Tag: <span>Kindness</span>

June 12, 2021June 10, 2021

The Fibers of a Heart

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

On this feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, today’s readings present to us three distinct traits of the heart of the Blessed Virgin.

First, the gospel gives us a window into Mary’s contemplative heart. She was truly dismayed when she and Joseph had lost track of Jesus. Imagine losing your child in a crowd, and not finding him for three days. This would leave the heart of any parent distraught. But when she found Jesus, she did not correct Him or grow angry with Him. Rather, she asked Him, her divine Son, why He had done what He had done, and then after receiving the rather cryptic answer, she contemplated in her heart how God had been working through these events. While subject to anxiety like any other human, Mary trusted to her core in God’s loving Providence working in her life, and knew how to contemplate the events in her life continually in the light of that Providence, rather than through a prism of personal insecurity or personal vanity.

“The Lord is kind and merciful,” the psalm tells us. On this day, we celebrate that the heart of Mary imitates this divine trait and is likewise kind and merciful, always ready to hear the requests of sinners, whatever their misdeeds. We can always ask her help and intercession, and dialogue with her, no matter how ashamed we may feel of our sinfulness–and we will always receive a warm, kind, compassionate reception.

Finally, in the first reading, St. Paul expresses himself in a tone that likewise mirrors a characteristic of Mary’s heart: “The love of Christ impels us.” Throughout this reading, Paul exudes a tone of urgency as he implores his hearers to be reconciled to God. Mary’s heart is full of passion for the reconciliation of sinners to the Heart of her Son. Her entire work in the Church over the last two millennia, including the messages she has delivered with her appearances, has been full of ardent supplication for prayer and sacrifice for sinners. Her love for her children is not an idle one.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to fill you with the kind of love that filled his mother’s heart, which transcended in its trust the natural human psychological ebbs and flows, even as she experienced them like anyone else. Ask Him to fill you with spontaneous kindness, and ardent passion for the eternal welfare of others.

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February 13, 2021January 29, 2021

Bread and Fishes

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

There is something startling about today’s psalm, in light of the first reading: “In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.”

At first glance, the first reading does not appear to paint a picture of God as refuge. Rather, we seem to find the root quintessence of the image some have of the Old Testament God as wrathful. With exclamations, God hands down the terrible consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve.

As usual with such assessments, though, this image some have of an angry God undervalues the gravity of sin–of thwarting the omnipotent God. Well might God simply have removed His thoughts from Adam and Eve, upon which they simply would have ceased to exist. Or, he could have imposed eternal damnation then and there.

Instead, the consequences He metes out are incredibly measured. He stands in the breach and reduces the impact of their sin to, effectively, a more difficult life, and one that is limited in span.

God is their refuge, even as He imposes just consequences. He Himself crafts leather garments for them. He accommodates and adapts to the new situation they have brought on for themselves through their disobedience–their shame at their nakedness.

And once salvation comes in Christ, His Providence pours out an overabundance of love. We see the full measure of what we receive in Christ prefigured in today’s gospel, in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. He takes the good bestowed on us by nature, and in His love extends it limitlessly, without measure.

But in the end, “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (Cf. 1 Cor. 2:9) We have literally no idea how blessed we will be in eternity for having chosen, unlike Adam and Eve, obedience to God and salvation in His Christ.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Obedience takes special grace from God, won by Christ through His obedience on the Cross. Ask Jesus, among all the charisms God gives, to give you the only one that really matters in the end: The charism of obedience. Ask Him for this gift above all others, even if it were to mean sacrificing all the rest.

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November 22, 2020November 9, 2020

King Unequaled

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

On this feast of Christ the King, we see a rich array of what Jesus’ kingship means:

In the first reading and the psalm, we see Him as merciful shepherd–a King who gathers and leads His people.

In the second reading, we see Him as destroyer and subjugator of competing powers–a King who knows no equal.

In the Gospel, we see Him as a judge who welcomes or condemns us for eternity based on our acts of charity and kindness toward others–a King who administers justice.

If there is one overall impression one can draw from these readings, it is that He is tender and kind to those who have taken up the offer of salvation He has made at the price of His own blood. As we see in the first reading, this includes those who are lost or who stray.

But He does not hesitate to cast from His sight those arrogant enough to rebuff Him with the strength of their own freedom, or who ignore His demands of kindness and mercy toward others–“the sleek and the strong” sheep of the first reading, the goats of the Gospel, “every authority and power” in the second reading.

Jesus is no milquetoast King. This should fill us with exuberant joy, hope, and confidence on the one hand, but deep concern and determination on the other: Joy in the knowledge that if we ask Him too, He will assist us in our efforts to fulfill His will and protect our eternal destiny; concern and determination to pray and sacrifice constantly that as many will be saved as possible.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Close your eyes and imagine final judgement as described by Jesus today, where He, crowned King, discerns who is to be saved, and who is to be condemned. What can you do to feed those who are hungry precisely for the salvation that He metes out in judgement? How is He asking you to participate in His merciful act of salvation? Ask Him how you can assist Him in His grand mission of bringing as many as possible to Heaven.

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November 11, 2020December 12, 2020

Thanks

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

Gratitude is the awareness that we have received more than that to which we are entitled, remembrance of the person who has given it to us, and expression of appreciation to that person.

We have all had the experience of really wanting something, receiving it as a gift from someone, and rejoicing more in the thing itself than the giver–forgetting all too soon the giver’s thoughtfulness and generosity.

Lasting gratitude appears as a rare virtue. In today’s gospel, only one of the cleansed lepers–given a truly amazing, life-changing gift–returns to give thanks. The others might have been appreciative for a moment, but they have soon forgotten the giver, and perhaps the fact that their new, healed condition is a gift.

St. Paul points out one of the key effects of permanent, ongoing gratitude. In recognizing that the redemption we have experienced is a free gift from a Giver, and not some achievement of our own, we are able to treat others–including those not living the Christian life–with respect and esteem. We recognize in them that their worth is defined, not by any defect we may perceive in them, but by how God cherishes them, in His great desire to give them the gift He has given to us.

When we clearly perceive God’s intense, unmerited, and unconditional love for us, and are grateful for it, we can see how He loves others in the same way, and learn to treat them accordingly.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus for the gift of persistent, undimming gratitude for His gifts. Ask Him to send His Holy Spirit to give you the same love for sinners–that is, all humans–that He has. Ask Him to fill you with esteem for every fellow person on earth that corresponds to the unconditional intensity with which He loves every person.

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