5th Sunday in Lent (A)

Short Reflection for the 5^th Sunday of Lent (A): The Raising of Lazarus

Readings: Ezekiel 37: 12-14; Romans 8: 8-11; John 11: 1-45

Text:  And when Jesus had said this, he cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" (John 11: 43)

Meditation:  The drama of raising Lazarus from the dead confronts us anew of the same question asked of Marta and Mary… "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

We need to hear the call of Jesus, the Lord, anew and come out from the tomb of fear, unbelief, powerlessness and isolation. Let us all come out from the tomb of impotence that is ourselves.

Now that the hole world is threatened by contagion of Corona Virus – 19, we need make that profession of faith. And by professing Jesus is the Life and Resurrection would mean, in the concrete, caring for each other and the whole creation else we all perish!

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Listening to Christ's Heartbeat

LISTENING TO CHRIST'S HEARTBEAT

When you put your head upon someone else’s chest, your ear is just above that person’s heart and you are able to hear his or her heartbeat.

Hence, in John’s image, we see the beloved disciple with his ear on Jesus’ heart, hearing Jesus’ heartbeat, and from that perspective looking out into the world. This is John’s ultimate image for discipleship: The ideal disciple is the one who is attuned to Christ’s heartbeat and sees the world with that sound in his or her ear.

Then there is a second level to the image: It is an icon of peace, a child at its mother’s breast, contented, satiated, calm, free of tension, not wanting to be anywhere else. This is an image of primal intimacy, of symbiotic oneness, a connection deeper than romantic love.

For John, it is also a Eucharistic image. What we see in this image of a person with his ear on Jesus’ heart, is how John wants us to imagine ourselves when we are at Eucharist because, ultimately, that is what the Eucharist is, a physical reclining on the breast of Christ. In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us, physically, a breast to lean on, to nurture at, to feel safe and secure at, and from which to see the world.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/listening-to-christs-heartbeat/#.Xic2-VNKg_8
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4th Sunday in Lent 2020

Short Reflection for the 4^th Sunday of Lent (A): The Blind Man

Readings: I Samuel 16: 1. 6-7. 10-13; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9: 1-41

Gospel Passage:  Then Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." (John 9: 39)

Meditation:  Jesus Christ becomes the lens for seeing and not seeing… Through him we do see/not see the poor, the needy, and the injustice and the wrong against neighbors. 

Pope Emeritus Benedict wrote about today’s Gospel: “The Gospel confronts each one of us with the question: “Do you believe in the Son of man?” “Lord, I believe!” (John 9:35; 38), the man born blind joyfully exclaims, giving voice to all believers. The miracle of this healing is a sign that Christ wants not only to give us sight, but also open our interior vision, so that our faith may become ever deeper and we may recognize him as our only Savior. He illuminates all that is dark in life and leads men and women to live as “children of the light.”

Lent is a season for new seeing…

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

God and Violence

GOD AND VIOLENCE

We need to keep in mind that whenever scripture speaks about God as being offended, as getting angry, as wanting to wreak vengeance on his enemies, or as demanding that we kill somebody in his name, it is speaking anthropomorphically, that is, it is taking our own thoughts, feelings, and reactions and projecting them into God.

We get angry, God doesn’t. Our hearts crave vengeance, God’s heart doesn’t. We demand that murderers be executed, God doesn’t. Scripture contains a lot of anthropomorphisms that make for a bad and a dangerous theology if read and understood literally.

When scripture says that we experience God’s wrath when we sin, it doesn’t want us to believe that God actually gets angry and punishes us. There’s no need.  The punishment is innate, inherent in the sin itself. When we sin, it is our own actions that punish us.

We may feel that the punishment as coming from God, from God’s anger, from God’s wrath, but it is nature’s wrath and our own that we are feeling. God has no need to extrinsically punish sin because sin already punishes itself. Nature is so constructed. There is a law of karma. Sin is its own punishment.

But at the level of feeling, this is felt as if God is punishing us. However, as Jesus shows in forgiving his own killers and forgiving everyone who betrayed him, God forgives sin. God has no need for vengeance or for a justice that extracts a pound of flesh for a pound of sin. Nature already does that. Indeed, given a proper understanding of God’s nature and transcendence, it is presumptuous on our part to even believe that we can “offend” God.

To read more about how scripture texts that attribute violence to God are also archetypal, click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/god-and-violence/#.Xic0rlNKg_8
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3rd Sunday of Lent (A) - The Samaritan Woman

Short Reflection for the 3^rd Sunday of Lent (A): The Samaritan Woman

Readings: Exodus 17: 3-7; Romans 5: 1-2. 5-8; John 4: 5-42

Gospel Passage:  Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4: 13-14)

Meditation:  We have drunk of the well of Jesus. We shall never be thirsty again and that water in us will become a spring welling up to eternal life. Moreover, In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, he shows that he has crossed the borders of ethnicity, religions and cultures. Jesus reminds us that “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship, too, in Spirit and truth.” (Jn 4:24)

Yet, frontiers and borders of religion, ethnicity and politics, often, confine our God.  We are tied to a place or a sanctuary or rituals, yet the true God’s worship  is in the heart and deeds by living the Truth that is Jesus Christ.  Yes, God resides in our hearts and in our deeds!  Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

The Following of Jesus - in Letter or Spirit?

