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COLUMNS
» Believe as you Pray
» Family Ties
» In Light of Faith
 
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, June 22, 2008
by Richard Linneberger
How much we perceive something to be of worth or value is a favorite topic and pastime in our society.
Worth can often be defined in monetary terms. We pay “top dollar” for a sports figure or actor/actress.
One’s value to an organization is frequently measured by the salary the individual receives.
At other times value is seen as “worth fighting for.” Many women and men have paid the ultimate price — the price of life. In doing so, they have assured the freedom of others. Freedom was “worth fighting for.”
Some would say that oil is even worth “fighting for.”
Today’s Gospel has Jesus speaking about worth: “You are worth more than many sparrows.”
True, sparrows are not particularly at the top end of our value charts these days! However, even the sparrows are worth something.
We humans have worth and value beyond compare!
Why are we, women and men, worth anything? Or better said, why are we worth so much? Where do we find our value and worth? It is God who gives each of us worth. It is not because of something we do, but what God does.
God knows each of us “by name.” This is an intimacy God establishes with each of us and is so intense and so close that “even the hairs of our head are counted.” (For some of us counting the hairs is a little easier than for others!)
This poetic language of counting is a way of saying that God is so close to us. The point is that God cherishes each of us — all women and men — God is intimately close to every person.
Is there anyone God rejects? Does God not cherish this person or that person? Is not God so intimately close to every man, woman and child that “the hairs on everyone’s head can be counted”? God rejects no one. God cherishes every person. God is intimately close to every man, woman and child.
If God is so generous, so loving, so cherishing, the question becomes: Are we generous, loving and cherishing?
If we are made in the image of God, are you and I being true to this image?
Are we being faithful to our own identity, namely, the image of God?
If God rejects no one, do we?
If God cherishes everyone, do we?
Are we faithful to our being made in God’s image?
Take a few moments now and reflect on the following.
Remember that God is so close to you and cherishes you totally. Pause and reflect.
What is one way you can be faithful to being made in God’s own image today? Pause and reflect.
God cherishes us, loves us and cares for us. Let us live in the image we were created.
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Intimacy of Prayer is like family bonds
by Mary Hood Hart
Intimacy within a family is an amazing gift.
To be in the comfortable presence of loved ones without the pressure of having to do anything to be loved and accepted.
To interact casually in the warm confidence that the people surrounding you know and love you for yourself.
To be surprised by small gestures of care and concern.
To be touched by a tender moment.
To admit mistakes and offenses and to be granted forgiveness.
This is the essence of intimacy among family, whether the family is a large, traditional family or a less traditional definition, single mom and child; grandparents and grandchild; two dear friends.
No family is perfect, of course. And sometimes we fail one another in painful and destructive ways. Yet we know in our heart of hearts that these bonds we’ve formed cannot be permanently destroyed. We do our best to seek reconciliation and start anew.
It’s tempting to believe that our relationship with God is dramatically different from our family relationships.
Sometimes God seems less a loving Papa and more like a state trooper parked half-hidden in the highway median waiting to nab us in a transgression.
Sometimes God seems less a tender mother than a stern judge, poised to give us the punishment we know we deserve.
Sometimes Jesus is not the companionable brother, like us in all things but sin, but a divine version of a Super Hero whose powers both amaze and terrify us.
Yet we know that God promises intimacy with us. And most of us aren’t intimate with state troopers, judges, and superheroes (unless they happen to also be our spouses, moms or dads).
Intimacy occurs in the context of deep trust and relaxed acceptance, which form the foundation of healthy family life.
If indeed our relationship with God can be compared to our most intimate relationships, then we view prayer in a new light. Prayer is defined as communication with God, and, it follows that when we communicate with those whom we love most, we usually don’t approach that communication as a task to complete well and be done with before moving on to something else.
We communicate with family members because we desire to maintain the intimacy of the relationship.
And, with family, we don’t always communicate with words. Sometimes our most profound communication with loved ones takes place simply by being in the loved one’s presence.
We hold the hand of one who is dying.
We sit at the bedside of a sick child.
We offer the comfort of our presence in times of loneliness and grief.
We share in celebrations.
We offer praise.
We stare in wonder at the beauty of a spectacular sunrise or a starry night.
If we begin to see prayer in this light, then we realize that communicating with God is not necessarily dependent upon our learning to say the right words, or being free from distractions, or sitting in the stillness of an empty church.
In a recent public radio presentation on prayer, from the show “Speaking of Faith,” I was struck by a quote which summarizes the similarities between the intimacy of family life and our intimacy with God.
