lifetime

REFLECTION ON THE DAILY GOSPEL AND READINGS 8 JULY 2013

/ Michael J. Cunningham / Leave a comment

Not sure if there is anyone in the congregation that sells insurance? I remember when I first attended some basic sales training in the UK, and an insurance salesman described his technique. He would “by hook or by crook” get an appointment with the husband and wife who didn’t have insurance.

Then he would bring a box that he would put on top of the TV set in their living room, and tell them about it.

The box was their living wages, that either or both parties relied on each week to provide for themselves, their family, for food, a car, vacations when times were good, and a little savings for the unexpected.

They invariably agreed that this model represented their lives, and kept it in balance.

Then he took the box away, something bad happened, a lost job, health problems, even death, how would they manage without the box.

Did they love their kids, each other enough to ensure that the box would be there is when were gone?

A simple strategy for protection of all things physical in our lives.

This man sold a lot of policies, because his message was compelling, but also based on fear and uncertainty. Most of us want to reduce risk, and money may not be the only thing that is important, but when you have none at all, life becomes very difficult.

Now if we consider our spiritual life, what is it going to cost us to sign up for a policy that doesn’t just last a lifetime, but eternity?

Would we be interested in this policy with such a guarantee that by following the rules of the policy, which were simply based around faith and love, results of which you were going to have life everlasting in the presence of God.

Where do I sign?

It is that I want to discuss today from our readings and the Gospel.

Have you ever had a dream where you think that God was communicating something directly to you? I am sure that this happens more frequently that we think. The bible is full of appearances, voices and dreams where God communicates directly with those that need it. In Jacob’s dream he is awakened to the importance of this place and began to build a temple up on that spot.

We hear of Jacob’s ladder from this dream, which most biblical scholars know to mean that this was a stairway that would be a part of Mesopotamian temple towers of the time, where at the top the worshippers would climb and their deity would communicate with them directly.

As a result of the dream, Jacob now does not need faith, because he has been assured of God’s divine presence from his dream. He has experienced God while still on earth.

What a delight that is, to know God, in your mind and soul.

For this reason, Jacob then declares the place sacred and sets the first pillar in a new temple. He has gone way past signing up for the insurance policy; he is going to sell it to others. He cannot do anything but God’s will as he has experienced his presence.

However, this was a big deal at the time, because pillars were also used extensively in pagan worship at the time, where stones were worshiped as pagan deities. The cultic nature is further reinforced by the anointing of the stone.

Nothing is going to stop Jacob on his mission. The angels represent the messenger and communication with man and God in this dream. This communication would be repeated many times.

God’s insurance policy of trust again appears in the direct communication in the Psalms in the second reading. The promise of divine protection is given to anyone who “cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him, I will protect him.” This is a direct communication with God – an oracle of salvation for his people.

So the rules are simple, love me and I will deliver you, I will protect you. How beautiful is that.

As God made man incarnate, Jesus Christ wanted to further remove any doubt of His message. He was here to save mankind, not physically, but spiritually, the saving that really counts. The one that goes on FOREVER.

That is a word that is used extensively and incorrectly.

If we use the word forever in the spiritual sense, not in the sense that this reflection is going on “forever”, it takes a different meaning.

Forever is an eternity, but eternity does not even begin to describe the word, because we still think of things having a beginning and an end, but there will be no end to eternity, so it’s important that we are on the right side of any fences that might be present out there, and receive our reward for our faithfulness, to see the face of God.

The Gospel today shows the healing power of Jesus in the two miracles. Jesus gives back the physical life of a man’s young daughter and heals another woman who has been sick for twelve years.

However the physical healing is there to show that God has the power to do anything.

It’s a means to show that He is the one people should be paying attention, not because He has to save us but rather He loves us so much that He will endure the most painful and humiliating death to show us that he loves us, and pave a way for us to change our ways in the world.

So back to the insurance policy. Sign here for faith and love, and oh by the way, I will provide you with the bonus of supernatural grace which providing you are keeping to the main rules, (e.g. not in a state of mortal sin) you can receive every day of your life if you like.

Today we have such an opportunity again to share this perpetual love that He provides us with. The Eucharist is our greatest means to stay close to Him, it’s a gift of grace because of our faith until we have that time when we see or feel His presence.

THE DAILY GOSPEL 5 OCTOBER 2012

/ Michael J. Cunningham / Leave a comment
Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 459

Reading 1 Jb 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said:
Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning
and shown the dawn its place
For taking hold of the ends of the earth,
till the wicked are shaken from its surface?
The earth is changed as is clay by the seal,
and dyed as though it were a garment;
But from the wicked the light is withheld,
and the arm of pride is shattered.
Have you entered into the sources of the sea,
or walked about in the depths of the abyss?
Have the gates of death been shown to you,
or have you seen the gates of darkness?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all:
Which is the way to the dwelling place of light,
and where is the abode of darkness,
That you may take them to their boundaries
and set them on their homeward paths?
You know, because you were born before them,
and the number of your years is great!
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again;
though twice, I will do so no more.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 139:1-3, 7-8, 9-10, 13-14ab

R. (24b) Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
O LORD, you have probed me and you know me;
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
Where can I go from your spirit?
From your presence where can I flee?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
R. Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.

Gospel Lk 10:13-16

Jesus said to them,
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.’
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me.
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

THE DAILY GOSPEL AND READINGS 9 FEBRUARY 2012

/ Michael J. Cunningham / Leave a comment
Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 332

Reading 1 1 Kgs 11:4-13

When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods,
and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God,
as the heart of his father David had been.
By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians,
and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites,
Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD;
he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done.
Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab,
and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites,
on the hill opposite Jerusalem.
He did the same for all his foreign wives
who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
The LORD, therefore, became angry with Solomon,
because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel,
who had appeared to him twice
(for though the LORD had forbidden him
this very act of following strange gods,
Solomon had not obeyed him).
So the LORD said to Solomon: “Since this is what you want,
and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes
which I enjoined on you,
I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant.
I will not do this during your lifetime, however,
for the sake of your father David;
it is your son whom I will deprive.
Nor will I take away the whole kingdom.
I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David
and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

Responsorial Psalm Ps 106:3-4, 35-36, 37 and 40

R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Blessed are they who observe what is right,
who do always what is just.
Remember us, O LORD, as you favor your people;
visit us with your saving help.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
But they mingled with the nations
and learned their works.
They served their idols,
which became a snare for them.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
And the LORD grew angry with his people,
and abhorred his inheritance.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Gospel Mk 7:24-30

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.