FOLLOWING JESUS – ACCORDING TO THE LETTER OR THE SPIRIT?

What I do find disturbing within church circles though, is that too many of us can be bitter, angry, mean-spirited, and judgmental, especially in terms of the very values that we hold most dear. We justify that anger by giving it a prophetic cloak, believing that we are warriors for God, truth, and morals when, in fact, we are mostly just struggling with our own wounds, insecurities, and fears.

What makes us genuine disciples of Jesus is living inside his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and this is not something abstract and vague. If one were searching for a single formula to determine who is Christian and who isn’t, one might look at the Epistle to the Galatians, Chapter 5. In it, St. Paul tells us that we can live according to either the spirit of the flesh or the Holy Spirit.

We live according to the spirit of the flesh when we live in anger, bitterness, judgment of our neighbor, factionalism, and non-forgiveness.  When these things characterize our lives, we shouldn’t delude ourselves and think that we are living inside of the Holy Spirit.

Conversely, we live inside of the Holy Spirit when our lives are characterized by charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, longsuffering, constancy, faith, gentleness, and chastity. If these do not characterize our lives, we should not nurse the illusion that we are inside of God’s Spirit, irrespective of our passion for truth, dogma, or justice.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/following-jesus-according-to-the-letter-or-the-spirit/#.XhZQQ-t7k_8
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2nd Sunday in Lent A)

Short Reflection for the 2^nd Sunday of Lent (A): Jesus is Transfigured!

Readings: Genesis 12: 1-4; 2 Timothy 1: 8-10; Matthew 17: 1-9

Gospel Passage:  “And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.’ (Matthew 17: 2-3)

Meditation:  In the following of Jesus, we, too, are invited to have our lives transfigured or transformed - NOT as dramatic as Jesus’, but equally true. Our lives need to be transformed unto the image and likeness of God. In many ways, this transformation means thinking and acting like the Lord!

We also hear God’s voice in our hearts - ‘you are my BELOVED SON or DAUGHTER - whom I am well pleased.  When we become God’s son and daughter, that is our own transfiguration! Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

1st Sunday in Lent (A)

Short Reflection for the 1^st Sunday of Lent (A)

Readings: Genesis 2:7-9; 3: 1-7; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4: 1-11

Text:  “Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me." (Matthew 4: 8-9)

Meditation:  Bread, Wealth and Powers are very strong temptations. We have our own price tag and when the call comes, we, often, find ourselves “sold”! Jesus’ temptations speak to us this season of Lent. Do we live for bread, wealth and power that we practically have become our gods? 

To counter the temptations of acquisitiveness and possessions, the Church invites us to share with the needy our talents, time and treasure – the theme of Alay Kapwa.  This season of lent, ewe need to re-affirm that we are more than bread, power and wealth!

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

The 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 7^th Sunday in the ordinary time (A)

Readings: Leviticus 19: 1-2. 17-18, I Corinthians 3: 16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48

Gospel Text: “You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him. (Mt. 5: 38-41)       

Meditation:  The gospel passage tells the NEWNESS of Jesus’ message: It is NO longer an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth – the Lex Talionis of old! Jesus says NO to vengeance! Jesus is challenging his followers to ‘offer no resistance to the wicked; offer also the other cheek; give our cloak as well; and walk the extra mile.

He speaks of forgiving those who offend or injure us; to love our enemies, as well; and to walk the extra mile. This, indeed, would tell that we are followers of Christ. Walking the extra mile; giving also our coat as well; and loving our enemies is the real meaning of that ‘MORE’ that is required of Jesus’ disciples. This is th newness of the Jesus’ Message!

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Forgiving our Differences..

FORGIVING OUR DIFFERENCES

Our differences, however much they may frustrate us and tax our patience at times, are not a crime, a sin, or indeed (most times) even anyone’s fault. We don’t need to blame someone, be angry at someone, or resent someone because he or she is different than we are, no matter how much those differences separate us, frustrate us, and try our patience and understanding.

We resent others, especially those closest to us in our families, in our churches, and in our places of work, because they are different than we are, as if they were to blame for those differences. Funny, how we rarely reverse that and blame ourselves.

Incompatibility within families, church circles, and professional circles, rarely helps produce respect and friendship. The opposite is true. Our differences generally become a source of division, anger, resentment, bitterness, and recrimination. We positively blame the other person for the incompatibility as if it was a moral fault or a willful separation.