This view of prayer frees us from some of the constraints we place on ourselves and helps us overcome the obstacles we find most challenging, especially for those immersed in busy lives with young children.
On the show professor and theologian Roberta Bondi shares this encouraging perspective:
“We often have a kind of notion, as part of this highfalutin, noble picture of ourselves as pray-ers, that when we pray we need to be completely attentive and we need to be fully engaged and we need to be concentrating and we need to be focused.
But the fact is, if prayer is our end of a relationship with God, that’s not the way we are with the people we love a large portion of the time.
“We simply are in their presence. We’re going about our lives at the same time in each other’s presence, aware and sustained by each other, but not much more than that… However we are, however we think we ought to be in prayer, the fact is we just need to show up and do the best we can do. It’s like being in a family.”
By viewing prayer as intentionally being in God’s familiar presence, aware and sustained by God in all our ordinary encounters and experiences, then we discover God’s grace every day, everywhere.
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The fall of the righteous
by Barbara Hughes
First came Rev. Jeremiah Wright, then Rev. John Hagee and most recently Father Michael Pfleger.
When religious figures demonize others or make disparaging remarks about people whose positions differ from their own, they remind us how fragile human nature can be.
Such self-righteous exhibitions spread contempt and in the process those who engage in ungodly behavior hurt the very people they intended to support.
In this case, candidates distanced themselves from the preachers they once looked to for support and everyone ended up uttering apologies prompted seemingly more by public outcry than by remorse.
It’s no secret that politics can get ugly, but it’s disconcerting when pulpits are turned into platforms.
It’s one thing to take a stand against issues that contradict moral ethics; it’s another thing to engage in smear tactics and hostile rhetoric.
If nothing else, these incidents reiterate the powerful role that people of the cloth play in our culture. They are looked to as role models.
When those who have dedicated their lives to God and the service of others overstep the boundaries of their vocations, the consequences ripple through the greater community.
Their mission is to lead people to God but when they engage in the type of condemnation that has surfaced during this campaign, it’s more than puzzling. We can only wonder why and ask what purpose does it serve.
As I pondered the above questions I had to conclude that when the reverends were busy condemning, the only people they were serving were themselves.
The power of their ordination was misdirected. With microphone in hand, they seem intoxicated with the kind of euphoria that accompanied playing center stage to a crowd whose cheers and applause goaded them on. Their words become more important than the Word of God which is love incarnate.
In a book of meditations entitled “Thirsting for God,” Mother Teresa of Calcutta called charity and humility the twins of sanctity. It’s an interesting truism which may shed some light on what happens when one is present without the other. Both charity and humility are virtues but one or the other alone does not necessarily lead to sanctity.
Charitable deeds in themselves do not necessarily make us holy. Without humility good works can be motivated by a need for recognition, a sense of obligation or the expectation that our generosity will be repaid at another time.
The adage, “Please don’t judge me by my worst day” would invite me to believe that all three of these clerics have engaged in many good and admirable works during the course of their lives. They wouldn’t be esteemed if they hadn’t inspired many people along the way.
But when hubris gains mastery over spiritual principles, which is what happens when humility is lacking, then everyone loses.
I’m sure they lent their support to the candidate of their choice with the best of intentions, but somewhere along the way, a lack of humility tripped them up.
But clergy are not the only ones who are vulnerable to such human frailty. What happened to them should help us realize how vulnerable every person, religious and non-religious, is to the prowess of pride.
It’s this level of awareness that makes Mother Teresa’s insight so valuable. Here’s a woman who was almost always on center stage because of her works of charity and yet it was never about her. Like the one who called her, she was meek and humble of heart.
In the same book she wrote, “We go about doing good to the people and so they surround us with love and respect and trust. This is why we need humility- to protect us in danger, to guard us from our falls, to guarantee the fruits of our works of charity. Our life, being so much in the public eye has the more need of humility.”
The more we are lifted up by others, the more we are in danger of failing in the virtue of humility — unless we take steps to prevent it.
To prevent pride from blurring our vision, we need to pray for the generosity to approach every task, no matter how great or how small, as a gift of love that we are offering to God. It’s the only way to insure that we do not set ourselves apart or engage in gossip or the character assassination of those with whom we disagree.
If we strive to see the good in others, we will not be tempted to self-righteous thinking because we will understand that God loves everyone and we are called to do the same.
As Christians, we are called to hate the sin, but love the sinner.
And as Scripture so aptly reminds us, we cannot claim to love the God we cannot see if we do not love those whom we do see.
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