Tag: <span>Earth</span>

April 13, 2021March 25, 2021

Treasure Here, Treasure There

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.” This is what Jesus tells Nicodemus, after Nicodemus does not understand His message about being born again of the Spirit.

Most people would call Jesus’ description to Nicodemus of being born again a “heavenly thing.” Compare what He is talking about, for example, to a conversation about cooking dinner, or taking out the trash.

But Jesus calls the discussion about being born of the Spirit an “earthly thing.”

All too often, even in the Christian life, all we think about are “earthly things.” We talk about making the world a better place by feeding the poor, acting with kindness, etc., all of which is good and which indeed is part of what Christianity demands.

But none of these are “heavenly things.”

In Mt. 19, Jesus tells the rich young man, “go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” To have “heavenly things,” the rich young man must detach himself utterly from all that he has.

The apostle Barnabas in the first reading does just that. He sells his property, and gives away his money. From an “earthly” perspective, this is insane foolishness. But Barnabas has his eyes on Heaven.

Is our heart in Heaven, or is it on earth? Do we still harbor a secret desire for earthly happiness, or do we truly seek to place all our treasure in Heaven?

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think about what you most dream about on earth, what you most desire. Give it to Jesus, and tell Him you that you want, not that thing, but only His will. Ask Him to build your treasure in Heaven, and to free you from anything that will keep Him from doing so.

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November 24, 2020November 10, 2020

The Grapes of Wrath

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Video games today are characterized by photorealism. Travel is quick and relatively painless. As for smart phones: One finds pictures on the Internet of all the things that used to require their own device, and now fit on that device in your pocket: Radios and CD players, cameras, DVD players, TVs, calculators, flash lights, etc.

We may truly marvel at these things and think that humanity has really arrived.

So it was for the Jews of Jesus’ day who felt like their nation had really arrived, as they contemplated the rich, beautiful adornments of the temple. But Jesus warned them that of that temple, stone would not be left upon stone.

Such admonitions could cause us to wonder: When will the next shoe drop? Dystopian post-apocalyptic stories are popular today, partly because there is a latent fear in many of our disproportionate reliance on our ultra-sophisticated technological advances.

But Jesus assures us that while, yes, conflicts will arise and bad things will happen, we need not fear total collapse until the true end–the time appointed by God.

Today’s first reading foretells what will occur when that end comes. It talks about the son of man reaping earth’s harvest with a sharp sickle, and an angel reaping the ripe grapes from the earth. This actually sounds somewhat positive until, in the last line, we learn that these grapes are cast into the winepress of God’s fury!

It is important to work for justice on the earth, to ensure that our systems of government are not oppressive, and even to strive for technological advances that can make people’s lives easier. Imagine, for example, an invention that ensured provision of fresh water to every human on the planet.

But we need not expect the earth to turn into a utopia, a near-ideal place to live, as the result of efforts for justice. Scripture is clear that the world has rebelled against God, and its state of rebellion will endure. At the end of time, the fruits the world produces as a whole will not be pleasing to God. And so, while striving for justice on this earth, we must above all strive to help others convert to Christ for the sake of their eternal welfare, after their earthly life.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think about where your hopes lie. Do you hope in some way for an earthly utopia? Maybe you’ll finally find paradise on your next vacation… Maybe in retirement… Ask Jesus to help you understand if your earthly hopes for happiness are unrealistic and perhaps unbalanced, and to help you place your hope in His destiny for you in eternity.

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September 20, 2020September 7, 2020

Way Up There

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In the first reading, we find the kind of subtle paradox that we may miss at first, and that may make us do a double-take. In the same paragraph: “He is near”; and, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways,” says the Lord.

So which is it? Is He near, or is He traversing ways that are as high above us as the heavens are above the earth?

Theologians call this the mystery of God’s immanence (im-manence, remaining within) and transcendence–the fact that He is within us or, poetically, just a breath away; and yet, his mode of being, His nature, is infinitely exalted above human nature.

In redeeming us, Jesus could have simply restored our nature to its former capability for friendship with God, as we see in Genesis. But He has taken redemption a mind-blowing step further: He allows us to share in this infinitely superior divine nature, just as He shares in our finite human nature. He bridges the divide, and gives us an opportunity to participate in the divine, in a manner not seen even before Adam’s fall. This is what it means when the priest quietly says, when mixing the wine with a drop of water at Mass, “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.”