God and nature, it would appear, do not believe in simplicity, uniformity, blandness, and sameness. We aren’t born into this world off conveyor-belts like cars coming off a factory line. The infinite combination of accidents, circumstance, chance, and providence that conspire to make up our specific and individual DNA is too complex to ever be calculated or even concretely imagined.

But blame isn’t the proper verb here, even if in our frustrations with our differences we feel that we need to blame someone. God and nature shouldn’t be blamed for providing us with so much richness, for setting us into a world with so much color and variety, and for making our own personalities so deep and complex. How boring life would be if we weren’t forever confronted with novelty, variety, and difference. How boring the world would be if everything were the same color, if all flowers were of one kind, and if all personalities were the same as ours.

We would pay a high price for the easy peace and understanding that would come from that uniformity!

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/forgiving-our-differences/#.XhOgbOt7k_8
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Staying Awake

STAYING AWAKE

The distractions and worries of daily life tend to so consume us that we habitually take for granted what’s most precious to us, our health, the miracle of our senses, the love and friendships that surround us, and the gift of life itself.

How do we wake up? Today there’s a rich literature that offers us all kinds of advice on how to get into the present moment so as to be awake to the deep riches inside our own lives. While much of this literature is good, little of it is very effective. It invites us to live each day of our lives as if was our last day, but we simply can’t do that. It’s impossible to sustain that kind of intentionality and awareness over a long period of time.

The distractions, cares, and pressures of everyday life will invariably have their way with us, and we will, in effect, fall asleep to what’s deeper and more important inside of life. But it’s for this reason that every major spiritual tradition has daily rituals designed precisely to wake us from spiritual sleep, akin an alarm clock waking us from physical sleep.

It’s for this reason we need to begin each day with prayer. What happens if we don’t pray on a given morning is not that we incur God’s wrath, but rather that we tend to miss the morning, spending the hours until noon trapped inside a certain dullness of heart. The same can be said about praying before meals. We don’t displease God by not first centering ourselves in gratitude before eating, but we miss out on the richness of what we’re doing.  Liturgical prayer and the Eucharist have the same intent, among their other intentions. They’re meant to, regularly, call us out of a certain sleep.

None of us lives each day of our lives as if it was his or her last day. Our heartaches, headaches, distractions, and busyness invariably lull us to sleep. That’s forgivable; it’s what it means to be human. So, we should ensure that we have regular spiritual rituals, spiritual alarm clocks, to jolt us back awake.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/staying-awake/#.XeaNz5NKg_8
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6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 6^th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: Sirach 15: 15-20; 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

Selected Passage: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5: 20)

Meditation:  The real challenge of the Christian message is not simply to perform what the Law requires but to do MORE.  This echoes what the Lord said of giving not only our shirt but our cloak as well or walking the extra mile!  The other way of understanding what is BEYOND the virtues of the Scribe and the Pharisee is to LOVE not only our friends but also our enemies, as well. And we measure our love not by words and rituals by our concrete deeds.

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

The Hiddenness of God and the Darkness of Faith

THE HIDDENNESS OF GOD AND THE DARKNESS OF FAITH

One of the standard answers to that question was this: If God did manifest himself plainly there wouldn’t be any need for faith. But that begged the question: Who wants faith? Wouldn’t it be better to just plainly see God?

There were other answers to that question of course, except I didn’t know them or didn’t grasp them with enough depth for them to be meaningful. For example, one such answer taught that God is pure Spirit and that spirit cannot be perceived through our normal human senses, but that seemed too abstract to me. And so, I began to search for different answers, and it led me to the mystics, particularly to John of the Cross, and to spiritual writers such as Carlo Carretto.

They offer no simple answers but offer various perspectives that throw light on the ineffability of God, the mystery of faith, and the mystery of human knowing in general.

In essence, how we know as human beings and how we know God is deeply paradoxical, that is, the more deeply we know anything, the more that person or object begins to become less conceptually clear. One of the most famous mystics in history suggests that as we enter into deeper intimacy we concomitantly enter into a “cloud of unknowing”, namely, into a knowing so deep that it can no longer be conceptualized.

John of the Cross submits that the deeper we journey into intimacy, the more we will begin to understand by not understanding than by understanding. Our relationship to God works in the same way. Initially, when our intimacy is not so deep, we feel that we understand things and we have firm feelings and ideas about God. But the deeper we journey, the more those feelings and ideas will begin to feel false and empty because our growing intimacy is opening us to the fuller mystery of God. Paradoxically this feels like God is disappearing and becoming non-existent.

Faith, by definition, implies a paradoxical darkness, the closer we get to God in this life, the more God seems to disappear because overpowering light can seem like darkness.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/the-hiddenness-of-god-and-the-dar…/…
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