human power.

“The wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God… So let no one boast about human beings.”

Jesus showed his vast power by helping some Galilean nobodies catch fish! Then he sent them out to draw—not force—the whole world into the Church. If at times the net seems to be full of holes and emptying, he says, “Put out into deep water.”

Think about that.

PRAY: “Lord, I believe in your power.”

PRACTICE: Don’t ask whether; ask how we can transform society.

The Light of Christ

September 2: Tuesday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Psalm 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 13-14; Luke 4:31-37

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship?

The Light of Christ

“The Spirit scrutinizes everything.” 1 Corinthians 2:10

Things aren’t the way they seem. Where we see law, order, and a desirable way of life, God frequently sees the fruit of justice perverted for personal gain; the disorder of an unequal society; and comfortable lifestyles dependent on neglecting the needs of the poor.

Paul says those who are formed by the culture “do not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God. To them it is foolishness. They cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually.” Christians, however, “have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.” Those gifts let us see what is not right in the world. We need to use them as “faithful stewards” by taking responsibility for bringing about change.

Let’s be clear about it: poverty is the work of the devil. Wherever there are poor, the devil is triumphing in the hearts of all those who are not trying to do anything about it. The “rich man” who went to Hell in Luke 16:19 was guilty only of ignoring the poor man outside his gate.

To bring about inertia the devil uses two tools: selfishness and hopelessness. But Jesus “commands the unclean spirits with authority and power, and they come out.” If we are not selfish, we need to have confidence and act.

PRAY: “The Lord is just!”

PRACTICE: Look around with love. Notice.

Anointed to Change

September 1: Monday of Week 22 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Psalm 119:97-102; Luke 4:16-30

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship?

Anointed to Change

“He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.” Luke 4:18

Each one of us was anointed specifically at Baptism to “bring glad tidings to the poor.” Jesus began by announcing, “The reign of God is at hand”; in our Baptism he gave us responsibility for bringing it about. We were ritually anointed as prophets, priests and stewards of his kingship. A steward’s job is to be responsible for managing the leader’s affairs. Jesus describes what they are: He was sent by the Father with the power of the Spirit:

to bring glad tidings to the poor.

to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free.

Our job is to give hope to the poor and neglected by setting in motion reforms. It is to free those in slavery to their peer group—social or professional—by challenging cultural attitudes, values and practices. It is to give sight to the blind by showing how the word of God lets us see everything in a new light.

Jesus said this would cause conflict, even within families (Luke 12:51 ff.). The people Jesus himself grew up with tried to kill him. We need to be prudent but persistent; gentle but insistent; to go slow, but to keep going.

Seek peace, but work for change.

PRAY: “Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”

PRACTICE: Start noticing anything God would want changed.

The Bottom Line

August 31: Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Jeremiah 20:7-9; Psalm 63:2,3-4,5-6,8-9; Romans 12:1-2; Matthew 16:21-27

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship?.

The Bottom Line

“Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25

Jeremiah wanted to quit: “I say to myself, I will speak in his name no more.” It is discouraging to be humans trying to persuade humans to live and act like God—and to bring peace to earth by remaking society according to God’s standards. Who wouldn’t get discouraged?

But Baptism committed us to this:  “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice… Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed”—and transform society.

Jesus tells us the first transformation is to accept life on his terms: we must die to ourselves and all human expectations, and focus only on offering ourselves in love.

“Take up your cross, and follow me” means 1. to endure whatever falls on our shoulders as a result of the sin of the world and love back; 2. to “lose our lives”—our time, energy, hopes, pleasures and deepest relationships—and “find them” again by living for one thing only: to establish the reign of God on earth.

This is “total abandonment.” No wonder the first pope couldn’t accept it. But God gave Peter time—and gives us time. The bottom line is, this is all we have time for.

PRAY and PRACTICE:  Abandon yourself all day long through the “WIT” prayer: “Lord, act With me, act In me, act Through me.” Live only to love.