This is what awaits us, if we can–per Jesus’ invitation to the rich young man, and to us as well–detach ourselves from everything created, from all worry, and from all ambition, in the pursuit of holiness. This participation in the divine nature is the pearl of great price of which Jesus speaks, the pearl we attain when God and His Kingdom fully reign in us (cf. Mt. 13:45-46).

But knowing that we are not fully there yet, that we are still traveling on the journey toward this objective (though partially enjoying it already through the grace of God within), we may ask ourselves: In what sense are God’s ways above our ways?

Today’s Gospel passage answers that question clearly for us. God is not only willing to forgive. He is also willing to “compensate” those He forgives, albeit at the eleventh hour, with the same rewards given to those who have persevered faithfully always. Not only that, He goes out tirelessly and seeks out the new laborers. This is crucial. He doesn’t wait for them to come looking for a job. He seeks them out.

These days, the willingness to embrace and fully reward the sinner may not strike us as much as it would have ears of ages past, because often today’s Christian has no sense of the resounding cosmic gravity of sin, of offending Him who created each of us as well as the universe itself. Yet, God is willing to embrace the idle, late-coming sinner and forget his cataclysmic offenses in a matter of a moment, in the blink of an eye, and reward him boundlessly even for those last moments in the vineyard.

Perhaps what more clearly and readily see as something foreign to us, as something far above us, is the tirelessness with which He seeks out the idle sinner, not content to wait for him to discover and react to his own misery.

Because God respects human freedom, though, which becomes a limit He imposes upon Himself, He “needs” us to pray and sacrifice for others in order to bring them the grace He wishes for them. And we do well to trust in the power of this prayer. As Jesus said to St. Faustina: “A prayer for the conversion of sinners never goes unanswered.”

Based on Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel, if we tirelessly pursue the conversion of sinners with our prayer and sacrifice, not content to passively await their awakening, our ways start to look like God’s ways, which are so far above us. And, our hearts and behavior start to reflect the divine nature in which we already participate through grace her on earth.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Imagine you are looking back on your life after death, contemplating its eternal value. Contemplate in your heart a multitude of persons from all nations and walks of life who could have joined you in heaven, with a bit more prayer and offering of your sufferings for them. Ask Jesus to inflame in you the fire that burns in His Sacred Heart for the eternal happiness of souls.

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September 18, 2020September 2, 2020

The Here and the Hereafter

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The Church exhibits great wisdom in teaching us about earthly realities. Her social doctrine, for example, goes into some detail with regard to the balance between the right to private property and the priority of the common good. She teaches us to be good and careful stewards of the great resources that have been made available to us through creation. She urges all of us, perhaps especially us lay people, to strive with all our might to build a just society, one where the principles of justice and charity reign in hearts and in the public square.

But in the end, the object of none of it, really, is earthly reality. The Church holds out no hope for an earthly utopia–that is, a society here on earth where we finally feel truly fulfilled and happy, and justice reigns without exception. Christians who focus on building a just society solely for its own sake completely miss the point. As St. Paul tells us today, “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.”

And the Psalm tells us, “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.” Only when we see Him in His eternal glory will our happiness truly be culminated.

Interestingly, in contrast to all this, we see a very earthy narrative in the Gospel, which tells us about how Jesus is traveling about, who is with Him, and how those with him are looking after His needs with their resources.

If we are not careful, we can spend our time, including our time in prayer, questing after earthly happiness as if this were the main objective. We can puzzle obsessively over why we sometimes feel depressed, how to avoid discomfort, and how to have a happier outlook on life.

There is nothing wrong with examining and amending our outlook, but we also need to get comfortable with the fact that we exist in a “valley of tears,” as earth is described in the Salve Regina, perhaps the most popular Marian hymn ever written.

Our definitive happiness does not and cannot lie here. Ironically, the more we bear this in mind, the happier we can be in this life, because our expectations are not set on what is not achievable, and thus the woes of our earthly exile are not compounded by the stress and frustration of false hopes.

There are two things that matter for our life on earth, because of their bearing on eternal life: What we become in holiness and union with God, and our service to others, especially (but not only) with respect to their spiritual welfare–even though these will not automatically make us feel continuously content here on earth. The rest is passing. Still, even the most mundane, passing things are beautiful when they form part of the landscape of a life focused on what matters.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Dare to ask Jesus how He views your life, your day, your reality, including the most mundane and earthy aspects. Does He despise the passing things in your life? If not, how do they figure into His eternal plan for you? Ask Him to enlighten you to strive for good things in this world, especially for others, but only in the manner that corresponds to their value relative to eternity.

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