Friday, June 04, 2004
Gospel
Mk 12:35-37
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said,
"How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said:
The Lord said to my lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I place your enemies under your feet.'
David himself calls him ‘lord';
so how is he his son?"
The great crowd heard this with delight.
everyone wants a black and white answers, there is only uncertainly. i told a friend no tonight after struggling with it for several hours and fear of losing the friendship, and apparently i did. nothing is certain accept death. my faith leads me to certainty in Jesus, my experience leads me to that experience--but all that could be explained away by any good psycologist--its all in perspective. there are no certainies--that is what the journey of faith is about--moving forward in the midst of the uncertainties. received letter from cw friend who is a part of group that did not want the "wild man" in it. very complimentary--but again it is easy for him to be complimentary he belongs. i have chosen the outside road, and like now it is painful. there are people who come and go as friends, but none is certain, none are certain, i have discovered that i have met very few people who accept me for me--there is always something they want from me, rich, poor, middle class, and i am tired. so in the midst of all uncertainty--i walk the path of faith--i have no where else to go, i have no one else to go to. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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Thursday, June 03, 2004
Gospel
Mk 12:28-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
when i was a very young boy and struggling with a lot of issues and hearing black and white answers a minister told me: "All u have to do is to follow the Great Commandment." in otherwords as long as we don;t abuse ourselves, God or others we are ok.
reality is that nothing is black and white, we are human beings who are good sometimes and bad sometimes. m is here for the next two days and he was talking to me about some of the johns, one who propositioned him for child pornography, wanting answers to why people behave like they do.
there are no answsers. there is a story told that when the world was created God created both the good and the evil, and for us not to be boring it is necessary to have that shadow in us, just not to control us. but we let that evil overcome us, that shadow, and that is when we fall away from the Great Commandment.,
17 year old P was talking today about how he trys so hard not to use heroine but always does, and m asked me why these guys are out there. well sometimes our choices are very, very difficult to reverese, that is the nature of the human animal. but thanks be to God we are given grace in Jesus Christ.
m has a hard time seeing what we do here as work, to him we are just hanging out, but this is hard work, and this hanging out is being present to those who are not loved, we give the greatest gift of all--ourselves. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Gospel
Mk 12:18-27
Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection,
came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying,
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers.
The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants.
So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants,
and the third likewise.
And the seven left no descendants.
Last of all the woman also died.
At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?
For all seven had been married to her."
Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled
because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?
When they rise from the dead,
they neither marry nor are given in marriage,
but they are like the angels in heaven.
As for the dead being raised,
have you not read in the Book of Moses,
in the passage about the bush, how God told him,
I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob?
He is not God of the dead but of the living.
You are greatly misled."
The Sadducees disappeared completely in 70 A.D. They did not believe in the resurrection and was not willing to even consider the possibility.
tonight as i walked down polk, 30 year old j, who has been on the streets since he was 18, responded to my greeting "how are you" with "i need a life." we become what we think and believe. for years j has stated this, but at the same time because he believes he has no life, and sees no hope never follows through on getting his life together. he sees himself a bum, a prostitute, and not having a life.
for ten years i have been told how i would burn out, how it was impossible to survive on what we survive on--and yet my belief is that in God all things are possible. i do not believe in saying I cannot, there is no such word as failure in my vocabulary, there are times we fall, but we get up and keep on going, learning from our mistakes.
we are what we believe. I often say when i celebrate the Eucharist as I hold the host and cup: "Become what u receive , Be Jesus."
Jesus challenges us to believe that in him all things are possible.
Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Gospel
Mk 12:13-17
Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent
to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech.
They came and said to him,
"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion.
You do not regard a person's status
but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?
Should we pay or should we not pay?"
Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them,
"Why are you testing me?
Bring me a denarius to look at."
They brought one to him and he said to them,
"Whose image and inscription is this?"
They replied to him, "Caesar's."
So Jesus said to them,
"Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
They were utterly amazed at him.
had k alllast night, out of insulin, fighting me to get it, cannot seem to take care of himself, wore me out.
scripture for today--in the time of jesus, because the coin bore the face of CAesar it was his, so Jesus simply was saying what is caesars give to casar and to God, God. we bear God's image--we are to give God the best of ourselves--and the highest. anything that interveres with that image is contraray to God.
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Monday, May 31, 2004
Lk 1:39-56
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
And Mary said:
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever."
Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.
Sunday i spent the day at matt's 15th birthday celebration in the haight, a smooth, fun filled day, of just hanging out with friends. met stepehen for our weekly dinner, went to see the movie "SAved", excellent, excellent movie.
came back to polk at midnight and the place was crazy, just crazy, drunks screaming and yelling, found d, 25 on street, not breathiong, had to give cpr. people pulling at me wanting stuff as i dealt with him, call 911, was a heroine overdose. people are so inhumane to one another. to me this was an illustration of humanities self-centeredness--each person kept asking me, pulling on me for candy, needles, as i was trying to take care ofg someone who was near death. they were impervious to the need in their midst., damn, damn, damn.
today is the feast of visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. we have the magnificant./ this hymn is one of my favoites as Mary sings a revolutionary song of the powerful being put down and the low being lifted up. but when we look at the church and ourselves--we see that we and the church live by straighforward logic: power and privilege, palaces, badges and titles of honor. i hear pastors arguing with churches over their salary packages--any where from 75,000= 100,000.-impervious to how in that package the church is illustrating the divide between wealth and poverty. our call is to the revolution of mary, and mary still has many revolutions to accomplish. Deo Gratis! Thanks be to God!
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