Advent week 2 Wednesday

Gospel

Mt 11:28-30
Jesus said to the crowds:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Reflection

The question from Bishop Barron:
Being yoked to Christ means we turn all control of our lives over to him. can you do that? Do you want to?

Oh, yes. I want to turn control over to Him to be freed from the tyranny of self, the little jealousies, hurts, desires, and impulses that plague my days despite strengthening spiritual practices aimed at creating free spaces in my essence where the truth and the word can seep in and fill even the smallest of margins, where e can be more and I will be less

When Christ to the crowds, he was referring to the burden of Pharisee dominated interpretation of the law. There was no freedom to chose or evaluate the choices of even the smallest measure. The offer was to lay down all of that burden, the overwhelming demands of the law to take up only two rules. One, to love God and the other to love your neighbor as yourself.

That gives us the freedom to chose how to serve those two laws. Is it to be of community service? Is it to be available to listen to a brother with a wounded heart? Is it to honor your family as Jesus honors us? Is it to be a good example for others? The list of questions goes on and on to a point beyond 7x7 or 49x49. There is no limit to what we can do that reflects the spirit of the Lord working on, in, and through our beings.

Can I yield complete control? For a moment, yes. Do I want to? Yes, every time the question is posed to me or if I think of it. In this matter, however, there is like all other issues of faith and belief, only progress and not perfection.

Advent - Week 2 Sunday

Gospel
MK 1:1-8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way.

A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”
John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. 

And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Reflection:

The question today is: "How does believing Jesus Christ is Lord affect your opinions about the leaders of the world?"

Now here is a toughy. It is hard for me to address this question without giving way to bitterness and anger. It would be all to easy to sound off against both the incoming and outgoing presidents. I could easily verbally light up any ship carrying Trudeau, Johnson, Macron and just about any other leader including the Prime Minister of New Zealand. I would also torch the leadership in Holland where the fine line between assisted suicide and involuntary euthanasia is quickly being erased. How about in Oregon where a person with terminal cancer is denied treatment that is considered experimental but is, instead, offered the option of assisted suicide. 

I have stop here and bring myself back from the cliff and remind myself that political leaders are not religious leaders and cannot be trusted on to make decisions based upon moral truths. For that matter I can't trust myself to make the right decision on such matters on a consistent basis during the course of the day. 

Israel begged for a king. They got one and it the eventual outcome was disastrous. What if we were to magically evolve to a faith based leadership. Who would we trust to put in charge? The same bishops who buried decades of horror until the Holy Spirit refused to allow to allow the evil stay locked upon behind chancery doors? That is not the answer either. 

I believe that Jesus would remind us to give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and give unto God what is God's. Our leaders cannot create the kingdom of God despite their insistence that can do so or, worse yet, insist they are not responsible for helping with the creation. The best we can expect is they won't get in the way of those of us who might follow the gospel as Jesus would have us do.